When Jiang Yanyi returned, she also bought more than ten pounds of fresh pork.

She felt that the jerky sold outside was too dry and hard; while it was good as a specialty snack, relying on it for sustenance was a bit much for one’s teeth.

After finishing the pot sales that evening, Jiang Yanyi started making jerky in the kitchen.

She cleaned the pork she had bought and the leftover fresh lamb from her shop, letting Qiukui heat up the largest pot.

Once the water in the pot boiled, she added ginger, Sichuan pepper, and star anise, then placed all the cleaned meat into the pot to blanch and remove the gamey smell.

Aunt Guo had a strong hand and helped her pound the spices for the marinade—Sichuan pepper, prickly ash, star anise, and fennel—with a stone pestle.

Jiang Yanyi took the blanched meat out and placed it in a sieve to cool, then cut the meat into slightly thick slices along the grain.

When making jerky, it’s essential to cut along the grain; otherwise, it’s easy to fall apart later and difficult to carry.

The pork was not as firm as beef, and as she cut it, she sighed, “It’s a pity there’s no beef for sale in the market.”

Otherwise, making beef jerky would be more filling.

Qiukui, cradling her face from behind the hearth, asked, “Is beef tastier?”

Killing cattle was illegal, and only some privileged individuals could taste it; common folk had no such fortune.

Jiang Yanyi recalled the taste of beef and smacked her lips, saying, “It’s incredibly delicious! Beef hotpot with tripe is truly a heavenly delight!”

The chili seedlings she had cultivated in the Huafu garden were now blooming, and soon she might be able to make a spicy hotpot to indulge in.

“What’s tripe?” Qiukui asked.

“It’s beef stomach, beef offal,” Jiang Yanyi replied, her hands never slowing down as she worked.

In this era, wealthy families looked down upon offal.

Aunt Guo initially thought Jiang Yanyi was referring to the beef she had eaten at the Jiang family, but hearing her mention offal, she couldn’t help but feel puzzled, though she remained silent.

Qiu Kui, like a curious child, asked, “Huahua said there are three types of soup: hairy soup, milk soup, and clear soup. What’s red soup then?”

Once all the meat was cut, Jiang Yanyi added the ground spices from Aunt Guo into the pot to prepare the marinade.

Then poured in the sliced meat and simmered it on low heat to infuse the flavors.

Ordinary jerky could be eaten once marinated and air-dried, making it very shelf-stable.

However, with Chu Changping leaving Xizhou soon, there wouldn’t be enough time to let the meat air-dry naturally.

But Jiang Yanyi had an oven to dry out some moisture from the meat, allowing it to be stored longer.

As she busied herself, she said, “Red soup is bright red on the surface and spicy enough to burn your tongue. Once I make it, you’ll know what it’s like.”

With the meat marinated, Jiang Yanyi cut the leftover pork hind leg, peeling the skin, removing the fat, trimming the tendons, and mincing the meat.

She planned to use this meat to make pork floss.

The process of making pork floss was much more complicated than making jerky and required quite a bit of effort.

So Jiang Yanyi only saved a small portion of meat for testing, while the majority was made into jerky.

With the spices she had just prepared not used up, she mixed them into the meat filling, adding salt and a little ginger and garlic water, stirring it in a clockwise direction.

The purpose of adding ginger and garlic water was to eliminate any gamey smell.

The most crucial seasoning for pork floss was fish sauce.

In the world she originally lived in, people had used it since the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, but it was then known as fish paste and was commonly used in coastal areas.

However, Jiang Yanyi hadn’t seen any fish sauce for sale at the market today.

It’s possible that this world had yet to use such a seasoning or that Xizhou was too far from the sea.

In this era, with inconvenient transportation and underdeveloped freight systems, it hadn’t been brought over from the coastal regions.

Jiang Yanyi didn’t know if not adding fish sauce would significantly affect the taste of the pork floss she was making, but she planned to try it out first.

If the flavor turned out decent, she would use all the meat filling to make pork floss.

If the taste was unsatisfactory, using the leftover filling to make sausages wouldn’t be a waste either.

Since the shop needed to bake egg tarts and cakes, Jiang Yanyi had previously had several iron trays made at the blacksmith’s.

She spread a layer of oiled paper on the cutting board, scooped a mound of minced meat onto it, then covered it with another layer of oiled paper.

After flattening the meat, she rolled it thin with a rolling pin, tore off the top layer of oiled paper, and sprinkled it with sesame seeds.

Aunt Guo had never seen such a strange method of preparing meat and asked in confusion, “Manager, are you trying to make a new dish?”

This was a modernized version of meat jerky that hadn’t been attempted in ancient times.

