Chapter 28: Shen Yu Cooks Noods

Autumn was coming soon. The leaves outside the courtyard were slowly turning yellow, and the cool breeze wafted, blowing down several of them.

After a long moment of silence, Fang Rui lifted the wine flask and poured into the cup before Shen Yu. Immediately a faint scent of wine drifted out.

Fang Rui poured and, a smile at the corner of his mouth, asked, “Why would you think I took Chen Chi away?”

His tone was composed and steady, not a hint of panic.

Shen Yu kept her gaze steady, staring at Fang Rui’s mask, and said, “Since Chen Chi was detained alone, you were the only one who had contact with him. If he poisoned himself, then it was with something you gave him. But since you managed to help Chen Chi get his family out, Chen Chi wouldn’t so easily trust you without seeing them, then confess and poison himself after that.”

The hand that set down the flask paused slightly, then lowered it and looked up at Shen Yu. His thin lips curled. His Shen Yu was indeed different from other women. While other women were scheming to seduce him, this Shen Yu was sparring with him in wit and will…

Bah!

He would like to see Shen Yu try to seduce him. Let her do the sparring with those other women!

Shen Yu narrowed her eyes again and voiced her guess, “For Chen Chi to trust you so much, first you must have promised him something; second, it’s your identity or something you possess that made him believe your promise.”

After another drink, Fang Rui said, “There is such a person who allowed me do this. Chen Chi and his wife and children have already left Jindu for beyond the borders. That person ordered that Chen Chi must never set foot in Great Qi again.”

Chen Chi wasn’t dead, just as Shen Yu had suspected.

Because Fang Rui was sitting right beside Shen Yu, she leaned her upper body closer to him with an imposing air and asked, “Who is this person?”

Fang Rui suddenly smiled again, reached to the table and brought the cup that belonged to Shen Yu in front of her, saying, “Drink this cup first, then we’ll talk.”

Shen Yu glanced at the wine in Fang Rui’s hand, pondered briefly, took the cup, and tipped her head back to gulp it down. She choked and coughed several times from drinking so hard. When she recovered, she looked at Fang Rui with even eyes and a chilly tone, “Take your claws off me.”

Fang Rui removed his hand from Shen Yu’s back and said, “I’m just trying to help you recover faster.”

Recover faster? Well, if he didn’t make her die from anger, that was good enough.

“Speak. Who exactly is that person?”

“Hmm… well…” Fang Rui’s gaze fell on Shen Yu’s bright, clear eyes, which seemed to permit no speck of dirt, and in the end he decided not to lie.

“Because I don’t want to lie to you, I won’t say.”

After looking at Fang Rui a few more times, Shen Yu withdrew her gaze. She wasn’t angry, and she said, “We each serve our own masters. If you don’t tell me, it’s better than lying. Tonight’s food and drink are to reward you. In any case, Poison Scorpion Lady, Chen Chi’s confession was because of you. I’m not an unreasonable person. If you’re right, I won’t deny it.”

When Shen Yu finished, Fang Rui pointed at the food and drink in disbelief. “I risked so much for you, and you reward me with these few homely dishes and a jug of wine from Chen’s stall in the alley beside the Court of Judicial Review? You think that’ll do?”

Shen Yu nearly flipped the table. There were always people like that. Give them a bamboo pole and they want to climb to the sky; give them a copper coin and they want to buy a dye-mill. For people like that, what’s the best way to deal with them?

The best method is to take back the pole and the copper coin.

“You don’t want to eat, right? Fine, I’ll have someone clear it all away now.”

But Fang Rui, used to rich fare, liked the unusual. “If you truly want to reward me, why don’t you personally make me a bowl of noodles?”

Shen Yu, surprised, looked at him oddly. “You really want to eat noodles I make?” After all, he had truly put himself out. As long as the request wasn’t excessive, she could accept it.

Fang Rui nodded heavily. “Yes, really. Why would I lie about that?”

Shen Yu thought for a moment and replied, “All right.”

However…

The sun had fully set and night had fallen, so the kitchen servants had tidied up. When Shen Yu arrived in the kitchen there was still one person there, so she asked that servant where the flour was.

After confirming where the flour was, Shen Yu dismissed that servant. If someone saw her personally cooking, while her own subordinate stood aside to watch, she didn’t know what that startled servant would think or how word might spread.

They closed the kitchen door so only Fang Rui and Shen Yu remained, and the sack of flour sat on the stove. Shen Yu stared for a long time, then turned to Fang Rui with a bewildered face and asked, “What should I do now? Should I add water first? Should the water be cold or hot?”

