When breakfast was ready, Aunt Rong carried it herself, and walked away with Yu Gui who was carrying her breakfast with a smile.

Sending Aunt Rong away, the atmosphere in the kitchen immediately eased, as long as Aunt Rong was there, everyone couldn't help but be nervous, as soon as she left, everyone's appetite was better, and they ate their breakfast around the table.

After the meal, the little eunuchs brought today's poultry, meat, vegetables and fruits, and everyone immediately split up and got busy.

Yesterday Xiangru was one of the three handymen, but today she can stand by and watch, if she doesn't want to boil water and make tea in the kitchen, she can go back to the house to do her private work, and then come back to make lunch.

But there is something else to do today, winter clothes are distributed today, and the cook has always been responsible for receiving everyone's supplies and distributing them in a centralized manner, and then Xiangru has been in charge, and this time is no exception, taking advantage of this time to be fine, Xiangru left the women's hospital and went to the Lotus Whisker Hospital of the Tai Hospital.

There are no palace maids in the hospital, all the people who do things are eunuchs, the lotus temple is where the eunuchs live, and the tailors of the needlework bureau measure the height and size and distribute the goods here, and at the bottom of this large set of courtyards is the residence of the largest head of all the palace people in the hospital - the chief eunuch Du Gonggong.

Within the scope of the hospital, except for the doctors, all those who want to be named will be named with medicinal materials. Especially personal names, for a long time, even I have forgotten what my real name is, and only when I rise to a certain status will I be recalled.

Xiangru paused, and only then did she react, she was promoted to a formal chef yesterday and changed her hairstyle, and now everyone else has to call her "Aunt He".

Thinking like this, Xiangru's steps became brisk, smiling, and happy—she was also an aunt!

The women's medical hall is directly east of the Tai Hospital, accounting for about a quarter of the area, and the first thing to enter the main hospital after entering the door is the duty room of the doctors and wives on duty. Of course, this arrangement is to have something to say hello, enter from the gate of the Tai Hospital in the north, turn left, and turn a few corners along the verandah to the gate of the women's medical hall.

The Lotus Whisker Courtyard is in the southwest corner, which is exactly the diagonal, but it cannot be reached in a straight line, and you have to go through countless large and small courtyards to reach the Lotus Whisker Temple.

All the way out of the women's medical hall, the little palace maids I met along the way saw that Xiangru had changed her hair bun, no matter which aunt in charge they belonged to, they all respectfully retreated to the side and said "good morning aunt" first, and then they did their own work, while several little palace maids who also came out to receive supplies kept a certain distance and followed Xiangru behind.

When he stepped out of the women's hospital and stepped into the territory of the Tai Hospital, the little eunuchs he met were also like this, seeing Xiangru coming, he retreated to the wall and saluted Xiangru obediently, while Xiangru only saluted when he touched the eunuch in charge with an ebony waist card on his belt.

The scope of the hospital is large, there are many eunuchs, and Xiangru has been saluted by many people along the way, and her vanity has been unprecedentedly satisfied.

Distributing items is not a technical job, or even physical work, as long as you use a little brain power, count the number and confirm that it is correct, and then the Lotus Whisker Temple will send the little eunuch to deliver these things to the various courtyards of the female medical hall.

Entering the Lotus Whisker Courtyard and entering the courtyard first, the things to be distributed are neatly stacked under the corridors on both sides, Xiangru found the ones for everyone in the kitchen at the bottom of the corridor on the right hand, and each person's clothes and shoes were wrapped separately, and a note with the name of the person was stuffed into the shoes, which was convenient for going back and distributing.

Xiangru counts whether they are all logarithmic, and whether anyone has less clothes or shoes. After ordering these, I also had to order the rationed cloth, needlework, face, fat and pancreatic balls, etc., whether the number was enough according to the head, but not the number of them who had a total of sixteen people was only given fifteen.

After ordering, the little eunuch on the side took it to the yard to load the car, and after she finished ordering and signing for it, the preparations for departure were also ready, don't look at too many things, a wheelbarrow was all loaded, piled high, and the long hemp rope was tied firmly around a few times.

Xiangru checked around the car to see if the rope was tied, and when she looked up, she found that the little eunuch who pushed the cart for her was quite familiar, tall, with a white face, a cold red nose, an indigo blue pan-collared shirt, a plain bun on her head, no ornaments on her body, and she looked sixteen or seventeen years old.

Seeing Xiangru staring at him thoughtfully, the little eunuch smiled shyly, and spoke softly, "Auntie is busy all day, she must not remember me, I am Banxia who delivers food to the kitchen every day." ”

Xiangru nodded suddenly, isn't it familiar, I have to see him every morning, but I have never spoken, and I don't know his name.

