Walking on the long and solemn palace road, Mu Ruqing and his party held their breath, not daring to take a wrong step, trying to make themselves less conspicuous.

But a group of flat-headed people, men, women and children, are leading the way in front of the newly canonized little prince, how can such a group of people not be eye-catching?

Although the palace maids and attendants they met on the road were all allowed to bow to the side, many of them secretly looked up at them while they walked over, making them feel uncomfortable.

However, relatively speaking, Ruan Mianmian is much better, her job is to deal with guests, so even if she is watched, there is not much pressure, but Jiang Xinyue, who is usually in a hurry, is like a wilted eggplant at this time, and her walk is a little unnatural.

Walking to everyone's legs are a little sore, this is the inner palace, the inner palace is countless pavilions, bluestone paved smooth winding path to wear these palaces like beads, and then connected to the middle of the spacious main road.

Lu Gui stopped, beckoned to a eunuch behind him: "It's inconvenient for me to go to the inner palace, you take someone with a taste of incense to the imperial dining room, and then take someone back to the saint, saying that I brought people here." ”

After that, Lu Gui turned around to leave, and when he passed by Ruan Mianmian's side, his lips moved slightly and whispered something, but no one heard it clearly except Ruan Mianmian, and only saw that her face was a little dazed.

Now is not the time to ask, everyone still turned around, and the young father-in-law stepped forward: "Everyone, please come with the miscellaneous family, there is still a long way to go to the imperial dining room." ”

This father-in-law's voice is shrill and tall, and a little hoarse, Ruan Mianmian They have never been in contact with eunuchs, they can't help but be a little surprised for a while, Ruan Mianmian rubbed his arms through his clothes, only to feel goosebumps all over his body, and he had to hold back his smile on his face, so as not to offend people.

Mu Ruqing also felt like this, he came here for the first time in his two lives, and dealt with the eunuch for the first time, but he was much more active, he took out a brocade purse from his arms and held it in his hand, and held the father-in-law's hand, and said "There is labor", and the purse was already in the hands of the father-in-law.

I saw that the father-in-law turned his purse upside down, and then he was satisfied with the sleeve and walked forward.

A pint of incense people followed behind to turn left and right, walked and had a stick of incense before arriving at a courtyard, there is a plaque hanging on the courtyard door, which is engraved with three big characters in the imperial dining room, this is the kitchen in the palace.

Looking through the door, there are a lot of dry goods dried in this yard, such as abalone and sea cucumber, bear's paw and deer tail, all spread out on bamboo mats like ordinary melons and vegetables.

There are also many spacious places, separated by bamboo curtains, which seem to have different functions, but they are all chefs in uniform with a group of palace maids and eunuchs are busy working, some rooms have dozens of stoves to stew soup and supplements, and some rooms have a row of woks, and the cooks are stir-frying in a pot with their hands, in addition, there are special people who are responsible for washing vegetables and selecting vegetables, specializing in cutting fish and meat, and the palace maids and eunuchs shuttle among them, which seems to be very efficient.

As soon as the father-in-law stood outside the door, a fat man who looked like a steward greeted him, with a smile on his face and a flattering expression: "Father-in-law De, why did you come in person, this is the one with the fragrance, right?" You don't have to bother to come here, even if it's told. ”

The father-in-law De, who was originally respectful in front of Lu Gui and didn't dare to make a sound, raised his neck at this time and changed his arrogant expression, looking like that, he almost looked at people with his nostrils.

"Well, Manager Zhan, I naturally believe you, otherwise you wouldn't be able to sit in the position of the head of the imperial dining room for so long, right? This fragrance was recommended by the little prince, so I entertained it. Dropping this sentence, the father-in-law of Nade shook off the dust and left without looking back.

The chubby manager Zhan smiled at everyone, and the fat piled up on his face parted to the side, revealing his facial features. Although this Zhan manager is obese, his facial features are kind, and he has some blessed aspects, he welcomed everyone in, and his tone was also kind: "Everyone from Yipin Xiang Restaurant, I have admired the name for a long time, this time the above ordered down, the meals and dishes in the imperial dining room, as well as the raw materials, are all called by you, everyone go to the warehouse with me first, and see if there is anything you need." ”

"Thank you Mr. Zhan, in Xia Mu Ruqing, I admire the cooking skills of the imperial dining room, today I saw that it is a hundred times more exquisite than our small family, if there is anything inappropriate for the juniors, please mention it." Mu Ruqing arched his hand.

Mu Ruqing's words were a very smart response, first, to show favor to Mr. Zhan, calling himself a junior, so as not to make him feel that he was arrogant, after all, outsiders took over his work, although it was only once, but it was still enough to make them feel a sense of crisis. The second is to show weakness, saying that his side is not as good as the imperial dining room, and naturally he is not as familiar with the above tastes and rules as the imperial dining room, so he needs to remind him not to make a big mistake. When he said this, even if he planned to hang it up in his heart, it would not work.

"Oh, where is it, Boss Mu should not be so polite, I don't know which of you is the head chef?"

"Manager Zhan smiled, there are two chefs for one taste, I am the head chef, and this Uncle Hua is the assistant cook." Mu Ruqing said.

