Delicious Delicacy of the Demon Spirit

On the first day of October, the Cold Clothes Festival, it is customary on this day to sacrifice ancestors and give away cold clothes.The prince and his family went to the temple on the mountain to burn incense and worship Buddha, and the servants of the mansion also more or less asked for a few hours' leave.He Weiran asked Li Kuer to take Aoi to pay homage to her parents for a day.

Cooking at noon, going up the mountain in the afternoon, cleaning the cemetery, burning paper and sending clothes, it is inevitably another melancholy.Ah Kui looked at Li Kuer, who was kneeling in front of the grave, lighting incense and drinking wine, and then at the man and woman sitting beside drinking and nodding, and smiled brightly.

In the evening, the two returned home. Before it was dark, they hurriedly went to the field to collect some celery and radishes. After thinking about it, they decided to go back to the house.

Along the way, every household was busy, mostly entertaining relatives and friends, taking advantage of this day of worshiping ancestors together to get together.Li Ku'er greeted her all the way, and there were several families who wanted to keep her for dinner, but she declined on the lips, but was grateful in her heart.

As he was walking on the road, a person came to meet him, looking very hurried.Li Ku'er naturally knew this person, it was Xiao Wu, the mansion's errand servant, because they were the same age, the two had some friendship.

"Hey! What happened?" Li Kuer stopped him and asked.

Xiao Wu took a closer look and saw that it was Li Ku'er, and hurriedly said: "Oh, the concubine is going to give birth, the housekeeper asked me to invite Mrs. Wen."

After hearing this, Li Kuer turned around and ran after Xiao Wu, asking, "Ah? I'm giving birth today, the prince and the others haven't come back yet!"

"That's right, someone has been sent to notify, and now the son is here."

The two trotted all the way to Wang Wenpo's house, which was the closest to the palace, but unfortunately, Wang Wenpo hadn't come back yet to pay homage to the ancestors, and only her lame second son was at home.Xiao Wu had no choice but to leave a message telling Mrs. Wen to go to Prince Qiao's Mansion to deliver the baby immediately after returning home, and then hurried to another Mrs. Wen's house.

The other Wen woman, surnamed Ma, lived very far away, Xiao Wu didn't know much about it, and Li Ku'er led the way.The sky is getting dark and the road is still far away. I don't know if Wang Wenpo has heard the news. Thinking of the concubine Shizi suffering from labor pains at home, the two are even more anxious.

Li Kuer felt that it would take too long to get there with the strength of the two of them, so he proposed to take a carriage to the horse market.Xiao Wu also had the same idea, so the two took a shortcut to the horse market.

To go to the horse market, you have to pass through a narrow dark alley, which is full of back doors of people on both sides, which is very messy.The two went in one after the other, and at a glance they saw a woman in a pink shirt standing in the depths of the dark alley, holding a lantern, standing in front of two wooden doors, not knowing what she was doing.

The two of them passed in front of the woman, and they were stopped by her: "You two are in a hurry, is there any difficulty?"

The woman's voice was light and ethereal, and her appearance was no different from ordinary young women. Li Kuer noticed that there was a bright red rope tied around her neck. No one would use this thing as an ornament, and it was very strange. .

Xiao Wu is a very simple and honest person, when someone asks a question, he answers honestly: "The imperial concubine of the mansion is about to give birth, and we are going to find the wife.

"The concubine is giving birth?" The woman opened her eyes wide, took Xiao Wu's arm again, and said, "You don't need to look any further, my family has practiced medicine for generations, and I specialize in treating women's diseases, just ask me to deliver the baby."

When Xiao Wu heard this, his eyes lit up immediately, and he said joyfully, "That's really great, please ask the doctor to come with me."

The woman nodded and said yes, but Li Kuer felt that something was wrong, stopped the woman and said, "There is only one art gallery in Chuancaotang in our town. When did there become another family who practiced medicine for generations?"

The woman calmed down and said with a smile: "I just got married, and my natal family is far away from here. Alright girl, we can't delay the matter of giving birth, little brother, let's go."

"Yes, yes, hey, don't ask, Kuer, let's go quickly."

The three hurried all the way, and finally returned to the mansion.When I asked the guards, it turned out that Mrs. Wen, surnamed Wang, hadn't arrived yet.When the housekeeper learned that a female doctor had been invited to deliver the baby, he quickly asked the maid to lead the deceased to the concubine's room.Li Ku'er went with them, the woman entered the room, and invited the prince out of the door.

She was very disturbed and felt hairy all over, so she went to find He Weiran.

He Weiran was sitting in the courtyard of the back kitchen, squinting his eyes and wondering what he was thinking.

Li Kuer went over and told her the uneasiness in her heart, but she still squinted her eyes and asked Li Kuer, "What's unusual about that female doctor?"

Li Ku'er thought for a while, and said: "Her voice is very floating. When I heard her speak, my hairs stood on end. Also, there is a red string hanging around her neck, so I feel something is wrong."

"Sure enough... something came to the door." He Weiran sighed, and asked again: "Did you see that big black cat today?"

"No, it doesn't follow me every day." Li Kuer wondered why he would ask about the big black cat for no reason.

He Weiran got up, went back to the kitchen, and said to Li Kuer as he walked, "Today I will teach you how to make fried brook fish. There are still some small fishes left in the basin next to the well. You can bring them here."

Li Kuer didn't understand even more, why did he start cooking?Shouldn't you go see the Crown Princess?She took in the remaining small silvery white fish in the basin, there were only a dozen of them, all of them had been cut open and cleaned.The cockfish is a white fish, and because it can be caught in the creek, it is also a kind of creek fish.

In the kitchen, He Weiran was adjusting the heat.

