Qin Yi took a deep breath. “What are we eating?”
There was no way she could take Qin Yi to Aunt Yang’s noodle stall at a time like this.
Yan Tongshu thought it over. Seeing that Qin Yi’s anger was on the verge of erupting, she hurriedly said, “I’ll make you something.”
Qin Yi raised an eyebrow. “You know how to cook?”
“It’s my specialty.”
“What is?”
“Wontons.”
Yan Tongshu looked at Qin Yi with bright, sparkling eyes and smiled. “My dear friend Qin Yi, don’t worry. I’m best at making wontons. I guarantee they’ll be delicious, and after you eat them, all your fatigue will vanish and you’ll be full of energy for the whole day.”
After settling Qin Yi down, Yan Tongshu went to the imperial kitchen and asked for flour and meat.
The imperial chefs stood to one side, all casting questioning looks at Lu Xi.
Lu Xi, in turn, looked toward Qin Yi in confusion.
Qin Yi stood leisurely nearby, watching Yan Tongshu knead the dough. Before long, the dough was ready, and Yan Tongshu began chopping the meat.
The cleavers used in the imperial kitchen were exceptionally heavy. Yan Tongshu’s wrist hurt just from lifting one, let alone using it to chop meat.
She gazed at the weighty cleaver and let out a long sigh. If only there were an electric meat grinder here.
Qin Yi walked over and took the cleaver from her. “How finely should I chop it?”
Yan Tongshu thought for a moment. “One part fat to nine parts lean. Just chop it finely.”
Qin Yi picked up the cleaver and began chopping the meat with complete concentration.
The imperial chefs and Lu Xi stared at him, eyes wide.
Yan Tongshu brought over the scallions. Watching Qin Yi chop the meat with practiced ease, she exclaimed in astonishment, “You’re actually that good at this?”
Qin Yi continued chopping as he replied, “I learned from my elder brother.”
“The former Crown Prince?”
“Mm.” Qin Yi placed the chopped meat on a plate. “When my sister-in-law was pregnant, she was very particular about food and craved all sorts of unusual things. The imperial chefs could never make anything to her liking. My elder brother wasn’t good at cooking, but for some reason, the things he made suited her tastes at the time. So he had me accompany him while he cooked. After doing it for long enough, I learned.”
Unfortunately, his sister-in-law had always been frail, and she lost that child.
Qin Yi handed the plate to Yan Tongshu. She added the seasonings one by one, then stirred everything together with chopsticks.
Qin Yi took the ball of dough from the side, flattened it into a sheet, folded it, and cut it into square wonton wrappers. He handed them to Yan Tongshu.
After thinking for a moment, she asked, “Do you want ingots, clouds, or little goldfish?”
Qin Yi looked surprised. “There are so many ways to wrap them?”
Yan Tongshu nodded. Using her chopsticks, she picked up a bit of filling and wrapped it in a wonton skin. Before long, she had made four different shapes.
One was the standard shape, one looked like an ingot, one like a cloud, and one like a little goldfish.
Yan Tongshu pointed to the four wontons. “See? Which one do you like?”
Qin Yi stared into her eyes. “I like them all.”
“Then we’ll make all of them.” Yan Tongshu readily agreed.
Before she had transmigrated, she had worked at a hospital. She had been so busy that she mostly ordered takeout. Sometimes she grew tired of takeout food, so she would buy several kinds of filling and make wontons herself, wrapping dozens at a time and freezing them. Whenever she wanted some, she would simply boil ten.
In modern society, ingredients were plentiful, so she could make all sorts of variations. For example, the cloud-shaped ones could be filled with pork and water chestnuts, the ingot-shaped ones with beef, and the little goldfish ones with corn.
Thinking about it now, she really had been busy back then.
After a while, they had wrapped more than fifty wontons. Since the wrappers had been rolled by hand, they were quite large, and the two of them couldn’t possibly finish them all.
Yan Tongshu gazed at the plump, round wontons and sighed inwardly. What a pity that there was no refrigerator here.
Still, she could pack them up and take them back for Pearl and Jinbao to have as a snack before lunch.
It had been a long time since they had eaten wontons she had made, too.
