Volume 3: Dragon and Snake Movement Chapter 292: It is important for people to know themselves
After my future brother-in-law moved into a new house, he got a new cook, and she can actually make ordinary steamed buns so delicious!
This was the first feeling of the hungry Zhu Erlian after he ate four large steamed buns. Aunt Liu, whom Zhang Shou had brought from Rongshui Village, had good cooking skills and could make many tricks that he had never heard of before, but when it came to making dim sum, she was far inferior to the Zhu family. But the steamed bun he had just eaten was completely different!
It was clearly vegetable stuffing, but he had no idea how it was stuffed. At first, he just thought the first one was delicious, but he looked at and tasted the second, third, and fourth ones carefully. It was just ordinary green vegetables, mushrooms, spring bamboo shoots, and some black things that he couldn't tell what they were, so why did he feel so happy eating it that his eyebrows were about to fall off?
Although he is not tired of all the delicacies from land and sea, he has eaten a lot of good things!
Just as Zhu Er's eyes were rolling around, staring at the kind-looking woman in front of him, and he was even thinking about whether he should find a way to dig her back to the Zhu family - or go to his future brother-in-law's house to eat a few more meals in the future, he suddenly heard a loud voice: "Mr. Zhu Er, my young master invites you over!"
The person who spoke was Yang Hao. As the grandson of Master Yang, although he had only learned some Tang and Song poems and some basic arithmetic from Zhang Shou, and had not even mastered them well, Yang Hao still remembered his grandfather's words firmly. After arriving in the capital, he put away all the titles and only used the three words "young master".
At this moment, seeing Zhu Er waking up from a dream and actually bowing to that old lady Xu, he was so surprised that his jaw almost dropped. It was not because of the disparity in their status, but because he had moved in earlier and knew clearly how terrible that old lady Xu, who looked like the old lady next door, was... She actually made a plate of fried scorpions yesterday and ate it all up without paying attention to anyone around!
Yang Hao looked at the smiling Xu Po who was holding the plate and watching them leave with a fear. He wanted to ask Zhu Er what he had just eaten several times, but he swallowed the words back. When he brought Zhu Er to the door of Zhang Shou's study, he hesitated again and again, but finally whispered a few words of reminder.
"Second Master Zhu, that old lady Xu is a great soup cook. She is better than Aunt Liu in many cooking skills, but she... ahem, she can cook anything. She was showing off to Aunt Liu before, saying that she once skinned a snake alive and ate its meat raw, which scared Aunt Liu so much that she almost fainted."
It was not surprising to see snake meat in dishes. Zhu Er himself was a curious person and had tasted snake meat soup before. As long as he didn't see the spotted snake skin, he had no psychological trauma at all. However, when Yang Hao described how the cook, Mrs. Xu, actually ate raw snake meat, he couldn't help but get goose bumps all over his body.
"And..." Yang Hao paused, then hesitantly said, "Mrs. Xu said that she is very good at preparing a whole insect banquet. That is... the insect in the insect."
Zhu Er finally couldn't hold it in any longer. However, just as he was about to scratch his throat and spit out the steamed bun he had just eaten to see what the mess was, he heard Zhang Shou's laughter: "The whole insect banquet is good stuff. At least, silkworm pupae, locusts, and scorpions, after being fried in oil, are all quite delicious without any seasoning."
Zhang Shou came out from behind the curtain and saw Zhu Er's face was pale with fear. He immediately stepped forward with a smile and patted his shoulder. Then he said nonchalantly, "Don't worry. Although Aunt Xu likes these scary foods, she is also very good at making real soups and dim sum. She and Aunt Liu have their own merits. I heard from Ah Liu that you had vegetable steamed buns there before? That's her specialty."
"That was a skill she had once used to make on the outer city's vegetable market, where she could sell hundreds of them a day. She definitely didn't add any scary seasonings. She only made insects, a special delicacy, for those who could appreciate them. Otherwise, wouldn't that be a waste of food?"
After hearing this, Zhu Er finally came to his senses. He turned around and was about to glare at Yang Hao, but he saw the young man lower his head in embarrassment, muttering in a low voice, "I saw it all with my own eyes." He couldn't pursue the matter any further, so he could only follow Zhang Shou into the house in dismay.
Immediately afterwards, he saw Zhang Shou making a gesture to Ah Liu in the room, and then Ah Liu retreated silently.
Sensing that something was wrong, he couldn't help but ask tentatively: "What happened?"
"It's not like anything went wrong, but Liu got something unexpected this time when he went out."
