While Xu Jingrong was still worried about his life, Wen Ye had already quickly snatched the pig's trotter from Xu Jinglin's hand, and Yunzhi tacitly wiped Xu Jinglin's mouth and hands with a wet towel.

Taozhi quickly collected the uneaten grilled lamb chops and grilled pig's trotters and brought them to the small kitchen.

Only Xu Jinglin, who was still ignorant of the situation, looked at his suddenly empty hands with a confused look on his face.

Where's his roasted pig's trotter?

Xu Jingrong turned around twice, looked back, and was completely shocked. If it weren't for the strong smell of meat in the air, he would not have been able to tell that his second brother was gnawing on a greasy pig's trotter just a moment ago.

Although she knew her two sons very well, on the way to the West Courtyard, Lu still hoped that the two brothers would read books with their second aunt Wen in the West Courtyard as Nanny Xian had guessed.

However, when Lu walked to the west courtyard gate, the smell of charcoal fire and burnt meat wafting out of the courtyard indicated that her fantasy was about to be shattered.

The maids who were accompanying them stopped and lowered their heads. Nanny Xian blamed herself in her heart, why did she tell everything she thought to the lady? The greater the hope, the greater the disappointment. When the lady got angry, she suddenly started to worry about the young master's future.

The servants smelled the fragrance in the air, with different thoughts in their minds.

Only Xu Yuxuan in Nanny Ji's arms had his round puppy eyes brighten up and sniffed slightly.

Mrs. Lu looked at the maid who quickly turned around and disappeared in the blink of an eye after she hurriedly bowed. She took a deep breath and said, "Let's go in."

No need to wait for any notification.

As soon as Lu stepped into the first door of the west courtyard, her brows frowned for a moment. The servants in the west courtyard were too careless. They only cleared a path in the snow-filled courtyard.

It seems that I need to give him a good beating in the future.

With this in mind, Lu arrived at the main courtyard of the west yard. The gate was wide open. A few dozen steps away, Lu only saw a group of two children, one adult and two children, surrounding a charcoal basin, with several maids standing beside them.

The aroma of meat became stronger, but there was not a single piece of meat to be seen in the entire yard.

Lu, who had been holding back some anger in his heart, released nearly half of it upon seeing this scene, and the corners of his mouth twitched slightly.

Did you fool her by mistaking her for Xuan'er?

Wen Ye stood up to greet her, her voice as gentle as water: "Sister-in-law."

Xu Jingrong's eyes suddenly widened. Why did the second aunt have two faces?

When Wen Ye spoke to her like this in the past, Lu just thought it was her nature. But at this moment, she suddenly reacted and thought that she might have been confused by the appearance revealed by Wen in the past.

The strange thing is that in the past she would have been angry.

Lu suppressed the inexplicable emotion in her heart, put on a stern face, pretended to know nothing, and asked, "Why did you start a fire in the yard?"

This time Xu Jingrong had foresight and covered up Xu Jinglin who was unable to keep the words in his stomach.

Wen Ye walked over and moved closer to Lu, and said in a softer voice, "Actually, we're not roasting a fire. I asked the kitchen to roast some lamb chops. Why don't you have some, sister-in-law?"

Wen Ye knew clearly that after the brothers Xu Jingrong and Xu Jinglin came to the west courtyard, she could no longer hide the fact that she was grilling lamb chops and pork trotters in the courtyard.

After all, when the two brothers returned to the East Courtyard with the aroma of roasted food all over their bodies, the maids who served them would be able to smell it.

The only thing that made her fail was that Mrs. Lu suddenly came over tonight on a whim.

Since we can't hide it, we can only do our best to remedy the situation.

This was not the first time that Mrs. Lu heard Wen Ye speak so softly. Two days ago, she went to the main courtyard to ask her about accounting issues. Her voice those two days was even softer than her current one.

But Wen seemed really timid that day, and at this moment, Lu seemed to smell a faint scent of manipulation.

Lu quickly gave up this idea, fearing that she had been too busy during the day and had come up with such an illusion.

Seeing that Lu remained silent, Wen Ye turned her attention to Xu Yuxuan, who was staring at her, and asked temptingly, "Xuan'er, do you want to eat the lamb chops that your mother grilled?"

Xu Yuxuan nodded eagerly: "I want to eat~"

Just when Lu thought Wen Ye was going to get the grilled lamb chops to attract Xu Yuxuan, Wen Ye suddenly changed the subject and said with regret: "You can't have it."

Xu Yuxuan was stunned for a moment, then pursed his lips and looked at Lu with tearful eyes.

Although the child is young, he also knows that when he wants something, he should look at who is most helpful.

Lu was speechless at the sight of Wen Ye's blatantly shameful behavior.

