Chapter 201

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Protagonist:

Song Miao

Song Miao shook her head and smiled, saying, "Thank you, Auntie, for thinking highly of me, but I'm in debt right now. Even opening a small stall, my family already has a helper, and we don't have the spare strength to support such a big setup for the time being..."

Seeing the person opposite still wanting to speak, she added, "Auntie, I've seen your conduct all along—you never spare effort in your work, you're meticulous, and you're nimble. Last time, when you found something wrong with the flour bag and finally tracked down the barren beans, you deserve some credit for that."

"If I ever have a business that grows big one day, I'll definitely come find you. I just don't know if you'll still be willing to help by then!"

Hearing this, the person opposite was both happy to receive praise to their face—the praise sounded sincere, not like empty words—and yet a little disappointed at being refused.

This person had a lot more they wanted to add, but didn't dare say more. After all, Song Miao had politely declined while leaving room for maneuver; pushing to the end would only lead to a worse result, which wouldn't be proper.

She sighed and said, "Young Lady, please remember, from Huazhou to the Capital, I travel fast—by boat and on foot, I can get there in a few days. As long as someone sends word, I can set out immediately!"

Song Miao agreed for now.

Seeing this, everyone at the table couldn't help but join in. One said they had no burdens at home, another said their whole family could go to the Capital. Each had their own reasons, all wanting to throw in their lot.

There were over ten people here. After observing them for a month or so, Song Miao naturally knew everyone's temperament and how they worked.

They could help relatives and old acquaintances come to file grievances, or learn about cases they'd heard of. One, it answered Song Miao's request; two, it was also that they themselves often held a heart of justice and kindness. Though one couldn't fully judge a person's character by this, one could still see some of their true nature. Besides, they'd all lived in Huazhou for generations, so their backgrounds were clear.

And in the food trade, when hiring help, no other advantage could compare to the three words "trustworthy."

Song Miao knew it was too early to say this now, after all she still owed many debts. But if a food shop truly reopened in the future, business boomed, and more hands were needed, it would be a very good choice.

Inside the Yi Guan Guan, everyone ate dishes with porridge, gnawing meat and eating vegetables, thoroughly enjoying themselves. Once everyone was full and had drunk enough, they leaned against their chairs to rest their feet, regained their decorum, and slowly sipped porridge. Only then did the porridge and dishes sent to the Hua Prefecture Government Office finally arrive.

Upon hearing the food had arrived, the officials who had been busy for many days mostly just answered with a sound each, saying nothing much.

—Recently there were many matters, everyone was working overtime. Cen Dezhang wasn't a stingy man; he arranged meals for everyone every day. Not only that, he often dined with them.

The hour was still early. In such a great summer, in the afternoon, the sun was scorching hot, hot and stifling, making people really unable to muster any appetite.

But there were those who immediately lifted their heads from the case files—Lu Wenming and his two students.

The three of them were originally dizzy and muddled, but upon hearing someone report the news, they all perked up.

One student immediately asked, "Is it delivered from the Yi Guan Guan? Made by Song Xiaoniangzi?"

The messenger answered, "Yes! It's Song Xiaoniangzi from the Yi Guan Guan. She specifically instructed this servant to deliver a message—there's a dipping sauce, all prepared, but it's best eaten and mixed fresh. Otherwise, in this hot weather, soaking too long might spoil the flavor."

Saying this, he drew a slip of paper from his sleeve.

Without anyone needing to say another word, the three of them stood up with a "Deng," "Deng," "Deng"—these three "Deng" sounds were the noise of chair back legs being kicked back when standing up quickly.

One student hurriedly asked, "Where are we eating today? Still in the side room?"

The messenger reported it was in the side hall.

Of the three, Lu Wenming was steadier and just quickened his pace. The other two were students in their teens or twenties and didn't care about such things at all. Upon learning the location, they immediately ran out, and while running, they didn't forget to shout back, "Head Lu, hurry, hurry!"

"Coming, coming! You eat first, no need to wait. Just save me a seat!" Lu Wenming answered aloud, then suddenly added urgently, "Remember to get a portion for Head Han!"

The two answered with cries and ran off.

Lu Wenming stayed last. Seeing the others in the room were motionless, he called out again, saying, "Gentlemen, this meal is specially cooked by our Song Xiaoniangzi, and it must be delicious. There's no end to the work. Why not eat first and then come back to continue?"

Facing Lu Wenming, these clerks and runners naturally told the truth.

"Tongpan Cen is also here. We'll talk after he finishes eating!"

"Not hungry, and it's hot. Eating later won't be too late."

Qian Zhongming had been thrown into prison. His partisans and subordinates, those deeply involved, were all caught in the net—some being interrogated, some confessing. The rest were still here honestly compiling files and organizing evidence, either because they were usually not good with words, or couldn't play politics, and thus weren't heavily relied upon, so they weren't deeply involved.

