After taking a short break, Yun Qingyi went to the kitchen to check on the food that had been set aside.
Every day, they did not simply make as much as they could sell. Before opening for business, they first reserved the necessary portions.
First, they filled lunch boxes for her father and elder brother. Only after making sure the family was well fed could they do business without worry.
Next came portions for her maternal grandfather and grandmother. She could not let her grandfather—that old child—throw another tantrum at Ah Shi.
They also had to set aside enough food for everyone working in the household. Only when the servants were well fed would they work with greater enthusiasm.
Yun Qingyi packed a serving of each snack and pastry currently for sale into a food box and asked Shui Ling to accompany her.
Yun Xing and Yun Wang were still uneasy. They insisted on going with their young mistress, declaring that they would never let anyone bully her. Yun Qingyi politely refused. Since the other party had sent someone to arrange a meeting, there seemed to be no ill intent. There was no need to take an antagonistic stance and complicate a simple matter.
Jiangxin Pavilion was not far away, but she still left a quarter of an hour early.
Whoever waited in comfort held the advantage.
She had originally planned to arrive first, brew a pot of tea, enjoy the riverside scenery, and leisurely wait for the other party.
However, when she arrived at Jiangxin Pavilion, she found him already seated by the river, calmly sipping tea and waiting for her.
For a moment, she felt somewhat deflated. But the instant she saw his face, all her nervousness vanished.
Wasn’t he the general who had eavesdropped on her conversation that day when she stood up for Lu Zhiyao?
She sat down and picked up the cup of tea placed before her, pretending to drink while buying herself some time.
What was his angle? He did not seem to have come to reprimand her. The atmosphere felt much like it had that day.
Back then, she had used a box of pastries as hush money, and the general had indeed kept her secret. Since it had worked once, she assumed her contingency plan would work again.
Still, she could not speak first. She had to wait for him to state his intentions.
“Lady Yun has caused quite a stir at home. A minister’s daughter setting up a street stall in an alley—is that really appropriate?”
Yun Qingyi set down her teacup.
“You jest, General. Our residences are neighbors, and there have always been vendors doing business in the alley between them. We are all citizens of Tianqi. If others can do business there, why can’t I?
“Previously, General, you sent word that the alley belongs to both our households. My daily business activities have indeed caused some disturbance, so it is only natural if you mind.
“I do have a way to make amends. Please hear me out.”
She continued, “The food from my household is in such high demand that we have to limit purchases just to keep up. Since I am using our shared space, how about I send a portion of that day’s offerings to your residence every morning before opening for business?”
Mo Yuxuan’s expression relaxed.
“Must Lady Yun insist on doing this business? And are you certain I would accept your proposal?”
Yun Qingyi was not entirely confident. What if the Marquis of Zhenyuan truly cared little for fine food? She had not considered that possibility.
Even so, she had another plan.
“General, do you think that if my family stops setting up a stall here, we would be unable to do business elsewhere?”
She spoke calmly and casually. The Yun family owned land and shops. Finding another location would not be difficult. The answer was obvious.
“If the General refuses, my family will simply open a shop somewhere else. That would bring you no benefit at all.
“But if you agree, then all the food sold at my family’s shop will be available to you free of charge, exclusively.”
“In that case, Lady Yun’s proposal is quite appealing. Deal.”
He paused before adding, “Since Lady Yun is so generous, I cannot simply accept your kindness without giving something in return. Were the flowers I sent you yesterday sufficient?”
So it was him.
It seemed he knew she had been worried about the flowers and had quietly helped solve her problem. No matter how she looked at it, he did not seem intent on shutting down her stall. Perhaps he had wanted her food from the very beginning.
What a sly man.
Although his methods had been rather dramatic, at least she no longer had anything to worry about.
“So it was the General who sent them. You relieved my urgent need. Thank you.”
“There was one particularly special flower among them. Did Lady Yun happen to notice it?”
At that, Yun Qingyi looked awkward.
“Ah… that special one? Of course I noticed it. Its color was similar to the others, but its shape and leaves were slightly different. It wasn’t edible. Were you testing me with a game of spot the difference? Mixing one special flower into a thousand jin of flowers certainly made it difficult to find.”
Wanting to end the negotiation quickly, she said, “Please consider these snacks today’s rent. Starting tomorrow, I’ll have someone deliver a fresh portion to your residence before we open for business.”
Leaving the food box behind, Yun Qingyi departed with Shui Ling, while Mo Yuxuan remained alone at Jiangxin Pavilion, continuing to admire the river view.
Hush money? Rent?
Lady Yun certainly did things differently.
Was this the family tradition of the Minister of Revenue’s household—to turn every problem into a matter of money?
When Yun Qingyi returned to the Yun residence, the kitchen was bustling with activity. The goods from Shanghe Village had arrived.
Fresh flowers, chickens, ducks, and duck eggs kept everyone busy.
The flowers were handed over to Shui Ling to process as ingredients for the coming days. Yun Qingyi instructed her to set aside enough for the next day and preserve the rest in water in the courtyard.
As for the duck eggs, she left them to Yun Fa and Yun Da to “play with mud.” She instructed them to coat half of the eggs with yellow clay and the other half with broad-bean stalk mud.
The last time, Yun Fa and Yun Da had simply thought it was fun. They had not expected there to be a next time.
Yun Qingyi calculated that each batch should last ten days. By repeating the process continuously, they would always have enough supply.
She decided to handle the chickens and ducks herself. It was time to create new dishes.
Perhaps the family talent for cooking had awakened within her bloodline, because she felt a little excited.
She instructed the servants to clean the chickens and ducks thoroughly and remove all the feathers, specifically telling them not to cut the birds open.
From head to toe, inside and out, every part was valuable. She could not bear to let anything go to waste; otherwise, it would be an insult to nature’s gifts.
She also summoned Yun Xing and Yun Wang to watch carefully. After she demonstrated with the first bird, the two brothers would have to do the rest themselves.
She cut open a chicken and removed the internal organs, placing the heart, liver, and gizzard into one basin and the intestines into another. She chopped off the feet at the joints and placed them in a separate basin.
Watching their young mistress’s swift knife work, Yun Xing and Yun Wang quickly learned and finished cleaning the remaining chickens. They then processed the ducks in the same way, keeping them separate according to her instructions.
Chicken was nutritious, and the offal was no less valuable. It was even believed to aid digestion and strengthen the stomach and spleen.
Yun Qingyi planned to make a stir-fried chicken offal dish first, then use some of it as a topping for noodles.
She rinsed the chicken hearts, livers, and gizzards thoroughly. The intestines had been placed in a separate basin because they required more careful cleaning. She slit them open with a knife, rubbed them with salt, scrubbed them thoroughly, and rinsed them repeatedly.
She chopped the offal into small pieces, sliced the pickled chili peppers and ginger into strips, cut the garlic into thin slices, and removed the leaves from the Chinese celery before washing and cutting the stalks into sections.
She marinated the chicken offal with cooking wine, Yunmengze broad-bean paste, soy sauce, salt, pickled chilies, garlic, and shredded ginger.
Next, she heated rapeseed oil over high heat until it was almost smoking, added the offal, and stir-fried it rapidly for five minutes before adding the celery and serving the dish.
Then she moved on to roast chicken and roast duck.
She blanched the whole chicken in boiling water for three minutes to remove impurities, took it out to drain, and rubbed it with salt and wine to marinate.
She stuffed the cavity with two small mushrooms, Chinese chives, and scallions, then brushed honey over the skin.
Finally, she hung a hook around the chicken’s neck and placed it into the preheated roasting oven.