Chapter 155 Chapter 155 Update.
The next day, Maocai went to the kitchen to get lunch. Ji Xu was not coming, so it was their turn to do it. The two of them took turns entering the house as before.
It was Maoming's turn to go in and deliver lunch. Today the kitchen had prepared sea bass stew and some side dishes. Maoming placed the food on the table with his hands and feet, and saw a pair of shoes under the table.
The devil had eaten a few bites of breakfast in the morning and must have just gone to bed. I didn't dare to disturb him and went out quietly.
Around noon, someone was called in to serve him. Maocai and Maoming brought in hot water and wiped his body. The devil was still the same as before, reading under the lamp and not eating a single bite of his lunch.
When dinner was served, he took a look at the sea bass soup for lunch and ordered:
"Pour these out."
After he was settled, Maocai and Maoming came to eat, and heated it up under the stove, but they all said:
"It's not as good as what Miss Yijin makes. It's a pity that the young master doesn't eat her food. He doesn't know how good her cooking is. We won't be able to enjoy it in the future."
A day later, it was Maocai's turn to deliver the meal. He was also very careful and cautious. He put down the food and left. He waited outside. At noon, the devil attacked again.
He had lit a lamp, found a book, and was still serving in the same manner, but he cursed:
"She's dead, and you're dead too. Can't you see that the red plum blossoms have already withered? Why don't you replace them?"
The two brothers Maocai and Maoming also felt wronged. The room was often dark and it was not day for sweeping, so how could they know about the red plum blossoms? Now when they lit the lights, they indeed saw that the red plum blossoms in the porcelain vase had drooped, so Maoming hurriedly took them away.
Then I went to the Li family's garden, where they planted red plum blossoms. I finally found a few branches that were still in bloom at this time of year. I picked some, but he scolded me again:
"Why keep it open like this? The charcoal in the house is burning brightly, but it's all gone in less than a day. It's useless, it's better to just lie there!"
Maocai and Maoming were so depressed by his scolding that the next day, he lay outside with a drooping face, only to see Ji Xu coming.
Now that the days have turned warmer, the snow outside has gradually melted away. Ji Xu had already taken off his sheepskin coat and was only wearing a padded jacket and a cloth skirt. He dismounted and came to the courtyard with a box in his hand to ask if Maocai and Maoming were okay.
He also told us what he needed today and went to Maoming to prepare them.
Maocai exchanged a few words with her:
"That girl Hongmei really caused us so much trouble. He tormented us for half a day yesterday."
"It's my fault. When lunch is ready, I'll leave two bowls for you brothers. Drink it while it's hot. It will nourish you. After all, it tastes better than letting it cool down at night."
"Hey, we brothers all miss our daughter's cooking skills, but if he doesn't eat today, will she really not be able to come in the future?"
Mao Cai said that he heard it from the maidservant beside his wife.
"It's like this. Just eat it today and it's fine. If it's not good, I won't have to come again in the future."
After talking for a while, Ji Xu went to the kitchen to prepare today's lunch. She made the bull whip and mutton soup that she had tried before.
Along with a few side dishes, they were brought to Li Quanye's room in a serving box. Mao Cai, who was standing at the door, kindly said,
"Be careful, don't get hit by him when he gets angry."
The room was still pitch black. Ji Xu gently placed his things on the table. This was his last chance. He was hesitating about how to ask for food in the tent. After thinking about it, he decided to give it a try.
I only heard someone cursing inside:
"Have you taken mute medicine?"
When he lifted the curtain, there was no one in the room except a black cat with bright amber eyes. It turned around and jumped into his arms.
"Wutuan'er?"
Li Quanye hugged it and said that he had picked up a cat like this before. It was completely black and was named Wutuaner.
After he fell off his horse, Wu Tuan'er kept him company to cheer him up, but within two months, he fell ill and died.
"You are not Wu Tuaner."
He picked up his Wutuaner while hunting outside the Great Wall. He didn't know whether it was bitten by an eagle or a wild dog. When he found it, its tail was only half gone and it didn't like to move much. The cat in front of him was obviously lively and active, and its tail was also healthy.
"This is my cat. I bought it from an old man who collects firewood for a living. His cat gave birth to kittens, and he put a litter of kittens on firewood to sell. He said it was a mouse-catching cat. The mother cat at home caught all the mice, so the kittens in this litter must be good mouse-catching cats as well.
I saw there was only one completely black, so I bought it and brought it home. It was just as the old man said, and there were no more mice in the house. I thought you had a cat before, so I brought it here to entertain you.
Ji Xu said.
The day before yesterday, I saw Li Fuye holding a cat named Wutuaner at home, so I asked about it. I heard about the cat Wutuaner raised by his brother, so I brought it here.
She was also worried that Li Quanye would hit or smash the cat, but then she thought, even she could dodge the lacquered wooden pillow he hit her, let alone the most agile black cat in the house. If this cat didn't want to kiss you, you wouldn't be able to catch a hair of it in the whole yard.
Ji Feng was like this, chasing after it to hold it. Perhaps the cat didn't like playing with those chattering children, so it always refused to be held by the children and ran to Ji Xu for shelter.
Now that he saw it was willing to get close to the devil, he thought, what a good cat! I’ll go back and reward it with some dried fish!
"What's it called?"
"Diaohu."
Seeing that he was willing to strike up a conversation, Ji Xu offered a few more words of advice: "Eating mutton in winter is as good as eating ginseng, and it is also good for your health in spring, summer, and autumn. I've made some soup for you. Would you like to try it, Master Li?"
