Chapter 262

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Protagonist:

Song Miao

Very quickly, several long tables in the canteen were joined together.

The students held the food they had just bought, placing plate after plate onto the tables, and eunuchs had long since presented clean bowls and chopsticks.

Zhao Yu had the group of students each take their seats, exchanged a round of warm greetings, and finally smiled as he lifted his chopsticks and asked: "I heard that recently the Taichang Temple, so you could eat better, specially approved outside food purchases — which ones are bought outside, and which are made by the canteen itself?"

As these words came out, the whole table of people fell quiet, faces showing strange expressions.

Only Deng Jijiu remained unaware, pointing at several plates of steamed buns and saying: "That would be them — specially bought many steamed buns from outside, flavors all different, taste not bad, Your Majesty may as well try some!"

The steamed buns in the plate were slightly small, color a yellowish-gray, that yellow a kind of grayish-yellow, to describe them with the four words 'unremarkable in appearance' would already be giving them face; by sight alone, one really could not tell where the 'taste not bad' lay.

But Zhao Yu did not think much of it, nor did he call a eunuch, instead picking up a steamed bun himself into his bowl, smiling: "Everyone eat — I'll also try your Taixue steamed buns!"

Regardless of distance, those sitting at the table and those crowding outside alike, all the students, stared wide-eyed.

Deng Jijiu followed close behind, obeying the imperial decree, and also reached out to pick one up.

Once the steamed bun was picked up, he first placed it in his bowl and adjusted its position, so his chopsticks could grip it more steadily, then brought it to his mouth.

However, just in that one placement, that one adjustment, he suddenly faintly felt something was off.

This steamed bun, it was too gray, too yellow, too small, looking exactly like what he had been eating recently, not to mention it gave off an indescribable smell.

Like Lao Chen dough, and also a bit sour.

This shouldn't be!

Deng Jijiu looked up and saw the Emperor just putting the steamed bun into his mouth.

He had no time to think further, and hurriedly lowered his head and took a bite.

In the palace kitchen, Jia Chang could wait no longer, personally standing at the door, constantly urging his subordinates.

"Are you all wooden blocks! Standing here stupidly doing what?? Still not going quickly to check, why is it taking so long!!"

Jiang Xia and the others dared not delay, hurrying toward the canteen.

They hadn't run a few steps when they saw several people each holding a plate of steamed buns running over hastily.

"Quick! Run faster, inside they are waiting!!"

Having already run a stretch, now being urged on, as they neared the door, one of them accidentally stumbled.

Jia Chang, furious, snatched the large plate from his hand, cursing: "Where is the steward??"

And shouted at the menial: "We'll settle accounts when you get back!"

He held the plate of steamed buns, having after all waited at ease, and soon overtook the menials ahead, arriving first at the back of the great canteen.

The side door was kicked open with a bang.

One sweep of his eye, and Jia Chang saw the steamed bun serving window.

He had never run this fast in his life, breath nearly failing him, sprinting wildly to the front, he hurriedly slipped the plate quietly from underneath to the other side, whispering to the menial at the steamed bun and baked cake window: "If the Emperor comes, give him this one!"

That menial stared blankly, surprisingly not answering immediately.

Jia Chang's teeth itched with anger, he cursed: "What a fool! Illiterate is one thing, can't you even understand human speech??"

The menial dared not delay, hurriedly pointing outside: "Sir, sir! Just now the Taixue students voluntarily offered food — the Emperor is already eating!"

This time it was Jia Chang's turn to freeze.

His heart turned cold, he subconsciously asked: "No steamed buns, right?"

Not waiting for a reply, and no time to go out, he leaned against the table holding steamed buns, baked cakes and such, propped up half his body, poked his head, and looked out through the wooden window.

— Heads thronged, crowds gathered, three layers inside, three layers outside, nothing could be seen clearly.

Jia Chang's heart chilled, hand loosened, foot slipped, he carelessly stepped into empty space, and actually twisted his ankle.

But he had no leisure to attend to it, enduring the pain, he limped toward the outside.

