Chapter 33
Although Mu Yulu's process of throwing the embroidered ball to choose a husband was a bit tortuous, the result was still quite satisfactory.
Mu Yugang still felt a little regretful that he couldn't marry his daughter into the Mu family, but Sanzhou Jinse was a good choice. At least with such a martial arts master as his son-in-law, he wouldn't need to hire escort agencies to transport goods anymore.
He was in a good mood during this time, and naturally found Mu Yulu much more pleasing to the eye. In his delight, he gifted her a new courtyard and also asked Aunt Wang to assign her a new maid.
“No matter what, she is still the legitimate daughter of my Mu family. What kind of person would she be if she only had one maid to serve her?” Mu Yugang said this with a very loving expression: “Xiao Lu, if you need anything in the future, just tell your father and I will arrange it for you.”
Mu Yulu appreciated her father's kindness and quickly moved to the new courtyard with Xinyun and Mohe.
Mohe was the new maid that Aunt Wang carefully selected for Mu Yulu. She was originally a kitchen maid who tended the fire. She was taciturn, short in stature, but very strong.
"I heard that Xiao Lu likes to cook in her own courtyard when she has nothing to do. This girl entered the manor at the age of six and has been cooking for ten years." Aunt Wang's smile carried a hint of provocation. "If you ask me, you two are a match made in heaven, a perfect pair."
She had thought that if she arranged for a kitchen maid to be assigned to Mu Yulu, Mu Yulu would jump up and down as before, accusing Mu Yugang of not valuing her as the eldest daughter. However, she did not expect that Mu Yulu would actually like the maid. She held Wang Yiniang's hand and thanked her repeatedly. Wang Yiniang could only awkwardly laugh along with her.
Little did she know that Mu Yulu didn't care at all about being the eldest daughter of the Mu family or whether she was valued or not.
After all, if we really want to be fair, what kind of injustice is it to assign her a kitchen maid as a personal servant? The injustices that Aunt Wang made her suffer are not even comparable to the slightest bit of suffering her own mother gave her.
For example, the courtyard where Mu Yulu lives alone.
She had her own courtyard before she even reached marriageable age, and she could move in by herself. It seemed like she was being treated well, but in reality, it was because Mu Zhaoshi didn't want her to appear in front of her every day, so she sent her away early.
Meanwhile, her younger sister, Mu Wanyi, could live in the same courtyard as her mother. Judging from their deep mother-daughter relationship, Mu Zhaoshi would probably only be willing to separate from her on the day Mu Wanyi was married off.
The arrangement for assigning a courtyard to Mu Yulu was made by Mu Zhaoshi. She chose a secluded courtyard that was furthest from the main house and let Mu Yulu move in without cleaning it much.
It was because that courtyard was too dilapidated that Mu Yugang pointed out a more spacious new courtyard to Mu Yulu, who had found a good husband.
Of course, if Mu Yulu fails to be betroth to Mu Qinhan or Sanzhou Jinse, Mu Yugang will not care where she lives.
This is Mu Yulu's life in the Mu family mansion.
In her past life, she was too stubborn and valued her status as the eldest daughter of the main wife above all else. In order to gain Mu Yugang's attention and Mu Zhaoshi's care, she literally suffocated herself by getting stuck in her own stubbornness.
She no longer desired anything in this life. On the contrary, this mindset made her life in the Mu family begin to improve, and she lived a smooth and successful life.
However, she knew very well that everything she had gained today was not due to Mu Yugang's love for her. If Sanzhou Jinse did not return to marry her in a few months, everything she had gained in the Mu family would be taken back, and she herself would even be packed up and thrown into the Mu royal mansion.
Therefore, she would never indulge in such false kinship, even though it was something she had schemed and risked her life for in her previous life.
She couldn't sleep on her first night in the new courtyard.
She never imagined that pillows could be so soft, that mattresses could be layered, and that blankets could be made of silk.
She lay stiffly on the bed, afraid to move, lest she kick the delicate silk quilt and tear it.
All the furnishings in the room were new, with gilded bowls and carved utensils. It wasn't until Mu Yulu saw these things that she truly realized what a wealthy merchant in the capital was like.
So this is the treatment that the legitimate daughter of the Mu family should receive.
It's no wonder that Mu Yulu is so naive. In her previous life, before she got married, she lived in that remote little courtyard. Although she later married into the Mu family, she didn't enjoy any happiness.
After all, she was only a concubine in the Prince's mansion. Not to mention that she was imprisoned in a dark room for three years, even before she was imprisoned, her residence was just a small room that could barely fit a bed, not much better than the maids in the Prince's mansion.
Today marks the first day that she has truly begun to live the life of a pampered young lady.
However, she unfortunately suffered from insomnia.
She counted hundreds of sheep in the dark with her eyes wide open, but instead of feeling sleepy, she got hungry from counting them.
Mu Yulu touched her belly, sat up, put on an outer robe, and walked towards the small stove in the courtyard.
