Chapter 22 – The Lost Recipe

After listening to Chef Shen’s tearful and dramatic tale, Imperial Physician Jiang belatedly realized he might have gotten involved with a cold-faced little demon king.

For a moment, both Chef Shen and Imperial Physician Jiang were wiping their tears, while Nanny Zhao, who had been spectating from the side, couldn’t help but comment, “It’s lucky Miss Yao Yao came along. If it were the young lord from before, your old bones wouldn’t have survived.”

After seeing Imperial Physician Jiang off, Nanny Zhao returned to Madam Wei’s side and noticed her frowning in distress. Thinking she was worried that the young lord might be upset, Nanny Zhao tried to comfort her.
“Madam, at least the young lord has learned to care for others.”

Madam Wei shook her head. “Yixing’s condition has improved, but what I’m heartbroken about is Yao Yao. She’s still so young, abandoned so cruelly by her family, and now she can’t even eat her favorite pastries. It’s just too pitiful.”

What Madam Wei said struck a chord—even Nanny Zhao felt moved.

Yao Yao was such a fair and chubby little darling. How heartless must her family have been to abandon her?

Unconsciously, the mood over the entire marquis’ residence turned gloomy.

That very night, even when the Marquis of Chengming tried to enter his wife’s bedroom, he was driven out.

Left with no other option, the bewildered Marquis could only spend the night in his study. The next day, he finally brought up the matter of relatives from his hometown planning to visit.

Ever since Xie Yixing was born, aside from his full-month celebration, Madam Wei had never seen her in-laws again.

Now that she learned her husband’s parents were coming too, her initial panic was tinged with anxiety.

The Xie family was a centuries-old clan that had once enjoyed great prestige. Unfortunately, their descendants had failed to live up to that legacy, causing the family’s influence to wane. To avoid being caught in the previous dynasty’s upheaval, the entire clan had retreated to Nanyang.

Currently, the Xie family had twenty-eight branches. Aside from the main branch holding official posts near the capital’s garrison city and the branch of the Marquis and his parents basking in the glory of his title, the remaining twenty-six branches had fallen into decline.

In the past few years, the Marquis of Chengming had spent each New Year in the military camp and rarely returned home. There hadn’t been a peep from his parents during that time either.

But this year, with the Marquis reassigned to a post in the capital, a letter suddenly arrived from the hometown, saying they wanted to spend the New Year in the capital.

The letter had been sent ten days ago, which meant they were probably already on the road.

Sensing Madam Wei’s unease, the Marquis gently reassured her.
“Don’t worry. This time, I won’t let Mother bully you or Yixing.”

Madam Wei sighed. “It’s fine if she bullies me—I’m just a daughter-in-law, I can endure it. But if she provokes Yixing…”

She genuinely feared that her in-laws wouldn’t be able to withstand the consequences.

She could never forget how, when Yixing had just turned a month old, her mother-in-law deliberately chewed food and fed it into his mouth. It disgusted Madam Wei so much she couldn’t complete her postpartum recovery. She immediately brought Yixing back to her own room to care for him herself.

She hadn’t expected that by the time she brought him back, his little face was flushed red, and he had fallen into a deep sleep. A household doctor was called, and they discovered he had gotten drunk.

Only after repeated questioning did the father-in-law confess he had dipped his chopsticks in wine and let the baby taste it.

Yixing was her precious child, the baby she had carried for ten months and birthed after a brush with death—and yet her in-laws treated him like this. That very moment, she had wanted to return to her own family. But her in-laws had deliberately chosen a time when the Marquis wasn’t home to insult her alongside her sister-in-law, even threatening to take a concubine for the Marquis…

To avoid distracting her husband, she had never spoken a word of this.

Later, when the Marquis returned in triumph to the capital, her in-laws complained their home was too cramped and asked the Marquis for a great sum of money before returning to the countryside.

Now they were coming back to the capital—probably to ask for more.

