allonlinenovel Chapter 245 Cooking
Chapter 245 Cooking
Everyone at the scene thought they had heard it wrong. The teacher did not go to Fanlou to have a big meal, but asked the junior brother to prepare a few light side dishes. It was really hard to understand.
Lu Geang, who had just returned, was even more confused. He made a bet with the fourth brother, so didn’t he lose?
The original bet was that if the teacher and the others came back this afternoon, then I would treat Fan Lou tonight's meal. But just now I clearly heard the teacher say that the fourth brother agreed to treat everyone, but the teacher asked him to treat them another day.
"Fourth brother, what's going on? Didn't I lose the bet? I should be the one to treat you to dinner at Fanlou tonight. I'm not someone who can't afford to lose."
Before Wang Xinkuan could answer, Mr. Cai caught Lu Ge'ang's weakness.
"Great, you're making a bet again! Then put this meal on the bill, and when Si'er treats you another day, it will be your turn!"
Zhu Yuchun, Zhao Mubai and Ji Yunting all covered their eyes with their hands, unable to bear to look at Lu Ge'ang, and in their hearts they were cursing him for being such a stupid ass!
Wang Xinkuan, however, raised the corners of his mouth, looking as if he was not afraid of trouble and was gloating over other people's misfortunes.
Seeing everyone's reactions, Lu Ge'ang was confused and could only look at his pregnant wife, Li. He saw Li also sighing, and then he briefly told him the reason why Wang Xinkuan invited them to dinner tonight.
"Fourth brother, you took a bottle of yellow jasmine perfume and thought you could get rid of us with just a meal at Fanlou?"
"When I took this perfume just now, I got everyone's consent."
"Even if you took this bottle of perfume for something important, this matter will never be settled even if you treat us to a meal at Fanlou!"
When everyone saw the two brothers arguing with each other, they all got used to it. Only Ye Changyan and Sang Li stared at them in shock.
"Old Five, are you trying to blackmail me?"
"On September 28th, a tasting event was held at the Zhenyuan Marquis's residence. Among the exhibits was a bottle of yellow jasmine perfume, which attracted a lot of noble ladies to scramble for it. The youngest daughter of the director of the Imperial Observatory is getting married at the end of next month. In order to buy a dowry for her daughter, the director's wife spent 360 taels to buy this bottle of perfume."
Lu Geang's words made everyone at the scene gasp. This was a bit too exaggerated.
"Although the Supervisor of the Imperial Observatory is the head of a bureau, his rank is only equal to that of the eldest and second brothers. How can a fifth-rank official spend more than three hundred taels to buy a bottle of perfume when marrying off his daughter? Third brother, you, the Supervisory Office, must carefully inspect the Imperial Observatory. I'm afraid there is some evil spirit in it!"
Wang Xinkuan also felt that this was a bit too outrageous and turned to look at Ji Yunting who worked in the Supervisory Commission.
"Fourth brother, you may be wrongly accusing the director of the Imperial Observatory. As everyone knows, the Imperial Observatory is not a very profitable department. All day long, they are either observing the sky or calculating the calendar. Third brother, don't listen to fourth brother's instigation and go and make a false accusation against him."
"If there were no evil spirit, how could a fifth-rank official's family dare to spend more than three hundred taels to buy a bottle of perfume?"
Wang Xinkuan's suspicion was not unreasonable, and everyone nodded in agreement.
"Fourth brother, you don't know this. Under the Si Tian Jian there is a Tai Bu Office, which is in charge of divination. I have had a few drinks with Zhang Wei, the Wuguan Lingtai Lang of the Si Tian Jian, and I accidentally heard him mention that many merchants in the folk like to find someone to divine and resolve strange things when they encounter them. The Jian Zheng will occasionally take such jobs, and the Jian Zheng's customers are all big merchants. These big merchants are very generous when they spend money."
The director of the Imperial Observatory is using his expertise to take on some private work to earn some extra money to supplement his family income. There is nothing wrong with this, after all, the Da Sheng Law does not explicitly forbid people from doing so.
"So, Fourth Brother, you want to treat everyone to a meal at Fanlou, but you send us away. Isn't that a bit too stingy?"
The prince of Duke Yan spent two hundred taels to buy a bottle of this yellow jasmine perfume, and the wife of the director of the Imperial Observatory spent more than three hundred taels to buy a bottle of this yellow jasmine perfume. So, all calculated together, Wang Xinkuan's meal at Fanlou was indeed too cheap for him.
But Wang Xinkuan was a calm person to begin with, and he did not fall for Lu Ge'ang's provocative words. He just turned around and looked at Ye Changyan.
"Junior brother, did you just give perfume to the eldest sister-in-law, the second sister-in-law, the third sister-in-law, and the fifth sister-in-law?"
Ye Changyan was suddenly called and was a little surprised for a moment. He didn't want to get involved in the fight between his two senior brothers, but when asked by Wang Xinkuan, he could only nod.
"If I get married, shouldn't you give my wife a bottle of perfume today?"
"You are making a fuss. Are you married? Where is your wife?"
Lu Geang felt something was wrong and quickly questioned him.
"You just need to give the perfume away and you will have it."
"You are just making up stories and confusing the public!"
Seeing that the two were about to argue again, several senior brothers and sisters-in-law shook their heads helplessly and listened to what Master Cai said.
"Alright, alright, stop arguing over such a small matter. Today I'll let your junior brother cook, and you two can each treat me to a meal some other day. It's a deal."
After hearing the teacher's final decision, Wang Xinkuan looked very proud, while Lu Ge'ang looked at him with disdain, and everyone else also breathed a sigh of relief.
Since the teacher had already made the arrangements, Ye Changyan immediately called Liang Jingcheng to help him. The other brothers and sisters-in-law watched the two youngest brothers walk towards the kitchen.
The men all stayed in the living room, chatting with Mr. Cai about interesting things in Yuzhou Prefecture, and with Sang Li about the customs and culture of Youshui City.
The women took their children to the flower hall. When the women got together, they had endless topics to talk about, and laughter could be heard from the flower hall from time to time.
In the kitchen, the cooks and maids were shocked. They were assigned to make fire, pick vegetables, wash vegetables and do odd jobs, but the one who was in charge of cooking was the master's new disciple, and the one helping him was the Sixth Young Master who had never done any housework before.
The eldest son Zhu Yuchun sent someone to bring a message yesterday, saying that the master would be back in the next two days and asked the family to prepare some dishes. Therefore, there is a rich supply of meat, eggs, poultry, fish and vegetables in the kitchen today.
The preparations were basically completed, and the young master Ye Changyan took out some strange bottles and jars from somewhere, and then ordered someone to start a fire.
Ye Changyan was seen operating two stoves at the same time, and occasionally he had to divide his attention to check the casserole on the small stove. The cook admitted that she could not do two things at once, let alone the young master Ye Changyan who could do three things at once.
As time passed, it soon reached evening and everyone was feeling hungry. At this moment, both the main hall and the flower hall smelled the fragrance wafting from the kitchen.
"What's cooking in this kitchen? It smells so good!"