Chapter 8 Imperial Kitchen, Part 1
The newcomer was an unfamiliar face, who introduced himself as the head of the Bureau of Ceremonial Affairs. However, he was not the same person as the head of the Nest who had met Shinju earlier. The newcomer asked, "We are not short of manpower at the moment. Scorpion Shadow Palace is currently recruiting. Is Keiko interested in transferring there?"
Shinju asked cautiously, "May I ask, Master, what is this Sasori Shadow Palace?"
Manager Shan smiled and said, "It's pretty much the same as a sheep pen. The main purpose is to take care of the pets of important people. If they are not afraid of insects, that would be the best."
Pets? Pets again... It's not that Shinjuku is afraid of trouble, but he still remembers what the servants at Nishibaba told him before: apart from the eldest princess, only that one person keeps a pet.
After pondering for a moment, Shinju put on a fearful expression and said earnestly, "It is truly unfortunate... Please forgive my incompetence. I have never been able to deal with insects since I was a child. My hands and feet tremble and my whole body turns cold as soon as I see them. Please find someone more capable to handle this matter."
Manager Shan frowned, clearly finding the situation somewhat difficult, but he didn't get angry with Shinju. After thinking for a while, he asked, "Has Keiko considered where she could transfer to?"
Shinjuku was quite surprised to see that the person in charge did not show any displeasure at his refusal. He paused for a moment and then tried to reply, "To be honest, I do have someone in mind."
"Oh? Tell me about it, maybe I can arrange it for you."
.
Since entering the palace, Shinju had not had the opportunity to refine and absorb the bottle of "Secret Five Stone Powder" that had been confiscated. Now that he had finally settled down, the logistics work of the Imperial Kitchen was extremely tedious, even somewhat boring, but also very peaceful and comfortable. It was not difficult for Shinju at all. So the palace gates were locked, and he finally had the leisure to ponder his cultivation.
The most urgent thing right now is to cure the problem of the five senses being impaired. If it weren't for the loss of the five senses, I wouldn't have been unable to have a good time that night, and instead I would have ended up in someone's arms, which was a disgrace! Once he thought about it, Shinju's face couldn't help but stiffen, and his eyes would flash.
Ultimately, the problem lies in the fact that the True Immortal Body has an excessively high demand for spiritual energy, but there is no spiritual energy for him to absorb in this small world. As a result, the True Immortal Body is in a state of constant emptiness, and the burden is so heavy that his five senses cannot withstand the consumption.
After careful consideration, Zhen Su concluded that in this situation, it might be possible to introduce toxins to block the top acupoints that guide qi into the body and a series of nodes in the body that circulate qi throughout the body. In this way, it would be equivalent to sealing the circulation of spiritual energy in the True Immortal Body and stopping its idling, which should greatly reduce the occurrence of loss of the five senses.
The main ingredients of Wushi San are cinnabar, azurite, realgar, stalactite, and red stone, while the auxiliary ingredients are variable, but they are generally minerals.
But as Tie Laolu said, the bottle in his hand was not ordinary Five-Stone Powder, but "Secret Five-Stone Powder," with a mysterious composition. Judging from the powder particles, it was probably made of minerals, but it was unknown which five minerals were mixed together. Zhen Su's Purple Mansion was sealed, so he could not use his divine sense and naturally could not identify the specific ingredients of "Secret Five-Stone Powder," but it was enough to know that it was more toxic.
He was currently alone in the servants' quarters, so Shinjuku was unprepared. He took out the porcelain bottle, looked down at the shimmering silver-red and snow-green stone dust inside, and seeing that there wasn't much of it, he opened his mouth and poured the whole bottle in.
Soon, Shinjuku regretted his rash decision.
Before half a cup of tea was finished, the bed beneath Shinjuku was soaked through and riddled with cracks, almost crumbling into dust.
Shinjuku's five senses were inverted and disordered. He smelled a spinning and swaying scene under his nose, heard amplified sounds of insects gnawing and sharp objects scraping on his tongue, and was surrounded by a twisted mixture of sweet, sour, bitter and spicy flavors. He saw a complex array of colorful and shapeless odors before his eyes, and felt that his hands and feet were floating in the air, but his body was not his own, and he did not know where it was connected to...
But none of these were the most agonizing. The most agonizing thing was Shinju's head, as if a heavy hammer was pounding on his brain, smashing it until his brains splattered. The excruciating pain didn't need to be transmitted or transferred; it all piled up around his dantian. Shinju felt as if he had become that dantian, with countless chisels and digs, sharp or blunt, attacking him, chipping away at his mind, digging up his buried memories, and coaxing all the great and small sufferings into reality. In just a quarter of an hour, he truly lived through a lifetime again.
