Chapter 57 057 Three Years at Most
Chapter 59
Yu Xiao reached out to take the scroll, then casually threw it back, immediately annoyed: "Your Highness Prince Shen, please don't go too far. You can't just pluck the wool off a sheep."
Qi Jingyan took it and said, "But it would be easier to pick one."
Everyone couldn't help laughing.
Yu Xiao raised his foot, pretending to kick, but in the end it was just a bluff. He reached out and snatched the paper back from Qi Jingyan's hand: "Okay, okay, okay, I'll let you grab it first, and then I'll put it in your account book with both principal and interest."
After saying that, he turned around and looked at Yu Yan, only to see that Yu Yan was grinning happily along with everyone else. He immediately got angry and kicked him: "Useless thing, all you know how to do is grin like an idiot. Why don't you take it out?"
Yu Yan didn't dodge either. He took a kick that was neither light nor heavy. With a playful smile, he took out a stack of banknotes from his pocket and handed them to Mu Yun who was standing next to Qi Jingyan with both hands.
Then he bowed to Qi Jingyan and said, "Your Highness, this is ten thousand taels. Our young marquis ordered it to be prepared."
Mu Yun took the banknote with both hands and looked at Qi Jingyan with a smile: "Your Highness?"
Qi Jingyan smiled and nodded, "Since it's a kind gesture from the young marquis, then accept it."
Seeing that he wasn't even polite, Yu Xiao couldn't help but roll his eyes. He found a shady spot to sit down, fanning himself with the mansion plan. "When will you be able to fix this shabby house of yours?"
Qi Jingyan: "At the fastest, it will take a month; at the slowest, it will take a year and a half."
Yu Xiao: "Can't you hurry up?"
Qi Jingyan: "No rush."
Yu Xiao: "You are not anxious, but I am."
Qi Jingyan: "Why are you so anxious?"
Yu Xiao: "Of course I'm in a hurry to get back to Beijing. I want to wait until your place is repaired and stay here for two days before leaving."
Qi Jingyan asked, "When will you be back?"
Yu Xiao: "At most, I'll stay for another three to five days."
Qi Jingyan: "Then you can't live here anymore."
Yu Xiao was furious, clutching his chest with a look of heartache on his face: "Qi Yunzhou, I'm about to leave, can you please stop being so hurtful?"
He had wanted to have a nice chat with his friend before leaving, and say some heartfelt words, but he didn't expect that this person had no enthusiasm at all.
Qi Jingyan shook his head, pushed his wheelchair with a look of disgust, and turned away.
Yu Xiao chased after him, pushing the wheelchair, sighed, and said, "Yun Zhou, I really have to go."
Qi Jingyan also sighed softly: "I don't know when we will meet again."
Yu Xiao: "Stop talking so depressingly, Qi Yunzhou. I'll only wait for you for three years. If you don't come back to Beijing to drink with me within those three years, I'll sever all ties with you."
Qi Jingyan looked at the row of osmanthus trees on the roadside and was silent for a long time before he spoke: "Okay, three years at most."
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In the back kitchen, when Cai Yuezhao brought Fudong and Yuan Qing here, they saw Meng Yuning busying around with a large group of people.
She leaned over and said, "A Ning, what delicious food are you making?"
When she heard her voice, Meng Yuning looked up with a smile: "Sister Zhao, why did you come at this time today?"
Cai Yuezhao: "I went to the market when I had nothing to do, and I saw a porcelain shop with some pretty good items. I liked them very much, so I bought some for you."
"The store is packing the bags and loading them onto the truck right now. They'll deliver them directly to you later."
Meng Yuning didn't know what to say. She went to wash her hands and took Cai Yuezhao's hand: "Sister Zhao, don't buy me things all the time. I have enough here."
Cai Yuezhao: "Why are you being so polite to me? I just want to buy something I like. I didn't buy it especially for you. If you don't believe me, ask Fudong and Yuanqing."
Fu Dong chimed in, "Yes, Miss Meng, our girl loves to buy things when she has nothing to do. There are still a lot of useless things piled up in the mansion."
Yuan Qing also nodded and made a big circle with his hands. There were so many useless things.
Meng Yuning was amused by the others and stopped refusing. "Thank you, Sister Zhao."