Zhang Shou reorganized his sentences and repeated the first thing Ah Liu had said to Zhu Er. As soon as he finished speaking, he noticed that Zhu Er immediately frowned, and then he said with contempt and disdain: "The first time a dignified prince went out, he couldn't control the government and the nobles, and he colluded with these guys to cheat the common people. He has brought shame to the descendants of Taizu!"
"So, I hope you can go to Cangzhou." Zhang Shou looked at Zhu Er and said something shocking.
"Me?" Zhu Er pointed at his nose in surprise. Seeing Zhang Shou nodded confidently, he was pleasantly surprised at first, but then immediately became depressed. He even avoided Zhang Shou's sight involuntarily. "I am not your elder brother who is both civil and military. Apart from a seventh-rank hereditary position of Honor Guard, which was given to me by your elder brother, I don't have any official position."
Although he felt that Zhang Shou would not betray him, Zhu Er was not like Lu Sanlang and Zhang Chen who always thought highly of themselves. After experiencing the farce that he had to deal with after his father and brother got into trouble, he honestly did not have much confidence in himself, otherwise he would not have felt that the character of a good farmer was suitable for him. Therefore, he simply said bluntly: "Of course, even if I have an official position, I can't deal with the eldest prince."
"I don't have that ability." When Zhu Er said these words, he looked a little dejected, but also a little calm.
Looking at this future second brother-in-law who always behaved truthfully, Zhang Shou suddenly laughed. The reason why he directly brought up the matter of the eldest prince was that he wanted to see Zhu Er's true nature, that is, where he sat, and then explore Zhu Er's self-awareness. The conclusion he finally came to was not beyond his expectations, and was even better.
"Don't worry, I'm not asking you to go to Cangzhou and confront the eldest prince. In Xingtai, Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu are in the open, while Zhang Chen is in the dark. These three people are just competing with the government, local nobles, and a group of spinners whose attitudes may change at any time. They can't even be said to have the upper hand. Not to mention you, even your eldest brother can't go to Cangzhou alone to deal with the eldest prince."
"Even in war, you need a huge army to capture the generals and flags. Going alone to a strange place to pick a fight is not like a strong dragon not conquering a local snake, but like a dragon swimming in shallow water being bullied by shrimps."
Zhu Er had always believed that Zhang Chen was really injured in a horse fall and was recuperating at home, and he had even laughed at his luck. But now that he heard that he had actually gone to Xingtai with Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu, after his initial shock, he suddenly felt a deeper sense of self-abandonment.
Those three Zhangs whom he looked down upon are now able to do real work and are so patient!
However, Zhang Shou said that even if his elder brother Zhu Tingfang went to Cangzhou, it would be difficult to find a solution. This statement made him feel a little more comfortable.
Before Zhu Er could come up with his own ideas, Zhang Shou said calmly, "As for the eldest prince, the emperor and father will take care of it. If I want to take care of it, I will take care of the situation in Xingtai. After all, Zhang Chen, Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu are there. What I want you to do in Cangzhou is actually another matter."
Huh? Zhu Er finally perked up a bit. Of course, he also hoped that he could stand up to the eldest prince like Lu Sanpang who stood up to the second prince in the street last year, and from now on he could make his father and brothers look at him with new eyes and live a proud life. However, when he put himself in the situation of the fat guy at that time, he finally felt that he did not have the courage and eloquence.
So, he immediately felt relieved and asked shamelessly: "Brother-in-law, what do you want me to do?"
"In fact, when I was in the Cuiyun Room where Teacher Ge lived, I found more than just the few mathematics books he left behind."
Although he intended to reveal a little to Zhu Er, Zhang Shou was very clear about the measure he should take, so he did not hesitate to continue to put the blame on the bamboo house.
Seeing Zhu Er 's immediate interest, he said calmly, "It seems that someone else lived in that bamboo house later, so I found a notebook inside, which is said to be left by Taizu's servants."
"The notes say that Taizu once dreamed of the Emperor of Heaven and saw a map of the world. Later, he ordered the Military Equipment Bureau to make a spherical instrument, and realized how big the world was outside the Ming Dynasty. However, Taizu dreamed that the Ming Dynasty went east, across the endless ocean, and saw a vast continent with rich and fertile products. There were sour tomatoes, crispy peanuts, spicy peppers, crispy and sweet corn, and soft and glutinous potatoes..."
"There is also cotton that is better quality and has a higher yield than today's cotton seeds, there is rubber that can flow out from the tree with just a slight cut, there is coffee and cocoa that can be ground into powder and mixed with water as a refreshing drink after being picked, dried and roasted..."
