Yinhua and Lilac patted Xiangru on the shoulder, congratulated and blessed her, and then pulled the depressed Jin Honggen out of the kitchen to go back to pack their luggage, and it was their time to work when they had eaten.

In the house where she was used to living, Jin Honggen wiped her tears while packing up her personal belongings, Yinhua and Lilac usually didn't have much contact with her, and couldn't say anything comforting, the two of them stood on the side like a wooden stake and waited quietly.

The palace maids had very few personal belongings, and after a while, they packed up, and when Jin Honggen stepped out of the room with a few burdens on his back, he reluctantly glanced back, and then lowered his head and followed them to the residence of the inferior palace maids under the guidance of Yinhua and Lilac.

When Jin Honggen was tidying up, Xiangru was starting to stir-fry, with the experience of the last few days, this time Xiangru got started quickly, the kitchen put the ingredients on her stove in order, she only took a glance to know what to do, and she didn't need to be reminded at all.

She is still only responsible for frying vegetables, she is still tired enough, but she is happy in her heart, she knows that as long as she does well, there is hope for job hopping.

Of course, Xiangru is very careful to control her facial muscles and not let herself be too happy, she doesn't want to be ostracized and isolated by her colleagues just after she is promoted, which is a taboo in the workplace.

The dishes are done one by one, and then packed in large bowls one by one, waiting for others to claim them. Chef Li took over the baton from the former Chef Jin, boiled the half-boiled white porridge, scooped out the rice soup, put the white porridge, and put it in a box with pickles.

When dinner time came, the girls from all the courtyards came to get dinner, and Xiangru took out Aunt Rong's share and sent it in a box. She knew that even if she was already a cook, it was still her duty to serve Aunt Rong.

Aunt Rong's mood had recovered at this time, and she had dinner peacefully, without any further incidents, which made Xiangru feel a little relieved.

Back in the kitchen, the girls in each courtyard returned the tableware one after another, and some people mentioned that the vegetables were delicious tonight, as if the taste of the stir-fried vegetables was different from usual for a few days last time, so they asked if the kitchen had a new chef.

This is normal chat gossip, not a secret, so it only took a while, and everyone knew about the change of kitchen lady.

No one asked what the replaced cook was doing now, the palace was so snobbish and realistic, they only cared about whether the new chef would make some new dishes, and the dishes were repeated countless times every day, even the gods would get tired of eating them.

Xiangru naturally stepped forward to make a statement, and by the way, let everyone recognize the face of the new chef.

Seeing that it was such a young girl, everyone was a little surprised, but after hearing that she was trained by Aunt Rong herself, their impression of her immediately changed, and the taste of the vegetables fried tonight was indeed unusual, so everyone accepted this new chef smoothly.

After a short chat, everyone gradually dispersed, and there were many fewer people in the kitchen, and in the end only Xiangru, Yinhua, Lilac and Jin Honggen were left.

Yinhua and the three of them washed the dishes outside, Xiangru ate a warm dinner in the kitchen, and a large porcelain bowl on the table soaked the japonica rice used to cook porridge in the evening.

After eating, take the rice bowl outside to wash them, come back Xiangru rummaged through the dry cabinet, took out a can of black sesame seeds and a bag of walnuts, sat at the table and smashed more than 20 walnuts with a small hammer, put the walnut kernels into the cleaned garlic mortar and pounded them casually, pounded them into small particles and poured them on the plate, plus an appropriate amount of sesame seeds, and finally took a piece of rock sugar and put it on the plate.

After the water boils, put the japonica rice, black sesame seeds, walnuts and rock sugar into the pot to cook sesame walnut porridge for beauty.

It's quiet outside, and if you don't always hear the slight sound of kitchen utensils colliding with each other, you would think there's no one outside. Usually in order to pass the boring work, the three girls often chat, but most of the time Lilac is talking, and she and Yinhua are responsible for listening. Today, the trio has made adjustments, Xiangru has been promoted and left, and the degraded former chef has joined in to form a new trio, Yinhua and Lilac are so quick to accept the newcomer psychologically, but at the moment, no one is chatting, and they are all concentrating on their work.

Xiangru sat idly in front of the stove while taking care of the stove fire and porridge, while conceiving in her mind her unfinished belly pocket pattern, just a picture of the grass growing and the warbler flying, she still has not decided how the grass blades should be facing, how long and how short, whether the bird's head is down or up, whether the wings are open or closed, whether to add a few more butterflies and other details.

This body is developing, the bust is gradually rising, the child's size belly pocket is no longer enough to meet the needs, and it always feels a little strangled to wear, if you don't make two new belly pockets, I am afraid that there will be no underwear to wear next spring.

