"I'm telling you, Nuannuan, the prince is so greedy that he even wants to come to our house to celebrate the New Year. Humph! Is he planning to celebrate the New Year? He's basically planning to eat a lot... Hey? Is the lotus crisp ready? Let me try it."
In the small kitchen of Chunfeng Garden, there was a busy scene at this time. Even Su Nuannuan was only wearing a pink jacket and yellow quilted pants, and she was putting a lot of ribs into the prepared rice cake dough. Duan Tingxuan, who was wearing a gorgeous white dress, stood beside her, which looked out of place. But the guy who was determined to cheat on his wife had no self-awareness at all. He stubbornly stayed where he was, using the excuse of entertaining his wife, until the Xue family's wife brought out a pot of lotus crisps. The young marquis then roared and rushed over like lightning, grabbing a large white plate on the way. Soon, there were dozens of lotus crisps on the plate, all piled up.
Half of the lotus crisps that had just come out of the pot were gone in the blink of an eye. The Xue family's wife was stunned. She watched the young marquis return happily to Su Nuannuan. She sighed and said to Cong Erhuaer beside her: "Prepare to fry the next pot."
"Haha, you are indeed a martial artist. You are really observant. My small kitchen is not small, but I can see everything in it. You even planned which way I could get the tools. You even said you were trying to entertain me. I think you did it to make it easier for me to commit the crime."
Su Nuannuan couldn't help it any longer. She made sarcastic remarks while picking at the spareribs. In just two sentences, the young marquis had already eaten three lotus cakes. He pretended not to hear his wife's sarcasm, nodded and praised: "The shape of this lotus cake is really ingenious, and it is even more rare that it is crispy and sweet, and melts in the mouth. But it doesn't look greasy. It's delicious. The old lady will definitely like it."
Su Nuannuan rolled her eyes and saw that the ribs were almost done, so she put the ribs rolled with a thick layer of rice cake dough into the oil to blanch them. Duan Tingxuan also forgot his "mission" and looked at the rice cake ribs gradually turning golden in the oil. He swallowed his saliva and asked, "Is this the pork rib rice cake you mentioned? It smells so good. I can't wait to try it."
"If you're not afraid of being burned, try it." Su Nuannuan snorted coldly, and the young marquis, who was obsessed with eating insects, calmed down. He smiled awkwardly, "No need. Well... I'll eat the lotus crisps first. After that, the pork ribs and rice cakes will be cold and ready to eat. Oh, right. The prince is coming to our house to celebrate the New Year, and I thought this wouldn't work. How much can he eat? And he's the prince. If he really wants to eat, Nuannuan will have to cook for him in the kitchen all day long. Wouldn't that mean he won't have a good year? So I, your husband, risked offending the prince and said righteously... Eh? Is it ready now? Hmm. It looks very hot. It seems I really can't eat it now..."
"Auntie is still busy at this age. No wonder people say that capable people should do more work. But no matter how busy you are, you should also take care of your health."
Coming out of the small mansion where she handles daily affairs in the mansion, several maids outside came to flatter her, and Aunt Jing nodded to Zhu Xiu, then smiled gently: "I know you are also hard at the end of the year, but the more it is like this, the more likely it is to have accidents. Everyone should be serious when you are on duty, and have fun as much as you want when you go back. As long as nothing happens, let the old ladies have a good New Year. After the New Year, I will ask for credit for you, and I will reward everyone for their hard work these days."
Several maids were so happy that they couldn't stop grinning. They kept saying, "What Auntie said makes us feel ashamed. We should be responsible during our shift. If we do well, it's our duty. If we don't do well, it's our fault. How dare we use this to seek credit and reward?"
Aunt Jing smiled and said, "Forget it, you are still not sincere in front of me. Let me tell you, I keep my words. You also know that this year the shops in the mansion have paid a lot of money to the government, so as long as we spend the New Year peacefully, the old ladies will be happy and give us rewards. How can it be too small? But I have to say it in advance. If there are those who neglect their duties, no matter if there is any trouble or not, I will never let them off easily if I catch them."
The maids nodded repeatedly, saying, "Don't worry, Auntie," that Zhu Xiu had rewarded them with several strings of money. The maids were overjoyed, and they cordially escorted the master and servant out of the Moon Gate before going back.
"Aunt, today is the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month, but you have been busy until noon. Apart from you, which master is not lying comfortably in the house to keep warm? Let's go back quickly, Yu Ling is still waiting in the house."
"She will be waiting for us in the house. There will be fried snacks in Chunfeng Garden today. She went there to help out all day yesterday and came back with a full belly. I heard that grandma will make pork ribs, rice cakes, lotus crisps, spring rolls with various fillings and other things today. Even the old lady is looking forward to it. Can Yuling hold back? Okay, I think we should just not go back to the house. It's better to go to Chunfeng Garden. We can eat some snacks and be full. If we are lucky, maybe we can even have a bowl of double skin milk."
Zhu Xiu smiled and said, "Other things are fine, but the double-skin milk is really delicious. I just wonder what's wrong with Grandma's brain? How can she have so many tricks that we have never heard of?"
Aunt Jing also laughed and said, "Are there only some dishes we haven't tried? You don't know that even the food we have now tastes especially good when made by Grandma. I once had lunch at Chunfeng Garden where I forgot the time while talking. A bowl of ordinary braised pork tasted sweet and soft when made by Grandma. It really melted in the mouth. That's fine. Grandma said that there are more than a dozen ways to cook braised pork, and each method has a different flavor."
As the master and servant were talking, they entered Chunfeng Garden and happened to see Duan Tingxuan coming out of the small kitchen in the distance. He quickly went to the corridor, then went around the corridor to the backyard. Zhu Xiu was puzzled and asked, "On a day like this, the master went into the small kitchen, just like a mouse falling into a rice jar. How did he come out?"
Aunt Jing was also puzzled, and hurried to the kitchen, where she saw Su Nuannuan sweating profusely, but with a happy smile on her face. She walked up to her and said with a smile, "Aren't you tired, sister? You are still smiling so happily. It's New Year's Day, who is as hard-working as you?"
When Su Nuannuan saw her coming, she happily pulled her aside, then took a jade pendant-sized cookie from the basket, stuffed it into her mouth, and said with a smile, "Try it soon. I've been thinking about this for more than a day or two. All the attempts I made before failed. Although Honglian and the others thought it was good, I knew it wouldn't taste the same. I didn't expect that it would work after just a test today. It turns out that our oven is different from the one I used before, and the temperature can't be adjusted according to that. In the end, we have to bake it over a low heat for a while longer to get this taste. And because we use fruit wood, it has a little extra fruit fragrance. This is a pleasant surprise."
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