Chapter 209: I Will Be Troubling You for the Next Few Days
The moment Li Fu arrived, he fiercely glared at his son several times before sidling up to the kitchen doorway to watch Wen Yao busily bustling about inside. The sweet, fragrant aroma wafting out completely filled the entire courtyard.
Li Fu’s eyes never once strayed from Wen Yao—or more accurately, from Wen Yao’s hands.
Nanny Shi thought to herself: What on earth is wrong with this father and son?
Wen Yao also noticed Li Fu’s gaze. Truthfully, with this person staring at her constantly, it would be impossible for her not to notice even if she wanted to.
“Nanny, carry this out.” Wen Yao plated a finished assortment of colorful pastries, which looked incredibly mouthwatering just by visual presentation alone.
Carrying the tray, Nanny Shi walked out of the kitchen and set it on the table in the courtyard. Wen Xiuyi and Manager Qiu were already seated nearby, and Li Fu was on his way over.
“Master, the young mistress asked this servant to bring these out for the gentlemen to try.”
Wen Xiuyi nodded and waved his hand, and Nanny Shi returned to the kitchen to continue working.
“Give it a try. Yao’er made these specially today, saying they are pastries Li Yi wants to send back for his grandmother to eat. Brother Li, you should try some too and see if your venerable father likes this kind of flavor. If he doesn’t, we can have Yao’er adjust it right now,” Wen Xiuyi said.
Li Fu very unceremoniously sampled one, his eyebrows sweeping upward.
He had no idea how this girl had processed the pastry flour to make it literally melt in the mouth. Moreover, the sweet flavor was rich yet not cloyly sweet, and every different color represented a different flavor, tasting remarkably like various fruits.
To be able to bring out the flavor of fruits so exceptionally in a pastry, this girl’s culinary skills were truly extraordinary, matching or even surpassing the imperial chefs in the palace.
Wen Yao thought to herself: Care to learn about the fruit powder from my Space Treasure?
“Good, good, good!” Li Fu uttered three “goods” in a row.
No wonder the brat mixed around here and refused to go back. No way, no matter what, he had to find an excuse to stay for a few more days today; he couldn’t let all the benefits be monopolized by that boy.
“I have heard that Brother Wen is highly knowledgeable in agriculture. As it happens, I also quite like this sort of thing. I wonder if I might seek more guidance from Brother Wen?” Li Fu suddenly spoke to Wen Xiuyi.
Manager Qiu was nearly choked by a pastry. He hurriedly poured himself a cup of water and gulped it down before casting a glance at Li Fu, letting out a snort of laughter.
Farming? I’m afraid you don’t even know which end of a hoe to use.
Wen Xiuyi was also taken aback. A man like Li Fu clearly looked pampered and used to a life of privilege; yet he was actually interested in these things too?
Recalling how he had consistently wanted him to enter officialdom before and even mentioned the Ministry of Works, could this man be an official from the Ministry of Works?
But were officials from the Ministry of Works really this idle nowadays? Able to run around all over the place? Or was he out on public duty?
If he was out on public duty and could still take his son along to eat, drink, and play the entire way, being an official in ancient times was simply a bit too comfortable.
Perhaps he should take an official examination and give it a try as well?
While Wen Xiuyi was spacing out like this for a brief moment, Li Fu had already called him several times, saying, “If Brother Wen has no objections, then I will be troubling you for the next few days.”
Beside him, Manager Qiu was nearly dying from holding back his laughter. A dignified, legitimate Prince, running to someone’s house to freeload on food and drinks while acting completely righteous about it—if this spread back to the capital, probably no one would believe it.
Wen Xiuyi blanked for a moment. Wait, what?
However, Li Fu had already diverted the topic. Wen Xiuyi could only look toward Manager Qiu, who gave him a reassuring look.
Having the Prince of Fu as a backing was also a good thing for the Wen family.
Precisely because he had considered this, Manager Qiu did not stop the Prince of Fu from shamelessly staying behind.
