111, did you hear that?
111, did you hear that?
When Lu Mingfei walked up to him, Zhao Lang smelled a fragrance. His eyes fell on the oil-paper bag in the boy's hand and asked, "What are you holding in your hand?"
"The barbecue I bought on the road is still hot. Would you like to try it?" Lu Mingfei raised the oil paper bag in his hand to show Zhao Lang. He had been holding it all the way, and the oil paper bag was still warm.
At this time, the butler following behind asked at the right time: "My Lord, how about I have someone set up tea and snacks for you and the young master in the pavilion outside, and would you please sit there for a while?"
Zhao Lang did not answer immediately, but looked at Lu Mingfei with a questioning look.
Meeting Zhao Lang's eyes, Lu Mingfei smiled and replied, "Okay, then let's go have a midnight snack first, and then do something else." It was still early, probably around eight o'clock in the evening but not yet nine.
In modern society, many office workers would be getting home by this time, but here, many people are already in bed. He's not used to going to bed so early. He used to go to bed early because he had to get up at one or two in the morning to help with housework. Now, he can sleep until five or six in the morning, so as long as he's in bed before midnight, he's asleep enough.
He has been learning horse riding and archery from Zhao Lang recently. He basically practices until ten o'clock and always returns home early.
Zhao Lang said to the housekeeper, "Go and make the arrangements."
"Well, I'll arrange it right away." The butler bowed and took two steps back before turning around and asking someone to arrange it.
Zhao Lang took Lu Mingfei out of the courtyard where he lived and went to the pavilion outside.
Both sides of the corridor are hung with lighted lanterns, like a long and guided road.
Unlike other palaces, Prince Ding's Mansion was home to a large number of people. There was only one young master living here, along with some servants and guards. These servants walked with deliberate caution, as if they were afraid of disturbing their master.
Therefore, the entire Dingwang Mansion was very quiet.
Lu Mingfei had been to Prince Ding's Mansion many times, and he quite liked the quietness of this house. He wondered if Zhao Lang was used to living alone in this house. He thought so in his heart and asked it out loud.
"Not bad." Zhao Lang turned his head slightly to look at the young man walking beside him. If possible, he would rather the young man stayed in Prince Ding's mansion with him. However, he also knew that Lu Mingfei had family here and it was impossible for him to stay here with him forever.
There is a large artificial lake in Prince Ding's Mansion, with many lotus flowers planted in the lake.
The lotus leaves grow luxuriantly in summer, with emerald green leaves. The leaves bloom on the lake surface, and when the wind blows, a group of leaves sway in the wind.
The two of them came to the pavilion by the lake and sat down.
As soon as they sat down, a maid came over with tea and snacks. Lu Mingfei placed the oil-paper package he had carried along the way on the table and opened it. He took one and tasted it first. It was still a little warm and tasted okay. Then he took one and handed it to Zhao Lang, "Try it. It seems a little cold, but it's still edible."
"Do you have a small stove for making tea here? Go get one and I'll heat it up for you."
Zhao Lang took the skewers of meat handed over by the young man and glanced at the maid, "Go and get it."
"Yes, I'll get it right away." The maid responded and went downstairs to get the small stove.
After a while, the maid brought the small stove with charcoal lit in it.
Lu Mingfei rinsed the iron mesh with tea, and after confirming that it was clean, he placed their skewers on it to heat. As soon as he looked up, he met Zhao Lang's eyes. He smiled and said, "Next time, I'll come directly to your place for barbecue, okay?"
"I can make the secret sauce and I can also grill it. You just need to ask someone to prepare the ingredients. I guarantee that after you have tasted the skewers I grill, you will never eat those grilled by others again." He was not bragging. When he was in college, he worked part-time at a late-night snack stall and did barbecue work.
In fact, if he hadn't become a journalist and hadn't been so busy, often traveling with his bosses, and had irregular working hours, if he hadn't worked a nine-to-five job, he could have pushed a small cart to the roadside to sell skewers after work, like those young people who go out to work and find a side job.
"Okay." Zhao Lang asked, "Will you come tomorrow night?"
"Come on. Shall we have a barbecue tomorrow night?" Lu Mingfei immediately understood why Zhao Lang asked him whether he would come tomorrow night.
He had nothing else to do except study, so he decided to practice horse riding and archery first. If he did well in the college entrance examination, he could apply to a better academy. Generally, students in larger academies were required to learn the six arts of a gentleman.
The Six Arts are rites, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy and mathematics.
