The midday streets bustled with crowds, but there were far fewer patrol officers and constables around—most had gone to eat. Ever since Tie Ci arrived, she had canceled many unnecessary expenses from before and allocated a sum of money as meal subsidies. Summer cooling teas, winter night snacks, overtime simple meals—at least it could provide some relief from the heat and warmth for the arduous patrol duties. She had also specifically contacted several honest shopkeepers to provide daily meals for these constables at prices cheaper than market rates. With constables coming and going regularly, no one dared to cause trouble in these shops, so the shopkeepers were quite happy to cooperate and provided very thoughtful service. After implementing this benefit, the constables visibly became much more diligent in their work.
Tie Ci passed by the designated dining hall and even went inside to take a look. Seeing that everything was well-supplied, she instructed the squad leader to arrange shift rotations so they wouldn’t all go eat at once, and only then did she lift the curtain and come out.
Upon emerging, she saw the county magistrate. This person who was either drinking or on his way to drink was now lingering in front of this small eatery, his expression thoughtful. Tie Ci felt like she was seeing a sloth suddenly start sprinting.
She stepped forward to pay her respects and incidentally guided the magistrate aside to prevent him from seeing Shen Mi’s family waiting by the roadside and causing complications. Though actually it wouldn’t matter much—the magistrate probably wouldn’t recognize them anyway. After all, today he again addressed her as: “Young Master Zhang, have you been well?”
Tie Ci replied: “Seeing Your Honor, any ailments naturally become non-ailments.”
Her wit made the magistrate look at her twice more, and he glanced back at the busy eatery behind them. For a moment, Tie Ci felt he seemed about to speak, but in the end he only waved his hand.
Tie Ci smiled and took her leave.
Chi Xue silently sighed behind Tie Ci.
Another one without fortune.
After Tie Ci left, the magistrate didn’t immediately depart but stood in place, gazing at her retreating figure for a long time.
Behind him, his accompanying secretary whispered: “Master, since this person comes from the imperial capital and you’ve observed him for half a month, he has both courage and intelligence. Being so, why don’t you…”
The magistrate raised his hand to stop his words.
After a long while, this county leader who seemed perpetually immersed in wine showed a flash of bitter pain in his eyes and said coldly: “Li Yao runs rampant in the countryside, covering the sky with one hand, squeezing out and undermining one county magistrate after another. It’s clear there are people behind him. How could the son of a powerless and influential-less Minister of Imperial Stud move against him?”
The secretary said: “But…”
“We tried methods before. We entrusted a passing Provincial Administration Commissioner to carry a petition to the capital—what was the result? Not only did it sink like a stone, but my performance evaluation that year mysteriously fell to ‘below average’! I nearly got demoted! It wasn’t until later when I drank every day that I managed to get an ‘above average’ rating! Think about it—a young master with some small cleverness, what can he accomplish? Pinning hopes on him, he’ll mess around for a few months then pat his bottom and leave, while I have to remain here facing Li Yao’s vicious attacks. What sense does that make? Better to muddle through these three years!”
…
Turning through several alleys, at the end stood a small courtyard with a cleanly swept entrance. Shen Mi knocked on the door ring, and shortly a woman came to open it, greeting Shen Mi loudly in an extremely difficult-to-understand accent, seemingly hard of hearing as well.
Mother Shen cooked personally, and soon dishes were served—not many varieties, but fresh and exquisite. Among them was a tofu dish, pure white and delicate, smooth as jade. The tender tofu was surprisingly carved into five-petaled flower shapes, accompanied by green leaves which, upon closer inspection, weren’t actually leaves but made from finely ground mung bean paste shaped like leaves. The fragrance of mung beans mixed with a subtle strange aroma reached the nose, immediately refreshing the spirit. Tie Ci looked at it with some familiarity, scooped a spoonful to taste, and familiar delicious flavors spread across her tongue. Her hand paused slightly.
This was bird brain tofu.
A famous dish from imperial court banquets.
According to Great Qian regulations, the Court of Imperial Entertainments managed all food and drink for everyone from the emperor down to the palace guards—imperial meals, government office provisions, ceremonial banquets—all came from the Court of Imperial Entertainments. But the Court’s staff had mediocre skills, only able to make chicken, duck, fish, and meat dishes rather crudely. There was a saying in the imperial capital: “Hanlin Academy essays, Arsenal weapons, Court of Imperial Entertainments tea and soup, Imperial Medical Bureau prescriptions”—referring to things that didn’t live up to their names.
Later, the inner palace eunuchs took over cooking. Eunuchs had no descendants and loved money, and having gotten money with nothing else worthwhile to do, they devoted themselves to studying food and drink. The dishes they made improved several levels, truly achieving refinement in eating and precision in preparation. Among these, bird marrow tofu was a eunuch creation—tofu made using the brains of a hundred types of birds, indescribably fresh and tender.
As the Crown Princess, Tie Ci had naturally eaten this dish. Though the tofu before her tasted somewhat different—after all, in this small county town, where could one find the brain marrow of a hundred birds—it was definitely made with bird brain marrow.