Since Manager Qiu had nodded slightly, Wen Xiuyi also knew that Manager Qiu felt there was nothing amiss about the matter, so he could only agree.
At any rate, the son was already living at his house, so it wasn’t anything strange for the father to come and stay together.
It was just that there were only so many guest rooms in the house, and looking at the guards Li Fu had brought along, there were quite a few of them.
If it really didn’t work out, he would just have the guards make do over at the winery, or share a space with Lu He.
Having achieved his goal, Li Fu was in a delightful mood.
Because Wen Yao was busy at noon, the one who cooked was Wen Xiuyi, who made his specialty fried rice. In any case, Doctor Jin and Wen Jun were completely tied up over there and had no time to come back to eat and drink heavily. Since Wen Yao was busy finishing the pastries within the day to send them off, they would just make do with a meal at noon.
Besides, it wasn’t like there were any outsiders.
The “outsider,” Li Fu, had the good fortune of eating a bowl of fried rice personally cooked by Wen Xiuyi, and it was even the kind with meat added.
After busying herself for a whole day, Wen Yao finally had all the pastries prepared. She had Nanny Shi fetch the food boxes to pack them up properly.
“The pastries are all finished,” Wen Yao said, finding Li Yi.
Standing together, the two of them looked toward the few adults chatting over there and walked over.
“Father, you can have them prepare to set out,” Li Yi spoke.
Li Fu was happily chatting with Wen Xiuyi. Upon hearing this, he blanked for a moment, then called out, and immediately four guards stepped forward.
“Just leave it to them,” Li Fu said, pointing at the guards.
The four guards saluted Wen Yao in unison.
Wen Yao asked, “Uncle Li, how many days does it take to travel from here to the capital, and how will they get there?”
“By horseback. Even with whipped horses at full gallop, it will take barely two days to reach the capital,” Li Fu answered directly.
Wen Yao furrowed her brow slightly. Transportation here relied either on horses or boats. Reaching the capital in two days meant that even if the horses weren’t exhausted to death, the people would be.
A matter that seemed perfectly normal to Li Fu and the others made Wen Yao feel it was somewhat lacking in human empathy.
After some thought, Wen Yao had Nanny Shi take out all the packed pastries from the food boxes. She then went to the cellar to fetch ice and arranged it back into the food boxes—one layer at the bottom, one layer at the top, with the pastries placed in the middle.
However, doing it this way meant that items originally contained in two food boxes were forced to be divided into four. At any rate, there just happened to be four of them.
Wen Yao then fetched two bags of saltpeter powder.
“I have placed ice inside the food boxes, which can last for a period of time. I will teach you the method of ice-making. If the ice melts on the road, just find a place to make ice and put it back in. This way, there is no need to rush the journey so frantically,” Wen Yao said.
Li Fu had a face full of astonishment. “Girl, you are going to teach them the method of making ice?”
Wen Yao nodded. “Uncle Li, you saved Datou and are great benefactors to our family. Although this ice-making method is precious, jolting along the entire way like that is truly too damaging to the body, so I could only think of this method.”
Li Fu cast an admiring glance at Wen Yao and nodded. “Alright then, Uncle Li can guarantee you that this ice-making method will absolutely never be leaked to outsiders.”
After speaking, Li Fu cast a glance at the four guards. “Do you understand?”
“Your subordinates understand,” the four replied in unison.
Only Xun Feng was utterly overjoyed. With Wen Yao teaching the ice-making method to their guards, wouldn’t they be able to secretly make ice themselves to beat the heat when it got too hot in the summer in the future?
How wonderful. Miss Yao’er was truly the best person in this world.
Wen Yao led the four guards to the kitchen and demonstrated personally. Once she was certain all four had learned it, she had Nanny Shi hand the food boxes over to them.
The four guards did not dare delay for a single moment. Brushing onto their horses in unison, they galloped away in a flash, carrying not only the food boxes but also a letter Li Yi had written to his imperial mother.
