Chapter 19: Home-style Tofu (Part 19)
This question was crucial.
Leng Yue had a feeling that once this question was clarified, she would have her bamboo skewer.
With this bamboo skewer, the heap of fragmented clues in her hand—like scattered pieces of meat—could be threaded together into a coherent string.
However...
The people involved in the case she was handling all had various connections to him. Was it appropriate for him to investigate?
Just then, a vendor at the street corner barbecue stall shouted at the perfect moment, "La—m—b—skewers!"
Leng Yue's train of thought was interrupted. She glanced up at the smoke-filled barbecue stall, and a new sensation welled up from the depths of her heart.
She was so hungry...
As a martial artist, her appetite was naturally substantial. She hadn't eaten last night, and this morning she had only had one steamed bun—how could that possibly be enough?
As soon as this thought crossed Leng Yue's mind, Jing Yi had already started walking toward the barbecue stall.
By the time Leng Yue caught up, she overheard the last part of Jing Yi's conversation with the vendor: "...enough for two people, right?"
Two people?
Leng Yue silently mouthed, "Not enough."
Jing Yi glanced back at Leng Yue and, whether he noticed something or not, turned back to the vendor and decisively added, "Two men."
Leng Yue held back but couldn't resist, "...Three."
"...Then make it four."
"..."
Four portions happened to be exactly what was already ninety percent cooked on the grill. The vendor responded brightly, waving a tattered palm fan through the smoke while sneakily glancing around as if searching for ghosts.
Four men... where were the other three?
Before the vendor could spot the other three men, the only man in front of him warmly remarked, "Boss, you look familiar. Did you used to set up your stall in the South Market?"
The vendor was taken aback. He looked up, and through the swirling smoke, Jing Yi's handsome face appeared hazy. Coupled with his flowing white robes, he had an ethereal, almost celestial aura.
A face like that—whether seen by a woman or a man, regardless of age—was unforgettable after just one glance.
So, the vendor flipped the skewers on the grill, brushed on two layers of oil, and shook his head firmly. "Young master, you must have mistaken me for someone else. I've been setting up here for three or four years now, never moved... Want some sauce?"
Jing Yi didn't answer but turned to look at Leng Yue.
Leng Yue nodded.
The vendor expertly brushed sauce from one end of the skewers to the other, his skill surpassing even that of veteran lacquer workers under the Ministry of Works.
Jing Yi watched calmly and slowly shook his head.
"I had too much salt for breakfast, so I'll skip the sauce. How about... half and half?"
Leng Yue watched as the vendor's wrist stiffened and the corner of his mouth twitched.
"Then... I'll have to re-grill half. You're not in a hurry to leave, are you?"
Jing Yi smiled amiably and shook his head. "No rush, no rush..."
As the vendor silently moved half of the sauced skewers aside and placed a fresh batch on the grill, Jing Yi took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and remarked leisurely, "Hmm... seems like the aroma is a bit different from the South Market's."
Leng Yue frowned and sniffed a few times.
It was just the smell of raw meat brushed with oil and grilled over charcoal—what difference could there be?
The vendor couldn't help himself. "How is it different?"Jing Yi turned to glance at the rather empty street and alley, reciting slowly as if composing a poem, "It lacks a bit of the worldly, bustling atmosphere."
The stall owner lowered his head and stared blankly at the smoke-filled, fire-scorched grill.
This smoke... isn't the smell strong enough?
Leng Yue had an impatient temperament, and when faced with overly refined people, she grew even more impatient. Seeing that the stall owner and Jing Yi were about to misunderstand each other completely, she couldn't hold back, "He just means your business is as dead as it gets compared to the stalls in the south market."
Unsurprisingly, Leng Yue saw the stall owner's hands tremble slightly.
Jing Yi, however, seemed to have left his family's inherited skill of reading people's expressions at Xiao Yunde's house. Looking at the stall owner's clearly stiffened face, he still smiled warmly and amiably, "Yes, yes... that's exactly what I meant."
"..."
On the other side of the smoke, the stall owner lifted his eyelids and gave Jing Yi a deep look.
An exiled immortal?
He must have landed headfirst when he descended.
The headfirst-landing exiled immortal smiled beautifully, "Sticking with such a quiet stall and genuinely grilling for so many years—no wonder even Madam Xiao praises your stall so highly."
Leng Yue was taken aback.
The stall owner was even more stunned.
Just a moment ago, he thought this exiled immortal was mocking him, but hearing these sentences together... it sounded like praise instead.
Only...
"What Mr. Xiao?"
Jing Yi raised his hand and pointed in the direction of Xiao Yunde's doorstep, "That house, the owner of Linglong Porcelain Kiln in the outskirts of the capital, Mr. Xiao Yunde's family. I just came from there. His wife is pregnant, and all she talks about is food and drink... She said your stall is good, so I came to try it. From the way she spoke, it seems she's quite familiar with you."
The stall owner looked thoughtfully in the direction Jing Yi had pointed, so lost in thought that he even forgot to fan with his palm-leaf fan, "That lady... Ah, such a hard life... Um, do you want the skewers spicy or not?"