"Auntie, can I go?" Banxia took out a handkerchief to wipe his nose and picked up the car.

Xiangru turned around and looked, saw that there was a vacancy, and motioned for Banxia to leave.

There are only more than ten people in the kitchen, don't look at Xiangru's careful inventory, compared to others, she is still fast, when the palace people in the pulp washing room took away their supplies, the second one who went out was Xiangru and Banxia, and the third group didn't know when they could leave.

Banxia pushed a wheelbarrow out of another small gate in the Lotus Temple, and circled along the outer wall of the Tai Hospital, usually walking like this when delivering food, because only this road is flat all the way, without steps and thresholds.

Xiangru walked beside the car, listened to Banxia cough a few times after a while, and listened to him sniff again, and walked halfway, Xiangru finally couldn't help but ask Banxia if she had a cold.

Banxia nodded while sniffing, and told Xiangru the reason for her illness, it turned out that a few days ago, everyone found that a window in the house was broken before going to bed, and it was not closed tightly, and when they slept at night, the house was full of people who blew cold wind all night, and after getting up in the morning, some people began to feel uncomfortable, although the windows were quickly repaired during the day, but everyone still got sick one by one, and his symptoms were quite mild.

Xiangru was a little speechless when she heard this, how sloppy did she have to be before going to bed to find out that the window was broken, "Have you taken medicine?" ”

"I've drunk ginger soup."

"You're coughing and snotty, what's the use of ginger soup? You're an acquaintance in our kitchen, do you want to listen to me? ”

"Auntie, what's the best way to do it?" Banxia stopped and put down the car, took out a handkerchief and blew his nose vigorously before pushing the car and continuing to walk.

"Six dollars of ginger, twelve dollars of starch sugar, add three bowls of water and boil into half a bowl, and serve it hot twice. This is the amount of one person, there are many of you, according to this proportion to increase the amount, this recipe dispels wind and cold, relieves cough and phlegm, and specializes in treating wind and cold cough. (Note)

"Huh? Is that all there are to you? Since both have ginger, what is the difference between this and ginger soup? Banxia was a little puzzled.

"Because ginger only dissipates cold, and caramel can moisten the lungs and relieve cough, we have people who have cold and cough, and they are all treated in this way, and they can save trouble with the doctor."

"I see, thank you aunt for your advice, I'll try it when I get back." got a cure for the disease, and Banxia's steps suddenly became brisk.

The two walked around the wall of the Tai Hospital in half a big circle, entered the women's hospital hall from the usual path of food delivery, and dragged across several thresholds in a row, and finally arrived at Aunt Rong's courtyard.

Aunt Rong had been waiting for a long time, and when she heard the movement in the courtyard, she came out immediately, Banxia Zhaoxiangru instructed her to remove the things in the car and pile them under the corridor, and retired after receiving Aunt Rong's reward.

Xiangru found the clothes for Aunt Rong, carefully put them in her closet, and then took half of the cloth needlework and carried it into another room, where several large cabinets were dedicated to these things.

Xiangru put the new collar fabric into the cabinet, and then rummaged through the white cloth of the previous collar and wrapped it in a small furoshiro. In addition to the consumption of a relatively large number of various colors of needlework, the largest number of cabinets is all kinds of cloth, many of which have been put for a few years, even Xiangru does not know how long ago things, put for a long time to change color, not suitable for making clothes, can only be used to make shoes and socks.

After tidying up the cabinet, Xiangru came out and reported the situation to Aunt Rong, who was sitting in the bedroom drinking tea, and Aunt Rong waved her hand to let Xiangru go down after listening.

Xiangru went to the porch to find the clothes bags of the four cooks and the lilac honeysuckle golden red root and threw them aside, and then sorted out the respective shares of the seven people from the cloth sewing kit. Although Xiangru was the cook who suddenly rose yesterday, because she was just in tune with Jin Honggen, she didn't need to report to the above to readjust the total amount of items rationed each month, so she only needed to put the original Jin Honggen's share into her baggage.

Xiangru returned to the kitchen with a stack of burdens, Lilac, Yinhua and Jin Honggen had just started washing vegetables, and said hello to the three of them, Xiangru went straight to the house where she slept the night before and threw down the three burdens, and then returned to the residence, and said hello to Chef Li who was washing clothes in the yard, and put their things on their respective beds.

Seeing that this year's winter division came down, the cooks hurriedly began to discuss the embroidery of clothes.

In this courtyard live are from the courtyard of the "reserve aunts", each of the top of the aunts usually compete with each other, the people below are naturally not exempt from vulgarity, people fight for a breath, Buddha fights for a stick of incense, you don't want to compare with others, but others want to compare with you, don't want to be looked down upon by others, you have to be more attentive, this is involuntarily.