Fang Rui sighed. So Shen Yu agreed so quickly after only a moment’s thought? Where exactly did her confidence come from?

He really shouldn’t have expected too much.

Could Fang Rui cook?

The answer was no: in the palace there had been a whole team of imperial chefs. Even after leaving the palace and roaming the rivers and lakes, there was the ever-capable Rong Tai, who cooked like a god. Simple wild greens in his hands could become a delicacy.

With an assistant like Rong Tai who could handle both official matters and the kitchen, he naturally didn’t need to know how to cook. His common knowledge was limited as he’d only watched street vendors in the market.

“It seems you first put some cold water on the flour, then knead it by hand,” he remembered roughly. That was as far as his ability went.

Hearing this, Shen Yu turned her attention back to the flour. After staring for a while she fetched a basin, poured what appeared to be two or three jin of flour into it, scooped several full ladles of water into the basin, and then hesitantly put her hands into it.

Seeing the thick, gluey white paste in the basin, Fang Rui looked away and said, “I’ll light the fire.”

He was genuinely afraid that if he kept watching, he’d lose the courage to eat it.

After about 10 minutes, the water boiled. Fang Rui came to Shen Yu’s side, looked at that basin of stuff, looked at the thin sheen of sweat on Shen Yu’s brow, and then back at the still white, glue-like mixture of flour and water. He believed Shen Yu had truly kneaded it, only, what she’d made didn’t resemble what he’d seen in the market.

Yet Shen Yu confidently presented her result, nudged the big basin and asked, “How is it?”

Because Shen Yu couldn’t see his expression, Fang Rui showed a trace of regret on his face, but his tone was sincere. “It’s actually quite unique.” He’d never seen dough so gluey before.

Hearing that, Shen Yu’s mouth twitched up in a way she herself hadn’t realized. “Then I’ll go cook them.”

As Shen Yu spoke she tried to lift the basin, but it was heavier than she expected. Struggling to lift it, Fang Rui took the basin from her hands. But the moment he lifted it, his hand accidentally brushed hers.

After taking the basin from Shen Yu, Fang Rui turned away, fully unaware that Shen Yu had briefly gone into a daze at the instant he touched her hand.

Shen Yu touched the spot he had just brushed and indeed realized she had blanked out for a moment.

In that brief instant when he touched her hand she felt an intense familiarity, the strength and warmth of that hand. Where had she felt it before?

Shen Yu looked at Fang Rui’s back and showed a skeptical expression.

But no matter how hard Shen Yu tried, she would never have imagined that Jia Ming was the very Emperor she respected.

In Shen Yu’s eyes, the Emperor was someone supremely wise, outstanding and deeply righteous. But this Jia Ming, in Shen Yu’s view, could only be described with pejoratives: despicable, shameless, presumptuous, brazen, full of nonsense, a lecher… there were so many words she could use she couldn’t finish listing them.

So even if the two men resembled each other in build and some gestures, Shen Yu couldn’t associate this man with His Majesty. They were completely different in temperament.

With the basin now beside the pot on the stove, Fang Rui turned and saw Shen Yu looking as if she’d lost her soul. He didn’t notice her oddness and just assumed she was pondering how to cook the noodles.

He called, “Shen Yu, the water’s boiling.”

The call snapped Shen Yu back. She looked at the basin of white paste, made an “oh” of realization, and stepped over.

She watched as Shen Yu used a ladle to scoop spoonfuls of that white paste directly into the boiling water.

Fang Rui was stunned. This wasn’t cooking noodles at all. She was making porridge globs.

Seeing those clumps, Fang Rui lost all appetite. But since he’d requested it, he would swallow it even if it made him cry.

Shen Yu had a whole big basin of white paste. If it hadn’t already been too much to fit in the pot, she might have put it all in.

When the scooped result filled a huge soup-bowl, Fang Rui suddenly felt a pain in his stomach.

Fearing she might burn herself, Fang Rui carried it over to the kitchen dining table himself.

They both sat, and in front of Fang Rui was a bowl of doughy lumps larger than his face.

Fang Rui tried to pretend they were dumplings, but the problem was these “dumplings” were each the size of half his fist…

Shen Yu looked expectantly at him. “Quick, try it. How is it?”

Fang Rui glanced at Shen Yu in the dim candlelight, her expression soft, her eyes still sparkling. He suddenly felt that even if the bowl before him was poison, he would likely drink it down without hesitation.

He picked up his chopsticks, pinched a piece, slowly put it in his mouth, and swallowed.

The taste was indeed somewhat…indescribable.