Chapter 72 The son-in-law she had chosen with great care...

The soup had to be cooked two hours in advance. When Jiang Yanyi told her about the ingredients for lunch, Liu immediately ordered the kitchen staff to go out and buy them.

Jiang Yanyi took the time to visit Jiang Yangui in his yard. When she entered the room, she saw him holding a book in his hand and a thick pile of books at the head of the bed.

The room was a bit stuffy with the burning charcoal basin. There was a small gap at the window, but this actually dissipated a lot of warmth in the room, and the air didn't circulate much.

Jiang Yanyi couldn't help but think of the ground dragon in Feng Mansion. If he could recuperate in such a yard, it would be much better for Jiang Yangui's injury.

"Is your leg pain better today?" Jiang Yanyi asked.

Jiang Yangui was so absorbed in reading that he didn't realize someone had entered the room until Jiang Yanyi spoke. "It doesn't hurt that much anymore."

When Jiang Yangui smiled, two dimples appeared on his cheeks, revealing a hint of shyness.

Jiang Yanyi asked him, "What book are you reading?"

"I read all kinds of books to kill time." Jiang Yangui hesitated for a while and said, "Sister, I want to hire a teacher. We can pay for it ourselves."

Jiang Yanyi was naturally happy that he wanted to study. She said, "Okay, I've been looking for a house these days. We can move out when the time comes."

Jiang Yangui frowned, "Didn't you say we would move to the house behind your store?"

Jiang Yanyi said, "It's a bit noisy there, which is not good for your recovery. If you start studying, it will be even worse for you to live there."

Jiang Yangui was afraid that the expense would be too high, so he hurriedly said, "As long as I can be with you, I'm willing to live anywhere. You don't have to spend money to accommodate me."

"I was originally planning to move to a bigger shop, but not just for you." Jiang Yanyi comforted him.

At this moment, Chu Zhong, the guard who took care of Jiang Yangui's daily life, came in and said, "Cousin, there is a girl at the gate who brought a fish to the house, saying that she was looking for you."

Jiang Yanyi was wondering who came to the door since he didn't know many people in Xizhou. When he went to the gate, he saw that it was Qiu Kui.

She was dressed like a ball, holding two sea bass in her hands. When she saw Jiang Yanyi, she grinned and said, "Huahua, Master Yao bought fish and asked me to send two to you."

It's so cold now, it's not easy to fish, and it's hard to buy fish on the market. Chef Yao can get this way, so I think the fishmonger he used to work with often brought the fish to him specially.

"Master Yao, you are so thoughtful. You must be frozen after running here in such a snowy day. Come in and warm yourself by the fire." Jiang Yanyi smiled and led Qiukui into the house.

Qiukui was like a little tail. Jiang Yanyi was going to the kitchen to deal with the pork bones bought by the servants. Qiukui followed him like she did in the store before.

Jiang Yanyi thought she was shy and let her do what she wanted.

When Liu heard that someone was coming from the antique soup shop, she followed Jiang Yanyi to the kitchen. She immediately realized that Jiang Yanyi didn't know how to cook or make soup, and that person was specially hired by her to help her get away with it.

Liu hurriedly got out of her yard and rushed to the kitchen in a hurry.

The first thing she said when she entered the house was: "Hey, I heard that there are guests in the mansion?"

Qiu Kui's status is not considered a guest to the Chu family, and Liu's words will only embarrass Qiu Kui.

Jiang Yanyi has always been protective of her son. Before, she was willing to put on a show with Liu, but now her attitude is obviously tough and distant: "It's the girl who helps in my antique soup shop who came to deliver fish. It's so cold, so I asked her to come in and warm herself by the fire."

Seeing that Jiang Yanyi's attitude suddenly changed, Liu was secretly happy and more certain of her guess.

She smiled and said, "Since she is a member of Ayi's shop, we should not neglect her. Let this girl go to the guest room and sit for a while. How can we let her stay in the kitchen?"

Although Qiu Kui was a little stunned, Liu's words still made her feel uncomfortable. She pinched the corner of her clothes and said, "I won't go. I'll help Huahua here."

