Ming Dynasty and New Rome and Infinite Magic Machine

Chapter 1723 Bread
"Hey bro, what are you doing sitting behind the door?"

When Zhu Ling returned, Zhu Xianxi was sitting on a small stool behind the door, his face ashen.

Zhu Xianxi, standing behind the door, remained silent in the face of his sister's question.

He was like a helpless husband, watching his opportunity being taken away by someone else, an opportunity he himself had given away.

"Brother, what's wrong with you? You look like an incompetent husband."

"Where did you learn all these weird words?!"

"I just feel like you'll jump up if I say that. So what's wrong with you?"

"Why is it always me?" Zhu Xianxi told Zhu Ling what he had overheard behind the door.

He gave the two pills he had made to Shangluo as toys. However, Fu Yuanshan, who was standing at the door, immediately recognized them as his own Blessing and decided to exchange them with Shangluo for the extra pill by sharing his Blessing—after all, one Blessing is enough for a person, and the second one was indeed extra.

"That's strange. I remember you've had it for a while now, and it's not the first time General Fu has seen it. Why did he only think it was a blessing when he saw the pill in Shang Luo's hands?"

"."

"How about I go find him and get one back for you?"

Zhu Xianxi shook his head: "If it's not my good fortune, then it will never be mine. I suppose I, who bear the stain of the country and its misfortune, am just an unlucky person."

"Oh well, since that's how it is, don't look so gloomy. Here, I brought you something delicious." She reached out and stuffed a lump of unidentified matter directly into Zhu Xianxi's mouth.

Zhu Xianxi didn't refuse, but while chewing, he muttered, "Did you wash your hands?"

"Wash it, wash it."

"Your hands aren't even wet, how can you say you washed them? And what did you give me to eat? It was sweet."

"The bread. I lined up at the door to get it. I waited in line for 5 minutes before it arrived."

"You got it by queuing up?" Zhu Xianxi glanced at the bag Zhu Ling was carrying. "Wait, I remember you don't have an ID card, right?"

The imperial family has identity cards, but Zhu Ling does not. Strictly speaking, the imperial family does not have household registration—the household registration and land information of everyone in the world are stored in the Yellow Register at Xuanwu Lake. However, the imperial family is an exception; their information is stored in the Imperial Clan Court's Jade Register.

The Imperial Clan Court's information is not integrated into the civil affairs management system, so Zhu Ling needs to obtain a certificate from the Imperial Clan Court whenever he needs identification. The current head of the Imperial Clan Court is Yang Xueren, the magistrate of Jiangning County and Marquis of Huai'an, who is also Zhu Xianxi's father-in-law. Historically, the Imperial Clan Court has always been headed by meritorious officials and relatives of the emperor.

However, the old magistrate, Yang, didn't actually manage the affairs of the Imperial Clan Court; he merely kept the official seal of the Imperial Clan Court. The actual work of the Imperial Clan Court was handled by the Ministry of Rites. Specifically, it was managed by the Department of Ceremonies within the Ministry of Rites. Of course, Zhu Ling couldn't go to the Ministry of Rites herself to obtain the certificate; she could only communicate with the Ministry of Rites through the Palace Attendant, who would then handle the matter.

This is where Zhu Ling's situation is more complicated. She possesses a privilege granted by the late emperor—she can walk freely throughout the streets without anyone accompanying her. Even the emperor and empress don't have this privilege. Zhu Xianxi has to sneak away if he wants to go out on his own, but Zhu Ling is the only one who can go out alone.

Therefore, logically speaking, since Zhu Ling was alone, she shouldn't have been able to obtain identification. In other words—

That bakery doesn't check IDs at all; they just give it to whoever comes. Take as much as you want, eat as much as you want, take only what you need.

There seemed to be enough in terms of quantity, as Zhu Ling only had to wait in line for five minutes to get hers.

"Yes, they didn't check my ID card; they just gave it to me as soon as I joined the queue."

"Hmm," Zhu Xianxi pondered for a moment.

In fact, he had been paying close attention to the nature of this matter from a political perspective. Because when he discussed this with Shangluo, Shangluo had explicitly mentioned one point:
In Rome, bread and the circus were associated with power and dominion.

These automata, which sought to provide bread for humanity, were in fact an erosion of dominance—at least from Rome's perspective.

This also applies to Egypt. If someone were to distribute unlimited amounts of bread in Egypt today, then Rome's presence there could indeed be replaced.

However, in the Ming Dynasty, the court's ruling power wouldn't be diminished simply because someone was distributing free bread—after all, Rome was replaced because the Roman government did little more than distribute bread, and even then, it was limited to Roman citizens. The Ming court, on the other hand, did far too much; such public welfare activities wouldn't become an obstacle to its governance.

These days, there are plenty of Buddhist temples that distribute porridge everywhere, and quite a few Taoist temples that give out eggs, so they're not afraid of someone giving out bread.

However, this bakery seems a bit too big.

"Do the neighbors have any objections?" Zhu Xianxi asked.

Zhu Xianxi is more concerned about changes at the micro level than the major impacts.

You know there's a wonton shop right outside the door, right?

Zhu Xianxi nodded. He had eaten there before, and the wonton shop knew he went there occasionally. After all, it was right next door, so they could be considered "neighbors."

In Yingtian, there's a specific way to eat wontons for breakfast. The broth is made with lard, dried shrimp, and seaweed. This broth not only adds flavor to the wontons but also goes well with fried dough sticks. You can break the fried dough sticks apart and soak them in the broth. Soy milk is usually served at this time, and the fried dough sticks are double-spiral shaped, so you can eat one on each side.

The soaking methods for these two are different. When soaking in wonton soup, you can tear off a piece and soak it in, letting the fried dough stick absorb the soup completely. But when soaking in soy milk, just dip it lightly to soften the outer shell slightly. Since you'll be drinking the soy milk later, and the fried dough stick is full of oil, if you soak the whole fried dough stick in, there will be a layer of oil floating on top of the soy milk when you drink it, which would be a bit disgusting.

Wonton shops usually sell all of these – if it's a wonton stall, it's usually set up in a group with a soy milk and fried dough stick vendor, not far from each other. That's why the shop puts these together for sale.

However, wonton shops generally don't fry their own dough sticks or make their own soy milk. Usually, the shop owner has a fixed source, buying dough sticks and soy milk from neighboring shops or other shops that regularly deliver to them, essentially just reselling them to the shop. After all, frying a large pot of food is quite troublesome, and shop owners generally can't manage both the boiling water pot and the frying pan simultaneously.

But the shop in front of the palace was different; it was a long-established business and quite large. It had both a water-boiling station and a frying station for dough sticks.

(End of this chapter)