Yan Tongshu happily turned the thought over in her mind.
By then, the imperial chef had brought the water to a boil. Yan Tongshu asked Qin Yi, who was sitting nearby, “How many will you eat?”
“Fifteen.”
“All right.”
Yan Tongshu cheerfully counted out twenty-five wontons. Then she looked at Lu Xi. “Eunuch Lu Xi, how many will you eat?”
“T-this…” Lu Xi waved his hands repeatedly. “This servant doesn’t need any.”
“I made more than fifty. The two of us can’t finish them all. Besides, weren’t you on duty last night? You haven’t eaten breakfast yet, have you? Just tell me how many you want, and I’ll cook them all together. It won’t be any trouble.”
Lu Xi looked toward Qin Yi for permission. Qin Yi said indifferently, “How many?”
Lu Xi held up one hand. “This servant has a small appetite. Five will be enough.”
Yan Tongshu nodded and dropped thirty wontons into the pot.
Of the fifty wontons, thirty had been eaten, leaving twenty.
It was fine. She could pack them up and take them back for Pearl and Jinbao to fill their stomachs before lunch.
Just in time, too. They hadn’t eaten wontons she had made in a long while.
Yan Tongshu happily thought to herself.
Once the thirty wontons were cooked, Yan Tongshu scooped them out and placed them in bowls.
Lu Xi understood everything at once. He immediately directed people to carry the wontons to Funing Palace.
Yan Tongshu gazed at the bowl in satisfaction. It had been so long since she had made wontons, but her skills hadn’t diminished in the slightest.
Look at the wontons she had wrapped—how cute and plump they were. At a glance, one could tell they had thin skins and generous fillings. They smelled absolutely wonderful.
Yan Tongshu scooped up a wonton with her spoon, blew on it, and placed it in her mouth. She chewed slowly and carefully. Sure enough, food made by oneself was always the most suited to one’s own taste.
Yan Tongshu closed her eyes and savored it for a moment. Only after swallowing the wonton did she open her eyes.
The moment she did, she saw Qin Yi staring at her without moving.
“What is it? Don’t you like the taste?”
There were three things Yan Tongshu absolutely could not tolerate: no one was allowed to say that her favorite food tasted bad, no one was allowed to say that a portrait of her did not look like her, and no one was allowed to say that Yuanzi was unattractive.
The dog emperor had already violated two of those rules.
If he dared say today that the wontons she had made were bad, she would cut ties with him.
She refused to be friends with someone whose taste was so poor.
Qin Yi scooped up a wonton and put it in his mouth. He chewed it carefully, then smiled. “They’re the best wontons I’ve ever eaten.”
Yan Tongshu’s mood improved.
That was more like it.
She lowered her head and continued eating.
Still, the dog emperor had been inexplicably agreeable today, not provoking her at all. She was a little unused to it.
After finishing, Yan Tongshu set down her bowl and chopsticks, propped her chin on one hand, and looked at him with a bright smile.
“Qin Yi.”
“Mm?”
Yan Tongshu smiled sweetly. “Can I pack up the remaining wontons?”
Qin Yi gave Yan Tongshu a kindly smile. “No.”
Her smile froze for an instant. “Why not?”
“My lunch hasn’t been arranged yet.”
You have so many imperial chefs, and you’re not lacking a single meal.
There was really no reason for this.
“All right.”
Yan Tongshu switched back into her official role, rose, and bowed. “Then, Your Majesty, it’s already past the time for reporting to duty. I’ll take my leave first.”
Qin Yi stood and walked over to her. His tone carried a trace of seemingly mild reproach.
“You forgot again.”
Yan Tongshu thought for a moment, then reached out, slipped her arms around Qin Yi, and gave him a hug. She even patted him on the back before letting go.
She smiled brightly. “Then… this subject will take her leave.”
When she walked out of the palace gates, Pearl and Jinbao had already been waiting for quite some time with the carriage.
Yan Tongshu had stayed overnight in the imperial palace. Lu Xi had sent someone to inform them and told them to come over again that morning.
The moment Yan Tongshu saw Pearl and Jinbao, she became incredibly excited.
Last night had been absolutely nerve-racking.
