Perhaps because she had stayed up all night, Su Wan’ning felt dizzy.
The panicked face of Lin Yuwei appeared before her eyes.
“Something’s wrong, Sister! That Mountain Delicacies Soup… You need to go home quickly… I’ll take responsibility… Trust me, I have a way…”
She had even brought Su Wan’ning her certificate of release and personally seen her out of the palace.
Lin Yuwei’s “solution” had been to steal her achievement and use it to climb the social ladder.
But one bowl of Mountain Delicacies Soup was obviously not enough.
Lin Yuwei had also stolen the medicinal food recipes Su Wan’ning had developed for the Crown Prince.
The recipes contained the ingredients and cooking methods, but the exact amounts and heat control had not been recorded in detail. To squeeze every last detail out of her, the Lin family had deceived her for another three years.
In her previous life, she had only discovered the truth just before her death.
By then, Lin Yuwei had already become the Crown Princess.
But heaven had not abandoned her.
It had given her another chance at life.
This time, she would drag Lin Yuwei down from that lofty position!
Until she was utterly crushed!
Su Wan’ning suppressed the murderous intent in her heart.
When she raised her head again, her face already wore a perfectly natural smile.
“Mountain Delicacies Soup? That reminds me. I actually have an interesting new way to make it.”
“You can make Mountain Delicacies Soup too? Tell me all about it.”
Xu Lingxi immediately became interested.
“Actually, the problem is with the ingredients. Take the Chinese yam, for example. The yams in the palace are excellent quality, but they’re still not as flavorful as wild yams grown in the mountains.”
Su Wan’ning lifted a corner of the carriage curtain and carefully looked around.
“There aren’t any here. Once we enter Jizhou, we should be able to find some wild yams. At this time of year, we can try the young vines of wild yams. Around September or October, we can dig up the actual yams. Once we have all the ingredients, I’ll make you a bowl of Mountain Delicacies Soup.”
“Really? Then it’s settled!”
Xu Lingxi was already looking forward to it.
Unfortunately, that evening they still had not reached a major relay station. There were only some vegetables and coarse flour, though they did have a few chickens.
Su Wan’ning made a pot of chicken soup, rolled out some noodles, and shredded the chicken into fine strands. She seasoned everything with only salt and pepper.
The noodles were smooth and springy, the vegetables crisp and tender, and the chicken fragrant and savory.
It was warm and comforting, leaving the stomach feeling wonderfully satisfied.
Early the next morning, she got up and made pumpkin and millet porridge along with two simple stir-fried dishes. She also cooked several meat pies and prepared some snacks for the journey.
They traveled during the day and tried to prepare different kinds of food every evening, so no one found the journey boring.
Xuancao also drove the carriage at an astonishing speed.
A journey that should have taken four days was cut in half.
On the morning of the third day, just as they entered Qingshan County, they saw people who had come to receive Xu Lingxi.
There were at least twenty people at a glance.
One elderly nanny could not even wait for the carriage to stop. She jumped down and rushed over, ready to hit Xu Lingxi.
“You little runaway! You really are going to be the death of this old servant! You nearly scared me to death!”
Xu Lingxi froze for a moment before coming back to her senses.
She immediately grinned and begged for mercy.
“Nanny Zhou, I was wrong! I only ran away because I missed you and Old Ancestor! You have no idea how bored I was in the capital. My father practically wanted to find eight hundred people a day to arrange blind dates for me!”
That single sentence immediately changed Nanny Zhou’s expression.
Qingfang took advantage of the opportunity to pull out the basket she had prepared earlier, diverting Nanny Zhou’s attention and complaints.
“Nanny Zhou, Miss has been talking about you the whole journey. She picked all these wild vegetables herself. She even wants to cook them for you later.”
The basket was filled to the brim with tender green leaves and small, round red berries.
They looked like ordinary little plants.
Nanny Zhou glanced at them and did not seem interested in looking any closer.
But she could not ruin the young lady’s enthusiasm, so she smiled.
“Then I’ll thank you in advance, Miss.”
Xu Lingxi snorted and pulled Su Wan’ning over.
“Nanny Zhou, don’t look down on them! I learned how to make these dishes from Cook Su!”
“This commoner Su Wan’ning pays her respects to Nanny Zhou.”
Su Wan’ning gave her a graceful bow without saying anything more about the basket.
There was no point saying more.
Only after tasting them would Nanny Zhou understand just how precious the fresh, wild flavors in that basket were.
