Shocking! The entire court was drooling with envy because of me.

Alright, here comes another one who wants to help her buy a house in the capital and settle down.

If she didn't know a little bit, she would have thought that houses in the capital were worthless.

Shen Qing: "Sorry, we're short of ingredients and can't sell them. Ping'an County is fine; I don't plan to settle down in the capital."

"What ingredients are you missing? I'll find them!" Pei Yuan asked urgently.

"Feel sorry."

Shen Qing apologized again, clearly determined to keep his word.

Pei Yuan's brows furrowed deeply: "But, without snail rice noodles, I can't eat..."

Shen Qing: "???"

"The Grand Secretary has long suffered from a lack of appetite and can't eat. This time, it was your snail rice noodles that brought back the joy of eating," Yan Wenli added from the side.

He also hoped that Pei Yuan would keep Shen Qing.

Shen Qing now lives in the Yan residence, so he's always the first to get to eat any new or exciting food.

But if Shen Qing were to arrive in Ping'an County...

Yan Wenli had a premonition that his happy life was about to end.

"Anorexia?" Shen Qing was taken aback.

Unexpectedly, she developed anorexia.

In a novel, an anorexic male protagonist and a beautiful cook would definitely be a perfect couple.

But novels are novels, and reality is reality.

Shen Qing said with a serious expression, "You have an illness; you need to see a doctor."

"I know a doctor who is very skilled. He charges five or six hundred taels of gold for a single consultation. Judging from your appearance, you must be quite well-off. I can introduce you to him."

Pei Yuan: "..."

He gritted his teeth and said, "I'm not sick."

"Even if you're sick, only snail rice noodles can cure it."

What illnesses can snail rice noodles cure? It seems that Pei Yuan has not only anorexia, but also a mental illness.

Since she was ill, she stopped caring.

Shen Qing generously replied, "We're really out of snail rice noodles. If you're not too busy, I'll cook some dishes for us to eat together later."

"Let's give it a try and see if you can eat anything besides snail rice noodles."

After saying that, she turned to Yan Wenli.

"Lord Yan, please invite General Tao to dinner tonight."

Yan Wenli felt like crying: "Madam Shen, you're not leaving tomorrow, are you?"

This looks like the Last Supper.

Good heavens, how can he live without Lady Shen?

No, that's not right. It seems Pei Yuan is even less likely to survive.

"No," Shen Qing said calmly. "Let's wait a few days."

Upon hearing this, Yan Wenli and Pei Yuan both breathed a sigh of relief.

As long as we don't leave tomorrow, we can delay it one day at a time and eat whatever we can get.

What if Madam Shen suddenly changes her mind and decides not to leave?

......

Shen Qing came to the kitchen; she was going to cook a home-style meal.

Home-style dishes that rely entirely on no modern technology or seasonings.

The first dish is cold wood ear mushroom salad.

This dish is simple: a handful of dried wood ear mushrooms, soaked, a few cloves of garlic, and dried chili peppers.

Heat the oil and add dried chili threads. When the chili threads gradually darken in color, pour the chili threads and hot oil into a bowl of minced garlic.

With a sizzle, the room is filled with the aroma of garlic. Then, salt, sugar, vinegar, and other seasonings are added to the bowl to make a sauce.

After blanching the wood ear mushrooms, drain them and pour in the sauce; the dish is now ready.

The second dish is steamed pork ribs.

Cut the pork ribs into small pieces and soak them in water.

After soaking, marinate the ribs with ginger slices, scallion segments, rice wine and other seasonings.

While waiting, stir-fry the rice noodles. Put the rice and glutinous rice into a dry pan and stir-fry over low heat. Add star anise, Sichuan peppercorns, etc., and stir-fry until the rice grains turn slightly yellow. Remove from the pan and let cool before crushing with a rolling pin.

The marinated ribs are rolled in rice flour, then placed in a bowl and steamed.

The third dish was scrambled eggs with tomatoes.

Make a cross-shaped cut on the top of the tomato, peel it, and then cut it into crescent shapes.

Crack the eggs and put the egg whites and yolks into two separate bowls, then whisk them quickly with chopsticks.

Next came the scrambled eggs. Unlike others, Shen Qing scrambled the egg whites first and then the yolks, so that the egg flavor could be released to the maximum extent, the egg whites would be tender and the yolks would be rich.

Then stir-fry the tomatoes until they are soft and mushy, then pour in the scrambled eggs and stir-fry together.

Sprinkle with chopped green onions and it's ready to serve.

The fourth dish is hot and sour shredded potatoes.

