Border Cook

Chapter 635 Wonton Noodles

Li Juncheng felt a little guilty after being looked at. He lowered his eyes, chuckled, and calmly put the dagger in his sleeve back.

After a moment, he took a deep breath, his face became calmer, he straightened his body and looked at Lu Qiyan, "How did Commander Lu see that?"

"A large number of masked black-clad bandits suddenly appeared in the villa. It is obvious that some of them are colluding with the outside world to disrupt the peace talks and cause some trouble for our Western Frontier Army."

Lu Qiyan said, "The Second Prince is dedicated to promoting peace talks and will never do such a thing. The only one who can do such a thing and wants to do it is Tao Ankang."

"I can think of this. The Second Prince is much smarter than me, so he can think of it too. But since the Second Prince can think of it, he followed Tao Ankang who was supposedly concerned about your safety and fled the villa. This is obviously not in line with common sense."

"There is only one reason for this, that is, the Second Prince just wants to see what Tao Ankang is going to do and kill him by the way."

"Commander Lu is right." Li Juncheng did not hide anything and answered frankly, "Indeed, I noticed Tao Ankang was acting suspiciously a few nights ago, so I sent someone to follow him. I found that he was gathering some people. I don't know what he was going to do."

"I wanted to follow him today. I heard from him that he was colluding with my eldest brother. However, Tao Ankang is really a bit stubborn. Not only did he take all the responsibility on himself, but he also felt that there was nothing wrong with this matter. It is really hard to judge."

"I have told Commander Lu the truth now. Will Commander Lu also tell me the truth?"

Lu Qiyan raised his eyebrows, "I wonder what the Second Prince wants to know?"

"Just now I heard Commander Lu and Tao Ankang say that if he killed me, it would ruin the entire peace talks and cause the two countries to go to war again, which would be exactly what Commander Lu wanted."

Li Juncheng said, "I thought about it. Commander Lu rose to prominence through military exploits. His current power and status were gained through constant wars with the Jin Wei Kingdom. Commander Lu probably doesn't want the war to stop."

"Commander Lu, do you think that this time the peace talks do not want to proceed as scheduled and want to sabotage them in every possible way?"

Lu Qiyan laughed. "Commander Xia and I are the guards who escorted the peace talks delegation to Beijing. It is our duty to escort the Second Prince and the delegation to Beijing. The rest is not within our consideration. We must obey the emperor's order."

This answered, but it also seemed like no answer.

It only said that he was following orders and was loyal to the emperor, but it did not say what he really thought.

Doesn't this evasive way of answering prove that Lu Qiyan really likes the war to start again?

At the very least, he shouldn't object.

This is something worth thinking about and taking seriously.

Li Juncheng narrowed his eyes and said, "Commander Lu is absolutely right."

"The villa has been basically cleaned up now. It's getting late, Your Highness should go back and rest as soon as possible."

Lu Qiyan said, "I will report the whole story to the emperor truthfully. Your Highness, please think about how to report this to the King of Jinwei."

"In addition, because of what happened today, in order to prevent those Tao Ankang's men who escaped from causing trouble again, I have to temporarily change the original plan for the next few days. I have to ask the Second Prince and his party to completely follow my arrangements."

"Of course." Li Juncheng smiled slightly, "But Commander Lu must remember his loyalty." Peace talks were allowed by the Emperor of the Great Zhou Kingdom. As long as Lu Qiyan was loyal to the Emperor, he would not do anything to harm him.

"I am a minister of the Great Zhou Kingdom, and I will naturally keep the word loyalty in my heart."

Lu Qiyan's words revealed his attitude.

Li Juncheng nodded again, "Then I can rest assured. From now on, everything will be arranged by Commander Lu. I will discipline the delegation and not cause more trouble for Commander Lu."

"Thank you, Second Prince." Lu Qiyan bowed and left with his sword in hand.

Xia Yunji followed behind.

He checked the condition of the villa and asked his subordinates to clean up the corpses and bloodstains everywhere. He notified Magistrate Li to send someone to do the final record-keeping. He also instructed everyone to keep a close watch and patrol all night to ensure safety.

By the time everything was basically ready, the sky in the east was beginning to turn pale.

The faint morning light heralded the end of the darkness, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

But because they had been busy almost all night, everyone was exhausted. After County Magistrate Li arrived with the yamen runners and the county guards, Xia Yunji told his subordinates to take turns sleeping and resting.

Lu Qiyan and Xia Yunji also prepared to go back and rest for a while, but they went to visit Xia Mingyue first.

At this time, Xia Mingyue also had not slept all night.

Although the masked attackers had not reached the courtyard where she lived, the screams, the clashing of weapons, and the noise of people coming and going outside were very terrifying to hear.

Especially since Lu Qiyan and Xia Yunji had not returned yet, she felt as if a huge rock was hanging in her heart and became restless.

Until the noise outside gradually died down, the guards guarding the door also sent a message saying that everything was under control. Even Wu Jin, who had been walking back and forth in the room, restless, now lay quietly on the ground with his eyes closed. Only then did Xia Mingyue breathe a sigh of relief and feel a little relieved.

Thinking that Lu Qiyan and Xia Mingyue had been so busy all night and must be hungry and cold, she went to the small kitchen in the yard and made breakfast with Yin Qiao.

Xia Mingyue made wonton noodles.

Wontons are prepared in a similar way to wontons, both of which are made by wrapping meat filling in dough, cooking in soup and seasoning before being eaten.

However, wontons are mostly filled with pork and fresh shrimp. Duck eggs are often added to the dough when it is made to enhance the texture and delicious taste of the dough.

But at this time, they were in a villa where they were staying temporarily on the way, and there were no fresh shrimps on hand. Xia Mingyue used the hind leg meat, which was 70% lean and 30% fat, to chop it up and season it to make the wontons. The soup for the wontons was made with the broth stewed with chicken bones, and some dried river shrimps were added to enhance the flavor, and garnished with green chives. It was really delicious and fragrant.

As for the noodles that go with the wontons, Xia Mingyue did not use ordinary hand-rolled noodles, but instead made fairly authentic bamboo noodles.

The so-called bamboo noodles are made of duck eggs, flour, alkaline water, etc., without adding too much water. In order to make the loose flour and duck eggs completely blend and compact, they need to be squeezed vigorously. The usual method is to have people sit on a long and thick bamboo, and use the up and down pressure method to thoroughly mix the duck egg flour into dough. The dough made in this way is extremely firm, and the noodles made are naturally chewy, delicious, and fresh.