"I didn't ask you to donate all your wealth. I just don't want you to be known as rich but unkind. It's a bit extravagant and wasteful for the five of us to eat such a large table of delicacies..."
The evil woman is like a man who lacks confidence and her momentum is also weak. If she was in fighting chicken mode at the beginning, now she is in quail mode.
Before Li Shu could say anything, the maids in the room could no longer bear to listen and could not help but respond.
"Miss Ruonan, I advise you to go see the doctor. What kind of look is that... what kind of rich but unkind? This has nothing to do with our young lady and her husband. Our young lady and her husband are living Bodhisattvas and great benefactors."
"There are more than a hundred maids, old women, and servants in the front yard in our house, all of whom are supported by the young lady and her husband. Moreover, our monthly salary is more than twice that of the noble families in the capital."
"Our various businesses support hundreds of shopkeepers and clerks, and their salaries are more than half higher than those of other shops. They indirectly support thousands of employees, allowing their families to have no worries about food and drink and live an enviable and prosperous life."
"Also, my daughter has opened many pharmacies called 'Common People's Pharmacy' in many places, providing free consultations and free medicines to poor people who cannot afford medical treatment. I don't know how many people benefit from it every year, and countless lives have been saved."
"My son-in-law has been an official for many years, benefiting the people, saving people from floods and fighting Japanese pirates. I don't know how many millions of people have benefited from him."
... ...
"The common people's pharmacy is opened by the young lady?" The seductive girl Ruonan couldn't help but be surprised when she heard what the maids said.
There was a pharmacy for the people in Jingnan at the beginning. Although it had only been open for a short time, it was very famous because it provided free consultations and free medicines to people who could not afford medical treatment. It saved many poor people and was a famous charity in Jingnan.
There is also a pharmacy for the common people in Yingtian.
A few days ago, she also discovered that a new pharmacy had opened in Taohua Town, which also provided free consultations to ordinary people who could not afford medical treatment.
It turned out to be opened by Li Shu...
"Also, is this table of food a waste? Haha, if Miss Ruonan had been to other officials and wealthy families, she would know how frugal my young lady and her husband are."
"That's right, you are ignorant. If you have seen the lives of other officials and wealthy families, you would not say that. You should never tire of fine food and delicate meat. That is the most basic thing. Not to mention things like eggplant fish, stuffed bean sprouts, and boiled white cabbage. Any meal is many times more sumptuous than this. Not to mention, this is the reunion dinner for my young lady and her husband."
"These dishes are ordinary meals, and they cost only a few taels of silver in total. My uncle is a fourth-rank official with a monthly salary of 20 shi; my young lady is good at business, and her farms, shops and other businesses make more than 1,000 taels of silver every month; this does not include the dividends that our master gives to the young lady from time to time every year. Given the conditions of my young lady and uncle, it is normal for them to have a feast of gold and jade for every meal. If other families knew that we had such a meal at the reunion banquet, I don't know how they would laugh at my uncle and young lady for being stingy."
"If my master knew that my young lady was so frugal, he would be so distressed that he would not be able to eat, and he would definitely send someone to give money to the young lady..."
A group of girls talked at once.
"Ahem..." After being beaten up by the maids, the evil woman Ruonan became even weaker and less confident.
But she still insisted, "It's not as exaggerated as you say, eggplant, bean sprouts, boiled white cabbage, other officials and wealthy families also live frugally, eating only eggplant, bean sprouts, and white cabbage."
As soon as the evil woman Ruonan finished speaking, she found that the whole room was quiet. She looked up and found that a group of maids and old women were looking at her as if she were an alien.
"Did I say something wrong? Aren't they just eggplant, bean sprouts and cabbage?" the enchantress Ruonan raised her eyebrows.
"Haha, Miss Ruonan, do you know how to make eggplant jerky?" A maid rolled her eyes and asked with a sneer.
"It's just an eggplant, how can it be so complicated and wasteful? At most, you can eat the eggplant without eating the skin, or just eat the young eggplant, right?"
The evil woman Ruonan disagreed.
"Haha, it's not complicated. Just peel the freshly harvested eggplants, remove the pulp, and only use the flesh inside..."
