Chapter 293: Lemon Fruit
It was a good thing they had dropped by Wen Nong’s place to sit; otherwise, they wouldn’t have uncovered such a major piece of news.
“Second Brother, we’re going out for a walk and then heading home! You carry on!” Wen Yao wiggled her eyebrows at Li Yi, and the two rose to their feet, slipping away with Xun Feng and the other remaining guard trailing close behind.
The two strolled all the way to the roast duck shop.
Following their previous layout, the milk tea shop sat right beside the roast duck shop. To their surprise, queues had already formed outside both doors so early in the day.
Seeing business thriving so well brought sheer delight to Wen Yao—after all, a large crowd meant a stuffed purse.
She had originally wanted to step into the milk tea shop to buy two cups of milk tea to enjoy, but catching sight of the long lines, the two could only abandon the idea.
The pricing at the milk tea shop wasn’t high, so even ordinary folk could afford it. Still, for many workers at the docks, it was still somewhat pricey.
This involuntarily brought back memories of the lemon water Wen Yao had loved in her former life.
“It would be wonderful if we could get our hands on lemons here,” Wen Yao blurted out under her breath.
Although her voice was very faint, Li Yi possessed sharp ears and picked it up instantly, asking with curiosity, “What is a lemon? A fruit?” Because it was related to the milk tea shop, Li Yi boldly guessed whether it was a type of fruit.
“Ah?” Only then did Wen Yao realize she was so unguarded in front of Li Yi that she had spoken her inner thoughts aloud. Fortunately, it wasn’t anything secretive, so she explained, “Mm, you could consider it a type of fruit. Ordinary people can’t really eat it raw, but using it to make drinks or side dishes—that’s an absolute game-changer.”
Li Yi thought for a moment and asked, “What does it look like? What are its features?”
Hearing this, Wen Yao knew what he was thinking, her eyes lighting up. How could she forget that the boy before her was imperial royalty? If he stepped in, they might actually manage to find it.
It was just that Wen Yao herself wasn’t sure if lemons existed in this world. She had even been preparing to quietly retrieve saplings from her spatial storage to plant in the fruit grove, planning to explain at most that some orange tree had mutated.
Yet if Li Yi could find it, bringing it out would be far more legitimate.
Recalling the details, Wen Yao said, “It’s roughly the size of a fist, oval-shaped, with a green or golden-yellow peel. It belongs to the orange and citrus family, but tastes extremely sour—sour enough to set your teeth on edge. Ordinary people can’t bear to eat it raw.” Of course, there were those who loved eating lemons directly—at least she had seen such people before.
Thinking carefully, it seemed lemons weren’t called lemons at this time.
“Oh right, it also has another name—lemon fruit. It mostly grows in coastal areas.”
Hearing “coastal areas,” Li Yi realized it became much simpler; searching those areas was far easier than hunting across the entire country.
“Can you draw it?” Li Yi asked.
Wen Yao nodded repeatedly without hesitation: “I can! Come on, let’s head home, and I’ll draw it for you.”
How wonderful—having a big boss to help out truly makes everything easier.
Neither felt like strolling any further, so they simply hailed a horse carriage and headed straight home. The moment they returned, Wen Yao ducked into the study to begin drawing.
In truth, an even simpler method would be to produce two photographs—actual one-to-one models of the real thing. Fearing Li Yi might press her about the origin of the photographs, however, Wen Yao could only draw upon her own artistic skills, sketching a lemon tree along with the appearance of a lemon.
Along the way, Wen Yao also drew pineapple, jackfruit, and passion fruit. Since they were searching anyway, hehe, why not bundle them together?
Receiving the drawings, Li Yi was astonished by Wen Yao’s artistic talent—she had captured them with such lifelike precision that had he not been holding a sheet of paper, he would have mistaken them for real objects.
Could this painting skill have been taught to Wen Yao by Uncle Wen as well? Then Uncle Wen’s artistic talent must be truly extraordinary—I must find an opportunity to properly seek instruction from Uncle Wen.
Putting away these thoughts, Li Yi carefully folded Wen Yao’s drawings, placed them inside an envelope, and handed them to the guard: “Deliver these drawings along with this letter to the courier station. Have them send them to the capital at the fastest speed, ensuring they are handed directly into Father’s hands.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
Xun Feng and the guard both breathed a quiet sigh of relief; they had been genuinely afraid the Young Master would send them off directly to hunt for the items.
“Miss Yao Yao, is this thing really that delicious?” Xun Feng asked, full of curiosity.
At the thought of that lemon flavor, saliva began to secrete involuntarily in Wen Yao’s mouth, and she replied, “If eaten raw on its own, the taste is certainly a bit unique. But if made into dishes—such as lemon shrimp, lemon shredded chicken, lemon pickled pepper chicken feet, lime fish, passion fruit lemon honey tea… the possibilities are endless.”
Hiss. Wen Yao instinctively swallowed her saliva, craving it more and more the more she spoke.
Never mind her—even Li Yi and Xun Feng had a swarm of cravings stirred up by Wen Yao’s words. Xun Feng was already looking at Wen Yao with glowing eyes, waiting for the King’s side to quickly find the items. Right now, he wished he could fly back to the capital to urge the King to dispatch people immediately.
Li Yi knew how to conceal his emotions, yet that subtle, subconscious swallowing motion still betrayed his inner thoughts.
At this thought, Li Yi decided he would still send a carrier pigeon to his father later to emphasize the importance of finding these items.
To satisfy her craving, Wen Yao decided to make a meal of numbing pepper chicken for dinner. There were several Sichuan pepper trees at the foot of the mountain, currently heavy with fruit. Wen Yao took Nanny Shi along with a basket to pick them, and upon her return, she noticed that one pigeon was missing from the pigeon cage under the veranda.
“Eh? Where’s the pigeon? Did you two eat it?” Wen Yao teased the master and servant.
Li Yi replied, “I sent word to Father that Brother Wen and Doctor Jin have set off, so he can calculate the dates to pick them up.”
“Ah?” Wen Yao froze. “Didn’t you just have someone send a letter to Uncle Li?”
Li Yi answered without a blush or a racing heart: “Letters through the courier station travel slowly.”
Although Wen Yao felt Li Yi’s seemingly redundant action was a bit peculiar, what he said sounded quite reasonable.
“Alright then. Come on, slaughter the chickens! Making numbing pepper chicken tonight—I’m craving it to death!”
The three ran straight to the old compound next door, ruining three of the chickens raised by Old Madam Luo.
By the time Old Madam Luo discovered it, the three chickens had already been turned into numbing pepper chicken by Wen Yao. The old lady’s mouth, ready to issue a scolding, was stuffed completely shut, and she even instructed Lady Li to check the village again tomorrow to see which households had chicks so they could buy a few more to raise.
She simply feared the chickens at home would sooner or later be eaten clean by Wen Yao—it was definitely not pampering the child.
Lady Li shared the unspoken understanding, secretly agreeing with a chuckle.
By nightfall, everyone returned to their respective quarters. Looking at the courtyard now missing his eldest son, Wen Xiuyi still felt a bit down in spirit.
The three of them had arrived in this strange place for reasons unknown. Although they now had many family members, at the end of the day, only the three of them truly relied on each other for survival. With one suddenly gone, it was genuinely hard to get used to.
Both Li Yi and Wen Yao noticed Wen Xiuyi’s unusual mood and stayed in the courtyard to chat with him. To reignite his fighting spirit, all the topics they discussed were those he loved.
Knowing that Wen Xiuyi had been contemplating the matter of rice lately, Wen Yao used this topic to start the conversation.