The reason why it is not said that Uncle Hua is also a chef is because Uncle Hua's skills are all inherited from his father, and his father was a royal chef in the palace during his lifetime.

Manager Zhan suddenly turned his gaze to the inconspicuous Uncle Hua behind Mu Ruqing: "This old gentleman, surnamed Hua?" ”

"Exactly, he came from Jiangnan, and just came to the local area to find a living, I saw that he had some cooking skills, so I left him for food." Mu Ruqing was a little apprehensive in his heart, afraid that this Manager Zhan would know some old feelings, so he made up a history for Uncle Hua, so that he could get mixed up.

"Ao, then I thought wrong, I thought that we still had a master surnamed Hua back then, and that one-handed Beijing cuisine was a unique skill, I entered the palace when I was a teenager, and I beat him for a few months." Manager Zhan looked at Mu Ruqing again: "The warehouse is here, Boss Mu can pick and choose what ingredients you need, but the food you bring has to be carefully inspected by the little eunuchs in the palace, after all, the things at the entrance of the Holy Castle must always be paid special attention to, forgive me." ”

So Fang Cannon untied the square bag on his back and put it on a table, a few little eunuchs walked over with their heads down, the leader took out the bags of hot pot ingredients in his pocket, and the rest of them put out all kinds of strange tools from the toolbox they carried with them, and carefully examined them.

Mu Ruqing and Manager Zhan waited on the side, watching those little eunuchs spread out the base material carefully, even cutting a relatively large piece of chili pepper to observe, and only after a quarter of an hour did they pack these materials as they were, handed them back to Mu Ruqing, bowed and retreated.

"Since there is no problem, then everyone will be happy, Boss Mu will choose the ingredients by himself, these ingredients here, as well as the stove outside, are all for your use today, Zhan will not bother." After Mr. Zhan finished speaking, he retreated.

This manager Zhan is also a smart person, he was present during the inspection, even if something went wrong later, it was not his responsibility, and he didn't stay after the inspection, because he knew that every famous restaurant and cook must have their own secrets, so he simply handed these over to Yipinxiang, which was considered sincerity.

After Mr. Zhan left, Ruan Mianmian leaned on the table with a sigh of relief: "I didn't know that there were such big rules here, it really tortured the dead." ”

"Can't stand sleeping like this? If the emperor sees you and never forgets it, he has to marry you as the imperial concubine and let you be restrained in this palace for the rest of his life, how can it be good? Jiang Xinyue had already gone to the shelf to get vegetables, and she was still smiling and talking about Ruan Mianmian.

"Phew, Sister Xinyue is the worst, let's just go into the palace to cook, how can we meet the emperor? Besides, if you can really see it, you will first fall in love with the big beauty of Sister Xinyue. Ruan Mianmian grimaced, and ran to the side to pick and slice fresh meat with Fang Cannon.

Now that it was getting late, the banquets in the palace would start after dark, but the time left for Mu Ruqing and them was less than an hour.

In this hour, Mu Ruqing and Uncle Hua added water to the hot pot base and boiled it into a soup base, Fang Cannon Ruan Mianmian was responsible for cutting the meat, and Jiang Xinyue and Liu Xin'er were washing and chopping vegetables, sweating profusely. Liu Xin'er stood aside and barely spoke all day, as if she was still the proud lady who was dustless under her eyes, but she didn't shout tired at all when she really worked, and in the end, her hands were soaked white in the basin.

The lamp was very much, Manager Zhan came with a group of palace maids wearing pink palace clothes, and Mu Ruqing's work here was finally over, watching the processed hot pot and ingredients one by one being packed into luxurious tableware and taken away, everyone sat down and rested.

"Everyone, it stands to reason that you will send you home when you are done, but there are big rules in this palace, and you have to wait, and after the emperor and the ladies have used it, you can go back, and you have to be wronged to have a light meal in the imperial dining room, and wait for a while."

So Manager Zhan led Yipinxiang's people to another room, this room was much simpler, like a restaurant dedicated to eating, a row of long tables, on which there were some exquisite fish dishes, although the tableware was not as luxurious and valuable as the palace maids just now, but it was also gorgeous.

Mr. Zhan brought them here as usual, watched them eat for a while and then retreated. Ruan Mianmian didn't have the expression of enjoyment that Mr. Zhan imagined, but he thought about it carefully, who could satisfy his appetite unhurriedly when he was so nervous? But what Mr. Zhan didn't know was that the food they didn't eat was not because they were nervous, but because although the dishes made in this imperial dining room were exquisite, they were no different from Uncle Hua's craftsmanship.

"Uncle Hua, Mianmian thinks it's still delicious for you to cook, look at this sauce pork ribs, they don't make as fragrant as yours, and the palace chef, hum!" Ruan Mianmian snorted lightly and muttered to Uncle Hua.

"When this word spreads, these people in the palace have to chew you up and eat it, can't you say this in front of people?" Mu Ruqing turned his chopsticks and lightly tapped Ruan Mianmian's hand picking up vegetables. "Don't worry, Brother Mu, I know how to measure." Ruan Mianmian smiled, and there was a cunning and cute light in his eyes like a hamster.