I Am This Type of Woman

26

"Master," The kitchen steward stood in front of Rong Xia with a bitter look, "I am afraid, This Lowly One is unable to make it quickly."

"En?" Rong Xia put down  <>, raised his head to look at the steward, "Why?"

"The dough needs yuqianlongjing tea that is brewed with dust-free snow water and seasoned with rose honey, the kneading utensils have to be specially made, the steamer has to be woven from newly grown xiangfei bamboo, the steaming water needs half a spoon of flower morning dew, and when taken out of the stove there should be a piece of burnt sandalwood. It is still fine if just expensive and takes long time, but we can't collect so many things quickly."

The kitchen steward was silently crying in his heart. Master wasn't normally picky about his food, and just as he wanted one kind of pastry, they were unable to do it. He was really ashamed to be standing in front of the Master. He wondered which family this recipe was from, it wasn't a recipe for making food, it was simply a recipe for wasting money.

"So complicated," Rong Xia now knew why Ban Hua was reluctant to let him eat, even Jingting residence wouldn't had made such a troublesome thing too often, "In that case, put it aside for this time being...."

He paused a while, then continued, "Prepare the materials first, and take your time to think about it."

The steward sighed with relief that the Master didn't demand them to produce the pastries right away. The kitchen staff had been thinking of all sort of methods the whole night, but nothing seemed to work, apparently there was no way to avoid wasting money.

The steward even suspected the person who gave him the recipe had an ulterior motive to bring Master down.

After the steward left, Rong Xia closed the <> in his hand. He was at lost of what to do with these 4 books. He could take these handwritten books out to impress the literary world, but .....

Benefit was easy to gain, sincerity was hard to seek. He couldn't betray the trust of the simple-thinking Ban family.

Rong Xia smoothed out the curling corners of the book. As Ban family had never made the existence of these books known to other people, he could only follow suit. This jade and golden mountain, just let them lie here quietly.

The Ban family who had given him the golden mountain was very busy. Grand Princess Dening's big birthday was coming, Ban family was busy checking the guest list, the banquet menu and various opera troupes and juggling troupes presented by their stewards.

People with bad bazi1 shouldn't come near, people whose faces were not celebratory enough weren't wanted, those who spoke negatively weren't included, one by one filtered out, incompatible horoscope signs were out as well. The stewards had actually performed all the filters, but they still wanted to personally go through everything themselves.

The Grand Princess couldn't bear seeing them so busy, but the four Bans didn't think like her. As long as it was within rules, they didn't care about the money, they would spend whatever needed to be spent, would use whatever needed to use. Many older ladies in the Capital became jealous, in spite of their lips admonishing their offspring not to be extravagant and ostentatious, which elder didn't wish to be valued by their family and to have such a grand and exciting celebration.

On one hand they envied the Grand Princess, on the other hand they felt that the Bans were being a bit too nonsensical, making such a big deal out of what was merely a birthday celebration.

Whatever others thought of them, the Bans were enjoying themselves. They ran several times a day to the Grand Princess' residence, made her smile all day long that the whole residence was also filled with laughters.