She stared at Liu angrily, believing that Liu was a bad person who bullied Jiang Yanyi. Her thinking was different from that of ordinary people, but she had her own little world in her head.

After Jiang Yanyi left yesterday, Chef Yao and the old scholar shook their heads and sighed and said a lot of things. Qiu Kui heard that they were saying that Jiang Yanyi was not living well here. She felt that if she left now, Jiang Yanyi might be angry with this noble woman.

When Liu was glared at by Qiu Kui, she immediately thought that it was Jiang Yanyi who said something bad about her outside, but she also found that this girl seemed to be mentally unstable. She looked at Jiang Yanyi: "Ayi, the people in your store..."

Jiang Yanyi didn't want Qiu Kui to be treated like a fool, and interrupted Liu: "Aunt, would you like to lend a hand? Help me peel some garlic."

When Liu was cooking before, the ingredients were prepared by the servants, and the chef on the stove instructed her on what to do at each step. She only needed to put the ingredients into the pot by herself, and it was almost as if she had cooked it herself.

Jiang Yanyi asked her to peel garlic, and Liu was confused for a moment, "Peel... peel garlic?"

Jiang Yanyi originally just wanted to find something for Liu to do, and seeing Liu's expression, he thought that Liu was unwilling, so he didn't say anything and asked a servant to help her peel garlic.

In the kitchen, because Jiang Yanyi and Liu were cooking in person today, it was very new to the servants, so many servants were peeking in at the kitchen door.

Liu was afraid that the old lady would hear about this and have a worse impression of her, so she stepped forward and snatched the garlic from the maid's hand, "It's just peeling garlic, I'll peel it."

She glanced at Qiu Kui and sneered in her heart, thinking that Jiang Yanyi was just stalling for time with her, trying to anger her away and let the maid who rushed over from the store cook for her.

Therefore, when she was peeling garlic, she felt a little better.

However, Liu's hands were rarely touched by water, and she had to apply various kinds of ointments countless times every day to keep her hands as good as those of a girl in her twenties.

The skin on her hands was fragile, and she didn't have long nails. When peeling garlic, she had to peel the thin skin off, and she had hurt the garlic cloves several times. The garlic juice seeped into the gaps between her nails, and it felt like a burning pain.

Liu had never suffered such pain before. She felt that the gaps between her thumbs were painful and hot, and she couldn't help but cry out: "My hand..."

Jiang Yanyi had just finished blanching the pork bones, and when she turned around, she saw that Liu was about to cry while peeling garlic. She didn't know what to say for a moment, and said: "Aunt, go down and soak it in cold water, and apply some medicine."

Liu felt that this was Jiang Yanyi's trick to get rid of her. It was just a little garlic juice. Compared with exposing Jiang Yanyi, this little pain was nothing!

Liu endured the pain and said, "It's just a little redness and swelling, it's nothing serious, Yi, please cook quickly, I'm still waiting to learn!"

Jiang Yanyi saw that Liu had wrapped her thumb with silk and covered it tightly with one hand, with a painful look on her face, but she still refused to leave. She was quite puzzled.

The process of making pork bone soup was the same as yesterday. After Jiang Yanyi put the soup into the pot, she began to deal with the two fish brought by Qiu Kuai.

She weighed them with her hand, and both weighed more than three pounds.

Thinking that Madam Chu and Jiang Yangui had a poor appetite, she decided to make pickled fish.

The weather was too cold, and the fish had been out of water for too long, so they were frozen to death, which saved Jiang Yanyi the trouble of hitting the fish with a wooden hammer.

The chef of the Chu family originally wanted to help Jiang Yanyi to process the fish, but he saw Jiang Yanyi cut open the belly with a knife and scraped off the fish scales in a few strokes. His technique was brutal, but his movements were neat and tidy.

After washing the fish, the fish meat and bones were separated, and the black mucous membrane on the fish skin was washed clean. A large part of the earthy smell of grass carp comes from this mucous membrane. The fish bones were chopped into sections and the fish meat was sliced. The knife skills can be said to be very exquisite.

In the profession of cooking, laymen watch the excitement, while experts see the doorway.

