The atmosphere in the Liu Mansion is a bit heavy tonight.
"Two taels of silver? Are you sure you heard correctly?" Liu Tong had just taken a bite of rice and was waved out by the butler with a look of disbelief on his face.
The housekeeper said affirmatively: "Yes, everyone on the street says so!"
Liu Tong gasped as if he had a toothache: "One tael yesterday, two taels today, that is to say..."
The housekeeper did some mental calculation: "There are three taels, sir!"
Liu Tong was so angry that he just rolled his eyes. Could it be that he didn't know how to calculate?
What do you do? A member of the household department!
In this era, the people in the Ministry of Household Affairs should be the people with the strongest computing power in the world. I am really shocked, okay?
Liu Tong walked into the house sadly, feeling that she had lost all appetite.
Liu Xueer stretched out her hand and shouted to Mrs. Liu: "Mom, you have a good appetite, please give me another bowl of rice!"
In the Xiao family, Qiao Niang held the silver in both hands, with tears streaming down her face, as if she was holding a pair of spiritual cards.
Qiaoqiao, who was beside her, was counting on her fingers: "We have three and a half!"
Xiao Feng is a little worried. These two women have never seen money. If one day they become rich, will they become Fan Jin?
There is braised pork head meat on the table. Xiao Feng bought it when he came back, and there is quite a lot of it.
Qiao Niang finally gathered her emotions and prepared to eat, but she frowned when she saw the meat.
"Master, don't buy so much next time, just enough for one meal. It's still a bit hot now, so it might go bad."
Xiao Feng looked at the piece of meat. He knew that there were no refrigerators in the Ming Dynasty. The problem was that meat was bought by the meal.
"This isn't a lot of meat. Can't the three of us finish it in one meal?"
Qiao Niang shook her head and said, "As long as it's enough for you. I'll think of a way to pickle it with salt and it should be ready for tomorrow."
Xiao Feng looked at Qiaoqiao. She was looking around, trying hard not to look at the piece of pig head meat.
Xiao Feng didn't waste any time. He picked up a knife and sliced it into slices. He also chopped two cloves of garlic, added some coriander and mixed it with soy sauce. This was his favorite way to eat it in his previous life.
Soy sauce was still a luxury item at this time. Xiao Feng only had a small amount at home and used it all.
Qiao Niang rushed to grab the knife and wanted to take over, but was shocked by Xiao Feng's superb knife skills.
When did the master learn sword skills? He looks more proficient than me...
When Xiao Feng first started doing business in his previous life, he traveled all over the world by himself. How could he afford to eat in restaurants without some cooking skills?
Xiao Feng mixed the pork head, without even looking at the plate Qiao Niang was holding, he put it directly into the rice, and then stirred it up.
Qiao Niang was stunned, and Xiao Feng started to serve rice, each of them had a big bowl of rice.
The pork head meat was all mixed in the hot dry rice, and Qiao Niang couldn't pick it out piece by piece for Xiao Feng! It was very rude!
"Eat!" Xiao Feng took the lead, taking big mouthfuls and eating very deliciously.
Qiao Qiao glanced at her mother timidly. Qiao's mother held up the bowl and covered her face, her tears falling on the hot pork head mixed with rice.
Unable to see her mother's face, Qiaoqiao boldly held up the big hand, and soon buried her face in it.
It’s time to eat when all the lights are on, even the palace is no exception.
However, although the dinner in the palace was luxurious, it was extremely deserted, not even as lively as the three people of the Xiao family.
Jiajing has not returned to the palace for a long time. He lives in Xiyuan, practicing Taoism and listening to politics.
The emperor is not here, and the queen has not yet been mourned, so the concubines naturally stay in their palaces to eat.
The only thing that made her a little angry was that in Concubine Kang's Jingyang Palace, Prince Yu Zhu Zaijing requested permission to visit his mother and concubine, and mother and son were having a rare dinner together.
After eating, he left the palace and returned to his palace, so he deliberately ate slowly and talked to his mother and concubine as much as possible.
Concubine Kang saw a grain of rice stuck to the corner of her son's mouth, so she picked up a handkerchief and wiped the corner of her son's mouth.
Although he is only thirteen years old, Zhu Zaijing, who grew up in an imperial family, looks a little deeper than his peers, at least that's how he feels.