Pushing through layers of students, Jia Chang squeezed his way to the front, just as he looked up, he saw the Emperor sitting in the very center, surrounded by people, face smiling, chopsticks raised, just putting a steamed bun into his mouth.

— One bite down, skin broken, filling...

Filling?

Jia Chang's vision went black.

Zhao Yu chewed two bites, tilted his head, slightly puzzled.

The steamed bun skin in his mouth was sour, a taste of stale bran, not to mention not tasting good, even swallowing made one feel difficulty.

Could it be because he didn't eat the filling?

He took another big bite.

The steamed bun was originally not large, two bites down, already past half, filling still nowhere to be seen.

Zhao Yu leaned in to look closely.

He was in his prime, not so old as to have dim eyes, and searching carefully, he finally discovered the "line".

A sauce-colored line lay across the upper half of the steamed bun; if he lived another twenty years and his eyes blurred, he probably wouldn't see it.

"This is..."

This one steamed bun, naturally, was the "Night One Stuffing Heaven"!

Before a group of ministers and students, no matter how unpalatable, Zhao Yu held back and did not spit it out.

He forced down those two bites of steamed bun, raised his head, and asked the Taixue students beside him: "This is the Taixue outside-purchased steamed bun? Usually it's also this kind of goods??"

The dissatisfaction in his tone was already obvious.

To the side there were also the Jijiu, Grand Secretary, a group of Xuezheng and teachers.

The students did not speak, but instead all looked toward the Grand Secretary of the Imperial College who was seated with them.

At the same time, Grand Secretary Deng had already eaten the steamed bun into his mouth.

In the rear wooden window, Jiang Xia could not help but grab a miscellaneous servant at the steamed bun window and ask: "The steamed buns served to the students, they wouldn't be the ones left over from the morning, would they?"

That servant's face turned pale, and he actually dared not answer.

Yesterday, the front and rear gates of the Taixue were not sealed, a group of students entered and exited leisurely, either fighting to buy from Song Ji, or buying breakfast from the other food alleys; those who woke up late would rather buy the food made by the canteen than pay any attention to these externally purchased steamed buns.

The steamed buns sat pitifully in the steamer baskets for a whole morning; by noon and evening, still few people inquired about them.

Things bought with money, naturally could not be directly thrown away — with so many left over, everyone from top to bottom would be fined money.

So the rear kitchen could only hang the leftover steamed buns together with the other food suspended over the well for a night, reheat them once this morning — and they still remained unsold in considerable numbers.

Today's new steamed buns are left over, they can still be sold tomorrow; yesterday's old steamed buns left another day, in such hot weather, tomorrow they will stink!

Unpalatable is not a big deal, but they absolutely cannot cause health problems.

Just as he was worrying, with great difficulty, a student actually came to buy steamed buns, and bought quite a lot; he hurriedly gave out all of yesterday's leftover steamed buns in one go, his secret joy not yet faded, when he was questioned by Official Jia, and now hearing Jiang Xia ask again, he felt his hands and feet could not stop trembling.

In front, on the table, what Grand Secretary Deng picked up with his chopsticks was the duck-and-goose steamed bun that the Taixue students had specially placed before him.

If duck meat is not handled well, it originally easily has a rank smell; and duck meat left for a day and a half, reheated twice, that duck rank smell is exceptionally lively — not completely rotten, but half-rotten, not quite rotten.

Grand Secretary Deng took one bite, and was choked in the throat by the un-fresh rank stench, the aftertaste circling his throat, circling until he nearly vomited.

He forced himself to swallow it down, hurriedly suppressed it with several mouthfuls of water, and when he looked up, he saw a table full of people, especially the Emperor, all looking over.

The students' steamed buns were completely different from what he usually ate, and coupled with Jia Chang's notorious reputation, recently the steamed bun procurement matter had caused a very ugly scene; Grand Secretary Deng, many years in officialdom, almost immediately understood the crux of the matter.

His head was full of sweat; he hurriedly stood up to apologize: "This minister failed in supervision, actually letting the canteen be so derelict in duty..."

"Over the years I have allocated silver, not for Taixue students to eat this kind of thing!"

Zhao Yu spoke, and brought the chopsticks in his hand down heavily on the table with a slap.

