It wasn’t until Duke Chen came to visit that Jiang Yanyi realized the cart full of chickens she received was raised by him.

To express her apologies, Jiang Yanyi hurriedly promised to buy him a big rooster at the market the next day.

Duke Chen repeatedly said it wasn’t necessary and that she could just cook him a nice meal of chicken tomorrow.

Chi Qing couldn’t spare any time to teach Chu Yanguo, so he came personally to instruct him.

There were many rooms in the western wing of the courtyard, so that night, Jiang Yanyi prepared a room for Duke Chen to stay in.

By the time Chu Shubao returned home, it was already late.

Jiang Yanyi felt uneasy and asked Yang Xiu to escort her back to the Chu family.

Even now, she still handled everything personally.

In the kitchen of the shop, apart from Chef Yao, they had hired a master cook and a helper specifically for washing vegetables and preparing ingredients.

Qiu Kui had previously been helping to serve customers outside, but she was a bit slow and not good at interacting with people.

She preferred to stay in the kitchen, so Jiang Yanyi had her assist Chef Yao.

Currently, Yang Xiu was the only server in the shop, while the newly hired master cook and helper were both locals.

With Chef Yao vouching for them, Jiang Yanyi trusted them.

Aunt Guo also helped in the front shop.

Whenever Jiang Yanyi needed to go out, Aunt Guo would follow her to ensure her safety.

From the very beginning, Jiang Yanyi had never treated Qiu Kui and Aunt Guo as servants.

Now she couldn’t bring herself to give them orders.

Aunt Guo sometimes insisted on helping, and Jiang Yanyi felt a bit guilty, often being polite about it.

So after settling Duke Chen into his room, while Jiang Yanyi was in the kitchen preparing soup, Aunt Guo, who was getting older, couldn’t help but say, “Boss, your business is getting better and better, and you’re more well-off now. You should consider getting a few more servants to take care of you.”

Since being assigned by Feng Shuo, she had regarded herself as a servant, but back then, she had to fabricate an identity to hide it from Jiang Yanyi.

However, Jiang Yanyi had always treated her like a neighborly aunt.

During this time together, Aunt Guo had noticed that Jiang Yanyi was kind-hearted.

Although she had bought Qiu Kui, she had never treated her as a servant, and Aunt Guo didn’t expect Qiu Kui, who was a bit slow-witted, to serve anyone properly.

She hoped Jiang Yanyi would buy a few maids to take care of her daily needs.

After all, someone had to handle tasks like serving tea, tidying the rooms, and cooking.

Aunt Guo was willing to serve Jiang Yanyi like an ordinary maid, but sadly, Jiang Yanyi wouldn’t allow it.

Moreover, Aunt Guo had spent half her life practicing martial arts; she was fine with killing chickens and sheep but struggled with the more delicate tasks of serving people.

Jiang Yanyi sat on a low stool behind the stove.

Hearing Aunt Guo, her delicate eyebrows furrowed slightly.

Each maid she purchased would require a monthly salary, and if it were just to serve her, she couldn’t bring herself to spend that money.

The shop had already consumed her savings, and her plans to expand the antique soup shop had to be postponed.

She picked up a stick and began to draw calculations in the dirt, tallying up the expenses for hiring a maid, looking like a meticulous miser:

“Buying a maid costs at least two guans. In Xizhou, the monthly salary for a maid is six hundred wen, so that’s seven guans and two hundred wen per year.

Not to mention, the maid will eat from the household. Based on the shop’s food expenses, that’s at least ten wen a day, which adds up to three hundred wen a month, making it three guans and six hundred wen per year.

All in all, hiring a maid for a year will cost me twelve guans and eight hundred wen!”

That’s nearly thirteen taels of silver!

Aunt Guo was clearly taken aback by her calculations.

She had initially thought hiring a maid wouldn’t cost much and that she could always use her later, but with Jiang Yanyi calculating the expenses, she felt it was quite a loss.

Jiang Yanyi sighed, “I currently don’t plan to hire any maids. I’ll save money to expand the shop first.”

