Chapter 113: Original Intention Remains Unchanged
Jiufang Yan couldn't help laughing and glanced at his brother. He never thought that a top sentinel could one day become someone's weakness and be exploited by others, and they would always succeed.
Jiufang Yu stood straight and serious without looking around, pretending not to notice Jiufang Yu's gaze, but his ears couldn't help but turn red.
It was too hasty, and it seemed like he had given too much. The shopkeeper tapped his palm with the handle of his fan, frowning slightly.
Qi Huan's sudden agreement made him feel like he was trying hard to pull the other party but the other party suddenly let go, or he was mentally prepared to bargain but the other party agreed directly.
Is this a loss? The shop owner muttered to himself, subconsciously turning his head to look at Ah Luan beside him.
Ah Luan realized what he meant and shook his head. It was not a loss. You had piled up all those gold for so many years anyway. It was just sitting there. Making a mecha with Jiu Fangyu was a good way to make the best use of it. In terms of craftsmanship, it was equivalent to exchanging your top-level craftsmanship for his top-level chef's. They were both legendary and could be used as a topic of conversation when drinking. It was not a loss.
"It's not too late if you regret it now." Seeing the owner hesitate, Qi Huan took the initiative to give him a chance to 'withdraw'.
"No, you've already agreed." After he said that, the owner felt that the dish he had obtained was about to be lost, and it seemed that giving up would be a greater loss, so he added a condition, "Or you can give me a new dish."
"Okay." Qi Huan nodded readily.
He agreed so readily that the shop owner was worried about a scam and immediately added, "It has to be of the same legendary level as Wanliu Guizong."
"Any other requests?"
The owner thought for a moment and said, "Rice is best."
Now that you have a dish, it would be best to try this once-in-a-lifetime delicacy.
"Okay." Qi Huan thought for a moment and asked him, "Which one do you want to eat, the Hun Beast Death or the Qianjin Rice?"
"Can you tell me what these two dishes are first?" The owner moved his eyes and asked cautiously.
"Both of these dishes are set dishes. Hun Shou Mo Hu needs to go through five processes: seasoning, brining, steaming, frying, and roasting. First, mix ham, green beans, pine nuts, rice, and spices evenly. Then, take a pigeon, remove the bones and internal organs, stuff the rice into the pigeon's belly, and pour hot soup on it until the pigeon's skin is tight. Then, take a duck, remove the bones and internal organs, stuff the pigeon into the duck's belly, fill the gap in the middle with fish maw, sea cucumber, and fish maw, steam it over low heat, and pour the soup into the pigeon.
Then, we take a fat goose, remove the bones and internal organs, stuff the duck into the goose, fill the gaps with mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and scallops, and fry them briefly. Then, we take a long-necked pigeon, remove the internal organs, stuff the goose into the pigeon’s belly, and roast it on a fire rack. Finally, we cut it open and take out the rice in the pigeon’s belly. The rice grains have been steamed and soaked in layers of fresh meat and broth, and are plump, fresh, and full of fat.”
The method Qi Huan described is actually a mixture of Huaiyang cuisine's Three-piece Duck and the famous dish Hun Yang Mo Hu from the Tang Dynasty, with some improvements. Since the owner wanted to eat complex and exquisite food, he could of course give it to the extreme.
Otherwise, having already eaten the Sun and Moon Three Rings and having the Wanliu Guizong for comparison, eating only Hun Yang Mo Hu might not satisfy the senior’s taste and expectations.
Everyone present was no ordinary person and considered themselves knowledgeable. The luxurious and complicated rice recipe that Qi Huan described was simply unheard of, let alone eating it.
Si Liang stared with his eyes wide open, almost drooling, and looked at Qi Huan eagerly and couldn't help asking, "What about the Qianjin rice?"
Qi Huan gently touched his head, "To make the Thousand Gold Rice, you need to first soak Ganoderma lucidum and ginseng in water, and soak animal antlers in aged wine for three days and three nights. Then soak corn in Ganoderma lucidum water, soak glutinous rice in ginseng water, and soak golden rice in aged animal antler wine. Soak them one by one for a full day and night, so that the aroma of Ganoderma lucidum, ginseng and animal antlers can penetrate into the rice grains."
Si Liang nodded. He had eaten these three kinds of rice and ingredients before.
"Then take the meat strips above the ham, where the muscle fibers are the tightest and most tender, and shred them until they are fuzzy. Then take the scallop core and shred it into fuzzy strips. Cut the dried safflower, abalone, and truffle into shreds as thin as a needle eye, and use the snow shrimp as the shreds.
