Chapter 65
There was a pot full of braised meat stewing in the kitchen. As soon as Lin Zhaofang entered, he smelled the tempting aroma, which hit his face and made him hungry.
Su Guoer lifted the lid of the pot swiftly, used the iron hook beside her to hook up a piece of pork belly with even fat and lean meat, cut a piece with a knife and handed it to Lin Zhao to taste.
Lin Zhao took it, put the braised meat into his mouth, took a bite, and was impressed by the glutinous but non-sticky texture.
Coupled with the unique aroma of braised meat, the fat of the pork belly burst in his mouth after one bite. The lean meat was not dry and the fat was not greasy.
"Okay, this is it. Give me ten pounds!"
Su Guoer: "Can you finish ten kilograms?"
Lin Zhao: "There are so many brothers in the company. They won't bury your braised meat. And give me three bowls of bamboo tube mutton soup, and sesame cakes."
Su Guoer: "We have to wait for a while for the sesame cakes."
She hasn't started yet.
As they were talking, Yunniang and the others came. Seeing that there were people in the kitchen, they didn't ask any questions. They just pushed the pancake cart out from the yard. One person rolled out the pancakes while the other served the mutton soup.
Su Guoer was busy cutting and packing the braised meat that Lin Zhao ordered and handed it to him.
He took out another paper bag and handed it to Lin Zhao: "This one is... for Lord Pei. If Lord Lin sees him, please help me give it to him. If not, forget it."
Lin Zhao: “Okay.” This saves him from having to spend money on the braised meat. He can sell the remaining braised meat to his brothers and ask them to have some drinks.
He then took the lotus leaf bun handed to him by Su Guoer. Following Su Guoer to the gate, he saw that the sesame cakes were indeed slow to be made. He did not want to wait any longer, so he said, "I will come back to buy the sesame cakes another day."
After saying this, he drove away in his carriage.
This made Su Guoer, who was about to speak but hesitated, fall completely silent.
Actually, I just wanted to take this opportunity to ask him about the token.
But...Su Guoer was still a little worried.
The official who came when my father died was also of high status, but he also refused to say anything. He just cleaned up the scene and quickly closed the case, and even took away the token.
Thinking about it now, they seemed to be nervous about something back then.
Could it be that this token had some other purpose? After much thought, Su Guoer decided to investigate on her own.
She must find out the truth about her father's death and find the real culprit. Even if the real culprit has confessed his crime and died on the spot, she still wants to get to the bottom of it!
Thinking this way, it was not appropriate to ask him, so Su Guoer gave up the idea and prepared to find another way, or...
Lu Ping'an from Dali Temple is a good choice.
The Dali Temple was the one that specifically handled murder cases, and the Imperial City Department? That was just a yamen that cleared up rumors, dealt with grievances between officials and the common people, and monitored all officials.
The people from Dali Temple are more reliable.
Seeing Madam Cui and Yunniang making sesame cakes, Su Guoer came over and served mutton soup to the diners. When a diner asked her what happened yesterday, she explained it word for word.
With such a big commotion on the street, there would definitely be people asking questions. She didn't need to hide anything, she just needed to explain what happened clearly.
The diners were all very sad after hearing about her experience, but turned around and told Su Guoer the good news: "Master Qi will be beheaded at noon today. His two sons, one named Qi Zhang and the other Qi*, have already confessed their crimes and accepted the punishment. They were supposed to be executed along with Master Qi, but yesterday the officials unexpectedly discovered that they had both bitten their tongues to commit suicide, leaving behind only an orphan and a widow who were crying and hugging each other. We beg Your Majesty for mercy."
"Mercy?" Wang Mazi from the west side of the city said, "What's there to be merciful about? The Qi family embezzled two hundred thousand taels of silver in one smuggling operation. And that's just the one that was uncovered. What else has been uncovered?"
"There must be at least 18 million taels, right? They earn all the blood and sweat of the people!"
The Wei Dynasty had extremely strict control over spices and medicines. Generally, officials would go to the Hu Kingdom in person to purchase them, and then bring them back to Bianjing City for unified sale. Not only were the prices high, but the transaction volume was also small.
Some officials and businessmen saw that this route was very profitable, so they imported spices and medicines under the pretext of shipping and trading porcelain, and sold them at high prices, making a fortune in one go.
Therefore, under the huge benefits, many officials took risks, and Mr. Qi was one of them.
But the people said that Lord Qi had been a simple and honest person all his life and there was no sign of corruption. When such a thing was exposed, it was really disappointing.
Li Ergouzi, the butcher from the north of the city, said, "So what? If you swallowed it, you swallowed it. You can just spit it out, right? But even if you spit it out, it's not ours. There's more than one Lord Qi. Let's just watch the fun. Now, drink your mutton soup."
After a few people finished chattering, they started talking about other things. This is one of the advantages of running a restaurant. You can hear stories from trivial matters between neighbors to big stories from all over the world, although they may not be true, right?
Su Guoer thought that with these people's ability to brag, it wouldn't be long before she would attract spies from the Imperial City Bureau outside.
Lest they create any news that would shake the people's hearts.
Seeing Li Si arrive, Su Guoer went to the backyard to prepare breakfast for everyone. This morning's meal was simple: salty white flour shredded gourds with pickled vegetables and corn porridge, which was especially satisfying. Each person also had an egg.
A pot of porridge filled with the aroma of corn is cooked. After eating a bowl, I won’t feel hungry for the whole morning.
As for the eggs, I cooked one for each person. I originally planned to cook it only for Lian Yuaner, but I was afraid that he wouldn't eat it, so I cooked one for each of them. This way, they could take it home if they didn't want to eat it.
Soon it was time for breakfast. After the stalls outside were closed, Su Guoer called them to eat without rushing to clean up.
When eating, everyone also sat around a table.
Su Guoer said, "I heard that a new braised meat restaurant opened in the west of the city recently? Has anyone tried it? How was the food?" she asked Madam Cui.
Because Madam Cui lived relatively close to the west of the city, she would pass by it every day on her way to work.
Madam Cui took a bite of her steamed bun and said, "Yes, I opened a braised meat shop. It's called the Hakka Braised Meat Shop. It's in Shaxiang Hutong. Chunfeng Tower is on the corner opposite."
"It just opened yesterday."
"As for the taste," she sighed, "I haven't tried it, but my husband and his brothers went to try it. They said it wasn't tasty, so they didn't bring any back. My dear lady, the braised pork you made is delicious. They also said it was just salty, with a dark, unappetizing color. It also had a bitter aftertaste. They tried it once and never went back!"
"But they shamelessly claim this is their own homemade braised pork, with over a dozen herbs and spices in it!"
What a pity, the food she made was not half as delicious as the one her wife made.
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