Jing Yi didn't answer but turned to look at Leng Yue.
"Add more..."
Leng Yue coughed lightly a couple of times.
The stall owner also casually sprinkled several handfuls of chili powder onto the half-brushed skewers.
Leng Yue cleared her throat, "Adding more... isn't good for the throat, so let's skip it."
For a moment, the stall owner felt the urge to flip his stall over.
"Then..." the stall owner's voice trembled slightly, "I'll grill another batch. You two wait a bit longer, no rush..."
Leng Yue responded sweetly, "No rush, no rush. Sorry for the trouble."
"No trouble, no trouble..."
Watching as the stall owner, his forehead darkened by smoke, silently set aside the half-grilled skewers and started a new batch from scratch, Jing Yi smiled faintly.
Hmm... His wife had already understood what he was thinking.
"You said that lady has a hard life..." Jing Yi pointed again toward Xiao Yunde's house, "I see her family has high walls, a grand courtyard, fine clothes, and delicious food. Compared to your wind-and-sun-exposed livelihood, how could she possibly have a hard life?"
The stall owner very much wanted to say that today he truly felt like the most miserable person in the world, but when he inadvertently looked up toward the place Jing Yi had pointed, he couldn't help but sigh. Lowering his head, he sprinkled a pinch of cumin onto the meat skewers."My home is right on this street. I'm familiar with everyone living in this neighborhood, and I recognize all the regular visitors too. I've never seen you two before - this must be your first time visiting the madam's residence?"
Jing Yi nodded with a friendly smile. "I run a bun shop. Since this is her first time ordering from my shop, I personally delivered them, hoping to secure a new regular customer... I just walked down this street carrying a steamer of buns - didn't you see me?"
The stall owner glanced at Leng Yue in her blue robe with a long sword, then at Jing Yi in white jade-like features. Neither looked like bun sellers, but when he had first set up his stall, he did recall seeing two people hurriedly walking past carrying a steamer of buns - one in blue, one in white...
If they weren't bun sellers, who else would walk down the street carrying both buns and the steamer?
"I think I did see you..." The stall owner sighed and shook his head, flipping the half-cooked meat skewers before leisurely sprinkling some cumin. "I don't know which boss's wife she is, nor whose daughter she was. She moved here at the beginning of spring this year, alone with a bunch of young maids... During her morning sickness, she suffered terribly. They invited many physicians but none could help. Neither her husband's family nor her maiden family ever visited. It was my mother and some neighborhood aunties who helped her through it. No one knows what her husband looks like. Don't you think that's pitiful?"
Leng Yue subtly furrowed her brow.
Something...
Didn't seem quite right.
Jing Yi played the part of a chatty merchant perfectly, exaggeratedly knitting his brows. "That's strange. Her husband, Boss Xiao, was the one who ordered these buns from me. When he came to my shop, he said he was going home to discuss something with his wife and happened to choose my bun shop since it was on his way."
The stall owner looked puzzled. "Yesterday? What time?"
"Around... noon, meal time. I remember clearly - my shop was extremely busy then."
"Oh..." The stall owner thought while tending to the sizzling meat skewers, then seemed to recall something. He looked carefully at Jing Yi. "Now that you mention it, there was a man I hadn't seen before who resembled you, though he looked older... He passed by my stall heading in that direction, but he was in a hurry and I had customers, so I didn't pay much attention."
After a moment's thought, he added as if to himself, "Now that I think about it... he seemed to come twice yesterday. Came, left... After the madam went out, he came again..."
Leng Yue was taken aback and blurted out, "He came again?"
"Well, seems like it... Business was good yesterday, everything was rushed, I can't remember clearly."
The stall owner quickly brushed sauce on some skewers and sprinkled sesame seeds on others, then handed two batches to Jing Yi.
"Four... portions for four men. Half with sauce, half without, not spicy. Here you go!"Jing Yi handed the entire bundle of meat skewers to Leng Yue, then fished for silver coins from his robe while nodding toward the two skewers the vendor had set aside earlier for having too much sauce and chili powder. "I'll take those too—add them to the total."
The vendor froze for a moment before hurriedly waving his hands with a bitter smile. "No, no... Business may be slow at my stall, but I can still sell these few skewers! You're in trade yourself—we all know it's tough. Just you coming here on that lady's recommendation is enough. No need to stand on ceremony!"
Jing Yi chuckled and pressed the exact amount of broken silver into the vendor's palm. "I haven't been home in ages. My old man loves spicy food—could you sprinkle extra chili powder on those? With luck, they might spare me a whipping with the feather duster."
"Oh! Certainly, certainly!"
Leng Yue assumed this was just another offhand excuse like the ones Jing Yi had fabricated earlier to pry information from the vendor. So she followed him at a leisurely pace, focused solely on eating without watching the path. When she realized they were already standing at the entrance of the Jing family mansion, her feelings grew rather complicated.
Master Jing had just returned from court discussions. As his sedan chair landed at the gate, the first thing he saw was his daughter-in-law with sauce smeared all over her face and his own son holding a massive bundle of meat skewers. Master Jing's feelings grew equally complicated.
"You two..."
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