Aunt Guo nodded in rare agreement.

---

Although Chu Shubao was eager to start selling rouge, her custom-designed carved wooden cabinet wasn’t finished yet, so she could only wait impatiently.

Jiang Yanyi was now only responsible for overseeing the accounts at the antique soup shop, occasionally making rounds at the noodle shop.

Though she had anticipated this, the business at the noodle shop was improving daily and was subtly catching up to the antique soup shop, which pleasantly surprised Jiang Yanyi.

Over at the Chu family, she regularly brought new dishes to visit the old matriarch.

Everyone in the Chu family was desperately trying to conceal the fact that Chu Chengmao and Chu Chengbai had been captured, but the old matriarch was sharp and sensed something was off, frequently asking her children and grandchildren why Chu Changping hadn’t returned.

The Chu family had all been unified in their response, saying there were military matters at hand, which barely appeased the elderly lady.

Jiang Yanyi was also worried about Chu Changping and the others, but her abilities were limited, so she could only pray for their safety.

To distract herself from her anxiety, she tried to focus all her thoughts on the noodle shop’s business, and whenever she had the chance, she would go to the Feng family’s flower room to check on the peppers.

After the last incident, there were now servants cleaning the snow off the glazed tiles in the flower room daily, and the pepper plants were doing well again.

However, some peppers appeared to be sickly, possibly due to a lack of sunlight earlier.

Jiang Yanyi picked the unhealthy peppers from the plants, allowing the remaining healthy ones to absorb the limited nutrients.

The picked peppers were still green and red; they couldn’t be dried for preservation, so they had to be eaten fresh.

Although Duke Chen repeatedly insisted that Jiang Yanyi could slaughter the chickens he raised at will, she still felt uncomfortable doing so.

After all, once the chicken was cooked, Duke Chen wouldn’t be able to enjoy it alone; he would definitely share it with everyone.

Those were chickens he had raised with great care, and Jiang Yanyi felt it wouldn’t be right to take advantage of an elderly man.

So, whenever Duke Chen expressed a desire to eat chicken, Jiang Yanyi would send Yang Xiu to fetch one from the horse butcher.

Compared to modern chickens, the advantage of ancient chickens was that they were all authentic free-range chickens, raised naturally without feed, making the meat delicious no matter how it was cooked.

Holding a freshly picked chili pepper, Jiang Yanyi thought it was time to prepare some Braised Chicken.

Authentic Braised Chicken emphasizes three essentials.

First is the broth: it should be rich and flavorful, with a balance of saltiness and spiciness, oily yet not greasy.

In her past life, every time Jiang Yanyi ate Braised Chicken, she would soak her rice in the sauce, allowing her to eat an extra half bowl of rice.

Second is the meat: the chicken should be tender and delicate, absorbing all the flavors beautifully.

The third essential is the rice, which is said to be steamed using a technique of “double frying.”

The cooked rice grains should be distinct, with a firm texture and rich aroma.

Jiang Yanyi left Feng Manor and headed straight to the butcher’s shop to buy two chickens to take back to the restaurant.

Duke Chen already knew that the chicken she had been eating these past few days wasn’t from his own farm but had been bought with money by Jiang Yanyi, and he was sulking about it.

Seeing Jiang Yanyi returning with the two chickens, he scowled and said, “I’ve never seen a girl like you, so ungrateful!”

Jiang Yanyi chuckled, trying to smooth things over: “Old Chen, I’m making you some delicious braised chicken today.”

Duke Chen wouldn’t engage further, waving his sleeve as he retorted, “You’re being so ungrateful; I won’t eat here anymore!”

By the afternoon, Duke Chen truly acted as if he wouldn’t eat at the restaurant, walking over to the next building instead.

Jiang Yanyi understood his good intentions but felt a headache coming on from dealing with this stubborn old man.

She didn’t rush to appease him; instead, she entered the kitchen, grabbed a knife, and chopped the two chickens into small pieces, washing off the blood and marinating them with soy sauce and cooking wine.

