The 23rd Lord of the Far-off Kitchen

  Outside the Zhengyang Gate of the Temple of Supreme Harmony.

  "Tai has seen the imperial brother!" A stout man with a refined and elegant demeanor bowed to Li Chengqian.

  "Little brother, come see Mother, want to go in together?" Li Chengqian replied.

  "I have seen the Empress Dowager and since she is well, I can set my mind at ease and return to complete the poem for the Emperor's assignment."

  After finishing speaking, the fat boy left.

  Li Chengqian's eyebrows slightly furrowed after he left.

  He had run into this fat guy several times in the past few days, who was his own younger brother Li Tai. Every time he saw him, he would feel uncomfortable, and those small eyes that were made smaller by his chubby face always gave Li Chengqian a provocative feeling!

  Su He, walking beside him, had an expression of wanting to speak but hesitating.

  "Speak up," he said to Su He, "I've even forgotten, if you don't tell me, how will I know?"

  Su He obtained consent and whispered: "Master, what I'm going to say may be a big taboo, don't blame me if you've heard it. You should be careful with this Wei Wang."

  "Did I have a feud with him before?"

  "No. But he wants to take your place."

  Li Chengqian suddenly understood that he was the second son and wanted to seize the position of the eldest son. Later, when Old Li died, the Great Tang would be his.

  This is the imperial family's struggle for power!

  He is now a disabled person with both physical disability and memory loss, so his younger brother feels even more hopeful!

  "If I were no longer the crown prince, what would you do?" Li Chengqian asked Su He with a smile.

  Su He held his hand tightly and smiled: "You are the crown prince, I am the crown princess, you are the king, I am the queen!"

  Li Chengqian smiled, Su Hong always liked to say comforting words, but this sentence sounded pleasant!

  The two young couples entered the Zhèngzhèng Temple, and spent the whole afternoon with the Empress. Yang Fei was also there, showing great enthusiasm for Li Chengqian's women stories.

  Those princesses and young ladies didn't come to listen, Li Chengqian thought it was because they didn't have the same treatment as him who only attended school for half a day. It wasn't until he saw Cui'er in the evening that he asked and found out that they had all been punished by their teacher to copy homework at the Hongwen Academy.

  "Why?" Li Chengqian wondered, if it were one or two people, he could understand, but why was the whole group being punished?

  "Hehe……" Xiang Er was delighted, "Because they all played crazy and didn't do their homework for the past few days, last night they couldn't finish writing it, so they listened to Seventeen Sister's words and used a tracing pen to copy it. As a result, they finished copying everything in one night. But today when they went to school, they were scolded by Teacher Fu for disgracing literature, each of them was punished to copy three times."

  "What is the Zenguan pen?" Li Chengqian asked curiously.

  "It's the goose feather pen that Seventeen presented to Father Emperor."

  Goose feather pen...... Li Cheng's mouth opened slightly wider.

  "But it's so strange, Brother Zhen and Seventeenth Sister were asked by Father Emperor to copy the 'Tao Te Ching' twice. No one wants to play with me!"

  Li Yu this little old tiger was punished, it was Old Li punishing her for taking Li Chengqian's goose-hair brush to steal credit. So Li Zhi this young zhengtai received the same punishment, it can be thought that he also did the same thing. Li Chengqian's charcoal calligraphy from yesterday suddenly disappeared, so he thought of it, was taken away by the young zhengtai to steal credit!

  "Serves you right!" Li Chengqian gritted his teeth.

  Xu Er and Li Zhi had a good relationship, but upon hearing this, he asked discontentedly: "Why?"

  "It's despicable to steal others' credit and get rewards without effort! It should be punished!" Li Chengqian hummed.

  The young man felt a little guilty after hearing this and didn't dare look at Li Chengqian.

  Li Chengqian stroked her small round face, smiling: "However, the wheelchair of the boss of the mountain stronghold, I forgive you, and decide to authorize you, from now on you are legitimate!"

  The little girl didn't understand the three new terms "copycat", "authorization" and "legitimate", but she knew that Li Chengqian wasn't blaming her, so she happily hugged his neck tightly.

  After dinner in the Li Zheng Hall and with the Empress Dowager, the two young couples returned to the East Palace. As soon as they got off the carriage, Li Chengqian caught a familiar scent!

  "Tea!" Li Chengqian exclaimed in surprise, "This is the fragrance of someone stir-frying tea!"

  Su He replied: "Yes, at this time, it should be the palace staff bringing in new tea."

  "Did you cook it yourself in the palace?"

  "Uh-huh."

