Chapter 25: Using Beauty to Serve Others [Jinjiang Authentic Edition, Infant Work, Ying Gong...
The next afternoon, at the beginning of the afternoon, when Qin Ying drowsily got up from her rosewood bed, she saw Zhao Gao's smiling face.
He couldn't help yawning and looked at Zhao Gao in confusion.
Zhao Gao saw the little fellow's dazed look, as if he had not yet fully regained consciousness, and immediately leaned over and said softly:
"Lord Xiao'an, are you awake? His Majesty has been thinking of you and has sent me to the palace to check on you. He said that if you are not sleepy, he would like to take you to Zhangtai Palace to read with him."
Qin Ying's hazy consciousness instantly became clear when he heard this. He understood that his father, who was always striving for progress, wanted to continue learning simplified Chinese characters with him.
He did not hesitate and immediately nodded his furry little head. He climbed up to the wooden railing and stretched out his two short arms for the wet nurse to carry him to the bathroom to take care of his menstrual problems. After being dressed from head to toe, he stayed in the arms of wet nurse Chun, waved goodbye to his mother happily, and excitedly took wet nurse Chun to sit in the carriage driven by Zhao Gao and headed towards Zhangtai Palace three miles north.
The afternoon sunlight was golden and slightly dazzling. The bright sunlight shone through the gaps between the branches of the treetops, forming dazzling round spots of light on the open space in front of the eldest prince's mansion.
There is not a single cloud in the clear blue sky.
Wang Ling, wearing a blue dress, stood on the steps in front of the mansion gate, slightly shielding her forehead from the light with her right hand, and watched the carriage from the palace gradually move away along the compacted loess road.
While she was happy that her son was loved by his grandfather, she couldn't help but feel a little worried.
Yesterday morning, because she was worried about her husband's safety, she wanted to rush to the harem to meet her mother-in-law. Unexpectedly, she ran into her husband who was about to leave the palace at the palace gate.
The couple then went to the Rose Palace together.
When she sat with her mother-in-law and heard with her own ears how her son took out a bunch of precious items given by the Xuanniao with his bare hands in front of everyone in the Zhangtai Palace, both the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law were shocked to the point of being speechless. Especially when they saw the exquisitely shaped porcelain and the double-layer crystal cup with transparent walls placed in the small rosewood box, Wang Ling, after being overwhelmed with joy, could not help feeling a little panic.
Because she truly hadn't expected a little kid, barely seven months old, to be so blessed! Outsiders, upon seeing these extraordinary artifacts, would only marvel and envy the emperor's eldest grandson's immense good fortune. But as a mother, she couldn't help but worry—her son, so young, had already done so many things completely unbecoming of his age. Like a tree that stands out in the forest, the wind will surely destroy it. Was this a blessing or a curse?
Those remnants of the six kingdoms who have been hiding in the dark and looking for opportunities to assassinate Your Majesty have been unable to hurt Your Majesty. Now that they see how outstanding their son is, will they turn around and attack their own son?
There are only thieves who steal for a thousand days, but how can you guard against thieves for a thousand days?
Thinking of these unspeakable worries, especially after seeing her husband give his porcelain bowls and crystal cups to his mother-in-law as a filial gift, and then hurriedly leave the capital with a small entourage and five hundred elite soldiers from the palace, Wang Ling, who was lying alone in bed last night, tossed and turned for a long time and almost didn't sleep the whole night.
After watching the carriage turn a corner at the end of the street and disappear completely from view, Wang Ling frowned and returned home with the three wet nurses, Xia, Qiu, and Dong.
Qin Ying, who was so focused on meeting his great-grandfather, had no idea that the dark circles under his mother's eyes today were not caused by his father, but by his own bold behavior. The little guy also didn't notice the worry and concern for him hidden deep in his mother's eyes.
After he was carried by Zhao Gao and quickly taken to the study in Zhangtai Palace, he saw his grandfather carefully reading a dictionary in front of the large lacquered desk by the window.
