[Comprehensive] The days when I pretended to be a meow in the Forbidden City

In the third month of the lunar calendar, apricot blossoms spit out pistils, which is the day when Chunwei releases the list.

Everyone in the Lin family was very calm. Lin Ruhai had already brought Daiyu and Lin Jue back to Yangzhou, but Lin Butler stayed in the capital to accompany Xia Anran to wait for his achievements. Pan Baoyu chats, goes out for a stroll, or goes for an outing with his classmates.

After all, the days when the exams are over and the results are waiting are the most pleasant.

Sometimes Jia Baoyu and Xue Pan were speechless when they saw how big-hearted he was.

Even Jia Baoyu couldn't help shaking his head, "I thought I was already free and easy, but I didn't expect Brother Xia to be better than me. I really admire him."

Xia Anran smiled and ignored him, just urging him to make a quick move, they were playing chess, Xia Anran was a stinky chess player, and so was Jia Baoyu, if the chess played by the two were seen by outsiders, they would definitely be cast aside.

But the two rookies pecking at each other had a lot of fun.

Xue Pan's chess skills are not bad, looking at the messy chessboard of these two people often feels hot in the eyes, and he just wants to blink to avoid it.

Not to mention Feng Yuan, who is not good at reading, but knows all kinds of elegance.

Xia Anran's chess skills were taught by Lin Ruhai... Although this dynasty doesn't pay attention to piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, but it is necessary to know how to play, otherwise how can we talk about it when we go out?How to play with other literati?At least a few?

In the beginning, Xia Anran learned together, but in the end Lin Ruhai persuaded him to give up chess.

Go, besieging and attacking, is a struggle between literati without swords and lights. Every square inch is a battlefield, but Xia Anran has completed it as a child's plaything. "So scheming!" Lin Ruhai poked Xiao Xia Anran's head, hating iron for being weak.

But of course this cannot be changed. Fortunately, Xia Anran has some talents in the piano, which is barely audible.

Books are not mentioned, they are mediocre, paintings are not good, imitation is possible, but there is no artistic conception and no aura.

On the contrary, riding and archery is still eye-catching.

Since Jia Baoyu started hanging out with Xue Panxia Anran, Jia Zheng's attitude towards him has softened a bit.

Let's not mention Xia Anran, he won the Juren before he reached the crown, his talent is very good, Xue Pan's recent behavior is also a bit passable.

Recently, along with the warmth of spring, Xue's shop has gradually radiated from Shangjing along with the caravan, and now it has opened more than ten branches.

As Xia Anran expected, the powder in big jars sells better than in bulk.

After getting a taste of it, it is rare to buy in bulk. More often, neighbors buy a jar and share it with each other. The calculated price is also cheaper than buying in pieces.

The gold and silver that Xue Pan invested in are now slowly returning to their original value. His originally chubby body has also lost a little weight due to these days of running around, revealing a pair of long and pretty phoenix eyes.

This person's appearance has improved, he has gained ability again, and others' attitude towards him has improved a bit. He has clearly felt this kind of kindness when he socialized recently, and his personality has gradually changed. A lot of inner feelings have been worn away, and people have become calmer.

Mrs. Xue wiped away tears without him knowing how many times, Xue Baochai was also very happy.The Xue family all thanked Xia Anran for bringing this change. After the Lin family returned to Yangzhou, the Xue family who was still in the capital increased their contacts with him.

Xue Pan and Feng Yuan came today to accompany Xia Anran and others to release the rankings.

Once Lin Ruhai and Jia Min left, they were the only friends who could accompany him.

When he came, Xia Anran was playing chess with Jia Baoyu, and the two stinky chess baskets were in the middle of a fight, no matter how happy to pay attention to him, Xue Pan didn't see him, since Lin Daiyu had returned to Yangzhou, there was no female family in this mansion, three It is more convenient for people to get together, so now they all come to Xia Anran's place when they want to have a party.

It's already spring, and the Lin family's house is decorated elegantly, in the style of a garden in the south of the Yangtze River.

