said that it was a farewell, but in fact, Du Qiyue and Zhao Yiyun didn't say anything, he only had time to say goodbye, and Zhao Yiyun got into the carriage with the support of Mama Shu Ci and Qin Yun. The door was immediately closed, Du Qiyue took a step back, and the carriage drove forward, and the whole team disappeared at the end of the road in a few moments.

Du Qiyue looked at the smoke and dust raised on the road and sighed softly.

"Lang Jun, don't stand here, come into the house and sleep for a while, it's quite cold this morning, don't stand." Qiu'er put on a cloak for Du Qiyue and persuaded her.

"Go in, you can't see anything." Du Qiyue said, turned around and entered the inn. At the same time, he made a decision in his heart, he must give his best to the game, and try his best to win all the way to Dadu, even if there is only a 1 in 10,000 chance, he will try to visit Zhao Yiyun in the Jingyuan Marquis Mansion. Even if he knew in his heart that there was no possibility for the two of them, he would give it a try, and even if he failed at that time, at least he would not feel sorry when he remembered this crush when he was old.

In the next few days, Du Qiyue has been in the process of practicing non-stop from morning to night, and that posture is really like using up all his strength. Of course, this kind of busyness also has benefits, the work can't be done, and he doesn't have much energy to think about those messy things anymore.

In the evening of this day, Du Qiyue finished making the last snack, rubbed his shoulders and said to Qiu'er: "This plate is made in a hurry, it doesn't look very good, keep it for us to eat by ourselves." ”

"Alas!" Qiu'er responded with a smile, grabbed a piece of dim sum from the plate and put it in her mouth, while quickly putting the other twenty or so plates of dim sum made by Du Qiyue into a large bamboo food box.

The chef's apprentices or servants on the side are also like Qiu'er, busy picking out the good ones that have been made throughout the day and putting them in the food box. These selected dim sum are to be sold at the night market later, when the chef here comes over, except for the travel fee given by his own county master, most of them do not bring any money, these days they have been practicing every day to make all kinds of dim sum cost a lot, some people are tight, so some people come up with the idea of taking the finished dim sum to sell on the street, so that instead of losing money, but also making some money. Because the prices in Jingfeng County are higher than those in other counties and towns, this is not a small profit.

After Qiu'er and Da Mao packed up the food box, the three of them went back to the room, and Xiao Er happened to bring in the food ordered in advance, and the three of them sat and chatted while eating.

Da Mao has been a little puzzled in the past two days when he saw Du Qiyue's dim sum, but today he couldn't hold it back, and after eating a few bites of food, he asked: "Xiaoyue, why do you only make some simple dim sum, why don't you practice the ones that are difficult to do?" ”

Du Qiyue glanced up at Da Mao, grabbed a chopstick dish and said, "There are too many people." ”

"Huh? What does this have to do with the large number of people? Da Mao asked puzzled.

"Stupid you!" Qiu'er knocked on Da Mao's head with chopsticks and explained: "What Lang Jun means is that there are too many eyes in that yard, what if Lang Jun's method of making dim sum is seen, what if it is used to deal with Lang Jun in the competition?" ”

"Ahh I really didn't think about that. Da Mao understood, and scratched his head embarrassedly where Qiu'er hit him.

Qiu'er glanced at Da Mao and said, "There are too many places you haven't thought about, otherwise why are you an apprentice Langjun is a master!" ”

"You two, hurry up and eat, go to the night market early this morning to get a good spot, and when it's sold out, you can take some time to shop." We've set up stalls for the past few days, and we haven't visited a night market yet, and the day after tomorrow is going to be a game, so we won't have time to go again. Du Qiyue knocked on the plate and said.

Qiu'er's eyes lit up when she heard this, and she said happily: "Really, that's good, I'm going to buy some of the specialties here and send them back to my mother and sister, they will definitely be happy." ”

"Then I'll also buy some for my family, if Xiao Yuetong guò competes this time, I will send it back as soon as you arrive." Da Mao thought for a while and said, Wu Mingyao gave him some money when he came this time, and Du Qiyue also shared some of the money they earned from selling dim sum in the past few days, so he still has money on hand, and it is okay to buy some small things.

"What do you say, what do you mean if you win? Our Du Langjun will definitely win, we will definitely win, you know! Qiu'er listened to Da Mao's words and shouted dissatisfiedly.

"Yes, yes, Xiao Yue will definitely win, look at my stupid tongue." Da Mao blushed embarrassedly and quickly changed his words.

"Then we'll buy some things tonight and send them back together when the time comes." Du Qiyue clapped his head.

The night market in Jingfeng County is much more lively than Dahu Town, several alleys of 100 meters long are full of all kinds of stalls, and people come and go everywhere, Du Qiyue's dim sum is delicious, these days in the night market is also considered to be familiar, they occupy a good position today, so in less than half an hour, the big box of pastries are all sold out.

Du Qiyue gave Da Mao and Qiu'er some money each, and made an appointment with them for half an hour before gathering at the exit of the night market, and then the three of them separated and began to visit the stalls they were interested in.

Du Qiyue originally just wanted to send some small gifts to Liu Momo's family, but later thought that sending things to the village at the post station would definitely attract the attention of the whole village.

Du Qiyue naturally picked the good things for Liu Momo's family, and gave them to the other two ones. Du Qiyue had a bad relationship with Du Fujin and Zhang Guihua, so of course he wouldn't buy anything for them, so he bought a cheap gadget for each of his children. Du Fuyin's family has few children, just Du Xiaoshi and Du Dashi's sons, Du Qiyue bought two things each in order not to favor one over the other, and the price added up to be better than that for Du Fujin's family.

That night, the three of them returned to the inn with a big bag, tired and fell asleep, thinking that they could sleep well on the second day, who knew that the next morning someone from the county government came to call the chefs who came to the competition to pack up and go to the yamen.