The huge carved wooden window was half open, and the golden sunlight cast a faint golden halo over his grandfather, making him look even more handsome.
Ying Zheng heard the noise coming from the door, and when he looked up, he saw his chubby grandson coming. A smile instantly appeared in his eyes. He quickly reached out and patted the seat and smiled at his grandson:
"Ying, come and sit here."
The little fat boy grinned, and Zhao Gao hurried forward, lowered his head and placed the soft emperor's grandson in his arms next to His Majesty, then quietly retreated.
As soon as Qin Ying's two little feet touched the seat, she subconsciously used her two little hands to grab the edge of the lacquer table and stretched her little head to look at the bamboo slips next to her grandfather. After seeing that the bamboo slips were actually written in rows of simplified Chinese characters for the part of "a" that her grandfather had translated in large seal script, the little baby couldn't help but open his eyes wide in surprise, looked at the bamboo slips with disbelief on his face, and then looked up at his grandfather with his little mouth slightly opened.
Written all over his face was this thought: Oh my god! How much sleep do you actually get in a day?! How can you accomplish so much in one day?!
Is this the kind of work efficiency a normal person can have?! It's ridiculously high!
The expression on the little guy's face was so easy to understand that the First Emperor couldn't help but be amused when he saw it.
His two youngest children are now four and three years old respectively. After having eighteen sons and ten daughters, he thought that he had expanded the royal family enough. His Majesty, who was forty years old, had rarely gone to the harem in the past two or three years. He started working from the moment he opened his eyes until he closed his eyes in bed every day. His work from early morning to late at night was extremely fulfilling. The First Emperor did not feel that he was very busy, but only regretted that he had too little time and too many things he wanted to do.
He carefully moved a stack of paper books on a corner of the lacquer table to his grandson, touched the cover with his slender fingers, looked at his grandson with slightly curved eyes and thought:
"Ying, except for the book 'Gun｜Powder,' I've almost finished reading the table of contents of these books by referring to the dictionary using the browsing method you taught me yesterday."
"These books are truly celestial books bestowed by the Black Bird! The knowledge contained within them is truly invaluable! I've discovered that thoroughly studying the contents would take up a considerable amount of time. Therefore, I've been thinking, since you recognize a great deal of celestial writing, could you help me sort through them today? From this vast array of excellent recipes, could we first select a few practical ones that ordinary people can quickly master, and then have our subordinates carry out the actual procedures according to the recipes?"
What his grandfather said hit the nail on the head. Qin Ying nodded his little head in a beige silk sun hat to show his agreement. It was no exaggeration to say that he was the only person in the world who could read these paper books accurately. Although his grandfather had learned pinyin and mastered the use of dictionaries from him, simplified Chinese characters were a completely unfamiliar language in this era. Even if his grandfather was extremely talented, he would have to spend several months to master it. It would be even more difficult to train others to learn from scratch. He could be a little teacher, but he was too young and lacked energy, and his grandfather didn't have the time to teach others.
At the moment, the best and fastest way seems to be for him to help his grandfather read the text aloud, while his grandfather writes down the key points. He first writes down the easy-to-use methods such as papermaking and printing in large seal script, and then does the rest of the recipes slowly. He also took a quick look at the electronic versions of these books on the system panel and found that the language of the paper books sold to him by the mall is very concise. The content format of each book is "What is xx?", "How to do xx?", "Precautions for xx?", almost all of which are practical information, and there is basically no useless and complicated information, which is very suitable for summarizing the key points.
Qin Ying stretched out his little hands to pick up the paper book, but he was still very young after all. Although he had learned to stand, his two short legs were very soft and trembling, and he could not stand for long. So his grandfather stretched out his arms and held him and sat on his grandfather's thighs. After he felt comfortable, he also used his two little hands to flip through the paper books on the lacquer table, and searched carefully according to the book catalog. In a short while, he helped his grandfather find something that was easy to use.