Xue Pan looked at it, couldn't help sighing, and said to Feng Yuan, "I'm a little homesick."

The home he was talking about was naturally not the Xue family's house in Shangjing, but Xue's mansion in Jinling. Feng Yuan knew his mood and walked in. The two of them looked at the Lin family's Chinese toon tree that was sprouting green shoots. He was also in Jinling. He came to Beijing with the Xue family.I never went back even for the Chinese New Year, so I was naturally homesick.

It's a pity that there is no one in his family to think about.

Feng Yuan, who was all alone, was not without emotion.

"I want to go back at the end of March," he said softly, "will you go with me?"

"Okay." Xue Pan nodded, then raised his head again, "I... can be considered homecoming?"

Feng Yuan nodded with a smile, looked at the man's eyes flickering slightly, and was about to comfort him, when he heard the sound of horseshoes galloping past, accompanied by shouting "good news—" He was taken aback, then patted Xue Pan on the shoulder, "Hurry up and ask Brother Xia to come out, I'm afraid the person who reported the list is here!"

This line is indeed a rewarding person.

After the release of the rankings in Chunwei, there will be special rewarders riding fast horses through several main roads in the capital and the teahouses where scholars gather. Everyone who lives there can hear it.

This sound of good news is the sound that many scholars dream of.

It's just ten years of cold window, no one asks, and once he becomes famous, the world knows it.

Afterwards, there will be a team that copied the test results and rushed straight to the buildings where the people who passed the test lived. These people are not official teams, they are here to ask for rewards. Candidates are in short supply, and their friends or owners of hotels and teahouses will give rewards.

For these people, they can make a steady profit, one is the good news, and the other is the reward of silver, not to mention that they have made a good fortune for the future pillars of the imperial court in advance.

After the list is posted, an official team will lead Shi Shiran, the guard of honor, to find the master, issue the official list and inform the palace examination time, Xinglin banquet time and other information.

If you want to ask, how did these unofficial personnel find the candidates?Uh, although their voices are loud, their ears are also very good. If cheers erupt somewhere after the good news, they will know where the candidates are. At least the person who reported the salary will tell the second wave of people the location of the candidates after returning. .

Of course, there are also rough roads where you can get the list and address directly from the government, and then rush there directly.

After all, after every student arrives in Beijing, he must leave the address of the hostel and not run around.

At this time, the owner of the hostel and tea house where the students live will prepare a lot of fireworks and firecrackers. Once someone wins in his hostel, the firecrackers will be set off. Where the sound is the loudest, the next round of spring will be the most popular here.

People like Xia Anran who have their own houses are at a disadvantage, because the Lin family's house is not on the main road, and they can only faintly hear the cries of the people who reported their salary.

However, the calm and reliable Steward Lin had already sent a young man to read the list. The list had just been posted at this time, and when the young man came back after reading it, he estimated that it would take two sticks of incense time.

Xia Anran himself is very calm, he just wants to criticize the roll call system under the dynastic system, really, it's too tantalizing, it's like an elementary school teacher handing out test papers, why can't he just hand out the test papers, every day Every time I have to post one by one.

Every time I have to wait for a long time to wait for myself, my little heart at that time was thumping...just like now.

Well, he's actually not that calm, he's still a little nervous and excited.

Xia Anran rubbed her chest, thought for a while, anyway, there was still a long time to wait, and then saw that there were three people sitting in a row at the door, Xue Pan, Jia Baoyu, and Feng Yuan were sitting there waiting, and they were more than him. Still nervous.

He blinked, turned around and walked to the kitchen, and asked the cook to take out the moss peanuts, peanuts, nuts, etc. that he had fried before, and put them down in the yard, calling the three of them to eat while waiting. .

Such a leisurely and calm appearance made the three scumbags unable to bear to look directly at them.

"Brother Xia..." Feng Yuan was forced to study for a few years, and he has a reputation as a scholar. He really couldn't understand what this person was thinking, "You, you are too confident or... "

Xia Anran stuffed a handful of peanuts into his hand, and signaled: Hold back and eat.

