The atmosphere in the Liu Mansion was a bit heavy tonight.
"Two taels of silver? Are you sure you heard correctly?" Liu Tong looked incredulous when the butler waved him out after just taking a bite of his meal.
The housekeeper said affirmatively: "Yes, everyone on the street says so!"
Liu Tong gasped as if he had a toothache: "One tael yesterday, two taels today, that is to say..."
The housekeeper did a mental calculation: "There are three taels, sir!"
Liu Tong was so angry that he just rolled his eyes. Could it be that he didn't know how to do it?
What do you do? A member of the household department!
In this era, people in the Ministry of Household Affairs should be the people with the strongest computing power in the world. I am so shocked, okay?
Liu Tong walked into the house sadly, feeling that she had lost all appetite.
Liu Xueer stretched out her hand and shouted to Mrs. Liu: "Mom, you have a good appetite, please give me another bowl of rice!"
In the Xiao family, Qiao Niang was holding silver in both hands, with tears streaming down her face, as if she was holding a pair of spiritual cards.
Qiaoqiao, who was beside her, was counting on her fingers: "We have two and a half!"
Xiao Feng was a little worried. These two women had never seen money. If one day they got rich, would they become Fan Jin?
There is braised pork head meat on the table. Xiao Feng bought a lot of it when he came back.
Qiao Niang finally gathered her emotions and prepared to eat, but she frowned when she saw Rou.
"Master, don't buy so much next time, just enough for one meal. It's still a bit hot now, so it might go bad."
Xiao Feng looked at the piece of meat. He knew that there were no refrigerators in the Ming Dynasty. The problem was that meat was bought by the meal.
"This isn't a lot of meat. Can't the three of us finish it in one meal?"
Qiao Niang shook her head and said, "As long as it's enough for you. I'll think of a way to pickle it with salt and it should be ready for tomorrow."
Xiao Feng looked at Qiaoqiao. She was looking around, trying hard not to look at the piece of pig head meat.
Xiao Feng didn't waste any time. He picked up a knife and sliced it into pieces, then chopped two cloves of garlic, added some coriander, and mixed it with soy sauce. This was his favorite way to eat it in his previous life.
Soy sauce was still a luxury item at this time, and Xiao Feng only had a little bit at home, so he used it all.
Qiao Niang rushed to grab the knife and wanted to take over, but was shocked by Xiao Feng's superb knife skills.
When did the master learn sword skills? He looks more proficient than me...
When Xiao Feng first started doing business in his previous life, he traveled all over the world by himself. How could he afford to eat in restaurants without some cooking skills?
Xiao Feng mixed the pork head, without even looking at the plate Qiao Niang was holding, he put it directly into the rice, and then stirred it.
Qiao Niang was stunned, and Xiao Feng started to serve a large bowl of rice for each person.
The pig head meat was all mixed in the hot dry rice, and Qiao Niang couldn't pick it out piece by piece for Xiao Feng! Very rude!
"Eat!" Xiao Feng took the lead, taking big mouthfuls and eating deliciously.
Qiao Qiao glanced at her mother timidly. Qiao's mother held up the bowl and covered her face, her tears falling on the hot pork head mixed with rice.
Unable to see her mother's face, Qiaoqiao boldly held up the big hand and soon buried her face in it.
It’s time to eat when all the lights are on, even the palace is no exception.
However, although the dinner in the palace was luxurious, it was extremely deserted, not even as lively as the three people of the Xiao family.
Jiajing has not returned to the palace for a long time. He lives in Xiyuan, practicing Taoism and listening to politics.
The emperor is not here, and the queen has not yet been mourned. Naturally, the concubines stay in their own palaces to eat.
The only person who was a little angry was that in Concubine Kang's Jingyang Palace, King Yu Zhu Zaijing requested permission to visit his mother and concubine, and mother and son were having a rare dinner together.
After eating, he left the palace and returned to his palace, so he deliberately ate slowly and talked to his mother and concubine as much as possible.
Concubine Kang saw a grain of rice stuck to the corner of her son's mouth, so she picked up a handkerchief and wiped the corner of her son's mouth.
Although he is only thirteen years old, Zhu Zaijing, who grew up in an imperial family, looks a little deeper than his peers, at least that's how he feels.