Zhao Gao, who was standing at the door, looked at the little baby holding a paper book that was bigger than his head. He was flipping through the pages and babbling something to the emperor with his little head tilted up.
His Majesty the Emperor also had a sharp gaze and pursed thin lips. He nodded very seriously while listening to his grandson's baby voice.
The way the grandfather and grandson communicate is automatically encrypted, and it is difficult for others to understand what the two are discussing.
The First Emperor watched his grandson in his arms place his little hands on the pictures of kitchen utensils in the "Food Recipes" and tap them gently, while excitedly introducing them to him in baby language.
He was very surprised. He didn't expect that the people of Daqin now mostly use pottery and copper pots to cook soup and rice, and their cooking methods are mostly steaming, boiling, stewing, roasting and grilling. However, his grandson said that the book wrote that the aliens usually use iron pots, and the most common dishes are stir-fried dishes in iron pots.
"Stir-fry? Ying, is this a new cooking method that can only be made with an iron pan?"
The First Emperor looked down at his grandson curiously and asked.
Qin Ying couldn't help but reach for his sunhat when he heard this question. He wondered if a copper pan filled with oil could be used for cooking. After all, he vaguely remembered seeing, in a past life, the earliest recorded Chinese stir-fry dish—"stir-fried chicken"—presumably cooked in a copper pan. Thinking back to the delicious taste of tender, golden, fragrant scrambled eggs paired with fluffy, large steamed buns, the little fellow could almost smell the alluring aroma of cooking. His drool couldn't help but drip onto the bib at his neck. He waved his hands and chattered away to his grandfather.
The First Emperor skillfully wiped his grandson's saliva with a handkerchief and nodded in agreement:
"What Ying said makes sense. We'll know after we give it a try. In a few days, Grandfather will have the blacksmith from the Shaofu come over and make a few iron woks that can be used for cooking according to the patterns in this book. We'll replace all the copper woks in the palace."
Qin Ying nodded excitedly. As long as the palace switched to iron pots, their family would be able to use iron pots soon. When he grew up a little, he would be able to eat scrambled eggs.
With wonderful anticipation in his heart, Qin Ying finished talking about the most important cookware and then looked down at the recipe. When he saw the picture of a stone mill, he couldn't help but blink. He wasn't sure if there were any stone mills in the world now. So he tapped the picture with his little hand and said to his grandfather, "Yeah..." (Grandfather, you still want me to make this! The picture says that this big thing is called a 'stone mill' and can be used to grind beans and flour.)
"Grinding beans? Grinding flour? Beans, Grandfather knows what they are, but what kind of food is this flour?"
The First Emperor looked at his grandson with confused eyes.
Qin Ying also understood. Perhaps stone mills had not yet appeared in the Qin Dynasty in this time and space, or they had appeared in other places but had not been introduced to Xianyang. By the time they became popular, they had already been governed by the Han Dynasty under the rule of the Liu family. So she used her small hands to turn the recipe back to the catalog page, slid her fingers to find the page with "soy products", and immediately her small hands flipped through dozens of pages. The next moment, two full pages of pictures of unfamiliar foods, some light yellow, some snow-white, came clearly into the eyes of the First Emperor.
The First Emperor lowered his eyes and saw the white jade-like square in the picture with a few yellow beans painted next to it. He couldn't help but tremble with surprise.
The types of edible crops grown in China today are actually very limited. For the Qin nobles living in Xianyang City, they usually eat millet and sorghum. The rice grown in Chu is an extremely precious food for the old Qin nobles.
For most common people, the staple food they usually eat is wheat rice. The wheat they eat is not the tender green wheat grains, but the yellow wheat grains after the wheat matures. Not only is it hard in texture, but it also has a lot of wheat bran on the surface that cannot be removed, which makes the throat very dry when eaten.
