The Female Supporting Role Shows Out

Chapter 31: Lady Chef (30)

Yan Langqing had been feeling uneasy recently. The root cause of all her worries came from Lin Dan, a person who had long been forgotten by her but suddenly entered into the picture again. Yan Langqing had gotten people to pack Lin Dans four signature dishes into the palace, and she found that they were all really delicious.

She tried to remake those dishes but found that even with the same ingredients and condiments, she was unable to recreate the same taste as Lin Dan. Yan Langqing was sure that Lin Dan had developed unique cooking techniques that were difficult to follow or master without Lin Dans guidance. It would be useless even if she had gotten hold of the recipe.

It was an extraordinary skill that only the old chefs who had been in the industry for decades or even a lifetime possessed. As for Lin Dan, she was merely two years younger than Yan Langqing and was only twenty-two years old, but she had already far surpassed her. She had to admit that she felt uneasy, but as an imperial chef, she would never concede defeat to an ordinary chef.

She was definitely going to have a competition with Lin Dan, but she had to wait till her day off. However, troubles came even before she could wait. Several guards rushed into the imperial kitchen with big swords and asked aggressively, "Who was the one who made this Eight-Treasure Tofu today? Come forward!"

"It's me." Yan Langqing stepped forward calmly. In the palace, she was protected by the Emperor and naturally was not afraid of anything.

"Apart from you, who else has handled that dish?" the guard asked again.

Several maids and eunuchs stepped forward one after another, and they were all Yan Langqing's close aides. Among them was the young man who often left the palace to help her find delicacies outside the palace.

"Tie them up and send them to the Department of Justice!" Several guards tied them up without making any explanations and dragged them away for interrogation.

Yan Langqing started to panic when she heard that her aides were going to be put into the dark and hellish jail. She asked urgently while struggling, "Sirs, what have we done wrong?"

"Dont you know what youre guilty of?" The guards gagged their mouths and dragged them away rudely.

What actually happened was nothing serious yet not to be taken lightly at the same time. The Emperor had hosted a few princes from Mongolia in the palace and was discussing purchasing war horses from them. One of the princes had already informed a servant from the imperial kitchen that he was allergic to peanuts, but the Eight-Treasure Tofu was served instead which contained peanut sauce. The prince had an allergic reaction as soon as he ate it and developed a red rash all over his body with an unbearable itch. As a result, the banquet was ruined, and discussion on the purchase of the warhorses was unsuccessful. Everything had to hold until the prince had recovered.

In order to give the prince an explanation, the Emperor ordered the guards to thoroughly investigate the matter and found Yan Langqing responsible for it. Although Yan Langqing was not told about the princes allergy, she was the chef who made the dish after all. She had to be interrogated to appease the guests even if the Emperor was reluctant to do so.

After discovering that the incident was merely a mistake and did not involve any spies or conspiracies from the other countries, the Department of Justice had released them. But Prince Gong, who was the head of the Department, suddenly arrived. Without a word, he threw two bamboo sticks and punished Yan Langqing and her apprentice, which was the young eunuch, each with fifty heavy sticks.

As Yan Langqing had won the favor of the Emperor, the executioner held back and did not dare to beat her hard. However, her apprentice did not enjoy such privileges. At the end of the interrogation, his clothes were torn and bloody and he was completely in ruins. After being taken out of the jail, Yan Langqing's legs were jelly, and tears started to roll uncontrollably. People had said that the palace was a place full of schemes, but she had never felt it under the Emperors protection until today. She realized that the dark cell was indeed like a big mouth, waiting to tear people apart and devour lives.

When she was pressed on the bloody floor for interrogation, she vaguely heard Prince Gong said, "My brother asked me to punish her harshly offended his beloved lady Sigh, its not his concubine, but a cook with excellent culinary skills"[Read this novel and other amazing translated novels from the original source at the "Novel Multiverse dot com" website @ ]

Yan Langqing was smart and quickly understood that she was punished because she had offended someone she should not have in the first place. She wondered who it was, and the first group of people she could think of was the chefs in the imperial kitchen. They might have wanted to take her down so that the head chef position could be taken over by them.

Everyone seemed like a bad person to her right now and she only wanted to go home immediately without returning to the imperial kitchen. As she had expected, an order came and she was stripped away of the position as the imperial chef before being sent home. She was dumbfounded at what had happened. She felt humiliated and was unwilling to accept the reality.

She did not know what exactly happened and no one told her that the prince was allergic to peanuts. She was certain that she was framed, but she had no evidence and could not defend herself. She was being carried into a carriage before she could even change out of her bloody clothes before being sent out of the palace.

The young eunuch who often left the palace to find delicacies for her suffered from serious injuries and was thrown into the side quarters. It was unknown if he would be able to survive the predicament, but even if he did he would not be able to return to the imperial kitchen anymore. He could only serve the concubines who were living in the cold palace and had turned mad, or clean the toilets at the Laundry Bureau. The worst was yet to come.

