Ji Yuan, who was boiling water, looked up at the distance on the road. He didn't care at first, but after thinking about it, he counted with his fingers. After frowning slightly, Ji Yuan waved his sleeves and swept out all the dirt in the water tank next to him. Then he pointed into the water tank, and immediately the water vapor condensed. The water in the water tank appeared from nothing, and then the water level slowly rose to two-thirds of the position before stopping.
At this time, the Xiezhi scroll was hanging on the wooden pillar next to the stove. The picture was motionless, but it felt as if its eyes were staring at the pot. Seeing Ji Yuan filling the water tank with water, Xiezhi also laughed.
"You have a good heart, but you are not the owner of this tea shed."
"I didn't say I would entertain them."
Ji Yuan had something on his mind. He glanced towards the end of the road twice and replied casually. He began to organize his tea set. He put tea leaves in the kettle, added some honey, and then poured the boiling spring water into the teapot, not too much, not too little, just enough for a whole pot. Before a faint tea fragrance could overflow, Ji Yuan covered the pot with the teapot lid.
The Xiezhi on the scroll looked at the teapot in Ji Yuan's hand and suddenly murmured.
"The world is as vast as the sleeves, and the sun and moon are as long as the pot..."
This sentence was the outline of the world in Ji Yuanyan's sleeve. Of course, he knew it, so he glanced at Xiezhi and asked with some pride.
"How is it, does the world in my sleeves catch the eye of you, Xiezhi?"
"Well, it's quite impressive."
Xiezhi's answer was a high affirmation of his master's ideas. Ji Yuan gladly accepted it and poured a cup of tea to Xiezhi. Xiezhi stretched out a claw with a wisp of smoky magic from the scroll, grabbed the cup, and then moved it to his mouth to take a sip.
"Not bad, it tastes good... The pot is empty, should we make the braised fish?"
Xiezhi reminded him, and seeing that Ji Yuan was so anxious, he didn't delay any longer. He pointed the teacup with a sip of tea in it and started to prepare.
Two big fish wrapped in a layer of water vapor were thrown out from Ji Yuan's sleeves. When they were suspended above the stove, the two fish were not dead yet. They were still jumping around and shaking their heads and tails.
"The fish head is stewed in soup, and the fish body is braised. Is that okay?"
"No problem, no problem, you decide. They will definitely taste good, hehe!"
Xiezhi had seen Ji Yuan cooking before, but he was too embarrassed to do it before. Now that he had become much more familiar with Ji Yuan, he was able to put up with the shame. All he could do was look forward to it. Moreover, the dishes specially prepared by an immortal like Ji Yuan with such ingenuity had elevated the level of the dishes themselves.
These two fish did not require complicated processing. Ji Yuan just cleared away the trace of foul air on them, and then gently tapped the heads of the two lively fish with the blade of the knife, instantly knocking the two fish unconscious. Then he cut the two fish apart with a sharp knife, but there was no blood at all.
This is not an ordinary fish, so Ji Yuan does not need to fry the fish head first. He can just throw it into the water, put in some ingredients, cover the pot and stew it. The key is that he uses magic to hold the shape of the fish and keep the fish fresh, otherwise it will just be a pot of water when cooked.
Then he began to process the remaining fish body. Cooking is also a good way to relax and entertain. Ji Yuan actually enjoyed this process very much. He did the cutting and sorting meticulously. When he finished processing the fish pieces, the carriages and horses in the distance were getting closer to the tea stall.
At the carriage and horse team, the horsemen were somewhat disappointed when they saw that it was a tea stall.
"Hey, it's a tea shed, not a village at all."
"It's better than nothing."
The people in the team were talking to each other, and the leading rider approached the carriage again and told the people inside the news. Then a man opened the window of the carriage and leaned out to look. He was obviously a little disappointed, but he still said something calmly.
"Come over there and take a rest there."
"yes!"
The lead rider quickly returned to the front and led the convoy to a tea stall on the roadside not far away. At the same time, many people were also observing the tea stall carefully.
This teahouse doesn't look big, but it has eight tables, three of which are large tables for eight people. Considering the conditions in this ghost place, it is quite good.
When they arrived at the tea stall, everyone dismounted from their horses and got off their carriages. The servants placed stools next to the carriages to allow the people inside to get off slowly. As there were too many horses, the small stable behind the tea stall could not accommodate them all, so the horses and carriages were gathered on the side of the road and guarded by someone.
Ji Yuan was busy at the stove, and it seemed that he didn't even look at these people, but in fact he took a rough look. Even if he didn't look at the aura, the faces of those people in the two carriages were equivalent to the words "high-ranking officials" written on them, but there was a strange and gloomy aura around them.
"Hey, shop owner, why don't you two come over to say hello?"
As if finally realizing that they were being ignored, after the people in the carriage sat down at the table outside the tea stall, the leading guard shouted towards the stove.
The reason why he asked two people was because Xiezhi, at this moment, was also under the illusion of Ji Yuan, and there was a human outline, but the face was an unfolded picture. However, others could not see through it, and they just thought that there were already two people in the tea shed.
In fact, these guards had already seen Ji Yuan and Xiezhi, but they were a little wary of them. After all, both of them were wearing elegant clothes and did not look like people who worked in a tea stall.
"Hey, shopkeeper over there, I'm talking to you, are you deaf?"