Suppressing her growing resentment, Madam Wei told herself: As long as they don’t stir up trouble, everything that happened before can be forgotten.

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In the Garden Residence, Yao Yao’s mood had suddenly brightened again.

Having learned that she was still allowed to eat pastries, albeit in moderation, she pestered Caiwei to make her hawthorn jelly.

Caiwei already had decent cooking skills, and thanks to recent tips from Chef Shen, she had improved significantly.

But hawthorn jelly? Caiwei had never even heard of it, let alone made it.

When she went to ask Chef Shen for help, he was fretting over new dishes. The moment he heard the words “hawthorn jelly,” his eyes lit up.
“Someone actually knows about hawthorn jelly?!”

Caiwei blinked in confusion. “It was Miss Yao Yao who requested it.”

Chef Shen immediately put down his spatula and dragged Caiwei to find Yao Yao.

Yao Yao was in the courtyard playing shuttlecock. When she saw Chef Shen rushing at her with a spatula in hand, she thought he was going to cook her, and quickly stumbled back two steps in fear.

Xie Yixing, who was inside reciting texts, saw this from the window. He tossed his book aside and came rushing out.

Before he even reached the doorway, Chef Shen dropped to his knees five steps away from Yao Yao and let out a dramatic howl to the sky.
“I never thought I’d live to hear a lost dish mentioned again! Yao Yao, little girl, quick—tell Uncle, how do you know about hawthorn jelly?!”

Yao Yao blinked. “Because my mother knows how to make it!”

“Your mother… knows how to make it!” Chef Shen was so astonished he was momentarily speechless. His red-rimmed eyes sparkled brighter than the stars in the sky.
“That’s a long-lost dish from the Luo family cuisine! And your mother can make it?!”

Yao Yao nodded seriously, lowering her head to count on her little fingers.
“My mother doesn’t just make hawthorn jelly. She also made crab-stuffed oranges, Guanghan cake, gold and jade soup, preserved cherries, plum blossom noodles…”

She rattled off a dozen dishes in one breath, even recalling a few she couldn’t quite pronounce. Chef Shen’s eyes grew brighter with every word, and a wide grin spread across his face.

“Incredible! Truly incredible. It’s said that the Luo family cuisine was passed only within the family, never to outsiders. Is your mother’s surname Luo?”

Back when he joined the palace, he had been tricked into believing the royal library contained fragments of the Luo family recipes. He had spent decades searching—only to come up empty-handed.

After leaving the palace, he was introduced to the Marquis of Chengming’s household under the same pretense. The Marquis’ library was known to be vast—perhaps it would contain the treasure he sought.

But ever since he arrived, he’d been swamped with cooking tasks in the small kitchen of the Garden Residence. He was too busy figuring out new dishes to please the young lord to go searching for books.

Yao Yao shook her head. “I don’t remember.”

What she did remember was that her mother always smelled sweet and soft, spoke in a gentle voice, and never once cut corners in the kitchen.

Chef Shen muttered to himself,
“She must be. I never dreamed I’d meet a Luo family descendant in this lifetime. Little girl, quickly—tell Uncle, where is your mother now?”

At the mention of her mother, Yao Yao’s eyelids drooped.

Would she never get to eat her mother’s cooking again?

She clutched the hem of her clothes tightly. Her tears began to fall one after another. The more she tried to hold them back, the more they came.

Only then did Chef Shen realize he had touched a nerve. He smacked himself hard on the head.

What was wrong with his memory—how could he forget something so important just because he got excited?

Yao Yao had been abandoned by her family, which was why the young lord had taken her in.

Before he could apologize and comfort her, he suddenly felt a cold gaze stabbing into him from not far away.

Xie Yixing’s expression was stormy. The aura around him was so heavy it felt like it could crush a wild beast. The ruthless glint in his eyes pierced Chef Shen like a blade.

Even without speaking a word, he sent chills down the spine.

Chef Shen, trembling as he clutched his spatula, stammered,
“Young Lord… I only did this for your sake…”