During the spring plowing season, although common people would also plant beans in the fields, most people would pick the bean leaves to eat. A small amount of mature beans would be mixed with wheat grains to cook porridge, but they would not eat half a bowl at a time like they did with wheat rice. Most beans would be mixed with bean pods to feed livestock.
In later dynasties, people also knew that beans were good, but the common people today did not know how to process beans. The taste of beans was average, and eating too many of them would cause bloating. In this ancient era when a small cold could be fatal, if one accidentally had gastrointestinal problems, the person would be dead.
For the Emperor, who was held hostage in Handan when he was young, because of the lack of food and drink at that time, he and his mother were forced to eat a lot of wheat rice and bean soup. Wheat and beans were really terrible foods that made him feel toothache and stomach discomfort when he recalled them.
Now I see the brightly colored pictures depicted on the paper, which actually turn beans, which common people basically don’t eat in their daily lives, into a series of very good-looking foods. Let’s not talk about whether the new bean food tastes good or not. As long as the processed bean food can be eaten without scruples and does not make the stomach uncomfortable, it is a great blessing!
The First Emperor gently stroked the pictures in the book with his fingertips, his eyes shining with colors, and he couldn't help but feel his heart surge.
In the six months since Qin Ying was born, she either drank milk or ate egg custard or meat porridge every day. She still had no clear understanding of the food rations of most people in this era.
He leaned in his grandfather's arms, and when he heard his grandfather's suddenly quickened heartbeat, he couldn't help but look up at his grandfather again in a daze.
Ying Zheng lowered his gaze and saw the innocent look on the little fellow's face. He immediately smiled and picked up the brush. He flipped open a blank bamboo scroll and said to his grandson with a somewhat excited smile:
"Ying, can you tell me in detail how to make the food in the picture?"
Qin Ying saw the urgency in her grandfather's eyes and nodded quickly. She immediately slid her little finger gently under the lines of ink words on the book and began to read aloud in a baby voice.
"Ahhhhhhhhhh..." (Father, the book says the first bean dish is called 'bean sprouts'. If you want to sprout beans, the first step is to take out plump, unbroken soybeans or mung beans, remove impurities, and soak the beans in clean water..."
"Ying, when using beans to sprout, should we pay attention to covering the ceramic pot with black cloth or a lid to block out light when storing it?" The First Emperor held a brush and quickly wrote down the content read by his grandson in large seal characters on the bamboo slips, while further inquiring and confirming some key points.
Qin Ying nodded her head.
After watching the grandfather's pen move and quickly memorize the bean sprout process, the little baby continued reading along with the pictures:
"Ahhhhh..." (Grandfather, the second bean delicacy is called 'boiled soy milk.' Just like with bean sprouts, first select plump beans, rinse them with clean water, and then soak them in a ceramic basin for three to six hours. Once the beans have fully absorbed the water and expanded, rinse the stone mill with clean water. Add the soaked soybeans and clean water to the mill's feed port at a ratio of one handful of soybeans to three handfuls of water... Filter the resulting soy milk through gauze. The dregs can be used to feed livestock, and the soy milk can be boiled in a pot...)
"Will this soy milk be boiled? Ying, eating too many beans will cause bloating. Is it really harmless to make bean sprouts and soy milk as written in the book?" Qin Shi Huang asked in disbelief after hearing his grandson read out the simple bean processing process.
“Ah…”
Qin Ying gently tapped the small red words with precautions under the picture with her little finger, motioned for her grandfather to read them, and then read them aloud to him in baby language.
According to his grandson's words, the First Emperor also picked up his red pen and added a note to the recipe he had just recorded:
1. Bean sprouts must be cooked thoroughly before eating. People with weak constitutions should avoid eating too much.
[2. When boiling soy milk, foam will rise when it first boils. This is a false boil and is not suitable for drinking. You must boil it again until it reaches a full boil before you can use it. Also, soy milk is cold in nature, so it is not suitable to drink on an empty stomach.]
