After that evening, Zhao Ai did not come to Zhanle Tower for a long time. Zhenzhen heard from other patrons that since gaining real authority, he had become much busier. In addition to reviewing official documents daily, he traveled more frequently to various fields, inspecting the remaining polder lands and preparing for repairs and the construction of new official polders.
Zhenzhen continued to run her restaurant calmly. One day, Wei Qingxun sent someone to book a lunch banquet for the following day, saying he would bring an esteemed guest. Zhenzhen prepared the ingredients as usual. At the hour of Si the next day, Wei Qingxun and a man arrived one after another, each riding a horse. Zhenzhen went out to greet them and discovered that the man was none other than Zhao Ai, whom she had not seen for many days. It was now summer, and the sunlight was intense. It seemed he truly often traveled around for inspections, as his skin had been tanned to a warm wheat color, and he appeared quite weary. However, upon seeing Zhenzhen and Grandma Song, he still smiled brightly, his teeth appearing much whiter against his skin.
Wei Qingxun brought several live pufferfish and handed them to Zhenzhen, saying, "A friend gave me some pufferfish. Coincidentally, Prince Wei returned the money I used to purchase official fields. I wanted to host a banquet to express my gratitude, so I asked the head chef of Luming Tower to prepare the pufferfish for Prince Wei to taste. Unexpectedly, the chef said that pufferfish at this time are highly toxic, and he dared not cook them for His Highness. After much thought, I figured that in the entire Ningguo Prefecture, only Grandma Song would have the skill and confidence to prepare pufferfish well."
Grandma Song did not decline but graciously agreed, inviting Zhao Ai and Wei Qingxun inside to take their seats.
Wei Qingxun did not enter immediately. Instead, he scooped a pufferfish from the bucket and held it up with both hands for Zhenzhen to see. The pufferfish had patterned markings on its back, a pure white belly, and small spiky protrusions. When stimulated, it inhaled a large amount of air, causing its stomach to expand several times. Its body instantly became round and plump, its belly resembling a small ball, looking quite adorable.
Wei Qingxun leaned close to Zhenzhen’s ear and whispered with a smile, "Doesn’t it look like someone when they’re angry?"
Zhenzhen glanced at Zhao Ai, who was observing her and Wei Qingxun. Seeing Wei Qingxun and Zhenzhen whispering intimately, his smile immediately faded. The displeased expression of pursed lips and puffed cheeks indeed bore a striking resemblance to the pufferfish.
Zhenzhen felt like laughing but thought it inappropriate. She lowered her head and took the pufferfish from Wei Qingxun’s hands, asking Xiao Ou to guide Prince Wei and Master Wei upstairs to rest while she followed Grandma Song into the kitchen. The two tied up their sleeves and began their work.
Grandma Song took a pufferfish, washed it, and pressed it onto the cutting board. Wielding a sharp knife, she swiftly and cleanly cut off the fins and tail with a few strokes. Starting from the front of the fish’s eyes, she cut off the entire mouth, then flipped the fish over and made a cut on each side. With a gentle flick of the blade, she inserted it under the skin and peeled it off, smoothly and completely removing the skin from the fish.
Next, Grandma Song removed the fish’s eyes, opened its belly, and took out the internal organs. As she worked, she explained to Zhenzhen, "The toxins in pufferfish are mainly in the blood, eyes, and internal organs, except for the white milt. The ovaries and spleen are the most toxic, especially in female fish during the late spring and early summer when they are about to spawn. The muscle is non-toxic. If handled properly, with all internal organs, blood, and tendons removed, it can be eaten. The white milt and skin have minimal toxicity. The white milt is smooth and tender, also called 'Xishi’s milk.' The skin, when braised, is rich in collagen and tastes like turtle skirt. It can also be deep-fried until crispy and is quite delicious when prepared well, but it should not be consumed in large quantities."She took Zhenzhen through the process of preparing several pufferfish, meticulously removing the internal organs and repeatedly rinsing the fish meat under running water. She instructed Zhenzhen, "You must remember not to puncture the internal organs when removing them. For example, if the gallbladder's juices contaminate the fish meat, no amount of washing or stewing can fully remove the toxins."
She lightly fried a portion of the cleaned fish meat and bones, then stewed them in a rich broth. Switching to a clean cutting board, she placed the remaining fish meat on it and picked up a fish-slicing knife. Guiding the blade from top to bottom at a slant, she began slicing the fish into paper-thin, translucent slices. However, this delicate knife work required sharp eyesight, and given her advanced age and declining vision, she found the task quite taxing. She handed the knife to Zhenzhen, asking her to take over.
