NFBE Chapter 194 Banquet
Chapter 194 Banquet
evening.
The colorful clouds in the sky turned pink.
The officials in Luocheng also finished their official duties for the day and returned to Wangque Tower for the banquet as scheduled.
Of course, I also took some time to go home and change clothes, and opened my own storeroom and rummaged around...
In short.
Everyone who came to the banquet took great pains to prepare gifts.
But he still said that it was a gift for the county lady to play with, a worthless little toy, and hoped that the county lady would not despise it.
As for the gifts for the other nobles, the court has a clear rule that they cannot be given or received privately. It is the county lord who invited everyone to have the fish banquet today, so she can only prepare gifts for a visit.
As for the rest, judging from everyone's attitude towards the county lady, it is estimated that if the gift given as a guest is to their liking, the rest will be easy.
Therefore, everyone was extra careful when preparing gifts. In addition to opening their own storehouses, they also invited the ladies, young ladies and even the old lady in the mansion to the storehouse to discuss together what kind of gifts would be most appropriate.
It cannot be too expensive, because there is Censor Li, who is known as the Li Jiuzu and Li Yanwang. If he sees a gift that is too expensive and wants to investigate it, then there are probably few people in the court who can withstand his serious investigation.
We can't be too perfunctory. Let alone the Fourth Prince, even Prince Xie and Minister Lin, including the county princess herself, are recipients of gifts from the emperor. How could they care about ordinary things?
So everyone really put a lot of thought into the gifts, and the top of their heads, which were already in danger, lost a lot more hair...
But at least he was selected in the end. As for whether he can catch the county lady's eye, that can only be left to fate.
Everyone was keeping track of the time, not daring to arrive too early and disturb the benefactor, nor too late and make the benefactor wait.
Finally, the spy said that the gate of Wangque Tower was opened, and the shopkeeper seemed to be at the door preparing to welcome guests. The people waiting in the surrounding alleys put their robes in order and asked the servants to drive the carriage, arriving just in time.
……
Many people know that Wangque Tower will be closed for half a day today in preparation for the fish banquet in the evening.
After all, Wangquelou is a well-known large restaurant. If it suddenly closed for half a day without any notice, the impact would be quite large.
Although the restaurant is closed to the public, the kitchen is still busy, and many passers-by are sniffing hard.
Is this smell of roasted fish?
Can fish taste like this?
Many people looked down on outsiders from the beginning, thinking that they only knew how to eat fish and had never seen the world.
Later I became curious about what exactly a whole fish banquet was.
How come the smell is so spicy and pungent? Just passing by the kitchen and smelling the smell, I feel like I can eat two bowls of rice...
……
The lights on the street corners lit up one by one.
There are five floors of Wangque Tower, and wind lanterns are lit on the eaves and corners of each floor. Even the top floor, which is not open to the public all year round, has its windows opened today.
The owner of Wangque Tower welcomes guests at the door on the first floor.
As the host, Wangquelou has never prepared such a banquet itself, but it has been invited to prepare banquets.
Have you ever seen a pig run even if you haven’t eaten pork?
What's more, everyone around the master is a worldly-wise person, so just ask them for advice or two. Isn't hosting a banquet just a matter of sprinkling some water?
The banquet was held in the hall on the first floor of Wangque Tower, with each person having their own table and separate food.
The girl prepared a lot of food, unlike some banquets where the purpose of a banquet is not to eat but to fulfill each other’s own little plans.
The banquet for my own daughter looks like a serious banquet, the kind that can fill you up!
Everyone in Wangque Tower was so proud that they completely forgot about their own food, which usually never filled their stomachs.
Moreover, the girl’s dishes were not prepared to feed the guests, they were reserved for her own family.
Whose banquet can fill the guests? Even if there are too many dishes, it is a waste and the guests will not eat more. After all, solving personal problems is a very troublesome thing.
They are all gentlemen, and it is a disgrace.
The person in front didn't ask, and the person behind didn't take the initiative to explain. The person in front was self-righteous, and the person behind thought that the person in front understood it correctly, and that's how misunderstandings arise.
So, the person in front went to the back kitchen for a look, and when he came back, he removed the original exquisite small dining table, rummaged through the drawers and got a large dining table, the kind that two people can use side by side, but with only one seat arranged, and set it up like that.
The shopkeeper looked around and said, you know what, this is quite generous!
What's going on?
A large space also makes it easier to perform.
In addition to the ice basins at the four corners of the banquet hall, each table also has a small plate of ice, decorated with flowers...
Wangque Tower is the one that has the most ice now. When other houses are still reluctant to use it, they have already used it. The girl is hosting a banquet, so she cannot afford to neglect the appearance, so she has to arrange for it.
The fruit platter that the girl ordered was also placed on the table.
Exquisite open fruit plates were brought out and placed on the table, with fruits of various colors pieced together, all washed and cut, and chilled underneath. Although the portions were not large, they were exquisite.
The kitchen staff who were preparing the fruit plate were visibly smiling, because the girl said that it was important to have a beautiful presentation and not too much of it, so the rest was given to the kitchen staff.
These are fruits that have never been released to the market. Even Emperor Qing has never eaten them, let alone them.
Everyone gained new knowledge and satisfied their appetites, and they paid more attention to the preparation of the dishes left by the girl.
……
The top floor of Wangque Tower.
The private rooms, which are not open to the public all year round, are brightly lit.
Censor Li stood by the carved window holding a teacup, watching the various people living downstairs.
He traveled to many places and saw the lives of many people. Every place was more or less the same. He thought that the world was like this, but he accidentally saw Yuncheng.
Looking back now, he couldn't even describe what kind of place that was. He only knew that if he were asked to choose a place to live out his retirement, it would definitely be Yuncheng.
He still remembered the first time he stood on the rooftop of Wangque Tower and saw every household opening their doors to water the trees at the doorstep in the morning sun. Every day since then, he would stand there to see if anyone would forget to water the trees, but as far as he could see, no one...
There are many impressive things in Yuncheng, and any one of them is worth admiring if taken alone.
But there is another point that is easy to overlook when you are in Yuncheng, but once you leave Yuncheng, you will feel that other places are different from them.
That is, Yuncheng is very clean, clean from the inside out, orderly and spotless.
Even the breakfast stalls and night markets in Yuncheng were clean and tidy after everyone closed their stalls and went home. There was no discarded objects on the streets of Yuncheng, which was not much different from the East District of Beijing.
But where is the East District of Beijing?
That was the place where all the royal nobles of the entire Qing Kingdom gathered. The ground was swept many times a day, and ordinary people didn't even have the chance to set foot there.
But Yuncheng relies on every person in the city.
What kind of power and belief can restrain the people of a city?
Censor Li frowned as he looked at the stagnant water and dirt in front of the houses downstairs. The fishy smell of Luo City was not only due to the water, but also due to their own reasons.
"What are you looking at, Old Li? The tea has gotten cold, right? I'll change you a new cup." Minister Lin saw Censor Li standing in a daze in front of the window, so he went over with the teapot and spoke.
Censor Li dodged: ...Thank you.
Minister Lin's servant looked at Li Yushi's servant timidly, and was successfully given a stern look. Alas...
Minister Lin was not annoyed by being avoided. He walked to the window and leaned in. He subconsciously said, "Isn't Luo City too unclean?"
Crowd:…
The people who came to the banquet downstairs felt their noses itchy...