Chapter 686 - Receiving the Emperor’s Command
Princess Consort Jing was rather pleased with the young lady’s temper. Although she wasn’t bothered about the trivial matters, she was still conservative and courteous. The rock that was weighing down her heart was finally removed. It seemed like her sons all had great eyesight’ after all, she liked all three of her daughters-in-law!
“Everyone should rest up, have some snacks, and drink some fruit juice. This activity is established merely for everyone’s pleasure, so don’t tire yourself out! Our estate also offers packing boxes if you wish to bring home the cakes you made today!” Yu Xiaocao couldn’t help but remind them after seeing how excited the children, young ladies, and the young married women were.
Zhu Junya impolitely took the small and delicate piece of tiramisu cake from her hand, and handed a piece to her lady mother first and then another piece of her future sister-in-law. After that, she took all the cakes on the tray that Xiaocao was holding and popped a piece into her mouth. While she happily savored the cake, she grumbled, “It’s all your fault. The cakes and candies that you make are so delicious that I have already gained a few kilograms of weight recently!”
“Aren’t you ashamed of saying that?! You have eaten a lot of the pastries and candies that your sister-in-law sent to your children, yet you turned around and blamed her! Is this how you should act as her sister-in-law? Fortunately, Cao’er has a kind heart because if it was someone else, they would have ignored you!” After Princess Consort Jing finished eating a piece of cake, she wiped her mouth with a handkerchief. Then, she smacked Zhu Junya’s arm.
“Lady Mother, please slow down! It doesn’t matter if you break my arm, just don’t knock over the tiramisu cake that I’m holding!” Zhu Junya looked at the cake nervously before she stuffed another piece of cake in her mouth and continued talking, “I said that because I know that my younger sister-in-law isn’t a narrow-minded person. If it was someone who had a strange temper, then your daughter can fake a smile at her!”
“You ah, you ah! You’re already a mother, yet your temperament is still so carefree. My son-in-law doesn’t even try to control you!” Princess Consort Jing tapped her daughter’s forehead with her finger.
Zhu Junya giggled, “Your son-in-law likes my personality and believes that there’s no need for me to change! Your son-in-law said that those who complain about their daughter-in-law making them lose face are all good-for-nothings! A woman’s honor is acquired by a man! As long as he is strong and outstanding, then who would dare to belittle him and his woman? Let’s take my younger brother as an example. He returned from the army and earned a noble title all due to his own ability. As a result, wherever my younger sister-in-law goes in the future, she will be praised by others. About half of the people who came to the party today came because of my younger brother and my younger sister-in-law!”
“Stop spouting nonsense! If someone else overhears, they’ll criticize you for blabbing nonsense!” Princess Consort Jing was rendered speechless in front of her unreliable daughter. Her daughter would speak her mind no matter what; she wasn’t even afraid of offending other people!
“A person’s lifetime consists of only a few decades, so why should we live in a world where we calculate our worth based on others’ criticisms and compliments?! Lady Mother, I know that you’re worried that I would suffer a loss due to this. But do you think that I’m the type of person that will silently endure being bullied? Even if there’s someone I can’t deal with, don’t I still have your son-in-law to help me?” Wow, she was really good at showing off her lovey-dovey relationship!
Zhu Junya stuffed another piece of cake into Han Xiaomu’s mouth. She savored the complex flavors of the tiramisu as she quietly listened to the conversation between her mother-in-law and older sister-in-law. She would be a fool if she didn’t know the identity of the three people in front of her by now. She was proficient in literacy, war, and military strategy and tactics, so how could she be a fool?
Zhu Junxi that brat! Why didn’t he tell her that his mother, Princess Consort Jing, would attend the party in person? She was caught off guard by his mother’s sudden appearance! Fortunately, she had learned how to control her expressions in situations like this, so she wouldn’t have to find a crack in the ground and crawl into it due to embarrassment. She tried to recall her earlier words and actions and realized that she didn’t overstep her boundaries or said anything offensive. Han Xiaomu was relieved——she was going to remember this and teach that guy a lesson once she returned!
