Chapter 201 Chapter 201 Update.
Badan, who was waiting in the Barbarian Residence, was really hungry this time. When he saw Ji Xu coming, he said several times:
"Too slow, you work too slowly."
Ji Xu explained:
"Slow work brings fine results. I have done my best to meet the envoy's request."
Badan didn't believe it. He was just making trouble for the cook. There was no such thing as something delicious that was neither sweet nor salty nor sour nor spicy.
“If it doesn’t meet the requirements, you have to redo it.”
After saying that, he closed the door in front of Ji Xu and took out the pottery plate inside. There was something flake-like and a cup of milk.
He sniffed it and thought it must be goat's milk. Dayuan had a prosperous agriculture and animal husbandry, and there were large grasslands for raising horses, cattle and sheep. He was a Dayuan native and had been accustomed to drinking cow's and goat's milk and eating cheese since he was a child. Therefore, he accepted this glass of goat's milk and drank it all in one breath.
As for the plate of flaky pastries with dried fruit, he could smell the aroma of wheat.
His hometown of Dayuan also grows rice and wheat, and people eat all kinds of biscuits and snacks on a daily basis. However, he has never seen anything like this. It has many air holes inside, and when you bite it, the edges are crispy and the inside is soft. It is very chewy and fragrant.
Before he knew it, he had finished the whole plate and his hunger was well relieved.
"Badan, it seems that the oriental girl is not like Wang Huzi from last year. She has passed your 'test'."
This house is divided into inner and outer rooms. Generally speaking, the envoys, who have the highest status among the foreign delegations that come to the capital to pay tribute, will choose to live in the inner room, while the outer room will be reserved for their personal attendants.
But in Dayuan's room, Badan lived outside, and a young man dressed as a guard came out from the inner room.
He had a typical Caucasian appearance, with a high nose, thin lips, blond hair, light skin, blue pupils, and the slim figure of a teenager. He looked at the empty plate in front of Badan and spoke in fluent ancient Greek with a smile.
"It's not that simple, this is just the beginning."
Badan wiped his mouth and found that his beard was covered with bread crumbs. Thinking about the way he ate just now, it was really rude.
That night, Ji Xu taught Xiao Hulu and Tong'er to recognize new characters at his residence as usual.
Their monthly allowance was not much, and when they were young, it was embezzled by some malicious officials. Now they saved it all for Ji Xu, asking her to buy pens, ink, and wooden sticks for practicing calligraphy.
However, they only write when they are at home. Usually in the back room, when they have free time, they use wet willow branches to write and draw on the ground at the door. They all have a eager heart to learn.
Zhou Ping often said after seeing them that they were like pigs with garlic stuck in their noses, pretending to be good-looking.
In fact, her characters were taught to her by her aunt Hua Shanren on a daily basis. She had been working as a kitchen maid since she was a child and could not read or write at first.
They taught for half an hour before dispersing. When they returned to the next courtyard, Zhou Ping came out to pour water for washing their faces. Seeing the two little ghosts returning with bamboo scrolls, he shook the basin and said,
"You're going to study hard next door again. Are you going to the Imperial College to get a doctorate in the Five Classics in the future?"
"Huh, you're the only one who talks too much."
Little Gourd tilted his head and pouted, then pulled Tong'er into the house to sleep.
Ji Xu from next door also blew out the lights and went to bed. She didn't care about the bed and could sleep well anywhere.
In the middle of the night, when I was sleeping soundly, I was woken up by a knock on the door.
"Ji Shanren, Ji Shanren? Wake up."
It was the old nanny in charge of the orphanage calling her.
"Mammy, what's wrong?"
She put on her coat and slipped on her shoes to open the door. It was already dark. The old maid held up a lantern and said:
"A minor official from the Barbarian Mansion is looking for you. Um, he's asking about a bowl..."
"The Dayuan envoy?"
"Yes, it's the Dayuan envoy. He wants to have a midnight snack."
While he was talking, Ji Xu had already tied up his clothes and put on his sheepskin coat.
"I understand. Sorry for the trouble, Madam, late at night."
