Chapter 65 The Missing Mandarin Fish Yao Lang's dark face flushed crimson...
Yao Lang's dark face flushed red, and he stretched out his hands to refuse, saying, "Don't be so polite! Sister Han, how could I accept your money? Please take it!"
Before Su Zhihan could speak, Jiang Zhenniang joined the fray. She blocked Yao Lang's hand from returning the money, shaking her head repeatedly, "No, no, how can I let you make this trip for nothing?"
After gesturing back and forth, Jiang Zhenniang ultimately prevailed. Yao Lang had no choice but to take back the money, exchange a few words with the mother and daughter, and then hurriedly left.
After he left, Jiang Zhenniang looked at Su Zhihan: "Did something happen up ahead? Yao Lang doesn't seem to be helping out..."
Jiang Zhenniang pondered for a moment, then realized: "It sounds like an apology?"
Su Zhihan recounted what had happened to Jiang Zhenniang, who immediately flew into a rage: "So, Yao Lang was being so kind, running around looking for this job for us, only to find out it was all his wife's doing!"
"How dare she say that in front of you? When did she say it? I wasn't there! If I had been there, I would have ripped her mouth off!"
Jiang Zhenniang was furious and scolded Yao's wife repeatedly. Su Zhihan saw that customers were coming to buy braised food and comforted her, saying, "I heard that Master Zhan was so angry that he rented another place and moved out."
“We even paid him money to teach him a lesson! If I had known, I wouldn’t have given him a single copper coin!” Jiang Zhenniang was both angry and anxious, and also felt a pang of regret for the money she had just given away.
"I suppose Sister-in-law Yao knows she was wrong. You see, Brother Yao must have had to use a lot of persuasion to find this job..." Su Zhihan knew that Jiang Zhenniang was just saying things out of anger, so she quickly spoke gently to comfort her.
The mother and daughter sought out many people, hoping to try their skills at that wealthy family's home, but no one was willing to help them. At most, they were only willing to buy some braised meat from Jiang's Braised Meat Shop.
What Yao Lang found seemed plausible, but the addition of soup and broth gave Su Zhihan an opportunity to shine. If she could win the favor of the host and please the guests, she might have a chance to rise in the ranks.
This is enough to make up for the mistake.
Jiang Zhenniang understood this reasoning and after a long pause, she finally agreed: "I know... let's drop this matter."
Su Zhihan finally breathed a sigh of relief and secretly pondered what kind of soup she should make that day.
There's a trick to making this soup: it can't be too fancy on the surface, lest it offend the unfamiliar cook in charge, but it also has to taste good and be appealing.
Su Zhihan thought about it for three days before making a decision. Two days in advance, she sent the list of ingredients and prices to Yao Lang and asked him to deliver it to the steward of Peng Yuanwai's mansion.
Two days later, Su Zhihan, accompanied by Uncle Chai, went to the Peng family mansion with Yao Lang. When the two entered, the steward mistook the cook for Uncle Chai and led them into the mansion without asking any questions.
Su Zhihan walked in with her head down, glancing around out of the corner of her eye. In just a few glances, she determined that this Master Peng must be an ordinary wealthy household in the capital.
Although the Peng family mansion was located in a better area than the Jiang family mansion, and had a three-courtyard layout with red cloths strung everywhere and potted plants placed in the four corners, most of the servants who came in and out were wearing fine cloth shirts, and occasionally there were those who wore fine cloth shirts on top and coarse cloth skirts on the bottom, which did not look as decent as the old clothes worn by Su Zhihan and Uncle Chai.
You should know that this is the birthday banquet of the old lady of the Peng family, so everyone in the mansion should be dressed in their finest clothes to make the mansion look even more festive.
The group walked in for a while and arrived at the Peng family's kitchen. The kitchen consisted of two rooms, one inside and one outside, along with a courtyard in the middle. It was usually quite spacious, but it was crowded with people at the moment.
The steward led the group to the location, gave some instructions to the people inside, and then left with Su Zhihan and the other two.
Yao Lang pointed to the middle-aged man at the very back and introduced him to Su Zhihan: "That is today's head chef, Lü Zaoren."
Su Zhihan originally wanted to go up and say hello, but it was clear that Lu Zaoren had no such intention.
He glanced at the three of them, turned his head and gave a few instructions to the person next to him. Soon the cook came to Su Zhihan and the other two and led them to the outer kitchen: "You can prepare the cold dishes here. It's very busy inside, so don't come in."
Before Su Zhihan and the others could give a reply, the cook summoned a maidservant from the manor who was not yet ten years old and told them to consult this maidservant if they needed anything.
Yao Lang was a little unhappy. He could have left after dropping Su Zhihan off at Master Peng's house, but he decided to stay and help to prevent anyone from bullying Han Jie'er: "I'll help with the fire, Uncle Chai, why don't you help Han Jie'er set the dishes?"
"Then I'll have to trouble you, Brother Yao," Su Zhihan said with a smile. Unlike the high-class banquets where cold dishes alone are served in three to five rounds, the banquets of ordinary people are served with cold dishes first, then main dishes, then soup and desserts, and finally refreshing tea and snacks.
The cold dishes were mostly braised dishes sold in the store, and Su Zhihan also prepared two other dishes.
One dish is stewed pears in wine. This was made yesterday. After soaking overnight, the pear skin has been stained with the color of wine, while the inside still retains its original pure color. It is garnished with dried tangerine peel and cinnamon.
Another dish was a semi-finished product and needed further processing today. Thinking of this, Su Zhihan recalled the ingredient list she had asked Yao Lang to deliver to Master Peng's residence beforehand, and asked the maid, "What is your name, sister?"
