Chapter 237: Spicy Chicken Attitude
In the past half month, the Su family's dining table has been very busy, but the dishes cannot be compared with those when they lived in Beijing. One reason is the natural disaster, and the other is that it is a small county, both of which make the ingredients relatively scarce. They can only make sure to fill their stomachs and make the food delicious.
There are four dishes and one soup. The one in the middle is pork ribs and winter melon soup. The four dishes are spicy chicken, braised pork with pickled vegetables, fried egg, and stir-fried chicken greens.
Spicy chicken is a Sichuan dish made with chicken as the main ingredient, plus onions, dried chili peppers, peppercorns, salt and other ingredients. The characteristics of this dish are its bright brown-red color and strong spicy flavor. It is salty, fresh and mellow, with a slight sweet aftertaste, and is simply a great dish to go with rice.
When Zhao Lan saw this dish, his eyes lit up almost invisibly. This dish was perfect for someone like him who had a strong taste for food.
Of course Su Ruojin saw the young prince's happy look. There were not many peppers this year, and even fewer brought back from the capital. Every time she took them out to use, she felt as distressed as eating dragon meat. The more she used them, the less they were.
To make spicy chicken, first remove the seeds from the dried chilies, soak them in boiled water for half an hour, then take them out and squeeze out the water, put them in a bowl, add starch, white sesame salt and mix well.
Heat the oil to 50%, fry the sesame seeds until they turn slightly yellow and then remove them.
Cut the chicken into pieces, add cooking wine, soy sauce, starch, etc., mix well with salt, and marinate for twenty minutes.
Then put the oil into the pan and fry it slowly on low heat until it is golden and crispy.
Heat another oil pan, add ginger, garlic, peppercorns, and soybean paste (similar to modern bean paste), stir-fry until fragrant, pour in the chicken pieces and fried peppers, add sugar and stir-fry evenly. Finally, add the scallions and stir-fry over high heat before serving.
The red and juicy spicy chicken is ready!
There was a big round table, and the main seat was still Young Prince Zhao Lan. Even though Su Yanli felt that there was a small chance that this boy would become his son-in-law in the future, in the strict hierarchical Great Yin Dynasty, the emperor and his subjects came first, and family etiquette came second, so he still sat down next to the young prince politely.
The other few people did not hold official positions, so they sat down casually. After Zhao Lan picked up his chopsticks, everyone at the table finally started eating. Everyone was very satisfied with the delicious lunch.
After lunch, before Su Yanli went on duty, he chatted with his brother for a few words. The gist of the conversation was similar to what Su Ruojin had asked, that the shop was on track, and asked him when he would return to the capital. While speaking, he glanced at Shangguan Yu intentionally or unintentionally.
Su Yanzu pretended he didn't see it and replied, "I'll be back in Beijing tomorrow, but I'll come over again."
Su Yanli almost asked, "What about your job with the princess?" He swallowed the words and changed the subject: "Are you worried about the shop here?" He answered himself, "If that's the case, let Ah Jin help you keep an eye on it."
He looked like he didn't want him to come to Weizhou.
Su Yanzu: ...
Shangguanyu: ...
Su Ruojin was chatting with Zhao Lan, listening to the gossip here, and then his uncle said, "Ajin has her own things to do, so I won't bother her."
After hearing this, what else could Su Yanli say? He could only nod and say, "Oh, then tell me before you leave, I'm going to the government office."
"Brother, go and do your work." Su Yanzu bowed.
Su Yanli took Mr. Pei to the yamen in front to report for duty.
Su Yanzu looked towards Zhao Lan and said, "Young Prince..." When will you return to Beijing?
Zhao Lan replied: "I will be back two days before the Double Ninth Festival."
That's still a few days away. He smiled and bowed, "Then I'll go first."
Zhao Lan nodded slightly.
After saying that, Su Yanzu said goodbye and left the Su family, preparing to return to Beijing tomorrow.
Shangguan Yu sent him to the gate of the yamen.
Su Ruojin wanted to follow out of curiosity, but was stopped by Zhao Lan, "I'm going to the teacher's study to read a book. Make me a pot of tea." He didn't let the girl gossip about what was between the two men.
"Oh." Su Ruojin had no choice but to give up.
It was September, the weather was dry and the air was hot. After having spicy chicken for lunch, Su Ruojin made a pot of honeysuckle tea for Zhao Lan to relieve heat and summer heat. She walked to the door of the study with the teapot in her hand and was about to push the door open when she heard the words inside.
"Master, there is news from the capital that Lord Yang was assassinated, but he only had his ear scratched, nothing else happened."
"Do you know who did this?"
"According to Prince Wei, it seems that the servant of the Censorate's Chief Minister was killed by Lord Yang."
Zhao Lan sneered: "He didn't even let his old boss go. How cruel."
There was silence inside for a while. Just when Su Ruojin was about to push the door again, another conversation was heard. It was Zhao Lan's voice, "How are the people over there investigating?"
"We have narrowed the scope from several hundred people to a dozen, but the fewer people there are, the harder it is to investigate."
there?
