Chapter 633: The pretty girl is eating fishy food
On September 29th, the lights come on.
The snow had not yet melted, but a blazing bonfire was lit in the small pavilion in the backyard of Dingxiang Tower.
A tender and plump elk is slowly rotating on the grill. The fragrant aroma, contrasting with the cool snow scene outside, makes people's appetite increase.
Seeing someone nearby picking up a dagger, Zhao Nan, who was tending the grill, quickly leveled the stand and instructed with a smile on his face, "Master, cut towards the lower abdomen first. The meat there is the most tender and must be cooked through."
But the man refused to listen to him and cut off a large piece of meat from the thigh. He stabbed it with a knife, put a lot of sauce on the plate, and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing it in big mouthfuls.
While he was struggling to swallow it, he exhaled hot air with a hissing sound. After finally swallowing it, his fair and jade-like face looked as if covered with a layer of rouge.
He didn't even bother to wipe the grease stains from the corners of his mouth, and gave a thumbs up and praised repeatedly: "Great, the peppers that my second brother brought are really better than dogwood!"
The man who was born with a beautiful face and heroic behavior must be Liu Xianglian.
As he spoke, he kept sticking out his tongue. It was obvious that this was the first time he had eaten this chili powder and he couldn't handle it.
"I told you this thing is very spicy, but you insisted on showing off."
Sun Shaozong looked around speechlessly and saw that the table was filled with hot liquor and there was not even a cup of tea. He then told Zhao Nan to quickly slice a few more pieces of venison and press them down without the sauce.
Liu Xianglian waved his hands and said, "I just want to try it first. Everyone is not here yet, how can we really eat it?"
As he said this, he stroked his tongue several times with his upper teeth to remove most of the chili powder that was stained on it, and said "good job" twice.
As they were talking, Jia Baoyu, Xue Pan and Feng Ziying came into the backyard, talking and laughing.
Seeing that Liu Xianglian was already in the pavilion with some venison on his plate, Xue Pan half-truthfully complained, "Old Liu, you are being disloyal. It would have been fine if you had come quietly, but why did you eat first?"
"What's silent?"
Liu Xianglian didn't buy his tricks, he stood up and said with a dark smile: "I'm going to be the second brother's follower, right? At today's promotion banquet, I am at least half the host, what will it look like if I come late?"
As he spoke, he picked up a piece of venison with his knife and fork, rolled it in the chili powder a few times, and handed it to Xue Pan in a pretentious manner, saying, "Here, Brother Bao has ordered the whole venison feast. Let's taste it first."
This time the imperial court’s reward is urgent and the date is near.
On the first day of October, Sun Shaozong would officially take up his new post at the Dali Temple. With the free time of these few days, it was natural for him to gather his old acquaintances together for a meal.
Moreover, Qiu Yunfei had not had any news on Sun An's case for two days, so he took this opportunity to ask about the progress.
As for the whole deer banquet, it was Baoyu's suggestion - it was said that he roasted a piece of deer to eat yesterday, but was restrained by his family and did not enjoy it enough.
However, Liu Xianglian did not mention that he wanted to be his follower just now.
Sun Shaozong had indeed asked him to be his mentor, but he had refused in every possible way at that time. Now he took the initiative to bring it up in front of everyone...
It seems that Liu Xianglian has changed a lot after getting married.
But when Xue Pan saw him putting the venison to his mouth, he immediately sneered: "If you are being nice to me for no reason, you are either a traitor or a thief! Do you think I am stupid..."
Before he could finish his words, Liu Xianglian took advantage of his open mouth to stab the venison into his mouth, and then used some skill to pull out the dagger.
"How is it? Doesn't it taste good?"
"Pooh, pooh, pooh!"
Xue Pan hurriedly spat out the venison, complaining, "What...what...hiss~! Water, water, water, bring me some water!"
Seeing him jump three feet high with snot and tears streaming down his face, Liu Xianglian couldn't help but burst into laughter, and Feng Ziying on the side was overjoyed.
Only Jia Baoyu, who was a cousin after all, also laughed continuously, but hurriedly asked someone to bring tea for Xue Pan to rinse his mouth.
After finally cleaning up, Xue Pan stuck out his tongue and asked repeatedly: "What the hell is this? What the hell is this?! You almost killed me!"
"This thing is called chili pepper, which is similar to dogwood, but much spicier." Sun Shaozong said, "I found it in the south. I'm going to roast venison today, so I brought some for you to try."
