gnovel Chapter 29 If they're happy, I'm happy too.
Chapter 29 If they're happy, I'm happy too.
Wang Lu is still living in Han Tong's mansion, and both Han Tong and Han Wei raise eagles, so there are spare eagle stands in the mansion.
Wang Lu was desperate and decided to try anything. He still had a lot of salicylic acid and glycyrrhizic acid left over from what Wang Jun had made. He mixed it with water and carefully fed it to the eagle little by little. He also asked the kitchen to bring over some chicken strips and tried feeding them to the eagle.
"I ate it, I ate it, it seems to work!" Zhao Guangmei said excitedly.
"This eagle certainly can't be kept in the palace."
"Keeping them in the palace is indeed not very convenient."
"Then let me keep it here and see. I'll do my best and leave the rest to fate. I don't know if it will survive. I'll ask my dad when he comes back. Maybe he can do something?"
But we have to agree on this: this is just a last resort, so if it really dies, you can't blame me.
"Of course, of course."
"Does the Emperor truly mean that he wants you to listen to me on this matter?"
"Yes, my older brother told me to learn from you and have you teach me."
"Then, let me confirm again, do you consider Li Jilong a friend? A purely platonic friend? Without any other motives?"
"Of course."
"If he's a friend, then whether you can save the eagle or not, you'll have to return it to him and apologize to him."
"Okay, then, can you come with me?"
"If you can save me, I'll go with you and we can get to know each other. If you can't save me, I don't want to go with you."
As they were talking, the eagle was fed. Wang Lu handed the half-dead eagle to the falconer who was in charge of taking care of eagles at Han Tong’s residence, and walked out to the living room with Zhao Guangmei, chatting as they went.
"Has the Emperor allowed you to keep eagles now? Why didn't he allow you to keep eagles before?"
"He just thought I was too young to handle it. Before I came, he told me that if I insisted on raising an eagle, I should find a young eagle and raise it myself. He definitely didn't want me to raise a fully grown eagle."
"Isn't Li Jilong a year younger than me? Didn't he train his own hawks too?"
"Yes, that's why I wanted to raise my own eagle, because Long-ge'er also trained one. But... Long-ge'er is indeed very capable, both in literature and martial arts. I am definitely not as good as him."
"That's rare; someone of your status can still admit to being inferior to others."
"What's there to be ashamed of? Aside from being the eldest brother's younger brother, I'm utterly useless, just an average person. It's like I know that although you're also a year younger than me, you're a prodigy even the eldest brother admires, and I'm nowhere near as good as you."
My older brother said that if anything happens in the future, I should ask you for advice and listen to you.
After thinking for a moment, she added, "That's what my mother said too."
Wang Lu couldn't help but sigh, "For someone of your status to have this self-awareness is already quite remarkable; you're not an ordinary person at all."
The two went to the living room and sat down. Seeing that Zhao Guangmei didn't mention leaving, Wang Lu was a little embarrassed. He scratched his head and asked, "Would the Third Prince like some tea?"
"I won't drink the tea, but Brother Lu, I was in a hurry when I came and didn't have breakfast."
"Ah...then...I'll have the kitchen make it for you?"
"The tofu your dad made on the day of the Chenqiao Mutiny was so delicious."
"Minced meat and tofu".
"Ah~ okay... then I'll do it, our family cook doesn't know how."
"Lu Ge'er knows the art of cooking? Isn't it said that a gentleman stays away from the kitchen?"
"A gentleman keeps away from the kitchen" refers to the fact that in the past, chickens, ducks, and even pigs and sheep were slaughtered in the kitchen. It means that people should avoid killing animals, because a gentleman would feel sorry for people killing animals. It is not an excuse to avoid work.
"Lu-ge'er, you're really amazing. You can do everything. I can't do that."
"Actually, cooking is very simple, and there are servants to help out."
After thinking for a moment, Wang Lu asked him, "Do you want to learn? With your status, there's definitely no need for you to cook yourself, but if you can cook well, the Emperor, the Empress Dowager, and your second brother will all be very happy."
"Cook? Me?"
Zhao Guangmei thought about it.
"That works too."
Cooking is really not difficult for them. There are maids to tend the fire, and cooks to wash and chop the vegetables. When it comes to stir-frying, they only need to stir the pot. After the dish is done, they can shamelessly say that they made it themselves and enjoy the praise from their relatives and friends.
