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There was a little oil left in the pot, and Du Heng turned the flame to a low heat. When the pot slowly heated up, he pushed the minced meat into the pot. With a sizzling sound, a puff of oil smoke came out of the pot.
At first, the smoke was not too big, but as the minced meat was fried and changed color, and he added a little cooking wine, the kitchen was filled with smoke. Xiaoxiao could no longer squat on the stove, so he jumped off the stove and protested to the wontons.
Du Heng added a little chili sauce to the pot, and the pungent smell made him sneeze. Du Heng also tried to use his spiritual energy to disperse the smoke outside, but his kitchen could not be directly connected to the outside, so it was still very uncomfortable.
At this time, there was a buzzing sound from the formation in the kitchen, and the choking fumes disappeared instantly. Du Heng felt that his nose was saved, and he looked up at the sky above the kitchen with a shovel in his hand.
Then he lowered his head and asked Xiao Wonton in a low voice: "Xiao Yu, is that you?"
The moment the formation was activated, he felt as if he was hugged by Xiaoyu. That feeling of security lingered around him and could not be dispelled, so he asked this question.
Little Wonton looked at Du Heng innocently, and his big tail shook in the wind. It seemed that Xiaoyu was not there. Xiaoyu said that only when he was in danger, his soul could sense it.
After the minced meat was cooked, Du Heng pushed the steamed eggplant into the pot and stir-fried them together. After stir-frying for a while, he used his ultimate weapon - the sauce.
The sauce Du Heng prepared was always delicious. Even if it was only oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar, it was still tasty. For example, the sauce in his hand was made with two spoons of soy sauce, one spoon of vinegar, one spoon of sugar and one spoon of salt. The minced meat and eggplant tasted good. Of course, he also added a spoon of starch and a proper amount of water to mix it up, so that it could be coated with a layer of starch.
This time he made more eggplants, so the amount of sauce increased accordingly. When he poured the sauce into the pot, the minced meat and eggplant in the pot turned into a nice sauce color. The dark eggplant seeds inside the eggplant could not be seen. Du Heng was very satisfied, but unfortunately he only brought some sauces and white wine, white vinegar and other condiments that he made himself. He did have onions, ginger and garlic, but the onions had not yet grown.
What Du Heng didn't know was that not long after he poured the sauce into the pot, the swords of the monks who were practicing swords in the palace next door...became a little strange. They became crooked, and some even flew towards the dining hall unconsciously.
Du Heng put the prepared eggplants on a large plate specially used for serving dishes in the cafeteria. The plate was filled with the greasy eggplants with minced meat.
Xiaoxiao felt hungry after smelling the smell. However, starting from today, Du Heng could not feed Xiaoxiao casually. He took a small bowl for Xiaoxiao and scooped out a bowl of minced meat and eggplant: "This is for us, Xiaoxiao."
Xiaoxiao looked at the eggplant in the bowl and squinted her eyes: "Swish~" Look, Du Heng still loves him!
The next thing to do was to stir-fry the cabbage stems with vinegar. Du Heng peeled off the cabbage leaves one by one after the stalks were left. After the veins on the edges were trimmed, the bare stems were left. After Du Heng changed the knife and cut them into thin oblique slices, they no longer looked as terrible as they did at the beginning.
After the oil in the pan was hot, he pushed in the garlic slices and chili rings. This is a quick dish, so the fire must be high. After the garlic slices were sautéed, he pushed the clean, white and tender vegetable stems in the colander into the pan. After a few stir-fries, he poured in the sauce.
That’s right, the recipe for the sauce is still the recipe for minced meat and eggplant sauce. Sometimes Du Heng wants to be lazy, and no one can stop him!
After stir-frying for a few times, a dish of sweet and sour and appetizing pickled cabbage is ready!
Du Heng had just put the vegetable stems into a large bowl when a guest came to the canteen. The visitor was a handsome young man with a pair of passionate peach blossom eyes, who gave people a feeling of spring breeze at first glance.
Following behind him was the sword boy whose sword was longer than him that Du Heng had just seen. The little sword boy looked delicate and well-behaved, but he walked in a very formal manner.