The little girl spoke.
"Right, it's just peeling the skin and removing the pulp." The seductive woman Ruonan shrugged and interrupted the little girl.
"Miss Ruonan, please listen to what I have to say." The little girl sneered.
"You talk, I'm listening." The seductive woman Ruonan disagreed.
"After peeling and removing the flesh of the tender eggplant, cut the eggplant flesh into small dices. Then, kill three plump old hens over five years old, take the chicken fat from the chicken's belly and boil it into oil. Fry the diced eggplant in the oil pan until fragrant and set aside. Then, kill two half-year-old hens, slice the two most tender chicken breasts and dice them. Then, soak and dice the dried matsutake mushrooms, cut the new bamboo shoots, mushrooms, five-spice dried tofu, and various dried fruits into dices. Simmer them in chicken broth until dry, drizzle with sesame oil to reduce the sauce, add some fermented soybean oil and mix well. Finally, serve in a blue and white porcelain jar. When you are ready to eat, take it out, mix it with the five-spice chicken feet and serve it on a plate. Miss Ruonan, what do you think of this eggplant fish? Just peel it? Haha..."
The little girl told the seductive girl Ruonan the method of making dried eggplant step by step in detail.
After hearing this, the evil woman Ruonan couldn't help but twitch her mouth several times.
This cold-mixed eggplant requires three five-year-old hens, two and a half-year-old hens, as well as precious dried matsutake mushrooms, new bamboo shoots, mushrooms, five-spiced dried tofu, various dried fruits, chicken soup, sesame oil, fermented rice wine, five-spiced chicken feet... The evil high-ranking officials and the evil rich people really know how to enjoy themselves!
"Hehe, then the stuffed bean sprouts should be simple, right?" It took the seductive woman Ruonan a long time to come back to her senses from the eggplant fish.
"Hehe, brewing bean sprouts doesn't cost money, but it takes time and effort." Another little girl glanced at the witch Ruonan and giggled.
"How much effort does it take to make a dish?" The seductive woman Ruonan didn't care. She thought that at most it would take the trouble to pick good white and tender bean sprouts.
"To make this dish, we first select the bean sprouts, cut off the heads and tails, leaving only the white, tender and crystal-clear sprout bodies..." said the little girl.
Well, you still have to cut off the beginning and the end. It's troublesome, but it won't take much effort...
When the evil woman Ruonan heard this, she still disagreed.
"Then use shrimp water, that is, when the water has boiled to the bottom of the pot and bubbles appear but has not yet boiled, quickly add the bean sprouts to blanch. If the temperature is too high, the blanched bean sprouts will not be crispy; drain the blanched bean sprouts, use a toothpick to pierce the middle of the bean sprouts, and then insert a hair-thin ham thread. The toothpick used to pierce the bean sprouts is very particular. It must be soaked in salt water and a new toothpick must be used each time. It must add flavor to the bean sprouts but not be mixed with other flavors. Each bean sprout is unique; the ham is even more particular. It must be made from fat pigs that have been fed with wine lees since childhood and smoked with fruit branches and pine branches. It must be the most precious ham, the Shangfang ham, and it must be steamed with top-grade honeycomb. After the bean sprouts are made in this way, they are quickly stir-fried over high heat, and the bean sprouts are ready..."
The little girl counted on her fingers and preached to the witch Ruonan step by step.
This doesn't even cost money. Pigs have to eat distiller's grains to grow up. How much distiller's grains do they have to eat? Only when the pigs are raised can they be smoked into ham. The bean sprouts have to be pierced with toothpicks and embedded with ham shreds one by one. This dish is not only time-consuming, it's a waste of life!
"What about the boiled white cabbage..." The little girl wanted to tell the seductive girl Ruonan how to cook boiled white cabbage.
"No need. It will definitely cost a lot of money and time..." The enchantress Ruonan waved her hand to stop the little girl from talking.
The seductive woman Ruonan suspected that if she continued listening, her mentality would explode.
It seems that compared with other dignitaries and wealthy families, Zhu Ping'an and his family are indeed much more frugal.