It is true that beauty is a feast to the eyes, but it cannot fill one’s stomach. Therefore, the next morning, before daybreak, the young marquis got up, without disturbing his beloved wife who was sleeping soundly, and walked out of the room with a sad face, rubbing his stomach. He let the maids wash and comb his clothes listlessly, and then he did not allow the maids to make a sound, and quietly went out and went straight to the kitchen.
At that time, breakfast was being prepared in the kitchen. The women and wives were chatting and laughing while preparing various breakfasts, including porridge, steamed buns, and various side dishes. The aroma of rice and flour wafted in the wind, and it almost made the young marquis drool.
He coughed and walked into the kitchen, and immediately rushed into the flock of sheep like a unicorn, scaring away the old women and wives like birds and beasts. Only one wife of the Xue family was left, trembling with fear and unable to run. She stood there, trembling and asking with difficulty: "Master... Why are you here? This... This is not a place for masters to stay?"
Duan Tingxuan coughed, his face was a little embarrassed, and he thought to himself, "Why are you running away? I am not a bully who robs women. Don't you see how ugly you are? Are you talking to me about the rules of gender separation? Don't you even look in the mirror?"
But he said kindly, "Um... nothing. I came to see what fresh food is in the kitchen. The weather is getting hotter and the old lady is afraid of the heat. Are all the cold drinks ready?"
The Xue family's wife looked outside in confusion. Although it was close to the Dragon Boat Festival, the weather was not hot at the moment, and it was far from the point where she needed to prepare cold drinks. But since the master asked, how could she not answer? So she reported the kitchen ingredients roughly, avoiding the important points, and then smiled and said, "There is no news from the old lady's room about preparing cold drinks, but the red beans sent by the farm these days, the old lady likes the soup very much. In addition, in addition to various beans, the farm also sent some wild game such as pheasants, rabbits, yellow sheep, etc. The masters in the mansion like them all. I wonder how you use them?"
Duan Tingxuan then remembered that after the New Year, the farm should send something to the mansion. Although it is not as rich as during the New Year, it is fresh in taste. Thinking of Siping's words before, he smiled and said, "I use it normally. Since you have red beans, yellow beans and so on, you can weigh a few pounds of each for me."
There was a "ka-ba" sound, but it was the sound of the Xue family's wife's jaw dislocating. She just stared at Duan Tingxuan with her mouth open, as if she was staring at a weasel that stole a chicken. No wonder she was so surprised. Who has ever heard of their own master running into the kitchen to poach people? This behavior made the Xue family's wife involuntarily think of the scene when the grandmother came to the kitchen majestically to grab things.
"What's with that expression on your face? I can't even ask for some beans, Master?" Duan Tingxuan couldn't help but get angry. No one would be able to stay calm if a servant looked at him like that: he just wanted to go to Meiyue Tower for breakfast. If Siping and Shuangxi were not forbidden to enter the second gate at this time, would he have condescended to come here in person to ask for things?
The Xue family's wife was frightened and realized that her master was not joking. So, without caring that her jaw had not yet recovered, she turned around and took the bag to fill the beans herself, while calling for someone to come out and help incoherently.
Half a minute later, Duan Tingxuan fled from the kitchen with a few large cloth bags in his hands, and walked along the garden path to Meiyue Tower. He calculated in his mind, thinking that they should not make breakfast at this time. After all, hiding in such a remote place, there is no need to pay respects in the morning and evening, and you can sleep as long as you want.
Thinking of this, I felt a little unbalanced. I threw them here to punish them, but now it seems that they were allowed to enjoy themselves. Humph! Enjoying themselves is fine, but the key is that I can't even get a bite to eat. That hateful woman even spits in the food that I like. It's obvious that she would rather feed it to the chickens than to me. Is this... is this fair?
The more he thought about it, the more indignant he became, because by the time he reached the door, his indignation had successfully escalated into murderous intent.
But the strong murderous aura disappeared in the blink of an eye, after Duan Tingxuan stepped into the courtyard and smelled the fragrance coming from the kitchen.
What is this? Why does it smell so good? The young marquis tiptoed to the kitchen door with a bag of rice and beans, and heard Honglian laughing and saying, "Grandma, if you want to eat this, we servants can just go to the street to buy it. Why bother?"
Su Nuannuan smiled and said, "How can that be possible? We have things in our hands but no money in our pockets. It was just a coincidence that we came across this pulp this morning. If it weren't for people carrying it from street to street, it wouldn't be sold at such a low price."
While they were talking, Duan Tingxuan had already seen clearly: the large straw pot was half filled with oil, and Su Nuannuan threw a long strip of dough into it. After a while, it floated up, looking very beautiful in its golden yellow color, and its rich aroma made his stomach jump with appetite.
"Grandma, you miscalculated this time. Although this thing is not very cheap if you buy it, but now you are making it yourself, let alone other things, just take the oil, how much will it cost?"
Xiangyun said with some regret, and then Su Nuannuan shook her head and laughed: "You are such a silly girl, the oil is not thrown away after use, it can be reused, for cooking, making dumplings, steaming buns..."
