Chapter 107
Jiang Yanyi was slightly annoyed and punched him in the chest.
Feng Shuo chuckled twice, and completely embraced her in his arms. He rested his chin on her shoulder and closed his eyes and said, "I heard that you gave the young lady of the An Mansion a bad idea?"
Jiang Yanyi said dissatisfiedly, "Young Lady An and General An have reconciled, how can it be considered a bad idea?"
Feng Shuo said, "The water in Yan Lake is deep. If something really happened, it would be difficult to explain to the An family."
He held up Jiang Yanyi's chin with one hand, and his rough fingers rubbed her small and white chin twice, "Crying, making a fuss, and then hanging yourself, not all men in this world will fall for this. If An Yongyuan hadn't rushed over, how do you expect them to end up?"
Jiang Yanyi turned her head to avoid his hand, and whispered, "I wouldn't dare to try this method on others. It's also because General An values Young Lady An, I think I can take a risk."
She looked up and saw Feng Shuo seemed very tired, so she stood up, walked around behind him, put her ten soft fingers on his shoulders, and kneaded and massaged vigorously, "Life is only a few decades, and if we can be together well, why do we have to waste time on misunderstandings and suspicions?"
Jiang Yanyi finished speaking, and didn't hear Feng Shuo's voice for a long time. When she lowered her head, she found that he was leaning against the back of the chair with his eyes slightly closed. He was actually asleep.
She walked to the front and touched the light blue short stubble on Feng Shuo's chin with heartache.
Hundreds of thousands of soldiers under his command entrusted their lives to him, and the money and food of Xizhou had to be supplied by Yu and Hengzhou. The court was pressing step by step, and every step he took was on the edge of a knife.
Jiang Yanyi found a thin blanket and put it on Feng Shuo. He bent down and kissed him on the lips, then quietly left the study.
As soon as she walked out of the door,
she ran into Xing Yao. He was holding a thick stack of official documents in his hand. When he saw Jiang Yanyi, he respectfully called out, "Miss Chu." Jiang Yanyi put her index finger to her lips, motioning Xing Yao to speak in a low voice. She turned her head to look into the room, and seeing that Feng Shuo showed no sign of waking up, she whispered to Xing Yao, "He has fallen asleep. Let him take a nap."
Xing Yao sighed, "The prince hasn't slept for several nights." Jiang
Yanyi frowned, "How can he not sleep? Even a strong man can't stand it."
Xing Yao said helplessly, "Meals are also irregular. The prince has been in a bad mood these days, and we servants dare not persuade him too much."
Jiang Yanyi knew Feng Shuo's temper. If he said no, no one below would dare to say anything.
She glanced back at the door and said to Xing Yao, "I'll go back to the house and make some soup. I'll bring it over so he can drink it in person."
Xing Yao was overjoyed and bowed deeply to Jiang Yanyi, "Thank you, Miss Chu."
After the antique soup shop moved to Ruyi Building, Jiang Yanyi's original shop became idle. After she tidied it up, she started selling noodles and sauces in the shop. Because of the good location and the previous reputation, this place became another sales point for instant noodles.
The business in the shop was stable, and Qiu Kui could watch it alone. If she encountered any problems, she would shout in the yard and Chu Zhong would come out to help.
Jiang Yanyi had nothing to do before, so she made oden in the shop. She originally planned to eat it for her family, but the aroma of the broth attracted passers-by, who asked if the shop had launched a new pot.
In the end, they ate half of the oden themselves and sold the other half.
When Qiu Kui was alone in the shop, people didn’t always come to buy noodles and sauces, mostly when they were bored. Now Jiang Yanyi had to go to Ruyi Building to watch over the place, and she was bored, so she begged Jiang Yanyi to let her sell oden.
The base of the oden was modified by Jiang Yanyi using the recipe of the old hot pot. The aroma of the broth-cooked ingredients was tempting and made people salivate.
A meal of Gu Gu Tang costs a lot of money, but most people still prefer a few skewers of oden.
Lotus root slices, potato slices, kelp knots, and tofu puffs are sold for one penny for two skewers, while coriander meatballs and fish balls are sold for one penny per skewers. The income may seem small, but within a few days, it can make a profit. The cost of the ingredients is only a little over a hundred coins, and the net profit is more than eight hundred coins.
Some clever vendors also learned to sell oden, but the taste is always unsatisfactory, and the business is far from catching up with Jiang Yanyi's store.
When Jiang Yanyi returned, Qiu Kui was sitting on a small stool with a charcoal basin next to her and bubbling kelp in another basin. She quickly rolled up the kelp and tied it into a knot. When she finished tying a knot on a strand of kelp, she used scissors to cut off the small knots, washed them, put them on bamboo sticks, and put them in the iron pot on the stove to cook.
The aroma followed the heat and drifted out of the shop, and diners came in from time to time.
Jiang Yanyi said hello to Qiu Kui and went straight to the kitchen. Now that the shop didn't sell pots, the ingredients in the kitchen were not so complete. Jiang Yanyi looked around and planned to buy a chicken from Ma the butcher to stew chicken soup for Feng Shuo and also send a bowl of chicken soup to Chu Yangui.
However, when she went to Ma the butcher's butcher shop, she found out that the chickens for the day had been sold out.
"Boss, look, there are two pigeons here. It is said that 'one pigeon is better than nine chickens'. Pigeon stew is more nutritious than old hen stew!" Ma the butcher picked up two fat pigeons to show Jiang Yanyi.
Jiang Yanyi hesitated for a while and said, "Okay, please help me kill the pigeons."
It would be troublesome to boil water and make a soup for the pigeon feathers by killing them himself, so Jiang Yanyi decided to do it.
