83_83499 In a blink of an eye, it was the day of the official kitchen competition, and there were a total of 16 people to participate in the competition, divided into four groups of chefs, including cold chefs, hot chefs, soup chefs and pastry chefs, each group was divided into four people, Du Qiyue was in the pastry chef group, ranked in the last group, because he was the youngest, so he was ranked last among the four.

In the back were the apprentices brought by the cooks, and the palace stipulated that only one apprentice per person was allowed to enter, so there were only sixteen people.

“…… That's all there are rules to be observed in the palace, you have to remember clearly, don't commit taboos when the time comes, we can't hold back as slaves. Standing in front of the palace gate, the great eunuch Yang Gonggong, who was in charge of leading the cooks in, shook off the dust in his hand, and said in a slow and logical voice from the corner of his eyes.

Everyone hurriedly nodded in response, and even said that they knew, and then Gonggong Yang turned around and led them into the majestic palace gate.

Du Qiyue followed behind everyone, walking with his head down, looking around with only the corner of his eye. Just now, Yang Gonggong said a lot of rules, there are dozens of them, Du Qiyue remembered the front and forgot the back, but he didn't write down any of them. However, he knew in his heart that these cooks were recruited to please the Queen Mother, and as long as they did not die, even if they made some innocuous mistakes, no one would come to trouble them. The rest is nothing more than to bow your head and don't look around, salute when you see people, talk less and do more, and there will be basically nothing wrong with keeping these three things.

In the courtyard of the Taihe Palace, the emperor, the queen mother, the queen and various concubines, princesses and princesses, as well as the royal relatives and nobles, big and small officials, sat on the high platform in rows according to their status and status. In the center of these seats was a spacious piece of ground, on which were sixteen small and elaborate stoves, each with a full set of cooking tools. There are also a dozen or so wooden shelves on the sides of these stoves, all of which are filled with cooking materials, all of which are available in the world at this time of year, whether they are flying in the sky, crawling on the ground, or swimming in the water.

Empress Dowager Zhang Hui sat on the stool on the left side of Ju Yanyang, looking at the people in this palace, with a smile on her face, but if you look closely, you can find that this smile has not reached the bottom of her eyes, the eyes are still cold, and she said in a loud voice: "My son, the queen mother knows that you held this kitchen competition to please the queen mother, but this is a matter of labor and money, and such things must not be done again in the future." ”

"My son has made a note of it, and he will never do such a thing again next time." Ju Yanyang snorted, he has never been the kind of person who cares about appetite, according to his temperament, the imperial chef in the imperial dining room can be dismissed, how can there be any cooking competition, he is helpless to do so.

At the beginning of this year, one day the Empress Dowager Zhang Hui suddenly talked to him, saying that she dreamed of the first emperor at night, and the first emperor told her in a dream that she was uncomfortable living below, and missed Wende Hall very much. Empress Dowager Zhang Hui proposed to rebuild the emperor's mausoleum and renovate the tomb of the first emperor into the appearance of the Wende Palace, so that the first emperor could live more comfortably below.

Ju Yanyang was unhappy when he heard it, Wende Hall is the sleeping palace of the first emperor, built extremely luxurious, the treasure pavilion in the Wende Hall does not know how many rare treasures in the sky and the earth, if the tomb of the first emperor is renovated into the appearance of Wende Palace, wouldn't it be necessary to move a treasure pavilion into it.

Now that there are frequent wars on the frontier, the money spent in the army every year can be used up in the treasury, not to mention renovating the mausoleum of the first emperor, he even has no money to build his own mausoleum, how can he build a treasure pavilion again, even a corner of the treasure pavilion he can't build.

Ju Yanyang had the heart to refuse, but he couldn't say this, otherwise Empress Dowager Zhang Hui would have an unfilial hat on his head, and he would not be able to take it off, and he might leave a reputation for eternity if he was not careful. For this reason, he came up with the idea of holding a kitchen competition, everyone knows that it costs a lot of money to hold a kitchen competition, but this silver is a drop in the bucket compared to the construction of a mausoleum. But with this as an excuse, the Queen Mother was embarrassed to let him pay for the construction of the mausoleum, and the kitchen competition was in the name of filial piety, even if the Queen Mother was angry in her heart, she couldn't say anything, at most she expressed her dissatisfaction just now.

Gonggong Yang led everyone into the Taihe Palace, stood far away from the high platform where the emperor was sitting, bowed his head, and reported in a whisper: "Your Majesty, the servants brought the chefs." ”

Ju Yanyang's eyes were fixed on Du Qiyue as early as when the chefs came in, Du Qiyue's identity was too easy to determine, and that face knew at a glance that it was his nephew, who looked more like him than his sons. That posture is also like him when he was young, except for the eyebrows and eyes that are more like the Qi Bird, everything else really looks like him. When Ju Yanyang saw this child, he felt pleased, and thought that no wonder Xun Yu couldn't forget it when he saw this child, he liked it very much when he looked at it.

The people present can see the emperor basically every day, and when they saw Du Qiyue's face, they all muttered a little in their hearts, and they all lowered their eyelids and didn't dare to speak, for fear that Ju Yanyang would be angry.

The Zhang family is also responsible for this kitchen competition, Empress Zhang knew that Ju Yanyang was very angry, and she was afraid that he would blame her subordinates for affecting her family, so she carefully touched Ju Yanyang's hand under the table, and said: "Your Majesty, you see that the little chef at the back of the queue is not a little kind, and I don't know where he is from, looking at the same age as Sheng'er, it is pitiful to rush from home with hard work." ”

Ju Yanyang knew that the queen was talking ahead of her in advance, so that he couldn't say anything, so he said: "It looks really good, if you like it, when the game is over, invite the kid to come and ask." ”

"I think the emperor likes it." Empress Zhang said with a smile.

When Empress Dowager Zhang Hui heard Ju Yanyang's words, she couldn't help but think a little too much, and leaned over and said: "I like this kid very much when I look at it, I don't know what it's called, why is he a cook at such a young age, and he should read and write books seriously." ”

Empress Zhang said with some pity on her face: "It must be from a poor family, and she can't afford to read, otherwise she looks so good, and she is so young, how can she be willing to stay in the kitchen all day long, smoked!" ”

Princess Haoyu sat under Queen Zhang's hand, staring at Du Qiyue with her eyes, hearing Queen Zhang's words, her heart throbbed, this is her child, she should have lived a life of fine clothes and food, but now she is forced to be a cook, and she is watched by so many people and laughs.

After Queen Zhang finished speaking, she didn't pay much attention to Du Qiyue, turned her head to look at the people who started her hand, and just saw Princess Xunyu's white face, and immediately asked with concern: "Xunyu, are you uncomfortable, why is your face so bad?" ”

Princess Yunyu hurriedly wiped her face with a handkerchief, covered her face, and said, "The sun is a little big today, and the sun makes me a little dizzy." ”

"Yes, this hot day is really hot, eat some fruit, it's all chilled." Empress Zhang nodded and said, she also felt that it was very hot today, and her head was dizzy, if it weren't for the emperor's interest, she really didn't want to come over