A guard approached the stove and looked inside warily. The first thing he noticed was the kitchen knife in Ji Yuan's hand. There was also a guard approaching from another direction. The two of them took a quick look and found no other weapons.
Xiezhi naturally didn't say anything. He just leaned against the pillar beside the stove and was too lazy to move. Ji Yuan looked up at them and shook his head.
"I'm not deaf, but you called the store owner, and I'm not the store owner. I just borrowed the stove to cook a meal."
"Not a store owner?"
The leading guard looked Ji Yuan up and down, and found that this dress was indeed convincing.
"Where did the store go?"
Ji Yuan shook his head. The shop owner was a cultivator with great attainments, so it was hard to predict where he had gone.
"When I arrived, there was no one in the teahouse, and I don't know where the owner has gone."
The leading guard put his hand on the hilt of the knife, his eyes moving back and forth between Ji Yuan and Xiezhi, especially Xiezhi who didn't say a word.
"Then the store owner must have been dealt with by you, right?"
Ji Yuan ignored it completely. Although he knew that the other party's vigilance was a good thing, he still muttered something.
"Persecution mania."
Then Ji Yuan put down the kitchen knife, poured the rapeseed oil that had been prepared on the stove into the hot pan, and then poured all the fish pieces on the chopping board into the pot.
“Sizzle…”
Suddenly, a fragrance of oil wafted away along with the sound, and the eyes of the Xiezhi opened suddenly, looking at the pot intently.
The leader looked unhappy when he saw Ji Yuan and Xie Zhi ignoring him. He was about to speak angrily when a voice came from behind him.
"Okay, no need to be rude."
A middle-aged man who looked like a scholar stood up from the table at the back and bowed slightly in the direction of Ji Yuan.
"It was the servant who was rude. Please forgive me, gentlemen."
Xiezhi still didn't react, but Ji Yuan nodded, returned the salute and pointed to his side.
"There is clean water in this water tank, and there is some tea in the cabinet next to the stove. The tea sets are all ready, but the snacks are all gone, and there is no rice either. You can help yourself. Um, wait for me to cook this pot of fish first."
After saying this, Ji Yuan concentrated on stir-frying the fish in the pot with a spatula. There was soy sauce in a small bowl beside him. Ji Yuan poured some honey from the honey jar and poured it into the pot together with the soy sauce. He also poured some wine from a thousand-dou pot. The aroma mixed with a hint of burnt brown filled the entire tea shed, and even the rich people sitting outside secretly swallowed their saliva.
"Sir, how about we buy this pot of food?"
The leading guard couldn't help but ask, as to whether it was poisonous or not, they would naturally carefully identify it.
"I'm sorry, I won't sell this fish for any amount of money."
This time, Xiezhi finally spoke, and he spoke before Ji Yuan. His deep and hoarse voice made people subconsciously alert.
"You won't sell it for ten taels of silver?"
"I won't sell it even for ten taels of gold. I'm not that short of money."
Ji Yuan glanced at Xiezhi, then looked at the leading guard and the several wealthy people who seemed quite expectant, shook his head and continued cooking.
Ji Yuan originally wanted to say that he was not short of money, but considering the actual situation, he lowered his voice. His hands kept moving and he covered the pot with the lid. All of a sudden all the aroma was sealed in. Then the flame in the furnace jumped violently, burning much more fiercely than normal firewood.
Hearing that Ji Yuan was not moved by gold and silver, Xiezhi breathed a sigh of relief for some reason, while Ji Yuan's eyebrows jumped. It turned out that Xiezhi thought he was a money-grubber
"So you're occupying two stoves. When will they be used up?"
The guard's tone was rather serious. Ji Yuan glanced at the stove and replied, "It will take another twenty breaths."
As a result, only twenty breaths later, Ji Yuan took out bowls and basins from the cupboard next to the stove, and then opened the two pot lids at the same time.
In that instant, a strange fragrance filled the entire tea shed, intoxicating those who smelled it. However, the fragrance lasted for two breaths and then quickly weakened. Although it was still very tempting, it was not enough to make people unable to stop.
"It's finally done, it's finally done, hehe, bring it to the table, bring it to the table!"
Xiezhi couldn't wait to bring the fish head soup to the table, while Ji Yuan brought a large basin of fish meat. The basin was actually a washbasin, full of braised fish meat.
"So much... they can't finish it..."
"Yeah, gu..."
Ji Yuan took a clean teacup, poured a cup of tea, and then walked towards the man who looked like a Confucian scholar, but was stopped by the guards, so he handed the tea to the guards.
"This tea is Ji's treat for you. As for the fish, it may seem like a lot, but it's actually not good enough to eat. If I give you some, someone will be unhappy. This fish is not a fish, so it can't be sold lightly. Your worries are not human affairs, so they can't be treated lightly."
"snort!"
Xiezhi snorted coldly.
"Ji Yuan, why are you talking so much to a bunch of ordinary people? Come and eat the fish, or I will eat it all myself!"
"coming."
Ji Yuan left and sat down over there, but Xiezhi's words shocked the Confucian scholar.
'Are these two some kind of hermit masters? Or are they not ordinary people at all? What you are asking for is beyond human control...'
On the other side, Ji Yuan, who was chewing the fish with chopsticks, felt a growing sense of uneasiness in his heart. His blurry eyes would occasionally glance at the Confucian scholar over there, but the other party was just a mortal.
... ...
PS: It seems that the monthly tickets are doubled now, so I beg for the next monthly ticket...