Although it had no beginning or end, Su Ruojin felt that she understood it. This was probably what she was thinking.
There was another silence.
Su Ruojin glanced at the teapot in her hand and thought, forget it, let them talk about the business first, she would come back later and turned to leave.
"Come in."
Su Ruojin stopped in shock. Call her? She held her breath and didn't move.
"Didn't you hear?"
Really calling her? Su Ruojin heard footsteps in the room. Just as she was about to push the door, Zhao Lan opened it and smiled at her, "Do you like eavesdropping?"
Su Ruojin: ...
She looked towards the corridor and saw no guards. "Where are the two stewards?"
Santai came out and said, "He went to eat and hasn't come back yet."
"Then..." She pointed to the empty corridor, "What if someone really eavesdrops?"
Santai looked at his master, smiled, and stood aside.
Zhao Lan smiled helplessly, "I just saw you eavesdropping."
"I wasn't eavesdropping. I came to bring you tea."
Zhao Lan took the teapot and closed the study door with a smile, "Why are you so nervous? I'm kidding you."
If he didn't want her to hear it, she couldn't fly in even if she turned into a bird.
Su Ruojin snorted, expressing dissatisfaction, "This is my home."
"Yes, your house." Zhao Lan found two cups, poured one for each of them, and they sat beside Su Yanli's desk to drink tea.
Su Ruojin couldn't help but be curious, "If there is one assassination attempt, there will be a second one, right?"
Zhao Lan's eyebrows moved, "Yeah."
"Brother Jin, do you think one of our enemies will succeed?"
"Very likely."
The two looked at each other, and the girl's clear eyes were full of a look of wanting to quickly help a certain enemy succeed, which made Zhao Lan unable to help but reach out and touch her soft head, saying that she looked like a little adult, but this look was just like that of an innocent girl, which made people laugh and cry.
However, Zhao Lan did not discourage the little girl.
Oh, her hairstyle. Su Ruojin quickly put her hand out to block it and glared at him, "This is my father's study, you are not allowed to touch me."
Zhao Lan put down his hand and started chatting casually: "Why not change the vegetable shop into a grocery store?" The farmers all planted wheat, and the quantity of vegetables decreased a lot, which could not even be supplied to his restaurants and hot pot restaurants in Beijing.
"No change." Su Ruojin said, "When you return to Beijing, I will go find wasteland nearby and plant cabbage, radish, spinach and other cold-resistant plants." If we can build a few simple greenhouses, we will have vegetables to eat in the winter.
Zhao Lan deliberately asked, "So, I'm in the way here?"
Su Ruojin also deliberately said: "Yes, someone is here, isn't it affecting my ability to make money?"
Someone? Zhao Lan stretched out his hand to scratch the little girl. She didn't even call him brother. She wanted to be beaten, right?
Su Ruojin was quick to avoid it and said, "I am telling the truth."
She really disliked him. Zhao Lan didn't let her off and got up to chase after him, "Do you dare to do it again?"
Su Ruojin ran around the bookshelf.
The two of them were having a big fight in the study.
Outside the door, Cheng Yingzhen was worried about her daughter, so she came to check and found that the door of the official's study was closed and the young prince's entourage was asleep in the corridor. She patted her chest and walked to the door of the study. Just as she was about to call her daughter, she heard the sound of playing inside.
Her sensible daughter was now acting like Sanlang and Silang, which...
He reached out and knocked on the door anxiously: "Ajin...Ajin..."
Zhao Lan, with his long arms and legs, had just caught the little girl and cornered her next to the bookshelf. Before he had time to take a closer look at the little girl with a blushing face, he heard Madam Su's anxious call. He had to control his emotions, left the bookshelf and sat back in his chair.
Su Ruojin: ...
She came over to bring a pot of tea and her mother followed right after. Why did it feel like her mother was guarding against a thief?
I glanced at someone who picked up the book and turned the pages seriously: …
If it wasn't for her mother, she might have hit the bookshelf.
Uh...she was thinking about something, and she quickly shook her head and asked, "Mom, what's wrong?" She quickly straightened her clothes, ran to the door and opened it.
Cheng Yingzhen glanced at her pretty daughter, then looked inside. The young prince was reading a book, as if the noise just now was just her hallucination.
It's true that girls are no longer under the control of their mothers when they grow up. If they were still in the capital... Thinking of this, Cheng Yingzhen paused. Even if she was in the capital, no matter as a woman or in terms of status and position, it seemed that she could only wait for the Prince Jin's Mansion to speak. If they had no intention of doing so, then everything would be in vain.
Cheng Yingzhen's face suddenly turned cold, "Ajin, come out."
"mother?"
Cheng Yingzhen always has a good person face, and it is so strange that she could make her angry. Su Ruojin was both scared and guilty, so she came out quickly and acted coquettishly towards her mother, "Mom... Mom..."
Unfortunately it's useless.
Cheng Yingzhen still had a stern face and said, "Follow me." She felt like she was going to break his legs with a stick.