Feng Yuan subconsciously took the moss peanut and stuffed it into his mouth. "Oh! This smells so good."

That is, Xia Anran was a little proud, "This is moss. A few days ago, I happened to meet a caravan from the seaside from the south. I saw that they had this for sale, so I bought some and fried it to eat. Eat more. Eating this food can Prevent big neck disease"

Hearing this, Jia Baoyu became curious, "Why is this? Is this medicine?" He put the strips of moss into his mouth as he spoke. "Wow! It's so delicious!"

Xia Anran thought for a while, and said: "The people in the caravan said it, they all eat this to cure their big neck disease."

Naturally, he is not easy to say because seaweed contains a lot of iodine. In fact, big neck disease is really common in this era. Xia Anran has not heard of anyone suffering from this disease for a long time in modern times, especially in China Salt Group. Iodine is added to the salt.

Later, when living conditions improved, people took in too much iodine one after another, and non-iodized salt appeared again.

The people of this world naturally do not have this awareness.They just think it's a normal disease, because doctors can cure it, and it won't kill people. Everyone has no awareness of prevention and treatment.

Won't people die?Of course it will die... The thyroid gland is the largest endocrine gland in the human body. If something goes wrong, can the human body still recover?

It's just that chronic diseases don't feel like they get sick. In addition, people in this era don't live long, and most of them die from complications, so they don't attract attention.

He knocked on the bowl, "How about it, is this delicious?"

"Delicious." Xue Pan held a handful in his hand, threw it into his mouth, crunched it, and squinted his eyes happily. Then he had an idea, "Shall we sell this?"

Feng Yuan raised his eyebrows when he heard the words, tasted it carefully, and frowned, "This... the recipe seems too simple? The raw materials are not expensive? Is the price extremely cheap?"

Xia Anran nodded, "Just seaweed, peanuts, sugar, and salt, it's really simple." It's also very easy to be imitated.

But what Xia Anran wants is to be imitated. Everyone knows that the material he uses is seaweed. People's physical condition.

Jia Baoyu didn't think as much as they did. He ate happily, "I think this is delicious. If you guys sell it, Brother Xia, I will definitely buy it."

"It's very good, suitable for drinking." Xue Pan smacked his lips, and said to Feng Yuan, "It doesn't matter if the material is cheap, we can sell it as an extra, and it doesn't matter how much you earn, as long as you don't lose money."

Hearing this, Xia Anran laughed, "How can you really make you lose money? This is sold as a snack, but it is actually a seasoning."

"what?"

He pointed to the seaweed, "This, I fried it, and it turned into this crispy appearance. It is also delicious if it is directly boiled in soup. You can also grind this into powder and use it as a condiment. It's all okay."

He took another cake-shaped dark brown object from a basket, and as soon as he brought it in front of them, he smelled a fishy smell of the sea. Jia Baoyu immediately jumped away, covered his nose and said, "Brother Xia, what is this? Why does it taste like this, like this..." The child who had never seen the sea frowned, looked for an adjective, and finally used "It stinks?"

Hearing this, Xue Pan leaned over and sniffed it carefully, he let out a surprise, but hesitated, "This, is this, laver?"

He grew up in the affluent Jinling, which is closer to the sea, so he used to eat this.It's just that the memory is long, and the umami taste is still vaguely remembered.

"To be precise, it's kombu." Xia Anran was not surprised that Xue Pan knew this. Our country has a record of seaweed cultivation since the Yuan Dynasty.The Xue family is also a businessman, so it is not surprising to see this.

He signaled the boy to bring a small stove, added water, threw the dark brown object into the water, and closed the lid, "Just wait."

Kelp was discovered in our country very early, but its medicinal value was realized in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, mainly because it grows on the bottom of the sea at a certain depth and likes places with fast-flowing water. Before the Ming and Qing Dynasties, fishing techniques were not good When they got home, they were only occasionally washed ashore by water and picked up by others.