For a moment, Lu Wenming seemed to see himself—once clearly working hard for a long time, but when the master arrived, could only hide.

He understood these people's thoughts too well.

Even though Cen Dezhang wasn't one to put on airs, given a choice, who would want to eat with a superior?

Moreover, this official, who used to look soft and weak, had in a single night arrested Qian Kongmu, whom several previous prefectural officials couldn't handle. His various factions had scattered like birds and beasts. These runners and clerks, who originally had little contact with him, inevitably felt several degrees more fear.

"It's fine. Tongpan Cen is talking with Head Han and them. It won't end in a short while. If you don't go now and delay too long, you'll end up running right into him!"

Once these words were spoken, the crowd stopped writing, stopped looking at documents, stopped doing work. They hastily put down what was in their hands, stood up one by one, and invited each other to go out, taking three steps at a time.

When they arrived at the side hall, indeed Cen Dezhang was not there. Not only that, none of the other superiors were present. Inside were only their own subordinates.

The runners and clerks who had rushed over were relieved at heart. When they looked into the room again, they saw several square tables pushed together into a long table. Beside the table was an extremely large and deep pot, full of white porridge. On the table were laid out all kinds of food.

Many large plates, each holding white-cut goose. The goose skin was jade-white, the meat facing down. Though only the skin showed, not the meat, just looking at the beautiful appearance had already made many people eager to try.

All the other meat dishes had their own preparations, lined up on the table, not to mention them. There was also a row of pickled vegetable jars. Even before getting close, they could already smell the pickled jar scent—sour and fragrant, making mouths water.

The miscellaneous servant who brought the things back was still announcing the dish names. At this moment, he was announcing the white-cut pork belly.

He pointed to the meat already sliced into large pieces and said, "Cook Chu said this pork belly is boiled together with the goose. Once eaten, you taste the goose meat fragrance. Though it's pork, the flavor is actually even better."

Nowadays mutton was expensive and pork cheap. Although there was no mutton on the table right now, goose meat was also more presentable. They had already tasted it earlier. This so-called "white-cut goose" tasted really good. So when they heard these words, few paid attention. They were all still busy picking up goose meat.

Only a few muttered, "What's so good about pork? There's so much good meat here!"

"Pork, and boiled in plain water. No matter how good the flavor, how good can it be?"

But Lu Wenming had been eating Song's dishes for so long. He naturally knew this young lady never spoke nonsense. He was about to step forward when he suddenly saw two pairs of chopsticks appear in the plate, eagerly reaching for the pork belly. He looked up—sure enough, they were his own people.

—Those two students were eating meat in their mouths. Seeing Lu Wenming arrive, they hurriedly waved to greet him and passed him bowls and chopsticks.

The latter quickly picked up two slices of white-cut pork belly.

Fresh meat, boiled in plain water. Eating it was crisp and tender, full of meat fragrance. Because it was boiled with the healthy goose, the goose generously lent it flavor. It indeed absorbed the essence of the goose broth. The pork belly was infused with goose meat freshness from inside to outside, far more mellow and delicious than white-cut pork boiled alone. Especially fragrant, especially sweet.

Proper five-layer pork belly, a seventy-thirty fat-to-lean ratio. Put in the mouth, no greasy feeling at all. When chewing, very little oiliness. Since it was cold food, even without dipping sauce it felt refreshing. After trying the salty, sour, fresh, spicy dipping sauce, Lu Wenming didn't want to speak. He just wanted to quickly stuff slice after slice into his mouth.

The porridge was lukewarm. Almost none of the dishes on the table were hot food. No greasy feeling at all. Just looking at it made one feel as if the sky wasn't so hot anymore, and one's appetite had returned.

There were very few speaking voices in the room. Rarely any, and even those were very small. But the sounds of chewing vegetables were quite loud. At one time "Hung Hung Hung"—that was chewing pickled lettuce stems. At one time "Ga ga ga"—that was eating pickled ginger. At one time "Ge ge ge"—that was pickled sword beans.

Almost every dish's chewing sound was extremely crisp.

Countless crisp chewing sounds gathered together from every spot around the table, making it hard for anyone to resist joining in.

Lu Wenming couldn't help but stand up and pick up a good amount of pickled ginger and pickled lettuce stem; just as he was about to eat, he suddenly saw a few garlic-like things in his bowl, and couldn't help but ask in surprise: "Can this garlic also be pickled sour?"

Speaking, he picked up that "garlic" with his chopsticks and took a look at it.

Very quickly, a Chai Guan of about thirty years old across from him called out: "Ah, it's garlic chives!"

He also said: "This thing, ever since I left my hometown, I haven't eaten it for many years! I'm a Qiannan person; it seems only our place has it!"

But just as he finished speaking, a Xue Shi beside Lu Wenming urgently said: "Our Ganzhou has it too! I've loved eating this since childhood!"

The two then began exchanging stories across the air about what their families used this garlic chive for when they were young, how delicious it was, and how it went down with rice.