Liu watched for so long, even though Jiang Yanyi had already boiled the soup, she still didn't see what was going on.

If she left now, all her previous efforts would be wasted. Liu was determined to monitor Jiang Yanyi until he finished making this lunch.

She felt that now it was a question of who could wait longer. Jiang Yanyi wanted to wait for her to leave and find someone else to do it, while she was waiting for Jiang Yanyi to make a fool of himself. Liu had already done so much, and she would not give up no matter what.

Jiang Yanyi had no time to guess Liu's little thoughts. She marinated the fish bones and fish meat separately, washed the pickled cabbage, cut it into half-finger-wide slices, and blanched it in water to remove the earthy smell of the pickled cabbage.

Pickled fish is a classic Sichuan dish. When Jiang Yanyi cooked it before, it always had a fishy smell, but she had clearly removed the fishy smell from the fish. For a long time, she couldn't figure out this problem. Later, she learned from an old Sichuan chef that pickled cabbage also has an earthy smell. If you want to make this dish authentic, you can't be afraid of trouble. Pickled cabbage must also be blanched and stir-fried to remove the fishy smell. After processing

the pickled cabbage, Jiang Yanyi heated the pot, added lard, waited for the lard to melt, and then added some sesame oil and heated it together, stir-fried the green onion, ginger and garlic, and stir-fried the ginger and garlic with vegetable oil and animal oil. The fragrance was really overbearing. Everyone in the kitchen was sniffing and looking into the pot.

After Jiang Yanyi sautéed the green peppercorns, he put the fish head and bones into the pot first to stir-fry until the water vapor came out, and then added the pickled cabbage to stir-fry the sour aroma. At this time, the aroma of the fish meat and various seasonings in the pot had already come out. Jiang Yanyi sprinkled a spoonful of rice wine along the edge of the pot to cook out the wine aroma, and finally poured in a pot of boiling water. The pot immediately began to bubble, and the fish soup was thick and white, and the fragrance rose straight up along with the hot steam of the boiling soup.

After Jiang Yanyi added the seasonings, he boiled for a while, picked up the fish bones and fish heads into a soup pot, and started to add the fish fillets while the soup in the pot was boiling. The fish fillets were coated with egg white during marinating, which made them smoother and more tender. There was also a thin layer of starch on the surface, which could fully lock the moisture of the fish meat, so it was almost cooked as soon as it was put into the pot.

She poured the fish fillets and the meat into the soup pot, sprinkled with chopped garlic, chopped green onions, green peppercorns, and dogwood, and poured two spoons of hot oil on top. With a "sizzle" sound, the fish instantly became fragrant.

The aroma attracted the servants to gather at the door and praise it again and again.

Liu had a dreamy look on her face. She had been staring at it the whole time, but when the pot of fragrant pickled fish was placed in front of her, she still felt like she was dreaming.

Jiang Yanyi wiped her hands on her apron and asked her, "Aunt, have you learned how to cook these two dishes today?"

Liu was as if she had just woken up from a dream: "Ah?"

It seemed that her eyes had learned how to cook, but her hands had not yet learned how to cook.

She covered her thumb, which was no longer painful, with a guilty conscience and sighed, "Oh, my hand hurts so much, I'll go back and apply some medicine first."

As soon as Liu left, Qiu Kui saw that it was almost time for dinner, and she also told Jiang Yanyi that she wanted to go back

. Jiang Yanyi asked her to stay for dinner, but she refused no matter what. The servants in the mansion always looked at Qiu Kui with strange eyes. Jiang Yanyi also knew that she was uncomfortable here, so he packed a plate of snacks and took it back for her.

Jiang Yanyi only made these two hard dishes, and the servant came to report that there would be guests in the mansion today and more dishes were needed. Jiang Yanyi didn't have the time to continue working in the kitchen, so she gave her seat to the cook at the stove.

When the meal started, only the women were eating in the inner courtyard. The men of the Chu family seemed to be in the front hall accompanying the distinguished guest, and Chu Changping also hurried back from outside.