"You may call me Cui-jie'er, my lady." Cui-jie'er must be a newcomer who has just started working in the household. She was nervously twisting her handkerchief in her hands.
Su Zhihan casually handed her a piece of good meat and asked, "Does my family know where the ingredients we need are?"
Besides the ingredients she had prepared herself, there were also some ingredients that needed to be provided by Master Peng. However, Su Zhihan looked around the outer kitchen but didn't see any of them.
Cui Jie'er's eyes lit up when she received the good meat, and she hurriedly replied, "The ingredients purchased by the manor are all stored in the back room. What do you need, Miss? I'll go and get it for you."
"Only two things: lotus root and mandarin fish."
"I understand," Cui Jie'er replied and went to do it, returning with lotus roots in a short while. However, she couldn't find any mandarin fish, so she had to apologize and go to ask the steward.
While she went to ask, Su Zhihan first took out the lotus root segments. The lotus roots were just coming into season and were fresh and tender, but still a little thin.
Su Zhihan peeled off the outer skin, cut the two sections apart, took out the soaked glutinous rice, added sugar and stirred it, and stuffed it all into the lotus root sections.
Seal both ends with bamboo skewers, put them into a pot, add osmanthus sugar, rock sugar, and even red yeast rice, and submerge the lotus root segments in water. Cover the pot and simmer.
Finally, it was time to wait for the mandarin fish.
Su Zhihan smelled the faint sweet fragrance emanating from the room, picked up a stool and sat down, leisurely watching the people coming and going outside.
A moment later, it became noisy outside.
At first, Su Zhihan didn't pay much attention, but then the noise grew louder and louder, and there were even sobs. Since she had nothing better to do, she went out of the house to take a look in the courtyard. But when she took one look, she found that the one being scolded and crying inside was none other than Cui Jie'er.
"You little slut!"
"Who is my cook? Why would he steal a few of your fish? Could it be that you secretly took them and ate them, and now you're trying to frame my cook?"
No—
"I'm going to find the manager and ask him how he's been managing you bunch of little maids!"
Cui Jie'er turned pale with fright and dared not speak, her whole body trembling. She looked around for help, but the servants standing in the courtyard dared not offend the cook who had been invited to prepare the old lady's birthday banquet, so they simply turned their heads away and remained silent.
Someone else said with a forced smile, "Master Xu, this girl is confused and doesn't know how to speak. There are only a few of you cooking in the house, how could there be a shortage of fish..."
"snort."
"Don't worry, we will definitely teach the steward to discipline her properly." The maid bowed repeatedly, all her anger directed at Cui Jie'er.
She straightened up and glared at Cui Jie'er, only to find that there was another person in front of Cui Jie'er, who was frowning and asking, "Are you talking about my mandarin fish?"
Everyone was stunned.
The anger that had just subsided in Xu Zao Ren flared up again: "What's going on with your Peng family? How come another person has suddenly appeared?"
"This person is..." the maid hesitated for a moment.
"This is Madam Su, she was invited by the manor to cook cold dishes and soups."
Cui Jie'er finally had a chance to speak. With red eyes, she explained, "I didn't lie. I asked the purchasing person, and Madam Su did order mandarin fish from the manor. But when I went to the inner room to get it, they said there were no fish. They even beat and scolded me, saying I was trying to peep at people cooking."
After hearing Cui Jie'er's explanation, the maid remembered that she seemed to have heard the steward mention that Lu Zao Ren was short-handed and might not be able to finish preparing the banquet dishes in time, so he found another cook to make cold dishes and soups. She never expected that this cook would be such a young female cook.
But now is not the time to grumble about the age of the cook. The maid wiped the sweat from her brow and immediately sent someone to find mandarin fish.
The mandarin fish seemed to have vanished without a trace until Su Zhihan glanced into the bin of kitchen waste and found it: "You used the mandarin fish?"
Xu, who had just been speaking sternly, stammered and remained silent. It was only after Lu, the cook, heard about the matter and came out to inquire that he learned that his apprentice, Xu, had failed to properly communicate with Master Peng's household regarding the ingredients and had not ordered perch.
Fearing a scolding from Lu, Xu, the cook, didn't dare reveal the truth and instead used mandarin fish as a substitute. He secretly glanced at Lu's face and quickly explained, "I... I was thinking of buying some to return tomorrow..."
Little did anyone expect that Sister Cui would suddenly come looking for mandarin fish. The cook, Xu, who had no idea that there was another cook in the manor, blamed the matter on Sister Cui.
Lu Zaoren's face was as black as the bottom of a pot. Although he could tell that his apprentice was mostly making excuses, he didn't want to air such a family scandal. He cupped his hands and apologized to the younger Su Zhihan in a low voice: "Please, Su, cook, calm down. It's all my fault for not teaching her properly, which is why this brat is so lawless."
"Today is the birthday of Old Madam Peng. If we continue like this, we may delay the auspicious occasion. It just so happens that Chef Su is making soup. Why don't I send someone to the market to buy some mandarin fish so that we can ask you to cook in time?"
Su Zhihan also knew that the Peng family matriarch's birthday banquet was more important than the argument. She nodded and agreed to Lu Zaoren's suggestion, and then said to the servant, "Cui'er is just doing her duty, I hope Madam won't blame her."
The maidservant responded repeatedly, or rather, she breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that the previous cook's departure for his funeral had only added bad luck to Old Madam Peng's birthday banquet.
If the cooks quarrel and cause a big fuss, and the news gets back to the house, those who are servants will be in deep trouble.
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