Zhenzhen hesitated slightly. The incident with the sliced perch had left a deep shadow in her heart. To this day, she remained uncertain whether the Crown Prince's death was related to the fish slices, and ever since, she had avoided slicing fish altogether. Dishes at Zhanle Tower never included fish slices. Although she had taken Grandma Song's knife, she hesitated to lift it and cut the fish meat.
"Are you afraid that residual toxins in the fish might harm someone if you slice it?" Grandma Song asked, then added, "Don't worry, I've handled it properly, with no mistakes... The ingredients themselves cannot harm people; it is the human heart, tainted with poison, that does harm."
Zhenzhen gave a slight start, then gathered her resolve, focused her gaze, and began slicing the fish. Slice after slice of fish fell like ice silk from the edge of the blade. In the fluid, effortless motion of the knife, she began to feel that the Song Taosheng of Zhanle Tower and the cheerful, confident Wu Zhenzhen of the Bureau of Palace Provisions were gradually converging.
Once the pufferfish slices were prepared and plated, and the fish broth had simmered to a milky white, Grandma Song added Chinese cabbage, mugwort, and reed shoots to the broth. She told Zhenzhen, "Locals who eat pufferfish always cook it with these three vegetables. In all my decades, I've never heard of anyone being poisoned by pufferfish prepared this way."
Grandma Song also fried a small amount of fish skin, grilled the milt, and served them with sauces, alongside the fish broth and slices, presenting them to Zhao Ai and Wei Qingxun. Wei Qingxun warmly invited Grandma Song and Zhenzhen to sit and dine with them. Grandma Song repeatedly declined, but Zhenzhen thought to herself that while it would be inappropriate to dine with guests at an ordinary banquet, today's ingredients were exceptional, and it was only proper to taste-test for the guests first. She sat down and asked Xiao Ou to prepare utensils for her. Seeing her accept the invitation, Grandma Song also took a seat.
Among the dishes, Zhao Ai seemed most interested in the pufferfish slices and was the first to reach for them with his chopsticks. Zhenzhen immediately asked him to wait a moment, leaning forward to say, "Although the fish has been repeatedly rinsed and should be free of toxins, to be absolutely safe, please allow me to taste-test it for you, my lord."
Zhao Ai, however, shook his head and said calmly, "I trust you. You wouldn't harm me." He then directly picked up a slice of fish, dipped it in sauce, and placed it in his mouth. After a moment, he smiled at Grandma Song and said, "Refreshing and delicious."
"Your words just now sound very familiar," Grandma Song replied with a smile. "I once had two neighbors, and the wife among them also learned to cook pufferfish from me. Her husband spent his days reading or going out, treating his wife with cold indifference. I always felt he didn't care much for her. But when his wife, under my guidance, prepared pufferfish for the first time and offered to taste-test it for her husband, he ate it directly, saying, 'You wouldn't harm me.'"
As she spoke, she glanced between Zhao Ai and Zhenzhen, her face breaking into a fond smile.Upon hearing this, Zhenzhen immediately asked Grandma Song, "Grandma, are you referring to Lady Wu and her husband?"
"Exactly," Grandma Song confirmed.
Zhenzhen then asked, "Was her husband all right after eating it?"
"He was fine," Grandma Song said. "Lady Wu learned very diligently and was extremely careful during the cooking process, so there were no mishaps. Later, I saw her prepare pufferfish for her husband several more times, and nothing ever happened."
Zhenzhen did not press further on the matter. However, recalling the deep-seated aversion Qiu Niang had toward pufferfish when she was young, a cloud of suspicion rose in her heart and lingered.
During the gathering, Wei Qingxun asked Zhao Ai what he had been busy with lately. Zhao Ai said he was raising funds to repair the embankments. Seeing his furrowed brow and evident worry as he mentioned this, Zhenzhen asked him, "Is progress not going smoothly?"
Zhao Ai replied, "For an embankment sturdy enough, it needs to be seven feet wide and thirteen feet high, with willows and elms planted on top. Just for repairing one li, the cost of earth and stone materials alone amounts to one hundred and twenty strings of cash. Each laborer’s daily wage is one hundred coins, so the labor cost for one li comes to over six hundred and sixty strings. Adding material costs and provisions, the total expense for one li is nearly eight hundred strings. And that’s only for repairing old embankments. If constructing new ones, the labor cost per li would double... The prefectural treasury is depleted, and the reserve funds and grains from the charity granaries and ever-normal granaries cannot be entirely allocated to embankment repairs, so it’s quite difficult."
