12 Starting price
◎ Fifty taels won’t do, eighty taels is enough! ◎
As soon as the voice fell, everyone looked at each other tentatively, "Did you do it?" Chun Sanniang coughed lightly at the right time. Everyone turned around and saw that it was Chun Sanniang. Everyone had a look of understanding.
If it were Chun Sanniang, there would be no objection to this result.
When Chun Sanniang saw everyone's eyes looking at her, she stood up slowly, held her head high and chest out, looking as if the outcome had been decided.
She twisted her waist, glanced at Song Jinyi, rolled her eyes fiercely, and walked to the maid who delivered the message. She smiled and said, "I did it."
The maid replied, "So it was made by you, Sanniang. Madam really likes this meal and praises your extraordinary cooking skills and painstaking efforts. You even perfectly reproduced the delicacies from the ancient books. You are worthy of being Zui Liuxia's most famous master..."
The more Chun Sanniang listened, the happier she became, with the corners of her mouth almost raised to the sky. "But..." As the maid said the transition, Chun Sanniang's smile froze on her face.
Just what?
"It's just that the other dish is liked by the young lady, and the lady thinks it is even better."
Chun Sanniang asked in disbelief, "Kids usually love sour plum lotus roots. How could they not like them?"
"Miss Ou did eat several slices and praised the sweet and sour taste, which was appetizing and spleen-strengthening. She hesitated for a long time between the two dishes, but she finally chose the other one."
Chun Sanniang turned her head in dissatisfaction, glaring at the chef behind her. She didn't believe anyone present could be more capable than her. She raised her voice slightly and asked, "Who is it?"
Everyone in the hall was extremely curious, their eyes fixed on the maid, waiting for an answer. Who could have stolen the limelight from Chun Sanniang?
Song Jinyi also stared at the maid curiously. She met her gaze and found that the maid's eyes fell on her without hesitation.
"Is that tortoise jelly made by this lady?"
"It's me." Song Jinyi stood up. She saw Chun Sanniang standing in front of her staring at her with sharp eyes. She also felt the eyes of the other people in the hall were all on her.
She found it difficult to bear the spotlight.
The maidservant said, "The young lady ate all the tortoise jelly you made. She said she grew up with her grandmother and knew how much she loved it. She thought the old lady would like your cooking. The lady will invite you over to discuss the banquet."
The maid waved her hand, signaling Song Jinyi to follow her. They walked around half of the garden, passed through a moon-shaped gate, and arrived at Qingfengju where the eldest lady lived.
The wooden door of the main room was tightly closed. The maid led her to the side room next door. There was a scented gauze curtain hanging at the door. When she lifted the curtain, she could smell a rich tea fragrance.
There are many elm shelves in the room, on which are placed various kinds of precious tea. On the right side of the room there is a round table with twenty-four tea utensils for brewing tea.
A long dragon of green plants is placed along the edge of the ground, tall, short, dense, and sparse, decorating the house into a natural environment.
What an elegant tea room.
She walked in and found an ivory carved bird screen bed behind a wooden frame, surrounded by a bead curtain.
The eldest lady was leaning on the bed. To her left was a cloud-patterned rosewood tea table filled with Dingzhou red porcelain tea sets. The most eye-catching item was a milky white porcelain bowl, which was out of place with the tea set.
Song Jinyi took a glance at it and based on the leftover soup and rice in the bowl, she could infer that it was the tortoise jelly she made.
She sat on the mahogany chair to the left of the eldest lady. The maid serving her brought her the brewed tea. She took it and drank it in one gulp without hesitation.
Although she drank it in one gulp, the tea aroma that remained on her tongue still surprised her. The tea soup was strong and rich in aroma, which made her mouth water and the fragrance lasted for a long time.
She smacked her lips. The tea was so fragrant. She remembered what Xu Ruolan had said: only the rich or the noble could get the best tea supply.
As she thought about it, she looked up at the eldest lady. The eldest lady seemed to feel her gaze, and she also raised her eyelids and looked at her.
The maid beside her saw that the tea in her cup was finished, so she poured her another cup.
"May I know your name?" the eldest lady asked slowly.
Song Jinyi opened her lips slightly, her eyes darting around, and she said softly, "My surname is Song, and my name is Jinyi."
The eldest lady chuckled and said, "It's Madam Song." She tapped the white porcelain bowl with her slender fingertips and said, "I thought Madam Song's dessert was delicious, so she shared a small bowl with me. It's really delicious."
"Thank you, ma'am, for your appreciation."