Jiang Yanyi nodded in response to Aunt Guo’s question, “Let’s see how it turns out. If it’s good, we’ll have another specialty dish at our restaurant.”

“Are you planning to bake it or smoke it?”

Aunt Guo thought this meat patty would likely taste similar to grilled sausage slices.

“Baking it.”

Jiang Yanyi lit a fire in the outdoor oven, waiting for the upper part to heat up before placing the tray inside.

The wood-burning oven heated up much more slowly than modern electric ovens.

If the meat jerky was placed inside too early, the temperature wouldn’t be high enough, resulting in soft, chewy meat.

Timing was crucial for putting the meat in.

For making homemade pork jerky, it’s common to brush it with honey water.

If there’s no honey water, some sugar water will do, mainly to give the pork jerky a sweet and salty flavor.

Since this was for her family, and Jiang Yanyi wasn’t short on money, she generously mixed a spoonful of honey with water.

After baking for about fifteen minutes, she took the tray out.

The minced meat had turned into a whole piece of brownish-red, and the rich aroma of the meat blended with the fragrance of sesame filled the air, leaving a lasting aftertaste.

Qiu Kui exclaimed, “It smells so good!”

It looked delicious too!

Aunt Guo didn’t expect the flavor of the meat patty to be so different from what she had imagined, leading her to admire Jiang Yanyi even more: “Manager, you’re really clever.”

“It’s just that others have planted the trees, and we’re enjoying the shade now.” Jiang Yanyi felt embarrassed to take credit; this was a method passed down and continuously improved over generations, not something she had created herself.

Aunt Guo thought she meant that her cooking skills had been taught by Chef Li, so she didn’t give it much thought.

Qiu Kui initially thought the meat jerky was ready to eat, but then she saw Jiang Yanyi picking up a homemade brush, dipping it in honey water, and brushing both sides of the golden-brown pork jerky before sending it back into the oven.

Seeing the eager look on Qiu Kui’s face, Jiang Yanyi chuckled, “It needs a bit more time to finish.”

Qiu Kui nodded and glanced at the sky with concern, saying to Aunt Guo, “Auntie, it’s getting late. If you don’t head back now, you won’t make it home before curfew.”

The smell of the meat wafted all around.

Aunt Guo found a stool to sit on: “I’m nimble, and my home is close by, so I’m not in a hurry.”

When the meat jerky finally came out of the oven, the rich aroma told Jiang Yanyi that it had been a success.

She carefully took the tray out with a damp cloth to protect her hands and cut the jerky into pieces, handing one each to Qiu Kui and Aunt Guo, while also taking a piece for herself to taste.

Because the meat had been pressed into a block, it had a firm texture, and the rich seasoning made it more flavorful with every bite, a savory saltiness accompanied by a faint sweetness from the honey.

It tasted just like the pork jerky she remembered!

After Aunt Guo tasted the jerky and left for home just before curfew, Jiang Yanyi and Qiu Kui busied themselves for a while longer, finally preparing all the jerky and dried meat.

Jiang Yanyi still needed to make broth, and seeing that Qiu Kui was exhausted, she told her to go rest first.

Sitting behind the stove, Jiang Yanyi hugged her knees and stared at the flickering flames, lost in thought.

She felt a little more at ease after preparing these rations for Chu Changping and his group.

Although the war was still far from Xizhou, she had been feeling quite anxious these past few days.

She was isolated in Xizhou and had no idea what was happening in the capital.

In the original story, chaos first erupted in Xizhou City, but now it was the capital that was in turmoil.

Many things had changed from the book, but would the final outcome also change?

According to the plot, after the female lead left the palace and arrived in Xizhou, she would first have a troubled relationship with the second male lead, Lu Linyuan, and then be taken by the Turkic prince to the grasslands as his princess.

The emperor would be furious, leading to war between the two countries, and while trying to rescue the female lead, his army would be ambushed and wiped out, with only the emperor and the female lead surviving.

The two would then develop a deep relationship while recovering from their injuries in a village outside the borders.

The cliché was that the village where the male and female leads healed was full of loyalists to the former royal family.

They had been lying low outside the borders, waiting for an opportunity to restore their country.

Initially, the couple hid their identities well, but when the female lead became pregnant and fell ill, the village’s divine doctor recognized her as the former princess by the birthmark on her hand.

Meanwhile, the entire Great Xuan dynasty believed that the emperor had died on the battlefield.

As the princes vied for the throne, taking advantage of this internal strife, the southern Minghan Kingdom attacked, and the Turkic royal court was also restless.

In an effort to preserve their military strength, the feudal lords were unwilling to resist external enemies.

Even if they formed alliances, they all had their own ulterior motives.

As the situation became dire, the emperor would return to the capital with the female lead to stabilize the situation.

