Chapter 24 Chapter 24 Grilled chicken rack.
Chen Yan stuffed the last piece of steamed bun into his mouth, wiped each of his fingers with a handkerchief, and finally raised his head leisurely to meet Tao Yingheng's gaze which was filled with shock and resentment.
He paused and said innocently, "...I just asked you, but you said you didn't want it."
Not only that, he also looked at the remaining bowl of soup expectantly: "You don't like this soup either, do you?"
Tao Yingheng was about to say he didn't want to eat, but seeing Chen Yan's expression, he changed his mind and grumbled, "Who said I don't want to drink? I want to see what she can do..."
As Tao Yingheng spoke, he raised his hand and picked up the bowl, first looking at it carefully, and then sniffing it.
He was hesitating, but when he met Chen Yan's gaze, he remembered Tao Yingce's words and quickly took a sip.
In an instant, Tao Yingheng's eyes lit up.
He was about to sigh when he caught a glimpse of his brother and Shen Yan from the corner of his eye, and the words of praise got stuck in his throat.
Tao Yingheng's face was stern, and he ate one mouthful, two, three, four, expressionless mouthfuls after another. Only after he had finished the entire bowl of duck soup did he manage to utter a dry, "It's okay, not as good as you say."
Chen Yan rubbed the shiny bowl, which looked as if it had been licked, and said "oh" after a while.
At that moment, he seemed to see Tao Yingheng blushing.
Before Chen Yan could take a closer look, Tao Yingheng jumped up in anger: "I said, it's very ordinary."
Chen Yan nodded calmly and hummed. He thought casually that everyone has different tastes after all. Maybe Heng Ge'er doesn't like to drink pickled duck soup, doesn't like to eat pickled fish and chicken buns, and only likes to eat dry bahu cakes.
Although his preference is indeed a bit strange, it is not impossible. As an elder, he should be more understanding.
Unexpectedly, seeing his indifferent reaction, Tao Yingheng became even more furious. His face turned blue, white, red and purple. He stood there for a while, then threw the porcelain bowl on the table and turned away angrily.
Chen Yan watched the man go away: "You don't care about him?"
Tao Yingce waved his hands without raising his head: "Why bother with him? I don't know who gave him this bad habit. When he was studying in the academy, he looked down on his classmates. Now when he is outside, he looks down on this and that." Even Chen Yan was scolded by him at the beginning. Later, he was surpassed by Chen Yan in both studying and martial arts, and only then did he gradually behave himself.
"You don't even know that you shouldn't offend the cook when you're away from home."
Tao Yingce's face was filled with disbelief, and he started complaining to Chen Yan, "No wonder Dad didn't allow him to take the exam. With his personality, if he were to join the government, he wouldn't bring honor to our family, and he would probably just make more political enemies."
Tao Yingce caught a glimpse of Chen Yan's serene face from the corner of his eye. He swallowed his unfinished words and changed the subject to the file in his hand. "The government has received the evidence and information we sent back. This evidence is enough to bring down the third son of the Geng family."
"As long as the third son of the Geng family is gone... haha." Tao Yingce sneered, "Even if the rest of the Geng family wanted to jump around, I'm afraid they wouldn't be able to."
"Yeah." Chen Yan sighed softly.
"Brother Yan." Tao Yingce patted Chen Yan's shoulder and said in a deep voice: "Don't worry, everything will be done soon."
Chen Yan laughed dumbly: "I've waited all these years, so how could I not wait for these last few years? I'm really looking forward to it just thinking about it."
Seeing his calm expression, Tao Yingce finally felt relieved. His brows relaxed and he smiled, "I just said one thing."
Chen Yan's gaze shifted, scanning the empty plates and bowls in front of him, and he suddenly brought up something: "What do you think, should we hire Miss Lin as a cook?"
Tao Yingce raised an eyebrow and immediately followed his train of thought: "Are you trying to exempt his family from paying for their travel expenses?"
"Yes." Chen Yan smiled. The last time Lin Sen mentioned the payment, he had agreed at the time, but later felt it was inappropriate. He just couldn't figure out how to refute it. "It just so happens that our team is short of such a person."
