The next day, Lin Yuchan got up early to go to the guild hall to copy the “opening prices.” Halfway there, she discovered that there were few pedestrians on the street, most shops hadn’t opened, and even nine out of ten opium dens were closed—the atmosphere was unusually desolate.
She still spent half an hour walking to the guild hall. The guild hall also had its doors tightly shut, clearly displaying “Market Closed Today.”
There was a duty clerk inside who told her, “Don’t you know? News came from the capital that His Majesty had passed away at the Rehe Imperial Palace. National mourning will begin immediately—who’s still doing business? Though the capital has many rules, this poor backwater place has no one to supervise, and there are still foreigners wanting to buy goods. Just symbolically stopping business for two days will suffice. Didn’t your boss tell you?”
Lin Yuchan was stunned.
With the tea shop closed for business, Wang Quan certainly wouldn’t have specially sent someone to inform her, so it didn’t matter if she made the trip for nothing.
Emperor Xianfeng passed away at the Rehe Imperial Palace—that’s right, last year he fled the capital to avoid the Anglo-French Allied Forces in what was called “Western Hunt,” running out of Beijing and never managing to return.
Having been in the Qing Dynasty for over a month, she rarely connected her circumstances with the chronology from history books. Because life here was monotonously repetitive day after day, everyone only looked at immediate food, clothing, and shelter. When encountering problems, they’d go to Panyu County or Nanhai County, and at most to Guangzhou Prefecture. As for the emperor, whoever sat in the Forbidden City had nothing to do with them.
Regardless of whether the emperor was dead or alive, business had to continue, opium had to be smoked, and foreigners would still play tennis and hold cocktail parties in the Shamian Concession.
But Lin Yuchan knew that “His Majesty’s passing” was an important turning point in late Qing history. From now on, Empress Dowager Cixi would officially take center stage. She would grip the helm of this ship full of holes and steer the Qing Dynasty shakily into the twentieth century.
The clerk kindly reminded her again: “When walking, don’t puff out your chest and hold your head high. Shrink down a bit, don’t let people think you’re happy!”
Lin Yuchan nodded and thanked the clerk.
So she had two rare days off and decided to return to her dormitory to rest.
Incidentally, while the memory of the exam was still fresh, she’d review the important historical turning points.
Though she might not necessarily need them.
However, upon returning to the Qi residence, she had barely lain down for a quarter hour when someone knocked loudly on the door. The housekeeper burst in and, seeing someone lying on the bed resting, grabbed a stick and drove her up.
“Did you come to the Qi residence to be a young lady?” the housekeeper roared. “Get up and serve! The young master needs someone!”
Well, she still had to work a double shift.
Qiu Lan was serving in the Seventh Madam’s room. Xiao Feng, who originally worked in the kitchen of the young master’s courtyard doing rough work, had somehow taken sick leave today, claiming diarrhea.
Lin Yuchan didn’t dare pretend to be deaf and asleep before the housekeeper. She got up without a word to fill in.
Young Master Qi Ancheng sat alone at home. Due to His Majesty’s passing, there weren’t any proper entertainment activities, so he invited three or five friends to the residence to compose some melancholy poetry. While his literary inspiration flowed, he suddenly felt hungry and quickly called for Xiao Feng to go to the kitchen and make some pastries.
Lin Yuchan said from a distance, “Xiao Feng took leave. I’m on duty today.”
She didn’t dare approach too closely, fearing the young master might recognize her.
Fortunately, the young master’s attention wasn’t on her. While organizing poetry readings for his friends, he urged: “Bring them quickly, anything will do! Yesterday, someone gave me a box of Western pastries—just bring those! Delay one moment and I’ll spank you!”
Lin Yuchan hurriedly took her leave. She knew where the kitchen was, but upon reaching the door, she discovered it was surprisingly empty with no one inside.
Lin Yuchan quickly ran outside and grabbed a passing servant to ask: “Where are the people from the kitchen?”
The servant had his work and said impatiently, “Who are you?”
Lin Yuchan: “The young master wants pastries!”
Invoking the young master’s name, the servant finally looked at her properly and said: “Wang Ma went out on business, Xiao Feng is sick. Why are you so anxious? Wait a while and someone will come back.”
Having said this, he went about his own business.
Lin Yuchan waited anxiously for several minutes, but no one came.
She decided to search the kitchen herself. The young master was urgently hungry—as long as she found something edible, the task would be complete.
She had used earthen stoves in the countryside as a child, so cooking noodles or stir-frying rice noodles was still within her capabilities.
But when she entered the kitchen again, she discovered the stove was clean and bare, with only oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar remaining. There wasn’t a single thing that could be eaten!
As for those “Western pastries,” there wasn’t even a shadow of them.
Lin Yuchan: What happened to being a wealthy household?
Then she discovered that the bottles, jars, boxes, and bags containing ingredients had all been stuffed into cabinets, with locks hanging on the cabinet doors. The entire kitchen was as clean as a model home.
She vaguely felt something was wrong.
If Xiao Feng was sick, why would the kitchen be tidied up so immaculately?
At this moment, a servant girl came to urge, “Any food will do, the young master is getting impatient!”
Xiao Feng pretended to have diarrhea and stayed in the latrine for half the day, then quietly returned, pressing her face against the brick wall behind the kitchen.
The young master loved entertaining friends, and when entertaining, he wanted pastries served. Xiao Feng had calculated this long ago: first let Big Foot Girl unexpectedly fill in, then send away the kitchen staff, then quietly lock up all the ingredients and hide the young master’s Western pastries. Big Foot Girl had never served in the residence before and was unfamiliar with everything, so she would return empty-handed and receive the young master’s scolding.