Shred the potatoes, heat oil, add Sichuan peppercorns and stir-fry until fragrant and numbing, then add chili shreds, garlic, etc.

Add the shredded potatoes and stir-fry quickly over high heat. The potatoes will cook rapidly under high temperature. Then, drizzle in rice vinegar.

The fragrant shredded potatoes are now ready to be plated.

The last dish was cabbage and tofu soup.

It's a very ordinary dish: tofu is cut into cubes, cabbage stalks are sliced ​​diagonally, and cabbage leaves are torn into small pieces. Meanwhile, glass noodles are soaked in warm water until soft.

Add water and ginger slices to a clay pot and bring to a boil. Then add the cabbage stalks, tofu, glass noodles, and cabbage leaves one by one, and add a little salt to taste.

Before long, five dishes were served.

There are no carvings, no engraved leaves, and no deliberate plating, but they look strangely beautiful when placed together.

Pei Yuan twitched his nose, and a fragrant aroma filled his nostrils, giving him a feeling of coming home.

Although the smell wasn't as unique as snail rice noodles, it reminded him of his childhood. When his mother was still alive, he ate with great relish and was always completely absorbed in his meals.

But after his mother passed away, he had more on his mind and gradually lost his appetite.

Almost subconsciously, Pei Yuan walked to the table of dishes and reached for the steamed pork ribs in the center with his chopsticks.

The ribs were arranged neatly, one layer on top of another, and each rib was coated with a semi-transparent rice flour coating.

The meat juices soaked into the rice noodles, giving them a light brown color, and the dark red pork ribs could be vaguely seen through the gaps in the rice noodles.

As soon as you put it in your mouth, your tongue immediately feels the soft and chewy texture of the rice noodles, which melts in your mouth. The meat juices burst out, and the pork ribs are tender and fall off the bone. The aroma of the rice noodles and the meat blend together, creating an endlessly wonderful experience.

Swallowing it down, there was no greasiness at all, only the aroma of meat and rice lingering on the back of the tongue.

"It seems that Lord Pei doesn't only eat snail rice noodles," Shen Qing said with a smile from the side.

Yan Wenli: "After meeting Madam Shen, I think Lord Pei's anorexia has improved by more than half. He even took the initiative to sit down and eat."

He's so outgoing; before anyone else had even touched anything, Pei Yuan had already run to the table.

But he could barely understand it; after all, it was normal for an anorexic person to become obsessed with such wonderful food.

Oh well, he didn't care.

"Father-in-law, please sit down and have a taste. This was made by Madam Shen herself. Every bite is precious!" he said, turning to General Tao.

General Tao was overjoyed: "It smells so good! What have we done to deserve the honor of meeting Madam Shen? It's a blessing from heaven!"

He no longer dared to say that he wanted to adopt Madam Shen as his goddaughter. He felt that what he could give Madam Shen was too limited, and he felt ashamed of himself.

He had heard that Prince Chun was giving money and a house, and that the current Grand Secretary was also begging Lady Shen to stay in the capital.

The competition was too fierce. He was an old man, and still a reckless fellow. There was really not much he could offer.

"It's not a blessing at all, it's all fate. If it weren't for fate, I wouldn't have met such a good friend as Sister Wanrong," Shen Qing said with a smile.

While eating, Tao Wanrong said, "Stop talking and eat. Look at Lord Pei, he's eating so deliciously."

No wonder Tao Wanrong said that; Pei Yuan didn't participate in the conversation at all, he just kept stuffing things into his mouth.

The food on the table smelled so good that he couldn't stop eating.

The tomato and egg stir-fry is sweet and sour, the egg white is as tender as a lotus flower, and the egg yolk has a slightly chewy texture and is very rich.

The hot and sour shredded potatoes are extremely crisp, the sourness of the rice vinegar is clean and refreshing, the spiciness rises from the side of the tongue, the numbing sensation of Sichuan peppercorns is subtle, and you can also faintly taste the aroma of garlic.

The cold-dressed wood ear mushrooms are both springy and crisp, and every bite is flavorful. After swallowing, they leave a refreshing and clean feeling, with only a hint of Sichuan peppercorn oil aroma.

The cabbage and tofu soup was incredibly sweet and refreshing. After finishing a bowl, my stomach felt warm and cozy, which was extremely comforting.

Pei Yuan hadn't eaten like this for many years; it felt like he had returned to his childhood.

This meal made him realize that snail rice noodles were not his cure; Lady Shen was.

He must persuade Lady Shen to stay in the capital!