Xia Ji married into Chen Guo for a while, and slowly began to adapt to life here, this kind of comfort is the happiness that pregnant women yearn for.

It has already snowed a few times in Zhuno, and most of the people are staying at home in the bitter cold. Civilian families generally burn the dead branches that have been stored long ago in the house to keep warm, and when the conditions are better, they will buy some chopped firewood to burn for heating, and a few families can afford to burn smokeless and dustless charcoal, so the smell of smoke and dust wafts everywhere, and the streets are sparsely populated with few people and horses, and there is a silence and loneliness.

At this time, it is almost a year old, and the movement of the senior officials of the DPRK and the Central Committee has become diligent, because every New Year there will be many new personnel changes, and now is the most crucial opportunity to build relationships and run personnel opportunities, and everyone is using their own means in various ways.

But Uncle Da Sima Xia didn't seem to be good at this, and those officials who came to give him gifts were all blocked by him. His logic is very simple, if the generals of the army rely on hospitality and gifts to rise to power, they must be greedy for profit rather than warriors willing to sacrifice for the country.

However, in doing so, he also reduced the opportunity to communicate with his subordinates. If there is less communication between people, they will inevitably be alienated from each other, which makes ministers such as Fan Rui and Guan Kui take advantage of the loophole and push the confidant generals who should belong to him to others.

And to give gifts to the king, he can't take out decent things, and there are no special good things inherited by his ancestors, plus he has confiscated gifts, and most of the money has been given to Kong Mao as a supplement for the expenses of the Xia Mansion. Chen Gonggong is lukewarm to his cousin for this reason.

Under Xia Ji's management, the Xia Mansion gradually became orderly, and the monthly expenses of the mansion were much less, but everyone's living standards were not reduced due to the reduction of expenditures, but were greatly improved compared to before.

In addition to taking care of her body and dealing with daily household chores, Xia Ji spends her extra time making up for ancient culture, and she also develops the habit of writing a diary every day to record her discoveries and insights in life.

Of course, she often watches the dramas left in her mobile phone, but she never lets others see her mobile phone, even her nominal husband Uncle Xia Yu, because she has too many secrets and too many reluctant attachments.

In the kitchen, Jiang Lu happily told Jiang Wei the news that Xinghualou invited their father and son to participate in the chef exchange competition. However, Jiang Wei doesn't seem to be very happy to participate, because if he wants to participate, he has to ask Xia Ji for leave, and if he asks for leave to participate in this kind of activity, he probably won't approve it.

However, the temptation of one or two gold is still there, with his specialty stir-fried vegetables, whether it is fish-flavored shredded pork or stir-fried beef, he is confident that he can compare to any other dish, and it should be safe to take the first place.

After thinking about it, Jiang Wei still decided to compare, everyone will have vanity, not to mention the golden reward.

On the fifteenth day of the lunar month, Jiang Lu and his son both asked for leave on the grounds that there was something at home, and Xia Ji had no reason not to approve it, because she felt that the two of them were also working hard every day, who didn't have something to deal with at home?

Jiang Wei carried a wooden box containing copper pots and spatulas and came to Xinghualou with his father, and when he came to the door, he asked if there was such a thing, so the two of them walked in happily, and Li Hong, the chef of Xinghualou, greeted them warmly when he saw them.

In the kitchen, all kinds of half-finished dishes were ready, and there were eight stoves in two rows, and the other chefs were already waiting there. In fact, the other chefs who participated in the so-called competition were all from Xinghualou, and they were just foils.

When Jiang Wei saw this formation, he thought to himself, wouldn't this kind of competition reveal all my stir-fry secrets to these chefs? So he quietly pulled Jiang Lu aside and told him that he didn't want others to see him cooking and wanted to quit.

Jiang Lu thought about it, then found Li Hong and asked, "Chef Li, can the competition not be public, and we will set up a separate stove to participate, is it okay?" ”

When Li Hong heard this, he thought to himself, how do I think you cook? "No, for the sake of fairness, everyone has to cook at the same time."

Jiang Lu heard him say this: "Oh, then we can't participate, we can only quit." ”

As soon as Li Hong heard that the two father and son were not comparable, he thought to himself what was the point of the competition specially set up for the two of them?

"Mr. Jiang, our boss said just now that the reward for winning the first place has been increased, it is one pound of gold, the second place is half a pound of gold, and the third place is two taels of gold, you really don't participate?" Li Hong intensified the temptation, thinking to himself that we would have the final say on this ranking anyway.

Jiang Lu was a little tempted when he heard this, so he went to discuss with Jiang Wei again.

Although Jiang Wei was a little tempted, he knew in his heart that the value of this stir-fry technique could not be bought by money. He told his father that he would not participate and told him to go to the game while he watched by himself.

When Li Hong learned that Jiang Wei did not participate and let Jiang Lu participate, it was difficult to ride a tiger, so he had to ask the boss Wu Li, who wanted to cancel the competition and buy Jiang Wei even more difficult, so he had to agree to change the competition system, so that their father and son could cook in the kitchen alone.

Jiang Wei agreed to participate after seeing that he could cook alone in the kitchen, and he asked his father to open the door of the house and make fish-flavored shredded pork and fried beef.

When Jiang Wei brought out the finished dishes, they were quite eye-catching among the steamed and boiled dishes, and when Wu Li and Li Hong tasted them, they were even more stunned, so delicious that they couldn't give a bad evaluation, and they didn't know how to end it. If you evaluate the first place in these two dishes, it means that you have to pay him a pound of gold, and the problem is that you haven't gotten the secret after paying so much. It would be obviously unfair to deliberately omit the ranking of these two dishes.

However, Wu Li is a person with a very quick brain, and he immediately changed the rules, saying that those who win the top three will get the opportunity to work in Xinghualou, and they must work for Xinghualou, and the salary is the highest level among Xinghualou chefs.

Li Hong then walked up to Jiang's father and son, told them this rule, and tried his best to persuade their father and son to come to Xinghualou to do things and give them the best treatment.

Jiang Wei stopped hearing it, isn't this a Mengren? Besides, he knows very well that his cooking skills come from Xia Mansion, and betraying Xia Mansion because of greed for this little profit violates his bottom line as a man.

So, the stubborn Jiang Wei didn't say a word, carried his wooden box, pulled his father's head and left.

Li Hong saw Jiang Wei walking out, and wanted to stop him, but was stopped by Wu Li. Wu Li knew that Jiang Wei couldn't be stopped at this time, and pulling hard would provoke anger, and it depended on the master to beat the dog, Jiang Wei's master, Uncle Xia Yu, was not someone he could dare to provoke, even his own master, Fan Rui, did not dare to provoke.

After Jiang Lu's father and son returned to Xia Mansion, they didn't mention going to Xinghualou, they thought that this matter was over, but they didn't know that the backstage of Xinghualou would not let Jiang Wei go easily.

However, Wu Li did not act rashly this time, but quietly collected Jiang Wei's information by bribing the people around Jiang Wei, in order to seize his weakness and break it in one fell swoop.