Chapter 31: Quite a Few Palace Maids

Chapter 31: That's a Lot of Palace Maids

Your servant

"Here, this recipe book with one hundred and twenty-five dishes is the lifeblood of the health restaurant I'm opening. Go find Fugui'er in the Imperial Kitchen—I've got orders for him."

Upon hearing this, Yuan Bao quickly straightened his face and marched off to the Imperial Kitchen.

Over the past few days, she'd taught the Imperial Kitchen more than a dozen dishes, and her meals had finally gotten a lot better.

She leaned on the table, thinking about how to design the restaurant.

By the time Grand Steward Fu Gui of the Imperial Kitchen rushed over without wasting a second, it was just in time for lunch.

Yun Ran ate as she gave orders.

"In this recipe book, there's a dish called White Jade Trotters. Have all the eunuchs in the Imperial Kitchen prepare it according to the recipe. Bring the finished dishes up for me to inspect personally—and be thorough."

Seeing the emperor's serious tone, Yuan Bao immediately caught on and went along to keep an eye on things.

Fu Gui dared not try anything funny, figuring the food might be in trouble.

He couldn't guess what the emperor was up to, so he just took the recipe book and went off to arrange things, totally confused.

Pig trotters were usually only used for making soup.

Such cheap ingredients would never be served to the emperor or the consorts in the Imperial Kitchen, nor would even the big shots among the commoners order this at a restaurant—first, because the bristles were hard to get clean, and second, because of the gamey smell.

In Yun Ran's recipes, most of the ingredients were cheap items sold to the common folk.

People of this dynasty didn't know how to cook them, so they went for cheap—exactly what she wanted.

Low cost, high profit—why not cash in now?

In the Imperial Kitchen,

a group of people stood there with their heads down.

Fu Gui burst in and immediately started barking orders.

"Round up all the ingredients I call out, and each of you make one dish in sequence. Do it well—the emperor will be checking on it!"

After throwing his weight around, he turned with a sycophantic smile, grinning brightly at Yuan Bao.

"Brother Bao, I'll go first then."

Yuan Bao felt sick to his stomach at the sight of his big, fat face grinning like a blooming flower. He frowned and waved him off.

"Go on, and stop smiling like that—you don't have the face for it."

Fu Gui could do nothing but nod obediently.

"Alright, got it."

He turned away and rolled his eyes, pursing his lips.

Little twerp, you got lucky becoming the emperor's favorite and now you're all smug!

What's so ugly about me, huh?

Loads of palace maids secretly have a crush on me, you know.

Fu Gui grumbled to himself as he carefully worked through the recipe.

A lot of it didn't seem right to him.

Why boil the trotters in yellow rice wine? What a waste—it doesn't even add any flavor. Why add pepper to the soup? Plain water makes a richer broth.

The emperor must not know what he's doing and just made this up.

Fugui'er cooked while tweaking things.

When a pot of trotters was finally done his way, he stood aside looking smug and confident.

"Pfft! All show."

Yuan Bao shot him a glare—after all, this Fugui'er used to bully him back in his days as a junior eunuch.

Now the shoe's on the other foot!

Fugui'er was furious but dared not speak, lowering his head in anger, secretly drawing circles on the ground to curse him.

Next,

it was the two plump eunuchs Yun Ran had singled out in the kitchen last time, Shun Cai and Bai Chuan.

The two kept their heads down and followed the recipe to the letter—the emperor's recipe was not something you mess with.

The younger eunuchs barely knew what they were doing, fumbling through for ages.

Their hands were shaky when it came to dehairing the trotters and adding seasonings.

After all, getting the hang of "appropriate amount" required some skill.

The Imperial Kitchen was hazy with smoke and bustling with noise.

Meanwhile, outside the imperial city,

at the entrance of Zhenxiu Pavilion, a whole different scene was playing out.

Liu Dadan, the manager of Zhenxiu Pavilion, stood with arms crossed, sneering at the building across the way.

That restaurant was draped in red cloth with all the banging and clattering—clearly under new ownership.

Liu Dadan gave it a good once-over.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk."

He spat out the toothpick from his mouth with a "pfft," shot a sideways glance at his attendant,

and idly wiped his golden tobacco pipe while asking,

"What's going on? Has that cripple Wang finally stopped butting heads with me? Facing reality, he's rented the place out to some other poor fool?"