Therefore, he felt that his mother-in-law wiped the grains of rice with him, which tarnished his deep image. However, it was not easy to meet his mother-in-law, so he filially endured it.
"I heard that you had a fight with King Jing again?" Concubine Kang found some bruises on the corners of her son's mouth.
Zhu Zaijing pouted: "He is no match for me. Mother and concubine don't have to worry. His right eye is still blue now."
Concubine Kang sighed with a headache: "Long live my preference for King Jing, you don't know, why bother..."
Zhu Zaijing raised his head stubbornly, looking nonchalant, but there was something shining in his eyes.
At this time in the Yonghe Palace, Concubine Lu Jing looked at the green right eye of King Jing Zhu Zaizhen with distress.
"Prince Yu is too cruel. You are a month younger than him. Isn't this bullying?"
Zhu Zaizhen didn't care: "I don't know which guard he learned from this time, so I wasn't prepared for it. I'll make him look good next time!"
Concubine Lu Jing muttered something and wanted to go to Concubine Kang for comment. Zhu Zaizhen waved his hand and said, "Men should resolve their own matters!"
Jiajing, on the other hand, had just finished eating at Jinshen Jingshe in Xiyuan and was closing his eyes to rest.
Huang Jin, the eunuch who was responsible for the ceremony, stood behind him, holding a fly whisk and closing his eyes slightly.
Lu Bing stood in front of Jiajing and gave Jiajing a routine report in an unhurried voice.
Jiajing has not been in court since the 21st year, but he knows everything about the outside world and relies on Jin Yiwei.
The big things have almost been talked about. Next, as usual, Lu Bing will talk about some small things that are not important but may be of interest to Jiajing.
"Prince Yu and Prince Jing had a fight outside the Wenhua Palace, with no winner or loser."
Jiajing's heart was as calm as water, without any movement.
"There is a stall on the main street that tells fortunes and tells fortunes for twenty taels of silver a time."
Jiajing's eyelids moved: "Is it accurate?"
"It is said that on the first day it was one tael of silver once, but because the calculation was accurate, it became two taels of silver the next day."
"There are too many swindlers now. There are really capable Taoist priests. I have only opened the door to two or three people in these years. Who is he?"
"This man is not a Taoist, but a scholar."
The corners of Jiajing's mouth trembled, obviously losing interest.
"I'm extremely bored and looking for someone to act. I've seen this kind of scammer a lot. Since he's not cheating under the guise of a Taoist sect, there's no need to worry about him."
This statement is true. When Jiajing was still a young boy, he paid a lot of money to hire people from the Taoist sect to come to the palace to discuss matters. At the beginning, he was deceived a lot.
Listening to words, transporting people through the air, making money with oil pans, these tricks of performing arts have all been performed in the palace.
The key is that Xiao Xianrou couldn't understand it at the time, and he was really defrauded of a lot of money, and two of them were even banned from office.
Later, when someone revealed the secret, Jiajing became so angry that he beat two Taoist priests half to death who had defrauded money but failed to escape decisively and were greedy for official positions.
Now, Jiajing, who is in his forties, has been tested for a long time. Although he believes in Taoism, his IQ is absolutely online and he is not the stick he used to be.
At this time, a young Taoist priest came to see him with a brocade box. Huang Jin stepped forward and took the brocade box.
"Long live, Taoist Master Tao's Wujin Dan is out. This is the first batch of elixirs."
Huang Jin opened the box and found five round pills inside, which shone with a metallic luster and had a strange medicinal fragrance.
Without any nonsense, Huang Jin simply picked up a pill and swallowed it.
Jiajing opened his eyes and looked at Huang Jin.
As one of the most trusted people in Jiajing, Huang Jin could have found a young eunuch to try the elixir, and Jiajing would not have objected.
But this is an attitude. If Huang Jin tries the elixir himself, Jiajing will be more satisfied.
This not only represents Huang Jin's loyalty, but also represents his devotion to admiring Taoism.
Like those table tennis masters in later generations of government agencies, maintaining the same interests and hobbies as your leaders will definitely be beneficial to your career.
After a while, Jiajing picked up a Wujindan, served it with ginseng tea, and began to formally enter the meditative state.
Lu Bing retreated quietly, and what followed was the quietest and most important moment of the day in Jiajing. No one could disturb it, otherwise it would be bad luck.