The current Emperor is renowned for leniency and magnanimity; such a sentence, such an action, was already enough to make subordinates panic and feel uneasy.

A whole group of academic officials hurriedly pleaded guilty; Grand Secretary Deng was even more urgent in making a guarantee, saying: "This minister will certainly investigate thoroughly and rectify!"

In front of a crowd, not knowing the details, Zhao Yu naturally would not rebuke excessively, but also had no desire to stay longer.

He came in high spirits, in the end gnawed two bites of sour steamed buns, and returned in disappointment.

Just after seeing off the imperial carriage, upon returning to the teaching hall, Grand Secretary Deng's face darkened, and he summoned the Grand Chancellor of the Imperial College.

After a round of discussion, very quickly, the Imperial College conducted a thorough investigation of the Taixue canteen.

It did not take much effort; the origin of the sour steamed buns was completely revealed — it was supplied by a food shop newly opened by the maternal cousin of a minor concubine in the household of Vice Commissioner Jia Chang of the Imperial College.

The Emperor personally came to inspect, originally a chance to show face, but in the end actually exposed a bright red buttocks.

The Taixue students and the canteen subsidies were all silver allocated by the court; in the end the canteen was made into this state; Grand Secretary Deng and the Grand Chancellor, as the principal officials, could not escape responsibility.

The two did not dare to handle it lightly; following the steamed buns they continued to investigate downward.

The canteen's labor hiring, ingredient procurement, building repairs, kitchenware replacement, and so on and so forth — as long as they investigated in detail, the shadow of that Official Jia could be found behind every one.

Reaching this point, Grand Secretary Deng stopped his hand.

On one hand he sent people out to deliver a letter; on the other hand, he handed Jia Chang over to the Court of Judicial Review.

The Emperor's front foot personally visited the Taixue and slammed chopsticks; the Imperial College's back foot delivered an embezzling, bribe-taking Vice Commissioner; the Court of Judicial Review is not stupid, naturally handled it extremely fast.

In a few days, Jia Chang's crimes were exposed almost completely.

Besides extortion and accepting bribes, he also had people separately set up brokerages, vegetable and meat shops, etc.; the money was first given to the corresponding trade stalls, and then those trades went to find the actual vegetable stalls and meat stalls supplying the goods.

Two strings of cash in wages, after layer upon layer of peeling, reaching the hands of the miscellaneous servants actually doing the work at the bottom, only eight hundred wen remained, nearly half skimmed off; as for the vegetable and meat trades, receiving one string of money, if three hundred wen could be spent on actual procurement that was already not bad.

His methods were certainly clever, but once something is done, it will certainly leave traces; how could it withstand investigation?

According to Da Wei law, officials who accept bribes without perverting the law are sentenced based on the number of bolts of silk; bribe value of one bolt, ninety strokes; each additional bolt increases the penalty by one degree; if accumulated to thirty bolts, they should be exiled plus hard labor.

With the wealth Jia Chang embezzled, casually it reached three hundred bolts, enough to exile him to the ends of the earth.

The verdict not yet out, during trial Jia Chang had already been scared into fainting several times; a session of only half a double-hour of interrogation, he repeatedly wailed and cried loudly, at one point unable to continue.

On this side the Court of Judicial Review was still trying the suspect; on that side, the letter Grand Secretary Deng sent, and the letter Jia Chang's family sent for help, arrived almost front-foot back-foot into a residence on Jun Yi Qiao Jie.

That residence was extremely large; rather than calling it a mansion compound, it would be better to call it a garden estate.

Jun Yi Qiao Jie is close to the Imperial Palace, every inch of land is gold; to possess such a large mansion here, the owner's identity is self-evident.

In the study, the master of the mansion compound opened the two letters in succession, only glanced at them slightly, then threw them to one side.

Beside him stood a steward, currently making a report.

"... Jia Chang's son is kneeling outside crying and begging, asking the Prince to look at his father's many years of hard work and lend a hand; because Official Jia's health is poor, he cannot withstand beating; as for exile, he would endure it even less..."