Therefore, he felt that the fact that his mother-in-law wiped rice grains was detrimental to his profound image. But it was not easy to meet his mother and concubine, so he filially endured it.
"I heard that you had a fight with King Jing again?" Concubine Kang found some bruises on the corners of her son's mouth.
Zhu Zaijing curled his lips: "He is no match for me. Mother and concubine don't have to worry. His right eye is still blue now."
Concubine Kang sighed with a headache: "Long live my preference for King Jing, you don't know, why bother..."
Zhu Zaijing raised his head stubbornly, looking nonchalant, but there was something shining in his eyes.
At this time in the Yonghe Palace, Concubine Lu Jing looked at the green right eye of King Jing Zhu Zaizhen with distress.
"Prince Yu is too cruel. You are a month younger than him. Isn't this bullying?"
Zhu Zaizhen didn't care: "I don't know which guard he learned from this time, so I wasn't prepared for it. I'll make him look good next time!"
Concubine Lu Jing muttered something and wanted to go to Concubine Kang for comment. Zhu Zaizhen waved his hand and said, "Men should resolve their own matters!"
Jiajing, on the other hand, had just finished eating at Jinshen Jingshe in Xiyuan and was closing his eyes to rest.
Huang Jin, the eunuch in charge of ceremonies, stood behind him, holding a fly whisk and closing his eyes slightly.
Lu Bing stood in front of Jiajing and gave Jiajing a routine report in an unhurried voice.
Jiajing has not been in court since the 21st year, but he knows everything about the outside world and relies on Jin Yiwei.
The big things have almost been talked about. As usual, Lu Bing will talk about some small things that are not important but may be of interest to Jiajing.
"Prince Yu and Prince Jing had a fight outside the Wenhua Palace, with no winner or loser."
Jiajing's heart felt like still water, without any movement.
"There's someone setting up a stall on the main street to tell fortunes and tell fortunes for twenty taels of silver a time."
Jiajing's eyelids moved: "Is it accurate?"
"It is said that on the first day it was one tael of silver at a time. Because the calculation was accurate, it became two taels of silver the next day."
"There are too many liars now. A truly capable Taoist priest. I have only invited two or three people over the years when I have opened the door. Who is he?"
"This man is not a Taoist, but a scholar."
The corners of Jiajing's mouth trembled, obviously losing interest.
"I'm extremely bored and looking for someone to act. I've seen this kind of liar a lot. Since he's not cheating under the banner of Taoism, don't worry about him."
This statement is true. When Jiajing was still a young boy, he paid a lot of money to hire people from the Taoist sect to come to the palace for discussion. He was deceived a lot at the beginning.
Listening to words, transporting people through the air, making money with oil pans, these tricks of performing arts have all been performed in the palace.
The key is that Xiao Xianrou couldn't understand it at the time, and he was really defrauded of a lot of money, and two of them were even banned from office.
Later, when someone revealed the secret, Jiajing became furious and beat the two Taoist priests who had defrauded money and failed to escape decisively, and who were greedy for official positions, half to death.
By now, Jiajing, who is in his forties, has been tested for a long time. Although he believes in Taoism, his IQ is absolutely online and he is not the stick he used to be.
At this time, a young Taoist priest came to see him with a brocade box. Huang Jin stepped forward and took the brocade box.
"Long live, Taoist Master Tao's Wujin Dan is out. This is the first batch of elixirs."
Huang Jin opened the box. There were five round pills inside, shining with metallic luster and having a strange medicinal fragrance.
Without any nonsense, Huang Jin simply picked up a pill and swallowed it.
Jiajing opened his eyes and looked at Huang Jin.
As one of Jiajing's most trusted people, Huang Jin could have found a young eunuch to try the elixir, and Jiajing would not have objected.
But this is an attitude. Jiajing will be more satisfied if Huang Jin tries the elixir himself.
This not only represents Huang Jin's loyalty, but also represents his devotion to admiring Taoism.
Like those table tennis masters in later generations of government agencies, maintaining the same interests and hobbies as your leaders is definitely good for your career.
After a while, Jiajing picked up a Wujindan, served it with ginseng tea, and began to formally enter the meditative state.
Lu Bing retreated quietly, and what followed was the quietest and most important moment of the day in Jiajing. No one could disturb it, otherwise it would be bad luck.
