Palace Full of Delicacies

The crescent moon is like a hook, and the cold white moonlight is as faint as a firefly, dripping on the vermilion glazed tiles, making the entire imperial city even more lonely.A burst of chaotic footsteps suddenly sounded on the empty palace road, startling several birds.

A fluffy golden figure suddenly appeared on the wall, upon closer inspection, it was a golden kitten the size of a palm.He stamped his feet slightly at the highest point, and tapped the smooth glazed tiles with the tip of his claws, as if hesitating.The footsteps behind him were getting closer, the kitten pursed its ears, and jumped off the three-foot-high palace wall.The high city wall was still too high for that small body. When it landed, it staggered and rolled, shook its head, got up quickly, and disappeared into the dense grass in a blink of an eye.

"Look carefully, don't let it escape!" The voice of the leader of the guards was deafening, and the rest of the guards responded in unison, turned the spear in their hands, and used the end without the tip to stir in the grass.

It was dark night, and it was not easy to find a palm-sized kitten in this sloping field full of tall grass and rocks. Not long after, another group of guards came, holding a ten-meter-long prong, and violently stabbed at the cat. Deep in the grass.

"No, that's the emperor's cat!" The commander of the guards hurriedly stopped him.

"What are you afraid of? It's just a beast!" The people behind shouted, the prongs kept moving, and the sharp points of the forks flashed shockingly cold lights under the moonlight.

"Stop!" The commander of the guards turned his gun and firmly blocked the prongs that were trying to stab the grass again. Seeing this, the other guards also put their spears horizontally to stop the churning prongs. The atmosphere in the guard room immediately became tense.

In the chaotic grass not far away, a pair of amber eyes narrowed slightly, seeing clearly what happened in the dark night, paused for a moment, then turned and left quietly.

In the capital city in early spring, it turns warm and cold.

While driving the donkey, Su Yu supported the wooden bucket on the donkey cart to prevent the water in the bucket from spilling too much.This water is the sea water in the house. If it is spilled, the sea fish in the bucket will die in a short time.

When he arrived at the place where the daily stall was set up, Su Yu skillfully tied up the donkey, unloaded the wooden barrel and wooden frame from the cart, set up the chopping board and knives in twos and twos, and took out a low stool from the corner of the donkey cart , rolled up his sleeves and sat casually by the barrel.

"Brother Yu, why is it so late today?" A little boy about seven or eight years old, wearing a half-worn cotton jacket, had two spots of red on his dark face because he had just passed the winter, smiling. It sounds silly.Seeing Su Yu coming, he consciously gave up the seat he had just squatted on to set up a stall for him, and then familiarly took out a bench from the donkey cart and sat beside him.

Su Yu smiled, and took out a bread wrapped in white cloth from his pocket and handed it to him, "I saw a good thing today, and I forgot the time when I was haggling with the fish boss."

The kid's name is Sanchuan, and he would come here to sell eggs every day, because Su Yu would go to the pier to buy goods in the morning, which would often delay time, so Sanchuan would reserve a booth for him in advance.

"What good stuff?" San Chuan chewed on the bread, and looked over curiously.

Su Yu smiled mysteriously, grabbed one from the barrel, put his hands on it and sent it to Sanchuan, then suddenly opened his hand and sent it forward.

"Ah!" Sanchuan was so frightened that he hid back, and fell to the ground with a plop.I saw Su Yu holding a weird looking thing in his hand, it was a big pile of soft things, glowing with a strange pink color, it was very frightening.

"Hahahaha..." Seeing Sanchuan's appearance, Su Yu couldn't help laughing, "Don't worry, this is delicious."

"You can still eat this weird thing? What is it?" Sanchuan sniffed his nose, got up from the ground, sat back on the small bench, and looked at Su Yu with disbelief.

"Of course it can be eaten, it's called... squid..." Mentioning this unfamiliar yet familiar term, Su Yu was momentarily at a loss.In the era when he lived before, squid was only sold on the southern coast, and here, even the temperate seaside is also available.

It has been three months since Su Yu crossed here, and he still suspects that he is actually dreaming, maybe one day he wakes up and returns to the original world, he is still the chef of Chuanxianglou, cooking happily every day His spicy crabs, delivering some seafood leftovers to the wild cats at the back door before work, and watching TV and playing games at home at night... instead of being a poor and clinking nobleman in this inexplicable ancient world.

That's right, even though Su Yu is a fish seller, he was still a nobleman in ancient times.The ancestors of the Su family followed the Taizu Emperor to conquer the world, and he was named a marquis. Although the descendant was inherited to Su Yu's father, he was already a worthless second-class auxiliary general, but honors are honors after all, and honors without military exploits You can live well with those salaries.

It's a pity that when Su Yu passed through, his father had just passed away, and his uncle deceived him to take his title when he was young. After spending more than half of it, the eldest aunt used this to treat him harshly. Not only did he not live the life of a rice bug, but he couldn't even eat enough!

In desperation, Su Yu had no choice but to return to his old business, selling fish with the family's only donkey.

"Here is a grass carp." Someone came to buy fish, Su Yu threw the squid in his hand back into the bucket, responded with a smile, got up and took out the strainer, and fished out a fat and strong squid in a large wooden basin filled with fresh water Grass carp, "Guest officer, do you see this line?"

"Do you know how to kill fish?" It was the first time for the visitor to buy fish here. Seeing that the fish owner was so white, he didn't look like a fish seller at all, but looked like a handsome and gentle scholar, so he hesitated for a while.

"Brother Xiaoyu is really good at killing fish!" Seeing the man wrinkling his nose, Sanchuan said in disbelief.

