Speaking of which, at this time, Lu Gui had already used the secret method in the palace to disguise himself as the image of an ordinary young man, and quietly got a few sets of clothes of the guards of the Qi Palace, and mixed in with people, and the guards who were replaced by them were knocked unconscious and sent to the plum garden to be guarded by Zhu En.

As soon as Li Binghai walked out of the gate of the Qi Palace, the guards guarding the door stopped him and asked, "What are you doing?" Sneaky, isn't it that he has something from his master and wants to escape? Open the baggage and let's check! ”

Li Binghai was startled, these two guards were raw and fierce, so they had to open the baggage, and there were a few torn clothes and some daily necessities inside, all of which were cheap goods that people didn't want for nothing.

The guard looked at it a few times, pursed his lips to reveal a disdainful expression, and waved his hand at him: "Okay, okay, poor ghost, no oil and water at all, bad luck!" ”

Another guard, who looked more amiable, stopped him: "Why are you holding people back like this, hey, what are you doing here?" ”

Although Li Binghai was arrogant, he didn't dare to be too disdainful when he thought about his task, but replied calmly: "I was ordered by the prince to go to the south to buy ingredients." ”

"Do you have a token?"

"Yes, yes." Li Binghai took out a small ivory brand from his arms, with a circle of patterns engraved on it, and a seal in the middle of the Qi character was like a unique token of the Qi Palace.

The two guards took turns to take a look, and one of them put the token in his hand and pinched it a few times before returning it to Li Binghai, waved his hand and said, "Go, go, next time, remember to bring something to honor the master, standing guard is very tired." ”

Li Binghai walked out along the long street in front of the Qi Palace, the two guards returned to their lazy appearance, the fierce one looked up at the sky, seemed to think that the sun was too good, squinted his eyes and raised his hand to block it, at this time, a young man dressed as a common man at the roadside tea stall covered the hat on his head, got up and walked out in one direction.

A few days later, Ruan Mianmian wore a wide robe and long skirt with ink color gradient to eat and sow for a day, the main dish is steamed sea bass made by Wang Xun, Ruan Bai is ingenious, and specially made a boat with a canopy with clean bamboo strips, and the fisherman who stands on it holding a penny and wearing a lily robe with a hat stands on it, making a boat to cross the water, and it is placed on the edge of the door of a pinch, attracting guests to stop and take a closer look.

Busy time flies, and in the blink of an eye, the day before Yipinxiang hosts the city's much-anticipated chef competition.

In the past few days, Wang Xun has been the main pillar in the kitchen, Mu Ruqing and Uncle Hua are busy assessing the cooking skills of the contestants, and they want to select the best fifteen people to open the competition, but they feel more and more that good cooks are really difficult to find.

But fortunately, there are finally a few people with acceptable cooking skills in a group of fish eyes, there is a young chef who is about the same age as Mu Ruqing who knows how to barbecue in the Western Regions, and a bold man from the north who makes a first-hand iron pot stew, as well as orange-red spicy cabbage, which makes Mu Ruqing very surprised.

Although the rest of the selected ones are not so amazing, but in the end, Uncle Hua and Wang Xun are too good at Yipinxiang, and these chefs who come to participate in the election can run a restaurant on their own outside, but under the cooking skills of Uncle Yipinxianghua who are better than the imperial chef, there is no light, and they can't compare with Mu Ruqing's cooking skills.

This was the last day before the start of the competition, so Yipinxiang closed early, Anyang Hou was afraid that there would be not enough manpower here, and sent some guards and small servants to help Zhang Luo, and set up a huge platform in the courtyard of Yipinxiang, with several rows of seats on all sides, and a small table was placed in a section, on which were placed fashionable melons and fruits and melon seeds and other debore-relieving snacks.

At the moment, the seats are still empty, the little guys come and go busy carrying and decorating, the six doors on the side of the hall are also open like last time, and some exquisite seats are also set up, one by one, these are for the noble young masters and ladies to sit, and a small wing room is set up near the window on the second floor, so that those conservative nobles who are unwilling to come down and watch the game with others can have a clean place.

The rest of the chefs who signed up for the competition gathered in the courtyard at the moment to wait to see the results of the selection, Liu Xin'er and Ruan Bai accompanied them, talking and laughing, although they were all competitors, they were all harmonious, drinking tea and drinking.

Seeing that the people who signed up were almost checked, Mu Ruqing, Ruan Mianmian, and Uncle Hua discussed the fifteen places in the room were about the same, and when they were about to go out to post a notice, another person with a strange description walked into the door of Yipinxiang.

Ruan Bai saw that someone was coming, and immediately greeted him, although he came late, but he acted cleverly and thoughtfully, and replaced the original Fang Cannon's guys, and he did a better job than Fang Cannon, that is, the familiar customers would praise him for his exquisite and clear long sleeves and good dancing.

