Chapter 17: Lantern Festival gathering, different thoughts
The distinguished guest invited by the Marquis' Mansion on the Lantern Festival must be of high status. I think she must be a woman of suitable age chosen by the old lady of the Marquis' Mansion to marry the Marquis.
Naturally, these concubines cannot go out. If they go out to have fun, wouldn’t people say that the Marquis of Zhenbei has too many concubines in his inner house? Wouldn’t that make the Marquis’ future wife unhappy?
Of course, this cannot be done.
Yun Qiao knew everything.
"Of course we won't go out. I'm thinking that since the Marquis' Mansion is entertaining foreign guests, they will naturally prepare a lot of food. When the time comes, you can go to the kitchen and get some leftovers, which will be enough for us to eat well."
"Let's just have hot pot. It only needs a few ingredients and a rich flavor."
It's not something they haven't done before. Meat is indispensable in the kitchen of the Marquis's Mansion. In addition to chicken, duck, fish, there are also some game, such as hare, roe deer, venison, beef, and mutton, which are all prepared frequently.
When preparing meals for the master, the emphasis is on tender and fresh meat. As for other leftovers, the best ones are distributed among the cooks or handymen in the kitchen.
The rest is not easy to deal with, so just throw it away.
Especially some pork, fish and mutton offal, which are rarely eaten by the masters in the marquis' mansion.
Some chefs have worked in wealthy families for a long time and don't like to deal with these tricky and difficult to handle offal, for fear of getting their hands contaminated with fishy smell.
Some time ago, Yun Qiao exchanged two purses for two pig tripes. She stewed a delicious pig tripe soup. When she and Xiao Tao were eating, Fang Jia from next door came to have a bowl of soup. Later, there was only one bowl left, and Zhang Yuqing came over again. They all said that her casserole pig tripe soup was delicious.
Yun Qiao planned to stew chicken with pork tripe this time, and also put in some dried mushrooms. If the kitchen had any chicken, duck, fish or meat, she would ask for some, and it would be best if she could get some beef and mutton.
It was always Xiaotao who went to the big kitchen to serve meals, so she was naturally familiar with the people in the kitchen. In addition, Xiaotao was sweet-mouthed and called everyone uncle, aunt, sister, and brother in a friendly manner. Even the maid who looked down on her did not harbor any ill will when they heard a little maid calling them in such a flattering way.
Naturally, there is no difficulty in giving things to Xiaotao.
Hearing what her daughter said, Xiao Tao agreed without hesitation.
"That night, will the young lady be with the other girls from Xiaoxiang Garden?"
"Of course."
"I'll tell a few sisters, thinking that everyone won't come empty-handed."
Xiao Tao knew what her daughter was thinking.
Just wait for the Lantern Festival, the whole mansion will be decorated with lights and the liveliness will be no less than that of New Year's Eve. The Lantern Festival is best at night, it is lively and festive, whether inside or outside the mansion, it is extremely lively.
The Xiaoxiang Garden where they lived was closest to the moat, and the bustle on the moat and the sounds of gongs and drums could be heard in their Xiaoxiang Garden.
At this moment, Xiaoxiang Garden was also slightly decorated.
The lanterns under the eaves outside the door were requested from the steward of the Marquis' Mansion.
The amount given was not much, but after some effort to dress up, you could still tell that the atmosphere was good.
The hot pot of chicken stewed in pork tripe soup was burning. When Cheng Danmei, Sun Sisi and Lianxiang arrived, Fang Jia and Zhang Yuqing had already arrived.
"Sister Mei is here, please come in, we are waiting for you."
Cheng Danmei saw that everything was ready inside and walked over with a faint smile.
"I was wondering why Sister Qiao, who is usually frugal, was so generous in treating us to a meal today. It turns out it's for hot pot."
Yun Qiao smiled and said, "Hot pot is delicious when you eat it hot. It's so cold now, so it's perfect for eating this."
"Look, what we brought you." Sun Sisi raised the food box in her hand.
"I prepared some side dishes, Sister Lianxiang prepared some cakes, and Sister Mei prepared the drinks for tonight, which are more than enough."
As she spoke, the maidservant and the old woman in front of Cheng Danmei brought several jars of wine. However, the jars were not very big, and of course they were not as big as the ones men drink.
Fang Jia and Zhang Yuqing also prepared things.
The table was filled with food, drinks and entertainment.
After everyone arrived, they took their seats and started eating.
I drank the pork tripe and chicken soup first to warm up my stomach, and then started eating the meat and vegetables.
The condiments were prepared by Yun Qiao herself, both spicy and non-spicy, as well as the rich and fragrant sesame paste and sesame oil condiments. There were four types of condiments, two servings of each.
Everyone enjoyed the meal and drank a lot of wine.
Yun Qiao entertained everyone today and said a lot of heartfelt words.
"To be honest, I was forced into the Marquis' Mansion. I won't do anything to compete for favor. Sisters, just know my thoughts."
"No matter who does well in the future, I just hope you can live a good life and protect Yunqiao. Yunqiao will be very grateful."
As soon as Yun Qiao finished speaking, Fang Jia, who couldn't hold his liquor well, interrupted drunkenly, "Me, and me, I don't care about that so-called Marquis either, but I don't want to spend my whole life here either."
"I want to leave the Marquis' Mansion. What kind of place is this? How is it different from a canary in a cage?"
Zhang Yuqing said coldly.
"We are not like canaries. Canaries are loved by people, but who among us would feel the pain?"
When she talked about this, some hatred appeared in her eyes.
She did not come to the Marquis' Mansion voluntarily. She and her widowed mother lived with her uncle's family. Her uncle wanted to please the Marquis of Zhenbei, so he took the initiative to send her here. Thinking of her uncle, the hatred in Zhang Yuqing's eyes became even stronger.
She must avenge her mother.
She was unwilling to be a concubine, but she had to be one, and in the future she would have to take the position of a concubine.
Her purpose is different from Yun Qiao and Fang Jia.
She needs the favor of Chen Jingyan, the Marquis of Zhenbei.
Seeing that no one was talking, Cheng Danmei said softly, "It's getting late. Let's finish eating and go home."
Yun Qiao said, "Okay, everyone has almost finished eating anyway."
Fang Jia was drunk. Yun Qiao called the maid who served Fang Jia and asked her to help her master back to the house, feed her some sobering soup, and take good care of her.
Zhang Yuqing got up and left on his own.
Sun Sisi and Lianxiang accompanied Cheng Danmei.
After everyone left, Yun Qiao sat on a chair, looking in the direction everyone left, with mixed feelings.
During this dinner tonight, she had figured out that only Fang Jia, like her, had no feelings towards Marquis Chen Jingyan. Instead, Zhang Yuqing was depressed and frustrated, while Sun Sisi and Lianxiang were lonely and lost, and there was a glimmer of hope in Cheng Danmei's eyes...
Yun Qiao was certain that Cheng Danmei, Sun Sisi and Lianxiang had all admired Chen Jingyan.
They admired each other in vain but received no response, so they said that the love was gone.
"Miss, I'm here to clean up. Please take a rest first. I'll bring you hot water to wash up."
"There's a sound of piano playing outside, like..."
"It must be Miss Zhang. She has been playing the piano for quite some time..."
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