Seeing the two people, Du Heng smiled: "It's not ready yet! Can you two sit aside and wait for a while?"
The young man was not afraid of strangers. He jumped from the serving table to the opposite side of Du Heng.
Du Heng smiled and looked at the boy and explained, "Please wait a little longer. The food is not ready yet."
The boy looked towards the kitchen curiously, and his eyes stopped when he fell on Xiaoxiao and Wonton. Du Heng was embarrassed, he touched Xiaoxiao's head and explained: "This... is Xiaoxiao, my family. He loves cleanliness, not dirty at all, and he won't steal food."
The boy nodded: "Oh, I know. You must love your pets very much. They are all fat and healthy with shiny fur. Only pets that are loved will have such fur." The boy's voice was a little hoarse. The young boy actually had a duck voice like an uncle.
Du Heng was peeling radishes with a smile on his face. "Well, I'll let them pay attention. Today is their first day here, and they think they're still at home. I won't let them in when I'm cooking in the future."
Xiaoxiao chirped twice in protest, and the boy said with a smile: "Your Xiaoxiao is not happy." Xiaoxiao was not happy. He loved cleanliness so much, why not let him into the kitchen? This is discrimination!
He looked at the two large plates Du Heng placed on the window: "What did you make?" Du Heng said while washing the radish: "Minced meat eggplant and pickled cabbage, and a radish and pork ribs soup will be ready."
The boy looked at the radish in Du Heng's hand and said, "This radish is no longer tasty. The core is all white."
Du Heng smiled awkwardly: "Well, but I'll do something about it." After Du Heng cut the radish in half, he cut it again. He used the knife to cut off the radish heart in the middle and threw it into the waste bin. The rest of the radish was moist.
He cut the radish into thin slices, then opened the lid and poured the slices into the pot. There was a lot of soup in the pot, and Du Heng could only rely on the ribs to get a little flavor. It was impossible to drink soup and eat meat like at home.
The boy leaned lazily next to the food plate: "What's your name?"
Du Heng smiled and said, "My name is Du Heng. I haven't introduced myself yet. It's my first day at work today. Please take care of me."
The young man nodded: "My last name is Jiang, Jiang Shangzhou. The guy here is Ye Wenqiu."
Du Heng looked in the direction Jiang Shangzhou pointed, but he saw nothing. When he walked in, he found that the little sword boy with a sword longer than him was standing next to Jiang Shangzhou. It was just that the table was too high, blocking the little cutie.
Du Heng waved with a smile: "Hi, hello." Ye Wenqiu nodded in a condescending manner, and looked at Du Heng with dark eyes full of inquiry.
Children are so cute. He thinks that if his Xiaoxiao also transforms, he will definitely become such a cute child.
At this time, the spiritual rice in the pot was cooked. Du Heng took out a wooden barrel and transferred all the rice in the pot into the barrel.
Jiang Shangzhou said, "Can I help you carry the dishes to the serving table?"
Du Heng smiled and said, "No need, I can do it!" He came here to work, and he had to do his job well first before doing other things. Serving dishes was a small matter, he could do it alone, so why would he bother the guests for help?
Jiang Shangzhou just watched Du Heng busying around. Whenever Du Heng took a trip, Xiaoxiao and the others would follow him. Jiang Shangzhou smiled: "Du Heng, you are so interesting. Your spirit pet is also so interesting."
Du Heng was placing the clean dishes next to the rice bowl: "They are used to following me. By the way, you and Ye Wenqiu can eat now!"
The radish was sliced very thin and only took a cup of tea to cook. Soon, two dishes and a soup appeared on the serving table. Although there were not many dishes, each one smelled and tasted good.
Du Heng stood behind the serving table, his sleeves rolled up to tie up his long hair, holding a rice spoon in one hand and a bowl in the other: "How much do you want to eat?"
Ye Wenqiu spoke before Jiang Shangzhou. The serious little sword boy bowed and said, "One, one bowl."
So cute, Du Heng was so cute that his face was bleeding! So the biased Du Heng put two pieces of ribs in Ye Wenqiu's bowl. Children need to eat more. Only when they are full can they grow strong.