Of the six arts, besides reading and math, which he had learned and was relatively familiar with, he also had music theory, having taken a few interest classes in a previous life, but he'd probably given it all back to his teacher now. Ritual, or etiquette, wouldn't be too difficult to learn. Completely unfamiliar were archery and horsemanship.
So he wanted to take advantage of the time he could spare to take some free special classes from Zhao Lang, so that when he went to the academy, other students would know the six arts, but he would be the only one who didn't.
From this point we can also see that, whether in modern times or ancient times, children from poor families cannot afford to attend interest and specialty classes, while children from rich families have been learning these things since childhood.
"Well, whatever you want, I'll have someone prepare it." Zhao Lang said.
"You eat first." The skewers on the small stove were already heated. Lu Mingfei placed them on the plate in front of Zhao Lang and said, "Prepare some bamboo sticks of this size and thickness, then cut the meat into small pieces and skewer them. The same goes for the vegetables: wash them thoroughly, cut them into pieces, and skewer them."
"I'll make the barbecue sauce you need and bring it over from home." They had their own homemade sauces and spices at home, and they were afraid that they didn't have any at Prince Ding's Mansion, so Lu Mingfei prepared to bring them over from home.
"Okay." Zhao Lang nodded, looked at the maidservant beside him, and asked, "Have you remembered it?"
"I've remembered this. I'll go tell the chef in the kitchen later." The maid replied.
Zhao Lang waved his hand and asked the maids to leave.
Looking at the skewers, Lu Mingfei thought of his favorite hot pot. It was a pity that he hadn't found any chili peppers yet. If he had, the grilled meat skewers would have tasted even better. Last time, he gave Zhao Lang the drawing of the chili peppers, and Zhao Lang asked someone to find them. But he didn't hear Zhao Lang say he had found them, so he probably hadn't found them yet, so he didn't ask.
Originally, he didn't have much hope for this. If he could find it, he would look for it. If he couldn't find it, then forget it, because the peppers would appear one day, it was just a matter of sooner or later.
Thinking about the provincial examination he had taken this time and how he had waited so long for the results, Lu Mingfei felt a little anxious. "The list of the provincial examination will be out in half a month, and I don't know if I can pass this time."
"Of course I can." Zhao Lang put the clean bamboo stick aside, picked up a handkerchief to wipe the corner of his mouth, and continued to eat the second one.
"Hehe, I think so too." Lu Mingfei was still very confident about his answers. However, before the list of helpers came out, no one could be sure that they would pass the test 100%.
After all, even in modern college entrance exams, mistakes can still occur, with exam papers being swapped. This is especially true in an era dominated by the powerful. If a powerful person wants to give a good exam to their children, and if it happens to be his, he'll be the unlucky candidate who fails.
I just hope his luck isn't that bad.
After the two men finished eating the barbecue he brought and drank two cups of tea, they got up and went to the training ground to practice archery and horse riding. Zhao Lang also taught him how to use a sword.
When Lu Mingfei returned home in the evening, he found that he came back nearly half an hour later than usual.
When he got home, he didn't dare to move too much, for fear of waking up the adults in the next room, so he tiptoed to the toilet, washed his face and rinsed his mouth, changed into pajamas, and went to bed.
He was busy all day today and fell asleep almost as soon as he lay down on the bed and his head touched the pillow.
So Lu Mingfei didn't know that the door of the main house was opened from the inside. When his father came out to use the toilet, he glanced in the direction of the courtyard gate.
Lu Youtian hesitated for a moment, but still walked over and touched the bolt of the back door.
After making sure that the bolt was properly inserted, he shook his head and muttered, "I must have been sleep deprived. How could someone open the door to our yard in the middle of the night?" Could it be a thief?
Thinking of this, Lu Youtian looked around his yard and also looked at the latch on the kitchen door which was properly locked. After making sure that there was no thief, he went towards the toilet.
If Lu Mingfei heard what his father said at this time, he would say: Yes, that’s right, Dad, you heard it wrong.
***
However, when the family was having lunch together the next day at noon, Lu Mingfei still heard his father talking about this matter.
"I got up to go to the toilet last night, and I seemed to hear the sound of our yard door opening. Did you hear it?" Lu Youtian was a little worried that there was a thief in the house at night. They were all asleep and didn't know what danger might happen.
"Ah? Is that so? I didn't hear any sound." Liu Sanniang said.
Lu Mingfei didn't dare to speak while eating. When he looked up, he saw Zhang Qi looking at him. He gave Zhang Qi a look that told him not to speak.
After receiving this look, Zhang Qi lowered his head to eat.
The two adults were discussing this matter, and the children in the family did not interrupt. Lu Youtian thought he had misheard and did not dwell on it.
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