"How many li need to be repaired, and how many new ones need to be built?" Zhenzhen asked.
Zhao Ai answered, "I only calculated the most urgently needed repairs for the past two years. Just for the Huimin and Huacheng embankments, forty li need repairing, and nine li need new construction. It’s estimated that completing all repairs would require a total of forty to fifty thousand strings... I submitted a memorial requesting The Emperor to allocate some funds and grains from the Inner Treasury to Ningguo Prefecture for embankment repairs. Although The Emperor graciously approved, what was allocated was not funds or grains but thirty ordination certificates. This is indeed a special favor, as the number of ordination certificates allocated to prefectures for engineering projects is usually not this high. However, they must first be sold to generate funds, and this time the imperial decree set the price at five hundred strings per certificate. Three years ago, ten ordination certificates were also allocated to Ningguo Prefecture to cover dredging costs, priced at four hundred strings each at the time. It took over a year to sell all ten. Now, with the price set at five hundred, they will likely be even harder to sell."
Ordinance certificates, originally issued by the court to monks and nuns since the Tang Dynasty, served as proof of their monastic status. Holding an ordination certificate exempted one from corvée labor and taxes. Prefectural governments could publicly sell these certificates and use the proceeds to cover various expenses. Later, ordination certificates circulated among the people, functioning like currency, usable for purchasing goods and even buying houses or land. Thus, allocating ordination certificates from the Inner Treasury was also a form of financial support for prefectural governments. However, if they could not be sold promptly, they could not be converted into funds.
Wei Qingxun, hearing this, comforted Zhao Ai, "There’s no rush. I can buy five or six certificates first. Combined with the funds and grains the prefecture can currently allocate, you can start repairing the embankments. Over the next two years, the remaining certificates will surely be sold, and Ningguo Prefecture will continue to collect taxes. Completing these forty to fifty li won’t be too difficult."
Zhao Ai smiled faintly, but his worried expression remained as he lowered his gaze in thought.
After the two left, Zhenzhen kept thinking about the embankment matter. After pondering all night, she went into the city early the next morning to find Wei Qingxun at the Luming Tower. Wei Qingxun was delighted to see her and led her into his garden. They sat in a pavilion by the murmuring stream, under the shadows of blooming roses, where he leisurely boiled water and prepared tea before asking her the purpose of her visit.Zhenzhen asked if she still wanted to acquire the management rights of Zhanle Pavilion, and Wei Qingxun smiled in return, "Have you thought it through?"
Zhenzhen replied, "I can do as you suggested—hand over Zhanle Pavilion for you to manage, while I personally oversee the creation of the food and drink menus for both restaurants, guide the chefs and kitchen staff, and assist you in managing the establishments. As for how much profit you’ll share with me in the future, that’s negotiable. I only ask that you purchase twelve ordination certificates from Ningguo Prefecture and give six of them to me as payment for the management rights of Zhanle Pavilion."
"Twelve? That’s quite a lot. Asking for six is also a high price—three thousand strings of cash could buy a sizable house in the city." Wei Qingxun said with a light smile. Though she expressed her opinion on the offer, she showed no surprise and continued calmly pouring tea for Zhenzhen.
"I can earn far more than three thousand strings for you in the future," Zhenzhen said confidently. "I’m sure you can see that. Since you could spend six thousand strings as a deposit for purchasing official land, you could certainly use it to buy twelve ordination certificates. This shouldn’t be difficult for you at all. Besides, the purchased certificates retain their value. Even if unused, storing them will likely lead to appreciation over time."
"I admire your confidence," Wei Qingxun chuckled. "I could simply give you three thousand strings directly. Why bother with the certificates? The current pricing for ordination certificates is too high—they aren’t worth that much in the private market. Selling one now would fetch at most four hundred strings. I could casually spend six thousand strings on a deposit because I know the money will be refunded. But buying ordination certificates is different—I must consider the risks. Agreeing to purchase five or six was merely to show respect to Prince Wei. Ultimately, these certificates, like paper currency, are just pieces of paper, not inherently valuable like gold or silver. When the court needs money, releasing tens of thousands of them will quickly drive down their market value. During the Yuanfeng era, one certificate was worth three hundred strings, but by the Daguan era, its value had fallen to ninety strings in the private market. Before the Southern Crossing, it even dropped to sixty strings. So, hoarding ordination certificates, like hoarding paper currency, carries risks."
