Chapter 164
In July, the sun at noon was like a ball of fire.
In Jiang Yanyi's bedroom, there was an ice pot, which contained iced sour plum soup, mung bean soup, and pear juice, which were secret summer-cooling cold drinks made by the kitchen. After drinking them for several days, they were inevitably greasy, and she had no appetite at all.
The white mist that rose from the melted ice brought a little coolness to the hall, and several young palace maids stood beside the ice pot and fanned the cool air from the melted ice to her.
Chenyu pinched Jiang Yanyi's shoulder and said, "The old people in the palace said that this year's winter was not as cold as in previous years. Once summer came, it was already hot even before the dog days of summer." As
the old saying goes, a calm mind naturally cools down. The hot and humid weather made Jiang Yanyi feel restless and she could not calm down.
She turned over on the recliner and said, "It would be nice if we had some ice cream or popsicles at this time."
"Is ice cream a pastry? If your majesty wants to eat it, I will go to the kitchen and ask if there is a chef who can make it." Chenyu automatically understood ice cream as a pastry, but as for "ice cream", she did not know what it was.
Jiang Yanyi lay on her back for a while, and said lazily, "I'm afraid no one in the kitchen can make it."
Chenyu asked expectantly, "Madam, can you make it?"
Jiang Yanyi replied with two words, "No."
She is best at Sichuan cuisine and hot pot, and many health-preserving dishes were learned from Chef Li and Chef Yao when she was in Xizhou.
Ice cream and popsicles are not to be relied on, but she knows how to make another delicious summer snack - rose ice jelly dumplings. When she was preparing to open a hot pot restaurant in her previous life, she also learned how to make rose ice jelly dumplings, intending to provide them for free in her own hot pot restaurant in summer.
The reason why the hot pot restaurant didn't provide rose ice jelly dumplings was mainly because ice in summer was a rare commodity in this era, and no one
could afford to provide it for free. Once the gluttonous insects came up, they drove away the summer fatigue.
Jiang Yanyi went to the kitchen and asked the chef if there were any ice jelly seeds in the kitchen. The chef had never heard of it.
The ice jelly seeds used to make ice jelly in later generations are actually agar seeds, with the scientific name of pseudo-acid pulp seeds. In traditional Chinese medicine, it is still a herb that can be used as medicine in its entirety.
Jiang Yanyi asked the palace maids in the kitchen to go to the Imperial Hospital to get agar seeds, and he began to prepare other materials for making rose ice jelly dumplings.
In order to avoid having to cook it herself when she wanted to eat it in the future, she asked several chefs from the kitchen to watch.
Jiang Yanyi only needed to move her mouth to knead the dough and the chefs from the kitchen would do it. Being able to become a chef in the kitchen, his skillful kneading skills and meticulous workmanship were far better than those of ordinary pastry chefs. Jiang Yanyi could only sigh that she would have a good time.
The higher the cooking skills, the more delicious it is, and the visual enjoyment is like a show of skill.
The cooked small glutinous rice balls are white, glutinous and fragrant, and of uniform size. They float in the boiling water like a pot of pearls. After picking them up and putting them in cold water to cool for a while, they are mixed with fermented glutinous rice and put in an ice pot to chill.
Rose sauce is ready-made in the kitchen, so there is no need to boil it.
The eunuch brought agar seeds, and Jiang Yanyi asked someone to soak a small spoonful of lime powder. Lime is the coagulant for making ice jelly.
Before rubbing the ice jelly, she washed the agar seeds, wrapped them with cotton cloth that had been steamed and sterilized, tied them tightly, and soaked them in cold boiled water for a while before starting to rub them.
Agar seeds produce mucus that comes into contact with the air, and there will be more bubbles after it becomes ice jelly. When Jiang Yanyi rubbed the agar seeds, she tried to soak the cotton cloth underwater so that it would not come into contact with the air, and there would not be many bubbles inside after it became ice jelly.
