Allure of a Country Maiden
Chapter 659 - 657

Chapter 659: 657

Zhao Yong and Feng Yang returned to Xiao’er’s home and reported everything they had overheard.

"They want to kill me? And it sounds like Shen Jingwen believes that if they kill me, Mrs. Shen could become a decree wife and assume the title of old matriarch?" Xiao’er’s fingers lightly tapped the table, deep in thought.

The ones who want to kill her must be those whose interests she has harmed!

Who has she recently affected, or whose path has she blocked?

Xiao’er could only think of one person, and that was General Li!

After all, in this world, the only authority who could bestow a standard-wife title on a woman was the Emperor.

With the current Emperor Shangguan, Xiao’er was confident he wouldn’t wish her harm; after all, she had been working diligently to consolidate his rule.

Yet Shen Jingwen stated that Mrs. Shen could be the old matriarch, meaning the person behind all this must have promised Shen Jingwen a high-ranking official position!

If General Li successfully rebels, Shen Jingwen becomes a founding hero. Then wouldn’t Mrs. Shen be able to become the old matriarch?

She didn’t realize that she was so important in the enemy’s eyes! After one failed kidnapping, they were planning a second assassination! It seemed they were determined not to give up until they had achieved their goal!

The people in the old house were nothing more than General Li’s chess pieces!

One could say that if one Shen Shen and Shen Jingwen died, countless replacements would rise in their stead.

Thinking of this, Xiao’er calmly opened her mouth: "It seems we’ve attracted significant trouble! Indeed, it’s best not to meddle in others’ business!"

"Miss, you need not worry, we will protect you." Feng Yang solemnly promised.

If the county mistress of Rui’an, whose formation chart had saved thousands and thousands of soldiers’ lives, were to die because of this, Feng Yang would never forgive himself. Well, his master would probably kill him too! No need for self-forgiveness then!

Seeing his serious face, Xiao’er couldn’t help but laugh: "I’m not worried. General Li’s army will soon run out of food. How long can they hold out? Moreover, this incident has reminded me, if they can send people to assassinate me, can’t we do the same to them? As the saying goes ’capture the leader first to defeat the thieves’. Once General Li falls, Li’s army will crumble, and we need not be afraid anymore!"

"Miss, your strategy is excellent, but assassinating Li is not easy. He is undoubtedly surrounded by highly skilled individuals, and an army of countless soldiers." Feng Yang cautioned.

"Just because it’s not easy doesn’t mean it’s impossible! There’s always a way! Feng Yang, it is said that you and Feng Qing have the highest martial arts skills amongst Brother Shangguan’s guardsmen. If I send you to the northwest to assassinate General Li, are you confident?" Xiao’er asked.

Feng Yang answered decisively: "No".

His duty was to stay by her side and protect her. Getting involved in outside matters like assassinating General Li in the northwest wasn’t his concern, or else his master would kill him too!

"Really? Even Brother Shangguan’s best martial artist couldn’t complete such a simple task as assassinating someone. No wonder General Li dares to rebel. It seems our dynasty doesn’t have anyone who can threaten him!" Xiao’er baited.

Feng Yang’s face darkened, though he knew Xiao’er was just trying to provoke him. He refused to take the bait: "Miss, there’s no need to say more. There are countless capable people around the Emperor and our master. I don’t need to handle assassinations, my only job is to protect you well."

"Yes, that’s right. Our Feng Yang is only a master when dealing with the elderly, weak, and children in the village. A dangerous mission like assassinating General Li is beyond you."

Feng Yang: ...

Really, he was just about suffocated by her! In the future, he’d do anything, just don’t ask him to protect the future mistress!

Zhao Yong and Yang Liu and Yang Mei immediately bowed their heads to hide their laughter.

Seeing Feng Yang’s remorseful face, Xiao’er kindly stopped teasing him: "All right, I was just joking. You guys can go."

