Chapter 28: Personally Adjusting the Ladle, Sisters Reunite

  After Lin Ruhai's hundred days of mourning, the family's white lanterns and curtains began to be put away. Except for daily vegetarian fasting, all household chores also returned to normal.

  During this time, it was also the 12th of February, Daiyu's birthday. As she was still in mourning, she and Zhiyan only had a bowl of plain longevity noodles each to mark her 14th birthday. Zhiyan said that next year, after the mourning period is over, they would have a big celebration when Daiyu comes of age.

  Although it is the end of spring, in order to welcome this year's imperial examination, scholars have already begun to secretly contact each other and seek out wise men for guidance.

  Zhiyuan was the top scorer in Suzhou three years ago, and next year he will take part in the imperial examination again. Naturally, many people came to ask for his guidance, and at one time, Lin's mansion was bustling with visitors. Daiyu is not a narrow-minded person, but she also worries that these frequent visits will delay her brother Wen's studies, so she hopes Zhiyuan can return to the academy to avoid this for a while. Zhiyuan just smiled and said he has already seen most of it, and soon he will take Daiyu to Beijing. So now if he can help others a bit more, it's not much trouble for himself either.

  Now Daiyu is in charge of the house, and since she can't persuade Zhiyuan, she can only take care of the daily food and lodging. Yan laolao tells herself that these visitors are not only young masters from noble families, but also some poor scholars, and it's rare that the young master treats them equally. Daiyu listens more and more admires her brother, whenever there are guests in the front yard, Daiyu asks people to prepare good dishes, although they are all vegetarian, but each one is a masterpiece. Those who come to visit know that the Lin family is mourning and has something to ask of others, seeing the host's family doing so thoroughly, can't help but praise Zhiyuan.

  On this day, Daiyu finished her household chores and was watching Xueqi and Rongze paint when Chunxiang brought in an invitation.

  "Miss, this was just brought by Old Mrs. Lao," said Chun Xiang as she handed the note to Dai Yu.

  Daiyu had been in Suzhou for some time, and Zhiyuan knew that his sister loved to read and write, so he often had people send her some famous and expensive brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones. As a result, she now understood quite a bit about these things. The letter was written on the best quality flower-patterned notepaper from Song Gu Zhai, with golden-brown clerical script, neat handwriting, and strokes that seemed to have life in them.

  The ladies of the Dongpinghou Mansion knew that Daiyu had been in mourning for over a hundred days, so they hoped to invite her out to take a walk and clear her mind. Coincidentally, the weather was also good now, so they invited her to go to Hanshan Temple with them tomorrow, firstly to pay respects to Lin's uncle, and secondly because all these sisters wanted to see Daiyu.

  Daiyu was worried that the timing was too rushed and feared it would be inconvenient to travel, but after arriving in Suzhou, the sisters of the Duke of Dongping's household took great care of her, sending her food and comforting letters even though they had never met before. Daiyu felt grateful and had long wanted to meet the talented ladies of the Duke of Dongping's household.

  Daiyu then asked Chunyu: "Is the person who delivered the message from the Hou family still outside?"

  Chun Xiaodao said: "He's still here, because he has to wait for the young lady's reply. Luo Dainiang told him to go and rest in the entrance hall, our family will naturally have someone to accompany him."

  "Alright, you go ask Young Master if the few young ladies from the Dongping Hou Mansion have invited me to burn incense at Hanshan Temple tomorrow and ask Brother if he can arrange for my trip?"

  Chun Xian received the order and hurriedly went to see Shan Lou. In a moment, he came back to report: "Young Master said that Miss should get ready, tomorrow Young Master and Miss will go to burn incense together."

  Daiyu asked Mrs. Xue to instruct her on what preparations she should make. After some thought, Mrs. Xue said: "Miss, since you're going to offer incense, it's proper to prepare some sacrificial offerings for Master. There's no need to be too particular; just choose a few types of pastries that Master used to love."

  Daiyu was somewhat embarrassed and said, "Father loves to eat Yangzhou's old brand Zhangjiapu's milk cake and Ruyi pastry the most. It's just that it's so far away, if we send someone to Yangzhou just for these two pastries, it doesn't make sense."

  Bi Die listened to the side and smiled: "Miss, don't worry, although you can't go to Yangzhou's shop to buy it, Bi Die can make the two kinds of pastries that Miss said. If Miss doesn't mind, I'll make them for Miss to try?"

  "Great, I had forgotten that we have a beautiful cook here! Just do it, and today we are in luck. Everyone will get to taste it."

  Bihe heard Daiyu's promise and pulled Zi Juan to go to the kitchen in the backyard to help.

  Yuan's wife thought for a moment, then turned to Daiyu and said: "There is no need to prepare too many things, four will be enough. I'll ask Bixiao to make a few more later and let the young lady choose one. There is just one more thing..."

  "Please go on, Granny," Daiyu hastily said.

  "It would be even better if the young lady could make a kind of pastry herself." Madam Yan looked at Daiyu with warm eyes, "The young ladies in the Hou family are all intelligent and kind, besides being skilled in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, it's rare that everyone is also good at needlework and cooking. If tomorrow when we meet, if the young lady can bring some small pastries she made herself for everyone to try, wouldn't that be a wonderful thing?"

  Daiyu listened to Nurse Li's words, smiled and held her hand: "Nurse thinks of Daiyu everywhere, Daiyu is grateful. It's just that my hands are clumsy, I'm afraid I won't do well, so I have to ask Nurse to help me, see what the sisters like, Nurse can teach me."

  Yan said, "This isn't difficult, Miss. As long as you're willing to put your heart into learning, you'll definitely succeed. Let's start with small steps, and by the time you get married, I'm sure you'll be able to make a whole table of delicious dishes. Although young ladies from big families should learn poetry and literature, it's not good to be bound by convention. If you don't understand household chores in the future, people will look down on you. Don't you think that's right, Miss?"

