The king of England, who left the guards in the courtyard, took off his cloak and entered the house, and as soon as he stepped into the hall, a warm air rushed to his face: "You are warm here, like spring." ”

Uncle Hua in the house, Jiang Xinyue, and Mu Ruqing were eating some dried fruit snacks around the stove, and when they saw him come in to make way for him, Uncle Hua blew off the skin of the roasted peanuts on the side of the stove and grabbed a handful for him, he was not restrained, and sat down comfortably to eat the peanuts in the palm of his hand.

"Why is it snowing, but is there something wrong?" Mu Ruqing raised an eyebrow at him.

"It's just that the emperor asked me to give me an edict, let you serve the banquet in the evening after three days, mainly to prepare hot pot, and prepare some other dishes. There is also a request to Jingshu County Lord to go to the palace to live in the palace for a night or two in advance, the Queen Mother thinks that you can't eat well and can't sleep, if it weren't for the cold, I want to go out of the palace to see you. ”

"This is easy to do, the ingredients have been prepared, in addition to the hot pot, there are many novelties, just keep it without losing face." Mu Ruqing clapped his hands and shook off the peanut crumbs on his hands.

"Then I'll go buy some things tomorrow with Mianmian, and the day after tomorrow I will go into the palace to live, and by the way, I will bring some good things from the people into the palace, the palace is magnificent, but I don't feel comfortable living, and I don't know how those ladies have come over after so many years." Jiang Xinyue grabbed a handful of melon seeds and knocked them.

Lu Gui grabbed the turtle sent by Ruan Mianmian from his arms, the little turtle had grown up a little, the shell on his back was round, and he was not afraid of life, he crawled around as soon as he put it on the ground, and finally roasted the fire at Lu Gui's feet, and he didn't move comfortably.

Uncle Hua saw that this little turtle was cute, so he peeled a peanut and put it on the ground, and the little turtle tried it for a while and ate it, which made Uncle Hua laugh.

"Don't go, call your guards, let's eat hot pot tonight, I have studied a fresh hot pot style, you can also taste it." Mu Ruqing stayed in Lu to eat.

"Then I'm not welcome, I don't want to run back and forth in the cold." Lu Gui also grabbed the melon seeds and knocked them up, not like a handsome and noble prince in the court, but like a wandering knight walking the rivers and lakes.

Ruan Mianmian and Fang Dacang were tired of playing, and they also gasped and returned to the house, so everyone began to prepare the dinner for the night. Jiang Xinyue and Ruan Mianmian washed vegetables, Uncle Hua and Fang Dacang cut vegetables, and Mu Ruqing began to boil the hot pot soup base.

The guards brought by Lu Gui were not idle, they relied on their strength, and took advantage of everyone's cooking efforts to chop all the firewood in the courtyard of Yipinxiang, and they were neatly stacked, and they looked very good after falling on a layer of snow.

Even Lu Gui rolled up his sleeves and was eager to try, but Uncle Hua had no choice but to hand over the simplest job of steaming rice to him, and he also went over to take a look from time to time, for fear that the rice he steamed was not in the right heat.

After a burst of laughter and laughter, the dishes were almost ready, and everyone set up two large tables in the spacious hall of Yipinxiang, the people of Yipinxiang and the British King Lu Gui sat at one table, and the guards brought by Lu Gui sat at one table, but the dishes of the two tables were the same, and there was no difference.

As for Jiang Xinyue's maids, after a half-day holiday, they returned to the county lord's mansion, and they had their own kitchen in the county lord's mansion to cook for them, so they didn't need to worry about a pint of incense.

There are not so many etiquette rules in Yipinxiang, and Lu Gui himself is not a person who cares about the rules, so everyone sits around like a family.

"What kind of pot is this, it smells weird, but it's very fresh." Lu Gui asked, pointing to the milky white soup base in the middle of the table.

"This is a seafood milk pot, some time ago I went out to purchase, accidentally got the inspiration in the aquatic street, with the most essential part of all kinds of seafood slowly simmered over low heat, scallops only take the scallops, lobster only remove the shrimp tail, crab as long as crab roe crab paste, simmer for four hours, and then strain the soup, and then pour in a small amount of milk, add all kinds of spices, so that the soup base is thick and white and fragrant, used to cook seafood hot pot is the most suitable." Mu Ruqing told the story.

It's just that he can't say that this seafood hot pot has been there in his previous life for a long time, he just moved it over and made improvements according to the tastes of people in this era, even if he said it, I'm afraid no one will believe it.

Before this meal, he also specially called An Yanghou to try it together, and Anyanghou burst into tears after drinking a mouthful of soup, saying that this was exactly the same as the seafood hot pot he had eaten before.

After listening to Mu Ruqing's introduction, Lu Gui was naturally moved, and hurriedly picked up the soup bowl and took a sip, and suddenly his eyes narrowed: "It's really delicious, the soup base alone is so delicious, I really don't know how delicious the food cooked with it is." ”

After all, the capital is not near the sea, and ordinary people rarely eat fresh seafood once a year, not to mention the versatile delicacy of hot pot.

