The next day Su Yu was awakened by the heat. When he opened his eyes he saw a golden dumpling tightly nestled against his neck, and a long tail stretched into his inner shirt again.
He didn’t know what kind of sweet dream he had, the tip of his furry tail was still softly patting his chest.
“Good morning, Sauce.” Su Yu pulled out the long tail and rubbed his chin against his furry head.
An Hongche stretched out his paw and pressed down Su Yu’s disobedient chin, then gave a big yawn.
There was no need to go out that day, so Su Yu planned to solve his financing problem. He held the furball and stayed in bed for a while.
“Hey, when can the two of us sleep until the sun is three poles high?”
The kitten squatting on Su Yu’s chest scratched his ear with his hind paw. Serve Us well and We will reward whatever you want.
That’s right, for the hard-working Su Yu, sleeping until the end of the morning meant that he and the cat will go hungry.
After a while, he consciously went to the kitchen and cooked a small pot of seafood porridge with fresh shrimp, squid whiskers, and two small crabs.
The soft glutinous rice was mixed with pink and white shrimps and crabs, sprinkled with some emerald fragrant scallions, and drizzled with sesame oil, then the delicious flavour immediately overflowed.
One person and one cat had a beautiful meal, and then they began to do their’s proper business.
It was a little strange that King Zhao left this jade token at the beginning, but Su Yu had no other way now. He had to brace himself and pull An Hongyi as an investor.
Only, he had to make some preparations before going.
When the restaurant was to be expanded in his previous life, Su Yu also followed his boss to solicit investment.
At that time, his boss asked people to prepare an exquisite business plan and a table of high-grade seafood dishes cooked by Su Yu himself. If you wanted people to invest, you always need some finished products.
Su Yu can’t write a business plan, but he was capable of writing a menu.
The Sichuan cuisine that Su Yu was an expert in was useless until he finds the chili peppers. Fortunately, there was also the heirloom record of Su Ji’s recipes, and Su Yu had thoroughly studied the previous dishes.
For example, the first three courses on Su Ji’s menu were “White Jade Scallops Wrapped in Silk”, “Tai Chi Yin Yang Shrimp” and “Xianbei Tofu Soup”.
Their names were very profound, in fact, they were “steamed scallops with minced garlic glass noodles”, “one shrimp cooked in two different styles” and “steamed tofu with dried scallops and shrimps”. These dishes were very simple for Su Yu to cook, he just had to gather the ingredients.
The first few courses, plus several kinds of fish soup, seafood porridge, and seafood noodles, and why not put together some barbecue, one menu is just about done.
Merely… He scratched his head and looked at the kitten who was licking its paws leisurely after eating and drinking to his heart's content, Su Yu’s face was bitter.
“Sauce, can you write with a brush?”
An Hongche stretched out his claws and glanced in disdain at Su Yu.
How can Our caligraphy be used to write dishes, this stupid slave courage is really getting bigger and bigger.
The traditional characters which were barely written were too horrible to look at, Su Yu simply threw away his brush and went out to make soy sauce. As a cook, he’d better give up writing and cook well.
Da’an Dynasty already had soy sauce, but it was just a single variety, not as diverse as the later generations.
Soy sauce was very important for many seafood dishes, especially those simple dishes, soy sauce was the soul of the cuisine.
The advantage of soy sauce in ancient times was that it was brewed with natural ingredients, and the taste was pure without the doping of industrial raw materials.
The disadvantage was that the taste was too pure, only salty mixed with the sauce, lacking freshness. The key to freshness was sugar.
Boil a bowl of river prawns in water until the soup changes color, remove the river prawns, and add several tablespoons of soy sauce and sugar.
Brown sugar was originally used to brew soy sauce, but the ancient soy sauce was brewed with beans and so had a heavy color, and if you added brown sugar its appearance would become worse, so Su Yu chose white sugar.
Soon, a bottle of seafood soy sauce was freshly made, which was his secret weapon.
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The royal residence was still very luxurious and magnificent as before, King Zhao, An Hongyi was the Emperor’s sole younger brother from the same mother, and was trusted by the Emperor.
There were not just a few people who came to him every day wanting to climb to a higher status, but there seemed to be more people in front of the door that day.
“His Royal Highness said, there will be no guest.” The imperial guard impatiently expelled the crowd in front of the door.
“This official has important to discuss with his Highness, please, I’ll trouble you to inform.” A man in official clothes negotiated with the imperial guard with a distressed expression.