It turns out that the feeling just now was not an illusion.

"Such roasted food can easily cause internal heat, so it is not advisable to eat too much." Lu glanced at her son who had his mouth covered, raised her eyes, looked at Wen Ye in front of her and said, "Don't hide anymore."

How is this different from covering one's ears while stealing the bell?

"And you two," Mrs. Lu looked at her two sons' round bellies again and said, "You are not allowed to eat anymore."

With no one around to stop them, it was obvious that they would take this opportunity to eat a lot.

Xu Jingrong had already eaten his fill anyway, so he decided not to eat if he was not allowed to. He was surprised that his mother did not punish him for it.

Xu Jinglin, on the other hand, was shocked. He ate slowly and hadn't even finished a pig's trotter!

Lu turned sideways again, tapped Xu Yuxuan's nose, and couldn't help but say, "You were led by your mother by the nose, and you didn't even know it."

In the past, what Lu feared most was that Xuan'er's future stepmother would take advantage of Xuan'er's young age to bully others.

Now Xuan'er's stepmother really did what she expected, but the reason she did it was just to continue eating grilled lamb chops under her nose...

What else could she say?

The Duke's Mansion is so big, and after Wen married into the family, she couldn't be barred from eating even a piece of roast lamb chop.

However, since she was five years old, Lu, who had been brought up by her mother to be the mistress of the house, would never allow herself to continue sitting around the brazier and gnawing on a lamb chop without caring about her image.

Wen Ye saw Lu's concession and her bottom line, and tactfully asked Yunzhi and Taozhi to prepare dinner, and everyone quickly moved to the dining table.

The grilled lamb chops and roasted pig's trotters were seen again, but they were cut into small pieces and piled on the plate.

The several dishes that Mrs. Lu brought were also reheated and served.

A familiar light dish.

With Lu around, no one dared to serve grilled lamb chops and pig's trotters to the young master and the second son.

Xu Jingrong tactfully ate only the vegetables to please Lu.

Xu Jinglin looked at the porridge in the bowl, and then at the roasted pig's trotters he was longing for not far away. He looked so pitiful, wanting to eat but not daring to touch.

The maid who served him food only dared to give him other dishes and did not dare to touch the lamb chops and pig's trotters at all.

After Wen Ye sat down, he directly picked up a piece of grilled lamb chops coated with sauce and gave it to Lu, saying, "Sister-in-law, try it quickly. This sauce is made by me myself. It is different from what you have eaten before."

Although the roasted lamb chops were cut into small pieces, the meat was still attached to the bones, so it was impossible for Mrs. Lu to just pick them up and chew them. So Bai Mei, who had served her in the past, stepped forward, used a knife to remove the meat attached to the lamb chops, cut them into thumb-sized pieces, and brought them to Mrs. Lu on a porcelain plate.

Only then did Mrs. Lu pick up the chopsticks and take a small piece of food.

The chewing movements were very small and very elegant, which Wen Ye admired.

After a long while, she asked, "Sister-in-law, is it to your taste?"

Lu: "Not bad."

When Wen Ye heard this, he picked up two more pieces for Lu and asked Bai Mei to pick them slowly.

After Lu finished eating a piece of lamb chop, she remembered that Xu Yuxuan was beside her. She immediately coughed and said, "Madam Ji, let Xuan'er taste the lamb chop that his mother roasted herself."

Only then did Nanny Ji take action.

Xu Yuxuan had been staring at the lamb chops in Wen Ye's hand, pursing his lips in delight.

After Nanny Ji put the cut meat into his bowl, Xu Yuxuan lowered his head to take a look, then raised his head and continued to stare at what was in Wen Ye's hand.

The child's gaze was so intense that it was hard for Wen Ye not to notice it.

She stopped Nanny Ji from picking up the bowl to feed him, and used the serving chopsticks to pick up a piece of meat with bones for Xu Yuxuan.

Sure enough, his little round eyes lit up and he imitated Wen Ye, picking up the lamb chops with his hands and chewing them in an awkward manner.

Although he didn't bite off much meat in half a day, he still chewed it with gusto.

Lu saw it, but did not stop it.

Perhaps it was because he took into consideration that Xu Yuxuan was still young and it would not cause any harm if he forgot the rules occasionally.

Wen Ye stared for a moment, and caught a glimpse of Xu Jinglin drinking porridge with a bitter face. Suddenly, she felt a little compassion and gave him a piece of porridge.

Xu Jinglin looked at the lamb chops that suddenly appeared in the bowl, rubbed his eyes, and rubbed them again. It was actually real!

He suddenly raised his head to look at Lu, his eyes full of desire.

Mrs. Lu, who had already finished her second roast lamb chop, met her youngest son's gaze and paused, saying, "Your aunt gave it to you, just eat it."