Fortunately, their share is large, no matter how much they are deducted by Aunt Rong, the needle and thread that should be used are still enough, but they are not as rich as Aunt Rong and can change patterns in three days.

Through the open window, Xiangru saw that Chef Li and the others had already muttered and discussed, smiled faintly, put her clothes into the cabinet, and put the shoe-making materials and shoe samples she brought back together, she was also going to get busy.

After finishing at noon, Xiangru waited for Aunt Rong to eat, everyone tidied up the kitchen together, and Xiangru took someone to Aunt Rong's courtyard to move everyone's things to the kitchen. The four cooks presided over separately, the two cooks here beckoned everyone to receive the clothes, and Xiangru and Chef Li distributed the cloth needlework and thread.

It's all habitual work, and everyone has long been accustomed to things being detained by their aunts to fill their pockets, and although there is little left in their hands, it is better than nothing.

After sending things, Chef Li and the three of them went back to the house to rest, Xiangru didn't dare to rest, she hurried up to make paste in the kitchen, which was used to make a mille-feuille bottom.

After the paste was cooked, Xiangru immediately went back to the house, removed the bedding and mat on the bed, exposed the flat bed board underneath, cut the white cotton cloth she had just received today into the same size cloth and spread it on the bed board, and carefully smeared the paste on it with a brush.

Wipe a piece of sticking a piece, this is a fine job, must be flat and pressed, there can be no bubbles, otherwise it will affect the quality of the sole, Xiangru with a hardwood bar to help complete this process.

The wooden strip is better than the palm of the hand, and the cotton cloth is not large, just enough to cut out two pairs of soles, and all the bubbles can be completely bulldozed in one effort, and the two layers of cotton cloth are tightly fitted together, and then the paste is brushed, and then the cotton cloth is pasted up, and it has to be pasted nine layers.

After two busy days, Xiangru made nine of these cloth boards, and then spent two days drying them a little, and then began the drying process, drying all the front and back sides of all the cloth boards thoroughly, leaving no moisture, until it became a hard and veritable "board".

When the nine cloth boards are completely done, everyone has officially entered the winter for seven or eight days, and then the kitchen ushered in a good news, Aunt Xiao's appetite has improved, and she can finally eat more things at every meal, especially the rice soup and white porridge sent in the morning and evening, Aunt Xiao can eat them all at once, and the noodle soup mixed with various materials at noon can also be at least half of the stomach.

This is indeed a good thing, since Aunt Xiao fell ill, the atmosphere in the kitchen has not been so relaxed for a long time.

Aunt Rong is in a better mood, Xiangru's life is also better, since she found that Aunt Xiao's appetite has improved, Aunt Rong came back and praised Xiangru, and then asked her to think about what to give Aunt Xiao to eat next, now it is time to change some recipes.

Xiangru didn't feel in a hurry, it depended on Aunt Xiao's meaning, if she still didn't want to eat the mixed porridge with various ingredients, she still cooked white porridge for her, otherwise if Aunt Xiao didn't eat it, she would make Aunt Fang laugh again.

Aunt Rong thought about it, why did she give the woman a joke, so she decided to take advantage of the afternoon snack delivery time to ask Aunt Xiao what she wanted to eat.

After eating her lunch in the kitchen, Xiangru went back to the house to continue making shoes.

Using the mold of the sole of the shoe that I had made before, I traced the outline on the cloth board that I had dried, and then cut it out one by one, and cut eighteen pieces, nine pieces on each of the left and right feet. He put down the soles of his shoes, and took a white cotton cloth and cut eighteen strips of white cloth of equal width, which were to be used to put the soles on them.

Xiangru wrapped up the ones that she couldn't use for the time being and put them in the closet, took a needle and thread, put on a thimble, and began to sew the first piece of sole.

Nine layers of cloth are glued, and it is quite dry, it is difficult to pierce each stitch, and you should also pay attention to the cloth strips not to be crooked, Xiangru sews very slowly and carefully.

Sewn half a piece, it's time to make dinner, Xiangru went to the kitchen and heard a new news from everyone's mouths, Aunt Rong came back from sending snacks and her face was drooping, I don't know if she was angry with Aunt Xiao again, and reminded Xiangru to be careful when she sent the meal over for a while.

What can Aunt Xiao give Aunt Rong to be angry with? It must be Aunt Fang's sake, that woman is really capable, and she can always make Aunt Rong come back angrily.

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PS: Most of the medicinal diets in this book come from the People's Medical Publishing House's "Chinese Clinical Medicinal Dietetics", which has been discontinued.

Re-PS: The People's Medical Publishing House is a central-level medical and health professional publishing house directly under the Ministry of Health of the People's Republic of China.