“Daren Zhang, don’t waste your time, Wangye won’t see us.” Another official with a white beard sighed.
The emperor hadn’t been in court for more than a month, and the people in the court were in panic.
It was even rumored that the emperor’s life was not long, they were also ill at ease and rushed to anyone they could find, they came there to try their luck.
A fluffy head popped out of Su Yu’s shirt, its amber eyes narrowed slightly.
These fools, what’s the use of looking for An Hongyi at this time? On the cusp of this storm, as King Zhao had the most right of inheritance, it was natural to avoid arousing suspicion.
He scratched Su Yu with his paw and urged him to go in quickly to avoid being made more stupid by these people.
Su Yu reluctantly pressed the cat’s head back down. Watching so many people being stopped he was also a little unsure.
He repeatedly confirmed the prepared speech in front of the door and squeezed the sapphire jade token in his hand. Then he raised his foot and squeezed over.
“Who are you?” The imperial guard in front of the door came forward to stop him.
“I’m Su Yu, an old friend of his Royal Highness. I have a keepsake here, please report it on my behalf. ” Su Yu carried the soy sauce bottle with one hand behind him, raised his chin slightly, and showed the sapphire jade token in his hand.
When the imperial guard saw the jade token, he couldn’t help but look solemn, cupped his hands, and said: “Sir, please come in.”
Everyone was surprised and one after another looked at Su Yu, who was dressed in simple clothes.
Su Yu never anticipated that the sapphire jade token would be so useful. Under the pressure of everyone’s eyes, he pretended to be calm and walked in.
Pavillions, terraces and open halls, winding waters and flowing wine cups, one scenery in five steps, one pavilion in ten steps.
The layout in the palace was really exquisite and luxurious, which really showed how much this younger brother was loved by the emperor.
“This king has said that he will not see any guests.” King Zhao, wearing a royal blue robe, sat in the pavilion and waved impatiently.
“Your Highness, it’s the person holding the jade token.” The imperial guard reported in a low voice.
An Hongyi, who was eating a small fish cake, almost choked.
He stared at Su Yu and looked at him from head to toe, with his sharp eyes, he found half of a furry ear exposed from his chest, and immediately waved his hands to let everyone retreat.
When the crowd dispersed, the golden kitten immediately jumped out of the shirt and onto the stone table.
“Sauce, don’t be rude!” Su Yu was startled and hurriedly reached out his hand to catch it, but he failed to hold it.
“What did you call him?” King Zhao heard the strange name with his sharp ears, and his eyes were about to pop out.
He pointed to the cat on the table: “Ha Ha… Ouch!” An Hongyi laughed, shaking the soft flesh on his face.
Just halfway through the laugh, he was rewarded with a claw.
When Su Yu saw that his Royal Highness's face was scratched, he was immediately scared into a cold sweat and quickly bowed.
“The little pet is spoiled, I hope your Highness can forgive it.”
An Hongyi wanted to put on airs, but as a result, he was glared at by the golden kitten and so quickly reached out to help Su Yu.
“No harm, no harm, I knew him already. I…One day without being scratched by him, I feel uncomfortable all over, hahaha… ”
The corner of Su Yu’s mouth twitched, he finally understood why the emperor trusted King Zhao so much. He look so unreliable and wouldn’t seek power and position.
“Hey, to tell you the truth, I have some affection for the cat, so it was for his sake that I gave you the token.” An Hongyi explained to Su Yu while feeding the kitten fish cakes.
Su Yu frowned: “He…”
An Hongyi waved his hand: “You will naturally know later, first things first, why are you looking for me today?” King Zhao was only sixteen or seventeen years old, there were two small dimples on his chubby face and he smiled naively.
He didn’t have the airs of a prince at all. Instead, he looked like a little brother next door, letting one admire his frame of mind.
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After listening to Su Yu’s idea about the restaurant, An Hongyi didn’t immediately respond.
He pondered for a moment and said: “There are many seafood restaurants in the capital as the hairs of an ox, I’m afraid that it’s difficult to keep up appearances by roasting squid alone.”
Su Yu didn’t explain much, only asked to borrow the kitchen.
“Hey, don’t bite…” When Su Yu left, King Zhao was bitten by the cat on the table, he rubbed his ears aggrievedly.
“You follow the descendant of the Su family to drink and eat spicy food. I haven’t even tasted a single bite. If you want me to pay, you have to give me some benefits.”
An Hongche glanced at his worthless younger brother, he really didn’t want to acknowledge that they were the offspring of the same mother.