Fields of Gold

Chapter 661 - Protect Older Sister Pt 2

It truly wasn’t easy to eat a meal at the Yu’s Medicinal Cuisine House, especially the dish, ‘Buddha Jumps Over the Wall’! Those without patience really wouldn’t be able to get to taste it. It was still his father who had the clout——no, it would be more accurate to say that his old father had received a good disciple. Perhaps...the next time he invited people over for a meal, he needed to use his old father’s name.

“Don’t even think about it!” Yuan Sinian was able to see at a glance what his son was scheming and leveled a glare at him as he rubbed his full belly in contentment. He leaned back in his chair as he slowly said, “This old man needs to call ahead in order to borrow this private room. Today, if it weren’t for the fact that that musclehead surnamed Zhao had something to do and ended up changing his reservation at the last minute, we wouldn’t be sitting here right now! If everyone was like you, asking to use it to invite anyone over, then wouldn’t the Yu Family’s lass have a giant headache now? That being said, as the grand and magnificent prime minister of this dynasty, how could you have the face to take advantage of a young maiden’s generosity?”

Prime Minister Yuan silently roasted his father, ‘You’re shameless enough, so how could I, as your son, also not be shameless ah? That being said, Miss Yu actually should be calling me ‘uncle’ as she’s best friends with my daughter...’

“Oh right, find some time for your younger disciple brother and son to talk to them about the metropolitan examination! Impart them some tricks of the trade on how to take the exam! For this exam, I, your old father, have hope to produce another top scorer in the imperial palace examinations!” Yuan Sinian easily ordered his son around as if it were nothing.

Prime Minister Yuan slightly frowned and said, “Father, the emperor plans on having me take on some duties in relation to the exams. It’s not suitable for me to communicate with exam candidates prior...”

“Has the head examiner been set yet?” Yuan Sinian continued his line of questioning.

Prime Minister Yuan shook his head, “We haven’t gotten to that point. I and the Imperial Tutor should be picking one together.”

“Then resign ah! Your son and youngest disciple brother are going to be participating in the preliminary round, so it’s best that you avoid rousing any suspicion. Otherwise, if they end up placing in the top two, other people will use this to attack you and claim that you fraudulently altered the exam results!” Yuan Sinian had quite a bit of confidence in his little disciple and youngest grandson. He had taught many students in his life and there were very few people he had encountered who had the talent and ability of his youngest disciple. He truly had high expectations for this disciple and was hoping that he would place first in all three sets of this exam. As the greatest scholar of his generation, being able to patronize his last disciple to get first in all three sets would allow him to leave this world without any regrets!

When he thought of this youngest disciple brother who was younger than his youngest son and younger than him by a few decades, Prime Minister Yuan couldn’t help but grimace in discomfort. His youngest disciple brother’s older sister was good friends with his daughter and called him ‘uncle’. This really made the relationship web between them complicated and messy. In essence, it was all the fault of his old father to take such a young boy as his last disciple!

“Then that should be all set! Try to push back on becoming the chief examiner or being involved at all ah! When the Imperial College lets off for break, let’s go to the Yu Residence and tutor your youngest disciple brother a bit on the matters of the preliminary round. That way, we can avoid him losing the grasp on first place due to being unfamiliar with the exam’s customs!” Yuan Sinian didn’t wait for his son to voice his opinion before coming to a final decision.

What could Prime Minister Yuan do? He was powerful and mighty at court, but he still needed to obediently listen to his father as he had no desire at past the age of forty to be beaten by a plank in front of all of his descendents. His old urchin of a father really made things hard for him sometimes!

“Go to the Yu Residence? Is that proper? The Yu Family is incredibly busy as they’re currently preparing Royal Princess Jinan’s dowry. That being said, who knows who’s coming and going at their residence, it’s better to have my youngest disciple brother come to our study...” Prime Minister Yuan wasn’t able to continue his line of thought before being glared at by his father.

Yuan Sinian angrily growled, “Come to our residence? Can the chefs at our house compete with Lass Yu’s culinary talents? Can they make food that causes the heavens to sing? Can they bake delicious and beautiful pastries? Your head is not screwed on right. Can it be that officialdom has made you stupid? Do you really believe that your youngest disciple brother needs your advice?”

The old man almost said these thoughts out loud, ‘As your father, I see that you’re working hard and I’m trying to find excuses for you to cadge a meal. That way your poor stomach can get rewarded with some tasty food ah!’

Little Shitou, who had been captured by his master and sent to the Imperial College, was now obediently settling down, throwing away all of his extraneous thoughts, and focusing his mind on studying. Although he already knew all of the essays in his books by heart and had an original and refreshing interpretation of these texts, he still had quite a harvest from staying at the most illustrious academy in the country being able to talk to all of these scholars, exchanging ideas.

Furthermore, the Yu Residence wasn’t very far from the site of the college. Thus, he was able to return home every day and eat the nutritious meals that his second sister had personally made for him. Every night, he also had tasty midnight snacks and pastries. He was living an incredibly happy life. It was as if he had returned back to six years prior, when he was about to take the county-level exams. His second sister had especially gone to that simple and crude residence they had in Tanggu Town to cook for him. Although their conditions were not as good as they were today, his second sister still managed to come up with tasty meals for him every day then.

If it weren’t for the fact that there was an eyesore thinking up excuses to cadge a meal at their home every day and showing his face to his second sister, then he would be even more pleased!