The eldest lady chatted with her for a few words and then got down to business. "The old lady in the family is about to celebrate her birthday. Due to her age, her appetite has decreased. She said she is tired of eating the chefs in Beijing, so she wants to eat some fresh food outside.
As the younger generation, we will do our best to meet the requirements of our elders. We want to select the best chef in Yunzhou to prepare the banquet. After a small test today, it seems that Madam Song is the person we are looking for.
I wonder what Madam Song thinks?"
This is to ask her if she wants to go to Shengjing.
That was a bounty of one thousand taels, only a fool wouldn't want to go. Song Jinyi immediately replied to the lady and said that she was willing to serve and go to Shengjing for the birthday banquet.
The old lady then told Song Jinyi which foods she should avoid eating, and informed her of the departure date - two months later, she would set off for Shengjing.
After she had explained everything one by one, she said she was tired and asked someone to take her away. Her personal maid gave her thirty taels of silver according to her master's wishes.
******
On the third day of the appointment with the human trafficker, Song Jinyi said goodbye to the waiter, returned to her room early, and took out her "little treasury".
Song Jinyi poured all the silver and copper coins onto the bed and counted them again and again, hoping that a miracle would happen and that more money would appear as she counted.
She stared at the silver in front of her for a long time, but she was helpless.
She sighed deeply and took out the bag she had taken with her when she ran away from home. There was a layer inside the package. She used scissors to pick apart the tight seams and took out the gold hairpin inside.
When she left that day, she took the only two gold hairpins in her dressing table. She definitely didn't want to pawn them, but now she really had no choice.
pawnshop.
Song Jinyi stood on tiptoe and tilted her neck back, wishing she could stretch her neck like a giraffe.
The counter of the pawnshop was really high, half a body taller than her. No matter how hard she tried, she could only see the shopkeeper's double chin shaking.
She asked, "Boss, are you ready?"
The shopkeeper slowly shifted his gaze from the hairpin in his hand, lowered his head, and sized up Song Jinyi with a pair of shrewd eyes. "What's the price you'd like, young lady?"
Song Jinyi knew that the shopkeeper would definitely ask for a discount, so she raised the price and said, "Twenty taels!"
“…”
Seeing that the shopkeeper didn't say anything for a long time, Song Jinyi thought that the price she offered was too high.
"good."
Song Jinyi took the twenty taels in a daze, and after coming out, she was still wondering if she had reported too low a price.
After she left, the waiter behind the counter asked the shopkeeper in confusion, "Although her hairpin is nice, pawning items like this basically requires half the price. And you usually bargain three or four times, but today you let her bid?"
"What do you know? This hairpin may be small in weight, but it's finely crafted. It was custom-made by a veteran craftsman.
Although the woman was dressed simply, she was very generous. It reminded me that the Song family is looking for someone recently. You can send this to the Song family as a gift from me to Madam Song.
******
Song Jinyi accidentally entered the alley that day, and today she wandered around for a long time before finding the place.
The twilight had become blurred, the shadows were swallowed by the darkness, the deep blue twilight gradually pressed down, and the sparsely populated alley became a bit more eerie.
The sound of "ta-da--" footsteps came from far away.
The trafficker said impatiently, "You're too late. Fifty taels won't do. You have to pay eighty taels!"
Regardless of the fact that she hated asking for a high price in this life and her previous one, Song Jinyi angrily said, "Then I won't sell it." After that, she looked at the blond boy coldly and said silently, "At worst, we can die together."
Song Jinyi turned around and was about to leave.
"Wait, wait--" the young man suddenly spoke, his voice hoarse. It seemed that he had offended a human trafficker that day, and he had not had a good life in the past three days.
Song Jinyi wanted to leave cruelly, but when she heard the boy's hoarse voice, her heart trembled.
She gritted her teeth and stopped where she was, cursing inwardly, "Song Jinyi, Song Jinyi, are you really blinded by beauty? You have no money but you are still soft-hearted."
Although Song Jinyi did not leave immediately, she did not intend to discuss the matter.
The young man stared at the trafficker with cold eyes and asked, "If the goods are good, the price is high. If they are bad, the price can't be high, right?"
Neither Song Jinyi nor the human trafficker understood what he meant.
The next second, he smiled brightly at Song Jinyi, picked up a sharp weapon that he had hidden for who knows how long, and stabbed it into his neck.
【Author’s words】
Rolling around like a spoiled child, asking for collection.
All the recipes mentioned in this article are from the Internet
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