Chapter 28: Each with Their Own Thoughts

  Spring Garden, Huang Jingchen sat in the study drinking tea, while Shunzi stood respectfully beside him, massaging his shoulders. "Your Excellency, I've investigated and found out that after the banquet that day, Chen Tang had his son dragged to the street and slapped a hundred times in front of everyone. Two family slaves were also thrown into prison, with characters carved on their faces, and are now exiled to Lingnan!" Shunzi said slowly, revealing the news he had just obtained.

  "Hmm, Chen Tang is quite clever and knows what he should do!" Huang Jingchen said with a smile in his eyes.

  "There's another thing, I've been thinking about it, at the banquet that day, Wang Ye spent only 5,000 yuan to buy Chen Tang's 200 mu of land next to us, and exchanged a cat for his mansion and all the livestock. The people on Chen Tang's farm came to surrender the next day!" Shunzi said in puzzlement.

  "Oh, and there's this interlude, tell me about what happened, don't leave out a single word!" Huang Jingchen said with a furrowed brow.

  "Yes, it was caused by eating." Shunzi is really a language genius. How can Zhao Chu cry? Seeing Xi and Da Guan Shi how to drum up support, Chen Tang's various reactions, the tone and demeanor of the people speaking at the meeting were all imitated by him in a vivid and lifelike way, as if he had been there all along.

  "Haha, the prince is really a child, it's hard for him to come up with such a plan to seize Chen Tang's estate. If he wanted it, why bother with so much trouble? Just take it directly! And let me, the steward, play the villain, do I need to cry poor in front of them? It's as if I'm mistreating the people in the mansion!" Huang Jingchen laughed and said, he had seen many cases of strong taking from the weak in the imperial court, so he didn't take it seriously.

  "Your Excellency, I think the king's thoughts are meticulous. He wants Chen Tang to be the prefect of Gongzhou, where there are not only many officials in the yamen, but also 20,000 forbidden troops under his jurisdiction. If he insults the emperor and besieges the palace, it would be a crime punishable by death. Chen Tang is not a good person. If he jumps into desperation, he will inevitably have thoughts of killing people to silence them. So, Your Majesty..." Shunzi seemed to have understood some connections and analyzed them bit by bit.

  Huang Jingchen waved his hand, signaling Shunzi to stop. His fingers tapped lightly on the table as he muttered to himself, "If it's like you said, then Wangye has made another turn at Ghost Gate Pass, but Wangye is just a child who grew up in the deep palace."

  "Great official, your lordship has grasped Chen Tang's handle, and with this commotion, the prefecture governor has lowered his head. Everyone knows that these treacherous scoundrels around us will not dare to cause trouble for us again. I think this is your lordship's main purpose. Seizing his estate was just a bonus, an unexpected gain. Your lordship has used tactics and gained both substance and face!" Shunzi said as he poured a cup of hot tea for Huang Jingchen.

  "What you said is not unreasonable, the king's methods are more like a child throwing a tantrum!" Huang Jingchen was shocked by this thought, could it be that the king was indeed as the two Taoists said, "not revealing his true intentions, if a seven-year-old child can have such cunning, then wouldn't he have truly succeeded?"

  "His Excellency, Xia Yuan's visitor has arrived!" a small yellow gatekeeper knocked on the door and said.

  "Let him in!" Huang Jingchen quickly regained his usual composure and said with a frown.

  "Good day, sir!" Xi Jian first greeted him and then said with a smile: "Sir, this noon the Prince invites you to go over for lunch!"

  "Oh, has a noble guest arrived at the mansion?" Huang Jingchen asked with some surprise. These days, Zhao Che had been alone in his room or with the young servants, and they hadn't eaten together for a long time.

  "Master, no. Second Master said that the vegetables in the greenhouse are ripe and he picked some for you to taste. He even cooked them himself today!" Jian Xi replied.

  "Really? Then I'll have to go and try the king's cooking skills. But the king is also being reckless, how can he enter the kitchen? You don't even advise him!" Huang Jingchen said with a smile, but there was no sign of anger in his tone.

  "Although I advised him against it, the prince wouldn't listen. But the dish he made was really delicious!" Seeing that Ji Huang Jing didn't seem to be blaming him, he said with a smile.

  In the small kitchen of Xiaoyuan, Zhao Xiang was wearing a apron with a pattern of pagoda tree flowers, specially made for him by his wife. He was cleaning a fish, which was a yellow river carp, its tail slapping against the chopping board. With quick and precise movements, he used a small knife to scrape off the scales, cut open the belly to remove the innards, and then made crisscross cuts on both sides of the fish in a pattern resembling peony flowers. He quickly rinsed it clean with clear water, then wrapped the head of the fish in a damp towel, coated it with dry starch powder. The two kitchen maids were curious about the movements of their master, they had never seen anyone prepare a fish like this before.

  "Zhang sister, quickly adjust the sweet and sour sauce, is Li sister's oil pot hot?" Zhao Yan instructed the two cooks with her hands and feet moving non-stop.

  "Alright, I'll get it right away!" Zhang Jie quickly mixed the sweet and sour sauce in a pot according to Zhao's instructions.

  "Prince Wang, the oil is hot!" Li Jie also replied.

  With a "sizzling" sound, Zhao Chu held the fish head and put the fish into the oil pot. After frying for about one minute in the pot, it was immediately taken out of the pot and placed on a plate. The towel on the fish head was removed, and the well-prepared sweet and sour sauce was quickly poured over it, topped with a few sprigs of parsley.

  "Bring it in at once!" Zhao Zhen said as he untied his apron strings, and a small eunuch immediately brought the dish in on a tray.