Make a hole in the corn, stuff the ham and scallop into the corn, then hollow out the center of the crystal rice and stuff it with corn, dried safflower, truffles and abalone, then hollow out the golden rice and stuff it with crystal rice and minced shrimp. Finally, take eight golden crabs, shave off the crab roe, crab paste and crab meat, take the crab shell, cover the bottom with crab meat, spread the golden rice in the middle, cover the crab paste and roe on the top, and steam it in a steamer. The finished product is golden in color and has a variety of fresh flavors. It is worth a thousand gold coins, so it is called "Thousand Gold Rice".
Qi Huan combined the method of inlaid silver sprouts with various recipes he had seen online and his own experience with ingredients, and tailored a recipe for the owner according to his taste. He was just a useless chef, but it was worth a try to get rid of the gold mecha.
Everyone was amazed. It's ok to fit meat, but at least it's big, how can it fit rice grains? How much effort would it take?
"Otherwise, forget it and don't do it." Jiufang Yu frowned, thinking that this meal sounded too exhausting.
"No, you've already promised me, how can I let it go?" The owner was afraid that the cooked duck would fly away, so he immediately said, "I've decided, I'll choose the Qianjin rice."
The beast died suddenly and the fragrance was very fragrant, but he still preferred lighter tastes.
Qi Huan gave Jiu Fangyu a reassuring look and smiled brightly at the owner, "Okay, it's a deal, Wanliu Guizong plus Qianjin rice."
"Whoever goes back on his word is a stinking stone beast." The shop owner also nodded.
"Boss, check out." Just then, the lively conversation at the next table ended and someone called out.
Qi Huan responded and was about to stand up, but the owner stood up very actively and pressed him with his fan, "You continue eating, I'll go and collect the food."
"It's just a token of my appreciation." Qi Huan said. Those people are in great trouble, so we should help them if we can.
After a while, the guests, having eaten and drunk their fill, returned to their rooms, and the owner returned with a tray of golden star coins.
Qi Huan raised his eyebrows in surprise when he saw the pile of gold coins. "How much did you receive from them?"
The shopkeeper pushed the tray in front of him and opened the fan with a swish. "One hundred thousand silver coins."
"Isn't it just a token of our appreciation?" Qi Huan looked at the shop owner. Are we giving relief or ripping people off?
"It's just a token of my appreciation," the shop owner said confidently, waving his fan. "Your cooking skills are at least up to the standard of a four-star chef, right? A dish by a four-star chef starts at at least 20,000 silver coins. The Clear Sky Feast you made costs 120,000 silver coins per seat. You gave me two dishes in exchange for upgrading a set of gold-removing mechas. Now there are six of them and nine dishes, and I only charged them 100,000 silver coins in total. Isn't it just a token of my appreciation? The discount is already very deep, okay?"
"You are handsome and everything you said is right." Qi Huan raised his thumbs with both hands and nodded repeatedly, not daring to question anything more.
The next morning, the small starship arrived at the Quadruple Star Region. The Shang family's people were already waiting at the port. The leader brought a letter from the Shang family's sixth young master, expressed his gratitude to Jiufang Yu and Qi Huan, and took away the survivors of the freight team.
Qi Huan didn't prepare much food for this short trip, and he was short of a lot of ingredients to make Wanliu Guizong and Qianjin Rice. It happened that the Fourth Star Domain was close to the Fifth Star Domain and supplies were abundant, so Qi Huan took the opportunity to get off the ship and buy some food.
For the abalone part, there are ready-made dried abalone. Qi Huan specifically asked the shop owner for his opinion. If he plans to make it from scratch according to the method that man said, he will have to wait until he returns to the waste planet No. 7. If he uses ready-made ones, he can save a month and a half.
This kind of top-grade food is only made by a few time-honored food stores, and the quality is still guaranteed. The owner felt that there was not much difference, and he was in a hurry to eat, so he agreed. Qi Huan felt that this was a rare opportunity, so he picked out more than a dozen S-grade top-grade green-edged dried abalones in one go.
Once I started buying, I couldn’t stop.
The food purchasing area of the Quadruple Star Domain Dagang has four streets full of various rare and exotic ingredients. Those food stores on the Waste Star cannot compare at all. Qi Huan previously had a huge debt and had no spare energy to stock up, but now he has money in hand and has started a crazy purchasing mode of buying as much as possible when he gets the chance.
There is a kitchenware area next to the food area. There are all kinds of newly launched kitchenware of different sizes that Qi Huan has never seen before. He wants to take each one home to study and try them out.
Qi Huan was like a dragon swimming in the sea. He couldn't let go of anything he saw and was having so much fun that Jiufang Yu extended his original stay again and again, from two hours to four hours and then to eight hours.