The light of the stove fire was reflected on Xiangru's face, highlighting her eyes that were blank because of a daze, and she didn't know where she had gone, but when it was time to withdraw the fire and stir the pot, she would magically wake up again, and then continue to be in a daze while doing things in her hands.

Lilac and Yinhua moved all the washed kitchen utensils into the kitchen together, wiped them and returned them to everyone, so busy that they didn't notice anything different about Xiangru at all.

Usually Xiangru doesn't take care of her own work when she does supper, and only Yinhua and Lilac are doing the work of cleaning kitchen utensils, today there are more golden red roots, and the three of them always have to do things faster, Xiangru boiled the porridge here, and the three of them came back with all the cleaned tableware.

Xiangru served Aunt Rong's portion first, sat in the hot water to keep warm, and divided the rest into four portions, with only a few mouthfuls per person.

The numerator remains the same, the denominator is more, and the result is, of course, less available share.

Everyone in the kitchen knows that on the surface, Xiangru does not have the right to cook, but in fact, she has to make supper for Aunt Rong every night, and after four years of training, she will be promoted to be a cook sooner or later, so her promotion today does not feel so sudden for everyone in the kitchen, but no one knows that Xiangru will cook more every night and share it with the little sisters.

Jin Honggen suddenly felt that Xiangru was actually a cunning person.

"Come here, try tonight's sesame and walnut porridge and see how it tastes." Xiangru was an old fritter in the workplace in her previous life, and she knows very well how to make newcomers integrate into the group as quickly as possible without having two hearts, which is to pull newcomers together to become a community of interests.

For chefs, it is best to try the food.

"Is it new porridge? It's great, my hands are frozen, just eat something warm. Lilac reacted quickly, put down the things in her hand, and took Yinhua's hand to get porridge together.

The two little girls each held a small half bowl of porridge, tasted it carefully, and pretended to give some comments.

For a while, the honeysuckle feels a little sweet, and for a while, the cloves feel that it is not sweet enough, so you can add some osmanthus syrup; After a while, Yinhua said that the walnuts could be thicker, and after a while, the cloves said that it would be better to grind black sesame seeds into powder.

Xiangru also took her share of porridge, and discussed with the honeysuckle cloves while eating, whether it was really necessary to add more sugar, whether the walnut kernels really didn't have to be smashed so fine, and which was better, sesame seeds or sesame powder......

"Aunt Jin, don't stand there, let's give some advice together." The discussion between the three of them was enthusiastic, and Xiangru did not forget to beckon Jin Honggen to join, no matter how you look at it, she looks like she is humbly seeking advice.

"Ouch, don't scold me, how can I still be qualified to be an aunt now." Jin Honggen came over to get the porridge, and when he said this, he also felt sad in his heart, and he was directly demoted from a cook to a handyman, and Aunt Rong's ruthlessness can be seen.

"Hey~, you are older than us, you are experienced, just call you Jin Honggen during the day, and it is right to call you aunt in private, unless you think we have offended you?" Xiangru knows that the demotion is not comfortable, not to mention that it is so unjust, but after all, they work together every day, say a few nice words, send a high hat, and coax them to be happy, which is not good for everyone.

"You girl, your mouth is sweeter than honey, no wonder Aunt Rong loves you so much, although she beats you hard, it's actually for your good."

"I know this, so I don't make supper for Aunt Rong every day. How about you try this porridge today, honeysuckle cloves haven't eaten good things, can't taste it, can you give me some advice? ”

Xiangru's words are really pleasing to the ear, Jin Honggen subconsciously re-picked up the cook's shelf, tasted a mouthful of sesame walnut porridge, and suddenly found that Xiangru's level of porridge is not worse than that of Chef Li, who has the best cooking skills, there is nothing to criticize in terms of the bottom of the porridge, and can only find a reason from the ingredients, in the name of experience, it is recommended that the walnut kernels can be thicker, and the sesame seeds are better than the sesame powder.

Xiangru accepted the last piece of advice, took a small plate and filled it with some osmanthus syrup, put it in the food box with the porridge, and handed over the rest of the aftermath to Yinhua and Jin Honggen, and she and Lilac went to Aunt Rong's room to serve her for supper and wash up.

Aunt Rong was also pleasantly surprised by tonight's porridge, seeing the way her eyebrows were stretched, Xiangru was also secretly happy in her heart, it was not easy to coax this aunt, who knows when she would lose control of her emotions and roar, but in order to be less whipped in the future, she has to suffer more grievances now, and she doesn't care so much about her for the sake of being a patient.