  "What's wrong with you? Your eyes are wide open!" As Wang Ye walked out the door, Li Jie waved her hand in front of Zhang Jie, who was staring blankly, and asked.

  "The dish is done, and the fish is still alive! How did Second Master do it? If I can learn this dish, I'll definitely become a famous chef in Beijing!" Zhang sister was still reeling from the shock earlier.

  Huang Jingchen was walking freely in Zhao Mo's house, with Xiangxi following respectfully behind him. "Xiangxi, are these books the new ones that Wang bought?" Huang Jingchen asked as he walked into a small study where three walls were lined with bookshelves, many of which had been newly added.

  "His Excellency, yes, that day the king went to the prefectural city and arrived at a bookstore. He ordered his attendants to buy one copy of every book in the store, regardless of what it was. In the end, they filled an entire cart, spending several hundred taels of silver!" Xiang Xi replied cautiously.

  "Haha, I've never bought books like this before, the king is really a wonderful person!" Huang Jingchen was amused, "Does the king like these military strategy and miscellaneous art books?" He flipped through the stack of books on the desk and asked again.

  "The little one doesn't even recognize a few characters, anyway, Master Wang has been reading books until late at night these past few days!"

  "Hmm!" Huang Jingchen nodded, and suddenly he saw something new on the pen holder, a small wooden rod with a copper tip pressed on it, made very delicate. "Paradise, what is this thing? Is it made by the prince?"

  "This is a big official, painted by the king, made by the copper craftsmen in the mansion. He uses this to dip in ink and write words, saying it's called a dip pen!" Xiang Xi replied, handing Huang Jingchen a paper full of writing.

  Huang Jingchen took it over and examined it carefully. The words on the paper were small, but they were neat and powerful, lacking the softness of a brush, but with a strong sense of justice, giving people a fresh feeling. He didn't say anything, put down the pen and paper, looked at the huang bed placed on one side, took a glance, and his eyes stopped moving. The quilt on it was stacked neatly, square and rectangular, with edges and corners, and the sheets were stretched out like calm water.

  "Who folded this quilt?" Huang Jingchen couldn't believe the quilt could still be folded like this, and he couldn't help but touch it with his hand as he spoke.

  "His Excellency, since moving over, the king's study and bedroom are all taken care of by himself, rarely troubling others. This quilt was folded by the king!" Xiangxi hurriedly smoothed out the wrinkled quilt that Huang Jingchen had touched, saying that if the room was messed up, the king would get angry.

  "Oh?! Accompany me to the other room!" Huang Jingchen said in surprise, quickly walking into the bedroom. The quilt was also spotless like the outer room. He touched the decorations on the grid shelf and they were all dust-free. When he opened the closet, the large clothes were hung neatly on hangers by size, and the small items of clothing were stacked together with the same size on top of each other. The shoes were all lined up in a row with the toes pointing outward.

  "Are these also gathered by the prince?"

  "Your Honor, this is what the Prince ordered. After washing and ironing their clothes, they are all folded and arranged according to the Prince's requirements!"

  "Is it like this every day?" Huang Jingchen asked again with some persistence.

  "Yes, the prince is like that every day. He even requires the vegetables in the warm room to be cut into squares of uniform size and shape." Ping Xi replied calmly, he was already used to it.

  "Hmm" Huang Jingchen nodded and murmured, then went to other rooms, all of which were neat and tidy, not like a child's room at all. He followed Shunzi behind him, both of them finding it hard to calm down. The confrontation between Wang Ye and Chen Tang was not just a childish outburst, but a planned and premeditated action. Everyone had been unwittingly following his lead for half a day, yet no one understood his true intentions.

  When he returned to the dining room, several dishes were already placed on the table, including cucumber with sauce, vegetarian eggplant, shrimp and leek stir-fry, as well as three meat dishes: poached chicken, braised lamb, and cold-cut lamb. These dishes were ordinary, but they contained fresh vegetables, which was different from usual. At this time of year, even if you had money, you couldn't buy them.

  "Look at this, where did these vegetables come from?" Huang Jingchen asked.

  "Your Honor, these were all grown in the greenhouse. Today, the king picked the first batch of vegetables and wants to invite you to taste the freshness. These are all the king's handiwork!" Ji Xi said with a smile.

  "Oh, the greenhouse of the king really grows fresh vegetables in winter!" Huang Jingchen had only regarded the greenhouse as one of the king's whimsical creations, but he actually grew vegetables, which surprised Huang Jingchen.

  "Yes, now the vegetables in the greenhouse are almost ripe, just in time for us to eat during the New Year!" Jian Xi said.

  "Look, why are you still dazed? Hurry up and let Huang Bo take his seat, and quickly pour the wine!" Before Huang Jingchen could ask again, Zhao Shu came in. The small yellow gate who was serving dishes put the fish on the table. "Huang Bo, this dish must be eaten first, or it won't taste good!" Zhao Shu sat down in the main seat, knowing that if he didn't sit down, no one else would dare to take their seats.

  Huang Jingchen sat down next to Zhao Shu, and with a glance at the dishes that Wang Ye had just brought up, he saw that the carp's mouth was open and its gills were moving, its eyes shining brightly - the fish was still alive. "Huang Bo, try some and see how it tastes!" Zhao Shu picked up a piece of fish with his chopsticks and put it on Huang Jingchen's plate. Huang Jingchen put it in his mouth and savored it, finding the flesh tender and flavorful, with just the right balance of sour and sweet. He couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.

  "Your Highness, this fish is still alive, isn't the meat going to be raw?" Jian Xi couldn't help but ask.

  "It's alive but it's dead; it's dead, yet its mouth and gills are moving. You can also say the fish is still alive!" Zhao said as he picked up a piece of fish and put it in his mouth.