The Emperor adopted Wu Zhenzhen’s suggestion and discussed it with Ji Jinglan. Ji Jinglan also felt it could be implemented temporarily for several months to observe its effectiveness. After discussing with the Treasury Bureau, they modified some implementation details, but the mutual review between the Imperial Kitchen, Hanlin Bureau, and Ceremonial Bureau remained unchanged. The three bureaus were ordered to revise and resubmit the enthronement ceremony budget according to the new regulations for approval.
This time the submitted budget was drastically reduced – naturally the falsely reported amounts were gone, and some originally expensive expenditures were either deleted or replaced with reasonably priced alternatives. The Emperor frowned and questioned after reviewing: “Isn’t this overcorrecting?” Consort Li had no complaints and bowed, saying: “Many prefectures and counties suffered disasters this year, with many people displaced and unable to secure even basic food and clothing. How could I feel at ease spending enormous sums on an enthronement ceremony? I only hope everything will be simple – this drastic budget reduction suits my wishes perfectly.”
Not only that, she also carefully reviewed each expense item, personally wielding the brush to strike out what she felt were excessive expenditures. When finished, she had Wu Zhenzhen look it over and said: “Help me think of other areas we can cut.”
Wu Zhenzhen knew she wasn’t being pretentious but genuinely wanted to save money, so she looked it over carefully again and suggested: “The display platter budget for the banquet is still considerable. Display platters at state banquets mostly use marrow cakes, ring cakes, flatbread, date cakes, or cooked foods like rabbit, sheep, chicken, and goose, layered and piled high like mountains, arranged as decorations between the seats. Guests consider eating display platter food improper behavior and absolutely won’t eat it. Display platters are numerous and costly, quite time-consuming to prepare, but they’re removed before the formal courses are served, and most are ultimately discarded, causing great waste. So this item could be greatly reduced.”
Consort Li felt Wu Zhenzhen’s words made sense, but the Emperor hesitated, saying: “Though display platters aren’t for consumption, they can demonstrate the banquet’s magnificence. If greatly reduced, it would seem too petty and fail to show the dignity of the enthronement banquet.”
“There’s a solution,” Wu Zhenzhen said. “When I was learning cooking from the Propagator of Virtues on Wuyi Mountain, I saw him use pine, bamboo, plum, and citrus fruits for pre-banquet display platters during New Year, arranging decorations using flower arrangement methods. The forms could be large or small – small ones could be placed on tables, large ones could use pine branches assembled into ancient pine trees, adorned with flowers and fruits, standing in courtyards with magnificent presence. The imperial gardens have abundant flowers and trees – with slight trimming they could be used for banquets. After banquets, the display platters could be granted to various pavilions as decorations for reuse, avoiding waste.”
Consort Li imagined the scene Wu Zhenzhen described and smiled: “Pine, bamboo, and plum are elegant with good symbolism, and adding golden citrus fruits makes it even more abundant. With such display platters, the banquet would seem more refined.”
The Emperor laughed: “This is excellent, but banquets need many display platters. To do this would inevitably trouble the Propagator of Virtues greatly – he’d be overworked.”
Wu Zhenzhen thought and said: “We could ask the Propagator of Virtues to design several such display platters and teach the Hanlin Bureau eunuchs. The medium and small display platters at banquets could be completed by them, but the ancient pine for courtyards would be extremely difficult and would require the Propagator of Virtues to do it personally.”
The Emperor felt this was feasible and had Wu Zhenzhen leave the palace the next day to find Lin Hong to discuss this matter. He also ordered Shi Huai’en to bring two eunuchs to escort her along the way.
The residence the Emperor granted Lin Hong was different from others – not in the official quarters near the palace city, but on Phoenix Mountain to the northwest. It was said to be an elegant courtyard on the mountainside, which the Emperor said would suit Lin Hong since he knew he preferred quiet places.
The next day Wu Zhenzhen rode in an ox cart, escorted by Shi Huai’en and others to Lin Hong’s residence. One eunuch drove the cart for Wu Zhenzhen while Shi Huai’en and another each rode horses, traveling before and behind the cart. There had been heavy rain that morning, making the mountain roads slippery, with rainwater collected on mountain tree leaves occasionally falling from above and striking the cart roof. Passing by a hillside, Wu Zhenzhen suddenly heard crackling sounds of breaking vines and branches from the mountain. Lifting the curtain to look, she saw a huge round boulder rolling down from the peak, rushing toward the cart.
Without time to think, Wu Zhenzhen immediately kicked open the cart door and quickly jumped out. Since the ox cart was still moving forward, her left foot twisted as she jumped, and she fell to the ground. Not daring to stay, she struggled to crawl forward several steps. Soon there was a tremendous crash behind her – the falling boulder had smashed the cart to pieces, and even the ox was injured in the hind legs and fell, unable to rise.
Shi Huai’en and the two eunuchs were unharmed, but seeing this sudden disaster, they were all frightened pale and momentarily didn’t know what to do except rein in their horses and stop. Before Wu Zhenzhen could get up, she heard rapid hoofbeats from behind on the road. Looking back, she saw an unbridled tall horse charging straight at her, already close in an instant and about to trample her.