Su Yu smiled, did not answer, took out the scale and weighed it, placed the dizzy big grass carp horizontally on the cutting board, quickly disemboweled, chopped off the head and removed the scales, all the movements were done in one go, it was better than the old man at the seaside The fisherman is also skilled.

"Excellent craftsmanship!" The visitor couldn't help admiring the fish he had killed.

Su Yu took the copper plate, and gave a wry smile, thinking that he had killed fish for five years before becoming a chef, and he was lucky that he never had to kill fish again, never would have thought that everything would start from scratch now.He lowered his head and looked at the slender hands. Due to prolonged contact with salt water and the cold weather, several places have been frostbitten, and they will no longer return to their original whiteness.If he didn't have enough capital, he would have opened a restaurant a long time ago. Why bother to do a low-cost and low-return fish selling business here.But... Turning his head to look at the squids huddled together in the barrel, the smile on Su Yu's lips could not help but rise a bit. Now, he has a good opportunity to accumulate capital.

"Brother, I didn't blame you, why did you buy some of this!" Before leaving, the fish buyer pointed at the squid in the bucket and shook his head, "No one buys this stuff."

People in the Da’an Dynasty preferred to eat fresh food from the rivers, lakes and seas, so the business of fishing and selling fish was very prosperous, but it mainly concentrated on fish, shrimp and crabs. Few people would eat this kind of squid, because it was not delicious any way. Fishermen usually throw them away or sell them cheaply to feed their livestock.Su Yu just smiled kindly when he heard the words, and didn't say much.

The capital city is divided into east and west sides. The east city is the residence of wealthy families, while the west city is home to ordinary people. This Xiping Street is a small road in the west city. Because the road is narrow, horse-drawn carriages are not often used, and stalls are everywhere. yes.Women from poor families are not as particular as noble ladies in deep houses, and they go out to buy vegetables with a vegetable basket on their shoulders.

Because of Su Yu's fair appearance and gentle speech, these grandmas and aunts like to chat with him, and because of his beautiful fish-killing knife skills, the business is naturally better than other fish stalls , Just after noon, the last fish was sold out.

"Tch, you should go to Chunyi Building if you want to sell a smile. How much is it worth on this Xiping Street..." Not far away, the thick-haired fish seller said in a cold voice. Although he didn't raise his voice, everyone around could hear him clear.Chunyi Building is a well-known small house in the capital, it is self-evident who this is talking about.

After hearing this, Sanchuan wanted to argue with that guy, but was pulled by Su Yu. He doesn't live near Xiping Street, so he can't confront the gangsters here, so he can only pretend to be helpless and rush to the last one. The guest smiled.Su Yu was born gentle and gentle, and he didn't look like a good person. Coupled with this bitter smile, it made all the aunts feel very distressed.

"Fourth Yu, who are you scolding?" After receiving the fish that Su Yu had tied with straw, Aunt Zhang, who was nearly forty years old, pinched her waist and turned to stare at the fish seller.

This auntie is well-known for her pungent temper, and no one dared to provoke her in the whole street. Yu Lao Si couldn't help shrinking his head when he heard this, and felt that it was embarrassing to be so cowardly afraid of a woman, so he said, "Who picked it up?" Just scold someone!" As soon as he said this, he immediately felt regretful and wanted to bite his tongue off.

"Okay, you dare to scold me Zhang Cuihua, and you don't ask what my mother did when she was young!" Aunt Zhang suddenly became excited. It has been a long time since no one dared to quarrel with her, and this time she must have a good time.

Many people gathered on the street to watch the fun, but Yu Laosi was so scolded that he couldn't talk, and was so angry that he was about to die.Su Yu tidied up the stall silently without changing his face, and drove the donkey cart away quietly.

Turning the corner of the street, there is a shop that collects old wood. Su Yu unloaded the big wooden basin and two large wooden barrels from the cart, leaving only the half-sized wooden barrel containing the squid.

The old carpenter with a gray beard looked at it for a while, "Ten coins for one piece."

"It's nothing more than ten yuan for this wooden barrel, but this wooden basin is dug out of a whole piece of wood, at least eighty yuan." Su Yu said with a frown.

"You put it together in two pieces, at most thirty coins." The old carpenter frowned.

"Then I won't sell it." Su Yu bent down and made a gesture to take the wooden basin away. This wooden basin is indeed made of good material. If it wasn't for the lack of money, he would not be willing to sell it.

Seeing this, the old carpenter was reluctant to part with the old material, so he had to let go.After some bargaining, the tub sold for 55 Wen.Su Yu counted the newly obtained 75 Wen coins, plus the 210 three copper coins from today's fish sale, these are all his current possessions.

After collecting the two hanging and a half copper coins, Su Yu led the donkey back to a house in the corner of the east city.This is a three-entry house, the blue bricks and gray tiles are quite old, only the two stone lions in front of the main entrance still retain some of the old scenery.

"Yo, our second young master is back, where are today's members?" Entering through the side door, I saw a woman with a big arm and a round waist leaning on the porch pillar, begging for money from him.

"Mother said yesterday that there is no need to take that medicine." Su Yu said with a cold expression, he didn't bother to look at the woman, and went to tie the donkey.His body is the concubine of the old man, but the wife of the main house has no heirs, so she raised him as a concubine by her side. His father died three months ago, and his aunt fell ill due to the anger of the uncle's family. In order to provide the aunt with herbal medicine, Su Yu handed in two sea fish to his aunt every day to pay for the decoction.

The eldest aunt raised her thin eyebrows when she heard the words, and said with a sneer, "Since your mother doesn't take medicine, I'll sell the donkey tomorrow, so that you won't be embarrassed when you go out every day."

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Xiao Gong: Where am I?

Little Bird: Isn’t that the one at the beginning!

Small Gong: ... (grinding claws~)