"By the way, take a dry cloth and dry those little fish inside and out."

Li Ku'er did as she said, but she still couldn't hide her doubts: "Sister He, is it really okay to leave Shi Zifei alone?"

He Weiran said: "Aren't we in charge? We have to hurry up, have the fish been wiped dry?"

Li Ku'er pressed the dry cloth carefully again, seeing that the fish body was no longer as slippery and sticky as before, so he gave it to He Weiran.

He Weiran poured oil into the pan, and sprinkled salt evenly on both sides of each small fish. When the oil pan was hot, put the fish into the pan to fry.

"Fried small fish is fragrant and crispy, inside and out, and even the bones can be swallowed easily. One of the key points is to ensure that the fish body is dry. Drying is one step, and salt is one step. It can't be long. Time to marinate, otherwise the fish body will come out of water again, not only will not be crispy after being put into the pot, but will also explode. The second key is to fry twice in the pot. The first time is low fire and slow frying, control the heat, so that The oil bubbles in the pot should be kept small and dense, and the second time, use high heat to fry quickly, that is, fry the fish in large oil bubbles until golden, and fry the excess oil in the fish body just now, and it’s ready.”

Li Kuer recalled the cooking steps of fried small brook fish, and asked again: "What are you doing frying this small fish?"

"Naturally, the big black cat is brought here."

He Weiran put the fish oil on a plate, led Li Kuer back to his bedroom to get a red umbrella, and then went to Shizi Concubine.

Li Ku'er was half-knowledgeable and very impatient, pestering He Weiran to ask why.He Weiran had no choice but to explain: "The woman you brought back just now is a childbirth ghost. When she was a human, she died in childbirth. After she died, she turned into a childbirth ghost, so that others could not give birth smoothly. The childbirth ghost often takes the form of a mortal. They appeared and went back with those who had parturients at home. Their appearance was almost the same as that of ordinary people, the only difference was that they had a red string around their necks. The middle baby prevents it from falling to the ground, and in the course of time, one dead body and two dead."

"Ah! I brought back such a harmful ghost!"

Li Kuer blamed herself very much, He Weiran comforted her and said, "Fortunately, there is still time."

The two arrived in front of the imperial concubine's room, and the imperial concubine was pacing back and forth nervously.The concubine Shi Zi groaned in pain up and down inside, and he wanted to rush in several times, but was stopped by the maid.

He Weiran put the fried brook fish in the yard, and asked Li Kuer to wait for the big black cat to come.He told the prince about Ann, and entered the room with a red umbrella.

Not long after, the servant girl who was serving inside also came out, saying that it was Miss He's order, and it seemed that the matter was very important, so she dared not refuse.

Li Kuer stared anxiously at the big black cat, she was very suspicious, could it be that this plate of simple fried fish could really attract the cat?

The concubine Shi Zi still wailed again and again in the room, other than that there was no sound, the door was closed tightly, and it was unknown what was going on.

Li Kuer looked left and right, it was getting dark, and she was looking for the big black cat's glowing eyes.

"Meow..." A soft meow from the corner completely dispelled Li Kuer's doubts.The black cat ran over quickly, and Li Kuer thought it was going to eat fish, so he hurriedly pushed the plate closer.But he didn't want the black cat to just sit there, its eyes wide open, staring at something motionless.

Li Ku'er followed its gaze, and it turned out to be the open window on the side of the house.Slowly, the black cat slowly leaned forward, and in an instant, it shot into the window like an arrow.

It was dark, and it was the other side of the room. Everyone's hearts were tied to Shi Zifei, and no one seemed to notice a black cat entered.Li Kuer carefully moved to the window and looked in.She faintly saw He Weiran standing beside the bed with her head up, not knowing what she was looking at.On the bed, apart from Shi Zifei who wailed a few times from time to time, there was also the red umbrella that He Weiran brought just now, unfolded and standing upright strangely.And the big black cat had already jumped onto the beam along the bed rail in twos, and jumped down again after a while, holding a red earthworm-like thing in its mouth, which was still twisting, and the other end was on the beam, Very long.

Li Ku'er didn't know what was connected to the other end of the thing, and couldn't see clearly, but saw the big black cat running all the way out with it in its mouth, and swished out of the window again.

Li Kuer opened her eyes nervously, and saw the black cat using its mouth and claws together. Slowly, the "red earthworm" got longer and longer, and finally the whole one flew out of the window. Open dead group.Slowly, the thing stopped twisting and turned into a bright red ball of thread.

The black cat stepped on the ball of thread and screamed loudly towards the window, which was very scary.The maids were also taken aback, and hurried out to find a broom to chase the cat away.The black cat was still barking ferociously, and after a while, a pink figure flew out of the window, it was the childbirth ghost I met in the dark alley earlier.The birth ghost glanced unwillingly at the room, then at the big black cat in fear, and then disappeared.

At this time, a servant girl came to chase the cat with a broom. When she saw that it was a huge black cat, she was taken aback, and hurriedly chased it away by cursing: "You unlucky thing, why did you come to our concubine's yard? Go, go, you want to hurt people!" No, let's go!!!"

Li Kuer couldn't stop her, the black cat ran away, and disappeared into the night in a blink of an eye.She picked up the red ball of thread... Maybe this is something that produces ghosts and harms people.The black cat helps people drive away evil spirits, but people think it brings disasters. There are always many misunderstandings in the world.Thinking of this, Li Kuer quickly picked up the fried brook fish and chased after the big black cat in the direction where the big black cat disappeared.

Later, Wang Wenpo arrived, and the concubine Shizi gave birth smoothly, and it was a male crying loudly.The palace was full of joy, and no one thought of the female doctor in pink anymore.