Chapter 565 The Queen Mother is Angry
Li Zhongmian knew from the tone that the empress dowager was still holding on. Seeing that all his words had no effect, he became extremely displeased and asked her: What else can we do?
What should we do according to the Queen Mother's will?
Without waiting for the Queen Mother to reply, he stood up, bowed, and turned away.
I was so stunned after seeing it.
Immediately, she yelled at the emperor: "What are you doing sitting there like a puppet? You watched the ministers bully me without reprimanding me. Is this how my son should be an emperor?"
The emperor was furious and told the queen mother that she had been the one who kept talking nonsense. When did he have a say? She scolded him all the time. Even Li Zhongmian, who was known as the peacemaker, couldn't stand it. Who else would be willing to come to Huaxi to talk?
When the Queen Mother saw that her son was fighting with her, she was furious, and the mother and son quickly started another round of quarreling.
The emperor was completely upset by this ordeal, so he stood up, shook his sleeves and went back to the east wing. The queen and the imperial concubine followed closely behind him.
Entering the courtyard, the empress personally made tea for the emperor and carefully said that Feiyan was very thoughtful. The fresh Longjing tea tasted better than the tribute tea from Lin'an.
The emperor said he was not in a good mood and that it was too boring and suffocating sitting in the yard.
The imperial concubine asked tentatively: Why not ask Wuhui to go out for a walk?
The emperor waved his hand and told her to go find Xie Wuhui.
Later, Xie Wuhui arrived. After making sure that the emperor really wanted to go out for a walk, he told Uncle Zhao to do as he pleased. He then called on three guards to follow him out at a leisurely pace.
The people outside the yard were threshing rapeseed, harvesting wheat, and planting rice seedlings, working hard and sweating profusely. The new thresher was spun wildly by the farmers' feet, and the wheat ears rubbed against the threshing drum, making a humming sound.
The emperor called Xie Wuhui to his side and asked: The fields in Huaxi are so neatly built, it is obviously not something that can be done by a single family, how did the common people do it?
Xie Wuhui said that she had just returned to Chengdu and was not very clear about it. She only knew that this was a new rural demonstration built by the Third Young Master himself. All the fields belonged to the village collective, the people earned work points, and food rations were distributed per person. The village's income belonged to all the villagers.
The group walked along the grape trellis. The clean and tidy road and the pebble ditches on the roadside looked like they were carefully built. They were incomparable to ordinary countryside.
We saw the sign of Hetang Beggar's Chicken from a distance. The further we walked, the more the aroma of Beggar's Chicken aroused our appetite, and we couldn't help but move in.
When the Queen saw that the Emperor's frown had relaxed, she said happily: "It's getting late, Your Majesty, please have your meal here."
Xie Wuhui smiled and said: That's good, she just got her salary in Jinguan City today, so it's a good opportunity to invite Uncle Zhao to taste something new. I heard that there is Korean kimchi here, and people in the city like this dish, which is very appetizing.
The Queen also said happily: How can I spend money without regrets? Today, the Emperor will treat us and we will have beggar's chicken.
The emperor didn't care who gave the money and went straight into the beggar's chicken.
Immediately a waiter came forward to catch it.
Xie Wuhui asked them to go to the Lotus Viewing Pavilion in the middle of the lotus pond to try the beggar's chicken there.
The waiter immediately shouted, "Great!" These days, it was the busy farming season, and there were fewer guests after the rape blossoms, so the Lotus Viewing Pavilion was just empty. The waiter served tea and prepared dishes while leading the emperor to see the scenery. The big red carp jumping in front of the waterfall built along the mountain made the emperor happy.
Seeing that the guests liked the scenery, the waiter said proudly: Although Huaxi Village is in the countryside, there are still many interesting things. We even have a unique biogas fire here, which can heat water and cook food without burning firewood.
In the distance, there is an earthen stove making wine. The wine-making tools used are all the latest from Cuiping Mountain in Yibin. The chef in charge of the stove is also from Yibin. The taste of the wine is the same as the authentic Wugufeng.
The emperor was delighted and ordered a pound of earth to be roasted.
The waiter replied happily: "Okay," and quickly brought the tea up.
The Queen looked at the tables on both sides of her and found that more than half of them were occupied by diners. She lamented that this Beggar's Chicken restaurant deep in the countryside was quite famous and that diners would come all the way from the city just to try it.
Xie Wuhui told them that this store was having a sale. A beggar's chicken would cost thirty strings of coins in the city, but here it only cost twenty-eight strings of coins, a full two strings less. That was why those diners came from far away to try it.
The queen's heart skipped a beat. What? A chicken costs twenty-eight strings of coins. How much would the meal cost if other dishes were included?
The imperial concubine was already furious, and questioned what kind of shady shop this was. She said the court only gave her fifty strings of cash a month, and she only had enough to eat two chickens.
Xie Wuhui smiled and said: The preparation of beggar's chicken is very complicated, and the ingredients are exquisite. It is a secret industry of the Shenwei Army, so of course the price is expensive. She is the one who invited us to this meal, and the accompanying guards also need a chicken.
The emperor glanced at the queen and said: He is the one who will treat us to this meal. We agreed to go out for a walk, so it must be him who is treating us.
The wine and dishes were served, and everything was the emperor's favorite flavor, especially the refreshing Korean kimchi, which made the emperor eat another bowl of rice.
After eating and drinking, the queen asked for the bill, but the waiter said that the meal was free of charge from the boss.