Those dull golden eyes, wide with pain, were filled with salty tears that soaked his hair. The whites of his eyes were stained crimson. His lips and tongue were bitten raw and mangled, and his neck was soaked with blood. His heart, which had stopped beating for a moment, began to beat again.
"Ah...uh...hah." Shinjuku's screams and moans gradually subsided, finally escaping the nightmarish near-death experience completely. "Heh, heh heh..."
Shinju, with his severed tongue curled up, licked his own immortal blood again and again, and his wounds healed one by one. The red in his eyes had not faded completely, but it was already tinged with a smile, sweet yet full of madness. If a righteous sect of immortal cultivation saw Shinju at this moment, they would probably draw their swords without hesitation and point them directly at the demon in front of them.
“Very good,” Shinjuku muttered to himself.
This "Secret Five-Stone Powder" truly lives up to its name; its toxicity is so potent that it makes one wish they could chop off their own head to stop the soul-piercing pain.
Despite the extreme pain, there were unexpected gains.
Zhen Su realized that the poison was targeting a specific area. The Five Stone Powder was a corrosive substance that corrupted the mind, making it particularly effective against the sealed Purple Mansion, which had thirty-six layers. At his current Qi Refining stage, only at the early stage of poisoning, he shouldn't have been able to break through the Heavenly-level restrictions of the Purple Mansion. Even the Yellow-level restrictions of the Heavenly Profound Yellow Refining would likely be difficult to break. Unexpectedly, under the impact of the "Secret Five Stone Powder," the restrictions of the Purple Mansion were reduced to only twenty-eight layers!
With a quick calculation, he figured that if he found three or four more doses of this mental poison that specifically targets the mind, he could completely break the restrictions on his Purple Mansion.
Once broken, the magical treasures, pills, talismans, scriptures, and other items in his Heavenly Rank Qiankun Bag will see the light of day again. If he were to face a demon who has not yet absorbed his magic power, he would be able to put up a fight.
Tsk, I wonder how strong the demon has become now.
Shinju pursed his lips, ceasing his deep contemplation, and instead began to observe the state of his own body. The "Secret Five Stone Powder" was too potent, yet too little remained, making it impossible to use it to block the crown chakra and the circulation of Qi as originally planned. He had no choice but to settle for second best, using it to block his rarely used senses of smell and taste.
The next day.
Shinju went to report to the chief eunuch about the bed he had damaged, then returned to the vegetable preparation area, drew up some clear well water, and sat on a small wooden stool to wash the vegetables.
He arrived late, and the other servants had already been washed several times and moved on to other tasks. Therefore, Shinsuke had no need to hide. He dipped two fingers into the water, and ripples spread rapidly across the surface. In an instant, the mud sank to the bottom, and the oothecae floated to the top. The stems and leaves, whether thick or thin, were all intact. Even those with a loose, layered structure were found to be extremely clean when peeled open.
After rinsing the vegetables with clean water, Shinjuku sorted them into different types of winnowing baskets and handed them to his servants, who then carried them into the kitchen.
In the imperial dining room.
A royal chef took out a bunch of purslane and coriander from a winnowing basket. "These vegetables... have they been supplied differently? Several of them look much better than usual these past few days."
"It hasn't been changed, Uncle Wu," the kitchen helper next to him said.
“...Is that so?” Chef Wu glanced outside, saw nothing, then looked away and continued with his work.
In the afternoon, Uncle Wu strolled around the vegetable preparation area, stood there for a while, and observed the people passing by who had just handed in their freshly washed vegetables.
His gaze swept over the dishes one by one, but he didn't find any that looked particularly good, and his disappointment was hard to hide.
Until a young man dressed as a servant came and carried a wooden basin of matsutake mushrooms and bamboo fungus. The bamboo fungus was like a skirt or a net, white and delicate, without a trace of discoloration or any defects. As for the matsutake mushrooms, the stems, which usually required sharpening to make them white, were now incredibly clean, with only a few barely visible faint vertical marks. Even Uncle Wu, the imperial chef, couldn't help but slap his thigh and praise: "Such a beautiful color!"
As the boy approached, Uncle Wu realized that this boy was truly handsome!
He wore the most common deep-colored robes and had dark hair, yet he possessed a face of exceptional beauty. Whose young master was this? Could it be that his family had fallen on hard times and he had been sent to the palace to become a eunuch? How pitiful.
Uncle Wu's eyes were filled with naked pity, which left Mayuki completely puzzled.
