In the days that followed, Meng Xiaoran was so busy that she didn't have time to think about anything else, and wrote down all the dishes she was best at in modern times, but it was not easy to really make that taste, there were not many seasonings in ancient times, and she needed to slowly explore and mix, and it took her half a month to make these dishes.

In the end, they were all sent over for Chen to taste, and Chen was very satisfied, Meng Xiaoran was relieved, and he thought about sweet dishes again, and the days passed in a flash.

The day before the plum blossom banquet, Chen called all the stewards in the prime minister's mansion and instructed them carefully, the plum blossom banquet has always been a symbol of their status in the prime minister's mansion, if it is not done well, not only the prime minister, but even the queen will blame, she naturally has to be extremely careful to ensure that nothing goes wrong.

Every time the plum blossom banquet, Liu Ruxue will come out to receive her, this time Chen thought that she would not come out because of her face injury, who knew that she came over the day before the plum blossom banquet, and reappeared, Liu Ruxue's face did not see the previous scar, it seemed to be more smooth and tender, Chen secretly hated, thinking of the jade paste that Xiang Ye bought for 10,000 taels of gold, and he hated it even more in his heart.

Liu Ruxue smiled proudly, "Mother, tomorrow is the plum blossom banquet, my daughter thinks that now that my sister is eleven years old, I should take her out to pick up people and things, tomorrow my mother will hand her over to me, I will take care of her." ”

Chen clenched her teeth, but knew that Liu Ruxue had always had a good reputation outside, and it would naturally be good if her own Ruyin followed her, so she nodded and forced herself to rejoice, "Then tomorrow there will be Lao Ruxue, take a good look at Ruyin for me, don't let her make trouble." ”

"My daughter obeyed." Liu Ruxue had a smile in her eyes, and walked away proudly, Chen looked at her rampant appearance and almost couldn't help but drop something again, but was stopped by Zhang's mother, "Madam, tomorrow is the plum blossom banquet, don't do anything again, the queen mother and the four princes are all going to be there in person." Chen endured it, but buried this hatred in his heart.

The plum blossom banquet that has been building momentum for a long time finally kicked off, and the big kitchen, which is a logistics supply, was busy when it was still dark, and Meng Xiaoran and Xiaocui were also called up early in the morning and went to the big kitchen to start busy.

The yard was already full of vegetables that had been transported back early in the morning, and the people were busy choosing dishes to prepare for today, Meng Xiaoran had nothing else to do at this time, so he also squatted down with Xiaocui to choose vegetables, and when the sun came out, the dishes were almost sorted out, Meng Xiaoran's hands were frozen to the wood, she looked at Xiaocui's thin little hands that were now red, swollen like buns, and she couldn't bear to cross her heart, so she pulled her up and walked to the kitchen, took some warm water, and put their hands in.

Xiao Cui sighed comfortably, "It's so warm." Meng Xiaoran smiled, "Wash your hands with warm water when you go back today, and remember to apply the alabaster I gave you, otherwise it will cause frostbite." ”

Xiao Cui shook her head, "That alabaster is a good thing, I can't bear to wipe my hands on my face, anyway, I get frostbite on my hands every winter, it's fine." ”

Meng Xiaoran felt a pain in her heart when she heard this, Xiaocui was only a fourteen or fifteen-year-old child, and she was still a carefree student in modern times, but here, she had to suffer so much.

I can't help but think about it anymore, Mother Li has already called her over there, and she is going to start preparing pastries, there are many guests here today, and the demand for dim sum is very large, there are several kinds of dim sum prepared by Meng Xiaoran, osmanthus cake, mung bean cake, red bean cake, plum blossom cake and so on.

Meng Xiaoran helped Aunt Hu to work, and when the dim sum was ready, Mother Li and Xiaocui also helped, and the four of them took the mold to divide the dim sum into plum blossom shapes one by one.

When they were almost busy, a team of maids came over there, saying that there were already guests arriving, and they wanted to bring snacks and tea, and there was a special pantry room for tea, and the big kitchen only needed to provide snacks.

Aunt Hu quickly packed the snacks with her hands and feet, and the few people left with the food boxes, Meng Xiaoran breathed a sigh of relief, and Mother Li looked at her and said, "Don't be in a hurry to relax, there is still a lot of work in the back."

Sure enough, the whole big kitchen never rested again, and there was an endless stream of maids who came to receive dim sum in the main courtyard, and when the dim sum was almost arranged, Mother Li let Meng Xiaoran be busy making special dishes, and she had never been idle.

Here in the main courtyard, Chen is sitting in the hall with his two daughters and ladies chatting, and when the maids bring snacks and tea, Chen smiles confidently.

Sure enough, a young lady whispered, "Ah, this snack is so beautiful!" The lady sitting next to her immediately looked at her disapprovingly, and scolded in a low voice, "What do you look like when you are yelling?" Miss Nawei immediately lowered her head and did not dare to speak.

Seeing this, the lady sitting next to them immediately played a round, "Oh, I said Mrs. Song, don't scold Miss Song, even I can't help but applaud when I see such a delicate dim sum, these dim sum are all in the shape of plum blossoms, how beautiful!" ”

All the ladies nodded and responded, and it was Song Shangshu's wife who just reprimanded, the one who was reprimanded was the youngest daughter of the Song family, Song Shangshu's family is famous for its patriarchy, the son is regarded as a treasure at home, but the daughter is scolded, and everyone is not surprised.

