Chapter 626 - Engagemen (1/2)
However, once ‘Buddha Jumps over the Wall’ was served to the table, He Wanning immediately forgot the words she had just said when the dense, mesmerizing aroma of the dish hit her nostrils. She couldn’t restrain herself and completely ignored her protesting, full stomach and rushed to grab a bowl to start stuffing herself with the fragrant stew.
As she ate, this la.s.s continued to compliment the dish without end. She stated that she had never eaten something as delicious as this. The other young maidens around them all nodded their heads in agreement with their cheeks stuffed full of food. He Wanning even complained endlessly, grumbling that Xiaocao had such culinary talent but had only shown it off today. Clearly, she had slighted the other girl as He Wanning had to wait this long in order to eat such delicious food. In the end, the remaining food left in the ceramic bowl had been unceremoniously part.i.tioned out to her.
Xiaocao was truly afraid that her good friends would end up with stomach aches after eating this much. Thus, when the digestive soup was pa.s.sed around, she hurriedly added a few drops of mystic-stone water to the pot. She personally served a bowl to all of her friends and made sure that all of them drank it. By the time they said their farewells, her friends had recovered to their normal state and were no longer holding their stomachs and crying out in pain.
This banquet had truly given a lot of face to both Imperial Prince Jing and Princess Consort Jing. Everyone told them that this was the best feast they had ever been at. There were even some people who surrept.i.tiously asked Yu Hai and his wife whether the ‘Yu’s Line of Business’ planned on opening up a restaurant in the future.
Yu Hai had been prepared by his youngest daughter and vaguely let out the news that the Yu Family was planning on opening up a medicinal cuisine restaurant. In fact, ‘Buddha Jumps Over the Wall’ was going to be the main attraction there. Some of the guests were quite surprised by this and asked, “This dish is incredibly delicious but it’s actually a type of medicinal cuisine?”
Yu Hai described the effects of Buddha Jumps Over the Wall. It could make a person blossom with their innate beauty, stymie the inevitable aging journey, increase immunity, and had an overall energizing benefit. He described all of these effects to the people around him. Everyone’s interest in medicinal cuisine had immediately increased by a notch. It was a dish that not only could benefit one’s body but it also satisfied a person’s craving for delicious food. Clearly, this was something to look forward to.
Although the medicinal cuisine restaurant had not been established yet, its reputation had already been quietly disseminated throughout the capital. The dish ‘Buddha Jumps Over the Wall’ had also been discussed enthusiastically by all of the officials who had attended Imperial Prince Jing’s banquet in a bragging manner. Those who hadn’t been fortunate enough to receive an invitation were now incredibly curious and looked forward to the day when the medicinal cuisine building would open. Even if they had to tighten their money belts, they still had to try the dish that has been praised to the skies by other people, ‘Buddha Jumps Over the Wall’.
Xiaocao pasted on a smile and dealt with another batch of young n.o.ble maidens whom she was unfamiliar with. After sending them off, Xiaocao rubbed at her face. Just when did her relations.h.i.+ps with other people become so good? Why did all of these n.o.ble maidens in the capital, who usually didn’t even deign to nod their heads at her, sidle over to speak with her? Furthermore, they always directed the conversation towards the speculative ‘Medicinal Cuisine House’.
The high-ranking officials and their wives were all quite in touch with the capital’s gossip. In only a few days, the rumors that the Yu Family’s Business was planning on opening a medicinal cuisine restaurant had pretty much been transmitted to every corner of the capital. Even the dish, ‘Buddha Jumps Over the Wall’, had become blazingly popular. Those who had tried it bragged that this was a dish that ‘was something that could only be found in the Heavens, and was a rarity in the mundane world’.
Well! At least that saved her the trouble of racking her brain to come up with a method to advertise this new business. The location of the Medicinal Cuisine House has already been decided; it was going to be located at one of Princess Consort Jing’s dowry shops. The building was situated on the west side of the capital, which was a wealthy district and was also quite close to the imperial princes’ estates and the imperial palace. The shop itself had seven interconnected rooms on each floor and had three floors in total. Thus, it had the ideal layout for a restaurant-based business.
In order to avoid Xiaocao becoming uneasy at getting this building, Princess Consort Jing had prepared early and had already transferred the deed to this building to her youngest son’s name. Furthermore, she stated that this was to be a betrothal gift to the Yu Family. When the Imperial Prince Jing’s heir’s wife had married over, she had been given a few more shops and stores than this. However, the stores that she was given were in slightly worse locations than this one. Both of them were daughters-in-law, so they had to avoid these betrothal gifts causing friction between the two later. Thus, Princess Consort Jing did her best to make things as equal as possible. She still had some dowry shops left in her hand and those would be used in the future when her second son got married as betrothal gifts.
As Xiaocao got closer and closer to opening up Medicinal Cuisine House, Zhu Junyang also helped her quite a bit from the background by providing the materials and manpower needed to renovate the building. Furthermore, the day where the two of them were to be engaged also got closer. Zhu Junyang excitedly counted down the days to that date.
In ancient times, the people followed the customs of ‘three matchmakers and six rites’ and the ‘three letters and six rites’. Imperial Prince Jing had originally invited one of his uncles, who was a person of high repute and virtue, to become the matchmaker on the men’s side. However, once the emperor found out through Chief Steward Su that Royal Prince Yang and Xiaocao were going to get engaged, he insisted on stepping in as the male matchmaker with the excuse that the two of them were both important officials under him.
As for the matchmaker on the female’s side, that had already been arranged a long time ago. The person selected was Little s.h.i.+tou’s, Yu Fan’s, beloved teacher, the most brilliant and famous scholar of the Great Ming Dynasty, Yuan Sinian. It must be stated that Headmaster Yuan was a giant in the eyes of scholars and had legendary status. The fact that they were able to have him become her matchmaker was a very ill.u.s.trious and grand honor!
For the ‘three matchmakers’, the male and female side had all been selected, and both of them were important people. Thus, the middle matchmaker couldn’t be someone of no repute. The two families were pondering this problem as they needed to find an appropriate person to bridge between the two matchmakers. At this time, the emperor emeritus, who had just come back from his travels in the southern part of the country, found out that the la.s.s Xiaocao was going to become engaged with his darling grandson. He didn’t even take the time to rest a bit before he came up and insisted on becoming the middle matchmaker between the two.
Did he actually know how to become a middle matchmaker to bridge between the two families? If you asked him that question, he would immediately glare at you with his large eyes and state in matter of fact manner, “Absolutely not!” That wasn’t surprising. After all, when the emperor emeritus was the emperor, he didn’t need to bridge things between two families at all. Instead, he just bestowed marriages as he liked. After he retired from his position, he spent all of his time traveling around the country, tasting the delicacies of the empire. When would he have the time to act as a matchmaker then? Furthermore, who would have the guts and face to ask the emperor emeritus to act as matchmaker for them?