“Madam Su, there’s no need to be so formal.”
Nanny Zhou raised her chin, and a young maid immediately handed over a bulging purse.
“Thank you for taking such good care of our young lady throughout the journey. This is a reward from Old Ancestor.”
“Then I’ll thank Old Ancestor.”
Su Wan’ning smiled and accepted the purse.
She squeezed it discreetly.
It was round and heavy.
Not broken silver, but copper coins.
There could not have been more than five hundred copper coins in the entire purse.
Given how generously Xu Lingxi spent money, Old Ancestor would never be this stingy.
Could it be that Nanny Zhou looked down on her and had pocketed most of the reward?
Perhaps she was certain that Su Wan’ning was ignorant and too foolish to notice.
Or perhaps, even if she noticed, she would meekly swallow the loss.
The Su Wan’ning of her previous life would certainly never have thought this way.
But now, she had to assume the worst of everyone.
Especially when it came to the Xu family!
She would not swallow this loss.
Several thoughts flashed through her mind, all within the blink of an eye.
Su Wan’ning calmly climbed back into the carriage, hid the purse beneath the cushion, and wrote a note.
Then she took her bundle and stepped down.
Xu Lingxi immediately ran over.
“Where are you going? Sit in my carriage. I’ll take you home!”
“You should hurry back with Nanny Zhou. I need to register my residence in the county first. The city gate is just ahead, so I can walk there myself.”
Su Wan’ning politely refused.
“I left my address in the carriage. Just have someone come find me later.”
“All right, then.”
Xu Lingxi was still worried about Su Wan’ning, so she had Xuancao drive her to the county.
Meanwhile, Xu Lingxi and the others changed direction and hurried toward the estate in Xiushui Village.
After entering Qiufeng Estate, they did not go to see Old Ancestor immediately.
Instead, they went straight into the kitchen and busied themselves for a while before carrying a food box to Old Ancestor’s courtyard.
“Old Ancestor! Did you miss me?”
Before she even entered the room, her cheerful voice had already floated inside.
On the soft couch, an elderly woman with a head full of silver hair smiled from ear to ear.
“You girl, slow down.”
The hurried footsteps made it obvious that Xu Lingxi had practically run all the way there.
Nanny Zhou frowned.
“I don’t know what that Madam Su has done to deceive Miss. The moment she came through the door, she insisted on making those weeds. Does she think they’re some kind of miraculous medicine?”
Miss refusing to listen to her advice left her feeling defeated, which made her dislike Su Wan’ning even more.
“You old fool. It doesn’t matter what the food is like. What’s important is the child’s filial heart! Don’t you dare say anything careless later.”
The old woman glared at her.
“Who are you saying will say something careless?”
Xu Lingxi strode in.
Then she immediately forgot what she had been asking.
Excitedly, she took a plate from the food box.
“Old Ancestor, hurry and try my dish—Spring Mountain Snow Plum!”
“Oh? Look at that fancy little name.”
The old woman was interested as well.
At her age, having the plate too close made it harder for her to see clearly. All she could make out was a patch of fresh spring green on the white jade plate, dotted with varying shades of red.
It certainly matched the name.
She moved farther back, narrowed her eyes, and then looked surprised.
“Are these wild yam vines and mountain raspberries? I haven’t eaten these in so many years!”
As she spoke, she reached for her chopsticks.
Nanny Zhou stopped her in alarm.
“Old Ancestor, don’t eat it! What if they’re poisonous? Miss can’t possibly tell them apart…”
“They’re not poisonous, Nanny Zhou!”
Xu Lingxi became anxious.
“The poisonous one is huangdu. Its leaves are thicker and rounder! I’m not stupid! Cook Su already taught me!”
“You’ve certainly learned quite a bit from going out this time.”
Approval showed in the old woman’s eyes.
Xu Lingxi proudly placed some of the dish into her bowl.
“She really is amazing. When you celebrate your birthday, I want to invite her to cook for you too.”
“A cook who was driven out of the palace? Miss, don’t let her deceive you!”
Nanny Zhou spoke earnestly.
Xu Lingxi stamped her foot in anger.
“Nanny Zhou! She was given permission to leave and return home!”
“All right, all right. Whatever Miss says goes.”
Nanny Zhou sneered inwardly.
As if there were that many favors and permissions to go around.
It only sounded nice when put that way.
Who knew what that little cook had actually done to be sent away?