And the one who played the round was Wang, the wife of the waiter of the Ministry of Rites, who was enthusiastic and hearty, and was a warm-up king, and she would never be cold wherever she was.

At this time, she was holding a piece of pink plum blossom cake in her hand, looking left and right, and smiled at Chen: "Mrs. Liu, the cook in your prime minister's mansion is really amazing, and his mind is really ingenious, he actually came up with this method, this plum blossom-shaped dim sum is so pleasing to the eye, I am reluctant to eat it!"

Chen was very comfortable by her, smiled and quipped: "No matter how beautiful this pastry is, it is not as good as the real flowers, let's go to the garden to enjoy the flowers and eat snacks later, then it is interesting, there are many dim sums, you don't have to be reluctant to eat, otherwise it will be spread out that our Prime Minister's Mansion is not, and the pastries are not enough, so that Mrs. Shilang will go back hungry."

Everyone laughed, the atmosphere immediately improved, the ladies of the family chatted with each other, at this time the curtain in the house was lifted, a gust of fragrant wind wafted in, everyone looked over here, it turned out to be Liu Ruxue came in.

Today, she is wearing a white dress, the skirt and cuffs are embroidered with a cluster of red plums, which is very good-looking, and she is wearing a fiery red cloak, walking like a flame, and then looking at her makeup, a little red plum blossom in the center of her eyebrows, echoing the red plum on the dress, and only a nine-tailed phoenix hairpin is inserted in the bun, which is inlaid with a huge ruby, shining.

Behind her is Chen's daughter Liu Ruyin, who now looks like a half-old child, although she also has exquisite makeup, but compared with Liu Ruxue, she is far behind, and everyone can't help but sigh in their hearts, she is really the first beauty in the capital, and her style is outstanding.

Chen's heart was full of anger, but she could only endure it, she was really kind to Liu Ruxue, and now she knew that she just wanted Ruyin to foil her, and her mind was really vicious.

Liu Ruxue received Chen's dissatisfied gaze and saluted her with a smile, "Meet my mother, and all the ladies, Ruxue is late, please forgive me." ”

Everyone immediately followed her words for a while, and Chen said after a while: "You two take the ladies out to play, the pavilion in the plum garden has prepared refreshments." Liu Ruxue nodded, got up and took the ladies down.

The plum garden is divided into two sides, one side for female guests and the other side for male guests, and the male and female guests enter through two separate doors, which are cleverly separated.

Liu Ruxue took the ladies to enjoy the flowers while walking in the plum garden, all kinds of plum blossoms are in full bloom, the fragrance is fragrant, everyone is very interested, and after playing for a long time, they took everyone to the pavilion to rest.

The gazebo is surrounded by thick curtains, there is a charcoal fire burning inside, as soon as you enter, it is warm like spring, the ladies have walked outside for a long time, they are a little cold, they are comfortable immediately after coming in, everyone sits together, eating snacks and drinking hot tea, the atmosphere is harmonious.

The male guests on the opposite side are not bad, the unmarried sons and brothers in the capital are here, after all, it is a blind date banquet in disguise, all the ladies will come, this is an excellent opportunity, everyone is drinking tea, I don't know who got up, and they want to start with the theme of plum blossoms, and the competition is to make poems.

This year, Shen Sangongzi also came to participate in the plum blossom banquet, and everyone had the idea of competing, and they heard that Shen Sangongzi was amazingly talented, and he was famous all over the world at a young age, and the entire Yujing City who did not secretly worship the third son, which made other young sons quite angry.

However, Shen San has never participated in large and small banquets in the capital, and everyone has no chance to compete, but this time he finally has a chance, of course he will not let it go.

Shen Qian, who was sitting in the pavilion, was looking at the dim sum on the table at this time, he didn't expect the pastries made from the mold to be so beautiful, no wonder the Chen family would be happy, presumably she would be able to go one step further after this time.

Seeing that Shen Qian was silent, everyone thought that he disdained to compete with them, and they were all a little displeased, and at this time, Liu Chengchuan, the eldest son of the prime minister, who was the head of the family, naturally stood up.

"Third son, I don't know if you have any opinions?" Liu Chengchuan asked politely.

Shen Qian raised his head and looked at him, "What did you just say?" ”

As soon as these words came out, the scene was silent, and he ignored them so much that everyone felt humiliated, and their faces showed a look of annoyance.

Liu Chengchuan was also stunned for a while, but fortunately, he reacted quickly and immediately played a round, "The third prince may have just seen that this dim sum is unique, so he didn't pay attention to what we said, you are planning to use plum blossoms as the theme and compose poems in the competition, I don't know what the third prince thinks?" ”

Shen Qian sneered in his heart, what kind of idea did this group of people have, could he not know? He looked at the people sitting around him, and finally hooked his lips and said, "It's better to be respectful than to obey!"

These young ladies came to participate in the plum blossom banquet today, in addition to the competition in the afternoon, another purpose is to see the demeanor of the sons of each family, especially this year, Shen Sangongzi also came, everyone naturally couldn't sit still.

Liu Ruxue naturally understood everyone's thoughts, with a smile on her face, but she thought in her heart, let you see Ziqing's cousin's demeanor today, she has never seen Shen Qian, since Lu Ziqing lived in the Prime Minister's Mansion a year ago, she secretly promised that she only had this cousin in her heart.