Ming Dynasty, New Rome, and Infinite Divine Machine

"Didn't they fail to make the finals last year?"

"I guess it's because we didn't make it to the finals, so we were having a farewell dinner around this time last year. This year..."

This year, things are very different. Over there, there's a row of doudou, donated by everyone in Yujing. Even though everyone's gone home this day, there are doudou representatives competing. And maybe they'll actually win.

"Hey," Lu Liang lowered his voice, "I'm actually wondering if you can win. Don't embarrass our sect! Although cultivators don't fight, the cars in the convoy look a little too plain. I think they're all really fancy."

"Don't worry, we have our own arrangements, okay?"

As she spoke, she saw a box with the words "Treasure Appearance and Majestic" placed in the inconspicuous corner of the table, right in front of Shangluo.

Before she could ask, Gao Shiyu, who was sitting a few seats away, asked, "Shangluo, I should be talking right now. But the box you brought looks familiar to me."

"Aren't you blind?" Wen Yuan asked next to him.

"He has seen it." His older sister, Gao Qingyu, answered for him. "My dad also brought back a similar box. He showed it to us, but then sent it back home without letting us eat it. Are there mooncakes in your box?"

"It's mooncakes." Shangluo replied.

"He got it from the cabinet meeting. This is..."

"Yeah, that's probably the case." He was not meeting with the cabinet, but with Zhu Xianxun.

"Oh, oh, oh!" Gao Shiyu clapped his hands. "What else is there to say? How about opening your mooncake first? We have an exam coming up soon, so we need to be a little more refined!"

For a moment, everyone was stunned.

"Yes! That makes sense!" Wen Yuan stood up first. "You may not know this, but this is a mooncake offered in front of the Moon Altar, and it's served to all civil and military officials. Although eating it won't make you an immortal, it might actually be useful."

"Hey, let me tell you," Lu Liang muttered quietly, "You're all taking the same exam. Even if it really works, if everyone eats it, doesn't that mean no one has eaten it?"

There was another moment of silence.

"Never mind, let's eat first!" Gao Shiyu made the decision. "Well, Shangluo, how about you open it first and take a look? See if there's enough for so many of us? When my dad opened it yesterday, I remember there was a big one inside."

"I feel like I have one too. Wait."

Shangluo brought the precious and solemn box to the table. The lacquered wooden box looked even more majestic. The box had three layers, each containing three different sized items. On the top layer, a large box took up the entire space.

He took out the big one first.

"Hmm?" He saw something besides the oil paper packaging.

"What's this?" Inside the package, besides the oil-paper wrapper for the mooncake, there were two wooden pieces that resembled paperweights. They looked equally majestic, but seemed a bit lighter when used as paperweights, making them look like a pair.

"Ah, I know what this is." Qi Yuan was the first to understand. "My dad also has this thing in the mooncakes he receives throughout the year, but it's not as luxurious as yours."

"So what is this?" Shangluo asked.

"This is the stand for the mooncakes. The largest mooncakes are usually not eaten on the same day. Instead, they are placed in front of the ancestral tablets with this stand as an offering for one day and eaten the next day."

"So particular? Then why don't we just eat it directly?" Shangluo suggested.

"Okay, okay, let's eat right away. What are we waiting for? Bring out all the mooncakes." Qi Yuan, as the host, stood up first. "We'll each have a piece. Let's divide this big mooncake first for good luck. Then we can split the remaining mooncakes and share them. Come on, here are the mooncake knives and forks. I'll get the Coke."

Everyone in the room looked at Wen Yuan because he had the best knife skills. There were 38 people in the room, and although the mooncake was as big as a face plate, it was still too small to cut into 38 pieces. It required excellent knife skills to keep it from breaking into pieces.

Everyone in the room watched him as he cut. Not just to see his knife skills, but also to see what the thing tasted like.

With one cut, the tip of the knife brought out a golden hue—the inside of the mooncake was a brilliant golden, orange-yellow color. The orange was so saturated, even yellower than the shell of a hairy crab.

Shangluo blinked. "What kind of filling is this? Does anyone recognize it?"

Chapter 447 Birthday

"I think I can guess a little." One person pushed his glasses up—he was from Lan Fang, the captain of Guoxing's team. His name was Lin Chengyang. He'd been here before, delivering bananas, but Shangluo had been distracted at the time. This was their first meeting. He was one of the few Qigong practitioners who still wore glasses. Generally, their glasses served other purposes, not just to correct myopia.

"I've seen this orange-yellow color before. There's a golden soup version of the Buddha Jumps Over the Wall dish lately. The golden soup is very similar to the golden color inside the mooncake. The golden color is made from pumpkin."

"It feels similar." Wen Yuan took the knife and cut out a small piece. "The knife feels a bit blunt, and it feels like the soft texture of pumpkin flesh. Shangluo, try one first."