Yan Tongshu climbed into the carriage with Pearl. As soon as they were inside, a powerful urge to complain surged within her.
She had almost blown her cover the night before.
If Qin Yi had taken even a little longer to bathe, she would have had to take off her clothes and get into the water.
Although her chest was flat enough that, from the front, it was impossible to tell whether she was a man or a woman, once she got into the water, her pants would become soaked and cling to her skin. Wouldn’t that expose everything at once?
Just as Yan Tongshu was about to hug Pearl and complain, the image of Qin Yi stepping out of the bathing pool, one step at a time, surfaced in her mind again.
He was very well-endowed.
Bah!
Yan Tongshu shook her head vigorously.
She wasn’t that kind of person.
Wait a minute!
Yan Tongshu suddenly came to her senses.
Yesterday, she had been drinking. She had fallen asleep and dreamed that she was catching a wild boar to roast. In the dream, she had kicked and punched the boar.
When she woke up in the morning, Qin Yi had been on the floor while she was sleeping in the very middle of the bed, so she had naturally assumed that she had kicked him off.
But Qin Yi was over six feet tall and as big as a wall. He was as heavy as one too. Could she really have kicked him off the bed?
Besides, the morning court session began after the first half of the third watch. By the time she woke up, the time for attending court had already passed.
Obviously, morning court had already ended.
That meant that when she woke up and saw Qin Yi, he should already have finished attending court. So why was he still wearing only his inner robe, sitting on the floor?
Yan Tongshu suddenly understood.
That dog emperor had deliberately tried to scare her!
Sinister, despicable, and scheming.
…
Late at night, the Milky Way slanted across the sky, and the moon sank toward the earth.
Yan Tongshu lay in bed.
In her half-asleep state, she felt an itch on her face, as though a caterpillar were crawling across it.
No.
It wasn’t a caterpillar. It felt like a person’s hand.
After a while, someone supported the back of her head with a large hand and pressed their forehead to hers. She heard a voice filled with emotion suppressed to the very limit.
“Yan Tongshu.”
Yan Tongshu wanted to open her eyes and take a look, but her eyelids felt unbearably heavy.
The person said nothing else, merely calling her name again and again.
Later, that person left.
When he returned, he carried a damp chill with him, as though he had just been fished out of cold water.
He took her hand and lay down beneath the bed canopy. His fingertips were icy cold, but his palm was burning hot.
Yan Tongshu abruptly sat up in bed.
The familiar bedroom.
Yuanzi meowed twice.
Yan Tongshu’s eyes shifted as she let out a deep breath.
Had it been a dream?
What a strange dream. It had felt as though it had really happened—so real that it made her heart pound with fear.
Yan Tongshu reached out and pulled Yuanzi into her arms. Shaking her head, she cleared away the chaotic thoughts in her mind and went back to sleep.
…
With the Mid-Autumn Festival approaching, Yan Tongshu had begun thinking early about what kind of mooncakes to make this year.
Just as she was pondering the matter, Meng Zheng came over to deliver official documents.
Yan Tongshu picked up the official seal and stamped the documents with its square imprint.
Curious, she looked at Meng Zheng. “Meng Zheng, what kind of mooncakes does your family eat for the Mid-Autumn Festival?”
Meng Zheng put the documents away and propped his elbow on the desk. “My mother wrote to say that she’ll be coming back from Yinzhou before the festival. She’ll bring some pepper-and-salt mooncakes and jujube-paste mooncakes from there.”
“I see.” Yan Tongshu stroked her chin. “I didn’t make mooncakes last year. The year before that, I made five-nut mooncakes, and the year before that, taro-paste mooncakes. This year…”
Meng Zheng was startled. “Taro-paste mooncakes?”
Yan Tongshu gave a cheeky smile. “Never had them before, have you? Want to try one? If you do, I’ll make an extra batch and give you some this year.”
Meng Zheng straightened up and hurriedly cupped his hands in thanks. “Then I’ll really have to thank you, Lord Yan.”
“But I’ve already made taro paste before, so I’d like to try making something new.” Yan Tongshu thought for a moment, then suddenly brightened. “Black-sesame-and-beef mooncakes, or spicy beef mooncakes. Have you ever tried those?”