Su Ruojin: ...the feeling of shivering!
Of course Zhao Lan also felt it. He put down the book, strode out quickly, and bowed to Cheng Yingzhen, "Master's wife..."
"The young prince has been here for quite some time." It's time to return to the capital.
She started to chase people away.
This was the first time she chased someone away, and the person she chased away was the prince.
Zhao Lan smiled gently and bowed again, "Master's wife, my father has agreed to my request to marry Ah Jin."
"Isn't it the princess who decides on matters of marriage?" After asking this, Cheng Yingzhen regretted it. This clearly revealed her intentions.
Zhao Lan said, "Mother, please listen to father.
"If that's the case, why is your mother still choosing a wife for you?"
Zhao Lan raised his eyes.
The future mother-in-law looked straight at him, as if to see what he would say.
Why didn't he stop Princess Jin from choosing a wife for him? One reason was to test the attitude of the person who was testing the throne, and the other was of course to protect Su Ruojin, so that she wouldn't become a target for others.
When Ajin is old enough, it will be possible to find a matchmaker, get engaged, and get married all in one go. How wonderful!
"Is it really like that?" Cheng Yingzhen still didn't believe it.
Zhao Lan bowed heavily in response, "If not, Zhao Lan will be lonely for the rest of his life."
These words were so serious that even Cheng Yingzhen was shocked. So cruel?
Su Ruojin: ...She...she is so good that this young man is so obsessed with her.
Although she felt that oaths were unreliable, she was still very happy at the moment. From a few years old to now, she felt like she was being nurtured.
If Zhao Lan knew that she was thinking this way, he would definitely retort that if anyone was going to cultivate a girl, it should be his little wife who should do it.
At night, lying on the bed, Cheng Yingzhen told Su Yanli what happened during the day.
"Sir, do you think what the young prince said is true? Can what he said count?"
Su Yanli was happy at first, and he said that looking around the world, he thought that only the handsome and elegant Prince Zhao could be a good match for his well-behaved and capable daughter. When he heard his wife's question, he calmed down.
After thinking for a while, he said, "When he was fourteen, the King of Jin made him an official. Although we don't know what job he has done for all these years, I know that the late emperor admired him. Lord Fan also praised him. So his words are worth a thousand gold and can be taken seriously and counted."
"Then...then our daughter will be the princess of a county in the future?" The more he thought about it, the more it felt unreal.
“I think so.”
Zhao Lan thought that he had made his attitude clear to the Su family, and that the teacher and his wife would welcome him warmly. Unexpectedly, Master Su changed his usual elegance and gentleness and looked disdainful. "Jinzhi, first of all, the teacher thanks you for bringing wheat seeds to Weizhou County and relieving the people's difficulties. But the wheat has grown more than three inches tall. It's time for you to return to Beijing."
He actually drove people away directly.
Su Yanli's disdain was obvious, and Su Ruojin was not blind, so she must have seen it. Could this be the legendary 'knowing that the cabbages at home are going to be eaten by pigs' and so she was so angry?
On the contrary, Cheng Yingzhen, who had turned her face away yesterday, smiled and pushed the man, "What are you talking about?" Then she turned to Zhao Lan and said, "Just get used to living here, little prince, and don't worry about your teacher."
Zhao Lan: ...How come the teacher and his wife have changed their attitudes after just one night? What's wrong with that?
There are two folk sayings, "The more the mother-in-law looks at her son-in-law, the happier she is" and "The more the father-in-law looks at his son-in-law, the angrier he gets." Unlike the warm attitude of the mother-in-law towards her son-in-law, the father-in-law always feels displeased with his son-in-law, and even gets angrier the more he looks at him. So why does the father-in-law get angrier the more he looks at his son-in-law?
Of course, she worked hard to raise her daughter and treated her as the apple of her eye. However, in the end, she had to watch helplessly hand her daughter over to a "strange" man. It would be fine if he lived nearby, so that they would no longer be together day and night. But if he married far away, they would be separated from each other and would seldom see each other more than once in their lifetime.
It is inevitable that one will have a feeling of "I finally planted a cabbage, but in the end it was eaten by a pig". It is conceivable how much the father-in-law dislikes his son-in-law and how he dislikes him in every way.
Fortunately, Su Yanli had to go on duty, so he chased away the others and went to work.
Cheng Yingzhen asked Qiuyue to go to the market to buy meat and vegetables to entertain Zhao Lan.
Wasn't I welcomed some time ago?
Zhao Lan pretended not to notice the completely different attitudes of his teacher and his wife, and remained calm.
Su Ruojin asked mischievously, "Brother Jin, are you leaving now or tomorrow?"
Zhao Lan: …
Just then, Santai comes in from outside, looking more serious than usual.
Su Ruojin knew that he must have something to report, so she smiled and left, leaving them to do their work.
Santai whispered in Zhao Lan's ear, "We have already reached the vicinity of Weizhou County."
Zhao Lan nodded, "Then let's leave tomorrow."
"Yes, Master."
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