Chapter 266 Courtyard

"Beer? Sister Yuan, how did you do that? You've mastered all the essential skills for a transmigrated female protagonist! Is there anything you can't do?" Wang Xifeng picked up a glass of golden beer with a layer of white foam on top.

"Why bring this up! There are plenty of things I don't know." Yuan Hongqu raised her glass.

"Ying'er, we're from the same hometown, it turns out we're old acquaintances, we should have gotten drunk together a long time ago..."

"Sister, let me toast you first."

After downing a beer, Wang Xifeng immediately noticed the pig brains next to her and asked, "Where did you get this from?"

"Don't worry about where you got it from, just eat it if you like."

"I would be very kind to you. My brain is already bad enough, so I don't need to supplement it with things that don't work well for my brain either." Wang Xifeng was indifferent to brains and not averse to them, but it was impossible for her to try them.

She focused intently on cooking the lamb rolls. The lamb rolls were boiling in the pot, and she had to grab them out in a split second, or the meat would become overcooked.

She placed it in a dipping bowl, coated it with sesame paste, and took a bite, her eyes crinkling with satisfaction.

"Sister Yuan, I've been craving this for so long."

"Why would you need to miss it? When you open a hot pot restaurant, I'll give you the broth recipe and let you become the hot pot king of the Dream of the Red Chamber world, how about that?" Yuan Hongqu never shortchanged herself and always managed to get what she wanted to eat, so she wasn't as excited as Wang Xifeng.

"I have no such intention. I work myself to the bone, and all the money I earn just goes to fill that hole in their family's coffers. Why would I bother, and end up making myself look like a ghost?"

As she spoke, she skillfully placed the shrimp paste, which was on a split bamboo tube, into the pot.

While waiting for the shrimp paste to cook, my mouth was also busy.

The handmade beef balls and fish balls that Yuan Hongqu put into the pot early in the morning were all floating up. The beef balls were crisp and bouncy, and the fish balls were full of fresh and delicious flavor.

The two ate until they were slightly sweating before finally putting down their chopsticks.

"Ying'er, save some room in your stomach. There's a durian mille-feuille in the ice storage. I put a whole durian inside." Yuan Hongqu had just transferred the durian mille-feuille from her spatial storage into the ice storage.

"There's such a good thing? Sister, if you had told me earlier, I wouldn't even be eating hot pot anymore!" Wang Xifeng never expected that she would hear the word "durian" again in her lifetime.

She was thrilled.

"Did you buy an island overseas? No, even buying an island wouldn't be this extravagant. Did you conquer an entire country?"

She loves durian; hot pot and durian are both her favorites.

However, in the past, to maintain her figure, she almost never dared to touch these calorie bombs, and it was considered good if she could reward herself with eating them once a year.

Now she has a body that can eat whatever she wants without gaining weight, and she no longer hesitates to try things she wouldn't have dared to try before.

Yuan Hongqu chuckled, "She's really easy to coax."

“My ship has been to many places, and they bring back some things for me whenever they see something they've never seen before.”

Yuan Hongqu lied without batting an eye.

A moment later, the durian mille-feuille was served, and Wang Xifeng's eyes widened once again.

Whose durian mille-feuille is this? You can hardly see the pastry, only the filling. The durian filling is so plentiful that it overflows from almost every layer.

Originally, Yuan Hongqu made this for herself, so it wasn't made very elegantly.

In retrospect, it wasn't so bad to just show it off and shock Wang Xifeng like that.

Golden-yellow crust, golden-yellow durian flesh, layer upon layer, brimming with flavor.

Wang Xifeng couldn't think of any words to describe the shock she felt at that moment.

Even the strong smell of hot pot couldn't mask the aroma of durian.

Yuan Hongqu only ate a small piece, and gave the rest to Wang Xifeng.

After a satisfying meal, the two sat on the swing in the yard, swaying back and forth listlessly.

"Daiyu really hasn't been here?" Wang Xifeng wanted to confirm again.

“I’ve never been here before. This place is like my secret base.” Yuan Hongqu looked at the huge gardenia tree in the yard. Although she could live in her spatial dimension, she rarely did so.

The small courtyard was used as a transit point, so more people came here.

Yuan Hongqu toyed with the teacup in her hand, looked at Wang Xifeng, and casually said:

"You're getting anxious now that Jia Yuanchun has been named a Virtuous Consort?"

The conversation finally turned to the thing Wang Xifeng least wanted to face.

"Sister Yuan, the timeline has been moved up. Daiyu hasn't even grown up yet, and she's already been made a concubine. Will the confiscation of our property also happen sooner?" This was Wang Xifeng's biggest concern.

“Several people have died in the last two years. Do they look like they’re about to die?” Yuan Hongqu couldn’t help but say.

Wang Xifeng thought about it for a moment, and it seemed that it was indeed true.

First, Jia Rui, who harbors treacherous intentions towards him, will die. Although Jia Rui has not shown any treacherous intentions yet, he was still sent to Jinling by Jia Lian last year and will never be able to return in this lifetime.

In the past few years, there have been Lin Ruhai, Qin Keqing, Qin Zhong... all of whom are still alive and well.

"It's all up to people. She became a virtuous concubine. If your family continues to live as before, without abusing your power, breaking the law, or violating the law, and just does your job properly, who can do anything to you?"

Yuan Hongqu knew that in recent years, in order to save her life, Wang Xifeng had not dared to do any things against her conscience, and had done a lot of good deeds.

The scene of the corpse wrapped in a tattered mat in the snow was a nightmare that Wang Xifeng could never forget. If her end was really that tragic, she would have been better off dying when the Rongguo Mansion was at its most prosperous, at which point she would have had a place to be buried.

"Sister Yuan, not every place is peaceful and prosperous, not every girl's academy is orderly and disciplined..." Wang Xifeng had been there for several years, and even the most naive and innocent girl...

“Just live your life well. I’ll tell you the truth: if you ever run into those officials who frame your family, I’ll send you and your daughter overseas.”

Wang Xifeng hesitated for a moment before speaking.

"Jia Lian is not ambitious and wants to rise in rank by relying on nepotism."

“I know I can’t rely on him at all. He seems to have changed for the better these past two years. I never expected that Jia Lian would get so cocky just because he was made a concubine! You are the Empress’s teacher, and I’ve never seen you act so arrogantly.”

“There’s no comparison. If you don’t allow him to be happy during a family celebration, then you’re in the wrong,” Yuan Hongqu said, indicating that Jia Lian’s behavior was understandable.

"He said directly that he would stop doing business from now on, so as not to tarnish the Empress's dignity..."

"I'll go back and give him a piece of my mind!"

"Sister Yuan, thank goodness you're here." Wang Xifeng exclaimed sincerely.

"Let's pack up and go back." Yuan Hongqu went out, and few people knew that Wang Xifeng had come out with her. Jia Lian had no idea where they had gone.

"Sister Yuan, if you have a place to stay, would you mind staying a few more days?" Wang Xifeng had no intention of going back.

“I have nowhere to stay, so I never spend the night outside,” Yuan Hongqu replied decisively.