As she spoke, she went to the next yard and woke up Xiao Hulu and Tong'er. They were also sleeping soundly with sleepy eyes. They put on their clothes and came out, only to be awakened by the cold wind. They left the residence with her and the old nanny.
No matter how quiet the noise here is, it is inevitable that it will wake up those who sleep lightly in the same courtyard in the dead of night.
"Who is it? Why are you out so late at night?"
The cook in the room sat on the kang, looked out the window for a while, and said:
"It's Ji Shanren and her two little girls."
As soon as these words were spoken, Zhou Ping, who was sleeping inside, understood and yawned:
"It must be that Dayuan envoy who is causing trouble. She has suffered a lot."
"Luckily we're not at Ji Shanren's place. We can't even sleep. She has such bad luck."
The nun rejoiced and shook her head. She heard the people next to her muttering that the wind was blowing in and it was very cold, so she closed the window and retreated into the warm bed.
When Ji Xu and his companions left their residence, they saw the clerk they had met during the day, huddled by the pavilion with his hands folded, looking towards them. He ran up to them and said:
"We built the kitchen in the Barbarian Residence for him, but he found fault with ours and insisted that the chef do it. I had no other choice but to come and disturb the chef Ji."
The chef's official position was higher than his, a minor official. He was only responsible for the envoy's three meals a day. Everything else had to be handled by the barbarian court.
However, the envoy from Badan was really rude and unsympathetic. He had thought that Badan had not caused any trouble at lunch or dinner, and the day would have passed peacefully. He did not expect such a thing to happen in the middle of the night, and he was too embarrassed to come to Ji Shanren.
Ji Xu said:
"Let's not talk about this anymore. I understand your difficulties. Did he say what he wanted to eat?"
"Now he said he wanted to eat our pork skin cakes."
It would be good if he had what he wanted. Ji Xu just had to do it according to the instructions. Fortunately, the cake and bait room still had the rice noodles he had received a few days ago, otherwise he would have disturbed the people in the noodle room of the guidance officer's office.
She first assigned tasks to Little Gourd and Tong'er, saying:
"Little Gourd, go to the butcher's room at the Guidance Office and get two pounds of lamb chops."
The meat room is different from other rooms. The meat officials and butchers there have to get up at the crowing of cocks to boil water and slaughter livestock so that each room can get fresh meat and bones at dawn. Therefore, if you go at this time, you can get meat.
"Tong'er, fill the fire with water for me and boil the broth."
The two little girls obediently went about their business. The clerk was not a food official here, so according to the rules he could not enter, so he waited outside the courtyard of the soup official's office.
After the water on the stove boiled, Ji Xu used the boiling water to mix the rice flour into a flowing paste. Then he used a copper bowl with a round bottom to scoop a spoonful of the paste into it.
Pinch the bottom of the bowl with your fingers and rotate it in your hand so that the powder paste hangs on the wall.
Put it in boiling water and shake it properly, the batter will be evenly spread on each surface and it will be cooked quickly. It will be pink and white, like a piece of pig skin, so it is called pig skin pancake.
After doing this for about ten times and then cooling it in cold water, Little Gourd retrieved the lamb chops and said:
"This is a sheep that was just slaughtered today. It's very fresh."
Ji Xu chopped the mutton into small pieces the size of dice and simmered it in chicken soup. This soup was prepared by Ji Xu during the day and contained old hens, ducks, pork bones, ham, beef bones, etc. It took three or four hours to cook.
It was originally intended to be used as breakfast for the imperial family. Some soup noodles that require meat soup tasted richer after using this soup.
Diced bamboo shoots, diced shiitake mushrooms, and diced yam are added to the soup, stewed together, and poured over the pork skin pancake with the mutton and hot soup. Topped with spicy sauce, shallots, and coriander, the room is filled with fragrance, and it's done.
She told the two children to go back and catch up on their sleep, and she and the clerk went to the barbarian's residence. At this moment, the clerk knocked on the door of Dayuan's guesthouse and said:
"Your Excellency, the pork skin cakes you requested are here."
I never thought that Badan said:
"I don't want to eat anymore."