Liu had no idea what news she had heard, and she had a sullen face when she left the kitchen, but now her eyes were filled with secret joy.

Jiang Yanyi guessed that it was related to the distinguished guest in the mansion. She also found that most of the pickled fish she made was taken away!

She didn't even use her chopsticks during the meal, and there was only soup left in the pot of pickled fish.

Liu's little daughter used wooden chopsticks to dig around in the soup bowl, and finally picked up a handful of pickled cabbage, and both eyebrows drooped.

Seeing that she seemed to want to scoop up more soup and rice, Liu scolded in a low voice: "Huibao, eat less, you will have to marry in two years, who will marry a fat girl like you?"

Chu Huibao bit her chopsticks and looked at her sister pitifully.

Chu Shubao was gnawing on a big bone. When she saw Chu Huibao's look, she said, "Mother, my younger sister is still growing up."

When Liu thought of what she had to ask Chu Shubao to do later and saw that her belt was already tight, she said with a headache, "You should eat less too!"

Old Madam Chu was also happy with her meal today. Seeing Liu scolding her two granddaughters, she said, "How can you be a mother like this? The children are girls now and can eat and drink whatever they want. But when they get married and serve their parents-in-law in the future, they won't have such a life."

Reprimanded by Old Madam Chu, Liu had to agree.

Madam Chu had finished eating. She wiped her mouth with a silk handkerchief and said, "You have learned how to cook from Yi girl. From tomorrow on, you should cook these dishes for me, an old woman, to try."

Liu finally understood why Madam Chu had kept silent when she had given Jiang Yanyi a hard time. It turned out that she was waiting for her here.

Liu secretly complained in her heart. She had said that she wanted to learn how to cook to honor Madam Chu. Now that Madam Chu had repeated her words, she couldn't refute them even if she wanted to. She might even be labeled as unfilial.

Let alone how hard it was to cook, the key point was that she didn't know how to cook at all!

Liu finally understood what it meant to shoot oneself in the foot.

Jiang Yanyi went to see Jiang Yangui after dinner, but Liu didn't know whether she wanted to help her two daughters digest the food or something else. She didn't go back to her own yard, but stopped and walked at the hanging flower gate leading to the front yard.

Jiang Yanyi was puzzled and frowned as she went to Jiang Yangui's yard.

Chu Shubao had eaten and drunk enough and just wanted to go back to her room to read a storybook. Liu dragged her here to blow the cold wind. She was reluctant and said, "Mother, it's so cold here, let's go back to our room."

Liu looked around and saw that no one was passing by. She said angrily, "Do you know who the distinguished guest is today?"

Chu Shubao yawned and asked, "Who is it?"

Liu whispered in her ear, "The King of Liaoning! The one with the most military power among the princes!"

Chu Shubao gathered her cloak and walked back, "Mom, let's stop dreaming, okay? You want me to work as a maid in the prince's mansion, right?"

"Pooh, pooh, pooh! What are you thinking about!" Liu pulled her daughter back and said, "The King of Liaoning has a military advisor who is said to be highly valued by him. I saw him when I came back to the yard from the kitchen just now. He is really handsome! Your uncle is his colleague. It is not enough for you to be a good match for him. Come with me to see him. If you are willing, I will talk to your uncle later."

Chu Shubao touched her bulging belly and said, "Mother, I am so full."

"You are not allowed to eat as much as you want!" Liu got angry when she mentioned this, but she still pulled Chu Shubao out.

They passed the hanging flower gate and were about to go to the ear room of the front hall when they saw a piece of plain skirt under the eaves.

"Thank you." Jiang Yanyi's pearly and smooth voice came from under the eaves.

"It's just a small favor." The voice was clear and gentle, but it was obviously from a man.

The mother, daughter and three of them were crouching under a cedar tree. They saw Jiang Yanyi holding a bottle in his hand. He knelt down to salute the man in a bamboo green robe, then stepped out of the way. The man also turned around the entrance and left.

Liu was so angry that her teeth were itching. After the man walked away, she said to Shubao fiercely, "You were so slow that someone else got there first!"

She couldn't let someone snatch away the son-in-law she had carefully selected!