Zhang Shou made up a bunch of nonsense without any hesitation . Seeing that Zhu Er almost popped his eyes out, he said earnestly: "I advised you to collect seeds before so that people would think you are good at farming. This is also the reason. Nowadays, many products are not unique to the Ming Dynasty, but have been gradually introduced from other places over the long years. For example, watermelons, grapes, and cotton from the Western Regions..."
At this moment, Zhu Er suddenly remembered what Ah Liu had said to him before, and blurted out, "Ah Liu said before that he had heard you, brother-in-law, recite a limerick!"
"I would rather eat without meat than live without bamboo. I would rather live without bamboo than without peanuts. I would rather live without peanuts than without tomatoes. I would rather live without tomatoes than without corn. I would rather live without corn than without potatoes. I would rather live without potatoes than without lobsters. I would rather live without lobsters than without peppers... At that time, I thought that I had never heard of these except meat and bamboo. It turns out that they are from the continent east of the sea!"
If you have heard of it, it would be strange! I didn't expect Ah Liu to say this to Zhu Er... Maybe it was because when he ate the food in Cangzhou, the boy was really shocked, and he didn't treat you as an outsider...
Zhang Shou thought so in his heart, and said calmly: "This time when Ah Liu went to Cangzhou, he was strolling in the market and accidentally found a Haishang store selling ketchup and fried peanuts. Although I don't know whether the things sold in this store are really produced overseas or are available now, I really want to check it out."
He emphasized these two things, and seeing Zhu Er's immediate look of shock, he smiled and said, "Although it's possible that they just have the same name, but Ah Liu said that the ketchup is very sour, and the fried peanuts are crispy and delicious. He has tasted them himself, but in order to avoid alerting the enemy, he just bought some and left, and then rushed back to Beijing. This matter is not a big deal, but it's not a small deal either..."
Before he could finish his words, Zhu Er shouted in a decisive tone, "Brother-in-law, stop talking. I'm going!"
Zhu Er took a deep breath, clenched his fist and pounded the bookshelf next to him, his expression actually looked a little solemn: "To be honest, we, the sons of meritorious officials, have grown up listening to stories about Emperor Taizu. Not to mention that it is very likely to be true, even if it is false, I will go and find out. The people don't know, but don't I? Emperor Taizu disappeared after he went to sea!"
He paused for a moment, then abruptly changed the subject, "Besides, the excuse of looking for seeds is also ready-made!"
"To be honest, although I have been attending classes seriously in the past few months, and the content of your lectures is not too difficult, I am not sure if I can get into the first class of the branch hall. In this case, I might as well leave a letter to my father and grandmother, saying that I am not interested in a career in politics and have run away from home... After all, the excuse of falling off a horse was used by that kid Zhang Chen, and I can't just pretend to be sick, right?"
Zhang Shou didn't expect that Zhu Er would actually plan to "run away from home". Even if this was just an excuse on the surface, it was much more serious than Zhang Chen's "fall off a horse".
What's more, Zhang Chen's father, Duke Qin Zhang Chuan, didn't care about him at all. He let him do whatever he wanted, gave him people and money. It's better to say that he indulged him than to say that he didn't care. But Zhu Er was different. With such a father and brother and such a shrewd grandmother, if he ran away from home with an excuse and didn't get any results, he would be taken home and beaten with a family discipline and his legs would be broken!
Thinking of this, he had to make it clear: "This is of course what Ah Liu found out personally, but if there is a discrepancy, or if you rush to Cangzhou and find that no one is there, then this trip will not only be in vain, but if you really miss the Banshan Hall's branch exam, then you may be said to be a deserter who retreated due to fear of difficulties, and even the Zhu family will be swept away. Have you considered the consequences clearly?"
Zhu Er's face turned pale, and then he said nonchalantly, "How do you know if you don't try? Just try your luck!"
He stopped smiling and looked at Zhang Shou seriously. "Brother-in-law, you don't understand the status of the four words Emperor Taizu in the hearts of us, the children of meritorious officials. When we were young, we were all imagining whether Emperor Taizu had expanded his territory in other places after sailing across the ocean, and whether he was still alive... After all, everyone said that he was a wise man who came to earth."
"Don't mention me. If you tell Zhang Chen and the others, they might even drop whatever they are doing to verify it! Being laughed at and beaten up is nothing compared to the risk of finding out the whereabouts of Emperor Taizu. I'm so grateful that you thought of me, brother-in-law!"
At this moment, Zhang Shou couldn't help thinking that the Taizu was really a deified person. After so many years of founding the country, he still had so many fans... well, fans! But at this moment, he heard a soft cry from outside the door.
