"This is the rule that I have set for you. It will be based on the matter at hand. If anyone delays the meal of hundreds of people in the palace, they will be punished!"
After hearing this, everyone had a puzzled expression on their faces, but almost everyone had a smile on their faces.
Qian Ruoyu's words brought more benefits than disadvantages to them, so naturally, they all admired Qian Ruoyu a little more.
Qian Ruoyu said with a smile.
"In that case, let's not waste everyone's time. Serve the dishes. Aunt Zhang and Aunt Wang, come over here."
Zhang Ma and Wang Po were also dragged to the big attic at the time, and it was they who bought the vegetables.
After the two men came in front of Qian Ruoyu, they bowed their heads respectfully.
"What can I do for you, Madam? Please give me your instructions."
Qian Ruoyu nodded slightly.
He spoke calmly to the two people.
"Are you two the ones responsible for buying groceries in the palace?"
The two people nodded immediately.
Aunt Zhang said.
"Your Highness, I am in charge of buying groceries for the palace... The money you mentioned earlier, Wang Po and I have already delivered... All of it has been put into the amount for buying groceries tomorrow..."
Wang Po also nodded quickly, walked to a small room, and took out a small bag from the room.
After Wang Po took it out, she placed it on a table next to her and opened the bundle, revealing some silver ingots inside.
A rough estimate shows that there are about thirty or fifty taels of silver, which was a huge sum of money in ancient times.
One tael of silver equals one zhuang coins, and one zhuang coins equals one thousand coins. If there weren't so many people in the palace, there would probably not be a need to spend so much money every day.
After seeing these silver coins, Qian Ruoyu's eyes widened, but he still pretended to be serious. After all, this money was indeed used by the palace to buy vegetables.
Qian Ruoyu would not embezzle money at will, but would only make a small use of it when it is useful.
After all, the couple’s money is shared, not to mention Qian Ruoyu is planning to use the money to do something big.
Qian Ruoyu brought Zhang Ma to the table.
Aunt Zhang said.
"Part of the money here is sent by the warehouse for buying vegetables tomorrow, and the other part... is for me and Wang Po..."
Aunt Zhang didn't say what came next, but Qian Ruoyu knew it well.
Therefore Qian Ruoyu nodded slightly.
"Well, seeing that you two are quite honest, I won't punish you too much this time. Of course, this is only your last chance!"
The two of them immediately lowered their heads and spoke timidly.
"Yes, yes, yes... Please rest assured, Your Majesty. From now on, we will do our best to help in the kitchen, and there will definitely not be any trouble again..."
Qian Ruoyu took another look at the silver before speaking to the two of them.
"Well, I understand. You just need to behave well from now on."
However, when saying this, Qian Ruoyu remembered something else, and it seemed that she really needed to ask Yan'er to come and help.
The only person in the entire palace who can gain Qian Ruoyu's trust is Yan'er.
Yan'er is also the only person who can help Qian Ruoyu manage this matter!
Qian Ruoyu began to feel a little regretful. If she had known this would happen, she should have brought Yan'er with her.
Wang Po said at this time.
"By the way, Madam, all the vegetables and fruits in our palace will be delivered to the back door of the palace at 15:00 tomorrow morning. I'm sure you should know that."
"Yes, madam," Aunt Zhang also said, "vegetables, fruits and melons are sent to the back door and we select them before they can be sent to the palace. As for other meats, you need to go out of the palace to buy them yourself."
But after hearing this, Qian Ruoyu was stunned.
It’s the first quarter of the morning, so isn’t that just past five?
The sun hasn't even risen yet, and we're going to be received at the back door of the palace?
The sun hasn’t even risen yet, so early in the morning... Qian Ruoyu felt a little tired just thinking about it.
But for the money, Qian Ruoyu had to nod.
"Well, I understand, but there are some details that you need to explain in detail."
After Qian Ruoyu looked over, Wang Po immediately said.
"Before the first quarter of the morning tomorrow, many vegetable vendors and fruit sellers will gather more than three meters away from the back door of our palace."
"At that time, you just need to bring a few of us with you, select the dishes, take the good ones and keep the bad ones. They will naturally sell the rest to other places, and we will only select the best ones here."
Qian Ruoyu nodded slightly. Needless to say, this was the prince's mansion after all, so they would definitely not choose inferior things.
But if I were to take Aunt Zhang and Grandma Wang out together, wouldn’t they know about the price when we negotiated it?
After thinking about this, Qian Ruoyu felt that it was not possible, but he did not say it directly. Instead, he continued to ask.
"Where's the meat?"
Aunt Zhang spoke.
"For meat, we need to go to the meat stall ourselves. After all, there are hundreds of people in our palace... It is obviously impossible to buy that much meat."
"Only the masters can eat meat. For us, just buying some fat is enough. It doesn't cost much money."
"For hundreds of people, we only need to buy about 100 kilograms of vegetables and 10 kilograms of fat. The rest is food for the masters, which is not much every day..."
After hearing what they said, Qian Ruoyu nodded slightly and had some idea in her mind.
This was Qian Ruoyu’s first time doing this, so naturally she needed to ask more questions about something like this, and she also wanted to know exactly how much money she could save from it.
After asking these questions, Qian Ruoyu nodded and said.
"Well, I understand. You two can go eat first."
The two of them then headed towards the dining table.
Qian Ruoyu also came to the big dining table at this time.
The big dining table was in another corner of the dining room. There were three long tables in total, with more than a dozen people sitting at each table.
This is where only people in the kitchen eat. People in other warehouses, as well as the housekeepers, have their own dining areas.
The entire palace was running in an orderly manner, but Qian Ruoyu knew that there might be some big loopholes hidden in this orderliness. For example, the kitchen could save several taels of silver every day.
Not to mention the warehouse and other places occupied by the housekeeper.
Qian Ruoyu took a look at the large tables. There were more than a dozen pots of different kinds of dishes on them, but they were almost all vegetables. The only thing that could be seen was a little bit of fat.
After the fat is squeezed out, the vegetables are naturally full of oil and taste good, but lack the meaty flavor.
But Qian Ruoyu could still occasionally see someone picking up a piece of fat and putting it into their mouth, and then licking their tongue in enjoyment after eating it.