Seeing the grandfather write the food preparation process with ink pen and the precautions with red pen, Qin Ying felt that he was very impressive even though she couldn't understand a single word.
Seeing his grandfather's strictness, he felt that his responsibility in reading aloud was even greater, so he continued to read aloud more seriously in a baby voice, reading out the entire production process of tofu, tofu pudding, fried bean curd skin, and dried tofu to his grandfather.
Zhao Gao, standing at the door, watched the grandfather and grandson, one of them babbling and gesticulating in a flowery manner, while the other was taking notes with a flying brush. He could neither understand what the younger one was saying nor see what the older one was writing down. However, when he took the opportunity to bring water to the grandfather and grandson, he caught a glimpse of the bamboo slips written by His Majesty piled up in a corner of the lacquer table.
When you are working hard, time often flies.
As the red sun outside the window gradually began to set in the west, Qin Ying, who was talking until his mouth was dry and drank two cups of honey water in a row, worked diligently and seriously for his grandfather for more than half an hour as a "baby doer". Then he was held in the arms of his extremely happy grandfather. The grandfather and grandson walked along the suspended sky bridge connecting the palaces in the red sky, looked down at the fish jumping on the surface of the Wei River in the palace facing the sunset, and admired the large palace complex built by his grandfather on the north bank of the Wei River in imitation of the palaces of the Six Kingdoms.
As dusk fell, under the gaze of all the palace people, the favored Xiao An Guojun shared a meal with the emperor, received a pile of rewards, and was safely escorted back to the eldest prince's mansion by the minor official Zhao Gao in a carriage.
The next day, at the same time in the afternoon, Qin Ying woke up from a nap and packed up neatly. She took Zhao Gao's carriage and went to the study in Zhangtai Palace to borrow the recipe that she had not finished reading yesterday. Then she read the process of making thousand sheets, bean paste, and soybean oil to her grandfather.
After the little baby worked as a "baby worker" in the Zhangtai Palace for five consecutive days and read out to his grandfather the production methods of transforming the leftover old tofu into hairy tofu and stinky tofu, from then on, all the beans in the loyal and brave Lao Dou family, from young to old, were thoroughly studied by the diligent and studious emperor.
Looking at the basket full of bean product recipes written by himself, the First Emperor raised his hand and stroked the short beard on his chin, with a glint of joy in his eyes and was very satisfied. As another great contributor who participated from the beginning to the end, Ying·Little Fatty looked at the Daqin version of the bean product recipes and couldn't help feeling proud. A sense of satisfaction that could not be expressed in words surged from the bottom of his heart.
His Majesty packed a basket of freshly made soy product recipes and sent them to the kitchen for the palace chefs to study carefully.
The stonemasons and blacksmiths in the Shaofu were also urgently summoned by His Majesty to the Zhangtai Palace. After the two craftsmen carefully studied the pictures of the stone mill and the iron pot in the "Gourmet Recipe" for more than a quarter of an hour, with the thoughtful guidance of the eldest grandson of the emperor and the simultaneous interpretation of His Majesty the Emperor, the two craftsmen carefully drew the patterns of the stone mill and the iron pot on white silk. After that, they reported the approximate time to His Majesty and the eldest grandson of the emperor, and hurriedly took the pictures and silk back to the Shaofu to work overtime.
Three days later, six large stone mills lined up in a row appeared in the palace's rice pounding area.
Five days later, His Majesty the Emperor enjoyed the soy products carefully prepared by the chef in Zhangtai Palace. The bean sprouts were fragrant and refreshing, the tofu pudding was smooth and fragrant, the soft tofu cubes were suitable for both young and old, and even the tofu skin cut into thin strips and added to the fish ball soup tasted like fish. The deliciousness of the soy products far exceeded His Majesty's imagination.
Sitting cross-legged beside his grandfather, Qin Ying was so moved that his mouth watered as he drank the sweet soy milk the palace attendant fed him with a small spoon. After drinking milk for more than half a year, the fat little Ying was finally able to eat the ordinary breakfast of his previous life! It wasn't easy! It really wasn't easy!