The master sat behind the table, hearing this, opened his mouth to interrupt: "He committed stupidity himself, and still wants me to lend a hand??"

While speaking, the master slapped the table, scolding: "Does he not have a brain himself? Look at what the surnamed Deng said — the man just went to prison, the whole Taixue is running around celebrating! It's only been two years, how did he make his reputation this bad? Heard that the previous term he almost came to blows with several Taixue old men."

He waved a hand, said: "Hurry up and send the person away!"

The steward hurriedly agreed, and pushed him out the door.

Walking to the door, this person turned his head back, saw inside his own master holding a glass mirror looking at an ancient porcelain bowl in front of him, looking completely unaffected in mood, he could not help but secretly sigh a breath.

That ancient porcelain bowl was precisely what Jia Chang sent last time.

Over two years, the former certainly skimmed a lot, and what he sent was also not little; but once trouble broke out, the Prince completely ignored it, and was so ruthless even to his family's young son...

These years, the Prince relied on the late Emperor's passing, the Emperor being an adopted nephew, seniority one generation lower, and the Empress Dowager also unable to manage her younger brother-in-law, actually gained quite a few advantages.

But as the Emperor's imperial carriage gradually stabilized, actions gradually increased, slowly, the Prince's days also became not so easy.

Flaws that were not visible during smooth sailing, at this moment encountering an incident, all at once revealed their true nature.

Jia Chang was so greedy, hard to say how much was to give gifts to this backer of the Lu Wang Fu; but in the end landing in such a fate, the Prince didn't even bother to say a single word to help.

Truly chilling to the heart...

Jia Chang suspended, dismissed, arrested and sent to the Court of Judicial Review, a series of actions handled extremely fast; only after no more than two days, a new Vice Commissioner of the Imperial College arrived on a walking horse to take office.

The new official had just taken office, and began to rectify things vigorously and decisively.

They changed the purchaser, they changed the miscellaneous laborers; though not exactly transformed beyond recognition, it was very obvious that within a few days, the canteen's standard had risen considerably.

Watching coldly for two days, and inquiring about the new Vice Commissioner of the Imperial College's character and conduct, Cao Fuzi once again carried steamed buns and went to the door.

The new official politely accepted the steamed buns, personally saw Cao Fuzi out the door; after returning to his room, he ate all eight steamed buns by himself in one day, leaving nothing.

With Jia Chang's example of being scolded bloody by everyone above and below at Taixue before him, the new official dared not act recklessly; he had the heads of each dormitory in the inner, outer, and three dormitories collect the opinions of the students in the Xue Zhai and send them back together for reference, and he also sent people to find some food shops and food stores that made steamed buns to compare together.

Among dozens of Xue Zhai, the collected opinions were amazingly consistent; almost every student in every Xue Zhai clamored to eat "Song Ji" steamed buns.

Not only did everyone want to eat Song Ji steamed buns, they also asked the purchaser to buy Song Ji's rolled noodles, glutinous rice, steamed dumplings, snow steamed cakes, drinks, and other Song Ji foods.

The Taixue Canteen, after all, must take the Gong Chu as the mainstay; if too much was purchased from outside all at once, it would not look very good, but the information about the steamed buns had already been approved, so it was no problem.

Within two days, someone from the Imperial Academy came to the door, asked Song Miao for a price list, and bought steamed bun samples.

As long as there were no underhanded tricks, Song Ji's foods had never feared others.

The Taixue Canteen compared various food shops and food stores; although Song Ji steamed buns had no advantage in price, in terms of taste, ingredients, variety, and so on, they were the most outstanding; and considering the great outcry from teachers and students, that same afternoon the canteen signed a contract with Song Ji, and starting the next day, supplied various steamed buns to Taixue every day.

On the same day, when it was near the Shen Hour, Cao Fuzi, after class, did not hurry home, but hurriedly called a cart and had himself sent to the door of Song Ji.

He walked with steady steps, held his head high, puffed out his chest, and huffed and puffed into the door of Song Ji.

"Little Song, old man has been using his brain quite a bit lately and wants to eat some meat to nourish himself tomorrow noon; if there is fatty meat, that's best—is it convenient for you here, can it be done?"