In the end, someone strolled so much that he lost himself in thought and his legs became weak. He was then carried onto the starship by Jiufang Yu.
The shop owner and Jiufang Xian who stayed on the starship were both shocked and thought he was injured. But when they heard him say he was just tired from shopping, the shop owner laughed so hard that he slapped his thigh.
Fortunately, there was a relaxation cabin on the starship. Qi Huan stayed in it for an hour, slept for a whole night, and woke up in the morning full of energy again.
"Can you bear it? Do you want to pause for today's combing?" Jiufang Yu was a little worried about his physical condition, so he checked with him again after entering the quiet room.
"No problem." Qi Huan's ears turned red with embarrassment. It was so embarrassing.
The mental connection was established, and suddenly, a forest filled with sunlight and lush greenery appeared before his eyes.
The surrounding trees are all shaped like dragon blood trees, with round and thick trunks and emerald green crowns that slant upward as if against gravity. They look like umbrellas that have been blown over by a storm, or some giant mushrooms with their crowns facing the sky. Against the backdrop of the blue sky and white clouds, there is a beauty that is so clear and clean that it seems unreal.
The trees were not densely packed, and there was plenty of sunlight in the forest, with a smell similar to phytoncides floating in the air. As soon as Qi Huan's spiritual thread appeared, the surrounding treetops trembled in unison, and several branches and leaves suddenly grew longer, growing wildly, and gathered towards him.
Here we go again! We must walk out of the landing point today!
With the experience from the previous times, Qi Huan carefully and quickly dodged the branches and leaves that were attracted by the wind, and finally walked forward a few steps.
A dark brown round pit the size of a manhole cover appeared on the ground, just like the rotten spots that appear on the skin of an overripe fruit, slightly concave, which was the shadow of the spiritual picture.
Found it! While dodging the disturbing branches and leaves, Qi Huan stretched out his spiritual thread and quickly combed and darned the edge of the circular pit inwards in circles according to the technique he had already mastered. In a blink of an eye, the area of the circular pit was reduced by half, the depression was flattened, and the color turned into light brown.
He estimated the progress and thought that this level of shadow could be cleared away the next time.
Not far ahead, there were two more round pits the size of a coffee table. Qi Huan combed them one by one, and the color of them all turned light brown.
Going further ahead, a black spot the size of a carpet suddenly appeared, the color so rich that it was almost ink-colored.
This shadow was obviously more serious than other places. Qi Huan took a deep breath and carefully controlled the mental thread to probe over, coiling and combing along the edge little by little, going deeper and deeper in circles.
The further inward they went, the greater the resistance of the black shadows, and the slower the combing speed became. Qi Huan was not in a hurry. He moved patiently and carefully, approaching the core of the black pit step by step, and finally completed the combing.
Success! The moment he relaxed his mind, the branches and leaves nearby suddenly came over and wrapped around his spiritual thread, domineeringly and intimately.
The sudden impact of mental power was just like being poked in a sensitive spot. Qi Huan's mental thread trembled violently, and then softened in an instant. He wanted to struggle, but he was powerless. He was entangled tighter and tighter, and the visible range of the scene in front of him became smaller and smaller, and finally turned into darkness.
After persisting in Jiufang Yu's mental image for seven minutes and nine seconds, he fainted again.
This time at least four shadows were repaired and a breakthrough from zero was achieved. Before he finally lost consciousness, Qi Huan silently comforted himself.
They wasted some time in the Fourth Star Region, and just happened to catch up with Qi Yuan and the foundation representatives who had rushed back. Both parties arrived at the Eighth Star Region almost at the same time. The foundation headquarters and the Qi family were both on Tubai Star, so Qi Huan arranged a meeting place with them directly at the foundation headquarters, which was also the location of the Qi family safe.
The location also made his meaning quite clear: it was a business matter.
Qi Yuan was a middle-aged man who looked to be in his fifties, with slightly gray hair and deep smile lines at the corners of his eyes. According to seniority, he was also the distant uncle of the original owner.
Qi Huan didn't intend to waste time. After the greetings, he was about to take out the earring to the foundation for inspection, but Qi Yuan took out a document first.
"This is a decision I made after discussing with Qi Wei and the other nine elders. Everyone is here today. If no one objects, it will be officially implemented in three days."
Qi Yuan unfolded the document and placed it in front of Qi Huan, Jiu Fangyu and the foundation representative.
It was a resolution to expel Qi Kuo and his son Qi Shan from the family, which enumerated several crimes committed by them in colluding with outsiders to frame the direct heir Qi Huan. It was decided to expel them and their relatives from the family tree according to family rules. Qi Kuo was to be whipped forty times and Qi Shan twenty times according to family rules. At the same time, all the rights and interests of the Qi family's children were to be revoked.
