Chapter Seventy-Five: The First Dining Room

After Tianxiang returned to the room, she told Ma Wenbing and Liu Ling'er about the news of the meeting with Xiao Chunzi and the results of the meeting, especially when it came to the decision to steal the record book after nine o'clock in the evening, Ma Wenbing and Liu Ling'er looked at each other and hesitated.

Because Tianxiang has always kept this matter in his heart, and he has not discussed it with Ma Wenbing and Liu Ling'er, but now there are many problems, mainly because the time is pressing, how to steal it?

This matter has not been told to Liu Yikou, if he knows about it, he doesn't know what the consequences will be, the so-called paper can't hold the fire, the smoke and clouds are just the sun, Liu Yikou will know about this sooner or later.

Liu Ling'er suddenly remembered and said, "By the way, Tianxiang, didn't you say that Gonggong Cui would also come to help, when will he come over?"

Tianxiang said, "I don't know when they said, we can't enter from the city gate, I told my grandfather about the underground passage in the back mountain, and now I regret it, because the eunuch's house that the underground passage leads to, if it is discovered, wouldn't it hurt them?"

The more Tianxiang thought about it, the more she regretted it, so she really shouldn't talk about the underpass, the underpass can be used as a last resort to retreat, if the matter is not secret, there is no way to retreat, wouldn't it hurt Ma Wenbing, Tianxiang and Liu Yikou and the three of them?

It was useless to regret the matter, and Tianxiang asked, "By the way, didn't you say that you can go to the imperial dining room to practice cooking?" The three of us will go and see what the imperial dining room looks like first, and we can act well at night." ”

Although Tianxiang has lived in the palace for more than ten years, she has never been to the imperial dining room once, so she doesn't know anything about the structure inside the imperial dining room, so it is necessary to find out in advance.

Ma Wenbing said, "The master has just passed, and there are other people in the past, but the master said that he was going to meet an old friend, and said that it was not appropriate to take me for the time being, and it was just right for us to go now, so let's go quickly." ”

After the three of them finished discussing, they left the courtyard, passed through the courtyard gate, and walked towards the courtyard of the imperial dining room.

In front of everyone is a very large courtyard, three times the size of this courtyard, large and small houses have more than a dozen rooms, and now it is time for lunch, and the people of the hundred and ten are busy, picking up vegetables, burning fire, stir-frying, boiling soup, each procedure must be divided, and there are chiefs to be responsible for supervision.

Seeing the unfamiliar faces of Ma Wenbing, Tianxiang and Liu Ling'er, a short and fat man walked over quickly, and said with a smile, "A few of them are the finalists of the food competition, right?

Ma Wenbing smiled and said, "Exactly, we want to come over to practice on the one hand, and on the other hand, we are idle, we want to visit the imperial dining room of the palace and experience the grandeur of the palace, I don't know if it is convenient or not?"

Humpty Dumpty smiled and said, "Convenient, very convenient, Lord Rui has already instructed me to meet the needs of all the contestants, and now find someone to lead you to visit the imperial dining room." ”

Tianxiang hurriedly stopped, "Don't be so troublesome, the three of us just take a random stroll around and have a look, you just tell me which room you are in." ”

Humpty Dumpty casually pointed to the west and said with a smile, "You see that big room is not, there are a lot of stoves there, the three of you can choose one to contact at will, if you have any questions, you can come to me at any time, my surname is Zhao, and I am in charge of the external affairs of the imperial dining room." ”

Ma Wenbing said politely, "It turned out to be the head of the imperial dining room, thank you very much." ”

The surnamed Zhao smiled and said, "I'm not the head of the imperial dining room, the head of the house is the head of the Xian, the villain is just a petty official under him, this time he is also responsible for receiving you to participate in the competition, in short, you can come to me if you have any questions, if there is nothing to do, then I will be busy first." ”

Hearing that the head of the imperial dining room is a dedication, Tianxiang was stunned, this dedication must be a dedication, there is no doubt that this offering must be a dedication, and there is no need to say too much now, so as not to be suspicious.

