Chapter 103: Past Acquaintances. (Second Update)...

Lin Sen blinked, then remembered Chef Zhou: "Are you the one from Juyoulou—?"

Chef Zhou was a little surprised: "You still remember me?"

Lin Sen laughed heartily: "You remember me, don't you?"

The two exchanged a few pleasantries and chatted about family matters, and the atmosphere in the carriage gradually became warmer.

Cook Cui sat nearby, holding an ebony box. Seeing Lin Sen and Chef Zhou getting along so well, she breathed a sigh of relief. Actually, bringing Lin Zhi and her family to the palace for this event was supposed to be someone else's responsibility, but it was only after Cook Cui's persuasion that they were finally allowed to come.

After Chef Zhou and Lin Sen finished their conversation, she gently handed the box to Lin Zhi. "Chef Lin, we at Juyoulou let you down with what happened with Chef Tang earlier. I've been thinking about visiting you to apologize these past few days, but I was afraid to interrupt your Lantern Festival banquet preparations. So, today is a perfect opportunity to apologize while we're together."

"Madam Cui, you're being too polite." Lin Zhi didn't take it, and instead pushed the ebony box back into Madam Cui's hands. "What Chef Tang did was his own doing. It has nothing to do with Juyoulou, and certainly nothing to do with you or Chef Zhou. Besides, he's already been executed, so this matter should have been over long ago. There's no need for an apology."

Linzhi learned from Chen Yan that Chef Tang had suspected that Chef Cui was going to take him in as an apprentice and was afraid that his career would be cut off, so he deliberately approached Shopkeeper Xie to harm him. However, Shopkeeper Xie failed and was arrested by the government on suspicion of murder.

Chef Cui and Chef Zhou were unaware of this matter from the beginning to the end, so there is really no need to apologize for it.

Cook Cui, however, pressed the box back into her hands, saying gently, "This knife isn't an apology. I saw Chef Lin's skill, so I specially found a good knife. It's also a gift for you. Congratulations on being selected for the Lantern Festival banquet, and on winning first place in the Newcomer Association. If you don't accept it, I'll feel uneasy."

Seeing her firm attitude, Linzhi had no choice but to accept it, put the ebony box beside her, and thanked her again.

Cook Cui smiled and said, "Open it and take a look."

Linzhi was stunned for a moment, then lowered her eyes and opened them. The moment she saw the objects inside, her eyes widened slightly: there was a complete set of knives in the ebony box.

She subconsciously held her breath and carefully took out one of them. The blade shone with a cold and bright light, and the handle was engraved with fine cloud patterns. It was not a mass-produced knife sold in ordinary shops, but a custom-made one!

Knives are the most important part of a chef's body. Good knives like this one are rarely found in ordinary places.

Chef Cui carefully observed Linzhi's expression. Seeing that her eyes were focused and almost obsessed with the knives, she felt relieved.

This reaction proved that Chef Lin was truly immersed in cooking, or perhaps even a cooking fanatic. Unless provoked repeatedly like Chef Wang, this type of person would be completely absorbed in their culinary skills, paying little attention to external matters and presumably not holding grudges.

While Cui the chef breathed a sigh of relief, she also felt a little uncomfortable. She had felt the same way when she was young, and as she became more and more involved, her character gradually changed.

Until now——

Cook Cui's thoughts were in a mess, but Linzhi was so happy that she couldn't stop smiling. She just wanted to get into the kitchen immediately and try out her new partner.

When the carriage stopped and everyone got off, Cui the Cook said goodbye to the three of them. She and Zhou the Chef were involved in a different part of the event and were not on Linzhi's side.

After Chef Cui and Chef Zhou left, Song Jiao Niang quietly tugged at Lin Zhi's sleeve and whispered, "Chef Cui seems kind and has a good attitude. She even gave me such nice knives."

Even though Song Jiaoniang didn't know much about knives, she could tell from the appearance that it must be worth a lot of money.

Lin Zhi looked at the two people leaving and said softly, "She's so nice because we've made a name for ourselves."

Even if she didn't care, she still had to explain. Lin Zhi said softly, "Mother, think about it. Chen Lang told us about the soup kitchen incident years ago. If he really wanted to apologize, he would have come by then. Why wait until now?"

Furthermore, the spot for the New Year's party ultimately belonged to Chef Cui, not Chef Tang. If Chef Cui had wanted to intervene, she could have interrupted Chef Tang's actions and ended any subsequent disputes.

But she turned a blind eye and continued to give in.

Song Jiaoniang was stunned at first, then came to her senses. That's right! Back when the Lin family was just a small shop, a big restaurant like Juyoulou wouldn't have deliberately lowered its profile so much. Now that her daughter had won first place and been included in the Lantern Festival banquet, she was finally receiving such courtesy.

She nodded and said nothing more. She followed Linzhi and others, and followed the palace servants who led the way, all the way to a spacious courtyard.

Officials from the Ministry of Rites and Guanglu Temple who were responsible for the Lantern Festival banquet, as well as hundreds of kitchen assistants, were all busy with it.

Mr. Zhong handed Linzhi and his family over to Guotou and left. As for Guotou… Although the name was a bit strange, the status of this middle-aged woman was not low. She was in charge of all the fruits and food at the banquet.

She was very polite to Linzhi. Not only did she clear out a spacious kitchen, but she also assigned more than a dozen kitchen helpers and maids to her use.

To put it bluntly, all Linzhi had to do when she wanted to cut onions was for the maid to do it.

