In the spring of the second year of Jian'an, Shuijing Villa.

The weak willow silk swayed with the wind, like a woman's soft hand, Ma Hong lay on the ground and couldn't help but stretch out his hand to the willow silk, but the height was not enough to hold the willow silk. Yang Yi, who was herding sheep on the side, studied the military book with both hands, frowning from time to time. Ma Hong looked at Yang Yi from time to time, with a shallow smile on his face. Speaking of Yang Yi, it has been two months since Yang Yi came to Shuijing Villa, when Yang Yi first arrived at Shuijing Villa, Mr. Shuijing sent Xu Shu, who was not familiar with Yang Yi, to test Yang Yi, and I don't know how Xu Shu tested Yang Yi, in short, Yang Yi passed the test and became Mr. Shuijing's student.

Yang Yi said that he had become a student of Mr. Shuijing, but he was not very happy at the time, and he refused to disclose to Ma Hong and Pang Tong about what exam questions Xu Shu gave him. Ma Hong saw that he couldn't ask a reason from Yang Yi, so he didn't ask anymore. On the twelfth day when Yang Yi became a student of Mr. Shui Jing, the Yang family sent Mr. Shui Jing thirty-six sheep as a thank you gift. When Ma Hong asked why Yang Yi sent the sheep, Yang Yi said that it was specially requested by Mr. Shuijing. Mr. Shui Jing also has a request, that is, let Yang Yi herd sheep. Yang Yi didn't want to say this request, but the brothers and sisters saw it.

The spring breeze was blowing the willows, the sheep were grazing on the grass, Ma Hong was lying lazily on the ground, and the smile on the corner of his mouth did not fade for a long time, because he and Pang Tong discussed how to steal Yang Yi's sheep last night. Yang Yi was very serious in reading, and he didn't notice that Pang Tong quietly walked to the flock and took away a lamb, until Pang Tong led the lamb to the stone forest, and the little lamb bleated because he left the flock, maybe because he left his sheep mother.

At this time, Yang Yi noticed that Pang Tong had taken away his sheep, Yang Yi was shocked, stood up and threw down the book and ran desperately towards Pang Tong, shouting as he ran: "Pang Tong, you stop for me." ”

There is a reason why Yang Yi cares so much about this sheep, Mr. Shui Jing asked him to herd the sheep and asked him not to lose a sheep, if he loses it, he will be punished, what the punishment is, Yang Yi doesn't know. But Yang Yi learned from Ma Hong that Xu Shu and Liu Ye had been weeds for three months, Pang Tong had been grinding stones for half a year, and Ma Hong had carved words on the stone tablet. Presumably, if Yang Yi lost the sheep, the punishment would not be light.

Why did Pang Tong steal a sheep, because he and Pang Tong wanted to eat mutton skewers, and more importantly, the teacher also wanted to eat it, so he had to steal a sheep.

Pang Tong saw Yang Yi chasing after him, picked up the lamb and ran quickly into the stone forest. Yang Yi ran outside the stone forest, gritted his teeth, hesitated, and finally ran in, although he was afraid of getting lost, but if Pang Tong killed the sheep in the stone forest, he would not be able to explain.

Ma Hong, who was lying on the grass, waited until Yang Yi rushed into the stone forest, stood up with a smile, patted his clothes, and then chose a fat sheep from the flock to lead him away. Ma Hong knew that with Yang Yi's ability, if he ventured into the stone forest, there would not be an hour that would not be able to get out, and this half an hour was enough for him to slaughter sheep.

Two hours later, Ma Hong, Pang Tong and Xu Shu were roasting mutton skewers around the bonfire, when Yang Yi ran over angrily, saw the slaughtered sheep, looked at the cheap smile on Pang Tong's face, the treacherous smile on Ma Hong's face, and Xu Shu's face was full of embarrassment. Yang Yi held her knees with both hands, panting, looking at everyone with an angry face, and after a long while, she yelled: "Ma Laosan, Pang Laowu, you two bastards, you slaughter my sheep, you two want to be angry with me." ”

Pang Tong took the grilled mutton skewers and stuffed them into his mouth, chewed them vigorously and said, "Didn't you just steal a sheep?" Do you need to be so angry? ”

Ma Hong also smiled and said, "Yes! Come to Xiao Yang, don't be angry, come over and eat some skewers. ”

"You two bastards, the teacher said that I can't lose a sheep, and if I lose one, I will be punished for doing something, which is good."

Yang Yi spoke, sitting on the ground with her buttocks, her eyes glaring at Ma Hong and Pang Tong.

Ma Hong took out the lamb skewers worn with bamboo skewers and smiled: "You didn't tell us either, didn't you?" If you tell us, will we still steal your sheep? ”

Yang Yiqi's mouth bulged, the flesh on his round face trembled, he snorted, and said, "Hmph, you two have already guessed this before you went to steal my sheep, right." ”

Pang Tong smiled and said, "Senior brother! The two of us just want to eat mutton, and we don't want you to be punished! ”

Yang Yi was about to say something, but suddenly felt a tap on the shoulder, and then he looked up and saw the teacher.

