"No Wedding Unless Enemies and Lovers" 《不是冤家不拜堂》Chapter 129

 The ruffian blinked his single eyelid eyes striking up a conversation, "Miss, are you walking around by yourself, why doesn't this older brother accompany you?" As he spoke he reached out his pig trotter like hand, placing it on the woman in red's shoulder, leaning his face close to the woman, taking in a deep breath.

Of course this woman in red was Ji Ling Xue, her alluring clothes, she had brought them for ten silvers from a young woman at brothel, there was still a strong smell of rouge on them.

Ji Ling Xue blinked, holding back her urge to beat him up, she blinked, revealing a trace of a smile, "Older brother, I want to go to the west of the city, can you come with me?"

Seeing Ji Ling Xue didn't turn him down, the ruffian had a smug smile on his face, west of the city wasn't as flourishing as the east, it was where the slums were, the ruffian nodded, "Good, good, its not safe for a young woman like you to leave the house by yourself, recently there's been the case of the faceless female corpse, older brother will protect you, you can feel at ease."

Ji Ling Xue acted delicately and nodded, heading to the west of the city with the ruffian, the ruffian made a gesture at his comrades, telling them to find their own entertainment, don't disturb his time with the young woman. 

The ruffian found things to talk about along the way, making himself out to be a hero, Ji Ling Xue only smiled and didn't speak.

When they could see the city gates, the ruffian asked: "Miss you live in the west of the city?"

Ji Ling Xue shook her head: "No, I heard there is a very good restaurant west of the city, supposedly their dishes are very special, I want to try."

The ruffian quickly pulled on Ji Ling Xue's hand: "Miss, listen to older brother, you shouldn't go, that restaurant west of the city has already closed down."

Ji Ling Xue blinked at a loss asking: "How can that be? I went yesterday...it was doing so well, how can it shut down, unless older brother is joking."

The ruffian smiled smugly, "Miss you don't know, the location of that restaurant isn't good, someone died there before, such an unlucky place yet someone bought it and opened a restaurant, now there's a rumour the owner has offended the ghosts, so it closed down?"

Ji Ling Xue's lips twitched, "Older brother, its a rumour right, I won't talk to you anymore, I'm still going out of the city to eat."

The ruffian coughed, he had wanted to use the supernatural to scare the young woman out of going, he didn't think the young woman wouldn't believe in this.

The ruffian said: "I'll tell you the truth, the restaurant relies completely on a recipe book that a great chef had produced, that great chef used to work for Deqing restaurant, he didn't expect the recipes he worked all his life on would be stolen by someone to open a restaurant...the restaurant obviously can't continue to run without recipes, let's go, today older brother will treat you, I'll take you to Deqing restaurant to eat." As he spoke he pulled Ji Ling Xue along.

Close by under a tree, Xiao Yi Chen coldly watched Ji Ling Xue and that ruffian pass by, this woman, insisted on putting herself at risk?

Xiao Yi Chen's gaze was firmly fixed on the hand the ruffian had placed on Ji Ling Xue's arm to pull her along, itching to chop off that perverted hand.

Thinking that his impulsiveness would effect the plan and that it would make Ji Ling Xue unhappy, Xiao Yi Chen could only push down this urge.

Xiao Yi Chen turned his head to say to Chi Feng behind him: "Who is the owner of Deqing restaurant?"

Chi Feng said: "Imperial uncle, the empress has recently been favoured so imperial uncle has been acting more impudently, a few days ago he purchased quite a few restaurants as personal property, Qingfengyashe suddenly sprung up effecting imperial uncle's interests, that's why the ruffians smashed up the place, those ruffians have been spreading around the city that Qingfengyashe isn't very good."

Xiao Yi Chen was as profound as water, "Let's go take a look."

Deqing restaurant, the ruffian and Ji Ling Xue sat at a table by the window, Ji Ling Xue was holding a menu given by the waiter, looking at the very familiar names, a mocking smile appeared on her lips, he really was the ringleader.

The ruffian only saw Ji Ling Xue read the menu but not order, he asked: "Miss what's wrong, this is exactly the same as Qingfengyashe, and this place is cheaper."

Ji Ling Xue gave an oh, randomly choosing two signature dishes, the waiter very quickly brought the signature dishes over, Ji Ling Xue picked up her chopsticks to try a bite, the next moment she spat it back out.

The ruffian looked at Ji Ling Xue baffled, "Miss, this dish isn't to your liking?"

Ji Ling Xue said: "It's so bad, can you call the head chef over?"

The ruffian slapped the table shouting noisily: "Waiter, come here."

The waiter who was taking care of another table came over cheerfully and diligently asking what was going on, after hearing Ji Ling Xue say the food was terrible, the waiter's expression turned unfriendly, "Miss, our food is definitely better than that place on the western outskirt, the two chefs were trained by a famous chef."

Ji Ling Xue shook her head, not approving of the waiter's way of thinking, the ruffian intended to win over Ji Ling Xue, so he took her side criticising the waiter, "Waiter, get the chef who made these dishes to come here, why are you dawdling."

The waiter curled his lips, he didn't want to make a fuss and effect the business and called over the chef.

The chef was a forty year old man, a face full of beard, he glanced at Ji Ling Xue: "Miss, I heard you're not happy with my food?"

Ji Ling Xue laughed looking at the arrogant appearance of the chef, she sneered: "This plate of candied yam, did you use Huainan yam? The texture of Huainan yam is powdery, after being candied the sweetness softens it so it doesn't taste nice."

