On the official road out of the city to the west, there was a horse-drawn carriage moving. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The carriage was very ordinary, and even looked a little old, and the old horse pulling the carriage was very experienced, and had been moving at an almost uniform speed, and the old horseman who drove the carriage was naturally very leisurely, squinting his eyes and holding a horsewhip in his arms.

The carriage was also very stable, and there were two people sitting in it, both of whom seemed to be old men who were over the age of sixtieth and had white hair, both wearing ordinary plain Confucian shirts, leisurely taking small teacups and sipping tea, and talking about something from time to time.

"Brother Yaofu, invite me out today, where are you going?"

"Brother Wei Zhong, seeing that the sky is getting colder and colder day by day, in a few days, I'm afraid that old bones like you and me won't be able to get out of the city if they want to.

Taking advantage of today's good weather, let's go to a good place to ensure that we can have a good mouth. ”

"Oh?"

Lu Dafang stroked his beard and smiled, "But go to the Zhuangzi of Schisandra?" ”

Fan Chunren smiled and nodded.

Lu Dafang and Fan Chunren can be described as close friends. The two were born in the same year, and in the same year, that is, in the first year of Emperor Renzong, they became Jinshi and became officials together.

Later, Yingzong succeeded to the throne, and the two were both serving the imperial history, in the famous "Pu Yi" incident of the Yingzong Dynasty, standing on the same front, regardless of the imperial power of Yingzong, respecting the law of etiquette, and opposing Yingzong's edict that his biological father Puwang Zhao Yunrang was the emperor's examination.

It is precisely because of this incident that the two were demoted at the same time, and Shenzong returned to the dynasty as an official at the same time, until Zhezong succeeded to the throne, and Sima Guang supported the Empress Dowager Gao to participate in politics, and then Sima Guang died, and the two were prime ministers at the same time.

Fan Chunren invited Lu Dafang to accompany Yang Huairen's Zhuangzi this time, not just to feast on his mouth, the two have been friends and tacit understanding for many years, and some things don't need to be said, and they already understand each other's thoughts in their hearts.

In their eyes, Yang Huairen's appearance was too strange.

In this era, the most ambitious dream of a young man who reads is to pass the ten-year cold window, and one day be able to enter high school, become an official, and serve the country.

Or it can be said in layman's terms, the purpose of reading is to participate in the imperial examination through reading, once climb the branch and become a phoenix, from then on the power and power, glorify the ancestors, and climb to the pinnacle of life.

But Yang Huairen is an exception, and the ideas of any reader they have ever come into contact with are completely different.

"Mencius" has a cloud, "the gentleman is far away from the kitchen". The original meaning of this sentence is that a gentleman should have a benevolent heart and should not slaughter cattle and sheep, and later it was also used to exhort scholars not to do their jobs properly, everything is inferior, only reading is high.

During the Northern Song Dynasty, the catering industry was developed, and there were countless people engaged in the profession of cooks, but among these countless people, the vast majority of them were illiterate, and there were many women.

A man being a cook at this time is looked down upon, and a person with a reputation who doesn't want to be an official and serve the court, but gives up his career and concentrates on being a cook, which is a very incomprehensible behavior in the eyes of Lu Fan and the others.

But what happened after that surprised them again.

Yang Huairen not only gave up the imperial examination to become a cook, but as a small cook, he was rewarded by the official family and was named a viscount, and he found another way to achieve his goal in advance, which surprised Lu Fan and the others.

When the world's scholars recently left their hometown to participate in the autumn examination for a meritorious name, Yang Huairen had been rewarded with a meritorious name from the same Jinshi, even so, this Yang Huairen still opened his restaurant with peace of mind and happily became his cook, and there was no trace of obsession with officialdom.

The strangest thing is that Yang Huairen wants to stay away from officialdom, but he can't hide from the rights and wrongs of officialdom. There are always some officials who come out and talk about things because of some trivial things.

This is also a matter of fact, this kind of thing can be completely used by someone to see that he was too young and was overly sealed, and he was jealous and deliberately targeted him.

But judging from the few times he was played, whether it was the Empress Dowager or the official family, they actually defended him, and even Fan Chunren and Lu Dafang, wise men who have lived for most of their lives and have also been crawling and rolling in the officialdom for decades, can't understand the reason.

The contradiction between the Empress Dowager and the official family is not just a matter between the grandparents and grandchildren, and the political ideas of the two people are completely different.

The officials in the court, because of their different political views, supported the two masters respectively, so the two of them could maintain a small cook at the same time, which made Lu Dafang and Fan Chunren, the two prime ministers of the court, even more incomprehensible.

"Brother Yaofu, maybe things aren't that complicated. The Empress Dowager likes to eat dishes made of Schisandra, and the officials also like it, but there should be no other complicated reason for giving grace to Schisandra because of its deliciousness. ”

"If it's really as Brother Wei Zhong said, then this schisandra is not a cause for concern. It's just that this Yang Huairen's behavior is really strange, and his speech and demeanor are very different from all the people I have seen reading the books of sages and sages in the past.

If he is really a person who has no intention of officialdom and only seeks pleasure, then that's it. There is not much more than one gentleman in the city of Tokyo, what if this person is very deep in the city and deliberately hides his true ambitions?

Now that the official family is young and self-willed, if he is deceived by this kind of person, wouldn't my Great Song Dynasty have one more minister? ”

Lu Dafang pondered deeply and felt that Fan Chunren's words were not unreasonable.

Thinking about it carefully, Yang Huairen, a young man, looks frivolous and impetuous, greedy for fame, but in fact he is a capable person, and he has peerless cooking skills at a young age, which is unreasonable in his eyes.

It is rumored that he has a fairy master, although it sounds a little ethereal, but throughout history, people like him who have a hermit master have the talent of the heavens and the earth, if he is upright, it is naturally the blessing of the Great Song Dynasty, if he has evil thoughts and lack of ambition, then the leisure shown now is too terrible.

Lu Fan pondered for a while, glanced at each other, and understood each other's thoughts.

This time I went to Yang's Zhuangzi, ostensibly to admire Yang Huairen's cooking skills and enjoy a good meal, but in fact, the two wanted to test Yang Huairen.

In the vegetable greenhouse in the mountain behind Yangjia Zhuangzi, the transplanted tomatoes are ripe, Yang Huairen looked at the long round and chubby tomatoes, and his heart was more beautiful than seeing a beautiful woman.

I don't know how many times I counted them, and a few tomato plants bore a total of thirty-two fruits. Yang Huairen used to eat tomatoes every once in a while, but now he hasn't tasted tomatoes for several months, and he really drools when he sees it.

Leaving thirty for them to continue to mature and keep the seeds, Yang Huairen picked two of them and put them in his arms like treasures, and decided to satisfy his hunger.

As soon as they walked out of the greenhouse, a domestic servant came to tell them that two white-bearded old men had come to the house, and they were sitting in the middle hall, and they kept asking Yang Huairen to cook them a good meal, otherwise they would not leave.