AWB Chapter 844: Infiltrating
Chapter 844: Infiltrating
Chapter 844: Infiltrating
So the old woman nodded, "If that's what you said, then stay! As long as you cook well, the palace will give you ten taels of silver a month. Although people who come here to work don't sign a contract, they can't go home every day. You can rest one day a month. If you think it's okay, you can stay."
Ye Wenyan looked at Ye Feizhou reluctantly, which gave Ye Feizhou goose bumps.
"Does my husband agree?"
Ye Feizhou wanted to say I disagree! But will it work if I disagree?
So he could only nod reluctantly and said, "I agree." Then he added, "I can't help it. It's all for life."
Since then, Ye Wenyan successfully stayed in the kitchen of the Pingxi Palace. She used the pseudonym she used before, Xiao Yaoyao. The maid who managed the kitchen was surnamed Zhao, and people called her Zhao Ma. On the day Ye Wenyan came to work, she asked Ye Wenyan to show her skills first, and then decided her position in the kitchen.
Ye Wenyan said, "You can show off your skills, but I've already said before that I'm not very good at cooking, so I need a chef to work with me. I'll tell you the steps, and he'll do it. Once it's done, it can be considered his new dish, and I won't take credit for it."
Nanny Zhao nodded, agreeing with her decision not to take credit for it.
In a place like the Prince of Pingxi's Palace, it is not a good thing for a woman to seek credit.
Ye Wenyan had just arrived and the first dish he demonstrated was the Dongpo Pork of later generations.
Tianshui City is in the west, far away from the Jiangnan area. Even if it is close, the current time and space is not the time and space that exists in later history, and there is no such thing as Dongpo Pork.
She had noticed that roasting meat in this era was very simple, and even sugar color was not fried, and there was no such thing as soy sauce. But in ancient times, people generally made sauces, and they knew how to make sauces in many ways. The colors of many dishes were adjusted with sauces.
Of course, because there are so many kinds of sauces, the dishes are also very fragrant when fried, but Ye Wenyan has her own way of cooking, which is completely different from the skills of this era.
Nanny Zhao assigned her a chef. She told the chef how to make Dongpo pork. When she told him not to add a drop of water and to cook it all with rice wine, the chef was confused.
"What would that taste like? The meat would taste like wine after it's cooked. How could it be eaten?"
"Yes, Master Chef, trust me. Anyway, we are trying it out in the kitchen now. If it really doesn't taste good, then we can just not serve it to His Majesty. The Pingxi Palace is so big, can't they spare a few pieces of meat?"
The chef thought this made sense, so he nodded in agreement.
The next step was to cook Dongpo pork according to Ye Wenyan's instructions. She strictly controlled every step, including the heat and the amount of each seasoning. She even specially found a purple clay pot to stew the meat, and each piece of meat was cut into large pieces and tied up with thick thread.
All this trouble took more than two hours, and finally Ye Wenyan said that it was time to turn off the fire and open the pot.
Everyone in the big kitchen gathered together, waiting to witness a miracle.
In fact, the chef knew what kind of meat this thing was an hour ago, and there was a high probability that it would be cooked successfully.
He has been cooking for decades and can tell whether something is delicious just by smelling it.
The smell wafting from this pot of Dongpo pork was something he had never smelled in his life.
So he opened the pot with some excitement, picked out a small piece of meat, blew on it and put it in his mouth.
The skin is soft and tender, and melts in your mouth. The meat is firm but not dry, and very chewy.
The main thing is the flavor. The meat is stewed with rice wine and fried with sugar color. It is really delicious. Even he had to nod to Ye Wenyan and said to her: "You are really a good cook. With this Dongpo pork, you have established a firm foothold in the big kitchen of Pingxi Palace."
Ye Wenyan was very happy, "Then bring it to the prince to try! It won't taste good if it gets cold."
Madam Zhao immediately sent someone to serve the dish, and warned in a serious tone, "This dish was developed by the original chef in the mansion, but there has never been a person named Xiao Yaoyao working here. Do you remember that?"
Everyone in the big kitchen was very harmonious. After hearing what Madam Zhao said, they immediately understood what she meant.
So they all promised not to tell anyone and to protect Xiao Yaoyao.
Ye Wenyan was very helpless about this, she actually wanted to be noticed by the King of Pingxi. Just like she had been dragging Ye Feizhou around the streets a few days ago, hoping to be discovered by the people in the King of Pingxi's mansion and taken back.
Her ultimate goal was to sneak into the inner courtyard of the Prince of Pingxi's Mansion and find out more information.
Moreover, she was not afraid of being chosen by the King of Pingxi and forced to do anything to her. Although she could not use her spiritual power, she still had the ability to prepare medicine and give acupuncture. She was not afraid even if she faced the King of Pingxi himself.
Unfortunately, Nanny Zhao guarded the place very strictly, so she had no chance to get close to Prince Pingxi.
Ye Wenyan thought, since that road was blocked, he might as well try another one.
She took a liking to this Madam Zhao.
Just now, while waiting for the meat to be stewed, she heard someone in the kitchen say that Madam Zhao had worked in the Prince of Pingxi's mansion for nearly 20 years and knew the mansion very well. The mansion trusted her, so they gave her the responsibility of such an important place as the kitchen. So she was more familiar with Madam Zhao, so she should be able to find out some things.
Ye Wenyan was going to take action against Madam Zhao. First, he mentioned a cold dish during dinner, and then, on the grounds that he had just arrived, he asked to sleep with Madam Zhao at night. For this purpose, he even specially prepared water for Madam Zhao to wash her feet.
The kitchen was full of men, with Madam Zhao being the only woman in charge, and she usually felt suffocated. Now that a young wife had finally come and was willing to be close to her, she thought this was good, at least the two of them could talk.
So Ye Wenyan successfully stayed in Madam Zhao's room.
Zhao Mama didn't "let her down". She spent more than an hour whispering to Ye Wenyan about the hobby of the King of Pingxi who particularly liked his wife. Then she said earnestly: "I also advised you not to come, but you insisted on staying, so I had no other choice. Now all I can do is hide you. As long as you keep a low profile and don't leave the kitchen, and keep an eye on it, if anyone from outside comes here, you should quickly find a place to hide, so that I can protect you.
But if you can't stand loneliness and like to be in the spotlight, I can't help you at all."
Seeing that she had already opened her mouth, Ye Wenyan was delighted and asked carefully, "Mammy, besides liking his wife, does the King of Pingxi have any other hobbies? Or are there any interesting stories in this mansion?"