Mr. Shuijing smiled and said, "Is it baked?" Give a string to the teacher? ”

"Okay."

Ma Hong said this, picked up two skewers of mutton and handed them to Mr. Shui Jing, and then took a step behind the rest of the people to salute Mr. Shui Jing.

Yang Yi only understood at this time, he understood the reason why the teacher asked him to herd the sheep, why did he have to tell him not to lose the sheep. Because the teacher also wanted to eat mutton, he asked him to bring these sheep, and specially asked Ma Hong and Pang Tong to steal the sheep. Yang Yi thought of this, deeply drunk, and he weakly stretched out his hand to take the mutton skewers from Xu Shu's hand.

Mr. Shui Jing took the mutton skewers, sniffed them with his nose, and said, "The seasoning you use to roast the mutton is enough to buy a good horse, isn't it too wasteful." ”

Ma Hong smiled slightly: "The teacher taught me." ”

Mr. Shui Jing smiled, took a bite of mutton, chewed it slowly, and said while chewing: "Yang Yi, tell me what are the seasonings used for this roast mutton?" If you say it all, I will not punish you. ”

Yang Yi was stunned for a moment, quickly took a bite of mutton and tasted it carefully, chewing the mutton in his mouth and saying, "Salt ......"

Yang Yi only said a word of salt, and then he couldn't say it anymore, because he really didn't know what the remaining seasonings were, not to mention that Yang Yi had never cooked, and more importantly, these seasonings were very valuable things in this era, and ordinary people would not use them at all when cooking.

Mr. Shuijing laughed and said: "I thought that Yang Yi was quite round, you must know how to eat, but I didn't expect to only say salt, Xu Shu, you teach your junior brother a lesson." ”

Xu Shu heard the teacher's instructions, put down the mutton skewers, and said seriously: "The seasonings used in this roast mutton include cumin and pepper, which are the spices introduced from the Western Regions after Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions and the opening of the Silk Road, and these seasonings are very precious. It is generally used to preserve food during sacrifices and delay food decay, and even high-ranking officials and nobles rarely eat this spice. ”

Yang Yi was a little stunned when she heard this, and secretly said in her heart: You must eat more of such a good thing.

Mr. Shui Jing smiled: "Yuan Zhi, how do you know these two spices?" ”

Xu Shu saw that the teacher called himself instead of calling him by his name, and said happily in his heart: "The student saw it from the book." ”

Mr. Shui Jing laughed and said: "Yuan Zhi likes to read, but just reading, how can he recognize this spice, people who have not eaten it cannot guess the name of the spice based on the written records in the book alone, do you say I am right?" ”

Xu Shu was stunned for a moment, and said: "What the teacher said is that the student used to eat it before, and it was when he was a child that he stole the food used for sacrifices, and because he didn't understand the seasoning used in the food, he consulted the books. ”

Mr. Shui Jing nodded.

Ma Hong said secretly: I thought Senior Brother Yuanzhi wouldn't lie, but I didn't expect him to lie.

Mr. Shui Jing said to Ma Hong at this time: "Ma Hong, the market price of this spice is very high, how did you get it?" ”

Ma Hong smiled slightly and said, "I asked a businessman friend to bring it." ”

Mr. Shui Jing snorted and said, "Seeing that you are so filial, I will allow you to leave the village in the future." ”

Ma Hong was overjoyed and said, "The student thanked the teacher. ”

Mr. Shui Jing stood up, stretched out his hand to roll all the dozen or so skewers of mutton roasted on the fire, laughed and left.

Ma Hong was so happy in his heart that he hadn't gone out since he returned to Shuijing Villa last year. At that time, Ma Hong vowed to bring Liu Ye back, but failed, and Mr. Shuijing punished Ma Hong for half a year and was not allowed to leave the village.

"Teacher, he's an old man who can really eat."

Yang Yi said.

Xu Shu said to Yang Yi: "Senior Brother Yang, you can say that the teacher can eat, but don't say that the teacher is old, the teacher doesn't like to hear others say that he is old." ”

Yang Yi smiled: "Senior Brother Xie reminds." ”

Pang Tong sighed at this time, picked up the wine jar and said, "The seasonings have run out." ”

Ma Hong nodded and said, "Yes, it's really used up, if there are chili peppers as a seasoning, it would be better." ”

"Pull it? What kind of spice is this, how come I've never heard of it? ”

Xu Shu asked puzzled.

Ma Hong smiled and said, "I saw it in a book before, and it is said that the chili pepper is very good and very refreshing. [Chili pepper was introduced to China during the Ming Dynasty. 】

Since coming to this era, Ma Hong has many things that he can never taste again, such as Sichuan hot pot, scrambled eggs with tomatoes, and fried meat with onions......