Having been cheated on by the spicy vegetable pancakes, the group decided to make up for it with the wontons.
Upon entering the shop, one could see a small wooden sign hanging above that read,
Top Scholar Wonton, 68 coins a serving.
The second-place wonton costs 58 coins per serving.
Tanhua wontons, 48 coins a serving.
Looking at the price, Yunling felt it was outrageous, almost the price of mutton noodles. Was the wonton filled with dragon meat?
The shopkeeper greeted the customers with a smile.
"Gentlemen, what would you like to eat?"
Chen Jie interrupted:
“We’re all illiterate and rough men. Give us six bowls of two-ounce wontons, nothing else. Ten coins per bowl, six bowls for sixty coins.”
As Chen Jie was speaking, he reached for a coin at his waist. The shopkeeper quickly stopped him, his smile fading slightly.
"If you can't read, I'll read it to you: this 'Top Scholar' wonton is 68 coins a serving, and the 'Second Scholar'..."
"Hey, hey, hey, I can't read. Are you hard of hearing? Give us six bowls of two-ounce wontons. Do you have any? If not, we're leaving."
"Yes, it is, but two ounces of wontons isn't worth ten coins..."
Chen Jie put one foot on the stool and pointed his thumb outwards, saying:
“The meat and cooked food vendors outside charge at most fifteen coins per serving, but your two ounces of wontons are only ten coins, how much is that?”
Yunling pulled Chen Jie along and said:
"Let's go."
"No, since you're already here, please sit down. Normally, two liang of wontons costs eleven coins, but since there are so many of you, ten coins is fine."
After the shopkeeper finished speaking, his smile vanished. If it were just one or two people, he could have retorted fiercely, but with six people, especially six thugs like hooligans, he could only give up his idea of extorting money.
Chen Jie immediately took out a string of copper coins, counted out sixty, and sat down next to Yun Ling.
The shopkeeper accepted the coins, though dissatisfied, but still went inside to cook the wontons.
"That's great, Chief Escort. I didn't even know how to handle this, and you spoke up."
"Hey, I've seen it all the time when I was on a delivery mission. They'd give a perfectly good two ounces of noodles, two ounces of rice noodles, and two ounces of wontons some fancy name and add all sorts of random stuff, just to rip off outsiders. I learned my lesson once, and now I've learned my lesson."
Yunling gave Chen Jie a thumbs up, but quickly became worried again, lowering her voice to say:
"Chief镖头, do you think the shop owner will be unhappy after our interference, and then tamper with the wontons or soup noodles?"
"this……"
"I've heard that if you go to a restaurant and the food is too salty or too sweet, you shouldn't send it back to the kitchen to bother the chef, otherwise he'll spit in it while he's cooking, so..."
"I'll keep an eye on it."
Chen Jie's actions put everyone at ease, especially Lu Yinghuai, who could finally put his goosebumps to rest.
After a while, Chen Jie shouted, and Gangzi went to meet him. The two of them each brought out three bowls of wontons, and the bowl without scallions was naturally placed in front of Yunling.
Yunling was very happy, and even the wontons tasted delicious. Seeing Yunling like this, the others were also happy and forgot about the little incident from earlier.
After eating wontons, the six of them continued walking south. After only a few steps, they were attracted by the drinks at the stall. As soon as they got close to the stall, they could smell the sweet and sour aroma.
There are two kinds of drinks on the stall. One is a thirst drink, which is like making honey. You scoop a spoonful of juice that has been boiled into a paste, pour boiling water over it, stir it, and you can drink it.
Another type is fermented rice water, which is rice water that has been fermented into sour rice soup. Honey and your favorite flowers and fruits are then added to it before you can drink it.
Yunling bought a cup of osmanthus-flavored sweet soup. After taking a sip, the aroma of rice, honey, and osmanthus competed in her mouth, creating a refreshing sweet and sour taste. After finishing the cup, the greasiness of the wontons was relieved by a third, and her mouth naturally became even more craving.
Her gaze instantly locked onto the rabbit meat, radish, scallions, and ginger being tossed around not far away. As soon as she uttered the word "rabbit," Lu Yinghuai had already strode over and ordered three plates of rabbit.
The stir-fried rabbit meat is seasoned with salt and vinegar, stir-fried a couple more times, and then placed in a bowl. Just looking at it makes it look very appetizing.
Lu Yinghuai picked up two portions, first giving one to Tang Ling and Zifu so they could share it with Chen Jiegangzi, and then keeping the remaining portion for himself and Yunling.
Yunling first broke off a small piece of the fried dough and put it in her mouth. It was crunchy and crunchy, but she didn't know if it was because it was only used as a tray, so it didn't have much flavor and left her feeling bland.
Yunling broke off two more strands to use as sandwiches with the rabbit meat. The rabbit meat was stir-fried until very tender, but there was too much salt in it, so it was a bit salty. She then crunched and ate the two strands.
"What's wrong?"
"It's a bit salty."
Gangzi immediately ran back to the drink stall, and Chen Jie followed, even trying to run faster than Gangzi. Zifu, who was carrying Lu Yinghuai's hopes, got dizzy after receiving a signal and ran around in circles like a lost chick before finally reaching the stall selling dumplings.
In the end, Yunling received two cups of osmanthus-flavored syrup and a bowl of sugar-coated glutinous rice balls. Yunling gave one cup to Tangling, took a bite of the sugar-coated glutinous rice balls, found them warm and sweet but not very appealing, so she gave them to Lu Yinghuai and continued to stroll around while drinking her osmanthus-flavored syrup.
One delicious treat after another; once past the rice and water stalls, Yunling felt as if she had stumbled into a food paradise. Steamed cakes, buns, pastries, flaky cakes, all kinds of dumplings, zongzi (sticky rice dumplings), sesame balls, glutinous rice balls, water dumplings, layered cakes, and so on—she couldn't take it all in.
Yunling ate fried mille-feuille, savory rice dumplings, and salted duck egg buns. She thought about finding mugwort dumplings, but because she had drunk too much, she felt the urge to urinate and had to turn back to her house. Before leaving, she packed three pieces of roasted pork skin and shared them along the way, feeling quite satisfied.
Back at the house, Yunling helped Tangling boil water. They boiled a large pot and shared it, then handed the kitchen back to Zifu.
After adding cold water, Yunling took off her clothes and was about to get into the wooden tub when there was a sudden knock on her door—it was that familiar voice all too well.
"Lingniang, are you busy?"
Yunling quickly pulled the clothes from the rack to cover herself, and said with dissatisfaction:
"I want to take a bath, what do you want?"
"I have a letter to send back to Pingcheng tonight, and I was just wondering if you would write one too, so I can send it along with the letter."
Yunling's mind went blank for a moment. She had been meaning to write to Zhang Shi for a while, but she always put it off and forgot. Now that Lu Yinghuai had mentioned it, she remembered. Since it would be convenient, she would write it now.
"Okay, I'll come find you after I've finished showering."
"Okay, I'll wait for you."
Lu Yinghuai was a little excited, and he couldn't help but walk with his hands and feet moving in unison.
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