LIttle Shitou was like a fish in the water at the Imperial College. He also had very good relationships with the other schoolmates there. After less than half a month, he had made quite a few good friends there. This clearly was with the help of his second sister, using a tactic that she called ‘snack diplomacy’,

This was because he needed to take his noon meal at the Imperial College. Xiaocao felt bad that her younger brother was working so hard to study, so she especially made delicious and unique pastries for him every day. He brought them every day to school to eat. She made a large variety of food and they were all incredibly delicious. Even a tightly closed meal box was unable to conceal the fragrance within. Thus, it was obvious he had attracted the attention of other students.

The vast majority of students at the school were all going to participate in the metropolitan civil service examinations next year. At first, they regarded Little Shitou, this new student, with a bit of suspicion. They were either cautiously polite around him or ignored him coldly. Before Little Shitou could even start implementing ‘snack diplomacy’, the sweet smell of his meal box had already perked up the interest of some cold-looking students.

Most of these students were the sons of officials in the capital. Naturally, they knew about the Yu Family’s line of businesses. Furthermore, Little Shitou was the younger blood-related brother of the creator of the Yu’s Businesses, Royal Princess Jinan. Royal Princess Jinan not only knew how to manufacture medicine, brew wine, cook medicinal cuisine, but she was also an expert at baking pastries.

The pastries that Princess Consort Jing had once given out at her banquets had caused quite a sensation in the upper circles long ago in the capital. The two beauties of the capital and Royal Princess Minglan’s wedding banquets all had new dishes and refreshments there, which caused people to praise them endlessly. It was said that many bold guests had come over to congratulate Royal Princess Jinan’s friends’ weddings in order to eat at their tables. Thus, they had to add table after table at the banquet and it was quite a lively atmosphere!

Many people were now starting to plan, wondering if they should show up with a big present at Royal Princess Jinan’s upcoming wedding the next year. That way they could enjoy some delicious food. It was possible that every table would have a big surprise! The fact that all of these powerful officials who were willing to throw away their faces for the sake of delicious food spoke volumes about her culinary talents.

Many families of the students here at the Imperial College did their best to find a way to break into Royal Princess Jinan’s and Imperial Prince Xu’s inner circle. Nowadays, Royal Princess Jinan’s younger brother had appeared in their midst and always brought a box of pastries to ‘tempt’ them. If they didn’t take advantage of this opportunity, then they’d be the biggest idiots around!

Although Yu Fan was young, he had a good understanding of the world and of how people worked. Second Older Sister was helping him smooth the way for him, so he naturally needed to treasure her work. At first, he only shared his food with a few schoolmates who expressed their goodwill to him. Afterwards, his friends increased and increased. During lunch, even the teachers and lecturers at the Imperial College would sometimes cozy over and ask him and his friends courteously about how their studies were going.

Therefore, his young personal servant began carrying more and more food boxes along and the contents inside became more and more rich and complex. Other than some light refreshments, there would even be some substantial dishes in the boxes. Thus, he and his friends could add some food to their lunches.

After spending more than a month there, he was now the student with the best social connections out of all of them. Although his ‘snack diplomacy’ only opened the way, his clever mind, likable personality as well as his sincere treatment of others caused many people and classmates to view him in a good light.

“Hey! Xiaofan, what delicious foods did you bring today?” Little Shitou’s closest friend, the youngest son of a scholar at the Imperial Hanlin Academy, Zang Borui, came up from behind him. He patted Shitou’s shoulder.

Little Shitou slanted him a look and asked, “So if I don’t bring tasty things along, you wouldn’t come over and greet me?”

“Haha, how could that be? To tell you the truth, at first, ah, I truly was coming over because of your food. After spending some time with you, I feel like you’re a chummy fellow and worthy of my friendship, which was why I kept coming back. Do you think I, this older brother, would spend time with just anyone?” As he talked, he also inadvertently threw a look at his arch-enemy, Liu Hongzhang.

Zang Borui and Liu Hongzhang had been enemies since they were toddling kids. The two families had been fighting against each other since their father’s generation. Neither wanted to back down from the other. Zang Borui’s father was a fifth-ranked official at the Imperial Hanlin Academy and Liu Hongzhang’s father was the consultant of the Communications Bureau and was also a fifth-ranked official. The two of them used a lot of effort to defeat the other.

There truly wasn’t a great grievance or hatred between the two families! Their fathers, in their youth, only had a few quarrels now and then, leading to the two families not seeing eye to eye with each other. As soon as they saw each other, they did their best to put the other down. Now, even Zang Borui and Liu Hongzhang acted the same way too.

However, it turned out that these two people both had decent relationships with Little Shitou. In order to not embarrass their friend, the two of them would calm down a bit in front of him and would at most use their eyes to express their displeasure at the other.

Liu Hongzhang ignored the provocative look and spoke to Little Shitou, “In three days, on your birthday, it will also be coincidentally a break day at school. How about we use this opportunity to relax a bit and have a celebration?”

Little Shitou remembered the words his second sister had said yesterday and smiled foolishly, “My second sister had said that she was planning on having the family’s Medicinal Cuisine House cater my celebration. I’ve already prepared the invitations. When the moment comes, you guys need to do me the honor of coming!”

“Does that even need to be said?” Zang Borui had a tall and strong figure and didn’t look like a scholar. He somewhat resembled a military man instead. He hugged Little Shitou’s neck as he chucked mischievously, “Your birthday celebration will be held at the Medicinal Cuisine House, then...will the banquet have ‘Buddha Jumps Over the Wall’? Will your second sister personally make a birthday cake for you? Will there be the Yu’s fine wine there? Will there be...”

“The friendship between gentlemen is clear like water, no flavor but free of harmful substances like self-interest. As the son of a scholar at Hanlin Academy, do you not know of this?” Liu Hongzhang couldn’t take it anymore and raised an eyebrow as he coldly remarked.