IHOEAYSTTTIW Chapter 9

Chapter 9:Steamed cured meat Without Chili, Unspeakable Royal Status

Chapter 9:Steamed cured meat Without Chili, Unspeakable Royal Status

Hot pan with cold oil, ginger, garlic, fermented soybeans, chili… Stir-fry the green peppers until fragrant, add clear water, Lin Yan adds his homemade MSG and sugar. The aroma fills the entire Kitchen, and Yun Qi looks at the green sauce in the pot, quietly swallowing.

After being by Lin Yan’s side for two months, Yun Qi chose to abandon those messy dogmas and etiquettes and turned to embrace the joys of food. He is a modern person now; forcibly adhering to those rules and regulations would only ruin his image.

Putting the sauce aside, Lin Yan takes the washed cured meat and fish, slices the cured meat, cuts the cured fish into strips, stir-fries them until fragrant and oil is released, adds cooking wine, continues to stir-fry, the aroma is overflowing, preparing to take it out of the pot.

Yun Qi swallows again, quietly moving towards the chopstick rest, secretly pulling out two chopsticks.

“Thank you, Mushroom.” Lin Yan snatches the chopsticks from Yun Qi’s hand and casually spins them around.

First, he puts two relatively fatty pieces at the bottom of the bowl, then stacks them one by one around the edges, placing the cured fish in the middle, pressing it firmly, and then inverting it onto a plate.

The bright red cured meat is drizzled with the dark green sauce.

Yun Qi rubs his hands expectantly, ready to start eating.

Lin Yan shakes his head in disgust, clicking his tongue twice in dissatisfaction: “Alas, this way it really has no soul.”

In Great Zhou, cured meat is mostly stir-fried. Yun Qi thought it was ready to be served, and he had already planned in his mind where to start eating, but on the surface, he still looks obedient and reaches out to take the plate from Lin Yan’s hand: “How could it be? It smells so good, it looks delicious.”

“Wait a moment.” Lin Yan slaps away Yun Qi’s outstretched hand and lifts the lid of the steamer, “It’s not over yet, Steamed cured meat, Steamed cured meat, naturally it needs to be steamed for another half an hour to fully absorb the flavors.”

Lin Yan chops small green onions while muttering to himself: “Why doesn’t Great Zhou have chili peppers? I really want to eat spicy food. Replacing chili peppers with green peppers and pepper just lacks soul. I want to eat Mao Xue Wang, I want to eat Laziji, I want to eat Nine-Square Grid hotpot.”

Lin Yan peeks at the field and then shrinks back into the Kitchen dejectedly: “River Sister, grow quickly, why are you still green?”

Yun Qi’s alarm bells ring loudly. He looks in the direction Lin Yan just looked for a long time, but he doesn’t see anyone. He can only reluctantly ask Lin Yan: “River Sister… who is that?”

Lin Yan’s heart is focused on the dish in the pot, and he doesn’t notice the strangeness in Yun Qi’s tone: “The name I gave to the chili sapling, isn’t it fitting?”

……

Yun Qi’s eyelids twitch, and he manages to say “En” with difficulty.

“What’s wrong?” Yun Qi’s perfunctoriness makes Lin Yan dissatisfied. He pouts and asks sincerely, “Don’t you give names to objects?”

“I do, I think?”

“Tsk, you don’t. But… being mature at a young age is tiring.” Lin Yan lifts the pot lid, scoops rice into a plate, draws a smiley face with the sauce, and hands it to Yun Qi, “Keeping a childlike heart is the only way to stay beautiful and young.”

“But…”

“Out of the pot, out of the pot.” Lin Yan brings out the steamed dish, takes a bite, and nods somewhat reluctantly, “Okay, the taste is passable.”

Yun Qi is a little reluctant to touch the smiley face, but after tasting the dish, he immediately becomes iron-hearted and devours it like a whirlwind.

A bowl of rice is quickly finished, Yun Qi smacks his lips and mumbles, “Super delicious, I want another bowl of rice.”

Being recognized is a very happy thing, Lin Yan chuckles and waves his hand: “Go ahead, I even thought I made too much.”

Just as Yun Qi enters the Kitchen, the courtyard door rings. Lin Yan goes to open the door and sees the Li Zheng (Village Head) of Lin Family Village standing outside the door, smiling like the Maitreya Buddha in the ancestral hall.

His huge body blocks the door tightly, and his thick nostrils twitch: “Brother Yan, are you eating?”