These days, stir-frying is still a relatively novel method, let alone thickening sauces. Wang Lu really dared to teach, and Zhao Guangmei was actually willing to learn. Wang Lu was dressed in silk, and Zhao Guangmei was dressed in satin, not afraid of getting dirty from the smoke.
While teaching, Wang Lu said, "Actually, given your status, being a carefree prince for the rest of your life, and focusing all your energy on eating, would actually be a pretty good thing."
It's good for the country, good for yourself, and every now and then you can show off your skills to please the officials and your second brother, thus strengthening their relationship.
After thinking for a moment, she pouted and said, "But it won't do any good to coax your second brother anyway."
Zhao Guangyi was an inhuman man.
"By the way, since I'm giving this to you, and the First Prince is also your study companion, where will we study? When will it start? No one has notified me, and who will be our teacher?"
"There are no teachers."
"what?"
"We weren't assigned a teacher. My older brother told me and Zhao'er to listen to you. We're only learning the basics now, so we don't need a teacher. If we want a teacher, we can just go find whoever you want to teach us."
Upon hearing this, Wang Lu was at a loss for words, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
Where can you find a study companion like this?
However, upon reflection, it's not surprising. After all, it was the early Song Dynasty, and Zhao Kuangyin had just come from the Five Dynasties period. His own level of education was probably limited to being able to read and write, and he probably didn't value literature, Confucianism, or literature that much.
"The Emperor didn't say exactly what we'll be learning, nor did he say we'll be learning Confucianism?"
"I didn't say anything, I just said whatever you study, we'll study the same thing. Learning from you can't go wrong."
"Then let's learn to cook. After you've learned, you can go back and cook for the Emperor and the Empress Dowager."
Wang Lu secretly pondered: "Why not train Zhao Guangmei and Zhao Dezhao to be useless?"
Raising two foodies to live happily ever after is actually the best thing for them, and also the best thing for themselves.
………………
Inside Tongjifang, after Wang Lu gave her a heads-up, Han Ling'er officially got involved in the management of the brick and tile factory and became the real boss lady. She also had her own office at this time, but the factory was built in a hurry and the office space was a bit dilapidated.
She doesn't understand production either. Although she is studying hard, she can only do what she can for now. Currently, she is mainly responsible for logistics, which means taking the workers' families along to do things like laundry and cooking.
The personnel structure of this brick and tile factory is becoming increasingly complicated. At first, it was all from the Imperial Guard. The people Han Tong placed there were alright; they were all Han Tong's personal guards or their family members. They were all one family, so they didn't speak any different languages.
However, in the past few days, more and more people from the Palace Guard have been coming in, and the problem of overstaffing has become increasingly apparent, especially in the management and accounting departments, where many inexplicable people have arrived.
Moreover, Han Tong's original team members were being ostracized, whether intentionally or unintentionally.
This made Han Ling'er quite concerned, fearing that one day the brick and tile factory, which was making a fortune every day, would disappear in a muddled way. She couldn't understand the things at the top and didn't understand why Wang Jun would be so lenient with such things, but she became more and more concerned when studying accounting.
That day, he was engrossed in studying the so-called "Great Food Arithmetic Method" that Wang Lu had taught her, when Liu Hou'er knocked on the door and came in, saying:
"Madam, the master just brought some more people over. They said they want to be the deputy section chief of the fifth brick kiln. They asked me to take their whole family out for lunch. Could you please make the arrangements for them as well?"
"The deputy section chief of the fifth brick kiln? This is already the fourth deputy section chief of the fifth brick kiln."
Six Monkeys nodded with a wry smile: "The boss personally instructed us to do this, so we have no choice but to make arrangements."
Han Ling'er frowned: "These aren't people he arranged, they're clearly the Second King! How can someone as powerful as the Second King be so bad at winning people over..."
"Madam, be careful what you say. The master is currently working for the Second Prince, and the imperial court is still paying him for his brick-making and ash-making work."
"Sigh, I understand. It's something that should be simple, but it's been made so complicated. It's really frustrating. Normally, this kind of transfer of benefits is commonplace in officialdom."
But the Second King... he is, after all, the Second King, and this is, after all, their own Great Song Dynasty. It's truly... indescribable.