"Miss, do you want me to kill Mrs. Shen and others..." Feng Yang made a gesture of slitting a throat, "be assured, it will be clean and unnoticed!"

Rather than waiting for others to take the initiative, it’s better to strike first.

Xiao’er shook her head: "No need for now, we wait until they make their move."

Feng Yang really can kill them without anyone noticing, but Shen Chengyao could also think that it was her people who did it.

Now the people in the old house have done nothing but apologise, but if her own daughter kills her mother at this time, he probably wouldn’t accept it.

Of course, if Shen Chengyao saw them trying to harm his daughter firsthand, it would be a different story.

The place of children in parents’ hearts is irreplaceable.

So Xiao’er decided to give them a chance to act after Shen Chengyao returns home.

After Feng Yang left, he wrote a letter and sent it to his masters via Pigeon Post, attempting to assist traitors in plotting to kill the future consort of the Sixth Prince. Whether they live or die is up to the Imperial Court, judged by the nation’s law!

....

As the year came to an end, every household was slaughtering a pig for the New Year. Everyone invited Xiao’er’s family to eat the pig slaughter feast, and in the spirit of reciprocity, Xiao’er also invited the villagers to dinner.

But they weren’t eating pig slaughter feast; they were eating Buddha Jumps Over the Wall.

Xiao’er told Mrs. Ji that on the day her family slaughtered the pig for the New Year, she would invite people from the village with whom they had good relations to eat Buddha Jumps Over the Wall. Xiao’er wrote the invitations and gave them to Manager Qian for distribution, and also gave Manager Qian the list of ingredients and recipe for the dish.

The ingredients for Buddha Jumps Over the Wall are numerous, including sea cucumber, abalone, shark fin, dried scallops, fish lips, turtle skirt, deer tendons, pigeon eggs, duck gizzard, fish stomach, fish maw, dried scallops, pigeon, ribs, clam, ham, pork belly, lamb shoulder, hoof tip, tendons, home-reared old hen breast, home-reared yellow-beak duck breast, chicken gizzard, duck gizzard, shiitake mushroom, winter bamboo shoots, etc.

Making Buddha Jumps Over the Wall is quite troublesome. To really do it properly, even a day and a night can be considered fast.

One can say that a dish of Buddha Jumps Over the Wall involves multiple techniques like frying, stir-frying, boiling, deep-frying, braising, stewing, simmering, etc.!

Take shark fin, for example. It has to be soaked in water overnight, then the sand removed, orderly lined up on a bamboo sieve, put into a boiling water pot with appropriate amounts of scallion, ginger, and Huadiao wine, and boiled for a good while. This step is to get rid of the fishiness. Then, the sieve is taken out, put into a wide-mouthed bowl, the scallion and ginger are picked out, the steaming juice is filtered out, then a bit of pork fat is placed again on the shark fin, a small amount of wine is added, it’s placed on a steaming rack, steamed over high heat for two hours, the pork fat on top is discarded, the steaming juice is filtered out, and set aside.

Regarding the fish lips, abalone, sea cucumber, chicken, duck, lamb hoof, and so forth, each item needs to be processed separately in advance.

In the end, all the food ingredients processed in various ways are layered in a big wine jar that was used for aging old wine, a proper amount of the previously prepared broth made from boiling pig bone, chicken bone, duck bone, goose bone, etc., and wine is poured in. Finally, the jar’s mouth is sealed with lotus leaves, the lid is closed, and it’s placed on the fire for heating.

The fire used also requires selection. One needs to choose dense-wooded charcoal that doesn’t emit smoke. Xiao’er used silver charcoal.

At the beginning, you start with a high heat until boiling, then switch to a low simmer for two to three hours, only then is a dish of Buddha Jumps Over the Wall that brings together all the flavors of frying, stir-frying, boiling, deep-frying, etc., has a complete range of flavors, fills the air with aroma, is tender but not mashed, has an endless taste, is soft and tender, has a rich meaty aroma but isn’t greasy, with all the ingredients permeating each other, ready.