Feeling that there was no more mucus in the agar seeds, Jiang Yanyi stopped rubbing. If the agar seeds were rubbed too much, the ice jelly would turn yellow.
She poured out the clarified part of the limestone water, used a clean cotton cloth as a filter, poured the clear lime water into the agar-agar, and left it for an hour, and the ice jelly was completely solidified.
While waiting, Jiang Yanyi also watched a chef Yu make his specialty dessert "Sugar Steamed Cheese".
Cheese is made by boiling milk and sugar on low heat, cooling it and pouring rice wine into it, and then steaming it in a steamer on low heat for a quarter of an hour. The steamed cheese has not yet completely solidified, so Chef Yu put it in an ice pot to chill it, and also fried pine nuts, almond crumbs, peanut crumbs and white sesame seeds, saying that you can add side dishes when eating, and the taste will be even better. The side
dishes are delicious when added to the rose ice jelly dumplings. Jiang Yanyi asked Chef Yu to make a few more servings, saying that she would send them to Feng Shuo later.
When the ice jelly solidified, the sugar steamed custard was almost solidified.
Jiang Yanyi scooped a few spoonfuls of ice jelly and added cold brown sugar water. Brown sugar ice jelly is a summer snack. She also asked the eunuch to smash some crushed ice into the bottom of the bowl, and then scooped in the chilled fermented glutinous rice dumplings, and topped them with white sesame seeds, crushed peanuts, pine nuts, crushed almonds, rose sauce and watermelon cubes.
Just holding the bowl of rose ice jelly dumplings felt cool, and the heat seemed to disappear as it went into her mouth.
Ice jelly with brown sugar water has an indescribable sweetness. The sweetness of watermelon is slightly less than that, but it is very refreshing. The fried sesame seeds and peanuts and almonds are full of fragrance when chewed. The cool and soft glutinous small glutinous rice balls are very chewy, with a faint rose fragrance. There are only two words: absolutely delicious!
Jiang Yanyi scooped a few spoonfuls and squinted her eyes comfortably. After eating the rose ice jelly small glutinous rice balls, she scooped up the sugar steamed yogurt. The milk was only slightly solidified and melted in the mouth. The rich milk fragrance filled the tip of the tongue, which was cool and refreshing. The almonds, peanuts, and raisins sprinkled on the milk added a layer of taste, sweet and crispy.
Jiang Yanyi asked the people in the kitchen to pack a portion of rose ice jelly small glutinous rice balls and sugar steamed yogurt, and she personally delivered it to Feng Shuo.
Now that the court has just been put on the right track, there are many things to be done. Feng Shuo is often too busy to eat.
When Jiang Yanyi went over, several officials from the Hanlin Academy were leaving Yu's study. They saw her bowing to them one after another, but their expressions were strange. After bowing, they hurried away. Jiang Yanyi looked at their backs and had something in mind.
She asked the waiter in front of Yu's study: "Is His Majesty angry?"
The waiter nodded in fear and trepidation: "I heard His Majesty scolding several officials, but I don't know what it was about."
Jiang Yanyi nodded to show that she understood, took the food box from Chenyu, and said: "Your Majesty may be upset, I will go in alone."
Chenyu did not dare to get close to Feng Shuo when he was in a bad mood, and wished it would be so.
Jiang Yanyi went in with the food box, and in order not to inform the waiter at the door, she moved very quietly. Feng Shuo was working on memorials at his desk, and thought it was a eunuch coming in to add tea, so he didn't even look up.
Fu Xi was born in the palace, and after Feng Shuo succeeded to the throne, he became the chief steward of the palace. When
he saw Jiang Yanyi coming in, he was about to talk to Feng Shuo, but Jiang Yanyi made a gesture to him to keep quiet.
Fu Xi understood and nodded, and after Jiang Yanyi approached, he helped take out the things in the food box one by one, put them on the corner of the table, and then quietly left.
