Miao Chu

Chapter 289 Dish Names
With glue in one hand and a manuscript in the other, Cheng Zijian walked to the wall, completely bewildered.

A group of people were urging and shouting at each other.

"Hurry up! How long is it taking you to write down just a few dishes? We're waiting here!"

"Hurry, hurry, hurry! What's the rush! You're never this anxious when handing in homework—stop making a fuss, or I'll scribble and make sure Miss Song can't read it!"

"Don't push, don't push, I still have two or three dishes to write about!"

Before long, someone started complaining again.

"The people in front are so incompetent! They wrote the characters so big, taking up so much space, how are we supposed to write anything with them!"

"We're out of space! Anyone want to get another piece of paper?! Hurry up!"

Cheng Zijian's eyes widened, leaving everyone somewhat bewildered.

Too many people were gathered around, completely blocking the large poster. He quickly stepped forward, trying to squeeze in.

Soon, the person in front of him turned around and glared at him angrily.

"What are you doing? Get in line! First come, first served!"

"Don't push! We're all scholars, at least be a little more considerate!"

He had a sudden inspiration, held up the paper in his hand, and said, "I'm here to deliver blank paper! Please make way, everyone!"

Upon hearing this, everyone turned around to look and indeed saw him with one hand holding paper and the other holding glue, so they quickly made way for him.

"Hey, you should have said so earlier!"

"Hurry up and stick it on! Let me give you a hand!"

As soon as Cheng Zijian went inside, without him having to lift a finger, his two men, one taking the paper and the other collecting the paste, helped him put it up.

He quickly glanced at the so-called "Song Ji Restaurant Food Recruitment Order" posted above.

First came a few lines of text, a brief introduction, saying that Song Ji's restaurant in Suanzao Lane was about to open, and that they were currently drafting the menu. They had already submitted some dishes, and Miss Song said she had noted them down. She also said she would come to the Imperial Academy to collect dishes.

Song Xiaoniangzi is very busy and may not be able to take care of so many things, so they took the lead and posted this solicitation notice. If anyone has anything they want to eat, they can write it down. Who knows, if they are lucky, it might be selected by a restaurant as a new dish!
The right side is clearly explained, but to the left, all the blank spaces are filled with writing. At first, the characters are very large, but as the page is filled, the writing starts to fill in every available space. As a result, it is so dense and confusing that even a scholar like Cheng Zijian would feel dizzy looking at the words.

He stood under the wall and was quickly recognized, someone called out, "Zijian!"

As soon as he shouted, people behind him started whispering among themselves.

Not many people knew him originally, but once someone introduced him as "the one who delivered pig's feet rice and taro braised pork on that day," everyone felt that he looked familiar and started calling him brother again.

Someone pointed to a spot on the wall and said, "Brother Cheng, you know Miss Song well, could you tell her to definitely choose my Sichuan peppercorn chicken? This dish keeps well and tastes good both hot and cold!"

Someone else hurriedly said, "Brother Cheng, I have a dish called 'Jia Sha Rou'! It's delicious! I've already written it down, and several of my fellow villagers have also written it down—ask Miss Song if she's heard of it and if she knows how to make it! If she can, we'll definitely order it every few days as long as it's available!"

But as soon as he finished speaking, there were dissenting voices.

"Stuffed pork with sand filling? What stuff is that? Never even heard of it, it must taste terrible! Why not make the fish soup I wrote about? Lots of people love fish soup, and if I make it, tons of people will order it. You still have the nerve to make it 'every now and then'? If you guys don't go and nobody orders it, what are you going to do, Miss Song? Are you just going to let it go bad?"

Everyone was pulling and tugging, trying to talk to "Brother Cheng" and "Zijian".

Cheng Zijian didn't dare to utter a sound. He abandoned the paste, clutched the remaining manuscript, and practically fled in panic, covering his head.

He didn't even bother to eat and hurriedly returned to his dormitory. By this time, he already had some guesses in his mind. Sure enough, when he arrived at the door, he saw a lot of people gathered around the wall outside the dormitory. The seven big characters on it, "Song Ji Restaurant's Order to Submit Dishes," were still shining brightly in the black.

Upon closer inspection, it was clear that this place was right outside the dormitory, making it convenient to take and retrieve items. New sheets of paper had already been pasted up, and not only were two large sheets of paper filled to the brim, but the third sheet was also more than half full. It was almost full, and people behind were urging them to hurry up and write.

Not only that, some people even started persuading each other.

