IHOEAYSTTTIW Chapter 37
by VolareThe warm milk tea slides over the tip of the tongue, the milk is silky smooth, the black tea is mellow and fragrant, sweet with a hint of bitterness.
Rich and layered. With one sip, the rich aroma still lingers in the mouth, intoxicating.
Lin Yan smacked his lips, feeling like he was back in the old days.
But he always felt like something was missing. Lin Yan looked around and quickly found what was lacking.
After coming to the Great Zhou, he couldn’t take out his cell phone blatantly, and slowly he didn’t have the habit of taking his cell phone out. And now, what he lacks is “electronic pickles” (entertainment). However, it’s not a big deal without “electronic pickles”. Tea houses and taverns are the places with the most concentrated news. As long as you have an eye for gossip, this is a field of gossip.
Lin Yan’s attention was quickly attracted by the crowd downstairs, watching several people discussing the stories in the storybooks with relish.
A scholar in white secretly took out a book from his arms and placed it on the table, pushing it to the person opposite him: “Take a look at the storybook I recently bought.”
The words on the cover of the book were a bit small, and it was also in traditional characters, so Lin Yan couldn’t see clearly. He only vaguely saw something like “The Amorous Dreams of the Harem.”
“《The Amorous Dreams of the Harem》” The man took the book, flipped through it casually, and gasped. He lowered his voice a bit, but Lin Yan could still vaguely hear a word or two, “It’s really like they said, that younger brother fell in love with his own brother, and also…”
The scholar in white made a gesture of silence, looked around, and then met Lin Yan’s eyes, who was leaning out.
Lin Yan smiled friendly at the two of them, with two sweet little dimples appearing on his cheeks.
But the two of them couldn’t smile at all. The scholar in white bowed slightly to Lin Yan, didn’t even drink his tea, directly put a few pieces of broken silver on the table, and pulled his companion out the door.
The reaction of the two was so great that Lin Yan was a little surprised.
“Am I that scary?” Lin Yan sat back in his seat listlessly, picked up the milk tea and took a sip, “Or is the scale of this storybook too big? Do they think it’s shameful? It shouldn’t be?”
“Big Brother doesn’t know.” Yun Qi leaned close to Lin Yan’s ear and mysteriously lowered his voice, “That book is a secret history of the previous dynasty, but it’s just disguised.”
Lin Yan smacked his lips, feeling that this gossip was surprisingly delicious to savor.
If this matter was fabricated by someone, it wouldn’t be anything, but if it was a true story disguised, then Lin Yan said… drama needs to be logical, life only needs to be improvised on the spot.
“This is actually true.” Lin Yan shook his head repeatedly, taking a sip of milk tea to calm his nerves.
Yun Qi had been paying attention to Lin Yan’s every move. Seeing Lin Yan’s reaction, his heart suddenly sank.
“Who knows if it’s true, it’s just that everyone is spreading it.” Yun Qi’s hand holding the teacup trembled uncontrollably. He forced a smile and cautiously probed, “Big Brother can’t accept brothers becoming…”
“Bones and joints or something, it’s okay to watch it in novels. But if it’s really brothers becoming lovers, there will be all kinds of problems, not to mention…” Lin Yan curled his lips, looking disgusted, “They don’t want children, do they…”
Yun Qi didn’t understand what “bones and joints” meant, but he guessed eight or nine out of ten.
He just wanted to take this opportunity to test Lin Yan’s attitude. Seeing that Lin Yan didn’t reject the younger brother’s “improper thoughts,” the heart hanging in his chest relaxed a little. He cautiously added: “I heard they have no blood relationship.”
“Then it’s okay.” Lin Yan shrugged, his disgust turning into an auntie smile, “I wish them well, and I can also support the storybook.”
Yun Qi’s hanging heart completely relaxed. Just as he wanted to say something more, Lin Yan’s attention shifted back to downstairs.
The topic of the tea drinkers had somehow shifted to Xiang cuisine.
“Have you guys been to that recently popular store?”
“Can’t get a number.”
“I did go to eat once. If you go, you must order their Overlord Pig Trotter. It’s especially delicious!”
Seeing his own dishes being recognized, Lin Yan secretly puffed up his chest. But before he could be proud for even two seconds, he heard a merchant-like person coldly snort in disdain, “Pig trotters are something that people only eat when they can’t afford rice…”
Lin Yan had heard this kind of questioning many times. He calmly picked up his milk tea and took a sip, waiting for the people who had been to Xiang cuisine to justify him.
“I used to think the same way, but after eating it once…” That person swallowed, and started rummaging for silver notes, “I’m not talking to you anymore, I’m going to Xiang cuisine to see if I can get another one.”
“Is it really that delicious?” The merchant looked at the leaving figure, also tempted.
Steward Luo of the First-Class Pavilion had just stepped into the restaurant when he heard a group of people praising how good Xiang cuisine was. He rolled his eyes and started his despicable commercial warfare.
The first step of commercial warfare: slander the chef of Xiang cuisine.
Steward Luo put on a knowledgeable look, and shared a “secret” with the people around him in a voice that everyone could hear: “I heard that the chef of Xiang cuisine is a refugee from the Southern Lands, and hasn’t eaten anything good…”
“Old Luo is starting again.” Rivals in the same trade are enemies. Lin Yan felt annoyed when he saw Steward Luo. He was just about to close the window when he found that the tea drinkers were not very interested in where the chef came from. Instead, they began to discuss the famine in the Southern Lands.
“It’s all because that one is inauspicious.” The speaker pointed upwards, shaking his head seriously, “A jinx to his father, mother, and brother, and now there are riots and locust plagues.”
“It’s really possible to connect everything with fate. These rumors that spread through hearsay really have a market.” The little bit of interest that Lin Yan had just ignited was instantly extinguished. Yun Qi pushed the small pastries in front of Lin Yan, and got up to close the windows of the private room.
Yun Qi remembered everything Lin Yan had said. Lin Yan had once told him that his parents had abandoned him because they believed a fortune teller’s nonsense that he was an inauspicious person. Therefore, Lin Yan hated these mystical things the most.
Lin Yan picked up a pastry and glanced at it, putting it down without any desire.
Yun Qi said “sorry” in his heart. As if noticing Lin Yan’s unhappiness, he continued the topic that Lin Yan didn’t like: “Although the matter of fate is nonsense, the Southern Lands are indeed not peaceful.”
“The land of fish and rice in Jiangnan is also experiencing famine.” Lin Yan didn’t want to discuss fate, nor did he want to discuss politics, perfunctorily saying, “The South shouldn’t be short of food, right? If some is transferred from other places, it will always get better.”
“Big Brother doesn’t understand.” Yun Qi was uncharacteristically serious, grabbing Lin Yan, who was trying to escape, and analyzing the key points for him little by little, “Food will naturally be transferred, but there are too many people involved. The news of the disaster is reported layer by layer, and the people in the court quarrel and discuss it. After weighing the various advantages and disadvantages, the disaster may not be saved. Even if it is to be saved, the order will be passed down layer by layer, with multi-party coordination and mutual wrangling… This back and forth will take at least three or four months.”
“Three or four months? People will starve to death in two weeks.” Lin Yan’s hand clenched and then relaxed, finally just sighing heavily, “It’s a pity that I’m just a chef, I can’t do anything.”
“Actually…” Yun Qi revealed his true colors, saying his purpose, “Perhaps Big Brother can’t save these people, but can save the people who come after.”
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