Before she could finish her words, she saw Duan Tingxuan hiding by the door and peeping into the house, so she grabbed a rag from the stove and threw it out.
Fortunately, Duan Tingxuan's skills were not given for nothing. He jumped to the side, making the rag's attack fail completely. Then he walked into the kitchen leisurely with the bag in his hand, smiling as calmly as possible, "Oh, you guys are thoughtful. You got up so early to fry dough sticks?"
Fried dough sticks were not very common on the street. People in that era suffered from the hardships of life, so how could they bear to use half a pot of oil to fry things? Even if they could use it more times, they would still feel sorry for it. Fried dough sticks and fried cakes were not considered elegant, so the profit was very meager. If you wanted to eat them, there were a few shops that would sell them, but they were far less popular than rice porridge and pickles.
The Marquis's Mansion was a wealthy family, so they didn't need to worry about the oil. However, the wealthy families at that time were all particular about health preservation, and such greasy food was obviously not in line with the way of health preservation. Therefore, basically breakfast was mainly rice porridge, pickles, buns, steamed buns and pastries, and they rarely brought fried dough sticks, fried cakes and soy milk to the table to honor their masters. Therefore, although Duan Tingxuan knew this thing, when he thought about it carefully, he really hadn't eaten it many times. Therefore, when he smelled the fragrance and thought that they were made by Su Nuannuan, the taste must be better, his saliva tended to overflow.
"Sir, what's that in your hand?"
Su Nuannuan was too lazy to pay attention to this big fox who was eating and drinking for free, but Honglian and Xiangyun bowed seriously. Seeing that the master was holding a few cloth bags that were seriously inconsistent with his status and image, Xiangyun couldn't help but ask curiously.
"Ahem... um... I happened to pass by the kitchen today and saw some fresh rice and beans sent from the farm, so I took some for you. See if you can use them. If not, just throw them away."
Even though Duan Tingxuan was thick-skinned, he couldn't help blushing when looking at these cloth bags. The young marquis burst into tears in his heart: Damn, is it easy for me to just get some food?
Honglian and Xiangyun were delighted. Honglian took the bag with a smile and said, "What are you talking about, Master? How can you just throw away good rice and beans? Wasting food like this will bring punishment from the gods."
As she spoke, she winked at Xiangyun. Seeing that the girl still didn't understand, she dragged the little girl out. After they walked more than ten steps away, she gently poked Xiangyun with a finger and whispered, "You are really blind. Grandma is in a good mood today, and Grandpa just happened to bring something over. Why don't you let me talk alone?"
Xiangyun rubbed her forehead and whispered, "Sister, do you think I don't understand your thoughts? It's just that grandma treats grandpa very differently now than before. I'm also afraid that they will have a disagreement and fight again. Wouldn't that make the hatred even deeper?"
Honglian was stunned, and after a long while she shook her head and said, "Yes, it was my negligence. How could I forget about this?" As she spoke, she raised her head and looked towards the kitchen worriedly.
In the kitchen, Su Nuannuan did not give in as she had done before. While straining the dough into the pot, she glanced at Duan Tingxuan and sneered, "Master has become much more sensible today. He finally knows that eating for free is not free. He even thought of bringing some rice and beans."
Duan Tingxuan's mouth twitched: Forget it, for the sake of these delicious fried dough sticks, I won't argue with her. It is well known that a good man does not fight with a woman.
"What is this round thing? I know the long one is a fried dough stick, but what about the round one? Is it called a fried cake?" Duan Tingxuan wanted to have a good relationship with Su Nuannuan, so there was a hint of smile in his tone. Of course, if you say that he is trying to please him, the young marquis would never admit it.
"It's called Youbing, right? Why? I've never seen it before?" Su Nuannuan was a little confused. She knew that Youtiao existed in ancient times, but could it be that Youbing didn't exist? No way? Youtiao is salty, and Youbing is sweet, which just meets the needs of people with different tastes. If there were no Youbing, how would the dispute between the sweet and salty parties be resolved? Wouldn't the sweet party be even more bitter and resentful?
"It's really called oil cake?" Duan Tingxuan didn't expect that he had guessed it right. He leaned over and took a closer look: "Strange, oil cakes are like this? Where are the chopped green onions? The oil cakes I've eaten have a lot of chopped green onions on them."
"That's a scallion pancake, right?" Su Nuannuan looked at her scumbag husband with contempt: With this level of knowledge, he still has the nerve to be a foodie, which really brings shame to the foodie clan.
“Scallion pancake…isn’t it also a pancake?”
Duan Tingxuan was even more confused. It was true that he liked delicious food, but he had never done any research on these foods and drinks. "It's also a fried pancake, but it's different from this sugar fried pancake." Su Nuannuan was too lazy to talk nonsense with the scumbag. Otherwise, would she have to teach him about the history and family members of fried pancakes? Tell him that the fried pancake family not only has sugar fried pancakes and scallion fried pancakes, but also pancakes, tendon fried pancakes, and pancakes. Well, I didn't have time to eat pancakes on the second day of the second month, so I'm a little greedy. Now I have leeks and bean sprouts. Let's see when to make some.
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