At this time, Xiaoxiao flew over with his wings flapping. He held a wooden sign in his mouth. The sign was two feet long and wide. It read: Today's Recipe: Minced Pork, Eggplant, Vinegar, Cabbage, Radish and Pork Rib Soup
There is a line of words below: Welcome everyone to come to Yicantang for a taste.
Jiang Shangzhou was surprised when he saw it. He looked Du Heng up and down and said, "Your handwriting is very good." Du Heng's old face turned red. This was not written by him.
Du Heng held Xiaoxiao in one hand and held the wooden sign in the other. He walked outside the dining hall and after some observation, he hung the wooden sign next to the door of the dining hall.
After the wooden sign was hung up, Du Heng heard the sound of clapping. He turned around and saw several sword cultivators appearing behind him: "Great words!" "What a lovely pet." "He must be so rich to have two such great pets."
Du Heng didn't want to explain. He put on his signature smile and said, "Want to have dinner? Welcome! I'm the new chef, Du Heng."
The dining hall was opened like this. Du Heng originally thought that there would be only a dozen people dining here, but...what happened to the extra people later? There must be more than 30 people here, right?
Du Heng's head almost dropped to the ground. "I'm sorry, there's no meat left. We only have braised eggplant and pickled cabbage. How about I make some pickled cucumbers for everyone?"
After a while, Du Heng came out to apologize again: "I'm sorry... I'm sorry... We're out of rice and vegetables..."
The diners were tolerant: "It's okay, it's okay. We weren't really hungry anyway. We just came to see you."
Du Heng, holding the rice bowl: ... He didn't believe it. Could it be that his two bowls and one bucket of rice were eaten by the dog?
The monks who were unable to taste the food prepared by Du Heng could only listen to the description of the taste by the monks who had eaten it.
"Are you late? Let me tell you, that minced meat eggplant is absolutely amazing, fragrant and soft, sour, sweet and smooth. I have never thought that spiritual rice is delicious, but with this dish, I ate three bowls."
"No wonder there was no food when we came. You ate it all, right? How could you be so greedy? We have been fasting for decades. Couldn't you leave us a bite?"
"And the pickled cabbage is sour, crispy and refreshing. I didn't know vegetarian dishes could be so delicious."
"Yes, I didn't know that I could miss old cucumbers so much."
"Hasn't anyone mentioned pork rib soup? This is the first time I've had such a delicious soup. I heard it's made with shredded radish. The taste is so great. With this, why would I need to eat fasting pills?"
The monks who didn't get to eat were already asking Du Heng what to eat in the evening. Du Heng was a little embarrassed: "I want to see what dishes they give me. Whatever the sect gives us, we will eat it, okay?"
At this time, little Wonton came over and raised his paw to pat Du Heng's leg. Du Heng quickly understood what Wonton meant. It wanted Du Heng to follow it.
Du Heng said to the monks, "Excuse me for a moment." Then he followed Wonton to the kitchen.
The monks became curious, and their spiritual sense followed Du Heng, wanting to see what this handsome cook was doing when the dog called him.
Wonton stopped in front of the door behind the kitchen, and Du Heng heard the voices of Ciba and the others. Ciba and the others had caught the mice and were about to come out.
Du Heng opened the door and saw Niannian Suisui and the others strolling out. The three little ones were all covered in dirt. Du Heng quickly took out a handkerchief to wipe their faces: "Why are you so dirty? Come on, wipe it off."
Ciba and the others proudly led Du Heng to the door. When the door opened, Du Heng was stunned. He saw a mountain of rats! There were at least hundreds of rats, big and small, piled together.
Ciba and the others are standing proudly on Rat Mountain. Look, this is the kingdom they have built for Du Heng!
253
The new cook in the dining hall had three good qualities: handsome, lively, and good at cooking. He also had five lovely pets, who were well-behaved, sensible, and obedient. This attracted all the monks from the animal training garden next door to come and watch, especially his cat and two chickens, who became famous in Shenxiu Peak for catching mice.