Feng Shuo didn't raise his head, thinking that the person who left was the eunuch who came in to add tea. After reading the memorials for several hours, he rubbed his brows tiredly, "Fuxi, tea."
He placed an ice pot in the study. He had previously scolded several ministers of the Hanlin Academy. In order to save some face for those ministers, he dismissed the eunuch who was fanning the ice pot.
Now the coolness of the ice pot was not enough, and the dragon robe he wore to court was too serious. In addition, he was very angry, and he felt hot and uncomfortable.
Jiang Yanyi pushed the small glutinous rice balls with rose ice jelly and crushed ice in front of him and said softly, "The heat is very strong, Your Majesty, please eat something to cool down."
Feng Shuo just realized that it was Jiang Yanyi standing next to him. His frowning brows relaxed and he turned slightly to the side and asked in a slower tone, "When did you come?"
Jiang Yanyi mixed the jelly and glutinous rice balls in the bowl with a spoon and said with a smile, "Just arrived."
She scooped a spoonful and fed it to Feng Shuo, who chewed it a few times and swallowed it. The anger in his heart that had nowhere to vent seemed to dissipate with the coolness that spread from his throat to his stomach.
Jiang Yanyi asked him, "What happened to make you so angry?"
Feng Shuo took the small bowl, ate it all in three or two bites, and said, "There is a severe drought in Shuzhou. The reservoir that the court just repaired two years ago has not stored a drop of water. The crops cannot be relieved from the drought. I'm afraid there will be no harvest in the fall."
As soon as he said that, Jiang Yanyi understood what he was worried about. The Great Xuan Dynasty had been fighting wars for two consecutive years, and the people had fled everywhere and had no time to grow crops. If there was a drought this year, the court's granaries would have been almost empty during the war, and they would not be able to provide so much disaster relief grain.
Repairing the reservoir is a big project. The national treasury probably paid a large sum of money to the Ministry of Works to do this. The repaired reservoir was no longer able to store water in less than two years. It was obvious that the people who repaired the reservoir embezzled the money, which led to the reservoir being such a shoddy project.
Two years ago, Feng Shiyan came to power. After experiencing war, after Feng Shuo succeeded to the throne, the people in the six ministries had already been replaced. Now, if we trace it back, it is a mess.
Jiang Yanyi pushed the steamed cheese in front of him and said, "The matter of negligence in repairing the reservoir can be put on hold. Your Majesty may as well send someone to investigate the matter secretly. Solving the drought in Shuzhou is the most important thing. However, if God does not rain, we have no choice but to try our best to recover the losses. Hengzhou is close to the sea and has many fertile fields. After the harvest this year, Your Majesty will collect a batch of grain and send it to Shuzhou to solve the urgent problem. Even if the rice production in Hengzhou is not much this year, it will take several months before the harvest. We will still have time to buy a large amount of rice from outside the Great Wall."
Feng Shuo pulled Jiang Yanyi close, held him in his arms, and rubbed him gently. He rubbed her temple and smiled, "Did I marry a counselor?"
Jiang Yanyi touched the blue stubble on his chin with her hand, put her arms around his neck, leaned into his arms and said, "Your life was hard enough when you were the King of Liaoning. Now you have to deal with more memorials than then. I feel bad for you."
Feng Shuo stroked her fair cheek and said, "When I was the King of Liaoning, I only governed the three places of Yu, Heng and Xizhou. Now I have to defend the entire Daxuan kingdom, so I have to be diligent."
He ran his fingertips from her chin to the back of her neck, then all the way down, lightly touching her back.
Summer dresses were thin, Jiang Yanyi was wearing a pear blossom white lace corseted long dress inside, and a snow-white gauze outside. Feng Shuo's palm was burning, and just by being so close, Jiang Yanyi had the illusion that the skin on her back was about to be burned by his palm.