When they moved the house, Mu Yulu instructed that the new house could be missing anything, but it couldn't be missing her own private little kitchen.
The people who handled the matter were quite efficient. Before she even moved into the new courtyard, the stove that she and Xinyun had built together in the corner of the old courtyard had already been moved in before them.
As she approached the stove, she rubbed her sore eyes and was about to light the firewood to heat the pot when she suddenly heard Mohe's voice behind her: "Miss, can't you sleep?"
Mu Yulu was startled and turned around to look at her: "Why aren't you asleep yet?"
Mohe answered honestly, "In reply to Miss, I did not not sleep; I have already woken up."
Her answer startled Mu Yulu again: "What time is it and you're already up?"
Mohe pointed to the sky: "It's already the hour of Yin (3-5 AM). I usually get up around this time to start the fire."
Mu Yulu was both amused and exasperated after hearing this: "It's not even dawn yet, why are you getting up to start a fire?"
Mohe shook his head: "It will be too late to start a fire when it gets light. As soon as it gets light, the ladies and young ladies will need water. After washing up, they will need to eat. Both hot water and breakfast need to be prepared in advance. If we wait until it gets light to start a fire, I'm afraid I will be punished."
Mu Yulu frowned upon hearing this: "So you mean you have to get up this early every day for about 300 days a year?"
Mohe hummed in agreement, put down the candlestick in her hand, and deftly began to start a fire: "I was originally a kitchen maid, and I'm used to doing these kinds of jobs. Miss, do you need to use the stove? I'll start a fire for you."
Mu Yulu didn't know what to say for a moment, but seeing that Mohe quickly started the fire, she also got busy.
During the day, she made some braising sauce with chicken and mushrooms, and there was also a handful of thin noodles on the stove, which she used to make warm noodles.
Making warm noodles is very simple. Just cook the thin noodles until done, drain them, put them in a bowl, and pour the gravy over them before eating.
Mu Yulu originally only planned to cook a bowl of warm noodles to fill her stomach, but since Mohe was also there, she decided to cook more food so that the two of them could eat together.
Looking around the stove, she decided to make two more desserts.
Both of these pastries are her specialties. One is called lard cake, and the other is the three-layered jade belt cake, which is a favorite of nobles in the capital.
Their main ingredient is pure glutinous rice flour; the difference lies in the method of making the pastries.
The lard cake is made by mixing pure glutinous rice flour with lard, adding crushed rock sugar, and then steaming it in a dish.
The method for making the three-layer jade belt cake is slightly more complicated.
This pastry consists of three layers. A thin layer of lard is brushed between each layer of glutinous rice flour, and then a layer of white sugar is coated on top. After layering the three layers in this way, it is steamed in a pot. Once cooked, it is cut into pieces.
Don't be fooled by these two pastries; although the preparation process isn't particularly complicated, they actually require a high level of culinary skill from the maker.
Making such pastries requires precise control of the amount of sugar and oil used. Too much will make the flavor too cloying, while too little will result in a bland taste. Only experienced cooks can make pastries that are sweet but not cloying.
After cutting the pastries, she asked Mohe to bring over the warm noodles as well, and the two of them ate together on the stone table in the courtyard under the moonlight.
Mohe stood hesitantly to the side, asking incredulously, "Miss, do you mean I should eat with you?"
Mu Yulu patted the stool next to her, gesturing for her to sit down quickly: "I can't eat this much by myself. These pastries won't taste good tomorrow. Come and help me eat some."
Mohe hesitated for a moment, glanced at the table piled high with food, and sat down next to Mu Yulu. However, after only two bites of noodles, she suddenly stopped eating.
Mu Yulu turned to look at her: "What's wrong? Don't you like the warm noodles?"
Mohe shook his head: "No, it's just that it's too delicious. I've never eaten such delicious noodles in my life."
Her tone was full of sincerity, without the slightest exaggeration. However, before Mu Yulu could even feel happy, she heard Mohe continue, "But I remember when Miss was practicing in the kitchen before, she even blew up a pot. How come your cooking skills have suddenly become so good?"
Mu Yulu fell silent.
This girl really knows how to bring up the very thing you don't want to talk about.
She was talking about her life before she was reborn.
Mu Yulu's excellent cooking skills are actually largely thanks to Mu Qinhan.
In her past life, when she was still pursuing Mu Qinhan, she accidentally saw a storybook with a twisted logic in it: "To win a man's heart, you must first win his stomach."
In her previous life, Mu Yulu regarded this sentence as gospel. Even though she knew nothing about cooking, she still tried her best to find a master to learn the craft.
So, in this life, Mu Yulu started cooking a few months ago to practice her skills, and accidentally blew up the pot in her own kitchen and burned the stove.
According to the correct timeline, Mu Yulu is still in the learning stage and does not have such good skills. Her real cooking skills were honed in the year or so after she married into the Mu family but before she was imprisoned.
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