After handing over the washed mushrooms, Shinjuku was about to turn and leave when a voice suddenly called out from behind, "Hey, you over there, page, please wait!"
Shinjuku wiped the water off his hands, turned around and bowed, "This humble servant greets Your Excellency. Please speak, Your Excellency."
Uncle Wu suddenly became nervous, cleared his throat, and asked, "Would you like to taste the dishes for me?"
"?" He had just sealed off his sense of smell and taste.
Seeing that Shinju was silent, Uncle Wu thought he had some concerns, so he quickly added, "Well, I'm looking around for people with different tastes, just for reference. When you eat it, just tell me if you think it's good or bad, you don't need to take any responsibility."
Since the other party was so kind, Shinju couldn't think of any way to refuse, so he nodded in agreement and followed Uncle Wu into the royal kitchen.
Before long, Uncle Wu set up a small table and stool for him in the corner, and served him a small plate of stir-fried chicken tongue, two crab roe dumplings, and a bowl of lush green cold noodles.
Although Shinjuku couldn't smell the aroma, the food looked exquisite and abundant, making him very hungry. He felt a pang of regret that he wouldn't be able to taste it later, which would be a complete waste of the meal.
The rice flower sparrow tongue noodles exuded the smoky aroma of a perfectly cooked wok, the surface coated with a rich, caramelized sauce. The crab roe dumplings, resembling inverted ingots, revealed the crab roe clearly through the mung bean noodle skin, making them incredibly tempting. Finally, the emerald green cold noodles, cut from dough made from locust leaves, emitted a wisp of cool air, refreshing and elegant.
Shinjuku's chopsticks moved with lightning speed each time he picked up a bite, swallowing it almost without chewing it properly.
Uncle Wu's eyes were full of heartache. Although the child ate with restraint, he was clearly very eager, probably because he hadn't eaten such food in a long time. Next time he would bring more so that the child could be well-fed and plump.
Shinju had no idea what Uncle Wu was imagining. Seeing Uncle Wu grinning at him, Shinju returned the smile.
"Is it good?" Uncle Wu asked.
Mayuki nodded. "They're all delicious."
After asking for Shinju's name, Uncle Wu rubbed his wrist and said, "Whenever you need to taste the dishes, I'll call you, Xiao Qingzi."
"..." Shinjuku felt slightly embarrassed, but politely thanked him.
Uncle Wu was increasingly pleased with Masakatsu's appearance and couldn't help but burst into laughter, patting the soft hat on Masakatsu's head with his large hand.
.
Nighttime, Yicui Palace.
"It's already past 7 PM, why hasn't His Majesty arrived yet?" The maid, Luli, was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan, going in and out many times without stopping.
Consort Shao sat gracefully at the round table, listening to the sounds of the eunuchs from the other room tasting the dishes, and said softly, "It would be normal if they didn't come. Even if they did come this time, nothing would change."
Luli knew that her mistress always took everything lightly, but she didn't have that kind of mentality. She felt sorry for her mistress, who was always well-behaved and didn't compete for anything. As a result, she didn't get the Emperor's attention and was ostracized even more. Now that the Emperor had finally chosen her mistress for a long time, Luli, with her impatient nature, naturally couldn't sit still.
After a while, the eunuch in charge of serving the food placed the dozen or so dishes selected on the dining table, then took his leave and went back to the Imperial Kitchen.
"The food is getting cold. If we reheat it when the Emperor arrives, it won't taste as good. Wouldn't that displease the Emperor, and he really won't come again next time?" Luli was almost in tears.
But then she saw her mistress pick up her jade chopsticks, take out a thin, round, red shrimp meat piece, dip it in mustard powder, put it in her mouth, and slowly chew it.
"Your Highness! How could you!" Lu Li said with a look of disappointment and reproach, grabbing Shao Pin's sleeve.
"Don't be angry, this is really delicious. It tastes like Uncle Wu's cooking. Here, Pear, have one too." Consort Shao used her handkerchief to catch the food from underneath, and then also picked up a dumpling for Luli.
Luli's appetite was whetted, but she couldn't resist the Empress's smiling eyes. Just as she was about to eat, Xiao Wuzi, the head eunuch of Yicui Palace, suddenly lost all composure and rushed in shouting.
"Your Highness! Consort Shao! Don't eat! Absolutely do not touch the evening meal! The servant who was supposed to bring the meal died of poisoning on the way!"
"What did you say?!" Consort Shao and Luli exchanged a glance, their eyes filled with undisguised surprise and uncertainty.
"Your Majesty—"
A note from the author:
----------------------
Back to my old profession, writing food articles (not really).
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