Lady Zhou was shell-shocked to see her son covered in blood after being beaten up by the officials and kept asking what they should do in the future. Since the restaurant was wrecked, the signboard was smashed into pieces, and the nobles even said that they were not allowed to open the business, she wondered if it meant that they had to go and beg Lin Dan, that wretched girl, to return. Lady Zhou did not want to concede defeat, but she knew that the situation of the family would not improve if Lin Dan did not return. They had already lost most of their savings by paying that one hundred thousand tael of silver. This had a great impact on the familys finances and she thought it would be impossible to recover in the next eight to ten years.

Yan Shouye gritted his teeth and said, "Beg? If she has a backer, so do we, and our backer is the Emperor. When Langqing returns, I will ask her to speak to the Emperor and everything will be fine. Our Langqing is bound to be the Emperors concubine in the future."

"Didn't you say that she was going to be the wife of a marquis?" Lady Zhou finally felt a sense of relief.

"Being the wife of a marquis is nothing compared to being a concubine of the Emperor. I have stopped Langqing from getting married all these years and you thought I was delaying her? Look whats happening now. If I hadnt held her back, do you think she could enjoy such good fortune? This hardship will be over once Langqing is back, and I will ask her to make the Emperor punish Marquis Weiyuan and the others to avenge me!" Yan Shouye got more excited and straightened his torso before yelling, "Servants! Go to the door and see if the missy is back!"

Immediately, a maid rushed in and screamed in a hoarse voice, "Bad news, bad news! M-Missy came back covered in blood and was removed as the imperial chef!"

The palace guard who sent Yan Langqing back received an order from Prince Gong to embarrass the Yan family by proclaiming the mistake she had committed in the palace and the removal of her position clearly at the entrance. As the passersby were all neighbors who lived nearby and were often bullied by Lady Zhou and Yan Shouye, they could not help but gloat over their misfortune. They thought it was the familys bad karma for ill-treating others merely because their daughter was an imperial chef.

Yan Langqing was so embarrassed that she covered her head with a thin blanket before getting the servants to lift herself out of the carriage and returned home. She was shocked when she saw her father who was also lying on the bed.

Yan Shouye was completely in panic and started to tell her about what he did to Lin Dan and her mother, as well as how he set her hometown kitchen on fire. He exclaimed, "I didnt know she had connections with so many respectable people when she had only returned to the capital for only two or three months, and they were all willing to stand up for her! If only I knew that, I wouldnt He wouldn't have provoked her, he thought.

But Yan Shouye did not bring himself to finish that sentence. He thought for a moment and groaned, "Looks like we cant rely on the Emperor anymore. Langqing, send a letter to Tang Peng and ask for his help. You may not know this, but Lin Dan utterly embarrassed Tang Peng the last time he brought a few Mongolian princes to Lin Dans hometown kitchen and he hated Lin Dan. When I told him that I wanted to set the restaurant on fire, he agreed to help me bribe the South District office immediately. Or maybe, he has been treating me well because of you. I suppose he wont reject your request if you have spoken to him instead. How can we survive if we keep this restaurant closed? But we need a backer if we want to reopen the restaurant, isnt it? He is the Deputy Minister of War and the son of Marquis Yongding. Im sure Prince Cheng will not come and smash our signboard again if he backs us up."

Yan Shouya rattled on, but Yan Langqing had only heard the word "Mongolia" and she immediately asked, "The princes of Mongolia have dined at Lin Dans restaurant? Does she have connections with the princes of this country?"

"She wouldnt have any connections with them if not for the young marquis who took those people there. In the past few years, he has worked with Mongolia to fight against the Xiongnu. They were allies on the battlefield and had good relations." Yan Shouye had intended to buy a title and naturally understood the affairs of the court.

"The young marquis? So, it was him!" Yan Langqing was completely stunned, and tears started rolling at once. She thought it was the people from the imperial kitchen who framed her, but it was actually the young marquis doings. Besides him, there was no one else who was able to get the Mongolian princes help to create trouble for her in the palace.

Prince Cheng and Prince Gong had also stepped forward to seek justice for Lin Dan. She wondered what was the reason that all the hard work she had put in to survive in the palace and to uphold the reputation of her family was destroyed overnight.

Yan Langqing suddenly felt extremely miserable and yelled, "Father, didn't I tell you to live in peace and don't cause any trouble?! Why didn't you take my words seriously? Back then, it was all because of you that I was being driven out by the marquis and was hated by the young marquis. Now you are making trouble again, and I was driven out of the palace by the Emperor and my reputation is smeared. Are you satisfied now? How many times do you have to drag me down?"

Looking at the daughter who was half lying on the chair mourning and crying, Yan Shouye was ashamed and regretful, but there was nothing he could do. He murmured, "I didn't expect Lin Dan to be such a prickly hedgehog that cannot be provoked. Why dont you send a letter to Tang Peng? He might be able to help you."[Read this novel and other amazing translated novels from the original source at the "Novel Multiverse dot com" website @ ]

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