But that wasn’t all. Xiao Feng had already coordinated with related people—when chaos erupted, they would insist that Big Foot Girl had stolen and eaten the pastries. Could she cut open her stomach for inspection? Anyway, Big Foot Girl had been glowing with health recently, which 100% meant she was stealing food—they just hadn’t caught evidence. Today, with her little scheme, she’d make her unable to defend herself, and it wouldn’t be wronging her.
Give her a lesson, so she wouldn’t dare be arrogant in the future.
Xiao Feng listened intently, hearing Big Foot Girl indeed running around anxiously, foolishly searching everywhere but unable to find any proper food. Her heart was about to bloom with joy. The more chaotic she made the kitchen, the more it would prove she was greedy and stealing food—this foolish girl!
The servant girl sent by the young master had already urged for the second time. She heard Big Foot Girl say urgently, “Almost ready!”
Xiao Feng secretly laughed, pulling her head back to return to the latrine.
Lin Yuchan finally sensed this was a trap. Even if it was a trap, she had to jump in—the young master only wanted pastries and didn’t care about the scheming among the servant girls below.
She heated oil in the wok, then quickly ran back to the dormitory and pulled out an oil paper package from Xiao Feng’s clothing box, which contained leftover food Xiao Feng had privately brought back. Upon careful examination, there was about half a bowl of Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, a few bites of Huizhou preserved vegetables, half a five-nut bun, and several pieces of fatty pork—the masters found it too greasy and didn’t like it, so Xiao Feng had taken it all back. This whole mess of stuff was sticky and clumped together, with several bite marks from Xiao Feng.
The appearance was appalling, but the ingredients inside were all top-grade. Just that Buddha Jumps Over the Wall alone visibly contained over ten kinds of delicacies from land and sea.
Lin Yuchan dumped out the contents of the oil paper package, grabbed them with her hands to mash them up, pressed them into ingot-sized patties, swept up a handful of flour from the cutting board cracks, and patted both sides evenly. She then found a basket of seasonings—sugar, salt, five-spice powder, white pepper—and mixed them all in at once. By this time, the oil in the wok was bubbling, so she threw them in for a quick fry.
Surprisingly, the aroma filled the air. When she fished them out, they looked somewhat like irregular chicken nuggets.
Lin Yuchan found a box and, carrying the steaming hot “chicken nuggets,” rushed into the young master’s study.
The young master and his friends had been waiting impatiently. After scolding a few words, he opened the box and looked: “These aren’t Western pastries?”
“The servant girl on duty yesterday wasn’t careful and left the pastry box open, letting rats gnaw at them,” Lin Yuchan lied without changing expression. “Young master, please try these.”
Young Master Qi was dubious. He picked up a piece of “chicken nugget,” smelled it, and found it quite fragrant. After taking a bite, he was immediately delighted.
“Come, come, everyone try this—my household servant girl’s cooking!”
The friends competed to taste them, taking bites and smacking their lips.
“Mmm…”
Since it was the household servant girl’s cooking, everyone naturally had to praise it elaborately, shaking their heads as they commented: “Sweet and savory, crispy, can be salty or sweet, salty with sweetness, rich ingredients, substantial but not greasy… delicious, delicious!”
“Let me taste—there’s sea cucumber, abalone, shark fin, olive kernel… Ah, this must be deer meat… and preserved vegetables for seasoning. Such precious ingredients prepared in such a simple way, fried to look like common folk snacks—truly great skill, appearing artless. Young Master Qi’s household is full of talent!”
Lin Yuchan breathed a sigh of relief. Regardless of social class, people’s tastes were consistent: as long as you followed the standards of future junk food—heavy oil, heavy sugar, heavy salt-the higher the calories, the better—such things couldn’t taste too bad.
As for what materials comprised the filling of these fried calories, whether they contained Xiao Feng’s saliva, who could taste that anyway?
With food in their bellies, everyone’s literary inspiration surged, and they began reciting loudly again.
Young Master Qi was quite pleased with his friends’ praise. He beckoned Lin Yuchan over: “What’s your name? Are you new? Did you make these patties?”
Lin Yuchan kept her head down, softly said “Mm,” and was about to find an excuse to leave.
Young Master Qi quickly said: “Hey, hey, wait, don’t go. You don’t understand the rules! Let me ask you—what’s the name of these pastries, what are the ingredients, and if I want to eat them again in the future, can you make them?”
Lin Yuchan thought: If I told you what these “chicken nuggets” were made of, wouldn’t you stuff me in the stove on the spot?
She hesitated for a moment, and Young Master Qi suddenly frowned.
“Hey, lift your head and let me see—have I seen you before?”
Lin Yuchan’s heart jumped.
Surely he wouldn’t discover again that she resembled the enchanting courtesan somewhere…
The young master was a noble who forgot many things. A glance from many days ago might not have left much impression on him. Moreover, now that Lin Yuchan had recovered her health, her appearance had transformed considerably. Having the young master “re-acquaint” himself with her was also dangerous.
“I… I’m not, haven’t seen…”
Just as she was getting anxious, several people suddenly started shouting frantically outside the door, with Xiao Feng prominently among them.
“Young master, young master! This servant came late! Does the substitute servant girl understand the rules?”
Xiao Feng listened for the sounds and felt it was about time for the scene where “Big Foot Girl returns empty-handed to report, and Young Master Qi angrily asks where the Western pastries went.” She quickly ran in to deliver the finishing blow.