I was a queen in ancient times, no, a maid!

The mistress doesn’t eat midnight snacks, so Cheng Yu doesn’t have to make it.

However, her job was to cook, so she didn't feel secretly happy about not having to cook for her wife.

I went back to the small kitchen and put the ingredients I had prepared earlier into a lunch box. Taozi was still guarding in the small kitchen.

Seeing Cheng Yu coming, she immediately rubbed her eyes and said, "Yu'er, you are back. What food will you prepare for me? I will go and light a fire now."

Cheng Yu said, "No need to light a fire. Madam said she won't have a midnight snack tonight. But we still need to prepare some food. If Madam gets hungry in the middle of the night, the sister who is on night watch can cook for her."

Peach nodded.

Cheng Yu didn't call Taozi tonight, mainly because she didn't prepare much spicy hot pot, and just wanted to cook a little for Shi Zhuer.

If Ziwei and Dingxiang came, she would not refuse.

But others can't always give them free food. She is kind-hearted, but doesn't want to do charity.

Seeing that there was no need to make a fire, Taozi left.

Cheng Yu took some food, which were leftovers from today. Even if he didn’t eat them tonight, he would just throw them away tomorrow.

The mistress doesn't eat the leftover ingredients, Madam Li doesn't want them, and Madam Wang picks out the good ones. She doesn't even look at things like vegetables.

Cheng Yu took some and went straight back to the servants' room.

When she arrived, Ziwei had not come yet. Zhu'er was lying on the bed. She hurriedly got out of bed when she saw Cheng Yu coming back.

"You're back so early? Has the mistress gone to bed?"

"My lady is not feeling well. She won't have a midnight snack tonight. So I came back and stopped by the kitchenette to get some ingredients."

As they talked, they started preparing the spicy hot pot.

Cheng Yu plans to make a spicy soup base, and this kind of pot is suitable for eating in winter.

She first fried the bottom of the pot and added water to boil, then gradually put some meat and meatballs into the pot to cook.

I then put the cold crabs next to the stove to heat them up.

There were six crabs. I used two to make fried rice today, so there are four left.

She and Zhu'er each ate one, and left the other two for Ziwei and Dingxiang.

After waiting for a while, Zhu'er was a little anxious to eat spicy hot pot, so she went to call Ziwei.

It was Cheng Yu who asked her to go.

Zhu'er is working under Ziwei now, so let Zhu'er call Ziwei to come and eat.

This is also a way to please Ziwei.

Maybe in future work, Ziwei will take care of Zhuer.

Just waiting for Ziwei and Zhuer to come over.

Dingxiang came in a hurry.

"The lady has just fallen asleep and is a little uneasy. I'll have to go over there soon." Ding Xiang said as she sat down, and Cheng Yu handed her the crab.

Dingxiang didn't hesitate to pick up the crab. She took off its claws, opened its shell, pinched off its gills, broke it open and started eating.

"We are so lucky today. We can even eat crabs."

"Yu'er, let me tell you something. Madam is planning to ask you to go back to the palace to see the prince for the mistress. I will make the decision for you. You have always wanted to go back to the palace to see your brother and grandmother. This is your chance."

Cheng Yu paused while chewing the crab.

She really hadn't thought about going back to the palace.

Suddenly she has to go to the palace, and take care of the prince. Why does she not want to take this job?

"You're still unwilling? Earlier you came to me and begged me that you missed your brother, but now you don't want to do it anymore?"

"The mistress has specially arranged for two maids to accompany you. They are both old ladies who served the mistress. You just follow them and don't have to take the lead in anything. You just need to convey some caring words to the prince on behalf of the mistress and take good care of the prince for a few days. Also, you are good at cooking, so when you go to the prince's courtyard to serve, make more delicious meals."

It turned out that he wanted her to go to the palace to cook for the prince.

That's easy to say.

Cooking is the same no matter where you are.

Cheng Yu said softly: "Yu'er will naturally follow the arrangements of the mistress, but I am worried that if I go to the palace, my wife will have trouble eating..."

Ding Xiang then said, "With Madam Li and Madam Wang here, you can rest assured. Madam's appetite is better than before, and her morning sickness has eased a lot."

Cheng Yu nodded.

As they were talking, Ding Xiang had finished eating the crab.

She casually asked Cheng Yu where the crab came from, and it was quite plump.

Cheng Yu said, "The delivery man brought it here when he was delivering vegetables. He said it was half dead. It would be a pity to throw it away, but it couldn't be sold if it was dead, so he sold it to me for three cents."

Ding Xiang said with a smile: "You have found a treasure. A crab this big costs ten cents each in the market. If you send it to a wealthy family, the price will be even higher when it is recorded in the account."

I bought these for three cents, which is really a good deal.

Cheng Yu smiled and didn't think about anything else.

After eating crabs, the spicy hot pot is ready.

Naturally, there were not so many varieties of spicy hot pot that the servants ate. They only had some simple ingredients, like cabbage, vermicelli, bean curd, the remaining half of the lotus root cut into slices, bean curd skin, dried tofu, celery, and some lean meat, mutton, and bacon. Cheng Yu also put some pigeon eggs and duck intestines, and there was nothing else.

Ziwei looked at the contents of the spicy hot pot and couldn't help but smack her lips in praise.

"These ingredients look insignificant at ordinary times, but I didn't expect that they would taste even better when stewed in this pot."

"Why doesn't the big pot meal we eat taste like this?"

Ding Xiang smiled and said, "How can the big pot meals we eat be the same as this? The cooks are all different. Yu Er's cooking skills are famous in our Lan Garden."

"It's not our Lan Garden. When I was running errands in the outer courtyard, I heard people in the big kitchen say that Yu'er's cooking skills are good. Mother Li in the big kitchen kept talking about asking Yu'er to teach her how to cook a few of her signature dishes."

Mother Li didn't dare to come to the orchid garden in person.

When Zhao Rulan first married into the Lu family, she also ate in the big kitchen.

Mother Li in this big kitchen is used to doing some sneaky things.

The ingredients sent to the Orchid Garden are processed in the big kitchen and are always stolen. It doesn't matter if you eat a little bit, but you can eat most of a portion of the ingredients and send the remaining part to the Orchid Garden.

No one is a fool, so they can't see it.

Zhao Rulan asked Ding Xiang to ask about it, and Mother Li turned around and accused the Second Madam of bullying her.

Her mother, Li, had worked for the Lu family for decades and had never stolen anything.

However, after Dingxiang found out about it once, the food made from the ingredients sent later was obviously more than before. Whether Mother Li took any or not, probably only she herself knew.

Because of this incident, Mother Li offended the second wife, Zhao Rulan, and Dingxiang also looked down on her.

Even if she wanted to come and see Cheng Yu, she didn't dare to.

She just wanted to wait for Cheng Yu to go to the big kitchen next time so that she could look for him again.

But Cheng Yu just didn't leave the gate of Lanyuan during this period. He went to the kitchen, dormitory and the mistress every day.

Mother Li wanted to find Cheng Yu but couldn't find him.

Hearing Zhu'er talking about Mother Li, Dingxiang sneered. She was an old maid who was not up to the standard and was used to cheating and playing tricks. Dingxiang naturally looked down on her.