Chapter 49 Hot Pot Opening
In Chengtian Hall, Yan Xuanyu finally received Yuan Kang's secret letter after many days.
Because the capital city was too far away from the border town, it was unknown whether there would be any accidents on the way. Yan Xuanyu came up with the idea of "encrypted calls". Yan Xuanyu distributed pinyin booklets to his subordinates. Now they all use pinyin to write letters. This way they have double protection. Even if the Saker Falcon that delivers the message is shot down, the contents of their letters will not be leaked.
Seeing what happened after Yuan Kang arrived at the Huangsha City military camp, Yan Xuanyu couldn't help laughing - laughing because everything went exceptionally smoothly. Yuan Kang divided the soldiers of Huangsha City into "companies" and "squads", disrupted the soldiers who were originally gathered together for training, and used supplies as rewards.
Starting with a simple line march, companies competed with each other. No matter what the soldiers of Huangsha City thought in their hearts, it seemed that Yuan Kang's method was effective on the surface - the soldiers were now very active, and even when going to the toilet, they were eager to line up in neat rows and march in neat steps.
Regardless of the capabilities of these soldiers, their spirits have been boosted.
Seeing that Yuan Kang mobilized most of the soldiers with only the food he had transported, he couldn't laugh anymore, and even felt a little sad in his heart.
Yuan Kang recounted in detail his first day in the Huangsha City military camp: the tattered, unwarm clothes, the thin porridge that barely filled his stomach...
Yan Xuanyu remembered Yuan Kang saying that every winter many soldiers on the border would die of cold and hunger.
The situation should be much better this year. With Yan Xuanyu continuously transporting food to Yuan Kang, at least the soldiers will not starve to death.
Things will get better in the future, he sighed and thought to himself.
...
The capital city, located in the center of the Great Zhou Dynasty, is prosperous and bustling, and seems like two different worlds from the desolate border town.
Some people are worried about having enough to eat, while others are no longer satisfied with the usual food.
What people are talking about now is a restaurant called "Hot Pot House".
The food inside is very novel, and the interior decoration is very much in line with the current aristocratic aesthetic, which attracted countless customers at once.
After they tasted the thing called hot pot, most people could not forget the spicy and fragrant taste. A few people liked the mushroom soup base, which was naturally very delicious.
Especially in this winter, it feels so good to sweat after eating a hot pot!
Word spread quickly, and the hotpot restaurant was packed after only three days of opening. If you wanted to get in, you had to wait for a number.
This number plate is also made by the hot pot restaurant. In order to make the guests more comfortable, they can get a number plate in advance and wait. There is a special copper seal on the number plate to prevent counterfeiting.
...
The servant Xiaoliu took the number plate, bowed, ran over, and handed it to the butler in the carriage in a flattering tone: "Butler Zhang, I got the plate.
The butler took it and examined it carefully for a moment: "How long will it take?"
"About an hour." Xiao Liu said.
"You wait here." After the butler said this, he threw out a few copper coins from the carriage, which fell to the ground with a clang.
Xiaoliu kept bowing to thank him, then lay on the ground and picked up the copper coins.
The carriage slowly drove away. The thin servant named Xiaoliu carefully put the copper coins away, then ran back happily and stood in the corner, silently waiting for the people in the hot pot restaurant to call out the number belonging to his master.
...
This scene was seen by three people sitting in a private room by the window upstairs.
The three people were Zhang Yuezhi, Wang Qinyao and Li Zhiwei who came out of the palace.
Wang Qinyao, also known as Consort Wang, simply asked Zhang Yuezhi out of curiosity, "Who came up with this idea? These number plates are quite unique. They don't underestimate their status, but they also keep them in order and avoid confusion."
"Yes, Your Majesty." Zhang Yuezhi said with a smile.
Zhang Yuezhi smiled as she spoke to the other two people, but in her heart she was thinking about the little servant who had just been lying on the ground and deliberately made an exaggerated and ugly gesture to please the housekeeper, and she felt a bit uncomfortable.
"Sister Zhang! Sister Zhang!" Wang Qinyao said dissatisfiedly.
"Ah?" Zhang Yuezhi suddenly came back to his senses.
Wang Qinyao said patiently, "I want to try the tofu skin in your pot."
Zhang Yuezhi nodded: "Okay."
Wang Qinyao rolled her eyes. Even when a beauty rolls her eyes, she is still beautiful. "How can you be in a daze with such delicious food in front of you?"
"Sister Zhang had it a long time before us. It's not a rare treat for her anymore." Li Zhiwei joked with a smile.
Li Zhiwei and Wang Qinyao both ended up eating the mushroom soup base. Even the tender white mushroom soup was very flavorful. It was not as stimulating as the beef oil pot, but both of them had a thin layer of sweat on their foreheads after eating.
"Refreshing!" Wang Qinyao took a sip of the fruit tea that the hot pot restaurant presented to the distinguished guests.
Li Zhiwei said from the side: "Look at you, how can you still look like a concubine?"
Wang Qinyao didn't care: "We are not imperial concubines now, we are just three young ladies from ordinary families in the capital!"
Li Zhiwei was amused by her.
...
Zhang Yuezhi is the owner of the hot pot restaurant appointed by Yan Xuanyu personally. She has been in charge of everything since the restaurant opened. She is so busy that she almost has no time to rest. The news in the palace is that Concubine Zhang Shu is ill again.