“Li Zheng (Village Head), sir.” Lin Yan leads him in, giving way to the room.

“Tsk, what are you eating? You’re ruining good cured meat.” The Li Zheng (Village Head) says with disdain, but his hand picks up the serving chopsticks with a speed that his body shouldn’t have, and attacks the cured meat.

A small piece to taste, then a bigger piece because he swallowed too quickly, the cured meat and cured fish must be equally distributed, another piece without sauce…

The Li Zheng (Village Head) devours half the plate like a whirlwind. Lin Yan wants to say something but stops, stops but wants to say something again, and finally opens his mouth to “advise”: “Since you think it’s ruined, sir, then put down your chopsticks.”

“Don’t ah.” The Li Zheng (Village Head) pulls over a stool, finds a more comfortable posture, “Who said this cured meat is ruined? This cured meat is very good.”

“There’s still rice in the Kitchen, I’ll get you…”

“Okay, good… cough cough” The Li Zheng (Village Head) meets Lin Yan’s eyes, coughs twice guiltily, and laughs dryly, “No need for rice, is there wine? My wife won’t let me drink.”

“Wine…” Lin Yan looks around and points to the corner, “Will cooking wine do?”

“Cooking wine will…” The Li Zheng (Village Head) catches a glimpse of the label on the wine jar, his rejecting action pauses, and his two beady eyes widen, “You use Drunken Pleasure Tower’s yellow wine as cooking wine???”

“Ah?” Lin Yan takes a jar of wine and puts it on the table, “I think their wine is good to use, what’s wrong?”

What’s wrong? What good family uses wine that costs one tael of silver for two jars as cooking wine?

“It’s nothing, it’s nothing.” The Li Zheng (Village Head) lifts the lid, takes a deep breath, and smiles sheepishly, “Sophisticated person, sophisticated person.”

Yun Qi, who went to get rice, hasn’t returned for a long time. The Li Zheng (Village Head) sits in his seat, taking a sip of wine, a bite of meat, a sip of wine, a bite of meat, enjoying himself immensely.

After two jars of wine, the Li Zheng (Village Head)’s face is already flushed, he touches his stomach, and lets out a deep burp of satisfaction.

After working hard for an afternoon, it all ended up in someone else’s mouth. Lin Yan narrows his eyes slightly and taps the plate twice with his chopsticks: “Sir, you didn’t just come to freeload a meal, did you?”

“Cough, there’s business, of course there’s business.” The Li Zheng (Village Head) pats his slightly dizzy head, looks up at the Kitchen, “That Xiao Qi who’s been staying at your house recently? Is… is he your cousin?”

Lin Yan’s eyes flicker: “Sort of, I guess?”

“You can only fool others with that.” The Li Zheng (Village Head) staggers to the wall and picks up another jar of wine, “I checked the household registration. Your parents are both only children, there are no cousins at all. That Xiao Qi, you picked him up, right?”

A gust of wind blows in from outside, and the lights in the room flicker.

Lin Yan walks to the bed, closes the window that was open a crack, his face is calm, but his mind is racing.

A newly made-up identity is easily exposed, so why don’t we treat each other honestly? After all, sincerity is the best killing technique~

Lin Yan’s mind instantly has a picture.

He tells the Li Zheng (Village Head) that Yun Qi is a prince and gives the Jade Pendant to the Li Zheng (Village Head). The Li Zheng (Village Head) reports it, and tomorrow soldiers will come to his house, tie him up (crossed out) and joyfully take Yun Qi back to the palace, then there will be enfeeblement, granting a mansion, and then Yun Qi is seriously ill, the new Emperor is extremely saddened, and asks the Imperial Physician to treat him, and also bestows various elixirs. But Yun Qi seems to be very ill and soon passes away. Then there’s a grand funeral, and then…

Lin Yan shakes his head, shaking off this terrible thought.

Stop, stop, he still has to make up a story.

But Lin Yan has never been good at lying, and he starts to worry as he looks at the Kitchen where shadows seem to be flickering.

“I won’t eat your food for nothing, I’ll give you a heads up.” The Li Zheng (Village Head) is a little drunk and doesn’t notice Lin Yan’s strangeness. He points upwards and mutters mysteriously, “Don’t listen to the nonsense outside, this… these people, it’s not the Ministry of Revenue’s intention, it’s the Emperor who’s looking for a noble person, your family’s Xiao Qi might be…”

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