The corners of Meng Zheng’s mouth twitched. He looked at Yan Tongshu as though she were some kind of monster.
“What?” Yan Tongshu asked.
“Beef mooncakes?” Meng Zheng stared at her with an indescribable expression. “Can that stuff even be eaten?”
“Why couldn’t it be?” Yan Tongshu glared at him. “They’re delicious.”
Meng Zheng’s face was filled with utterly undisguised doubt.
He didn’t believe her.
Yan Tongshu snorted. “Just you wait. This Mid-Autumn Festival, I’ll definitely make beef mooncakes and make you say, with your own mouth, that they’re delicious.”
Meng Zheng firmly shook his head.
Yan Tongshu glared at him. He closed his eyes and nodded again and again. Only then did Yan Tongshu let the matter go.
“However…” He propped his elbow on the desk once more, a smile spilling from his handsome features. “Lord Yan, do you know where to buy beef? This dynasty forbids the slaughter of working oxen. Butchers only sell mutton and pork. Restaurants, meanwhile, don’t sell raw meat to outsiders.”
Yan Tongshu looked at Pearl. Pearl hurriedly waved both hands.
She didn’t know either.
The kitchen handled all the purchasing, and the residence didn’t even eat beef once or twice a year.
Yan Tongshu shifted her gaze away from Pearl, lowered her eyes, and thought for a moment before smiling. “The black market.”
Meng Zheng rolled his eyes at her. “We’re both honorable officials of the imperial court—you’re a third-rank official, and I’m a third-rank official as well. Would it really be appropriate for the two of us to go buy beef at the black market? If we were caught on the spot, we’d not only have to endure the emperor’s reprimand, we’d lose all our dignity too.”
Yan Tongshu looked at him. “Then where should we go?”
Meng Zheng lowered his eyes and smiled. “When do you need it?”
Yan Tongshu calculated the time. “Within the next two or three days.”
“All right.” Meng Zheng straightened up. “I’ll come pick you up after work in two days.”
Yan Tongshu blinked. “Pick me up?”
“That’s right.” He turned around and waved over his shoulder at her. “I’ll take you to buy beef.”
Yan Tongshu immediately agreed. “All right!”
Two days later, after finishing work, Yan Tongshu sent Pearl and Jinbao home first. She then changed into plain clothes and waited for Meng Zheng outside the Kaifeng Prefecture office.
Before the time it took to burn a stick of incense had passed, Meng Zheng arrived on horseback. He held out a hand to Yan Tongshu. “Come.”
Yan Tongshu took his hand, and he pulled her up onto the horse in one swift motion. “Let’s go buy beef.”
Riding together on one horse, they soon arrived in the eastern part of the city, in front of a building with a blue gate.
Meng Zheng dismounted, and Yan Tongshu followed, turning over the saddle and landing on the ground.
She looked up at the blue gate and read the sign hanging above it aloud. “Cattle Office.”
She frowned. “There’s even a government office for oxen?”
“People have government offices. Why can’t oxen have one?” Meng Zheng replied.
After saying that, he tied up the reins and knocked on the door.
A response soon came from inside. The person who opened the door wore a blue yamen runner’s uniform. The moment he saw Meng Zheng, he broke into a smile.
“Lord Meng, here to choose some beef? Officer Xu informed us early this morning and told us not to neglect you.”
Meng Zheng smiled. “I brought a friend to choose some meat and show her the way here.”
“Certainly. Please follow me, both of you.”
The man led the way.
Yan Tongshu and Meng Zheng followed him into the Cattle Office.
Lowering her voice, she asked Meng Zheng, “What is this place for?”
Meng Zheng stepped over the threshold and walked toward the inner courtyard. “What you see is what you get. It settles cases involving oxen.”
Yan Tongshu jabbed him with her elbow. “I’m asking seriously.”
“Hiss.” Meng Zheng rubbed his waist. “That was harsh.”
He continued, “I’m not joking. This place really does settle cases involving oxen. The imperial court prohibits the slaughter of working cattle, but people can’t resist the high price of beef. Many farmers get crooked ideas and falsely claim that their healthy, sturdy oxen are sick or old. They deliberately kill the animals, then say they died of illness or old age and sell the carcasses for a huge profit.