Noticing that his eyes had darkened, they were already an old couple, so Jiang Yanyi naturally knew what he was thinking.
She had no intention of hiding, but just picked up the bowl of cool steamed sugar yogurt on the desk and glanced at Feng Shuo: "Do you want to eat more?"
Feng Shuo did not answer, but raised his eyebrows in a dissolute manner, and his expression clearly said "you feed me".
Jiang Yanyi scooped a spoonful and fed him.
Cheese is less refreshing than jelly dumplings. Feng Shuo said, "The bowl of dumplings just now is more refreshing."
As he said this, one of his hands had already circled around her chest and squeezed in from her bra to hold it. Jiang Yanyi is now married. When she combs her hair into a bun, she puts all her hair up, revealing her slender neck, which makes it easier for someone to mess with her.
He pressed his thin lips against the snow-white skin on the back of her neck, exhaled a wicked breath, watched her shiver slightly because of the itchiness, and then kissed her lightly or heavily.
Jiang Yanyi panted and said, "Then I'll make you another bowl tomorrow and send it to you?"
Feng Shuo said "um". He did not unbutton her clothes, but pushed up her skirt under the cover of the dragon table, piling it up at her waist.
He had always let Jiang Yanyi hold the small bowl of steamed curd with sugar, and even when she was so disorganized that she almost had to hold on to the dragon table to steady herself, he showed his bad temper and kissed her earlobe and said, "Feed me."
Jiang Yanyi turned her head to look at him, her autumn-water eyes seemed to be covered with a layer of mist.
She finally scooped a spoonful of curd and tremblingly tried to feed it to him, but he suddenly lowered his head and kissed her like crazy.
In the end, the bowl of steamed curd with sugar was knocked to the ground, and Jiang Yanyi was carried to the temporary rest room in the back.
When Feng Shuo stood up, he accidentally knocked over a pile of approved memorials. Jiang Yanyi glanced at them inadvertently, and his eyes suddenly changed.
The one that fell to the ground and spread out happened to be the one in which the court officials advised him to select beautiful women to expand the harem.
Although she had expected that the court officials would force Feng Shuo on this matter, when the moment really came, Jiang Yanyi still felt it was a bit sudden.
No wonder those ministers of the Hanlin Academy looked strange when they saw her.
Feng Shuo's temper must have something to do with the selection.
Jiang Yanyi knew very well what kind of person she was marrying.
Since Feng Shuo had promised her that there would be no one else in the future, he kept it from her and didn't let her know that he was being pressured by the ministers of the Hanlin Academy. He must have done it to avoid upsetting her.
As for him, he always took on everything behind her back.
Once she was particularly doting on Feng Shuo, and she cooperated with any posture he wanted. The last time, she turned over and forced Feng Shuo to surrender.
She suddenly behaved abnormally, and Feng Shuo was a fool to notice that something was wrong.
While lying on his side and kneading her waist to massage her, he half-jokingly said, "Ayi, it would be nice if you always treat me like you do today." Jiang
Yanyi was so tired that she didn't want to move a finger. She just opened her eyelids to look at him and said, "Okay."
Feng Shuo didn't have any romantic thoughts at all. He looked at her for a while and asked, "Did you hear any rumors?"
Jiang Yanyi said, "Isn't it that the court officials forced you to choose a beauty on the grounds of the royal heir? If we have a child, those old-fashioned people will have nothing to say, right?"
Feng Shuo felt as if his heart was filled with something soft. He leaned over and kissed Jiang Yanyi's temples, "Silly girl, I didn't let you know because I had thought of a way to deal with it. You are trapped in the nine-story palace with me, which is already a grievance for you. How can I let you suffer from others' anger? Even the elders of the three dynasties will not allow it."
Jiang Yanyi was indeed moved by these words, but the feeling was only temporary. When someone used her words today as a token of authority to do whatever he wanted every night, Jiang Yanyi regretted it.