That was a small mountain of mice, but they were killed by three small spirit pets working together? You have to know that the mice on Shenxiu Peak are not ordinary mice, they have some spirit mouse bloodline.
A long time ago, someone in Shenxu Palace raised a few spirit rats, but later the spirit rats escaped from prison. Since then, the rats around Shenxu Palace have become very large. They are agile and specialize in eating spirit plants. I don't know how many good things in Shenxu Palace have been destroyed by rats.
If the monks do not put the elixirs and internal skills they secretly hide in storage bags, they are likely to be eaten by rats when they take them out.
Ciba never dreamed that it would be known by other cultivators in Shenxu Palace before Du Heng, and Ciba was so scared that his face became even rounder.
Du Heng had originally planned to cook dinner that night, but he was later told that Shenxu Palace only delivered food once a day, and no more food would be served after the deadline. That night, not only did the monks not get to eat, but even Du Heng was hungry.
There was no need to cook dinner, and there was no dinner to eat. Du Hengsheng sat in the yard in a daze, caressing Xiaoxiao's fur casually: "I don't know if Xiaoyu and the others have eaten dinner yet."
He didn't feel it when he was busy, but when he was free, he missed Xuan Yu and the others. However, the next day off would have to wait until eight days later, and Du Heng felt what it meant to spend a day like a year.
Just as Du Heng was sighing, a pink flower fluttered in front of him. Du Heng looked at it in confusion, and he reached out to pick up the flower. It was a flower of unknown material. Just as Du Heng picked it up and looked at it carefully, the flower broke, and countless pink flowers bloomed in front of Du Heng's eyes.
These small flowers were spinning around him, and when Du Heng reached out to touch them, the flowers would turn into pink aura and dissipate.
Du Heng laughed: "What is this? Very interesting. Xiaoxiao, do you know what this is?"
Xiaoxiao chirped a few words, but Du Heng didn't understand. He looked at the flowers still spinning in front of him and said, "It would be great if Xiaoyu and the others could see it too."
The ground of the courtyard was lower than that of the palace next door, and when he looked up, he could see the winding corridor of the palace next door. However, due to the magic, he could not see the situation above the corridor clearly.
Du Heng thought that this might be some kind of magic trick of the monks in the corridor, which allowed him to feel the beauty of Shenxu Palace in this courtyard. It was quite good.
Du Heng stayed in the courtyard for a while before returning to his room. He had to get up early tomorrow to get the vegetables. He didn't know where the meditation platform was yet, so he had to spend some time trying to figure it out.
The more he thought about going to bed early, the more he couldn't fall asleep. Holding Xiaoxiao in his arms, Du Heng always felt a little empty behind him.
Because Xuan Yu is not here.
To put it in a pretentious way: The first day Xuan Yu was away, I missed him.
This was not the first time Du Heng had been separated from Xuan Yu. Previously, in the village, Xuan Yu was called away by the fox tribe, and he lost his appetite. But this time, the feeling was even stronger than the last time.
The last time he was in the village, he was worried about Jing Nan who was about to grow a tail and the monster that might rush across the river at any time. This time was different, he really missed Xuan Yu.
Xuan Yu is like the salt he uses when cooking. Once he leaves, everything tastes wrong. Du Heng turned over. Xiao Xiao, the heartless girl, was snoring in her sleep. Du Heng sighed with melancholy. In the moonlight outside the window, he looked at the wontons and rice cakes on the ground.
"Xiaoyu." Du Heng called softly, "I can't sleep." If it were usual, Xuan Yu would definitely follow up with a question: "What's wrong?"
Today he didn't hear Xuan Yu's answer, he got a lick from Xiao Wonton. Du Heng touched Wonton's head: "Be good, go to sleep."
With thoughts of Xuan Yu, Du Heng fell asleep. Not long after Du Heng fell asleep, a figure appeared beside his bed.
Xuan Yu tucked Du Heng's back and sat down on the bed. Looking at Du Heng's eyes, he wanted to reach out and touch him. But he thought of something and retracted his hand. If Du Heng was awake at this time, he would find Xuan Yu's figure as blurry as smoke.