This one said the pickled vegetable jar was most delicious, but stir-frying it raw with cornel white vinegar was also extremely delicious; locally there was another name for this dish, called "Fan Zao Huang".

That one said it could also be pickled with white vinegar, just that in the end maltose had to be added, which was somewhat expensive, and it could also be used to stir-fry meat, also a delicacy.

As the two exchanged words, their hands and mouths didn't stop, continuously reaching for those pickled garlic chives, causing everyone around to follow suit and scramble to pick them up.

Only then did Lu Wenming seriously look at that so-called "garlic chive"; it indeed looked a bit like garlic, but slightly smaller than garlic, and because it had been pickled long enough, the "garlic chive body" had become almost half-transparent, glistening with moisture, the skin layer extremely translucent, full of luster; just looking at it one knew it definitely had a lot of juice.

Once it entered his mouth, after only a few chews, the juice burst throughout his mouth.

What a crisp texture; biting down, the sound was like ice shattering, and eating it was even more crisp and tender.

That flavor was also very marvelous, one he had never tasted before.

This pickled garlic chive was almost purely sour directly, but after the sourness passed, there was a very unique clear rushing sensation, followed immediately by a very slight returning sweetness, a bit like garlic but without garlic's stench, a bit like scallion but even more crisp and refreshing than scallion.

After swallowing it down, from oral cavity to nasal cavity, even to the throat, it was simply as refreshing as if washed clean.

Lu Wenming ate a lot of meat in succession, got these few garlic chives, his mouth was already cleanly eaten, not remembering the previous meat flavor at all, only feeling his mouth both sour and refreshing, hurriedly buried his head and drank several big mouthfuls of porridge.

The pickled garlic chive was like this; the other pickled vegetables naturally each had their own eating merits.

The room full of people ate meat and ate vegetables; vegetable sounds louder than meat sounds, and those pickled vegetables in no way fell short of the meat by half a point, causing everyone to scramble for them; in a short while, crisp biting sounds were everywhere.

By the time Lu Wenming busily ate a round everywhere and returned, he only felt that the white-sliced pork belly still suited his appetite most; he stretched out his hand wanting to pick up more, but the chopsticks had already reached out, suddenly froze in mid-air, and he blankly said: "Where's the white-sliced pork? How did it get eaten up all at once? Just now there was still more than half a plate?"

His words just fell, and he saw those few people across who had been muttering just now, each showing embarrassed smiles on their faces, one of them red-faced said: "Just now I ate a slice, didn't expect it to be this formidable, more delicious than eating goose meat, we didn't pay attention for a moment……"

A group of people were eating happily and freely, when at the same Hou Ya, in a room not far away, Cen Dezhang, this superior, had just finished meeting with his subordinates.

He earnestly encouraged them for a long time; after the rest left, he turned to look at Han Li beside him, called out "Zheng Yan", and then said: "Fortunately last time you proposed that the midsummer noon weather was too hot, letting the riverway stop work for one Shi at noon; otherwise this time there would definitely not be only these twenty-odd people suffering heatstroke."

Han Li said: "The weather is too hot, and there is no shelter on the riverway; even if there were, working for a long time wouldn't help much; but there is a Daifu on the side, and there is medicine, and the kitchen still sends heat-relief decoction four times a day, which can prevent a few parts."

The two spoke a few sentences; the few Menke sitting on the side then naturally inserted themselves, and together with Han Li discussed specific affairs.

After a while of finishing speaking, one of them reported his latest obtained news.

"Yesterday a merchant group came, saying that the Wei Prefecture area has started raining again, and no one knows how long the rain will last, whether there will be flooding — after all, they are upstream."

As these words came out, the atmosphere in the room instantly turned heavy.

Han Li seeing this, then said: "Summer flood season comes year after year; if not for it, why would we have to put in such great hardship this time, both digging rivers and repairing dikes?"

Also said: "According to current progress, we should be able to catch up before flood season to finish digging the new riverway; even if we don't make it in time, we have already exhausted human effort, and we have a clear conscience."

Everyone could only bitterly smile.

After affairs were discussed, Han Li however stayed behind, waited for the others to disperse respectively, then took out a cloth bundle from behind him and placed it before Cen Dezhang.

Cen Dezhang stared blankly, and asked: "What is this?"

"Originally there was a wronged plaintiff; his ancestral fields were occupied, his daughter was falsely accused of stealing someone's wealth; this time Qian Zhongming was imprisoned, the old case surfaced again, the fields have already been returned, the daughter has also returned home; although his family suffered such a calamity, he still remembers the Tongpan's grace; having nothing else to offer, he only has one pile; for many years he made a living weaving straw, so he wove two straw cushions for the Tongpan, and also a pair of straw sandals……"

Cen Dezhang "ah"ed, yet didn't dare open the cloth bundle before him, only sighed: "Ashamed…… I…… alas!"