This means that Qi Kuo and his son will not only face huge fines and imprisonment from the Alliance Arbitration Court, but will also have to return all ancestral property inherited from the Qi family. At the same time, they will also lose all welfare rights as children of the Qi family at the Foundation. This is an extremely severe punishment.
"Does Ah Huan have any objections?"
Jiufang Yu was worried that Qi Huan would be soft-hearted and speak for them, and was about to remind him, but Qi Huan had already spoken, "Only by clearly distinguishing rewards and punishments can we set an example. For murdering a direct heir, isn't forty lashes a little too little?"
Qi Yuan looked stern and said immediately, "According to the family rules, he should be punished with eighty and forty lashes. The elders, considering the contributions of his father and son to the Qi family over the years, decided to reduce his punishment by half. If..."
"Then let's stick to the original number, eighty lashes and forty lashes. We can't go against the rules of our ancestors." Qi Huan said immediately.
That night, he suddenly learned about Qi Qing's situation and knew that all the people in the Qi family were his sister's descendants. His emotions took over and he was soft-hearted and wavered. Then he "woke up" and realized that there was also a life of the original owner who was also his sister's descendant. These people must pay the price and give justice to the original owner.
"Qi Kuo and Qi Shan have been detained. The eighty lashes can be redeemed with money or executed before they are formally imprisoned," Qi Yuan looked at Qi Huan's expression and asked, "Which one do you think is appropriate, Ah Huan?"
"Execute it before you are officially imprisoned." Qi Huan said immediately.
Qi Yuan took a breath of cold air. If Qi Kuo was whipped all these times before going to prison, even if he didn't die, he would probably be half alive.
Qi Huan was very satisfied with his expression. He just wanted to tell these people in the Qi family that they should get along well with each other in the future, but if they dared to have any bad thoughts again, he would not be merciful.
After that, Qi Huan didn't say any more words and handed over the earring neatly.
Qi Yuan's eyes suddenly lit up when he looked at the earring.
Jiufang Yu frowned. The earring in Huanhuan's hand was too tempting for the Qi family. If this matter had not been brought to the Union Arbitration Court, the Foundation might not have sent anyone to intervene. As long as they turned a blind eye, whoever in the Qi family got the earring could actually get the things in the safe with the dual authentication of blood and key.
The representative of the foundation put the earring into the machine for verification and confirmed that the key was correct. They immediately calculated a list of reimbursement of living expenses and said that they would reimburse all previous expenses in one lump sum according to the proportion stipulated in the contract and Qi Huan's identity.
The second issue is the Qi family's property. Qi Huan can inherit the private property left by his parents. If he inherits the position of the head of the Qi family, he can also obtain a generous amount of ancestral property. If he gives up the position of the head of the Qi family, in addition to his parents' private property, he can still inherit an ancestral property, but the share will be reduced to one tenth of the original inheritance amount.
To exchange money for a leisurely life, Qi Huan chose the latter without hesitation.
Qi Huan put forward two conditions, one was to go to the Qi family cemetery to pay their respects, and the other was to go into the safe to take a look.
He used the excuse that he wanted to see with his own eyes whether there was anything left by his ancestors and his parents in it, but in fact he was looking for an opportunity to put a copy of the family recipe book in it and return it to the Qi family.
Qi Huan gave up the position of head of the family. Qi Yuan was very happy and naturally agreed to this request. Finally, Qi Huan, Qi Yuan and the representative of the foundation entered the safe together.
After entering, Qi Huan smiled. His worries were completely unnecessary. The Qi family's family recipe book had a separate grid, with several books stacked on top of each other, and the age was written on the back. It was probably because the book he got didn't have enough space. Since two hundred years ago, every generation of the Qi family head would leave an updated version with his own experience after studying it, just like the 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 versions of a mobile phone, each generation has its own insights and annotations.
The original owner's parents probably planned to study it first and then update their own generation's updated version.
There were also some versions of family rules from generation to generation, as well as the housekeeping experience left by the heads of each generation of the Qi family. Qi Huan didn't want to take over the Qi family, so he didn't look at them carefully and quietly left.
Two hours later, Qi Huan stood in front of Qi Qing's tombstone.
【Per aspera ad astra】
There is only this short line on Qi Qing's epitaph, which she wrote herself. Qi family's descendants don't know what this sentence means, or even what language it is written in.
Qi Huan knew him.
This is a Latin proverb, and has been Qi Qing's motto since childhood.
Translated into Chinese, it means, "through adversity to reach the stars."
Qi Huan stroked the words and smiled gently. At this moment, he was finally relieved. Qi Qing should be happy during his time here as long as he remained true to his original intention.
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