“As more and more people began doing this, the court established the Cattle Office to regulate the matter. On the one hand, it provides free medical treatment for oxen. On the other, it requires every farmer to report any illness among their working cattle, whether serious or minor. After an ox dies, its body must also be handed over to the Cattle Office for inspection and centralized disposal. If it’s discovered that the animal did not die of illness or old age, the owner is immediately thrown into prison.”
Meng Zheng paused, then said, “Besides that, to protect plow oxen and prevent people from deliberately killing their own cattle to sell the meat, the court has been trying for the past two years to import beef from elsewhere. The Cattle Office handles the slaughter and sale. It’s just that…”
Yan Tongshu asked, “It hasn’t gone smoothly?”
Meng Zheng nodded. “Bringing in cattle from other countries means traveling too far. Too many die or grow ill along the way, the price is high, and the supply is small. They also have trouble adapting to the local climate and are difficult to keep alive. So the Cattle Office has been limping along without making much of a name for itself. Apart from the major restaurants and one or two nobles who enjoy beef, not many people even know it exists.”
Yan Tongshu asked curiously, “Then how did you find out about it?”
Meng Zheng raised a hand and casually brushed away a leaf flying toward Yan Tongshu. “There’s a soldier in my camp whose elder brother is surnamed Xu. He works as a registrar at the Cattle Office—the very Officer Xu Zeng Sen mentioned just now.”
Zeng Sen was the constable they had met earlier.
Meng Zheng paused before continuing, “Once, when the camp was celebrating, he asked his brother to pull some strings and bought two pounds of beef. More than thirty of us shared it. Each man got one slice. After that, we knew he had connections, so whenever we had the chance, we’d come over and buy some.”
The Cattle Office seemed insignificant, but beef was in fact extremely precious. All year round, people from the major restaurants sent gifts and called in favors, begging for a larger allotment for their establishments the following year so their businesses could prosper even further.
Even if the people at the Cattle Office refused to accept bribes, the customary gifts they received during the holidays alone were enough to keep them comfortable in every season.
Yan Tongshu and Meng Zheng were inside the Cattle Office, so he stopped short of saying more.
But after thinking it over, Yan Tongshu understood.
It was like a sales manager in a company who controlled a scarce commodity. Even if he did not accept kickbacks or rebates, people would still invite him to meals and bring him cigarettes, wine, tea, and snacks.
The closer one’s relationship with him, the easier it was to obtain such coveted goods.
That had always been the way, from ancient times to the present.
As they talked, the two reached the rear courtyard.
The rear courtyard was very large and divided into two sections. On the eastern side stood the cowshed, where the “imported” live cattle were kept.
These cattle had all been brought in from the north. After enduring the long and arduous journey, some had died along the way by the time they reached Bianjing, while more than half of the rest had fallen ill.
No wonder beef prices had never come down.
Beside the cowshed was an area where fodder was stored. The courtyard lay in front, and across from it was the slaughtering area.
The front courtyard they had crossed on their way in was naturally the “cattle inspection” courtroom.
Zeng Sen smiled and asked, “Will you be having local beef or imported beef?”
Yan Tongshu carefully examined the cattle in the shed. She did not know one breed from another, so she asked, “Young man, what’s the difference between them?”
Yan Tongshu was dressed in plain clothes. Although Zeng Sen did not know her identity, he could tell from the way Meng Zheng treated her with such familiarity that she must be someone of considerable status.
That someone so distinguished would address a lowly man like him as “young man” made Zeng Sen even more respectful toward her.
He smiled and said, “Most of our local cattle are Nanyang cattle, with a smaller number of Jinnan cattle and Qinchuan cattle. All three breeds are large and have tender meat. But since the court forbids slaughtering them, the cattle we have here are all sick cattle, old cattle, or animals that died after growing old. Even if they’ve only been dead for a short time, the meat isn’t very good.
“The cattle brought in from elsewhere are different. Most come from several small countries in the north and west. Their people don’t farm like we do, so their cattle aren’t used for plowing. They’re willing to trade cattle for our rice and beans. These are all healthy, prime-age animals.