After everyone packed up, they followed the people to the county office with some apprehension, and one person boldly asked: "Isn't the game tomorrow, why did it pass today, hasn't something changed?" ”

"There must be two or three hundred people who come to participate in the competition this time, and if we compete together tomorrow, we don't know how many materials to prepare, so our lord will let you go first, choose the things you want to use in advance, and start the competition directly tomorrow." The official said seriously, but he was sneering in his heart, their master came up with a good way to preside over this competition two days ago, and there will definitely be a good show to watch today.

Everyone didn't ask any more questions after hearing this, but they were a little worried in their hearts, some ingredients in such weather would not be fresh if they were left overnight, and the county magistrate asked them to choose the ingredients in advance, which was convenient for him, but it was troublesome for them. In order to ensure that the dim sum made tomorrow is fresh and delicious, they will definitely have a lot less room to choose ingredients, and probably only choose some things that are not easy to spoil, so that the dim sum they make will not be their best.

Du Qiyue lowered her head, and while following everyone, she went through the foolproof dim sum in her heart, and prepared for the worst in her heart.

After a while, everyone arrived at the county office, and all the two or three hundred people were taken to the backyard of the county office, which was very large, paved with smooth bluestone slabs, and only four trees were planted in the four corners. Other places that should have been open space are now built with more than a dozen rows of stoves, all of which are new, and they should have been built after the county magistrate determined the number of people to participate. There are more than a dozen carts parked on one side of the yard, and the cars are full of all kinds of ingredients and condiments to be used to make snacks, but when you look at the poor ones, you will find that the quality of the things there is uneven, and the heart that has not been completely put down just now is lifted again.

After everyone stood still, a man with a mustache walked out, and after he took a quick look at everyone, he raised his voice and said: "The contemptible person is Liu Guancai, the master of Jingfeng County, and he came here to talk to his family about choosing ingredients, so you don't have to be nervous." Please come here and take a look, there are twenty riddles, and the riddles are all a kind of dim sum. You can guess one at random, write me the answer to the mystery or tell me quietly, and if you are right, you can pick the ingredients, and each person will receive two ingredients for the snack. Whoever guesses first will pick first, and then change the second person after picking, do you hear that? ”

As soon as Master Liu's words were finished, the cooks standing below became lively, where in this world is there such a method of selecting ingredients, isn't this a pitfall. You must know that few cooks have read books and can read, they can't even understand riddles, how can they guess riddles. Besides, the ingredients here are known to be many bad at a glance, if you guess it late, wouldn't the good ingredients be picked away, so how to make dim sum too.

Seeing that everyone was dissatisfied, Master Liu immediately opened his hand and shouted: "Don't make noise, don't make noise, it's important to guess the riddle quickly!" ”

"Who came up with this stinky idea, we're here to try it, not to guess it, and besides, you've got such a mess and you want us to make snacks?" A hunky cook yelled in dissatisfaction.

"This matter has been decided, and there is nothing you can do if you are dissatisfied. The silver drawn by the imperial court is enough to buy these things, and we came up with this method for the sake of fairness, everyone chooses the ingredients according to their ability, and saves disputes over things when the time comes. Master Liu said, in fact, he was a little bitter in his heart.

The county magistrate of Jingfeng County is called Sun Dewu, who is an extremely old-fashioned and different person, he believes in the sentence of the gentleman who is far away from the kitchen, and heard that the court asked him to run a kitchen competition. The other half was divided into a lot to build a stove and buy kitchen utensils, and the rest of the ingredients were not enough to buy all the ingredients, so I finally bought these things now.

These ingredients sent are really a little ugly, Wang Shou is afraid that it will be bad to cause dissatisfaction among all the chefs, so he came up with this trick of guessing and choosing ingredients, so that even if the chef who picks the poor ingredients is dissatisfied, he can only blame himself for not having the ability, so he can't make a big deal about it. And turned his head Wang Shou and said to Sun Dewu that this was to pick out the best cooks, because the ability of literate cooks is definitely worse than that of illiterate. After all, cooking has nothing to do with being illiterate, but Sun Dewu believed it, because in his opinion, the literate are indeed superior to the illiterate.

Du Qiyue didn't shout with most of the cooks, but followed a few literate cooks to look at the riddles, and I don't know where these riddles were found, all of them are like small poems, and they look really bluffing. Du Qiyue looked at them one by one, and when he saw the ninth riddle, he saw these four sentences: "There are edges and corners, there is a heart and a liver, a body is poor, and half a lifetime of suffering." "This is an anthropomorphic riddle, Du Qiyue guessed it at once, and the riddle should be zongzi.

However, at this time, no one came up to say the answer, Du Qiyue didn't want to make a bird, so he didn't go over immediately, anyway, the ingredients that dozens of people in front of him could get must be good, and he was not worried. After waiting for seven or eight people to receive the ingredients, Du Qiyue reported the answer and went up to get his share. He planned to make two kinds of dim sum, one salty and one sweet, one was to fill the soup and wrap a chicken cake, so he picked a safe bacon meat, eggs, flour and some ingredients and condiments.

After a small number of people had picked out the ingredients, the master spoke again, "Those who have picked the ingredients come to me to receive a piece of paper with their name written on it, and then choose a stove from front to back in order, put all the good papers in the bamboo basket on the side of the stove and go." The things here will be taken care of by the servants in the yamen, so you don't have to worry. ”

Du Qiyue then went over and got a note with his name written on it, and then picked a stove for himself in a relatively corner. He kept an eye on the ingredients when he put them, and quietly made a mark with soy sauce on each bag where the ingredients were placed, after all, he was a person who had participated in many events, and some things would always be more cautious.