Ruan Mianmian and Liu Xin'er got up and hurriedly put all kinds of seafood and aquatic products on the table into the soup pot, and after a while, fine white heat came out of the pot.

Mu Ruqing chose to accompany the seafood hot pot not the usual beef and mutton, but all kinds of seafood that are not often found in Beijing. Fresh ingredients such as large prawns, sea shells and abalone, and crabs, while the main course is filleted with fish fillets as thin as cicada wings.

The fish is a live sea fish, the fishermen at sea catch it ashore and put it in the sea water, after the horse is quickly transported to the capital, only one-tenth of them are still alive, these live fish can be used to cut into fish fillets and shabu-shabu, those who die because of the bumps in the road can only be used for stew soup or other uses.

The fish fillet was put into the water almost in a breath and glowed white, Ruan Mianmian fished it out with a small colander, first gave the guest Lu Gui a spoonful, and then picked up the remaining fish fillet and distributed it to everyone.

Everyone couldn't wait to pick up the meat slices and put them in their mouths, their eyes were slightly closed to feel the aroma and taste of the meat, Lu Gui couldn't help but let out a "hmm", and couldn't wait for Ruan Mianmian to help him fish it out, so he picked up the colander and scooped it up.

After a short time, the prawns also turned orange-red, so everyone scooped up the shrimp and ate them. Ruan Mianmian picked up a plate of somewhat translucent meat puree from the table, scooped it into pieces with a small spoon and threw it into the hot pot.

"Mianmian, what is this, gnocchi?" Lu Gui had never seen such a thing, but now he was becoming more and more curious about Yipinxiang's novelties.

Ruan Mianmian burst out laughing: "Lord Wang, this is much more delicious than gnocchi, this is made by Brother Mu himself, he called this shrimp slippery, it is made with large shrimp to peel off the head and skin, chop it into meat sauce, and add some seasonings and make it, you will know it when you taste it later." ”

"I see you know so well, did you grow up eating this since you were a child?" Lu Gui's eyes crooked with a smile.

"Harm, I was in an orphanage until I was fifteen years old, and it was a good thing to have food to eat, all I knew was that in the short six months after I came to Yipinxiang, the experience of this half year was even richer than my previous fifteen years combined." Ruan Mianmian's expression did not change, and he was still smiling.

Lu Gui only vaguely knew that Ruan Mianmian's background was not very good, but he didn't know that she grew up in an orphanage, and he felt speechless for a while, but he didn't seem to mind Ruan Mianmian, so he didn't say anything about this apology, but when he looked at Ruan Mianmian again, he had a little more admiration in his eyes.

A little girl who has not yet reached the end of her life can see the hardships of life so clearly, which most people can't have.

Looking at the snow outside the window, Ruan Mianmian said again: "In the past, when it snowed, more than a dozen of our children, dressed in tattered cotton clothes that could drop cotton out of the way, crowded on the Chase bunk, no one could sleep, just stay up all night, often people couldn't stay up, just fell asleep, and never woke up again." In the morning, the old woman in charge came in to see if we were still alive, and dragged out the ones who were not angry, and never to be seen again. ”

Ruan Mianmian paused for a moment and took the porridge handed over by Fang Cannon: "So in the past, I only thought that the snow was terrible, and many friends just couldn't open their eyes in the snowy night, but when I got here, I realized that the snow was so beautiful." ”

Fang Dacang patted her shoulder distressedly, and Ruan Mianmian smiled back, blooming as small as the plum on the hem of her clothes.

"That's it, I see that you are also very concerned about your friends in the orphanage, or we can wait for a good day to visit them, and leave them some cotton clothes and quilts and food." Jiang Xinyue said.

"It's okay to eat, but you don't need to send cotton clothes and quilts, and it's useless to send them." Ruan Mianmian smiled wistfully.

"Why is that?" Mu Ruqing asked.

"You can't fake eating on the spot, but if we walk on the front foot, the old woman will take it away, or sell it for money to eat and drink, or take it back to her home, it will not let us really get it, it's just empty joy."

"What? Is there such a thing? Doesn't anyone care? Jiang Xinyue's chivalrous woman naturally couldn't see this kind of dirty behavior, and she was immediately angry.

"Who would fight for a group of orphans who have no relatives or friends, and besides, the things that are closed in the orphanage are easily not known to outsiders. There are even more disgusting things than this, every year there are many children who are picked by the shops in the city to be slaves, or large families choose beautiful girls to be maids or concubines, which is common. Ruan Mianmian's face was calm, but the sadness in his eyes couldn't be faked.

"We're so beautiful, but luckily we weren't discovered by these bad guys." After hearing this, Fang Cannon only felt that it had not been easy for her all these years, and sighed silently.

"That's because I'm smart, every time these ill-intentioned people come, I put mud on my face, or run to the old blind man next door to hide, and no one ever finds out." Ruan Mianmian pursed her lips and smiled.

"These beasts are so hateful, when I enter the palace, I will tell Your Majesty that there are so many orphanages in this country, which should be a place to love poor children, but it has become a nightmare and hell for many children," Jiang Xinyue said firmly.