Cai Yuezhao pointed to the pots of steamed glutinous rice on the table, as well as several wooden basins filled with piles of fresh green lotus leaves, and asked curiously, "What are these lotus leaves for?"
Yi'er was holding a large lotus leaf over her head as an umbrella. Upon hearing this, she shook the leaf in her hand, tilted her head back, and answered quickly, "A Ning wants to use lotus leaves to make glutinous rice chicken. We just picked these."
Cai Yuezhao lowered her head upon hearing the voice, and only then did she see the little baby under the lotus leaf. She couldn't help but smile, and hurriedly led Fudong and Yuanqing to bow to Yi'er: "Greetings, His Highness the Seventeenth."
Yi'er raised her little hand, calm and composed like a little adult: "A Zhao, please stand up, no need to be so polite."
Cai Yuezhao thanked him with a smile, and Yier then strolled off to play aside with his lotus leaf umbrella.
Cai Yuezhao leaned closer to Meng Yuning and sighed softly, "A Ning, the young prince's demeanor and demeanor when he said 'no need for formalities' are exactly the same as those of His Royal Highness Prince Shen."
Meng Yuning also found it funny and whispered back, "Yier and His Highness are brothers from the same mother, and they spend all day together, how could they not look alike?"
Yi'er seemed to hear Aning talking about herself, so she ran back with a lotus leaf on her head and tugged at Aning's sleeve: "Aning, are you calling Yi'er?"
Meng Yuning touched his little face: "No, Aning said that she will make glutinous rice chicken later and wants us to try it first."
Yier nodded: "Yier, try the vegetables."
"Okay." Meng Yuning said with a smile, wiping the sweat off his forehead. "The fire in the kitchen is too hot. Yi'er, why don't you go play outside first?"
Yier also felt hot, so he nodded and said okay.
Meng Yuning stood up: "Mu Ying, Mu Li, you stay with the young prince."
Mu Ying and Mu Li, who were standing not far away, responded and walked out with the little prince.
Yier took two steps, turned around and ran back to get two large lotus leaves, and handed one to Mu Ying and Mu Li: "I'll make umbrellas for you." The two thanked him and took them.
So, the three of them each carried a lotus leaf on their heads and went for a walk in the yard.
Seeing that it was getting late, Meng Yuning asked everyone to continue working.
Cai Yuezhao rolled up her sleeves and went to wash her hands: "Then let me try it too." As soon as she washed her hands, Fudong and Yuanqing followed her to wash their hands.
Meng Yuning smiled: "We have to wait a while, it won't be that fast, we still have to prepare the ingredients first."
She pointed at the two large basins of lotus leaves and said, "Meng Jin, you guys cut off the petioles of the lotus leaves and cut them into squares the size of chopsticks. After cutting, wash them clean and blanch them in a pot before taking them out. Oh, and add a little oil to the water so that the leaves don't change color when they're blanched."
Meng Jin and his companions agreed, and then they carried the wooden basins filled with lotus leaves to the table under the awning in the yard to pick them up.
Meng Yuning put on an apron and asked a guard to heat oil in a pan. When the oil was hot, she put chopped onions, ginger and garlic into the pan and stir-fried them until fragrant. Then she poured the chopped chicken marinated in sauce into the pan and stir-fried it vigorously.
Seeing that she was weak and frail, Cai Yuezhao said heroically, "Let me do it." Then he took the spatula and started stir-frying.
Unexpectedly, Miss Cai, who was cooking for the first time, didn't control the strength and direction correctly. After two stirs, the handle of the spatula broke. She was stunned for a moment when holding the spatula handle: "I'm afraid this spatula is not made of tofu. Why is it so fragile?"
Meng Yuning couldn't help laughing. She picked up the broken spatula from the pot and said, "Sister Zhao, you'd better not stir-fry anymore. I'm afraid you'll poke a hole in my pot and all my chicken will end up in the ashes."
Imagine the scene, everyone burst into laughter, Fudong stepped forward, smiled and pulled his daughter: "Girl, let's not make things worse, otherwise I'm afraid there will be nothing to eat today."
"Okay." Cai Yuezhao smiled awkwardly, took the shovel handle and made way.
Mu Shan brought over another shovel and said, "Miss Meng, let me do the stir-fry."