Ma Wenbing and the three of them were polite to the surnamed Zhao again, and then separated, and the three of them began to wander around deliberately, mainly to see the layout of these houses, corridors, aisles, etc., as well as the role of each room, especially to find the room of the chief manager, something as important as a record book must be in his room.

Ma Wenbing and the three of them first looked at the courtyard for a while, this courtyard is very large, but only the east and west sides have courtyard gates, the east courtyard gate is through the courtyard where they live, and the west courtyard is the main courtyard.

The wall in the middle of the two courtyards is three meters high, which is not something that ordinary people can climb over, but it is not a problem for Ma Wenbing, there is a big tree in the corner of the courtyard and the opinion house, if you step on the branches of that big tree, even Tianxiang and Liu Ling'er can go up.

After reading this, the three of them looked at each other and smiled, both understood what they meant each other, and then walked towards the big room in the middle.

The big house in the middle is a big house, but it is better to say that it is a large corridor, with no walls in front and back, and it is all open to a large courtyard, and there are long corridors on the left and right, connecting the houses on the left and right.

This room is mainly a place to pick up vegetables, wash vegetables and prepare ingredients, there are dozens of long boards, ten meters long, on which a lot of vegetables, dried vegetables, pickled vegetables and all kinds of meat and fish are placed, countless jars and jars are placed next to each other, and a lot of them are hung on the roof and wooden pillars.

In this large corridor, there are seventy or eighty people who are busy, they are all for the food of thousands of people in the palace, they rarely bow their heads to each other and mutter, they are all silently doing their own things.

On the opposite side of this big corridor, there is another courtyard, the trees and flowers in that courtyard are very exquisite, and there are many people working in the courtyard over there, but the clothes they wear are different from the clothes of the people here, and they are obviously a higher level, which makes Ma Wenbing and the three of them look at it.

Ma Wenbing saw that most of these people were seventeen or eighteen years old, he squatted down and asked a teenager curiously, "It's really remarkable that you are working in the imperial dining room at such a young age." ”

Ma Wenbing thought that the people who could work in the imperial dining room were all people with superb cooking skills, even if these people who washed and picked up vegetables, they must have been selected by assessment, but he didn't know that this was not the case, only the ones who were really in charge of the spoon were carefully selected, and these people who were doing the fire were not like this, they just earned a piece of silver.

The young man said softly, "I don't have to cook, what's the big deal, you can participate in the finals of the food competition, it's really amazing!"

Ma Wenbing smiled slightly, and said, "We also entered the finals by chance, and there is nothing remarkable, by the way, what is that courtyard for? Why not be with you?"

Ma Wenbing saw that the busy people over there should also be cooking, but they didn't interact with here, and knew that it should be the most imperial meal for people with noble status, but in order to deliberately probe and lead to an introduction, he still asked.

Because Lord Zhao explained that the final of this food competition was very important, so he had to be polite to the contestants, so he didn't dare not answer Ma Wenbing's question.

So the young man said, "The courtyard over there is also the imperial dining room, but there is a meal for the masters of the Son of Heaven, Niangniang, the prince, and the princess. ”

Sure enough, as Ma Wenbing expected, the courtyard over there is a place for the upper class people to eat, Ma Wenbing deliberately sighed and said, "The strange people over there are not the same as those here, the clothes are different, presumably the emperor and the ladies must be a famous imperial chef, and the chief steward must be in charge himself, right?"

The young man was startled, glanced at Ma Wenbing, and didn't expect him to talk about the chief manager, but when he thought about it, he felt that there was nothing, the foreign cooks didn't see the rules in the palace, and they must have been curious after seeing it.

The young man said, "That's natural, the emperor's imperial diet is personally in charge of the chief manager, and he only does the emperor's imperial diet." ”

Ma Wenbing struck while the iron was hot, and then asked, "I heard Lord Zhao say that the chief steward is a dedicated adult, and you dare to ask if the name of the chief steward is a dedication?"

Ma Wenbing's question was very light, even Liu Ling'er and Tianxiang beside him didn't hear what Ma Wenbing said, the two of them knew that Ma Wenbing wanted to ask something useful, in order not to arouse suspicion, the two of them deliberately looked around casually on the side.