The strange thing is that although Zhang Yuezhi works hard every day, she looks more and more radiant, and her previous sickly look has disappeared without a trace.
Li Zhiwei and Wang Qinyao were amazed by what they saw.
Zhang Yuezhi explained to them that she had been managing her family's shop before coming to the capital, but later all her property was taken away by her family, who locked her up in the boudoir.
Now managing a hotpot restaurant, Zhang Yuezhi vaguely recalls those days, as if this is herself now.
...
The three of them chatted and laughed, ate the hot pot that Wang Qinyao had been looking forward to for a long time, and then went to the theater.
Today, the Jixiang Theater is different from the past. Not to mention the scale of the three-story pavilion, the number of distinguished people coming in and out every day is countless.
The most popular and elegant thing to do in Beijing now is to watch a play at the Jixiang Theater.
The boss behind the Jixiang Theater has always been talked about. This boss is very mysterious. Others only know that his surname is "Yu", but from the things that happened in the theater, it is enough to see that he is a broad-minded person who is not afraid of power.
After the three of them came out of the hot pot restaurant, they got on a carriage and headed straight for the Auspicious Theater.
As soon as they arrived at the Jixiang Theater, the manager who came out to greet them was as shrewd as the manager of the hot pot restaurant. Although Yu Gongzi only mentioned it, he guessed that these three people had ordinary identities, and his words were flattering and friendly.
He smiled and welcomed the three distinguished guests upstairs, saying, "Is this your first time here? We're in for a treat today! There's a new play on the Jixiang Theater!"
"Steward, do you know what play it is?" Wang Qinyao had long been a die-hard fan of the Jixiang Opera House! She had seen the story of White Snake in the palace and had collected countless scripts from the Jixiang Opera House.
"This play is called 'Song of Everlasting Regret'..."
"Why are there so many sad stories?" Wang Qinyao said to Zhang Yuezhi and Li Zhiwei. "It sounds like another story of infatuated men and resentful women."
Wang Qinyao said this, but the steward was not offended at all. He took the three of them to a private room on the second floor suitable for viewing, and asked the servant to bring them fruits and snacks. He took care of everything before leaving.
"Why is the theater owner so considerate to us?" Even Wang Qinyao noticed something was wrong. As she looked down, she paused, "This...?"
Aren’t these the kind of dried plums that the emperor asked the imperial kitchen to pickle?
She picked one up and put it in her mouth and exclaimed in surprise, "They all taste the same."
She didn't say the rest.
Zhang Yuezhi smiled without saying anything, seeing through everything but not saying it out loud.
Li Zhiwei also realized what was happening. For a moment, they were both quite shocked. This auspicious theater actually belonged to His Majesty?!
Li Zhiwei heard that some time ago, several manuscripts of literati's poems were posted outside the Jixiang Theater, all of which were implicit criticisms of the current emperor.
Isn’t this interesting?
The three of them were not stupid, so they naturally knew that His Majesty had let them know about this important event because he was not on guard against them at all.
I guess the emperor arranged this new play because he knew they would come to the theater today.
...
The three of them looked around curiously in the private room. Li Zhiwei and Wang Qinyao needed no introduction. It was also Zhang Yuezhi's first time here. She looked outside and felt that the design of this pavilion was extremely ingenious.
Little did they know that people outside were also guessing their identities. They walked very low-key, but they could not resist the steward who personally greeted them and took them into one of the best private rooms in the theater.
You have to know that to have a private room in Jixiang Theater, status and money are both necessary.
Even officials of lower status in the capital had to watch in the lobby according to the rules.
Soon, people began to appear on the stage, and the scenery was set up. The people who were whispering around stopped talking at the same time, and no one guessed the identities of the three women wearing bamboo hats anymore.
The first act soon began on the stage...
...
That’s right, this play was created by Yan Xuanyu with slight modifications based on the later “Song of Everlasting Sorrow”. Yan Xuanyu blurred the background and told the story of the love and hate between “an emperor of the previous dynasty” and “the favorite concubine of the previous dynasty”.
There is also the classic line "I wish to be a pair of wings in the sky and a pair of branches on the ground."
"It's so beautiful..." Wang Qinyao murmured softly when she saw the snow falling all over the sky.
This "heavy snow" was falling from the top of the theater. Not only her, but the audience in the entire stand were amazed that it could have such a realistic effect!
Someone couldn't help but say loudly, "What a wonderful line, 'If we can get wet in the snow together today, we'll grow old together in this life'!"
Of course, this guy was looked at with dissatisfaction by countless people.
Wang Qinyao completely forgot how much she disliked the stereotyped "infatuated men and resentful women" at the beginning because this play was so good.
When she saw the treacherous minister forcing the favorite concubine to hang herself at Mawei Slope at the expense of the emperor's safety, her eyes were completely red and she was completely immersed in the play, not knowing whether she was angry or sad.
..
What impressed everyone in the Jixiang Theater was the last scene, in which the emperor wanted to catch his favorite concubine but fell to the ground and watched helplessly as the silk ribbon broke and the concubine left.
The two never met again.
The mournful singing voice came from nowhere, and the whole play was sublimated by the design of "neither the emperor nor the concubine let go, but their fate was over"!
Even several months later, this scene was still being talked about by people in the capital.
...
At this moment in the theater, as the people on the stage bowed their heads, the sound of discussion gradually began to rise.
"How did she fly?"
"There's a belt holding it!"
Some scholars even wrote a poem on the spot out of emotion.
..
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