Minister Sun looked on helplessly as the Cheng Wang ran to the Cheng Wang Fei and excitedly exclaimed, "Jun Qing, let's go eat shrimp! If we go too late, it'll sell out!" Was this the so-called urgent matter? There were rumors about a cruel, harsh and ruthless Cheng Wang, so why would he reveal such an expression, smiling so wide that he turned into a flower?
Mu Hanzhang saw the white-bearded Minister of War awkwardly standing in front of the door and greeted him apologetically. "Wang Ye was in a hurry this morning and wasn't able to eat, we've caused Minister-daren trouble."
"Wang Fei is exaggerating." Only then did Minister Sun snap out of it, and he politely saluted the Cheng Wang Fei. Anyway, he was used to Cheng Wang leaving on the dot at mao hour.
Mu Hanzhang smiled and took his Wang Ye out to eat.
* * * * *
It was still early. There were basically no guests inside Hui Wei Restaurant, but Boss Zhou, who opened early every day, had already cleaned up the shop and was preparing all the ingredients.
Jing Shao asked for a private room overlooking the street on the second floor.
"The crabs aren't fat enough yet at this time, come back and eat them in September." Because there wasn't much business at the moment, Zhou Jin, all in pink, personally came over to take their order.
The two weren't surprised by Zhou Jin's clothes.
"One catty of Shrimp Poached in Salt Water, one catty of Salt Baked Shrimp, two catties of Hui Wei Shrimp, one bottle of Shaoxing Yellow wine, and two bowls of rice," Jing Shao looked at the menu and said. All of the dishes with the words "Hui Wei" were the signature dishes of Hui Wei Restaurant. Because it wasn't possible to get hold of fresh shrimp all the time, they were rarely able to eat this dish.
"When eating saltwater shrimp, you shouldn't drink strong alcohol. I'll send up a pot of tea instead," Zhou Jin reminded Jing Shao.
Jing Shao frowned. It felt like there was a little something missing if he couldn't drink wine while eating something delicious.
When Mu Hanzhang saw this, he summoned Jing Shao's small servant boy Yun Song to buy a bottle of green plum wine from the green plum maiden in the south of the city. "Mild wine can detoxify shrimp. Perhaps it would be good if Brother Zhou also bought some mild wine. It would definitely sell well."
"That's a good idea." Zhou Jin said happily when he heard this. "Where is that green plum wine shop you're talking about?"
Mu Hanzhang told him the location. Even Zhou Jin, who ran a restaurant like this, didn't know about that green plum wine shop. It seemed that Maiden Mei's business truly wasn't good. Since Jing Shao intended to take care of this green plum girl for his Brother Wang who died in battle, it was much more useful to find a way for her to do business rather than to just buy her wine regularly.
"Jun Qing, you are really good at business." Jing Shao peeled a poached shrimp and put it in the other's bowl.
Mu Hanzhang picked up the shrimp with his chopsticks and dipped it in sauce before taking a bite. He smiled lightly and said, "When I was a child, I heard that the descendants of noble families were seldom able to attain scholarly honors in the imperial exam. Even if they did, it wasn't easy to become a court official. Thus, I secretly learned some business skills from Yiniang. I thought that if I couldn't be an official, then I could instead take over our family's businesses."
In general, nobles weren't able to achieve scholarly honors through the imperial exam. They relied on the emperor's benevolence; if they wanted to become officials, they also had to rely on the imperial family's favor. For those who managed to study and test with good results, they were often pushed aside by others, and it was hard to obtain promotions.