Shi Huai’en and the others hadn’t yet recovered from the boulder incident, and the charging horse came too quickly for them to rescue Wu Zhenzhen. Wu Zhenzhen also had no time to dodge and could only close her eyes in pain, helplessly awaiting the horse’s impact.
Just as she closed her eyes, a hunting falcon suddenly swooped down and pecked at the charging horse’s eyes. The horse’s eye was suddenly attacked, causing it to stop and rear, neighing loudly. The falcon didn’t cease but continued pecking at the horse’s head. The horse’s cries became increasingly shrill, and it suddenly turned and galloped back where it came from. The falcon still wanted to pursue when a whistle sounded from ahead on the road. The falcon looked back and flew toward where the sound came from.
Seeing this, Shi Huai’en breathed a long sigh of relief and immediately dismounted to help Wu Zhenzhen up.
Ahead, a group of people rode slowly closer. Wu Zhenzhen recognized the leader as Crown Prince Zhao Xi, followed by over thirty eunuchs and imperial guards. Behind him rode a man of about forty or fifty, wearing wide robes and brocade clothing, with his head wrapped in woven brocade foreign cloth and prominent nose and deep-set eyes. This person was quite portly, dressed luxuriously, and brought over ten attendants. From his appearance and dress, he was clearly not from the Central Plains. The hunting falcon that had just acted was now perched on his shoulder – apparently his trained bird.
Wu Zhenzhen bowed to the Crown Prince and thanked him for the timely rescue. The Crown Prince gestured to the person beside him and smiled at Wu Zhenzhen: “Actually, this Propagator of Faith saved you.”
Wu Zhenzhen had also heard the Emperor mention Propagator of Faith Pu Lüxin – he was a wealthy Arab merchant who had come to Quanzhou over twenty years ago by ship carrying various aromatics and medicines for trade. One shipload of frankincense alone brought the Quanzhou Maritime Trade Supervisorate over 300,000 strings of cash in taxes, so the late Emperor granted him the Ninth Rank official title of “Propagator of Faith.”
“The Propagator of Faith came to the capital years ago to pay respects to the late Emperor, and it was the then-prince, now His Majesty, who received him. This time coming from Quanzhou, His Majesty also ordered me to receive him. I was escorting him to the hostel when we passed this place and suddenly saw the charging horse about to hurt someone. So the Propagator of Faith commanded his falcon to fly and rescue, never expecting the rescued person to be Food Preparation Wu,” the Crown Prince explained.
Wu Zhenzhen immediately bowed to Pu Lüxin in gratitude. Having lived in Quanzhou for many years, his Chinese was quite fluent. After returning the courtesy, he smiled repeatedly at Wu Zhenzhen: “No need to be polite, just a small effort, just a small effort.”
The Crown Prince asked about Wu Zhenzhen’s purpose, and Wu Zhenzhen told him about His Majesty wanting Lin Hong to design display platters. The Crown Prince questioned her closely about the process of the boulder smashing the ox cart, then pondered and said: “There was rain this morning, so the falling boulder could be attributed to a landslide, but that charging horse had saddle and bridle, clearly not a wild horse. Coming galloping after the boulder incident, it’s hard to say it wasn’t deliberately arranged. For safety, let me escort you to the Propagator of Virtues’ residence.”
Wu Zhenzhen worried about interfering with the Propagator of Faith’s itinerary, but Pu Lüxin laughed: “No problem, no problem. I haven’t been to Lin’an for a long time and was just wanting to look around. I’ll go with you all.”
So the group turned toward Lin Hong’s residence. Arriving at the foot of the mountain, to avoid disturbing Lin Hong too much, the Crown Prince ordered most attendants to wait at a wine shop there while he brought Wu Zhenzhen, Pu Lüxin, Shi Huai’en, and two or three close attendants up the mountain.
Lin Hong’s mountain courtyard had a style similar to the Wen Qiao Inn – surrounded by bamboo and plum trees where one could hear pine winds from secluded valleys. It was just slightly smaller with no pond or cranes, but the courtyard had a mountain spring. The spring water flowed from rock crevices, and Lin Hong had split bamboo to connect it and built stones into a small pool. The trickling spring water was quite charming.
Lin Hong had enjoyed conversing with the Crown Prince last time at Jujing Garden, so he was very pleased to see him again. After Wu Zhenzhen finished discussing the display platter matter with him, Lin Hong agreed to take it on. Seeing it was near noon, he invited everyone to dine at his residence.
The main course was “Mountain-Cooked Sheep” – lamb stewed with scallions and pepper that looked unremarkable, but everyone found the lamb extraordinarily fragrant and tender upon tasting, with even the bones being soft. The Crown Prince praised the texture and asked Lin Hong how he prepared it. Lin Hong said: “Crush a few sweet almonds and add them to the clay pot, cooking over an active fire – this makes the lamb easily tender.”
