After finishing the task assigned to him by his master, Fu Lu quickly returned to the front yard.
He first spoke to his master, who was still confused and felt strange.
"Master, could it be that Master Li thought the young master's injuries weren't serious, and that's why he specially ordered the kitchen to prepare these for the fourth master?"
Su Peisheng, holding the discarded teacup, expressionlessly tapped Fulu on the head with the tray: "What did I ask you to do?"
"What does Master Li eat for breakfast and lunch?" Fu Lu covered his head, but still answered honestly.
Su Peisheng snorted and asked again, "Whose orders do I take from your master?"
Fu Lu was still a little dizzy. His master must have been acting on the orders of the Fourth Master, but the Fourth Master couldn't go to the East Courtyard right now.
Su Peisheng shoved the tray into Fu Lu's arms. His foolish apprentice's only redeeming quality was his upright character; he wasn't afraid Fu Lu would make a mistake.
He shook his head, turned around, and went into the inner room to report.
The master is still waiting.
Su Peisheng explained exactly what his foolish apprentice had told him: what would be served for breakfast and lunch in the East Courtyard that day.
Master Li eats foods that are nourishing and warming to the stomach, but pork knuckle is too oily, so I'm afraid that won't do.
Sure enough, the Fourth Prince quickly instructed after hearing this: "Tell the kitchen to prepare it accordingly. As for the foods that the imperial physician said to avoid, that's fine. As for the others, just have the kitchen prepare them as they see fit."
The two or three dishes that Li ordered were naturally not enough. Fourth Master was very frugal; there were always eight or sixteen dishes in the front yard.
Sometimes, the dishes that didn't suit their taste were given to the servants in the front yard.
Su Peisheng quickly agreed, and it turned out to be pretty much what he had guessed.
He went to the kitchen to give instructions, and when he came out, he saw his foolish apprentice looking at something outside. He went over to him.
"I'm giving you a task, kid. Get it done in the next few days."
When the kitchen prepared the meal, the Fourth Prince didn't say much, but Su Peisheng, who was serving him, saw it clearly.
Yesterday, the Fourth Prince prepared so much food in the Imperial Kitchen, but I didn't see my master touch a single bite.
In the end, it was Master Li who ordered the food that suited Master's taste; it really hit the spot for Master.
Didn't you see that the master ate half a bowl more than usual today?
After the Fourth Prince finished his meal, Su Peisheng held the prepared medicine and watched as the maids and servants methodically cleared away the food. He then glanced at the dish of hawthorn cake that the Fujin had brought first.
Except for the fact that the master touched a piece when it was presented, the hawthorn cake on the plate looks exactly the same as it did before.
Su Peisheng lowered his eyes, pretending not to see.
The Fourth Prince spent more than half a month recuperating, while the Crown Prince in the palace took even longer.
It takes a hundred days to recover from a broken bone. Although neither the Crown Prince nor the Fourth Prince had suffered a serious injury, His Majesty inquired about their condition every day, so the imperial physicians naturally dared not neglect their duties.
The entire month of March was very quiet in the manor. The Fujin (principal wife) claimed that she wanted to pray for the Fourth Prince, so she closed the main courtyard and observed a vegetarian diet for half a month.
This saves Li Chenjiao the trouble of going to the main courtyard to pay her respects, doesn't it?
She's had some free time lately, so besides playing with the little girl, she's been learning massage techniques from Granny Lin, which has left her covered in medicine.
For more than half a month, Li Chenjiao's East Courtyard kept changing the way she ate. When spring came, the estate sent a lot of things, and Li Chenjiao benefited from this and ate a lot of fruit.
She had eaten fish twice. Last time she had crucian carp and tofu soup and thought it tasted good, so she asked Chef Guo from the kitchen to make it again. Later she ordered pickled fish, but the Fourth Master couldn't use it for a while.
However, the Fourth Master seemed to like the crucian carp and tofu soup, and ordered it twice during the two weeks he was ill.
However, perhaps because the food prepared by the front kitchen did not suit the Fourth Prince's taste, he ordered the crucian carp and tofu soup to be made by the back kitchen one day.
Suddenly, the kitchen in the backyard became as lively as oil sizzling in a hot pan.
Crucian carp and tofu soup is not a difficult dish to make; even a pastry chef knows how to make it. Moreover, it was personally selected by the Fourth Prince, so it was naturally a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
The women in the inner quarters were vying for favor, and the cooks naturally wanted to win the masters' praise as well.
However, the Fourth Prince's meals were always entirely handled by the front kitchen, while the chefs in the back kitchen were powerless to provide them.
Given the rare opportunity, the masters naturally fought tooth and nail for it.
Finally, Su Peisheng spoke up: "No need to argue. The master has personally chosen, so this time Chef Guo will be in charge of cooking."
Master Guo was taken aback, but his apprentice Qi Xi reacted faster, bowing and smiling as he stepped forward to ask Su Peisheng whether he wanted it now or to be delivered to the front yard later.
Once Chef Guo had prepared the crucian carp and tofu soup, there was nothing he couldn't understand.
He's benefiting from the favor of the concubine in the East Courtyard.
The chefs in the kitchen are all highly skilled, but not every chef can be appreciated.
Master Guo was in charge of Li Cefujin's meals when she first entered the mansion as a princess, and that's how their relationship began.
Knowing he had benefited from the situation, and not being the kind of person who forgets kindness, he would naturally serve him even more attentively in the future.
On that day, the meals for the East Courtyard were personally delivered to the East Courtyard by Master Guo's apprentice, Qi Xi.
The two large food boxes were overflowing. In addition to the dishes that Li Chenjiao had ordered, two extra main dishes were added, all of which suited Li Chenjiao's taste.
This is what it means to return a favor.
Now it was easier for Li Chenjiao to order food.
Furthermore, the first crop of chives in early spring grows the best. Li Chenjiao didn't know this at first, but when Dongli came up to her with grass in his mouth to flatter her, she realized, "Oh, there are chives in their yard."
However, it wasn't planted by the maids; it was done by Granny Lin.
I heard it was given to me by the head maid of the sewing room when I went there. She was getting old and mostly liked to tend to these flowers and plants. However, since orchids and other precious plants were rare, she could only grow some easy-to-grow chives, which would also satisfy her hunger.
However, this stuff can only be eaten by servants when they are not on duty; otherwise, it would be unacceptable for them to serve their masters in front of them and let the masters smell it.
Li Chenjiao loves to eat, but she only eats strong-smelling foods like chives when the Fourth Prince is not at home or when he doesn't come to her East Courtyard like he does now.
Li Chenjiao was quite satisfied with eating it only once in a while.
Li Chenjiao didn't think anything of the fact that Granny Lin was planting vegetables in the backyard.
The Fourth Master on both sides wouldn't go to the back room either. He would plant some vegetables in the backyard so she could have extra meals on weekdays.
For the past two weeks, Li Chenjiao hadn't gone to the front courtyard. The Fujin (wife) in the back courtyard had indeed kept the doors closed, and only Song Shi (wife) was frequently seen running around there.
However, she still couldn't see the Fourth Master. After going a couple more times, she got bored and only sent her maid to check on him in the front yard every few days.
By the time March was over, Fourth Master had fully recovered.
The manor was thrown into turmoil again by another matter.
By the end of March and the beginning of April, the preliminary selection of the young ladies for the imperial concubine selection had been completed. By mid-April, new ladies would likely be arriving at the mansion.
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