After the grandfather and grandson enjoyed the delicious soy products, the emperor, with a good appetite, felt that the "Food Recipe" had great potential, so he dragged his grandson to attend the "infant class" for three more days, and quickly recorded a series of pasta recipes using wheat flour ground into stone on a pile of bamboo slips.
The chefs in the kitchen were so surprised that their souls almost flew out of their bodies when they held the endless supply of "Xuanniao Food Recipes" written by His Majesty himself.
While Fusu was eating sand outside the Great Wall, Wang Ling also enjoyed the feast of food with his son in the palace. Almost every time the kitchen in Zhangtai Palace developed a new delicacy, Qin Ying would use her baby voice to tell the palace servants to send a portion to her mother's Rose Palace. At dusk, when Qin Ying was about to return home, she would ask her wet nurse Chun to ask Zhao Gao to pack the delicacy in a food box in the kitchen, and not forget to bring a portion back for her mother to try.
The emperor's eldest grandson was eating and taking things in Zhangtai Palace. The palace people were very happy when they saw it. They had completely regarded Prince Xiao'an as the young master of Zhangtai Palace. It is hard to say whether the eldest prince's words are effective in Zhangtai Palace, but Prince Xiao'an's words are definitely effective in Your Majesty's palace!
For a time, the reputation of the emperor's eldest grandson for his filial piety spread widely inside and outside the palace.
After His Majesty the Emperor had eaten beans and wheat for ten consecutive days, the imperial physician diagnosed his pulse and found that these new foods were not only harmless to the body, but very nutritious if eaten regularly. The First Emperor, who already had an idea of the situation in mind, felt even more relieved after hearing the evaluation of the professionals. He sent all the papermaking and printed bamboo slips that his grandson had "worked" to read to him to the craftsmen of the Shaofu, asking them to carefully study the new products.
His Majesty the Emperor held his grandson in his arms and looked out at the sunset, admiring his large palace model to relax his eyes. The grandfather and grandson also discussed seriously the formal promotion of stone mill patterns, soy product processing recipes and wheat food recipes throughout the country.
On the first day of June, it was a rare cool, windy and cloudy day in the hot imperial capital.
In the morning, at the court meeting in the outer hall of Zhangtai Palace, all the officials who came to court on time were surprised to find that the usually low-key and introverted Minister of Justice, who studied mouse philosophy, had no idea what had happened to him when he went out today. He was so high-profile like a cat that loved to show off, holding an exquisite, transparent crystal cup in his hand and touching it, and from time to time he unscrewed the lid and leaned over to drink water. You can drink it if you want, and no one is stopping you, but you have to pretend that you were accidentally scalded by the water in the crystal cup. You let out a soft cry, shrank your shoulders, frowned and took a breath, and looked up at His Majesty the Emperor with a face full of emotion, which gave other officials goose bumps.
[Tsk! Such a show-off! Such a show-off!]
A good personal friend before unification, a political enemy after unification. Chunyu Yue couldn't help but twitch his lips when he saw Li Si's abnormal, "affected" and disgusting appearance today, and rolled his eyes several times in his heart.
It would be fine if you, Li Siruo, were still a young man and flirted with others, but now that your old face is wrinkled like a blooming chrysanthemum, you should have some self-awareness! Don't try to learn the trick of "serving the emperor with your beauty"! I don't know what His Majesty would think when he saw it, but his colleagues all thought it was ugly and scary.
Wearing a Tongtian crown and kneeling at the top, Qin Shi Huang glanced at the different expressions of his ministers below because of the actions of the court judge, and a smile could not help but appear in his narrow and long phoenix eyes.
His Majesty, in a very good mood, laughed out loud and said:
"I believe you all have heard recently that my eldest grandson Ying is intelligent and talented, loved by heaven, and extremely filial."
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