Chapter 23 After giving her instructions, Su Zhihan, the mother of Wu, who had diarrhea, turned around…
After giving her instructions, Su Zhihan turned and went back.
She went out and walked along the street into the marketplace, seemingly strolling leisurely, but in reality, she was thinking about something.
In two months, it will be the New Year.
After the New Year, there will only be two and a half years left before the Marquis of Zhongyong's mansion is raided.
Su Zhihan carefully reviewed the plot she remembered, but the book did not clearly record when the Marquis of Zhongyong's mansion was raided.
Aside from the words of the white silk ribbons fluttering in the wind, there were only a few sighs from onlookers—how magnificent the young lady's wedding was, with even the Empress Dowager, His Majesty, and the Empress adding to her dowry; who could have imagined that in just three years, it would have fallen into such a state of complete ruin!
It took a full three years for the matter to come to a close.
Things develop in a predictable way, not overnight. When did the Marquis of Zhongyong's mansion get involved? And when was its downfall destined?
How far in advance should she and her mother get away so that no one can bring up their past mistakes and use them to kick her while she's down?
Su Zhihan was deliberately trying to find out, and since these things weren't exactly secrets, Yinghong was even worried that Su Zhihan was ignorant and would be ridiculed by others, so she specially gave her a detailed explanation.
Not to mention his official background, the third son of the Marquis of Zhongyong has a smooth career and is already a sixth-rank official in the Ministry of War and Treasury. The current Marquis of Zhongyong is stationed on the frontier and holds military power. He is one of the most powerful military generals in the court and can be said to be the source of the Marquis of Zhongyong's wealth and prestige.
Everyone in the Marquis of Zhongyong's mansion believed that with the Marquis of Zhongyong in charge, the mansion would only become more and more prosperous in this generation.
...
Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. No one expected that the Marquis of Zhongyong's mansion would suddenly perish at its peak, which made Su Zhihan even more worried and fearful.
Why would the Marquis of Loyalty and Valor, who holds military power, choose to rebel with Prince Rong? Or are they already in cahoots, and the entire marriage is a union of interests? But from Yinghong's words, Su Zhihan learned that the entire marriage was not proposed by Prince Rong, but arranged by the current emperor for the two of them.
Su Zhihan couldn't even figure out the affairs of the Marquis of Zhongyong's mansion, let alone the fact that it involved the unseen and intangible Sage.
After much deliberation, she decided to move the timeline forward, giving herself a year and a half to extricate herself from the Marquis of Zhongyong's residence.
With time running out, Su Zhihan had more and more preparations to make. Taking advantage of the fact that Jiang Zhenniang was focused on the Third Sister's courtyard and paid less attention to the business outside, and had entrusted all the money to Su Zhihan to handle, Su Zhihan decided to first find some useful manpower outside.
Nowadays, the most familiar family is Xiao Hong's family.
Judging from Grandma Chen's attitude of being willing to bear the losses on her own, she is clearly a sensible and capable person.
However, she was older and more experienced, so if Su Zhihan wanted to control her, she could only first use the banner of the Marquis of Zhongyong's mansion and start by working on Xiao Hong.
Despite her icy expression and apparent displeasure, Su Zhihan was actually quite pleased with Xiao Hong's reaction.
Although Xiao Hong is a bit reckless and lacks experience, her ability to immediately start looking for new sources of goods after encountering Uncle Li's accident shows that she is a proactive and ambitious person.
This time, she told Xiaohong and Grandma Chen that after she started working in the Marquis's mansion, she gave them another piece of paper to see how they would do things, so she could consider whether to save money to hire people to do things or to teach Grandma Chen and Xiaohong to do things.
Su Zhihan calculated the money in her hand, then looked up at the surrounding shops. Just as she had thought, in addition to the street vendors selling braised tofu, many other shops had also started selling it.
She bought some from several vendors to try, and the taste was not much worse than what she made at home, and some even had more generous portions.
Su Zhihan thought that if Grandma Chen and Xiao Hong were useful, she could prepare to change her livelihood. If they weren't, she would let them continue selling braised tofu while she went to the brokerage to find someone more capable.
After she had thought it through, she arrived at the back gate of the Marquis's residence. The gatekeeper greeted Su Zhihan warmly and stuffed a handful of melon seeds into her hand: "Han-jie'er is back? Try some, these are watermelon seeds I roasted myself, they're very fragrant."
"Thank you, Grandma Xu." Su Zhihan gladly accepted the gift.
"You silly child, why are you being so polite with your mother-in-law?" The gatekeeper, Granny Xu, was a servant. She knew that the recent changes in the servants' food were all thanks to Han-jie, who lived nearby. Knowing that Han-jie was capable, she treated her with great enthusiasm.
And I must say, Granny Xu's melon seeds are incredibly flavorful, with a subtle plum taste, even better than some of the watermelon seeds sold in shops outside.
Su Zhihan's eyes lit up, and she exclaimed in delight, "Grandma Xu, your melon seeds are really amazing! I've seen that Xue family's roasted watermelon seeds in the market, and they're not as good as yours!"