The secret techniques eunuchs relied on to make their fortunes were generally not taught to outsiders. Only well-connected officials or families the eunuchs wanted to curry favor with could obtain a recipe or two.
Shen Mi’s background must be quite high.
Tie Ci’s gaze swept over Shen Mi’s hands and noticed marks from slingshot injuries.
Collecting so much bird brain marrow wouldn’t be easy either.
She only paused briefly before returning to normal. Just as she was about to scoop another spoonful, she suddenly heard the sound of beating wings—a very familiar sound—so she looked up.
Since the room was cramped and the weather warm, the dining table had been set up in the courtyard. Looking up, she saw Hai Dongqing swooping down like a streamlined arrow, its iron talons actually gripping a person. This person had one arm extended horizontally in a graceful posture, red robes fluttering, slim waist and long legs, strikingly vivid against the clear blue sky.
He was carried all the way by the eagle, his garments flowing like iron across the heavens. Wherever they passed, people discovered them and cries of alarm followed their path.
The moment Tie Ci saw that red figure, she quickly stood up. Even while rising, she didn’t forget to rapidly finish the tofu and grab a grilled stick bone and two golden lamb meat roll buns.
She had just cleared the dining table area when, with a series of crashes, the eagle and person had already crossed over a camphor tree in the courtyard. Carried by gusting winds, in the blink of an eye they were above the table. The red-robed person loudly declared: “Smells good!” Then bent down and grabbed the tofu plate directly, not fearing the heat, poured it all into his mouth, swallowed with a gulp, his eyes brightening as he broke into a honey-sweet smile: “Delicious!”
At this moment, Hai Dongqing folded its wings. The person’s feet touched ground, and he raised his arm—his arm had an iron tube attached that was fitted over Hai Dongqing’s talons. He removed the iron tube and patted the eagle’s claws. The eagle perched on his shoulder, and he brought the plate with remaining tofu to Hai Dongqing’s sharp beak, saying: “Brother, want to try?”
The eagle’s golden eyes flashed, and it tilted its head slightly as if smelling the tofu. Whether it caught the scent of real brothers or not, its eyes suddenly turned fierce, and with one wing it scattered the tofu all over the ground.
There was still some tofu on the eagle’s beak. Tie Ci saw it turn its head and spit out the tofu.
Tie Ci felt there should be a spitting sound effect at this moment.
The red-robed person wasn’t bothered, laughing: “Alright, I know you don’t like vegetables, but I think this one seems like meat… ah, eat this then, this is good.” He pulled out a braised stick bone and tossed it up. The eagle tilted its head and caught it—crack—the bone shattered.
Shen Mi had covered his sister’s eyes when Hai Dongqing flew toward his home and escorted the mother and daughter inside. Coming out now and seeing this scene, his face grew even paler.
With a quick glance, he could see the visitor meant no good and had come for Tie Ci. Very cleverly, he turned around and went back inside.
The red-robed person was naturally Dan Ye. Acting completely at home, he sat down and smiled at Tie Ci with curved eyes, then pulled out a stick bone himself and bit it horizontally. His teeth were actually harder and sharper than a bird’s beak—also with a crack, the bone split in two. He picked out a long strip of marrow and tossed it up, tilting his face back and opening his mouth to catch it. His jaw was thin and sharp, with smooth lines in the sunlight.
Tie Ci applauded: “What excellent teeth Your Honor has!”
Dan Ye smiled again, his curved eyes quite pleasing, as if he hadn’t understood Tie Ci calling him a bird. He nodded with great honor: “Mo Ye’s beak can crack gold and stone, and he especially loves eating pretty boys and hermaphrodites.”
He was probably unfamiliar with Central Plains speech, speaking very slowly word by word, sounding simple and clumsy but especially sincere.
Tie Ci also acted as if she hadn’t understood him calling her a hermaphrodite, and said very supportively: “Is that so? How wonderful. Truly worthy of being your little bird. May I ask why Your Honor suddenly arrived with your brother—are you looking for this humble person about something?”
While she spoke this sentence, Dan Ye had already swept through half the dishes on the table. Rarely did his mouth have time to speak: “Of course. We didn’t finish our contest last time—why did you run away?”
He fixed his gaze on Tie Ci and slowly smiled, revealing a mouthful of snow-white, densely packed teeth. Eerily frightening.
“Didn’t we agree? If you lost the bet, you’d go back and become my father’s concubine?”
Author’s Note:
I’ll be going premium at the end of the month. To time the plot points properly, updates might be a bit less frequent these next few days. For those who are anxious, you can save up chapters for a few days, but it’s still better to read them first—what if they get pulled back behind the paywall?
I want to ask a question here about post-premium 10,000-character updates—would everyone prefer to read 10,000 characters all at once for a satisfying experience, or would you like them split into several updates to enjoy slowly?
I’ve been serializing for a month now, posting 100,000 characters with steady stockpiles that have even grown by tens of thousands more characters. That’s pretty substantial, but one can’t be too wasteful, so there will definitely be 10,000-character updates, but definitely no more than that.
If it weren’t for the frequent travel coming up, I could guarantee 10,000-character updates for at least three months.
For now, let’s leave it to fate.