“And, Young Master, look here. These cattle may be different from ours—they have thicker, longer coats and are somewhat shorter—but their meat is exceptionally fragrant. The fellows who do the slaughtering say it even has a milky flavor. And over here…”
Zeng Sen pointed at the black-and-white cattle.
Yan Tongshu recognized these. They were dairy cows.
Zeng Sen said, “I heard these are specially raised for milk in the west. Apparently, they can no longer produce milk, so they sold them to us. I’ve never tasted one, but they’re all old, so the meat probably isn’t anything special.”
After listening to Zeng Sen, Yan Tongshu decided she wanted freshly slaughtered beef.
But…
She asked awkwardly, “A single cow is so large. What if I can’t buy an entire one?”
“Oh, what are you thinking?” Zeng Sen said with a broad grin. “Who buys a whole cow? Even the wealthiest household couldn’t eat all that meat. We’re already planning to slaughter a batch today. Some will be transported at daybreak to the nearby towns, where the local Cattle Offices will distribute it to restaurants according to their quotas. A small portion will be sold individually.
“You can choose one first. Whichever one you pick, we’ll add it to today’s slaughter batch. Once it’s been butchered, you can choose the cuts you want. Anything left over will be transported and distributed as usual.”
Yan Tongshu asked, “Wouldn’t that be against the rules?”
Was it illegal?
Zeng Sen smiled. “It’s fine. Every Cattle Office is allowed to sell a certain amount individually. They can’t send all the good meat to the major restaurants and prevent everyone else from having any, can they? Go ahead and choose. You can think of it as placing an advance order.”
Seeing that Yan Tongshu still had some reservations, Meng Zheng lowered his head and explained, “There may be many people who buy beef, or there may be few. There’s no guarantee that the day’s fresh slaughter will always sell out. That’s why individual sales are arranged through advance registration and reservations in the first place. We’re simply coming over early to reserve some and taking it away ahead of time.”
Since that was the case, Yan Tongshu felt reassured.
However, she still had no idea how to choose a cow, so she asked Zeng Sen to pick one for her.
“Luo Bi!” Zeng Sen shouted. “Call two men over. We’re slaughtering a cow!”
“Yes!”
A reply came from the slaughtering area across the courtyard.
A moment later, three huge, broad-shouldered men dressed in black short jackets came over. With practiced efficiency, they began catching and tying up the cow.
Before long, two of the men had secured it, while the third took an iron mallet and struck a precise spot on the back of its head. The cow immediately fell unconscious.
The three men then carried it to the slaughtering area, where they cut its throat and drained its blood.
It was Yan Tongshu’s first time watching a cow being slaughtered. For a moment, she was so startled that her eyes widened.
Suddenly, a warm gust of air brushed the back of her neck. She shuddered and realized that Meng Zheng had deliberately blown on her neck to frighten her.
She kicked at him. Meng Zheng nimbly dodged, but Yan Tongshu’s foot came down on the back of his foot.
“That’s for scaring me,” she said.
Although she had stepped on him neither lightly nor heavily, Meng Zheng did not feel the slightest pain. Instead, he laughed so hard his stomach hurt. “Yan Tongshu, you don’t even blink when dissecting a corpse, but you’re completely transfixed by the sight of a cow being slaughtered.”
Yan Tongshu gave him a disdainful snort.
She had simply never seen a cow slaughtered before and was curious.
Yan Tongshu moved closer to watch. Meng Zheng followed, folding his arms across his chest as he watched alongside her.
Once the blood had been drained, Luo Bi began skinning the cow.
After removing the hide, Luo Bi carefully set it aside.
Cattle were precious, and their hides were precious as well. All the hides from the Cattle Office had to be kept and supplied to the army free of charge, for making leather armor and drums. They could not be damaged carelessly.
After putting the hide away, Luo Bi began removing the internal organs. Of the other two men, Wang Zhi went to fetch water, while Liang Cheng sharpened a knife in preparation for cutting up the beef.
All of them were skilled workers, and their movements were extremely swift.
Slaughtering cattle was a technical job, but it also required great physical strength. Every one of them was powerfully built, with thick arms and well-developed muscles.