After eating supper, Xiangru cleaned up the table next to her, Lilac brought the warm water to serve Aunt Rong to wash, and when she took off her shoes and socks to soak her feet, Aunt Rong touched the hair hanging on her chest, and seemed to casually asked Lilac to go to the bedside table and take out a shoe sample to Xiangru, and asked her to wait for the winter clothes and needlework cloth to be sent out by the palace tomorrow, and then she would come out according to the new shoes for the winter solstice.

Shoes and clothes are the same, the palace rewards two pairs per quarter, and the low-status little palace maids rely on the shoes rewarded by the palace are enough to wear, and the aunts are not limited to this, they can make the little palace maids under their hands make shoes, and every time they are rewarded with clothes and shoes, most of the needlework materials are intercepted by the aunts halfway, and the little palace maids are enough to make an underwear and socks to sew up the clothes or something.

Xiangru looked at the pattern, estimated the amount of material needed, and took the pattern into her arms.

After serving Aunt Rong to rest, Xiangru and Lilac returned to the kitchen, at this time the silver flower and Jin Honggen were no longer there, the stove was extinguished, and there was only one oil lamp lit in the kitchen, but there was an extra set of utensils on the table, and the remaining rice soup inside was obviously brought by Aunt Xiao's maid, and Aunt Xiao ate the rice soup boiled for dinner.

The two cleaned the last bit of cutlery of the day, turned off the lights, closed the door and left.

Xiangru and Lilac returned to the house to pack their luggage, and the four big baggage skins packed all her belongings, and after handing over the key to the cabinet to Jin Honggen, Yinhua and Lilac picked up the baggage, Xiangru walked out of the room with quilts, pillows and other things, and the inferior palace maids who were washing in the courtyard watched Xiangru walk out of the courtyard with envy and jealousy.

Out of the courtyard door along the sandwich road not far is the courtyard where Jin Honggen slept last night, here live are palace maids with a certain status, some similar to the taste of "reserve cadres", the current aunts in charge of the palace when they leave the palace, they all choose successors from this level of palace maids, so Aunt Rong demoted Jin Chef Niang to an inferior palace maid, which is a very cruel punishment.

Since it is a "reserve aunt", the living environment is not the same as that of the inferior palace maids, at least it is much more comfortable, it is still a square courtyard, there are three rooms on the east, west and north walls, and the other rooms do not know, Xiangru wants to sleep in this room There are four beds, no longer the lower palace maids sleep in the bunk, but a real bed, although the wood is ordinary, but finally do not have to endure the torture of others grinding their teeth and turning over every night.

The four cooks in the kitchen all lived together, and when Xiangru came in, the three of them were sitting in the house soaking their feet, ready to go to sleep immediately.

Seeing Xiangru come in, the reaction of the three cooks was not very enthusiastic, and they nodded lightly to say hello.

Xiangru doesn't mind, she usually doesn't have much contact with them, and she hasn't cultivated a relationship, even if they roll their eyes and disdain her, she can accept it.

After returning the salute, Xiangru swept the panoramic view of the room, saw the bed she was going to sleep on, and walked neatly to the right-hand side, where an empty bed was placed next to the wall, the bedside wardrobe and the end of the bed 椸枷 (yíjiā), the bed had a bed tent, and there was a private space after pulling down the tent.

Lilac and Yinhua were envious while helping Xiangru clean up, and they didn't know if the two of them would have the opportunity to live in such a house in the future.

The four burdens are just the clothes of the four seasons, and it will be sorted out in a while, and it is not too early to see the time, Xiangru urged the cloves and honeysuckle to go back quickly, and they were afraid that there would be no hot water to wash when it was late.

After Yinhua and Lilac left, Chef Li also soaked their feet, took the basin and went outside to pour water, and at the same time did not forget to ask Xiangru to wash her face quickly.

On the first day of promotion, I moved to the yard with a hasty start and ended in a hurry, and finally Xiangru got herself right, and the three of Chef Li had already fallen asleep, Xiangru tiptoed off her clothes, scattered her hair, blew out the candles, and went to sleep peacefully.

When I got up the next day, the morning time was always a little tighter, and the four cooks freshened up as quickly as possible, but there was another episode when the new chef Xiangru was combing her hair.

The habits of this four-year-old inferior palace maid still maintained a strong inertia this morning, Xiangru combed her hair and habitually divided it into two strands to prepare for braiding, but was stopped by a cook in time, and reminded her with a smile to comb the wrong hair, to be like them, comb the bun and wrap it in silk cloth.

Hurriedly dressing up, the four of them immediately rushed to the kitchen to cook breakfast, at this time the kitchen workers also arrived one after another, the sound of talking, cutting the cutting board, the sound of the kitchen utensils and the sound of the pot grunting were mixed together, and the kitchen quickly became lively.