"Things are different now compared to before the Southern Crossing," Zhenzhen calmly explained. "After the Southern Crossing, the late emperor established new laws. The court now values and cherishes ordination certificates, refraining from selling them lightly. Each issuance typically involves no more than a thousand certificates. Their value quickly rose from sixty strings to one hundred strings per certificate, and the price has climbed year after year since. Many wealthy households can’t even obtain certificates despite having the money, which is why the current price is set at five hundred strings. Ordination certificates are tied to corvée labor and taxes, giving them an additional layer of value compared to paper currency. They are also highly regarded by the late emperor and the current emperor, who even stipulated that during periods of excessive paper currency issuance and devaluation, ordination certificates could be used to redeem paper currency. Therefore, it’s unlikely that their value will depreciate significantly again. If you trust me, you might consider acquiring more certificates. In a few years, they may prove to be a better store of value and investment than gold."
"How do you know so much about this?" Wei Qingxun straightened her posture, studying Zhenzhen intently. "These matters aren’t something a woman working in a restaurant would typically know."
Zhenzhen was momentarily speechless. She had learned about ordination certificates and paper currency while serving The Emperor, overhearing discussions between him and his ministers. In her eagerness to persuade Wei Qingxun, she had inadvertently shared these insights, forgetting that it might raise questions about her identity.
After careful thought, she lowered her gaze and replied, "Prince Wei told me."Wei Qingxun smiled again, "Prince Wei, it seems you have known her for a long time."
Zhenzhen tried to cover it up, "I only met him when he came to Ningguo Prefecture to inspect the countryside."
"No." Wei Qingxun firmly denied, calmly staring at Zhenzhen, "You usually speak the Ningguo dialect with others, but with Prince Wei, you speak the standard Lin'an official language. Your official language is even better than your dialect, so you must be from Lin'an, right?"
Zhenzhen was speechless. Wei Qingxun continued to analyze, "Grandma Song cooks folk-style dishes, but yours, from ingredients to cooking methods, even the presentation and dish names, are often much more refined, more like literati cuisine and palace cuisine. If I'm not mistaken, you might have once held a high position in the Bureau of Palace Provisions."
Zhenzhen forced a smile, "I just learned a trick or two at a big restaurant in Lin'an..."
"Stop covering it up. I've heard about the incident with the Songjiang Perch Sashimi at the Eastern Palace, and I also know the reason why Prince Wei was sent here. Seeing his affection for you, it's not hard to guess your identity, so..." Wei Qingxun smiled gracefully and bowed politely to Zhenzhen, "Nice to meet you, Lady Wu."
Seeing Zhenzhen pale and speechless, she gently reassured her, "Don't worry, I admire you and won't tell anyone about this. Now that this is confirmed, I'll know how to protect you in the future."
"How do you know about those palace matters?" Zhenzhen asked her, "Has it already spread to the common people, and everyone knows?"
"Not yet." Wei Qingxun told her frankly, "I know these things because I come from the imperial relatives... Empress Xianren, the mother of the late emperor, is my great-grandaunt."
Zhenzhen looked at her in surprise and asked, "Why haven't I seen you before?"
Wei Qingxun explained, "My brother didn't want to be controlled by our parents back then, so he came to Ningguo Prefecture and opened this Luming Pavilion. Later, he was forced by our father to return to serve as an official, so he handed the restaurant over to me. I've been in Ningguo Prefecture for five years now. Occasionally, I return to Lin'an, but I don't like attending palace banquets, so we haven't met before."
Zhenzhen stood up and bowed deeply to her, saying solemnly, "Nice to meet you, Miss Wei."
"Please don't call me that." Wei Qingxun laughed, "I get chills all over whenever someone calls me 'Miss'... Just call me Qingxun directly, and I'll call you Zhenzhen... or Taosheng in public, how about that?"
Zhenzhen happily agreed. After a moment of thought, she asked her, "What about the ordination certificates? Are you still buying them?"
Wei Qingxun laughed heartily, "Buy! I've decided to buy fifteen now, and the six you need will be delivered to you in time."
Zhenzhen felt relieved and smiled, "That's good. When the wealthy households in Ningguo Prefecture see you buying so many, they'll surely speculate that you must have some insider information from the authorities, knowing that the ordination certificates will appreciate quickly, which is why you're buying in bulk. They'll definitely follow suit, and the remaining certificates will sell out quickly."
"Exactly." Wei Qingxun smiled meaningfully, "Especially when they find out that Song Taosheng sold Zhanle Pavilion not for cash but for ordination certificates, and that she is Prince Wei's close confidante..."
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