It is not kelp. The kelp we eat in later generations was actually imported from Japan, and the kelp mentioned by the ancients is not the same species as the current kelp.

This thing contains very, very high iodine content, and its medicinal value is also very high. The difference from moss strips is that moss strips are cold in nature and cannot be eaten when coughing, while kelp can cure cough and asthma.

The moss can already be cultivated, but the kombu is not yet.

After a while, the pot began to boil, and as time passed, the fragrance became more and more obvious.

So when the Baobao people rushed to Lin's house, they knocked on the door and saw four young men with different temperaments but all of them were handsome and handsome, staring straight at the pot on the table.

Reporter: Huh? ? ? ?

The atmosphere was very embarrassing for a while, but soon a few people came to their senses, Xue Pan hurriedly rushed to Baolu, "What is Brother Xia's ranking?"

The Baolu man quickly regained his senses. He straightened his back, took a breath and said loudly, "Good News—Master Gusu, Xia Anran, No. 20 in the Jiaxu New Year's Examination."

Everyone in the room was silent, and when Baolu was stunned, he looked up and saw everyone standing there in a daze, but Mr. Xiao Lang, who was still sitting in his seat, walked over slowly, gave him a silver ingot, and said in a warm voice, "Thank you, Mr. Sir, thank you a little, please accept it."

"Many, thank you." Baolu was baffled by the situation, and when he walked out of the door, he heard a man screaming from behind, "Ah, ah, brother Xia!!! 23, 23!"

"Calm down, Xue Pan, calm down, don't shake Brother Xia, Brother Xia is going to take the palace exam! How can you be good if you shake badly?"

Is this the right reaction? The Baolu man squeezed the silver ingot with some joy.

Hehehehe, thick silver ingot hehehe.

The room was in chaos, Xue Pan was very happy because his little friend was awarded a Jinshi, Feng Yuan was stopping him, Jia Baoyu was not interested in imperial examinations, but he was quite happy for this relative, but on second thought Thinking that if the little friend didn't get the first grade, he would have to be released to become an official, and he felt a little melancholy when he thought of this.

But he didn't feel melancholy for a long time, and he was seduced by the thicker and thicker fragrance. He took his sweat towel and pinched the lid to lift off the hijab. The rich fragrance burst out like an explosion just now. Because the meat base soup is thick and has an aggressive taste, it is also different from the vegetable soup, which is sweet but also bland. Transformed into a special fragrance.

Those who have been to the seaside will know that this is the smell of sea water, a little salty and fishy, ​​but it is broad, atmospheric and inclusive.

After being fished out, the kombu was exposed to the hot sun for preservation. While losing water, the nutrients and fragrance were also concentrated. After encountering hot water, the fragrance released was also given the power of sunlight.

Obviously nothing was put in, but relying on the taste of kombu itself, it can achieve such an effect?

Several servants brought a table, on which were placed meat sticks, radishes, vegetables and other items inserted with bamboo sticks according to Xia Anran's request.

"What is this?" Several people who were congratulating just now immediately gathered around when they saw something new. Xia Anran first put the radishes cut into cylindrical shapes into the pot, and then put some fish balls, dried scallops and tofu in it, and then Sprinkled some green condiments, seeing what he did, Xue Pan asked, "Is it stewing?"

"Well, wait for the soup to boil and put what you want to eat in."

"Ah, is it a hot pot?" Jia Baoyu took a closer look, feeling a little interested. It was already noon, and it was indeed time to eat.

This is the hot pot with kunbu as the soup base. He has never eaten it.

Xia Anran threw in a few pieces of corn, and they asked the housekeeper for warm wine, and sat there peacefully waiting for the soup to boil.

The scent wafted out one after another, Xia Anran took some soy sauce into it, then inserted the soaked shiitake mushrooms into the water, and put some cooked chickens into it.

Oh oh oh, the others followed suit and put all kinds of materials with bamboo sticks in the pot straight up, until they saw a yellow square thing, "What is this?"

"Well... I call it spinach... cake, made with chicken and spinach, it's delicious." Xia Anran made a recommended action, "Wait, you can try it."