"Okay!" Butcher Ma took the pigeon to the side and said while busying himself: "When your Ruyi Tower opened, it covered up Laifu Restaurant. It is much farther from Ruyi Tower to my shop than before, but as long as you give me a message in advance, I will deliver the meat you need to Ruyi Tower. If you need meat, you can buy it from me!"
A few days ago, when Ruyi Tower had good business, the fresh meat in the kitchen was not enough, so the people below went to a nearby butcher shop to buy some. Jiang Yanyi guessed that Butcher Ma heard that the people in her shop went to buy meat elsewhere.
She said, "Of course, I've always bought meat from you. A few days ago, the meat we ordered was not enough, so I asked my employees to buy it from the nearest place in a hurry."
Ma the butcher grinned, wrapped the two pigeons he had killed in dry lotus leaves and handed them to Jiang Yanyi, "I hope your business will be more prosperous. Since your antique shop moved, the whole Duhufu Street has not been as lively as before."
Jiang Yanyi smiled and said, "You are too kind . "
When she took the wrapped pigeon, Ma the butcher saw a woman walking across the street with bags in her hands and a veil on her head, and said in confusion: "That female itinerant doctor has a big appetite. Every day I see her buying a lot of food at the market."
Jiang Yanyi followed the butcher's gaze and felt that the female itinerant doctor's back was familiar. She said: "Maybe there is someone else at home."
Butcher Ma shook his head: "My wife caught a cold a few days ago. I heard that this female itinerant doctor is very good at scraping, so I took my wife there. She is a widow and lives alone. She rarely goes out on weekdays."
When it comes to scraping, Jiang Yanyi thought of the female doctor who scraped her before, who was the one who just walked by.
If all the things she was holding were food, it would be enough for seven or eight people.
After hearing what Butcher Ma said, Jiang Yanyi also found it a bit strange.
She picked up the pigeon and wanted to follow the female itinerant doctor to take a look, but in the blink of an eye, the female itinerant doctor was no longer seen in the market. Jiang Yanyi thought that she still had to make soup for Feng Shuo, so she had to go back to the shop first.
To be fair, Jiang Yanyi didn't really like using the ancient flints. When they were rubbed, they smelled saltpeter, which was very pungent.
After the fire started, he scooped cold water into the pot, put the two pigeons in the pot first, and poured a spoonful of hot knife through water to blanch them, removing the fishy smell while boiling out the blood foam. Pigeons
are a top-grade tonic, not only for the brain and kidneys, but also for regulating the body's blood sugar. Whether it is for Feng Shuo, who has been working hard recently, or Chu Yangui, who has been studying hard, it is a great tonic.
After boiling away the blood, Jiang Yanyi picked up the two pigeons, put them in a clay pot, added water, ginger slices, and tied the scallions into a knot and put them in, and then stewed them on a small stove.
While waiting for the water to boil, she took out a few dried red dates and removed the cores with a knife, soaked the mushrooms in hot water, and cut a few slices of Chinese yam and Astragalus. After
the soup in the casserole boiled, she put all the processed ingredients in, and added a spoonful of wolfberry, a few cinnamon sticks, and a few roots of Codonopsis.
Pigeon soup is a medicinal food. Adding these herbs not only improves the taste of the soup, but also doubles its nutritional value.
After simmering for an hour on low heat, she opened the lid of the casserole, and the fragrance of the pigeon meat and the fragrance of various mushrooms and medicinal herbs mixed together and floated out. Jiang Yanyi felt that just smelling this smell could prolong her life.
She scooped a bowl with a spoon and tasted it. The soup was very fresh, but the taste after the mushrooms and medicinal herbs were combined, it was more of a light and mellow aroma. Paired with the fat but not greasy pigeon meat, drinking such soup was really a pleasure.
Jiang Yanyi nodded with satisfaction and divided the pigeon soup into two cups. One cup was sent to Chu Yangui. When Duke Chen, who was teaching Chu Yangui in the room, saw that it was pigeon soup, he even said that he was also enjoying it.
Jiang Yanyi personally sent the remaining can to Feng Shuo.
When she entered the room, Feng Shuo was already dealing with official documents. Perhaps he encountered something difficult. He looked at the documents in his hand with a frown on his face.
Jiang Yanyi calmly placed the soup bowl on his desk. Feng Shuo raised his head and smiled: "You are here."
Jiang Yanyi poured him some soup: "How did you know I would come?"
Feng Shuo put down his pen: "Is there anything else in this mansion that I don't know?"
He took the bowl of soup and drank it all in one gulp.
Jiang Yanyi didn't think he had lost weight before, but after Xing Yao said that, she felt Feng Shuo had lost weight no matter how she looked at him.
She scooped the pigeon meat that was so thick that the meat and bones separated at the touch into his bowl: "Eat more meat and nourish yourself."
Pigeons often fly in the sky, and their meat is firmer and more elastic than chicken, and it tastes delicious.
After drinking a bowl of soup, Feng Shuo felt that all the fatigue of the past few days was swept away.
Jiang Yanyi asked him, "What's troubling you that makes you frown like this?"
Feng Shuo said, "More and more refugees are pouring into Xizhou City. Now Xizhou City is a mixed bag. Last night, someone even tried to rob Jiang Yanxi and kidnap her."
Jiang Yanyi said, "Choose the lesser of two evils. Why don't we close the city gates?"
Feng Shuo pinched his brows and said, "I'm worried that the new emperor has sneaked into the city. Just in case, you should bring more people with you when you go out these days. I'll find you a maid who knows martial arts."
He was eager to propose marriage before because he wanted to settle the marriage so that others wouldn't have to send him women.
But he still underestimated how much the new emperor valued Jiang Yanxi. If the new emperor sneaked into Xizhou City, Jiang Yanyi would become a sitting duck.