"What's the point of writing such big characters! Do you think that just because the characters are big, Miss Song will be fooled into choosing your dish? It still depends on whether the dish is good or not. First, we need to see how troublesome it is to make; second, we need to see if it's convenient to deliver; and third, we need to see how popular it is. Why don't you just abandon yours and write down my pickled cabbage stir-fried with minced pork and eggs? This dish is delicious and goes well with the pancakes, noodles, or rice. Order this one, and go to the kitchen to ask for a plain noodle dish. It'll be wonderful!"

"No, no, no, write this one with me. This is stir-fried pork slices with garlic, it's especially delicious, this is really fragrant, and it's even a little spicy..."

Because the person speaking behind him was a familiar face, Cheng Zijian dared not linger, fearing he would be called back again, and quickly ran away.

Along the way, in the kitchen, people were discussing what dishes to suggest to Song Ji. When they went to the school, they were also whispering among themselves about how to choose dishes that were both delicious and inexpensive, so that they could eat them every day.

Even back in the dormitory, my roommates were talking about it.

"Sigh, it's still a bit far—let's take turns buying it together. On Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Sundays, and the 9th, two people will go buy it, and on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and the 8th, the other two will go. That way, we can eat it every day without each of us having to go through so much trouble!"

"Should we buy a bigger basket?"

"There's quite a lot of food for four people. I feel that food containers are more convenient. Although they're heavier, they have layers, which helps prevent the food from spilling!"

"Ugh, isn't the headmaster of Nanlu Academy annoying? It's been so long, and he still won't loosen his grip even a little!"

"Exactly! If the dog hole hadn't been blocked, we could have saved at least half the distance!"

"When I heard two months ago that Miss Song was planning to reopen her restaurant, she had already scouted out the best spot and picked out the perfect dog hole! Who knew!"

Throughout the day, the Imperial Academy and even the neighboring Imperial College were abuzz with discussion. Whenever they had a spare moment, everyone would talk about what dishes to suggest to Song Ji.

And this matter is not being discussed in just the two schools or one place.

Despite being separated by two walls and an alley, there was quite a bit of discussion inside the Nanlu Academy.

This discussion, however, originated from the church.

Students on the south side of the academy could not enter or leave at will, but the teachers, instructors, and other servants, cooks, and so on could not stay in the academy from morning to night.

Others are fine, but the gentlemen always have plenty of servants and attendants to queue up so that they can eat at Song Ji's restaurant—the food at Nanlu's restaurant is even worse!
So when the group of students surrounded Song Miao today, they were all very loud and their voices were quite clear, so people could hear them. In addition, the Imperial Academy had been making a fuss about Song Miao all day, and since they were so close, how could they not have noticed the commotion when they were coming and going?

Once one person found out, it wasn't long before all the teachers heard about it and joined in, discussing what dishes should be offered when Song's Restaurant opened.

As expected of a gentleman, after discussing it with each other, they immediately made a list, planning to add to it in a couple of days until it was almost done, and then send it to Mr. Song.

After the teachers finished writing, they considered the matter closed, unaware that they hadn't paid much attention when they were talking, as there were actually several students in the classroom helping with odd jobs.

So, the students quietly left the room and spread the word among themselves. Before long, all the students on the south slope knew about it.

Everyone was in a great hurry.

Immediately, someone picked up a pen and stood up, saying, "Such an important matter cannot leave us, the people of Nanlu, out of the picture, can it?"

"We need to hurry! Everyone should ask each other what dishes they want to eat, make a list quickly, and have someone secretly send it to Song Ji!" No matter how stern and furious Xu Shanzhang was, some time had passed since the incident. Although the dog hole was sealed, the teachers and instructors still had to live their proper lives. No one could patrol here every day and waste time with the students.

So, without anyone noticing, the number of people patrolling the academy's walls gradually decreased.

When there were more patrols, some students would even climb over the wall to get out, but now that there are fewer, it goes without saying that it's not difficult to go out and deliver a message.

However, some people felt that the matter of delivering the letter was inappropriate.

"If we send the menu to Song's restaurant, Miss Song might not even bother to pay attention, right?"

"Where did you get that idea? Why is Miss Song ignoring us?"

"There's no dog hole left to crawl through on the southern slope now. Although we always feel that in two or three months at most, a new hole will appear sooner or later, who can guarantee it? Let alone Miss Song, even I'm not sure—if I don't bring her business, and just give her suggestions, will she listen? Will she take them to heart?"

"That makes sense! Even if Miss Song is willing to listen, when those Imperial Academy students find out, they'll definitely make sarcastic remarks and say some unpleasant things!"

"Absolutely! Their mouths are so annoying. They'll definitely say that we can't buy anything and can't help with business, yet they still want to point fingers here!"

"But we'll be able to buy it sooner or later—when will she open for business?"

"I heard it might be around the Mid-Autumn Festival."

So, a group of people started counting on their fingers.

"It'll be several days, the storm must have passed by now!"