“Miss Han...Miss Han!” Her future sister-in-law called out her name, interrupting Han Xiaomu’s thoughts. She raised her head and heard Zhu Junya ask her, “Miss Yangliu over there is teaching people how to make tiramisu. Do you want to give it a try?”
Han Xiaomu shook her head lightly, smiled, and said, “I’m clumsy, so it’s quite impossible for me to learn how to make those delicate pastries. I think it’s best if I try to perfect how to make simple sandwich cookies.”
Princess Consort Jing nodded her head when she heard this. In her heart, she believed that Han Xiaomu was a good lady; she was someone who knew not to bite off more than she can chew.
When Zhu Junya heard this, she also dismissed the idea of learning to make tiramisu, “Then I also won’t join in the fun. I need to watch over my youngest two children! I’ll make some more cookies, so I can bring it home and let my husband and other children have a taste! Miss Han, you should do as you wish. I’ll be heading over to have a look at my children!”
Princess Consort Jing used fatigue as an excuse to retire to a nearby pavilion to rest. Han Xiaomu was obviously relieved after she saw the mother and daughter pair off. Even though she was a generous and efficient person, she still felt uncomfortable in front of her future mother-in-law and elder sister-in-law.
Xiaocao was also happy with her future sister-in-law. She preferred people who were straightforward and easy to read compared to those who harbor their bad thoughts internally.
“Miss Han, if you want to make some delicate sword-shaped cookies, then you have to use a mold. If you mold them by hand, then I’m afraid you’ll only be able to do it if you have a lot of experience!” Yu Xiaocao couldn’t help but remind her this when she saw that she was kneading the cookie dough into sword shapes.
Han Xiaomu glanced at the place where the molds would place. She shook her head in disappointment, “But I didn’t see a mold shaped like a sword?”
“You can ask someone to make one for you! It doesn’t matter if you want a mold shaped like a sword, a spear, or other weapons because carving a mold isn’t that troublesome. You can ask someone who is familiar with weapons to carve one for you!” Xiaocao had seen Zhu Junxi, her second brother-in-law, carve some small animals from wood to tease his nephews. As a result, she knew that he knew how to carve some simple shapes.
Han Xiaomu looked up and glanced at her. She pursed her lips and then summoned her maidservant over. Then, she whispered a few orders in the maidservant’s ear. The maidservant accepted her order and then headed towards the other side of the garden where the bamboo forest is located. Yu Xiaocao taught her a few tips on how to spread the fillings evenly on the sandwich cookies. Han Xiaomu had gained a lot from Xiaocao’s tips. The second batch of cookies finished baking; the sandwich cookies shaped like horses had turned out quite well.
Lunch was designed for people to serve themselves. There were various kinds of vegetable and meat dishes on display in the northwest part of the garden. All the tables were filled with plates of food. It was just as Xiaocao had said; all the signature dishes from Zhenxiu Restaurant and Medicinal Cuisine House were present. The dishes that were ordered from Zhenxiu Restaurant included: crispy roasted duck with fruits, roasted boneless chicken, eight treasure duck, braised mandarin fish with cream sauce, steamed bass with pine nuts, cuttlefish roe soup, stewed shark’s fin, stewed pig knuckle in sauce...
There were also many famous dishes from the Medicinal Cuisine House. Of course, the most famous dish, Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, was present. They also had: braised duck with caterpillar fungus, yam congee, pork belly soup with eucommia hawthorn, mutton with codonopsis root, stewed carp with red beans and peanuts, ten powerful tonic soup, lily with chicken slices, stewed fig with lean pork, scallop soup with three fresh ingredients...
These were all bestsellers from Princess Consort Xu’s shop, the Medicinal Cuisine House. It was a rare opportunity for them to have a taste. Many of the married ladies had longed to have a taste of these medicinal cuisines, so naturally, they wouldn’t miss an opportunity like this. Since everyone was the same, no one laughed at each other!