Xu Jinglin immediately smiled and started chewing while laughing.

Although there is no pig's trotter, it is still nice to have grilled lamb chops.

However, he did not chew it in his hands as he did at the beginning. Instead, he struggled with it with chopsticks.

Lu has a small appetite, so he was full with three grilled lamb chops, half a bowl of porridge, and a few chopsticks of vegetables.

At that time, there were already a lot of bones piled in the porcelain plate in front of Wen Ye.

Lu glanced at it and her eyes couldn't help but move down to Wen Ye's stomach. Isn't it uncomfortable to eat so much?

However... her gaze returned to Wen Ye's face, and after looking at it for a moment, she felt that it was no wonder.

Such a round, delicate and moist face cannot be eaten without her appetite.

In her own territory, Wen Ye did not hide her appetite. In fact, she did not eat much. Looking at the pile of bones, there was not much meat, and she did not have any staple food tonight.

Facing Lu's suspicious gaze, Wen Ye smiled.

Lu's eyes froze, and she inexplicably understood the meaning of her smile.

The harmless smile seemed to be saying silently: If you eat my grilled lamb chops, you can't 'settle the score later', right?

As the saying goes, one who takes something from someone else is soft-hearted, and one who eats someone else's food is grateful.

Mrs. Lu couldn't say anything sarcastic at this moment. She just said, "You are the mistress of the West Courtyard. You should treat the servants properly. Don't let them slack off even for the work in the courtyard."

Wen Ye didn't know what Lu was talking about, but he still nodded his head whenever she said something, with an expression that showed he absolutely agreed and was willing to learn.

When Mrs. Lu saw her like this, her unconcealed behavior in front of her not long ago suddenly appeared in her mind, and the words that were on the tip of her tongue could not be uttered.

The impression I had of my brother and sister-in-law suddenly changed, and as the one who was deceived, I couldn't get angry.

Lu thought to herself that this was very wrong.

She couldn't be bribed by just two grilled lamb chops.

Although...it does taste good.

Wen Ye brought the topic back to the grilled lamb chops and said, "Sister-in-law, you may not know that I had someone marinate the lamb chops long ago. I used the marinade I made myself, so it tastes so good."

After hearing this, Lu looked up at her and asked, "So this is all you did the whole day?"

Wen Ye nodded honestly, "Yes."

Lu: “…”

Thinking back to how busy he was from morning till night, Lu fell silent.

At the end of the You hour, Lu returned to the main courtyard.

Duke Xu, who had been busy for a while, was about to finish his dinner. As soon as he returned to the main courtyard, he learned that Lu had gone to the west courtyard to have dinner with his second brother and his wife. Now when he saw her coming back, he caught an unknown look on Lu's face.

He went up to her and asked, "What's wrong? Are you not satisfied with your meal in the west courtyard?"

Lu shook her head: "Not really."

Duke Xu was about to say "What's wrong with you?", but then he smelled a hint of barbecue aroma emanating from his wife.

The words that came to my lips were changed to: "Did you eat barbecue?"

Lu nodded and said, "I ate a few grilled lamb chops at my sister-in-law's place."

Duke Xu was even more surprised: "No wonder I smelled the aroma of mutton."

Upon hearing this, Lu subconsciously bent her head and sniffed. There was a slight smell, and she probably got it from the west courtyard.

Just hearing Duke Xu's surprised words, Lu felt a little annoyed inexplicably. She frowned and said, "Why, I help you manage such a big Duke's Mansion, but I can't even eat a piece of roast lamb chop?"

Duke Xu suddenly realized that something was wrong and quickly explained the situation.

West courtyard.

The case of the Minister of Personnel's nephew who killed someone in Xishi Street was finally solved, and Xu Yuejia returned home much earlier than before.

As luck would have it, I bumped into Taozhi who was coming to the front yard carrying a lunch box.

Xu Yuejia paused, but saw Taozhi bowing to him and then turned to the servant guarding the study door and said, "Take the roasted lamb chops that the madam gave you and share them with us as a midnight snack for everyone."

After handing the food box over, Taozhi bowed to Xu Yuejia again and left the front yard.

Xu Yuejia glanced at the food box in the servant's hand, and finally said nothing and pushed the door into the study.

In the main hall of the west courtyard, Wen Ye was holding the list of likes and dislikes that Xu Yuejia had sent over two days ago.

Things like breakfast and lunch should not be later than 8, dinner should not be later than 7, no need for midnight snacks, etc.

Wen Ye read it from beginning to end, and after he sighed several times, he did not forget to tease Yun Zhi: "We can save a lot of food in the future."

Yunzhi: “…”

How should she answer this?