Meng Yuning smiled and said yes, and Mu Shan quickly started stir-frying in the pan. After a while, the outside of all the chicken became golden and slightly charred, and then he took them out and put them into a large bowl.
Then he washed the pot and heated the oil again. Meng Yuning instructed Mu Shan to stir-fry the soaked shrimps, mushrooms, and scallops according to the previous method. Finally, he added the soup and simmered it for a while. When the soup was dry, he took it out and let it dry.
Meng Jin and the others had already processed the lotus leaves, washed them by the newly dug well outside, and brought them in.
The guards also boiled the water in the other two pots. Meng Jin and Meng Yin walked over with lotus leaves, added a spoonful of oil to the pot first, and when the water boiled again, put a few lotus leaves in to blanch them. After boiling them for a while, when the lotus leaves became soft, they used long chopsticks and a colander to scoop them out.
In this way, it took a quarter of an hour to blanch all the lotus leaves.
The lotus leaves were blanched, and Meng Yuning had already asked everyone to clean the long table under the awning outside. She then brought the cooled glutinous rice and side dishes over and prepared to open the packages.
Meng Yuning estimated the materials and said, "There are more than 200 of us. If each person gets two, we'll need to pack more than 400. And if we give each of the craftsmen working here one, we'll need more than 500. It's a heavy task, so let's all work together."
Everyone agreed and ran to wash their hands. Then they gathered around the long table, some sitting and some standing, all looking at Meng Yuning.
"Like this." Meng Yuning took a lotus leaf and placed it on the table. Then she scooped some glutinous rice with a spoon and placed it on the lotus leaf. She pressed it with a spoon and then gathered it into a square shape.
Then scoop some of the fried chicken and the mixed side dishes of mushrooms, scallops and shrimps and place them on the glutinous rice. Finally, scoop out a little glutinous rice, place it on the lotus leaf, press it into the square shape as before, and then scoop it up and place it on the side dishes.
"Just like that, sandwich a layer of vegetables between two layers of glutinous rice, press them down a little, and then wrap them with lotus leaves like this, and you're done."
Meng Yuning placed the wrapped glutinous rice chicken on her palm and showed it to everyone.
Everyone nodded to indicate that they had learned it, and then went about their own work. Although none of them had ever made dumplings before, it was not difficult. After making one or two, they all got the hang of it.
There were more than 20 people in the kitchen at this time. Strength lies in numbers. Soon, everyone finished wrapping all the ingredients. There were still some lotus leaves left. Meng Yuning asked Meng Jin and others to take them to the yard to dry and save them for later use.
The guards placed all the wrapped glutinous rice chicken in layers on the steamer, which was placed on three large pots. They added firewood to the stove, boiled water and started steaming.
There was still an idle pot, so Meng Yuning taught Meng Jin and the others to coat the chicken racks that had been marinated with sauce with starch, and fry them in the oil pan until golden and crispy. After more than ten chicken racks were fried, they put all the chicken racks back into the pan and fry them again. Then they drained the oil and sprinkled white sesame seeds, an appropriate amount of fine salt, and a little cumin powder on the chicken racks while they were still hot, and then took them out of the pan.
There were not many chicken racks, so Meng Yuning planned to use them as snacks to reward everyone who had been working hard in the kitchen on a hot day. She asked Meng Jin to cut all the chicken racks into small pieces, and then brought the plate to share with everyone.
Cai Yuezhao, his master and his servant, carried a plate and sat around the table, enjoying their meal.
Meng Yuning carried a plate and went out to look for Yi'er. When she heard a gardener's guard say that he saw the young prince taking Mu Ying and Mu Li towards the main courtyard, she headed towards the main courtyard.
After walking around a wall and passing through a moon gate, I saw a person walking towards me holding saplings.
There were many craftsmen working in the mansion these two days. Meng Yuning didn't take it seriously and moved aside, wanting him to pass first.
Unexpectedly, the man put down the sapling, bowed to Meng Yuning, and the moment he stretched out his hand, he quickly stuffed a note into her hand, then squatted down, picked up the sapling, and left quickly.
Meng Yuning turned to look and saw that the man had already turned through the Moon Gate and disappeared. The guard who had replied to him earlier chased after him nervously: "Miss Meng, did that man offend you just now?"
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The author has something to say: I worked overtime these past two days and came back late, so I updated less. I will try to update more on the weekends.
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