In his dream, Du Heng felt that he was hugged by Xuan Yu. Smelling Xuan Yu's scent, Du Heng slept very soundly.
Du Heng woke up at the end of the Yin hour the next day. He rarely woke up so early, and usually slept until the middle of the Mao hour when he was at home. This was mainly because he was not familiar with Shenxiu Peak and did not know the location of the Jingxin Terrace.
Chef Zhu told him to go to Jingxintai to get the dishes at 12:00 a.m., so if he goes half an hour earlier, there shouldn't be any problem, right?
Xiaoxiao was still half asleep. When he felt Du Heng getting up, he squinted his eyes and crawled out of the bed. Seeing him lying on the bed in a daze, Du Heng rubbed him with a distressed look, "Go back to sleep."
Don’t let the child feel wronged so early in the morning. Just let him go to the meditation platform by himself. I guess Xiaoxiao will be awake by the time he comes back.
But Xiaoxiao opened his eyes bravely after hearing this, and he jumped to the ground: "Chirp." After waking up, he wanted to follow Du Heng to go down the mountain to get vegetables.
It was still dark at this time. Du Heng was carrying a backpack on his back. He put Xiaoxiao in the backpack: "You can take a nap on the road. It's okay." With wonton in front of him and Xiaoxiao behind him, he did not feel scared at all walking on the mountain path.
As soon as he left the dining hall, Du Heng saw the brightly lit palace next door. The sword cultivators practiced day and night, and there were sword boys swinging swords in the square so early. Du Heng closed the door of the dining hall and walked down the mountain along the steps. When he passed the palace, he looked up in the direction of the palace. I didn't have time to take a closer look yesterday, but today I found that there was a big stone in the square outside the palace, with three big characters engraved on the stone: training ground.
Wonton ran in front of Du Heng, always keeping a distance of ten feet in front of Du Heng, and when Du Heng stopped, it would also stop. With Wonton by his side, Du Heng felt much more at ease.
There were not many people on the mountain road at this time. Du Heng stepped lightly and his figure suddenly rushed out. In a few breaths, he surpassed Wonton: "Come on, Wonton, run!" Wonton called out, and two afterimages appeared on the mountain road. After a while, Du Heng saw the second dining hall.
The second dining hall was already open, and several servants were cleaning in front of the dining hall. Du Heng stopped and asked one of the servants, "Excuse me, has Chef Zhu sent someone to get the food? I'm a servant in the first dining hall. Shall we go get the food together?"
The servant who was being questioned looked up at Du Heng indifferently. He waved his hand impatiently: "I don't know, I'm just a sweeper."
Du Heng touched his nose. Just as he was thinking about whether to go in and ask, a servant who delivered food yesterday came out and said, "Hey? Aren't you from the First Canteen? Are you going to get food so early? You'll have to wait if you go too early. Why don't you wait here for a while? I'll go get the food later. Let's go together."
Du Heng smiled and cupped his hands: "Okay, thank you very much."
The servant in charge of fetching food in the Second Canteen was named Cai. He brought five people down the mountain with him. When he heard that Du Heng had already used up all the food he sent yesterday, he exclaimed, "Don't waste so much food. Even though you are from the First Canteen, they are merciless to new cooks. If they catch you wasting food, they will punish you."
Du Heng smiled and said nothing. He felt that he didn't waste any food. It was just that there were too many people eating.
Xiao Cai looked at Xiao Wonton and Xiao Xiao with envy, and said enviously: "You can actually bring your pets with you, that's great. But I want to remind you, you have to keep an eye on them. The inner disciples are fine, but those outer disciples are bad. You are a fat dog, be careful not to be harmed by them."
Du Heng raised his eyebrows: "Not really? This is Shenxu Palace."
Xiao Cai laughed and said, "There are good people and bad people in Shenxu Palace. I used to raise a cat in the dining hall to catch mice. I raised it with great difficulty, but guess what, they left me a piece of cat skin. Hey, I was so angry."
Du Heng was surprised and asked, "How could this happen? Is there not enough food in the cafeteria?"