Li Quanye ignored this and just played with the cat.
"Diaohu, it would be great if you were born in my family."
When Diaohu heard this, he meowed and jumped to Ji Xu's feet, as if he was afraid of being detained by him. Ji Xu hugged him and said:
"Perhaps it was attracted by the aroma of lunch, and it is quite greedy. Master Li, don't confront it. Eat it while it's hot. It's the same if you hold it and play with it after you finish."
Li Quanye ignored this and said through the tent:
"It's Diaohu, not my Wutuaner."
He stopped talking in the tent, as if he was hurt. Ji Xu tried to bring the cat to accompany him again, but Diaohu refused. Perhaps it was because of his later tone and expression that Diaohu did not like.
"Don't you want to eat dried fish?"
Diaohu's ears twitched, and he jumped into the tent and meowed a few times, then came out again and meowed at Ji Xu, as if to say: He is the one who doesn't want to play with me.
Ji Xu held it in his arms, praised it a few words, and promised to give it some dried fish when he got back. He then tried to persuade the cat in the tent a few more times, but it was still silent. After standing there for a while, he took the cat out.
"How is it, Master, have you made any progress?"
Yu sent a maid to question him, but Ji Xu shook his head.
"Still the same, he refuses to eat."
"Well, Madam has anticipated his temper. You don't have to come here in the future."
The maid said that she had paid her the money for the eleven days, a total of eleven taels of gold. Even though Li Quanye refused to eat, she did not owe her wages. It was just that she could not come again in the future, and she had no say in front of Yu.
However, Ji Xu also thought positively. After this incident, if she told others about it, it would be considered as her being a chef for the Li family, which would be good for her reputation. Perhaps more people would invite her.
As for the plan to open a restaurant in Kaohsiung City, I will slowly look for opportunities. Anyway, I have tried my best this time.
She exchanged a few polite words with the maid, then carried the cat on her back and rode away from the Li family. When she passed Gao City, she went in for a stroll.
The Gao Market in Maoling County was different from the Jiaomen Market near my home, and the Huai Market near the Mengxue and Taixue. It was mostly large shops, some three stories high, offering accommodation, food and wine, and even selling ceramics...
There are no small food stalls to be seen, and the big stores don't need to shout to attract customers. There are only carriages and horses in front of the doors, and guests coming and going.
Ji Xu looked along the way and found a shop that looked out of place. It was burned down to a pitch-black shelf. It must have been caught in a fire.
About half a month ago, Ji Feng came back from elementary school and said that he saw thick smoke coming out from the direction of Maoling Town on Wei Bridge. He also asked her which house had a fire.
Ji Xu didn't know at that time, he just watched from a distance and saw that there was indeed a lot of smoke.
Now that I've seen it, I think it must be from this store that the fire was burned like this. This store is in a bad location, and it is at the very edge, so the fire did not spread to other stores.
There was a wooden sign hanging on the burnt door beam with a big word "Sale" written on it.
According to her prior understanding, the shops in Kaohsiung City were not like those in Jiaomen Market. They were built by the government and rented to hundreds of vendors.
The shops here were originally built by wealthy people, and gradually formed a prosperous downtown area called "Gaoshi". Although there were city officials to manage the order here, these shops were all individually owned and passed down from generation to generation, and rarely sold.
So Ji Xu asked a little boy who came to buy wine and food for the host:
"Xiao Lang, let me ask, who owns this shop that has caught fire?"
The child stopped, tilted his head and looked at it, thought for a moment, and said:
"Well, I don't know either. Ask someone else."
Ji Xu asked two passers-by again, and they both said they didn't know, because the owners of the shops here were mostly big families. They only knew that there was a shopkeeper in charge on the surface, and they didn't know the person behind the scenes.
"This was originally a warehouse for storing goods. We often saw a shopkeeper ordering carts and horses to unload goods here. Later, there was a flood, and the shopkeeper disappeared."
Ji Xu walked closer to take a look, trying to see if he could find the information of the owner of the shop, but unfortunately there was no information on the sign.
There were some burnt boxes and cages inside, most of which had only iron hinges left. The charcoal burned on the ground made a dry sound when stepped on, and there were also some burnt lumps of goods, and no one knew what they were.
While looking around here, someone outside said:
"Who let you in? Is the horse outside also yours?"
He was a city official on duty in Gao City. Ji Xu said:
"It's mine. I saw a sign for sale here, so I came to take a look. Sir, do you know who owns this shop? I'd like to inquire about the price."
"Go away, we don't sell it here, leave now!"
The city clerk Lu had secretly observed Ji Xu. Although she was single, she did not behave like a maid from a wealthy family. She went out in a carriage or sedan chair, but instead rode a horse.
At most, they were common people with some money, so they didn't show any hostility to her and were not afraid of offending her, so they just drove her away.
Lu, the city clerk, had his own plans for this burned-down shop.
If the owner of a shop in Gao City fails to sell it, the government can buy it at a low price.
In this area, some shops were purchased by the government and rented out to merchants, collecting monthly rent.
This store was located in a bad location and had burned down. It was still on the market half a month after it was sold. Even some people who had no connections came to inquire about it, but were chased away by the city clerk Lu.
He had already thought it through. He would wait for the government to buy it at a low price and then rent it out to his relatives privately.
"This is what the government wants to collect, you can't buy it!"
Lu, the city official, said that Ji Xu knew that Gao City was difficult to get to, so he left here for a while and took note of this place in his mind.
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