Chicken and mushrooms were a perfect match, but since there were no enoki mushrooms in ancient times, Jiang Yanyi used shiitake mushrooms instead.

The iron pan was heated, and she directly tossed the chicken pieces in to stir-fry until they were just cooked through.

Since chicken skin contains fat, there was no need to add oil beforehand.

Once the chicken skin turned slightly yellow, she removed them from the pan, added sesame oil, sautéed some scallions and ginger, and then tossed in the braised chicken, adding the chopped chili peppers and star anise.

After drizzling in a spoonful of soy sauce and stir-frying until the chicken was nicely colored, she turned off the heat.

She transferred the chicken into a clay pot, layered it with shiitake slices, and added broth and boiling water to braise, cooking until the meat fell off the bone, and only then added salt for seasoning before serving.

“Qui Kui, it’s time to turn off the heat,” Jiang Yanyi said as she tidied up the kitchenware.

Turning around, she noticed Okra sitting blankly behind the stove, seemingly oblivious to her earlier remark.

Jiang Yanyi had to call her again, “Qui Kui, the braised chicken is ready; you can turn off the heat.”

“Oh,” Qui Kui finally responded as if waking from a dream, pushing the firewood out from the stove.

Jiang Yanyi found her behavior a bit strange and couldn’t help but ask, “What’s wrong with you?”

Qui Kui stared at Jiang Yanyi for a moment, shaking her head like a rattle: “Nothing.”

Recently, Jiang Yanyi had been busy with the antique soup and the noodle shop, and whenever she had a bit of free time, she had to run over to the Chu family.

She realized that she hadn’t been caring enough for Okra.

Noticing Qui Kui was off, she didn’t press her directly about what had happened.

Knowing Qui Kui’s nature, if she didn’t want to speak, no one could pry it out of her.

Jiang Yanyi took a small bowl, filled it with both the broth and meat, and handed it to her: “Come over and taste this.”

Qui Kui joyfully ran over, accepted the bowl, but as she was about to eat, she seemed to remember something and hesitated, asking, “What about them?”

Jiang Yanyi figured “them” referred to the others who usually ate together.

She replied, “This is for you to taste first; go ahead and eat.”

Only then did Qui Kui lift the bowl to eat.

Jiang Yanyi asked her, “How is it?”

Qui Kui nodded vigorously: “Delicious.”

Whenever Jiang Yanyi made something, Qui Kui had never said it was bad.

Seizing the opportunity, Jiang Yanyi asked, “Is there anything unhappy going on recently?”

Qui Kui seemed startled, as if afraid Jiang Yanyi would discover something, and quickly shook her head.

Jiang Yanyi felt even more concerned.

At that moment, Qui Kui cautiously asked her, “Hua Hua, my household registration document hasn’t come through yet. Right now, I only have the selling contract, right?”

Jiang Yanyi thought she was anxious about the registration document and didn’t know how to explain it to her.

If all processes went smoothly, her clemency edict should be issued by the end of the year.

However, due to the recent turmoil in the southern regions, the emperor was too busy to handle such matters.

Now that Feng Shuo had rebelled, it was likely that her good status, for which Feng Shuo had petitioned, would not be approved by the emperor.

Jiang Yanyi could only comfort her: “It hasn’t come through yet, but no one at the restaurant looks down on you. Right now, with the turmoil in the south, it’s unsafe for you to go back. Why not wait until the situation stabilizes before we establish a new grave for your parents, alright?”

Qui Kui, for some reason, appeared both dejected and relieved at this news.

She said, “It’s fine, I’m not in a hurry.”

After a moment, she suddenly added, “Hua Hua, please help me keep the selling contract safe.”

Jiang Yanyi replied, “You can take the contract; you can keep it yourself.”

However, Qui Kui shook her head repeatedly, asking Jiang Yanyi to help her keep it.

Jiang Yanyi had no choice but to pat her on the head: “If there’s anything unhappy, remember to tell me. If anyone bullies you, let me know, okay?”