"Get up." Ye Zhen said softly, looking at the little girl, "Which one of you is the cook here?"
The woman stood up tremblingly, "Your Majesty, this servant is the cook here."
"I just heard you swearing when I was outside..." Ye Zhen stared at her calmly, "What's going on?"
When the little girl heard Ye Zhen's question, she pursed her lips tightly, her eyes showing fear.
"Back to your mother, the servant is scolding this dead girl. She only knows how to be lazy all day long, so she can't do without scolding." The woman replied cautiously.
"I didn't!" the little girl gritted her teeth.
The woman gave her a hard look, "I asked you to clean the garden path, have you cleaned it?"
"I'm washing vegetables." The little girl said, and gave Ye Zhen a timid look.
"This kitchen is your mother's business, why doesn't she come? A young woman can't do heavy work, can she?" the woman scolded.
The little girl lowered her head, "That's my mother's illness."
The woman scolded the little girl a few words, and then suddenly remembered that the empress was still in front of her, and immediately bent down, "Madam, this servant is just scolding this little girl, she and her mother are both new here, and they are not sensible yet."
Ye Zhen saw that the woman was still protecting the little girl's mother and daughter in her words, so she changed her opinion a bit. It seems that calling the little girl's family members traitors was just behind her back.
"Since you are the cook here, then I have something to tell you." Ye Zhen thought that since the woman has a knife mouth and a bean curd heart, she shouldn't really hurt the little girl, but why did she call the little girl a traitor? thief
"Yes." The woman hastily bowed her head and saluted.
Ye Zhen glanced at the little girl, "You also come in and fight."
She wants to cook some dishes for Murong Zhan, probably because she knows that the emperor has returned and there are plenty of dishes in the kitchen, so Ye Zhen asks the cook to bring yam and big bones, and is going to make a golden soup of yam pork ribs for Murong Zhan , can invigorate the spleen and stomach, add a little Cordyceps flower, the soup is sweet and moist, and the color is golden and attractive.
"Make another Sixi meatball, here are lotus seeds, then make another steamed black-bone chicken with lotus seeds, mung beans and glutinous rice, and then a stir-fried oyster mushroom..." Ye Zhen looked at the ingredients in the kitchen, and ordered the cook and Hongying to prepare stand up.
In fact, these dishes are not difficult to make, but it takes some thought. Ye Zhen added Lingquan to each dish, so that the taste is more fragrant.
"Your Majesty, these are the slaves who have never done it before. I'm afraid it will take some effort." Xiazhou is different from Kyoto. Insipid, although the cook knows how to do it, she has never done it, so she needs to put some thought into it.
Ye Zhen smiled and said, "It's okay, I will tell you what to do."
The cook was surprised, thinking that the empress was pampered in the palace, how did she know how to do these things
"Let's do it." Ye Zhen said lightly. She did not know how to cook before, or was too boring when she was in Prince Qin's Mansion. She also thought that she could cook for Murong Zhan herself when she came back in the future, and specially invited A cook from the palace taught her.
Hong Ying and Jian Jia were helping together, Ye Zhen was watching her from the side, she was watching the little girl more often, she was more sure of her previous guess, the little girl should have never touched the sun at home before, but She is very smart, she can explain many things she doesn't understand, and she can draw inferences from one instance. She is really a clever little girl.
"Your Majesty." Eunuch Fu ran over panting, and couldn't help shouting in his heart, thank God, he finally found Empress Empress, "The Emperor asked the slaves to come to you."
Seeing that the cook had almost done the work, Ye Zhen said to Eunuch Fu, "Has the emperor read the memorial yet?"
"Go back to your mother, the emperor is talking to the sixth prince, I haven't seen you for a long time, so I'm a little worried." Eunuch Fu said with a smile.
"My palace is almost there, is the sixth prince still gone?" Ye Zhen asked.
Eunuch Fu said, "Yes."
"The Sixth Prince should have stayed here for lunch." Ye Zhen said, leaving Hongying to stay in the kitchen, and she went back first with Jian Jia.
After leaving the kitchen, Ye Zhen thought of the little girl, "What is the origin of the little girl in the kitchen? Jian Jia, you go and find out today."
Jian Jia promised in a low voice, presumably the empress was curious about the phrase treason.
Back in the courtyard of the upper room, Murong Zhan was still talking to Murong Ke in the study, but Ye Zhen knocked on the door and entered, and they stopped talking.
"Why did you come back?" Mo Rongzhan got up and held Ye Zhen's hand, seeing that she was still sweating, he couldn't help frowning, "Tired?"
"You won't be tired if you just walk a few steps." Ye Zhen said with a smile, "I asked the kitchen to cook a few dishes. Are you and the sixth prince eating in the study?"
Mo Rongzhan wiped the sweat off her forehead, "I'm having dinner with A Ke in the study, you go back and change your clothes first."
She is the most clean, and she must not be able to bear the sweat on her body.
"Okay." Ye Zhen smiled sweetly at him.
Murong Ke lowered his eyes and didn't look at them, but had a slight smile on his face.
Ye Zhen returned to the house and told Jian Jia to go to the kitchen to explain, to deliver lunch to the emperor and the sixth prince first, and then make another portion for her.
Jian Jia quickly went to tell her, and by the way, she also asked about the little girl's life experience.
The little girl's name is Lin Zhiran. Her mother Cao was the wife of a lieutenant general in Xiazhou. Her husband was killed on the battlefield. Xiazhou fell, and all the Beiming soldiers who stayed in Xiazhou fled back. She and her daughter were left behind. , because the Cao family was the first Jin people who attached themselves to the Beiming Kingdom, so they were stared at by others. If the cook hadn't taken them in the handsome mansion, their mother and daughter would have nowhere to go.
"I heard that Mrs. Cao has been ill for a few days and is recuperating in the back room where the servant lives, so she didn't help in the kitchen." Jian Jia said in a low voice.
"So, this Lin Zhiran is still an official lady." Ye Zhen nodded lightly, "Cao's husband is from Beiming Kingdom?"
"No, it belongs to Jin Kingdom. The Cao family was ransacked and exiled. Their mother and daughter have nothing to rely on, so they are bullied outside." Jian Jia said in a low voice.
Ye Zhen nodded slightly, "Have someone find a doctor for Mrs. Cao, that little girl is very attractive to me."
"Yes, empress." Jian Jia responded, but was a little puzzled, "Empress, do you want Lin Zhiran to serve by your side?"
"No." Ye Zhen smiled, "I don't know why, but I just like that little girl's eyes."
"That's the blessing of this little girl." Jian Jia said with a smile, there are a few in this world who can make the empress feel like it at a glance.
Ye Zhen smiled faintly, she was very concerned about Lin Zhiran, and it was also because of another matter, when divination, the divination mentioned that she would meet a nobleman in Xiazhou.
What is a nobleman? Ye Zhen couldn't tell the difference, but she felt that meeting Lin Zhiran, who had a good eye, might be helpful to her.