"Exactly, the new dog hole will definitely be dug by the time it opens!"

"Let's carefully find a few suitable spots near the back door, preferably secluded yet close to Song's restaurant!"

"But that's something for the future, and Miss Song might not believe it. On the other hand, she'd definitely prefer to choose from the dishes suggested by the Imperial Academy students, who come and go as they please..."

Everyone fell silent, racking their brains, and each of them came up with a suggestion, but it was rejected by others who felt it was inappropriate.

Later, someone whispered, "I do have an idea—it just requires a bit of shamelessness..."

"What method?"

"Speak quickly! As long as it's useful, let people hear just how shameless you are!"

The man then said, “I was thinking, when they argued with us earlier, didn’t they say they wanted to crawl in through the dog hole in the food alley, go through the middle academy, and then crawl out through the back door—so they could go eat at Song’s restaurant?”

As soon as he finished speaking, some of the quick-witted people around him guessed what was going on and exclaimed, "You mean, we're going to the Imperial Academy too?"

"Yes! Exactly!" The proposer was also a little excited. "I heard that the Imperial Academy uses a public notice system for filling out forms. Let's write ours on a piece of paper too, and then at night, when there's a break, we can quietly help them post it before they lock the door—I'm afraid even they themselves won't be able to tell which ones were written by their own people and which ones by us!"

This method seemed effective immediately, so everyone agreed and filled out their own forms first. They then hurriedly passed the forms around, urging everyone to write the dish names carefully, as this was a rare opportunity.

Because someone asked when I should finish filling out the forms, I asked if I could leave these pages for a few more days, so I could write down each item as I remember it, to avoid missing anything.

But almost immediately, someone objected.

"No! I want it tonight!"

"Shh, don't tell anyone, we're sending this to the Imperial Academy!"

Then someone else explained why they had to send him to the Imperial Academy overnight.

This time, without any prompting, everyone knew the gravity of the situation and hurriedly filled out the forms. By the afternoon, they had written everything they could, and as for the parts they couldn't finish, they would deal with them later.

Two people who frequented the area had already collected several sheets of paper filled with dish names and, taking advantage of the darkness, sneaked over the wall and slipped out.

The two slipped across to the other side and entered the Imperial Academy. Since they had been there before, they knew the way and quickly found the kitchen.

I thought that by now, it would be dark and the place where the so-called "vegetable requisition order" was posted would be deserted, but when I arrived, there were still people gathered around in twos and threes.

They had three or four sheets of food in total. If they really stuck them up, it would be too big a show and attract a lot of attention. They would be exposed if they weren't careful. The two of them didn't dare to go forward, so they secretly found a nearby place to hide and planned to wait until everyone left before going.

However, the two soon realized that something was wrong.

They stood close by, and almost everyone at the notice board was carrying a lantern or an oil lamp, making the writing on the wall very bright.

"Why does this never end? They come and go, they leave and they come and they leave again!"

"Look, their writing seems a bit off—it all looks the same!"

"It really is!"

After waiting for a while, taking advantage of a moment when no one was around, the two hurriedly went over and lit their portable candles to illuminate the area.

Ha! No wonder it looked like it was written in seven or eight places. Now that I got closer, I realized that it was all the same thing. It was probably because they were afraid that no one would choose their favorite dish or that it wouldn't be seen, so they secretly added more here.

The two didn't dare to cause any trouble, and seeing that no one was around, they quickly pasted it up.

Since there were so many sheets of paper, by the time they got to the last one, someone had already come over.

Upon seeing that there were large sheets of paper pasted up here, covered in writing, the newcomer immediately felt strange and asked, "Which do you two belong to? What are you posting?"

The two of them abandoned the glue and ran away.

Their running startled the person who had come. He chased after them for a few steps, but when he couldn't catch up, he gave up. When he reached the posting location, he went up and saw that there were four or five more sheets of paper with the names of dishes than before, which shocked him greatly.

The next morning, he wasn't the only one who was shocked.

Both notices were crowded with people.

"This is too bizarre!! How did so many pieces of paper suddenly appear overnight!"

"I saw a lot of people secretly writing down dish names in the middle of the night! Isn't that cheating?!"

"No way! The dish I listed was still at the top of the list at the end of the 5-7 PM, but overnight it's been completely overshadowed by the others. That's so unfair!"

"That won't work! It's easy to fake!"

So, in a fit of excitement, the students changed their method and started over—each student was given only one chance this time, and they had to sort the dishes according to their rhyme scheme. If they came across a dish they liked, they could mark it with a tally mark. Whether they marked it or wrote a new dish name, they had to sign their name to count as a vote, in order to prevent any misbehavior.

(End of this chapter)