"Look at you, you have such a sweet tongue! But you're not wrong. There were people outside who wanted to buy me a sesame seed before, but I couldn't bear to give it to them."
Upon hearing this, Granny Xu was overjoyed. She stuffed the entire bag of melon seeds she was holding into Su Zhihan's hands: "Come, come, take them and eat them if you like."
"How can I take them all..."
"Hey, hey, take it all..." Granny Xu wouldn't let anyone refuse. Seeing that Su Zhihan was still going to decline, she finally said what was on her mind: "Actually, I have something I want to ask Han'er for help with."
Upon hearing this, Su Zhihan asked, "What is it?"
Granny Xu glanced at her face and said, "It's just that...my son's birthday is coming up soon, and he's going to invite other people to eat and drink."
"I'd like to ask Sister Han to help me cook a few dishes... Of course, don't worry! It's not free to ask you to cook; I'll give you money for the spices, the ingredients, and the cooking itself." Granny Xu, afraid Su Zhihan would think she was trying to take advantage, carefully said, "Do you think... one hundred coins is enough?"
Anyone working in the government office would have to treat their colleagues to a drink and a meal whenever they had a happy occasion such as a birthday or promotion.
The servants in the manor would often ask Mama Wu and Mama Zhang to cook a few dishes, usually paying them a few hundred coins. However, Mama Wu and Mama Zhang weren't always willing to do it. Sometimes there was too much work, sometimes they thought the pay was too low, and sometimes they just thought the servants were too low-status and didn't want to give them face.
The eldest son was still a doorman at his age, and her son was a lowly laborer, so Granny Xu took on the latter two roles. However, the matrons in the mansion were unwilling to cook, so they had to buy food from outside. If the food outside was too cheap, people might look down on her son; if it was too expensive, Granny Xu couldn't afford it.
Finally, she set her sights on Su Zhihan.
Granny Xu was uneasy. If Su Zhihan was unwilling, she would have no choice but to ask around at restaurants outside and spend a lot of money to prepare a meal.
"So that's what it is. What dish would you like to make?"
"Han-jie'er is willing!?" Granny Xu's face lit up with joy, and she hurriedly said, "It's the stewed chicken feet I made in the kitchen the other day, and the braised pig's trotters that Madam Jiang mentioned the other day, what do you think?"
Granny Xu had already planned it out; with these two main dishes, she only needed to prepare some vegetarian dishes for her son. Looking at Su Zhihan deep in thought, her heart pounded.
"no problem."
"The money—" Granny Xu was overjoyed to see Su Zhihan agree. She was so eager to go home and get the money for Su Zhihan that she stopped her. "Granny Xu, you don't need to rush to give me the money. Just give it to me a day in advance. Besides, I also have something I'd like to ask you to help me with."
"What is it? Just tell me."
"If anyone comes to you inquiring about me in the future, just say that I work in the kitchen, and don't say anything more."
"This is nothing, leave it to me." Granny Xu thought it was a big deal and patted her chest happily.
Although Granny Xu is just a gatekeeper, how many ordinary people who come from outside to inquire about news can actually get in touch with a servant of the Marquis's mansion who knows more about the matter and is willing to tell them the truth?
With Granny Xu's words, Su Zhihan felt relieved. She made an appointment with Granny Xu, went home to wash and dry the vegetables and fruits, and then went to work in the main kitchen.
As soon as Pu entered, several pairs of eyes turned to him.
Su Zhihan paused, raising her eyes to look at the group of people—leading them were Wu Mama's cooks, including Qiuyue. When they met Su Zhihan's gaze, they all turned their heads away.
Su Zhihan, puzzled, walked over to Yinghong and Cao Daya. As she helped them, she whispered, "What's going on?"
Yinghong had a strange expression and burst out laughing instead of saying anything.
Cao Daya's expression wasn't much better; she tried hard to suppress her laughter, her shoulders trembling and sweat beading on her forehead.
After a long while, Cao Daya finally stopped laughing and squeezed out a sentence through gritted teeth: "Um... Aunt Wu... has diarrhea."
Seeing Su Zhihan's doubtful expression, Yinghong quickly added, "Just now, Aunt Wu made fried tofu with spoiled tofu and then got diarrhea."
"I've been to the outhouse six times since noon."
"Just before you arrived, Aunt Wu went to the outhouse again... This is the seventh time!"
After laughing, Cao Daya couldn't help but make a face of distress: "Han-jie, what should we do?"
She knew perfectly well that Su Zhihan had only offered that edible tofu for her own benefit. Now that Wu Mama had gotten diarrhea from it, she couldn't let Han-jie suffer the consequences alone.
Su Zhihan then learned the reason, but she didn't take it seriously: "What should we do? It was Wu's mother who came up with it herself, it's not like I harmed her."
"Besides, that rotten tofu is really edible."
The moment Su Zhihan finished speaking, Yinghong and Cao Daya's expressions changed. Then, a familiar voice rang out behind Su Zhihan, cold as ice: "Really—edible?"