Tao Yingce readily agreed, but he had other ideas: "But Miss Lin has only been doing it for a day. If we rashly propose, I'm afraid she may not agree."
Chen Yan looked at him and said with a smile, "Those who ate well today will be allowed to have another pancake tomorrow. When someone complains, we can bring up this matter again."
"A-choo, a-choo, a-choo!"
Linzhi sneezed three times in a row, rubbing his nose and muttering: I don’t have a headache or a sore throat, why did I suddenly start sneezing?
Song Jiaoniang heard the noise and hurried over. She pressed her forehead against her daughter's forehead to test it. After confirming that her daughter did not have a fever, she breathed a sigh of relief. "As the old saying goes, 'The first thing you think about is the second you scold, and the third you worry about.' Maybe someone is thinking about you."
"Thinking about me? It can't be someone from your previous life, right?" Lin Zhi swallowed the words he hadn't said yet, with a strange look on his face.
Song Jiaoniang thought Linzhi was talking about the Xi family, so she didn't respond. Anyway, the whole family had moved away from the Xi family, and what the people over there thought had nothing to do with them.
In fact, there really were people over there who were thinking about them. Huang Guanshi's daughter, Sister Jin, had been married to the eldest daughter for several years, and this was her first time back at the Xi family. Despite all the care and instructions from Mother Jiang, she couldn't contain her excitement. She returned to her room and kowtowed to her parents: "My daughter is unfilial—"
"Silly child!" Manager Huang and his wife rushed forward, hugged their daughter and cried.
After crying for a cup of tea, the family finally wiped their tears and sat down to talk. Sister Jin first talked about her life over the past few years, and then talked about the things happening at the uncle's house: "Such a thing happened at home, and it made the uncle very angry. He was furious about it. Although he didn't say it to the girl's face, she still got the news and cried every night."
"Er Lang couldn't bear to see this, so he asked us servants to come back to take a look and find out what's going on."
"However." Sister Jin thought about Mother Jiang's instructions and hesitated for a moment before speaking out: "Mother Jiang got the old lady's order to come and see the fourth young lady."
Manager Huang's heart sank: "Young lady...will you really not make it through the New Year?"
Sister Jin nodded, her eyes red.
Manager Huang just felt bored - he had sent his daughter to the eldest girl and served her all the way to the uncle's mansion. He thought he could rely on a big tree and have no worries, but he didn't expect that the eldest girl would be so unlucky.
Even if the master intends to send the fourth daughter to the Earl's Mansion as a second wife to take care of the children left by the eldest daughter, the fourth daughter has her own close confidants. How will their own daughter gain a foothold in the Earl's Mansion then?
Manager Huang was feeling frustrated, unable to come up with a good idea. Just then, Sister Jin suddenly asked, "By the way, where is Lin Zhi now? Did the Master send her to the countryside to recuperate?"
Manager Huang hesitated for a moment and lowered his voice, "The old lady gave her some money and sent her to marry the idle man that the third lady had pointed out."
Sister Jin breathed a sigh of relief; she had indeed recognized the wrong person. Her brows relaxed, and she sighed, "At least I've found a place to stay."
After a pause, Sister Jin asked again, "Dad, do you know where she lives? We've had some interactions in the past, so it's only natural that I should go see her."
"That's not necessary. That idle man is an escort from Bianjing. Linzhi and his family are now going to Bianjing with him."
Sister Jin raised her head abruptly: "Going to Bianjing? Could the other party be a government escort?"
"No, no, it belongs to a small merchant."
"..." Sister Jin's expression suddenly changed, "Dad, am I right?"
"What's wrong?"
"Dad, I think I saw Linzhi and her mother at the Hezhou dock. They were on a government ship."
"What!?" Manager Huang's voice trembled with shock, and he hurriedly asked for the exact time and location. As Sister Jin continued to describe the situation, Manager Huang's expression grew increasingly grim. He was the one in charge of investigating Chen Yan, and if anything went wrong, he would be the one to suffer.
Steward Huang calmed himself down and, with forced composure, instructed his children, "Don't tell anyone. They've already gone to Bianjing. And what future can a foolish girl have?"