  Li Chengqian found his own spring was coming, holding his wife's hand, "Come on, let's go take a look."

  "Grandpa, wheelchair, you sit on the wheelchair!" Su Hong called out to Li Chengqian who was getting somewhat excited.

  Li Chengqian sat back in his wheelchair, pushed by Su He, and the fragrance of tea grew stronger along the way. He couldn't help but feel excited, thinking of the tea factory in his village in his previous life. The boss was his aunt, and he often visited the factory. As for how to fry tea, he still knew it. If there were new tea leaves, he would personally fry them once, and then he wouldn't have to drink the dregs of tea left by people from the Tang Dynasty.

  This road is a bit long. Li Chengqian sat in his wheelchair and only then discovered that there was no footrest designed for the wheelchair, so he would have to ask Lu Dashi to add one later.

  They arrived at a courtyard, and the fragrance of tea was coming from inside. The gate of the courtyard had a sign that read "Dianyuan Kitchen".

  Several palace maids at the gate saw Li Chengqian and Su Bian, and hastily paid their respects: "Your humble servants have seen the Crown Prince, have seen the Crown Princess."

  "Is this the new tea being delivered?"

  "Yes, Your Highness," replied a palace maid, "it was just delivered from the mountain villa at noon."

  At this time, a middle-aged palace maid rushed out of the courtyard and hurriedly saluted Li Chengqian and his wife: "Greetings to His Highness the Crown Prince and Her Highness the Crown Princess."

  Ma Zhang's food, this name is strange! But Li Chengqian was more concerned about the tea leaves and asked: "Where are the new tea leaves?"

  "New tea is being pan-fried in the courtyard."

  "Take me in."

  "Ah?" Ma Zhang was startled, "Your Highness, you can't enter the imperial kitchen!"

  "Why?" Li Chengqian stared at Ma Zhang, this man had a big nerve, even daring to interfere with the Crown Prince!

  Su He hastily explained in a low voice: "Your Highness, the sage said that gentlemen keep a distance from the kitchen. Scholars and men of letters are all like this, let alone Your Highness?"

  "Is it really saying that men can't enter the kitchen?" Li Chengqian asked, this is also too unreasonable in ancient times, you women make such bad tea, but don't let men make good tea themselves!

  "Hmm!"

  "When the saint said this, was there tea to drink?" Li Chengqian asked confidently.

  He had previously seen the materials that his aunt had done for a tea factory's advertisement, which included an introduction to the origin of tea. Firstly, one theory is that tea was invented by the legendary Shennong in ancient times, but this is too mythical and cannot be believed. The second theory is that it originated from the Zhou Dynasty, or the Qin Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms.

  During the Han Dynasty, people used the character for tea. By the Tang Dynasty, someone simplified the character for tea, so the origin of tea is probably before the Tang Dynasty. It wasn't until the Tang Dynasty that tea became more widespread.

  But gentlemen avoid the kitchen, as Mencius said. He was a man of the Warring States period, and at that time, even if there was tea, it may not have been widely available, so Li Chengqian asked with such confidence.

  "Ah?" Su Hong and Ma Zhang were stunned, they of course didn't know if Saint Mengzi had tea to drink or not.

  "There's no rule against that, right? When the saint said those words, he meant men shouldn't enter the kitchen to cook meals, but he didn't say men can't watch tea leaves or go to stir-fry tea leaves!" Li Chengqian said loudly.

  "Huh?"

  "What's wrong? Don't block the way, Xiao Ju pushed me in." Li Chengqian waved his hand.

  Ma Zhang was still in a daze when Su Meng had already pushed him inside under Li Chengqian's hint of the Buddha's palm. After a while, Ma Zhang woke up and could only follow behind.

  Dianyuan Kitchen was a large courtyard, which was divided into several smaller courtyards. Su Hong pushed Li Chengqian into one called the Tea Garden Courtyard, where he saw more than ten palace maids and eunuchs busily at work, many of whom were pounding tea flavorings that had been stir-fried.

  It turns out that all the tea leaves I drank were crushed, it was these guys who did it!

  "Halt!" Li Chengqian shouted.

  Everyone in the courtyard was stunned and turned their heads to see Li Chengqian, all of them rushed over to kneel down and pay their respects.

  "Are you going to finish off all the new tea leaves?" Li Chengqian asked anxiously.

  They were momentarily stunned, looking at each other in bewilderment, unsure of how to respond to the prince. At this moment, Ma Zhang rushed in: "Your Highness, you..."

  "Cut the nonsense, I'm already inside. Where's the new tea?"