After seeing off Su Peisheng, Ji Ling and Qixi returned to the courtyard. They saw the four people still standing there with hands unarmed, not daring to raise their heads to look more, but lowering their eyebrows and eyes, waiting to be ordered.
Ji Ling walked past them, smiled slightly, and said: "You don't have to be nervous. From now on, as long as you stick to your duties, do your errands well, and don't have any thoughts that you shouldn't have, these days in the east courtyard
It’s still very enjoyable.”
After she finished speaking, she made a gesture to Qixi. Qixi understood and went into the house. After a while, she came out with four small purses.
Ji Ling took the purse, weighed it in his hands, returned it to Qixi, and said softly: "Today is the first time you have come to my east courtyard. This is my reward for meeting you all."
After she finished speaking, she nodded to Qixi, who understood, then stepped forward and handed the four purses to the four handy eunuchs one by one.
Although those four people were from the imperial kitchen, they were just low-status eunuchs after all.
In the past, if something went wrong in the dining room, the responsibility would often be passed on to these handymen, but if there was a reward, it would never be half of it.
At this time, the four of them were very happy to receive the first reward. They looked at each other, knelt down and kowtowed to Ji Ling and said, "I thank you, Master Ji, for your reward!".
Ji Ling glanced at Xiao Dazi and said: "Xiao Dazi, you take them to resettle them. There are still a few empty houses along the south side. You choose a more spacious one for them to live in."
.”.
She thought for a while, then turned around and said, "Wait a minute! Xiao Fenzi, you better go, Xiao Dazi has to prepare dinner for the evening." After saying that, she turned around and took Qixi to the house.
After hearing this, Xiao Fenzi knew that her master was afraid that Xiao Dazi would be too honest and not considerate enough, so he asked her to take the newcomer to the place.
He waved his hand to the four handy eunuchs, raised his neck and said: "You guys, follow me!".
Those people followed Xiao Fenzi with their packages on their backs and entered the corner room. They saw that the room was spacious and bright, with beds and tables in sequence from east to west. It was better than the imperial dining room outside, which was prepared for the eunuchs.
The living room is better!
The four people looked at each other and were very surprised. One of them bent down and clasped his fists and said, "Brother Laufen!".
Xiao Fenzi chuckled, raised her hand and patted one of the birch bed boards, and said: "I don't dare to call you 'brother'. The brothers are all people who came to the imperial dining room and are considered to be people in front of the imperial family. From now on, we will treat each other with each other."
Just take care of it!”.
The man smiled and said: "Where, where! We still need to rely on Brother Fen for more guidance!".
Xiao Fenzi cupped her hands and said: "I won't delay you to clean up." He raised his legs and strode out of the house. After walking a few steps, he happened to see Bixue walking under the eaves. When he saw Xiao Fenzi coming out, he stopped.
Footsteps asked: "Is everything arranged?".
Xiao Fenzi pointed back at the room and said: "I think this one is quite big. It's far away from you and Sister Qixi, and there's a utility room in the middle."
Bixue stretched out her head to look at it, nodded and said: "Yes, the master should be satisfied with the placement here." She thought for a while and then said: "It would be better to ask the master to take a look at it later."
Xiao Fenzi nodded and said: "Of course I know this, don't worry." After he finished speaking, he saw something unknown on Bi Xue's temples, so he said: "Don't move."
As expected, Bixue stood there obediently and didn't move. Xiaofenzi reached out and helped her pick it up. When she saw it was a dry firewood branch, she lowered her head and said softly to Bixue: "Okay."
…
Su Peisheng was right. On this day, before it was time to turn on the lanterns, Yin had already arrived.
Ji Ling had changed her clothes early. Fortunately, she was reminded by Su Peisheng. At this time, she calmly greeted Yin and greeted Yin happily: "I send my greetings to the emperor. May the emperor be blessed!"
Yin came from Yangxin Hall and was almost dying of heat all the way.
They hadn't seen each other for a while, and he was really thinking about her. He didn't say anything at this time, and just stretched out his hand to pull her towards the house.
Ji Ling followed obediently.
The main room on the east side of the courtyard faces east to west. When we got inside, the setting sun happened to hit from the west, illuminating the whole room with warmth. Even if the doors and windows were closed, the heat could not escape.
Yin took a closer look at Ji Ling and saw that although she was fully dressed, her forehead was covered with fine beads of sweat, and a few large ones had rolled down her cheeks and fallen into her collar.
He felt very distressed, so he turned around and told Su Peisheng: "Ask the Ministry of Internal Affairs to send ice buckets to Jingyang Palace immediately."
Ice buckets are the magic weapon of this era. They are large ice buckets made of wood. Tin foil is stuck inside, and the outer wall of the ice bucket is wrapped with copper sheets. After putting ice cubes in the bucket and adding a lid, it can continue to cool for a day.
As for the ice, it comes from the ice cellar in the Forbidden City.
Every year during the cold winter of March 9th, the Ministry of Internal Affairs would bring ice from the Yuhe River, cut it into ice cubes according to a certain size, and store them in ice cellars. In the summer, they would be given to the emperor and the concubines of the East and West Palaces to enjoy.
It can be used to chill food and make cool drinks in summer.
Yin paused and asked Su Peisheng casually: "Is it time to serve the ice bucket?".
Su Peisheng quickly replied without thinking: "Back to the emperor, if we compare with last year, five days have passed."
After hearing this, Yin asked curiously: "It's been five days? Why hasn't the Sixth Palace used ice yet?"
It has been almost half a month since I used ice in Yangxin Hall.
Su Peisheng thought about the words for a while, and then said calmly: "I heard that it was the Queen's wish, and asked the people in the ice cellar of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to delay delivering the ice buckets needed by each palace to the concubines for half a month."
Yin frowned slightly and said: "Delay for half a month? Why does the queen do this?"
Su Peisheng laughed and said, "I don't know too much about this. I heard from the servants in Kunning Palace that it's probably because the Queen feels that ice buckets are a waste of money and manpower is a pity, so she might want to be more frugal..."
Yin said: "There is no such way to be frugal."
Su Peisheng looked at his face, smiled cautiously and said, "I'll do it right now."
Yin nodded and said: "First of all, go to the Yangxin Hall to bring a few over for the good people to use."
Su Peisheng agreed repeatedly and went.
There is a dish of steamed seabass in the dinner. The fish has been marinated in Babao sauce in advance and evenly chopped. Green onions are sprinkled on the belly of the fish. When it is poured with hot oil, the aroma of green onions overflows.
According to Ji Ling's request, Xiao Dazi also added Sichuan peppercorns to it, and the white and tender fish meat was soaked in the soup, making it taste delicate, spicy and spicy.
Ji Ling finished half of the fish in a blink of an eye, and asked Qixi to help her soak the rice in fish soup and mix it with chopsticks.
In fact, she didn't really like eating fish before she traveled through time because it always smelled fishy.
But the fish cooked by Xiao Dazi had no flavor at all.
Ji Ling originally thought that it was because there was no water pollution in this era, so the fish and meat were delicious.
But later she ate fish from the dining room of Changchun Palace and vaguely tasted a fishy smell, and then she realized that it was Xiao Dazi who was really good at his craftsmanship.
Yin was not in a hurry at first, eating slowly and leisurely, but then he looked up and saw how delicious Ji Ling was eating, so he stopped.