"Well, I'm not polite." He took the bowl and ate a piece first.

"."

"How is it?" Qi Yuan asked, "Speak your mind."

"It really is a pumpkin base, probably lotus paste, and most of it is pumpkin. Nothing special."

Qi Yuan nodded: "As expected, the mooncakes of the imperial court are all moderate and peaceful, without any weird flavors."

"Hmm?" Wen Yuan's knife suddenly stopped. "No, there's red. And green. Oh my god! And blue! What's this blue thing? Why are there so many colors in this mooncake? What on earth is this blue thing? It looks so disgusting."

"Let me see the box." Shangluo took the mooncake box and glanced at it. It said:

"Wufang Jiacuo?" He read out the words on the mooncake box. "How do you interpret these four words?"

"Hmm," Qi Yuan thought for a moment, "this probably has another meaning. There might be mooncakes of every flavor you can imagine in here. So the big one in the middle should have five colors and five directions."

"Really?" Gao Shiyu took out a small one. "Is this roast duck flavored? Wow, the left half is Yingtian roast duck, and the right half is Shuntian roast duck."

Lu Liang also unpacked one. "There's still this here, a snowy mooncake? The imperial court is very fashionable, and they have all these. Snowy mooncakes are meant to be eaten right after they're made. It's not a big deal, though. Things from the imperial court don't keep for long."

"What is this?" Shangluo took one out by himself. This thing didn't look like a mooncake at all. It looked more like a sesame cake, and it was crispy.

"Crunch, crunch." Zhu Xianxun ate the crispy mooncake. "Oh, this is a crab shell yellow sesame cake. By the way, can this thing really be considered a mooncake? Your portion also has it, right? How does it taste?"

"It tasted pretty good, though," Shangluo replied. "I ate that sesame seed bun, too. Well, the pickled mustard greens and diced bacon inside it were delicious, but it definitely didn't taste like a mooncake."

"Why are there so many weird mooncakes this year?" He took a sip of tea. "This sesame seed cake is a bit salty. It goes well with tea. Have you eaten it all?"

"Everyone ate it cleanly, but it tasted a bit weird. Why are there blue isatis root mooncakes?"

"Um, I saw that too. It's inside a big mooncake. It's usually offered as an offering to the gods. To complete the five colors, they put a blue-green filling in it. That's isatis root. By the way, do you have something similar over there?"

"Yes. There are mooncakes with crayfish, stinky tofu, and snail noodles."

"You guys are better (Ya Yan). But you still have room for dinner, right? I'm going to save some for dinner too. Barbecuing and the like are secondary. I'm waiting to try that boiled egg. Oh, and where's our birthday girl? Should I congratulate her in advance?"

"She went in to prepare first, and she's not with me now."

"Oh, then we'll talk about it when we meet. What does she look like? I want to get to know her in advance."

"He looks a lot like Phaethon. They're from the same family after all. His similarity is probably about the same as you and Zhu Ling."

"That's quite like it—oh, by the way, I have a question I've been wanting to ask you." He took a sip of tea. "Since this morning, Zhu Ling has been running around busy with something. What is she busy with?"

"I asked her to help me make a cake."

"Cake? She can make a cake?" Zhu Xianxun was stunned. "Oh my god, a girl changes a lot when she grows up. She only knows how to ask me for food in front of me, and now she can even make food for others."

"Doesn't she cook for the pandas all day? She's quite skilled at it."

"That panda steamed bread is just mixed in according to the recipe, and it's no different from cement. Wait a minute." Zhu Xianxun suddenly remembered, "Are you going to send cakes too? It's broken! There are three of them!"

"Who else?"

"Captain Lu's daughter is also going to bring a cake, and I'm going to bring one too. We'll have one regular cake and one ice cream cake."

"Ah, don't worry about that. I gave her..."

"Wow!" Apollonia's mouth opened into an "O" shape.

On the table in front of me sat a large iceberg, topped with slices of watermelon, apple, and banana. Two Latin numerals, one 1 and one 5, were carved out of a carrot and stuck into the fruit on top of the ice. The fruit iceberg was layered: the first layer was red watermelon ice, followed by yellow pineapple ice and green apple ice, for a total of five layers.

"Ahhhhhh! That's amazing! What is this!?"

"This is a gift from Shangluo," Zhu Ling replied as she stuck the apples on top of it. "He told me about it long in advance. I poured juice on it layer by layer and froze it into this 100% pure juice ice cream, the cool and refreshing Baiguoshan Ice Cream."

"Why do you still do this?"

"Ahem, this is for Panda's birthday. Panda likes this fruit ice, and we have a cold storage. Shangluo thinks if you want barbecue, you might as well have some shaved ice to go with it. Wait, put this box of cantaloupe on top. By the way, when will it start? I wonder if we should ask Doudou to fix the cold."

The ice cream is brought in on a whole block of ice and can be kept for about two hours without melting.