Xiao Cai said disdainfully, "How can there not be enough food? Our Second Dining Hall has to carry two barrels of food waste to the Animal Garden every day. They just think the food in the dining hall is not to their liking. They even dare to steal the sect's spiritual beasts, not to mention the spiritual pets that are not registered. But the steward only bought this kind of food, and there is nothing we can do."
Du Heng said gratefully with lingering fear: "Thank you, thank you. I will pay attention when I go back." It seems that he can't let Xiaoxiao and the others run around. If they are really targeted by someone with ulterior motives, he won't even have time to cry.
Xiao Cai and his companions were a little slow, and when they reached the foot of Shenxiu Palace, it was already bright. However, they had not yet reached the Jingxin Terrace. Du Heng looked around and saw only the undulating mountains, but no platform.
So he asked curiously, "Xiao Cai, where is the meditation platform? Why can't I see it?"
Xiao Cai said, "Hey, I can tell you're new here. Jingxintai is the name of the northern berth of Shenxiu Palace. Shenxu Palace has four berths, located in the east, south, west and north. The southern berth is used to park the flying boats of distinguished guests, the eastern and western berths are used to park the flying boats of the inner sect disciples and outer sect disciples on missions, and the northern berth is for us servants. The sect manager buys the food from outside the mountain gate and distributes it to everyone at Jingxintai."
Du Heng asked doubtfully, "Such a large sect, doesn't it have places to grow vegetables and raise animals? Do we have to go out and buy them?"
Xiao Cai smiled and said, "Who will grow vegetables? Cultivators above the Foundation Establishment stage can take the Qigong Pill and no longer need to eat. The only ones who need to eat are the Qi Refining disciples and the outer sect servants. The sect would be crazy to waste the Spirit Gathering Array to grow vegetables. Wouldn't it be better to use it to grow spiritual plants?"
Du Heng looked up at the surrounding mountains. Perhaps he was short-sighted, and he thought that these were just ordinary mountains, and not all the plants on the mountains were spiritual plants. Some mountains even had weeds growing on them. Wouldn't it be better to let the servants grow fruits and vegetables on two or three hills instead of buying them?
Xiao Cai said, "I know what you're thinking. At first I thought Shenxu Palace was crazy. It would be great if they could just open up a few hills and grow some vegetables. But later I realized that this is the Sword Sect, and it's too difficult to grow fruits and vegetables here. What's that? The five elements are mutually reinforcing and mutually restraining. The Sword Sect's gold spirit is too strong, which restrains wood. You can see that there are many hilltops where even trees don't grow. This is the reason. I heard from Chef Zhu that instead of spending a lot of manpower and resources to grow vegetables for low-level disciples and outer sect servants, it's better to go out and buy them."
Du Heng nodded in understanding. So that's it.
Walking north along the path at the foot of Shenxiu Palace, and after crossing two more mountains, Du Heng finally saw the legendary Jingxin Terrace. Surrounded by mountains, there lay a beautiful lake, with several flying boats parked on the north bank of the lake, and servants were carrying things down beside the flying boats.
The sect's servants are usually ordinary people without any cultivation. They cannot use the monks' storage bags and various methods. After purchasing things, they can only rely on physical strength to transport them.
However, the monks who can use magic often disdain to help them. For example, the steward standing beside them counting with spirit tablets in his hand, could obviously put the spirit rice there with just a raise of his hand, but he chose to stand there and watch others put it there.
When Du Heng and his companions arrived at the north bank, there was not much left. The steward pointed to ten baskets of vegetables on the ground and said to Xiao Cai, "Here are today's rations for the Second Dining Hall of Shenxiu Peak."
Du Heng saw that the types of vegetables in the basket were similar to those Xiao Cai and his friends had given him yesterday, and some of the vegetables were even wilted. It turned out that Chef Zhu and his friends were not targeting him yesterday, but that the vegetables bought from Shenxu Palace were like this.
He couldn't help but look at the baskets behind the steward. Those baskets were filled with chicken, duck, fish, and even vegetables, which were fresher than the ones in front of Xiao Cai.
What does that mean? Differential treatment?
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