These few people are already very confident in Xia Anran's craftsmanship, since he said it was delicious, everyone took a piece of the pot one after another.

Because there were a lot of fresh things put in this time, the pot boiled a bit slower, Xia Anran stopped them from covering the pot, saying that it would be more authentic.

What authentic?Several people were a little puzzled by what he said, but they didn't bother to ask when they saw that they were smiling and in a good mood, and the topic was withdrawn to the matter of Chun Wei.

The servant sent by the Lin family met someone from the government to announce the good news outside, Xia Anran couldn't avoid it this time, he took over his list, thanked him and handed over the reward, then turned around, and then he Seeing his little friends looking at his list with fiery eyes.

The directory is actually a symbol, engraved with a few names of a certain subject. Generally, scholars will put this in front of the ancestor tablet, and other things are actually useless.

Xia Anran showed the two people a look, and put it away after satisfying their curiosity. After this tossing, the pot has already started to churn.

Well, it's time to eat.

Baoyu, Xue Pan and Feng Yuan took the things they were interested in directly according to their own preferences. Only Xia Anran took the radish in the soup. The ingredients are very easy to absorb the taste. Many people like to eat radish when they eat oden, because the taste of other ingredients in the soup will end up on the radish.

It is obviously a material, but in the end it will have the aroma that only meat dishes can have.

The radish that absorbs the flavor of all the ingredients is the best in this pot!

Xia Anran knew, but didn't tell them. =w=

But obviously all of these people are smart, and Xia Anran, who knows how to eat the most, picked the radish alone, which is very self-explanatory. I saw the pot without the radish.

Xia Anran: The smile gradually disappeared.

Xia Anran: You can easily lose me like this. Let me tell you.

Xia Anran: I'm so angry, I can't keep smiling anymore.

He slowly put down his chopsticks.

Listening to the various voices coming from the garden, Steward Lin shook his head with a smile. He was writing a letter from home at this time, and was about to ask someone to take it to Yangzhou to Mr. Lin who was waiting for news from here.

Xia Anran's grades are so good this time, which is really beyond everyone's expectations. Lin Ruhai originally guessed that if he was on the list, his grades would be at the bottom. The main reason is that Xia Anran's schooling time is too short. door exam.

There are 300 Jinshi candidates, but the final ranking of these 300 people depends on the imperial examination.

There are three people in the first class, and the No. [-] pick is in the second place.

More than forty people in the second class are Jinshi, and the rest are fellow Jinshi.

They claim to be the same as Jinshi, but they are actually completely different.

This probably means that in the eyes of the country, you are the same as Jinshi, but it corresponds to the concept of "Mrs. Ru", which also means that you are the same as my wife in my heart.

How could it actually be the same?The position is extremely embarrassing.

If you fail this time, you can come back next time. If you win the same Jinshi, you will have no chance to come back.

It's just that Xia Anran's ranking this time has reassured everyone. Although this is not the final ranking, it has already proved Xia Anran's strength.

Butler Lin stroked his beautiful mustache, his lord must be happy to hear the news.

And... Master Lin told him before leaving that he wanted him to observe Mr. Xia secretly. According to Butler Lin, Xia Anran was very clean these days. The taste of the wine is even more clean and refreshing, even if you come back from the banquet, there is only a slight smell of wine.

He wrote down this observation in a letter.

He had a guess in his mind about this command from his lord.

Butler Lin walked slowly towards the courtyard, looking at Xia Anran with an extraordinarily kind expression

The author has something to say: PS: Japan also has the term kelp, but Japanese kelp seems to refer to all seaweeds collectively as kelp. In our country, kelp is a specific plant...but now influenced by Japanese culture, everyone also It started to get confusing.

The kelp we eat today was introduced and planted from Japan. It seems to be in the period of the Republic of China?

Hmm... Anyway, you don't need to worry about it, as long as you know that these are all edible, and they are all delicious!

The soup base actually tastes the same, which is slightly exaggerated in the text.