"About four hours?"

"Then let Doudou come and make up for it. Where is the venue?"

"There's a lake down there, and in the lake there's a submarine. We've borrowed the submarine's space, and we'll set up the party on its deck. There's an ice maker and oven inside, so I've already asked Doudou to bring down drinks and ice cream. Oh, and there's this huge ice cream! Thank you! Thank you so much! This is the first time in my life that someone has paid so much attention to me! Woohoo~~ I don't know how else to thank you all. All I can do is eat more barbecue."

Chapter 448 Cake

"Oh~~ Not bad."

Shangluo saw the actual ice cream. Even though it was custom-made by him, it was the first time he saw it. After all, it had been in the refrigerator before.

"Hey, how much did this cost?" she asked Shangluo.

"I didn't ask for money, because I provided the juice. I just borrowed the cold storage. And Zhu Ling's time."

"I think I have to start grilling to repay her. Ah, those who cook for me are all good people."

"Are you sure the way to repay her is to grill the meat yourself?"

"Uh, indeed."

"Are you quite self-aware?"

"After all, I'm still one step away from being truly born into the mortal world. As you know, I can only move around here. But I'm a little surprised that this place can connect to the entire spiritual world, and it's also connected to Rome. I suddenly feel a little regretful. What if this place is no longer safe?"

"Don't worry, I'll do my best to keep this place safe—so putting them in boxes before was indeed the right decision. Now everything is much more controllable."

"That's not all. We also need to train more combat power. I can't always have Doudou here to protect me. Doudou is not my bodyguard. They have other more important things to do."

"Are you talking about those canned residents?"

"Yes." Apollonia nodded. "I can see some potential in them. I've received so much care from you, so I have to do something to help the court. These canned soldiers should be useful. I mean, they can be used outside."

"Can they still get out? How do they compare to Tianyi Guiren?"

"In terms of potential and combat effectiveness, they're probably not as good as the Tianyi Nobles. But there's one thing the Doudous don't have—they're principled, because they're the Upper Altar soldiers of Heaven. The Yue soldiers we recruit here, on the other hand, are completely under your command in terms of how they're deployed. After all, they only need to be accountable to us, not to karma, retribution, or Heavenly Court laws. So, the Upper Altar soldiers have their own powers, and the Lower Altar soldiers have their own uses."

"Interesting. So, there's this thing called giving someone a chin bead."

"You still remember! Then remember, they are just knives. They will obey your orders no matter what because they are your private soldiers. If you use them for any illegal or criminal activities, they can only be considered accomplices. After all, the regular troops loaned to you by the court are different from the servants you raise yourself."

"It's not a big deal. There's nothing wrong with using some old Ming traditions. Just don't bring in the Shang Dynasty's ways. I'm afraid. Well, are you ready? If you are, you can start setting up the venue. Then go down and check it out, and I'll start calling people."

"No problem. I'll count then—3! 2! 1! Go!"

The camera trained on the submarine below. Time, sped up 365 times, raced by in front of the camera, like a time-lapse. The entire submarine resembled a hillside after rain, suddenly covered in a sea of colorful flags and red ribbons, and tables, chairs, and benches were already in place.

"Excuse me!" A dozen celestial soldiers flew over to them and began packing the ice cream into boxes. Zhu Ling had already arranged the entire ice cream into a shape, and it needed to be packed into a box for absolute safety. Once everyone was gathered, the ice cream could be shipped downstairs.

The arrangements below were completed, and festive cloth strips in the colors of scrambled eggs and tomatoes were hung on the submarine. That meant it was ready.

"Okay, okay, it's time to call someone. Go ahead and call someone. Light up the barbecue! I want some barbecue!"

"Hey, little blind man!" From a distance, Wen Yuan waved to Gao Shiyu at the corridor door of the Lei Department.

"Heh, I knew it was you the moment you made a sound. Wait, my sister said you had something in your hand?"

"." Wen Yuan was stunned for a moment. He saw Gao Shiyu holding a box in his hand. "I say, this in your hand, could it be..."

"cake?"

“.” Both of them were silent.

"Why are you sending a cake too?" Wen Yuan asked first.

"Because when it comes to Roman customs, they eat cake on birthdays. Wait, we're using the same textbook, right?"

"Ha, what do you think?"

"It's not a big deal, just two cakes. My sister is a big eater, don't worry."

"Not just two."

"Oh, that classmate Lu Liang next to you, that one in your hand is also one?"

"Cake." Lu Liang shook his head. "Also, let me remind you, it's not two cakes, it's three. A special guest is coming tonight, and he's going to send a cake too."

Currently, only Shangluo and Lu Huaiyang knew about Zhu Xianxun's visit. He didn't intend to make it too public, hoping to avoid being recognized.

“.” Several people were silent.

It was Gao Shiyu who broke the silence: "Did you guys eat enough when you had dinner at home?"