Everyone agreed with this and put the matter aside. They pulled Sister Jin aside to ask about many things in the Bo Mansion.
---
As for Linzhi, she placed the drained chicken rack on a plate and poured in some onion and ginger water to remove the fishy smell. She even borrowed the drink from Lu San's hand and poured some on it.
As for the seasoning, it is even simpler. Linzhi only used a little bean paste, salt, and sugar, and also added some ginger powder and peppercorns.
The marinating time does not need to be long, two cups of tea are enough - after all, Linzhi has just taken the meat too cleanly, and the remaining skeleton only has a thin layer of meat.
She lit the stove again, placed the chicken rack on the grill, and let the fat fall into the flames, causing them to rise suddenly and curl upwards.
At a speed visible to the naked eye, the chicken skin turned golden and wrinkled, and the aroma of charcoal fire and meat intertwined and blended together, spreading all over the place in an instant.
Tao Yingheng, who had just gotten out of the carriage in a huff, stopped in his tracks after taking only two steps when he was attracted by the fragrance.
He looked at the crowd gathered around the stove, hesitated for a moment, and then stepped forward to investigate. Seeing the strange thing on the grill, he frowned and asked, "What's that?"
"It's a chicken carcass." Lu San glanced at Tao Yingheng beside him. Knowing that he was from a government official family, he was afraid that he would not understand the food of these common people. He explained, "Sister Zhi just cut the chicken into pieces and made steamed buns. The remaining bones are used for roasting."
"Isn't that just a chicken bone?" Tao Yingheng subconsciously widened his eyes and blurted out, "You can eat this? That's too cheap, isn't it?"
Tao Yingheng felt something was wrong the moment he said this. Seeing that Lu San just smiled and ignored him, turning around to chat and laugh with other people, he felt even more awkward.
Tao Yingheng was thinking about leaving, but his eyes were glued to the chicken rack and he couldn't move them away. The more he looked at it, the more inexplicably annoyed he became: How could the fragrance of this seemingly insignificant thing be so tempting?
He held his breath, lowered his head and rushed a few steps, but the fragrance seemed to have grown legs. Even though he had returned to the carriage, it followed him into the carriage and continued to linger around his nose, making Tao Yingheng restless.
Tao Yingheng's voice had been so loud just now that Lin Zhi naturally took it all in. However, she didn't take it to heart. Instead, she focused on flipping the chicken rack and then brushing it with a layer of sauce and honey.
She didn't remove the chicken from the grill until both sides were golden and crispy, then she placed it on a plate.
Lu San and his friends crowded together and came over to take a look.
Lin Zhi washed her hands and reached over to tear the chicken rack apart, breaking it into smaller pieces. "Come on, there aren't many, everyone, have a try."
"How could I be so embarrassed..." Lu San was about to give in, but then he heard his colleague beside him speak impatiently: "Then I won't be polite!"
"Hey, hey, hey!"
"Lü San, if you don't want it, then don't want it. But you can't represent us... I want this piece!"
The person next to him picked out a piece with more meat and quickly put it in his mouth: "Mmm! Crispy on the outside and tender on the inside!"
The thin chicken has been roasted until the surface is dry and charred. It is crispy at first and tender later when chewed, with a little toughness.
Especially the fascia in the bone gap, which requires people to suck and sip bit by bit before they can swallow all the flavor inside into their stomach.
The only problem was that there were too few of them. Lin Sen chewed the bones until they were mushy and swallowed them all in one gulp. He nodded in agreement, "That's right... there are too few of them."
Lu San and others who were hunting today were beating their chests and stamping their feet, regretting that time could not go back and they could not return to the daytime, otherwise they would have caught more than ten chickens in one breath!
When Linzhi heard this, the corners of her mouth twitched. She thought that even if she really needed more than ten chickens, she would not do this anymore.
Outside, people were laughing and chatting, it was very lively. In the carriage, Chen Yan and Tao Yingce were studying files, it was quiet and peaceful.
Only Tao Yingheng, who had returned to his own compartment, tossed and turned, the rumblings of his stomach growing louder and louder.
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