After lunch ended, the pastries the noble ladies had made had finished baking. Although they enjoyed the process of making cakes, they also respected the competition rules. As such, they each selected the dish they were most satisfied with and wrote a sequence of numbers on it, and then placed it on a floating silver tray. The pastries traveled along the crystal clear canal and headed outside towards the gifted scholars.
The gifted scholars from the capital rated the pastries based on appearance, taste, creative concept, as well as other aspects. There were two first-place winners, three-second place winners, and five third-place winners! It was worthwhile to mention that General Mu had acquired one of the second-place prizes thanks to her pastry’s “Shining Spear and Armored Horses” concept. To be fair, her work lacked technical skills. However, there were many generals outside that favored her work. In addition to that, her future husband asked the others for their support to help her win, allowing her to win one of the second-place prizes!
The first-place prize was a membership card that allowed 50% off at ‘Creative Pastries’. The second-place prize was a 30% discount membership card, and the third-place prize was a 20% discount membership card! The well-bred young ladies and children were all excited about the grand opening of ‘Creative Pastries’ when they learned of its existence and that there will be discounts and big bargains once it opened. As such, they paid close attention to the news regarding the pastry shop.
Yangliu was currently in charge of the Medicinal Cuisine House, the pastry shop, and the frozen dessert and pastry shop that were now under the brand ‘Jinan’s Food and Drinks’. After Xiaocao got married, all of these businesses couldn’t be considered under the Yu Family’s branding anymore. Thus, all of them changed their names from the ‘Yu’s’ to ‘Jinan’s’. This showed that Royal Princess Jinan was the owner of all of these.
Yangliu had trained a group of staff, and their skills had all matured by now. They were now in charge of the pastry and frozen dessert shops. Yangliu had always personally taken care of all the matters regarding the Medicine Cuisine House because of how important it was. However, thanks to the help from the shopkeeper and the head chef, she was able to have some free time to take care of ‘Creative Pastries’.
After many years of experience, Yangliu had become an outstanding manager. Yu Xiaocao merely wrote out the basic design of the shop and gave Yangliu full authority to make the preparations for the grand opening. Soon, Yangliu was able to plan out a design that satisfied Xiaocao.
However, when ‘Creative Pastries’ finally opened, Xiaocao, who was the owner, failed to take part in the grand opening of the shop. She had already left the capital and was on a boat on the Grand Canal that was heading towards Jiangnan.
After a mere seven-day honeymoon, the emperor had summoned her to the palace. He asked her to inspect the experimental rice fields in Jiangnan as an imperial envoy. Last year, the Imperial Plantation had developed rice seeds that increased production. A portion of those seeds was sent to Jiangnan and was planted on the fields in the spring. Because Jiangnan and the northern regions had different climates and soil, the emperor feared that a change would happen with the high yielding seeds from the northern regions when planted in the southern region. As a result, he also set up a few hundreds of acres of experimental fields in the Jinling area of Jiangnan. The experimental fields were planted with the high yielding seeds harvested from the Imperial Plantation as well as the high yielding seeds created by Xiaocao.
The temperature was high and there was plenty of rain in the south. Normally, the rice paddy fields in the south ought to yield more crops than the fields in the capital. But the person in charge of the Jinling experimental fields returned to the capital and toured around the rice paddies in the capital. He felt his heart sink. Whether it was the rice seedlings in the suburbs of the capital or the sprouts, they were all late to bloom by half a month compared to the seeds planted in Jiangnan. However, the seedlings planted there were all more robust than the seedlings planted in Jinling experimental fields, so what was the cause?
The steward in charge of the Imperial Plantation in the suburbs of the capital jokingly said, “It seems like it’s impossible to plant high-yielding crops without help from Royal Princess Jinan, right?”
The person who said that was merely joking, but the listener believed it. The person in charge of the Jinling experimental fields heard those words and remembered those words in his heart.