The female lead would learn of her true identity while in the border village but couldn’t bring herself to believe it.

After confirming with Minister Jiang, she learned that her parents had been killed by the former emperor and that the throne of her family had been usurped by him, leading her to collapse emotionally.

On the night of her coronation, the female lead applied poison to her lip gloss.

After the emperor was poisoned, she tearfully revealed everything to him, uttering heartless words.

With the help of loyalists from the former dynasty, she left the capital, but she was still surrounded and killed by the imperial guards.

In a moment of crisis, Minister Jiang arrived to help, sacrificing himself to protect her.

The closest and dearest to her, one died saving her, while the other was killed by her.

With her revenge taken, the female lead fell into despair and no longer cared who would end up ruling the world, seeking refuge in a Buddhist temple to meditate.

The emperor survived, thanks to the protagonist’s aura, but the entire Xuan dynasty was thoroughly devastated.

The Turkic forces advanced aggressively from the north, while the Minghan Kingdom launched large-scale invasions from the south.

The feudal lords battled and surrendered, and ultimately, when the Turkic and Minghan forces stormed the imperial capital, the surrounding small nations joined in to take a share, leaving the Great Xuan dynasty fragmented and unable to fight back.

The emperor had no choice but to move the capital, avoiding battle to preserve strength.

In the original book, it only briefly mentioned that the Prince of Liao Nan had died when the emperor was trying to find the female lead.

There were no details on how he died or where he died; there wasn’t even a single extra word.

---

As Jiang Yanyi pondered these things, she felt a suffocating tightness in her chest.

The original text mainly focused on the deep and torturous love between the main characters, filled with love and conflict, leaving very little useful information.

Regarding the direction of these national affairs, even if she wanted to change the trajectory, she lacked the ability and had no way to intervene.

While squatting behind the stove, sighing, a cold voice suddenly came from above her head:

“Why the sigh?”

When Jiang Yanyi looked up, she saw Feng Shuo’s delicate and handsome face.

She had no idea when he had arrived; she hadn’t even heard his footsteps. Remembering the brief mention of his death in the original book made her nose inexplicably tingle.

“It’s nothing, I just don’t like war,” she replied.

When she first arrived here, she felt as if she had been given a new lease on life, free to live as she pleased without any attachments.

Now, the more things she cared about, the more she wanted to cling to life.

As time passed, she finally understood the value of these two concepts.

“The war is still a thousand eight hundred miles away from Xizhou; what are you afraid of?” Feng Shuo said, but seeing her eyes reddening and her brows unconsciously knitting together, he couldn’t help but frown.

Jiang Yanyi couldn’t share her worries with him, so she changed the subject: “What brings you here today?”

Feng Shuo hinted, “I came to prevent someone from crying.”

Jiang Yanyi had a hint of sadness left in her heart, but his words made her a little annoyed, and she couldn’t help but glare at him.

Seeing her mood lift a bit, Feng Shuo said, “Don’t worry; Xizhou won’t fall into chaos. Once your uncle comes to pick up your mother and grandfather and others, I’ll send a matchmaker to propose.”

This wasn’t the first time he had mentioned marriage, but for some reason, this time, Jiang Yanyi didn’t feel anxious.

She asked the question that had puzzled her for a long time: “What is it that you like about me?”

Feng Shuo raised an eyebrow, “Why the sudden question?”

Jiang Yanyi placed her hands on her knees and said, “I’ve always wanted to ask this, but I only just found the courage to do so. In terms of appearance, I’m not stunning; in terms of talent, I’ve barely read a few poetry books; in terms of family background, I’m currently dead in the Jiang family and just a distant cousin in the Chu family, of no help to your grand ambitions…”

“Why do you think I value those things?” Feng Shuo interrupted her, his expression unchanged, but there was an undeniable displeasure in his tone.

After a moment of silence, Jiang Yanyi looked up, a little confused, and asked, “Could it be because I can cook?”

Feng Shuo: “…”

He thought he would be driven to his grave by her one day.

He clenched his teeth and said, “If every cook in the world could cook, would I have to marry them all?”

Jiang Yanyi seriously thought for a moment before rejecting that idea: “They also have to be good-looking.”

For a moment, Feng Shuo didn’t know whether to be angry or amused.

He said, “…Are you boasting about yourself now?”

Jiang Yanyi replied earnestly, “No, I’m just analyzing the facts.”

Feng Shuo: “…”

Before dying from frustration, he might as well just strangle her.

He pinched her cheeks, which were originally not plump, but due to this posture, her cheeks puffed up, and her pale pink lips pursed, looking like a pufferfish out of water.

“Hmm, what are you doing?” She widened her eyes and struggled to speak.

“Because it’s you, that’s why I like you. Do you understand?”