  The two of them chatted as they headed towards the small kitchen in the backyard, leaving only Yan Rong to take care of the two children.

  Bi Die and Zi Juan were busy. The little maids, Xiang Shan, Xiang Hui, and Xiang Xue, were peeking around the corner. It wasn't that these few people were greedy, but they knew that Bi Die's skills were good, and if they could learn some, it would be a valuable skill in the future. Everyone knew that Master loved his daughter the most, so all the delicious food and fine things were moved to Fang Mei Pavilion. The servants who worked in the pavilion had an easy job with plenty of rewards during festivals and holidays. Which little maid wouldn't want to go there? Xiang Hui and the others were able to get into Fang Mei Pavilion because they had skills, and their families had used connections to find a way in.

  It is precisely because of this that a few people cherish such opportunities even more.

  Daiyu and Nurse Li entered the small kitchen, which was Daiyu's first time here. The entire small kitchen was under Bixia's management. Daiyu carefully observed everything: the vegetable rack had neatly arranged bamboo baskets, the seasoning jars were spotless, the stove was clean without a single oil stain, and the floor was dry and free of stains. One water vat contained four or five live fish, while another vat held a large bamboo basket; Daiyu couldn't see what was inside, so she asked Bixia.

  "Ah, it's a basket of live prawns that was just delivered from outside the courtyard. Our young master said that his younger brother and sister love to eat them, so I had them fried as a snack for the two little masters. Since they just finished lunch, I thought I'd prepare them now and let them cool down, then put them in the water vat to keep fresh until Young Master and Miss finish their studies."

  Daiyu suddenly thought of the big prawn cooked in oil from last night. She didn't know where her brother had gotten such a large prawn, but naturally he and she couldn't eat it, only giving two small ones to supplement their bodies. Rong Zhe was young and a boy, so the maid peeled the shrimp skin for him, and the little guy directly put it in his mouth, nourishing himself for several days, and his face had more flesh, white and chubby, with plump little hands, grabbing a big prawn and swallowing it in two bites, eating with a red and oily small mouth, his cheeks bulging, making her brother and herself laugh with joy.

  Zhiyuan brother teased himself, saying that he would be so hungry if he could eat like this, and Daiyu became a big red face.

  Xue Qi is doing a bit better, after all she's a girl, and these past few days she's been following Dai Yu to read books and write characters, her temperament has also slowly improved.

  Daiyu thought of Xueqi, and her heart couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness. This child was even more unfortunate than Rongze. Her mother was the maid of Daiyu's uncle, later becoming his concubine, and died in childbirth. Rongze's mother didn't treat Xueqi well either. It was understandable, after all, she wasn't willing to accept her own son, so how could she be kind to a daughter born out of wedlock?

  These two little ones were dependent on each other in Ding's family, fortunately, their brother took them in, otherwise, who knows what kind of fate they would have had.

  Daiyu said to Bihe, "Tomorrow you go find Luo Dainiang and tell her that from now on she should often send over some of these green shrimp. You can exchange them for several different styles, the fried ones are too greasy, it's also good to make some light dishes for those two little ones."

  "Miss, don't worry, I know. If I had to say, the one who likes to eat shrimp the most should be our young master. He especially likes spicy ones, like dry-braised, fragrant and spicy, garlic-flavored, pepper-salt... Ah, there's nothing our young master doesn't love."

  Daiyu burst out laughing, no wonder yesterday Rongzhe ate fragrant and delicious food, her brother also had a big bowl of noodles, and deceived himself saying it was to borrow Rongzhe's fragrance to eat with rice, nonsense, obviously he was also craving.

  Daiyu made up her mind to learn the culinary skills from Bihe, not for anything else, but also to make some dishes for her brother in the future.

  Everyone discussed and decided that Bi Die would make milk-flour cake, auspicious pastry, green dumplings and mirror-glazed cake.

  Daiyu chose to make plum blossom cake, under the guidance of Nurse Li, with Zi Juan assisting.

  Xiao Yanyu Xiang found the mold for plum blossom in the warehouse, Bi Die helped to mix the flour, and the rest was much simpler. After the mold was heated, Dai Yu only needed to pour the batter into the mold, add various fillings such as bean paste, rose, fruit kernel, date paste, fruit sauce, small yuanxiao, and pine nut, then pour on the surface syrup, sprinkle with white sugar and red and green melon threads. Yan Niangniang helped to cover the cake mold with a scorching hot iron plate to bake until cooked.

  When the iron plate was lifted, the small kitchen was filled with a strong rice cake flavor, sweet and fragrant, with a hint of floral scent. The roasted plum blossom cake was golden in color, shaped like delicate plum blossoms.

  Daiyu first handed a piece to Nurse Li, who tasted it and nodded with a smile, "Not bad, the flavor is no worse than what Bixiao makes."

  Daiyu listened to Yuanyang's praise and couldn't help but feel delighted. She picked up a piece and took a bite, the sweetness was just right, not greasy, soft and crispy, with an aftertaste that lingered on.

  This was Daiyu's first time cooking, and she probably didn't expect it to turn out so well herself. She hastily told Xiangyun: "Get a food box, put these in first, and send them to Young Master. Then pack some more and send them to the front yard for Brother and Sister."

  Yan's wife watched Daiyu directing the busy crowd, feeling a little relieved in her heart. Lin's young lady is now more and more capable of handling things, no longer the ignorant golden girl she was when she first met her... She hasn't disappointed the princess's entrustment to her after all...

  P.S: May I ask softly...... can you vote PK for Jinghe? ??? Jinghe will work hard to update~~~