The chef narrowed his eyes, looking Ji Ling Xue up and down then he asked, "From miss's words, you're an expert, how can this candied yam be made better?"

https://translatingsloth.blogspot.com/

Ji Ling Xue smiled: "Yams cannot be from Huainan, you need to choose wild yam grown locally, crisp and tasty, first slice it into reasonable size, it can't be too thick or thin, then place oil in the pan, heating it up to around a medium high heat, then place the yams in to deep fry, fry until the edges turn yellow, fish them out, replace the oil in the pan, continue to fry until it becomes crispy, then start heating up the syrup."

"When you heat up the syrup you need to be careful of the heat, if the flames too big, the water content will evaporate too quickly, the sugar will be ruined; when the flame is lowest, the syrup will finally crystallise, I usually use medium low heat, after the syrup is ready the flame must be switched off before placing the yam, quickly mix it around evenly, that way the candied yam will be tasty."

The chef was absentminded when he first listened, the more he listened the wider his eyes got, he looked at Ji Ling Xue rather weirdly, "You...how do you know how to cook this." This woman spoke in even more detail than the recipe book, could she be...

Ji Ling Xue stood up, smiling wickedly, "That's right, I'm the creator of that candied yam, even though you have the recipe book you don't know the method, a mess." As she spoke she spread out her arms.

"What, miss, you're joking right..." The ruffian's mouth was wide open, look at Ji Ling Xue bizarrely, he thought she was a normal woman, he didn't expect her to be the author of that recipe book.

Ji Ling Xue clapped her hands, the ten guards outside immediately rushed in, maybe it was because they had this air around them that the diners who had been chatting and eating livelily suddenly quietened down.

Ji Ling Xue said: "It's not easy to steal a skill, they smashed up my restaurant, so I'll tear yours down!"

The chef raised his hand towards Ji Ling Xue, this little girl had a big mouth!

Ji Ling Xue raised her hand, a powder spread from her body, Ji Ling Xue took two steps back smiling: "There's poison over my body, if you want to touch me prepare to die."

Having heard what was said the ruffian suddenly held his right hand falling to the ground with a cry and violently threw up froth, the chef was so scared his complexion changed.

The ten guards from the prince's residence chased out the innocent diners then began smashing up the place, if there was fine wine they drank some then smashed them, the remaining trays and plates all shattered onto the ground.

The shopkeeper and waiters turned pale seeing the guards wearing symbol of the prince's residence, they didn't dare breath too loudly.

Those you couldn't offend in the capital were of course the emperor's relatives.

Ji Ling Xue sat on an empty table looking in satisfaction at the mess covering the floor, her anger had at last been vented.

Seeing there was nothing else that could be broken in the restaurant, the guards returned to Ji Ling Xue's side awaiting orders, Ji Ling Xue pointed at the door saying: "The sign hasn't been torn down."

On the street, Deqing restaurant's sign came crashing down, shattering into several pieces, those who walked by stopped to watch, pointing, amongst them someone said: "Yi, what is happening?"

Another person said: "You don't know, this Deqing restaurant was doing well, then a woman suddenly came along smashing the place up, zeze...really a fierce woman."

The second person said: "Shush, be quiet, a loose tongue may cause a lot of trouble, this woman is prince Chen's person."

Another person said: "Prince Chen has always been virtuous when did he become so unreasonable?"

Everyone's tongues were wagging, Xiao Yi Chen stood behind the crowd narrowing his eyes as he watched the signs around the door edges crash down, his lips twitched, Ji Ling Xue was rather angry and let him bear the brunt of the blame, he was a virtuous prince.

In less than a quarter of an hour, the news of Deqing restaurant being smashed up by prince Chen's men reached the ears of the imperial uncle, at this moment the imperial uncle was playing chess with a beauty, hearing what was said he immediately put on his court robes and entered the palace to file an imperial complaint.

Chi Feng received the news from a secret guard, saying into Xiao Yi Chen's ear: "Prince, imperial uncle has entered the palace."

Xiao Yi Chen nodded, saying to Chi Feng: "Stay here and look after this prince's princess, don't let her be bullied."

Chi Feng's forehead was filled with black lines, princess was this aggressive, she didn't need his help.

When Xiao Yi Chen entered the palace, imperial uncle was just kneeling in front of Xiao Yi Mo wailing and snivelling: "Your majesty, you have to give this humble servant justice, this humble servant believes he has never offended prince Chen, prince Chen however smashed up this humble servant's new Deqing restaurant today for no reason, all the people on the streets can be witnesses for this humble servant, this humble servant haven't spoken a single lie."

Xiao Yi Mo put down the brush in his hand and looked sympathetically at his imperial uncle who was using his sleeve to wipe his tears, "Imperial uncle calm down, we will send someone to invite prince Chen over to get to the bottom of this, maybe there's a misunderstanding somewhere."

Imperial uncle laid on the ground not getting up, "Misunderstanding...even if this humble servant had previously offended prince Chen, prince Chen could have just said, it really isn't virtuous for him to smash up someone's restaurant behind their back, your majesty, you need to give this humble servant justice."

Xiao Yi Chen nodded, "We will give you justice, imperial uncle please get up, someone come, invite prince Chen..."

A high pitched voice reported from outside the door: "Prince Chen has arrived!"