At this time, a string of silver bell-like laughter was heard, followed by three young men running over. The waiter immediately introduced their chief shopkeeper Wu Jing, second shopkeeper Zhu Fugui and third shopkeeper Zhao Guangchen.
Wu Jing said with a laugh: Their father is Zhao Yulin, the Queen of Feiyan is their little mother, and if their grandfather and mother-in-law come to eat, they must pay for it. The beggar's chicken and firewood chicken here are all the property of the Zhao family, and you can come and try them anytime.
The emperor was confused and asked, "Wait a minute!" He wanted to know why the chief manager was called Wu Jing.
Wu Jing said with a smile that she took her mother's surname. Fugui is the son of our Shenwei Army's military advisor Zhu and also our brother. Guangchen is the daughter of our Chen Chen's mother. There is nothing wrong with that.
The queen asked in surprise: Why is Feiyan's child not here?
Guangchen said with a smile that Guangxiang and the others were still peeing and playing with sand in Cuiping Mountain. Wu Jing immediately laughed and called the two little guys to run away to get busy.
Xie Wuhui smiled and said that she forgot to introduce that all the businesses here were built up by the Third Young Master’s children, and they were all Zhao family’s businesses. Uncle Zhao could come out and change his taste at any time, as they were all their own shops.
The imperial concubine was so surprised that she couldn't close her mouth. She asked in confusion, "Are they all here, both on the mountain and down the mountain?"
Xie Wuhui nodded and told them that the entire Huaxi was transformed by the money earned by Madam Hulan and these children, so it was of course the Zhao family's property.
The Third Young Master asked Madam Hulan to take over an unfinished building in Dujiangyan with the young masters and young ladies. After the building was completed, the business was booming and they made a lot of money. Madam Hulan then invested all her money in Huaxi to transform the new countryside. The beggar's chicken was also a unique way of eating it invented by the Third Young Master.
The emperor never thought that he would eat at the restaurant opened by his own grandson, and walked back with a feeling of being unsatisfied.
The queen said with emotion: I can’t believe that everything here belongs to us.
Xie Wuhui said: This is the courtyard that the King of Feiyan thoughtfully selected for Uncle Zhao. Entering Huaxi Village is as casual and worry-free as entering a private garden, and it even saves a lot of money.
The emperor felt warm and relieved when he heard his good girl cared about him. He even chanted "When I hoe the field at noon, my sweat drips down to the ground. Who knows that every grain of rice on the plate is the result of hard work?" when he saw the peasants busy in the field.
The Queen Mother was cursing in the yard again.
She heard the maid report that the emperor went out for a walk without saying hello and ordered the guards to go out without saying hello. How free and easy he was.
When he saw that it was almost dark and he hadn't returned yet, he cursed the emperor for not knowing how dangerous the world was. What if he was killed by bad guys?
The maid told her that the cost of living outside was very high. When she heard that a beggar's chicken cost almost thirty strings of coins, she felt heartbroken about the expenses. The emperor was a carefree man. What if the empress didn't bring any money with her? If she had a free meal, she would be laughed at by the whole world.
The empress dowager was still nagging when the emperor came back humming a little tune. The empress dowager was surprised to see the emperor's changed temper. The old maid hurriedly asked if he had eaten. The two old maids didn't know how to cook, so they made a pot of porridge and went to serve a bowl to the emperor to fill his stomach.
The emperor smiled and said: No need, I have eaten them all, the beggar's chicken tastes really good, and the Korean kimchi is even better, it is truly the best kimchi.
The Queen and the Imperial Concubine all nodded with a smile and kept praising him.
When the Queen Mother heard this, she yelled: "You bastard, you actually went to a beggar's chicken shop outside to have fun. Don't you know that a chicken costs thirty strings of silver? How much silver does a meal cost?"
If you have never earned money, you don’t know how hard it is to earn money.
The monthly allowance of only eighty strings of cash is never enough to cover the expenses of this spendthrift son no matter how much he saves.
When Old Lady Xie was a girl, her family was not well-off. She knew how hard it was to earn money by working with her own hands, so she asked her personal maid to tell the queen: if you use one ounce of silver, you should spend it less, and you must spend it frugally, otherwise the family will be divided and each will live separately.
Li Zhongmian returned to Taijian Hall to have tea with Ding Gong and Li Quan, and told them about his experience in Huaxi Villa.
Mr. Ding immediately coughed twice and said: Everyone else is trying to avoid it, so why should Mr. Li get involved in this muddy water?
Li Quan said thoughtfully: If there is anyone willing, there is really someone in this Taijian Hall who must be thinking how to get summoned by Mr. Zhao. He pointed to the residence of Shi's son at the west end, and the three people immediately understood.
Li Zhongmian said: The third young master reminded us several times because he was worried that the group of people coming from the small court in Jiangdong would not forget the emperor and would create unnecessary troubles.
Mr. Ding said angrily: What an old fox he is. I have been used by him time and time again. You all better keep your eyes open and help me keep a close eye on him.
The three were still talking when Menzi announced that Yang Jin, the deputy director of the Central Court and the Minister of Personnel, had come to visit. The three stood up and were about to go to the reception room, but they saw Yang Jin walking in quickly.
The woman was not at all hesitant and told them that the Shunfeng Division had caught the financier behind the investigation who instigated riots in Jiading, planned for students to take to the streets for demonstrations, and plotted a restoration. It turned out that the financier was instructed by the eldest son of the Shi family.
Mr. Ding was shocked to hear that the restoration attempt that had caused a stir in the city some time ago was actually related to the historian.