Song Jiaoniang had originally worried that someone would stir up trouble or look down on her daughter, but upon seeing the scene, she couldn't help but whisper, "Back when we were at the Xi Mansion, we hired a few cooks to handle banquets. Those people in the kitchen were so arrogant and always wanted to embarrass others."

"That would be a disgrace to the mansion." Lin Zhi had heard about it, and even seen the faces of those people. As she familiarized herself with the situation in the kitchen, she said to Song Jiaoniang, "If the rented cook can go to the Xi family, then she can go to other families too. Who knows, the husbands of the eldest and second sisters might even call her in for questioning. "You said that when someone is wronged, they shouldn't say a few words. If they don't pay attention, their reputation will be ruined."

She also knew why Song Jiaoniang brought this up, and then she said with a smile, "Guotou is so polite to me because I'm also a rental, and it won't affect her status."

"Besides, everyone is focused on preparing a good Lantern Festival banquet." Lin Zhi recalled the conversation on the day of the competition and shook his head. "The most important thing is to avoid any mistakes and ensure that the banquet goes smoothly."

After a day of getting acquainted, we arrived at the Lantern Festival banquet.

Guotou had already inquired about it from Mr. Zhong and heard so much exaggerated praise that to be honest she was a little skeptical.

So when the Lantern Festival banquet started, she went to the back to see what was going on. When she looked into the house, she almost gasped.

Not to mention that the glass fruit was three times more beautiful than what Mr. Zhong said, even the flower pastry was so beautiful that it made people's eyes shine.

Guotou looked for a while, then called out an elderly woman and asked her to ask around, especially to ask Chef Lin if he had any relatives.

Linzhi didn't know what Guotou was thinking, but she felt that the people in the room were becoming more respectful and were doing things more easily.

Lin Sen and Song Jiaoniang, on the other hand, were so bored after entering the palace that they were left to their own devices. Fortunately, Mr. Zhong still remembered them. After the Lantern Festival banquet performance began, he sent someone to send them to the servants' resting area in front, and told them not to go anywhere else before leaving.

The place was filled with servants of wealthy families. Lin Sen also saw a few familiar faces there, some of whom had spent money at Linzhiji before, and some of whom were servants serving Tao Lang and his companions.

He brought Song Jiaoniang over and they soon started talking and laughing.

But she never expected that someone would look at them in surprise, turning back frequently. The maidservant beside her whispered, "Sister Sang Bai, do you know those people?"

Sang Bai came back to his senses, his face slightly red: "No, no, I am——"

She bit her lip, wanting to say something but stopping herself.

The maid suddenly realized what was going on and lowered her voice to ask, "Do you want to go to the toilet?"

Sang Bai nodded with a red face. After listening to the maid mumbling a few words, she stood up and walked out the door on the pretext of going to the toilet.

As she passed Lin Sen and his wife, she stared straight ahead, glancing at them from the corner of her eye. Taking their faces in, she happened to hear the servant next to her ask, "Uncle Lin, when will your shop reopen?"

"You're only a few years younger than me, how can you call me uncle? Calling me big brother is more appropriate, right?"

As the familiar voice rang in her ears, Sang Bai walked past several people and out the door. She closed her eyes, and the faces of the two people and the familiar voice appeared in her mind. She was even more shocked: How could she have seen Lin Sen and his wife here?

Could it be that they had rented out their house to another family? Sang Bai recalled the faces of Lin Sen and his wife and their attire. They wore fur coats on the outside and silk shirts on the inside. The material was very good, but Song Jiaoniang had few ornaments in her hair bun. It didn't look like the attire of a housekeeper.

But wasn't Sister Zhi ill? Why would they abandon her and come here? And what was their reason?

Sang Bai's mind was in a mess. She went to the restroom to relieve herself and happened to run into someone when she came out. When she looked up, Sang Bai was stunned: "Zhi, Sister Zhi?"

Lin Zhi was stunned for a moment and asked in surprise, "Sister Sang Bai?"

When Sang Bai heard Lin Zhi's address, she was stunned. After a while, she came to her senses and looked at the person in front of her carefully: no matter how confused she was, she could see that Lin Zhi was not stupid at all, and even looked energetic. Although her skin was a little rougher than before, it was rosy and shiny, her eyebrows were relaxed, her eyes were bright, her hair was neatly combed and tied at the back, and she was wearing a neat and decent blue cloth robe with an apron on the outside.

"You..." Sang Bai hesitated and finally said softly, "How are you doing now?"

Lin Zhi said openly: "I'm doing well."

After a pause, she said, "Do we have to stand outside the toilet and chat?"

Sang Bai was interrupted by her and couldn't help laughing. He hurried to a nearby place. When Lin Zhi came out, the two of them talked about recent events. It turned out that the old lady was worried that the fourth sister would have a hard time staying in the Bo Mansion. So before she got married, she gave Sang Bai to the fourth sister. So she followed the fourth sister to marry in Bianjing City.

"Could it be that the elder sister has already..."

"My eldest sister is still alive, but she is weak and sickly, and it is extremely difficult for her to even get up." Sang Bai said softly.

"Then Fourth Sister is..." Lin Zhi took a breath. Although concubines are allowed to be promoted to the main wife nowadays, their status is lower than marrying the original wife first or the second wife later, especially in the official family, they will be looked down upon.

Sang Bai was helpless: "After all, the affairs of the Bo Mansion are very busy, and during the New Year and other festivals, the young master also needs someone to take care of the housework and entertain the guests."

Anyway, the relatives all knew what the Bofu and Xi family were thinking, and it was just that Fourth Sister was wronged. After Sang Bai finished speaking, he wanted to bring up something else, but after thinking about it, he stopped talking and just asked, "You, what about you guys? Which family are you working for now?"