Ruan Bai greeted him with a smile, and did not deliberately look at this person with his spare eyes: "This guest, is he here to eat or to be a guest?" ”

This person was dressed in sackcloth, carrying a burden on his shoulders, his expression was a little stiff and cold, and he looked like he was not getting along with him, it was Li Binghai, the former imperial chef who came out of the corner gate of the Qi Wangfu a few days ago.

He raised his eyes and only said, "I'm here to participate in the Chef's Competition." ”

Although Ruan Bai felt that this person was cold and weird, he didn't put away his smiling face, and only returned: "You came just in time, our competition is about to end, you sit down and wait first, I'll have someone serve a good cup of tea, and then report it, so that the judges can come out to judge again." ”

In the auditions in the past few days, Mu Ruqing has specially told him that no matter what kind of people come to participate in the competition, they are not allowed to stop, this is to maintain the reputation of Yipinxiang, so as not to make people feel proud of becoming famous, and secondly, because of their big event, the people sent by the emperor in the palace of Qi have already replied, and even sent a portrait of that person over, but I haven't seen the same person come in the past few days, and now Mu Ruqing is a little skeptical that King Qi doesn't plan to take advantage of this loophole.

Hearing that Ruan Bai said that a contestant was coming, Mu Ruqing and the others immediately cleaned up the place, came out to take a look, and saw Li Binghai who seemed to be bubbling with cold air around him, with a stiff expression, and a crutch, standing like a lonely crane.

Mu Ruqing and Ruan Mianmian glanced at each other, there was nothing on their faces, but they were a little relieved in their hearts, this person's face and temperament were very distinctive, they almost recognized it at a glance, this is the person on the portrait passed down by Lu Gui, it is exactly the same, it must be the cook sent by the King of Qi.

Ruan Mianmian raised a smile and said softly: "Mr. is here to compete?" Please come in and pick up your favorite dish and make it with our chef who tastes it and gets the result right away. As he spoke, he walked to the side and stretched out his hand to support Li Binghai's arm without a trace, and walked forward gently and gently, taking into account Li Binghai's disability, but also not making people feel deliberate without a trace, which can be regarded as giving Li Binghai face.

The stiffness on Li Binghai's face was almost unbearable, he looked down at Ruan Mianmian holding his slender jade hand, and then looked at Ruan Mianmian's peaceful smile, she didn't seem to notice anything, everything was natural and gentle, and she was caring both physically and mentally, so that people couldn't find any mistakes, and they wouldn't feel embarrassed. Others either pay attention to their crippled bodies first, more or less despise or despise them, or they pay attention to their identity as the imperial chef, and chew their tongues behind their backs without saying anything, and this is still the first person to treat themselves as normal people.

"Wait, don't you think I'm a cripple?" Li Binghai stopped and did not move forward.

Ruan Mianmian thought about it in his heart, but replied without pause: "You are joking, our small shop is choosing a good chef today, only looking at cooking skills is the right reason, others have nothing to do with the competition, and only good cooking skills will be valued by us, as for whether the body is deficient, it is not what we should think about, this is also a reason to be a human being, isn't it?" ”

Li Binghai didn't know what to think, didn't speak again, and finally raised his steps and limped into the courtyard of Yipinxiang with the support of Ruan Mianmian.

Naturally, Yipinxiang would not take out his kitchen for competition, but there were many confidential things in it, which were not suitable for cutting off their financial means in public, so they rebuilt a few simple stoves in the yard, piled them up with mud and bricks, and it was convenient to disassemble them when the time came.

Ruan Mianmian led Li Binghai to the edge of the stove, and the whole person-high shelf next to the stove was full of all kinds of raw materials, vegetables, fruits, and fresh meat, which were only selected by the contestants.

Mu Ruqing sat on the table and chair on the side, quietly watched Li Binghai put down his crutches, first steamed the rice with washed rice, took advantage of the steaming of the rice in the pot, reached out and took two or three eggs from the bamboo basket at the bottom of the shelf, and cut half an onion, a carrot and a cucumber, and in a blink of an eye, he cut it into small pieces of the same size, and presented them in a bowl for later use.

Mu Ruqing and Uncle Hua both looked at it intently, but they were surprised in their hearts, his method of cutting vegetables was extremely different from others, this is the cutting method made in the palace for the sake of good-looking dishes, requiring the hands to be steady, the heart to be careful, and only take the most essence and good-looking part of the ingredients, like the carrots and cucumbers of Fangcai, it is natural to use them for cooking outside, but the palace only takes the middle piece of the middle piece with little change in thickness and is a finger long, which is even more shocking in the eyes of Uncle Hua.

The news sent by the secret guard only said that a suspicious person came out of the Qi Palace, who went out of the kitchen, but did not say that the person from the Qi Palace's Mansion was originally from the imperial dining room.

Mu Ruqing secretly helped Uncle Fuhua's hand, and Uncle Hua also calmed down, no matter where he came from, now he is doing things for King Qi to harm Yipinxiang, in order to keep Yipinxiang, and in order to help the emperor bring down King Qi, this chess piece must be removed.