This is a deliberate teasing, Ji Xu thought. No wonder Master Wang Huzi had fought with him before. However, she did not get angry, but just said:
"In that case, I will not disturb the envoy's sweet sleep."
But the Dayuan envoys were to stay here until the New Year before returning. If she had to endure this kind of tossing and turning every day, she would definitely not be able to bear it. Thinking of what she had seen, she asked the clerk:
"Why is it that when we knocked on the door, it wasn't his guards who came to open it, but instead it was Badan himself who came to open it. Has it always been like this?"
The clerk thought about it and realized that it was true.
"He's the one who opens the door all the time. This Badan is considerate to the guards, but he's so cunning to us."
"Was it the same last year?"
Ji Xu asked.
Last year, it was this little official who received Dayuan. He had a strong impression of him and said:
"Last year, it was his guards who opened the door. They were much friendlier than Badan."
Ji Xu recalled what he saw in the morning, the scene of Badan bowing, and his doubts grew even greater. This might not be as simple as it seemed.
I went downstairs and saw a foreign guest asking for food. He said in broken Chinese:
"Man, I need a plate of snacks to fill my stomach."
"Go, go, go, we're closing. Do you understand?"
The young clerk who was dozing in front of him said, gesticulating,
"The kitchen, there's no one in the kitchen. They're sleeping."
He made a snoring gesture with his eyes closed and said:
"If you want to eat, just wait until tomorrow morning."
These were merchants from the Parthian Empire. Unlike Dayuan, the Parthian Empire was subject to the Han Dynasty and was under the jurisdiction of the Western Regions Protectorate of the Han Dynasty. It had to pay tribute to the Han Dynasty every year. Naturally, the envoys of Dayuan were treated well by the Han Dynasty and lived in the guesthouse on the second floor.
The Parthian Empire was in the west, farther from here than Dayuan, and closer to ancient Rome. Merchants there would trade between the Western Regions, Rome, and the Han Dynasty through the Silk Road. For example, they would bring spices, perfumes, glass, and fruits from there and sell them to the Han people, and then take away silk and ceramics from Guanzhong and sell them to various Western countries.
The Parthian Empire was an independent country and did not submit to the Han Dynasty, so the merchants there naturally did not receive any preferential treatment in the Barbarian Residence and lived in the guesthouse on the first floor.
In the eyes of the petty officials, this Parthian merchant was no different from ordinary merchants in Guanzhong, so they would not wake up the food officials in the kitchen for him, let alone the imperial chef like Ji Xu.
The Parthian merchant said:
"There's curfew outside. I can't move around or buy food. Come on, man, I'll pay for it. I'm really hungry."
He checked in at dusk, and had already missed the evening meal at the Barbarian Residence. He had also finished all the dry food he had on him, and he was now so hungry that he could eat a whole cow.
Upon seeing this, Ji Xu asked the clerk beside him to deliver the bowl of pork skin pancakes made in vain to the Parthian merchant, and he took the empty food box back to the Shaofu office.
The Parthian merchant was begging for mercy when a bowl of hot soup noodles was pushed in front of him. The clerk gestured to him and said something, then pointed to the door, where there was the back of a slender Han woman.
He chased to the door with the money bag in hand, but only had time to see the carriage driving away into the night.
"Hey!"
The carriage did not stop.
The Parthian merchant returned to his desk and wolfed down the pork skin pancakes. He swore that these were the most delicious things he had ever tasted. He then asked the clerk:
“How much should I pay?”
The clerk said:
"She is the food official of the Shaofu. I won't charge you for this bowl of cake."
"You are such kind-hearted people. I really want to settle down in Chang'an and eat delicious food like this every day."
The Parthian merchant said.
"You won't be able to enjoy her cooking if you live in Chang'an. It's just a coincidence today. However, we do have many delicious foods in Chang'an, such as fried fish and liver, and roasted pork with leek eggs. You'll understand after you stay here for a while."
As for Ji Xu, he returned to his residence, closed his eyes briefly, and when the sky turned white, he went to Tang Guanling's courtyard.
Tang Guanling's servant was carrying water for her to wash her face when she heard someone outside say:
"That young man from Ji Shan has arrived, saying he has something important to report to Officer Tang."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