After hearing this, Feng Ziying and Jia Baoyu also tried to taste it, but they were obviously not interested in the stimulating taste.
On the contrary, Xue Pan tasted some carefully and got used to the spicy taste. He ate it with great enjoyment, one piece left and one piece right.
"Look at what you have accomplished."
Liu Xianglian said disdainfully: "There are still people who haven't arrived yet, and you're still eating."
Xue Pan didn't mention it for a moment, and asked vaguely: "Who else?"
"Qiu Yunfei!"
Feng Ziying smiled and said, "Hasn't my second brother asked him to investigate the case these past two days? I heard that this kid has been jumping around and making trouble everywhere, but there is no accurate information coming out. I guess he has encountered a problem."
"You are well-informed."
Sun Shaozong pointed at him and smiled: "This Dragon Guard Captain is really no joke!"
Two years later, Feng Ziying was no longer the playboy who rode around all day long, but a captain of the Northern Pacification Division.
Qiu Yunfei probably played a stimulating role in this - the two used to fight whenever they met, but now Qiu Yunfei has become a sixth-rank judge, so how could Feng Ziying be willing to lag behind him?
Speaking of this Dragon Guard Captain, Feng Ziying said depressedly: "I was counting on my second brother's return so that I could benefit from it. Who would have thought that you would return but also resign from the Northern Pacification Office!"
The other people obviously didn't know about this, so they all hurried to ask Sun Shaozong for the truth.
Sun Shaozong spread his hands and said helplessly: "Don't you understand this? Now I am one of the Nine Ministers, and I am in charge of the courts and lawsuits. If I continue to bear the title of inspector of a thousand households, I am afraid that someone will write to impeach me every now and then."
Although everyone was not as insightful as him, they were all children of officials after all. After a little thought, they realized that Sun Shaozong did this to avoid suspicion.
Since nothing went wrong, everyone started to slack off again.
Xue Pan raised his wine glass and shouted, "Let's not talk about this official matter for now. How about we have a couple of drinks to warm our stomachs?"
But no one responded to him. Last time, he said he wanted to warm his stomach first, but he ended up drinking half the people at the table in one go.
Liu Xianglian couldn't help but said sarcastically, "With your father-in-law around, you don't have to worry about official matters. You don't go to the government office every day, but you were quietly transferred to the Ministry of War. Now you are a sixth-rank official, even better than Brother Feng."
"Come on, forget it, I'm just a name!"
Xue Pan curled his lips when he heard this: "Besides, my father-in-law may not be willing to help above the sixth rank. I guess it will be like this until he dies."
This was exactly what he thought. It was good enough to get a sixth-rank sinecure. Anything higher would either be a minor civil servant position or be responsible for some actual official duties.
Since he doesn't care about his job and has no achievements, he basically has no chance of advancement.
As Xue Pan said this, he started to urge others to drink again.
Liu Xianglian and Feng Ziying were willing to exchange a few words with him.
Jia Baoyu, who was deeply hurt that day, pretended not to hear anything. He came close to Sun Shaozong and said jokingly, "Second brother, we asked you guys to write poems yesterday. Guess who won the prize?"
Sun Shaozong had heard Xiangling talk about his family's poetry club several times. It was basically Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai who took turns, with Shi Xiangyun occasionally getting a chance to shine, but the others had very few chances to shine.
Taking into account the personalities and knowledge of the three people, Sun Shaozong casually guessed: "It is probably either your sister Lin or Miss Xiangyun from the Shi family."
The reason why I didn't guess Baochai is because she seems too stable on weekdays. When faced with such a question that requires passionate and infectious energy, she might be a little inferior.
"Ha ha!"
Listen to Jia Baoyu's proud smile: "Second brother guessed wrong this time. Although sister Xiangyun's poem is also very good, it is still inferior to Miss Baoqin. She can only be ranked second."
Xue Baoqin?
The graceful, yet charming and pretty figure of Xue Baoqin immediately emerged in Sun Shaozong's mind.
But I didn't expect that this little girl is also a talented woman.
"Look at how happy you are. If you don't know me, you might think you won a prize."
Sun Shaozong made a joke about Baoyu and was just about to hear how Xue Baoqin wrote the poem that won the first prize, when he suddenly saw a man striding towards him.
Just by looking at the round and plump figure, you can tell that the person coming is none other than the protagonist of this banquet - Qiu Yunfei.