Additionally, Lin Hong took lamb broth and cooked it with sliced yam and chestnuts, calling it “Golden Jade Soup,” taking the meaning of yam like jade and chestnuts like gold. “Yam supplements the spleen, nourishes the stomach, and benefits the lungs. Chestnuts can nourish the kidneys and strengthen tendons. Now that the weather is getting cooler, lamb and lamb broth can resist wind and cold – Golden Jade Soup is perfect for eating now,” Lin Hong said.
Everyone praised this soup for its excellent color and flavor and health benefits. But Pu Lüxin stared at the bowl of soup before him for a long time, then suddenly asked Lin Hong: “Propagator of Virtues, who taught you to make this soup?”
Lin Hong answered: “My late father casually wrote it down years ago and tucked it in a book. I discovered it by chance in one of his books several years ago.”
“What a coincidence,” Pu Lüxin smiled. “Over twenty years ago when I came to Lin’an, His Majesty was still a prince then, and we hit it off immediately – we often hunted together. One day, he brought me to a mountain courtyard to gather with two of his friends, one a imperial physician and the other a very handsome scholar…” Here he deliberately studied Lin Hong closely and smiled again, “whose bearing and demeanor were quite similar to the Propagator of Virtues… That day the imperial physician’s wife cooked for us, and among the dishes was this Golden Jade Soup. The scholar liked it very much and asked carefully about the method. What the imperial physician’s wife said was exactly the same as what the Propagator of Virtues just said.”
After hearing this, the Crown Prince looked at Lin Hong with a smile and said: “Since that scholar resembled the Propagator of Virtues, and the Propagator of Virtues says the Golden Jade Soup method was recorded by your honored father, could it be that the scholar the Propagator of Faith met years ago was actually your honored father?”
Lin Hong forced a smile and bowed: “My late father was of meager fortune – how could he have been so fortunate as to be friends with the current emperor? Besides, my father didn’t know any imperial physicians either.”
After saying this, he reached for the wine pot on his table, still wearing a faint smile, but Wu Zhenzhen noticed his hand holding the wine pot was trembling slightly.
Lin Hong lifted the wine pot and found insufficient wine inside, so he ordered A’Che to fetch more wine. But Pu Lüxin said: “I’ve also brought several kinds of wine this time, with flavors different from Song wines – this is a perfect opportunity to ask everyone to taste them together.”
He immediately ordered his attendants to fetch wine. Soon the attendants brought wine, and Pu Lüxin personally received it and handed it to Lin Hong, explaining each type: “This is wine made from grape juice, colored like gems, with pleasant fruit fragrance, mild and sweet to drink, but it’s easy to get drunk if you drink too much… This is ‘Sisu Wine’ made from sugar-cooked aromatics – very fragrant but quite strong… This is wine made from honey and aromatics called ‘Meisi Dahua Wine,’ sweeter and more mellow than Sisu Wine, very warming in autumn and winter, not as strong, with a mild taste.”
Lin Hong recorded each one, then asked Crown Prince, Pu Lüxin, Shi Huai’en and others one by one what wine they wanted to drink, then had A’Che pour for them. Only Wu Zhenzhen he didn’t ask, but directly signaled A’Che to pour her a cup of Meisi Dahua Wine.
The Crown Prince noticed the difference and couldn’t help asking Lin Hong with a smile: “Are the Propagator of Virtues and Food Preparation Wu well acquainted?”
Wu Zhenzhen was startled to hear this, only then remembering that she had only told the Emperor and Consort Li about her teacher-student relationship with Lin Hong – the Crown Prince shouldn’t know yet. And when the Emperor previously sent her out of the palace to find Lin Hong, to avoid palace gossip, the true purpose was kept secret, only saying externally that Wu Zhenzhen was sent out to find rare ingredients, so the Crown Prince didn’t know about this either.
Lin Hong was still considering how to answer when Shi Huai’en suddenly spoke up, answering for him: “The Propagator of Virtues and Food Preparation Wu have a jade chime friendship – they can be called acquainted.”
Wu Zhenzhen’s hand holding the Meisi Dahua Wine shook, and the cup nearly fell from her palm. Before drinking the wine, her cheeks were already red as if drunk. Lin Hong also turned to look at Shi Huai’en, his eyes obviously widening, clearly quite surprised.
Both were thinking at that moment: How did he know?
Shi Huai’en rose and bowed to the Crown Prince, explaining softly: “Last time at Jujing Garden, the Propagator of Virtues suggested hanging jade chimes in the garden outside the Empress Dowager’s sleeping quarters, and Food Preparation Wu said it was inappropriate. The two conversed for a few sentences. Your Highness was also there – do you still remember this matter?”
The Crown Prince immediately smiled: “I remember, I remember – I see now.”
Only then did Wu Zhenzhen secretly breathe a sigh of relief, understanding that Shi Huai’en was kindly covering for them, preventing the Crown Prince from questioning them about their private meetings.
Looking at Lin Hong again, he also seemed relieved. When he raised his eyes to meet Wu Zhenzhen’s gaze for that instant, a shallow layer of smile rippled through his eyes.