Su Zhihan turned around: "Mother Wu".
With a pale, ghostly face, Wu's mother stared at her intently, her eyes practically spitting fire. She must have believed in ghosts to believe Han'er's words. She really thought she was an idiot, and even let the tofu go bad in order to find out what was going on, and then fried it to taste.
Just thinking about it now makes Wu's mother feel nauseous. She didn't even have time to say another word to Su Zhihan before clutching her stomach and rushing out again.
Wu's mother was vomiting and had diarrhea, let alone being able to do any work. As the complaints from the third-class servants and maids grew, the matter also reached Madam Xu's ears.
The next day, she summoned Wu Mama and Su Zhihan to her side. Madam Xu first scolded Wu Mama, fining her half a month's wages for neglecting her work the day before and using the main kitchen to cook other food without permission.
Then she looked at Su Zhihan and said, "Aunt Wu said it was because you talked nonsense and told her that spoiled tofu could be made into food, which caused her to have diarrhea yesterday and delayed her work."
Is this true?
"Reporting to Madam Xu, this matter is not true."
"You, you, you shameless hussy, you dare to lie!" When Wu Mama saw Su Zhihan's firm denial, her eyes widened like saucers: "I clearly did it the way you said."
Just a fleeting thought brought back that strange, rotten taste to her tongue, making her dizzy and almost faint. Mother Wu was furious: "And now you're denying it!"
"I had diarrhea all day, and you almost killed me!" She was still terrified when she thought about what happened yesterday. Ever since she ate that piece of fried, spoiled tofu, Mrs. Wu had diarrhea from noon until evening, and by the end, she was so weak that she could barely walk.
“Aunt Wu, you’ve misunderstood.” Su Zhihan knew that Aunt Wu had suffered a lot yesterday, and she was not annoyed by her aggressiveness. Instead, she explained, “There are some usable pieces of this spoiled tofu and some unusable pieces.”
Mrs. Wu believes... but that's a joke!
She kept a long face, refusing to listen, and turned to Madam Xu, saying, "Madam Xu, I think this Han'er is a habitual liar, knows her mistakes but won't change, and is truly malicious. We can't let her stay—"
"Hey, hey, Mama Wu, what do you mean?" Mama Cao had been listening intently at first, but when she heard this, she immediately became anxious. She strode over, blocking Su Zhihan's way, and glared angrily at Mama Wu: "Madam Xu, that's clearly a prescription that Mama Wu came up with herself."
"Huh? It was clearly Han-jie who said that—"
“Was Han’er talking to you at the time?” Cao Mama seized on Wu Mama’s mistake, her brows furrowed in anger: “You were secretly listening to the prescription, and you even tried it halfway through. Now that there’s a problem, you want to blame Han’er.”
"What? Is there really such a good thing in the world?"
"Why don't you go and learn a few tricks from the pufferfish butcher, and then butcher one yourself and eat it?" Cao's mother grew increasingly angry, her finger almost poking Wu's mother's face. She spat, "If you ask me, it's clearly a case of the thief crying 'stop thief!'"
As soon as Cao Mama finished speaking, a rustling sound arose around them. The cooks and servants who had previously thought Su Zhihan was deliberately trying to harm people suddenly came to their senses, and their gazes towards Wu Mama gradually changed.
Nowadays, the inheritance of culinary skills is a very serious matter. Although there are quite a few people who secretly learn techniques, it is really shameless for them to claim that others have taught them bad things.
Amidst the stares of the crowd, Wu's mother's face gradually flushed red, and her eyes almost blazed with fire as she glared at Cao's mother: "Cao Ruixiang, what do you mean by this?"
"Whoever reacts the most is the one who's guilty," Cao's mother replied casually, not bothering to look at Wu's mother.
Then she looked at Madam Xu and said, "Madam Xu, you must stand up for me and Han'er! If you ask me, it's obvious that the third-class maids and servants have been asking Han'er and me to cook for us lately. That old hag, Granny Wu, is holding a grudge and is deliberately trying to frame us by pretending to be pitiful!"
With her silver tongue, Cao Mama changed the nature of the matter. Wu Mama was both anxious and angry, and also felt a little guilty for having her secret exposed. She was thinking about the bad tofu because recently several third-class maids and servants had complained that the food she made was not good and had gone to the servants' quarters to ask for a bowl to try.
Mrs. Wu was already suspicious of herself, and seeing this only made her more anxious, which is why she started trying it. However, despite her guilty conscience, she forced a smile and said, "Who would be jealous of you?"
"Whoever shouts the loudest gets to decide—"
"Stop, all of you, shut up." Madam Xu glanced at Mama Wu, and that one glance was enough to silence Mama Wu, who lowered her head and dared not utter a sound.
Madam Xu withdrew her gaze and looked at Su Zhihan again.
Su Zhihan, who was meeting Xu Niangzi's gaze, also lowered her eyes and stood quietly in place. After a long while, she heard Xu Niangzi's question: "You mean, you really know how to make that edible bad tofu?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