Ma Wenbing's words once again made the young man stunned, thinking to himself how this person knew the name of the chief manager? Since he knew the name and asked him bluntly, then it was expected that this person must be acquainted with the chief manager, and he may not be a relative, so he must stammer this person.

The young man changed into a grinning smile and arched his hand, "Could it be that you know my chief administrator Xian, are you his relative? You can call him by his name, we can't call him by his name, this is the palace, there are many rules, you better be careful, you can not do it, but you can't make mistakes, you may be killed." ”

Ma Wenbing nodded and said gratefully, "Thank you brother for being kind enough to tell me, I will be cautious in my words and deeds in the future." ”

Ma Wenbing stood up, and deliberately wandered around with Tianxiang and Liu Ling'er for a while, to see clearly what the dozens of rooms here were for, about five or six rooms were storage rooms, and three or four rooms were for cooking, and they didn't want to be rooms for storing records.

Tianxiang said softly, "Wen Bing, the record book is not in these rooms, it must be in that courtyard, we have to find a way to go to that room to find it, and we will go to that room at night." ”

Ma Wenbing gave Tianxiang a look, and said softly, "This is not the place to say this, let's go back and talk about it, let's go to that room for a while, and then go back." ”

The room that Ma Wenbing said is the room that Lord Zhao pointed to, since he came, he had to go and see it, at least he could pretend to be.

So Ma Wenbing and the three of them walked into the room to the west, although the house is not big, it is the smallest one in the cooking room, there are also 100 stoves in it, 30 cooks are cooking, they cook in addition to stealing a little, the biggest feature is that they use a huge pot to cook, the big black pot has more than 50 catties, can cook the dishes of 300 people at a time, only with this method, can quickly solve the food of thousands of people.

In the room, the heat was in full swing, the sound of pots and spoons clashing, the fire light illuminated the whole room, because the hundred and ten cauldrons were on fire at the same time, the temperature of the room was naturally high, and all the people were busy with their shirtless and pants.

As soon as they saw this scene, Tianxiang and Liu Ling'er instinctively covered their eyes, the girls were naturally shy, not to mention that they had never seen men wearing pants.

Ma Wenbing smiled and said, "Take your hands down, they're not bare-assed, what's there to be shy about?" ”

After listening to Ma Wenbing's words, Tianxiang and Liu Ling'er slowly let go of their hands, but they still didn't feel good about looking at those people, they just turned their heads and looked at the other side.

Liu Ling'er patted Ma Wenbing's shoulder, laughed softly and said, "Wenbing, look, those people from the Western Regions are also cooking there, do you want to take a peek at what they do?"

Ma Wenbing smiled contemptuously: "Senior sister, you still underestimate me, do I still want to peek at other people's despicable tricks of cooking? ”

Ma Wenbing is becoming more and more confident, in fact, as long as he makes a few unique dishes of the world of Bailai, even a piece of Kung Pao Chicken can make the master and the world praise, Ma Wenbing will have a lot of skills that have not been shown, and he is waiting for the day of the final to show it.

Hearing Ma Wenbing's confident words, Liu Linger and Tianxiang were overjoyed, they didn't expect him to have such a big confidence, there was nothing to worry about in this food final, and now they are only focused on collecting evidence.

Liu Ling'er patted Ma Wenbing's shoulder again and said, "Yes, my good junior brother, you have such a lot of self-confidence, if you win the first place, senior sister will give you a big reward." ”

After Liu Ling'er finished speaking, her face turned crimson, she paid attention to it in her heart, lowered her head to cover it, Tianxiang was stunned in her heart, and a bad feeling came to her heart, Ma Wenbing didn't understand it very well when she heard it, Liu Ling'er said that she wanted to give him a big gift at this time, what is this gift? Ma Wenbing wants to know now.

"Senior sister, what gift do you want to give me?" asked Ma Wenbing with a smile.

Liu Ling'er smiled and didn't dare to look up, she knew in her heart that her face was already crimson, and she didn't dare to raise her head.

Tianxiang seemed to guess Liu Ling'er's shyness, so she preemptively said, "Let's go back first, let's not practice here, let's go back early to discuss the evening's affairs, maybe Uncle Liu is back now." ”