The Age of Discovery: Chinese cuisine swept across Europe

After breakfast, Fernando went back to sleep. Min Xi also hurriedly processed the ingredients he bought. The broad beans needed to be cooked and the duck eggs needed to be pickled. There was still a lot of work to do.

Lord Mello arrived before lunch time. He brought his carefully designed artwork with him and showed it to Min Xi like a treasure. Even though Yun Ji was right next to him, he was too embarrassed to show it to him. It seemed that he was still upset about having embarrassed himself in front of him.

Min Xi took a look and found that he had written quite a few, designing five different designs, which showed his sincerity. "You actually wrote so many designs. Thank you for your hard work, sir. Thank you very much!"

"Use whichever you think is suitable," said Lord Mello.

Min Xi put the paper away and put it between the account books on the counter: "Okay, I will study it carefully later. Your Excellency, will you eat in the store at noon? I will treat you at noon today, what would you like to eat?"

Lord Mello thought for a moment and said, "Do you still have the noodles from last night?"

Min Xi smiled and said, "Yes, please sit down and wait for a moment."

The staple food today was noodles, but it was tomato and egg noodles, not the fancy seafood noodles. But Lord Mello wanted to eat seafood noodles, so he could just prepare it separately. Chicken bones were put in the soup for cooking noodles. Although it was not as thick as yesterday's chicken soup, it was much more fragrant than noodles cooked in plain water.

Min Xi also prepared a few dishes for him. When inviting guests to dinner, they couldn't just have staple food.

After Min Xi finished making the noodles, he personally brought them to Lord Melo: "Sir, we are in a hurry today and cannot prepare as well as yesterday. The noodles may not be as fragrant as yesterday. Please forgive me. After the Duke's birthday banquet is over, the dishes that appeared in the banquet will be officially sold in the store. If you want to eat the dishes in the banquet again, please come to the store to taste them then."

Lord Melo nodded: "Okay." He was actually a little surprised. He didn't expect Min Xi to be so particular about his work. The dishes he prepared for the Duke's banquet were all those that had never been sold in the store, giving enough face to Fernando's family.

Lord Melo asked again: "I want to know, if my family wants to hold a banquet, can I also invite you to cook at my house?"

Min Xi said, "It's not impossible, but as Your Excellency can see, my shop is doing a booming business. If I close it for a day, I will lose a lot of income, so the cost will be very high."

Lord Mello waved his hand and said, "The cost is not a problem, as long as you are willing to come."

When Min Xi heard this, he thought, is this a deliberate way to get Yun Ji to come to his house? But Yun Ji didn't have to go, he could just take three employees with him. Yun Ji couldn't cook, what could Lord Mello do to him!

After finishing his work at noon, Min Xi took the artistic advertising design to the attic.

Yun Ji looked at the fancy advertising words and said, "Is this artistic style?"

"Yes, it should be similar to our calligraphy. I'll practice it first." Min Xi said.

Yun Ji looked at Min Xi: "You practice? It's not that you don't know the Fulangji language." Although Min Xi spoke Fulangji more fluently than him, he had never written it. Yun Ji assumed that he could only speak it but could not read.

Although Min Xi's Portuguese is not very good, he has been writing English for more than ten years. The Latin letters are interoperable, so he is definitely more fluent than Yun Ji. The artistic style of Portuguese is similar to the cursive style of English. For him, it should not be particularly difficult. He said: "I don't know it, but I can trace it."

Yun Ji said, "Let me do it. I will write after I finish painting "Magu Offering Longevity".

Min Xi said, "Then I'll practice too. I don't know how many boxes I'll have to make in the future, and I can't ask you to write them all. If I can practice well, I can help you a little."

Yun Ji felt that what he said made sense, so he said, "Well, you give it a try."

Min Xi took a goose feather pen in his hand, spread out the paper and began to trace Lord Mello's design. He chose a less fancy one because it would be easier to recognize. After all, he was doing it for advertising, not to show off his calligraphy.

He really couldn't write well at the beginning because he hadn't written Latin for a long time. The goose feather pen was too light and not very convenient to use. In addition, the local paper was not very smooth, so he wrote with difficulty.

After a few times, it gradually became better. Min Xi began to learn to write in artistic style, which was not easy. After all, it was also calligraphy, and it was impossible to learn it by writing it a few times.

Yun Ji was painting quietly, listening to a rustling sound coming from the side. It was the sound of Min Xi practicing calligraphy. He didn't even look at it. People who have just learned calligraphy would surely not write well. If he didn't look at it, he wouldn't put pressure on Min Xi.

After a while, he felt it necessary to remind Min Xi to take a rest, so he turned his head and said, "Ninth brother, stop practicing and go take a rest."

Min Xi looked at the most recent one he wrote. He seemed to have mastered the essence of two or three letters. It looked like it wouldn't take long to practice it well. So he put down his pen and yawned, "Okay, I'll go to sleep and practice next time."

Min Xi walked to the bed and lay down directly. Yun Ji then turned his head to look at Min Xi's calligraphy results. He was shocked when he saw it.

He thought that Min Xi had never written in Flungji and his handwriting would be very unfamiliar. However, to his surprise, Min Xi's Flungji was smoother and more rounded than his own. Except for the first few lines, the following lines were more and more smooth and rounded, not like those written by a novice at all, and the artistic style of the following lines was already quite advanced. Had he really never written Flungji?

He turned around to look at Min Xi, but the other party had closed his eyes and fell asleep. Yun Ji had to swallow the words that were on the tip of his tongue and wait until he woke up before saying it.

When Min Xi woke up, Yun Ji was still painting his picture. He had almost finished drawing the lines of Magu offering longevity. He used the brush he was best at painting. The brush was the rabbit hair brush they made themselves. At first, the brush was not very easy to use. Yun Ji adjusted it many times and it is now usable. Of course, it is far inferior to the brushes made by craftsmen.

Yunji was not used to writing with a hard pen. Except for keeping accounts downstairs with a goose feather pen and painting and writing calligraphy, he used a brush to do everything.

One drawback of writing brushes is that they will become bald after being used for a long time. Min Xi helped him collect some rabbit skins from the market and clothing stores, preparing to make a few more brushes.

Min Xi stretched comfortably: "Seventh Brother, you haven't slept again?"

Yun Ji turned around and looked at him: "No, I don't feel sleepy. Are you awake? I see that your Fulangji handwriting is better than mine."

Min Xi showed an exaggerated expression: "Really? This is my first time writing, so I just followed the sample the Lord gave me."

Yun Ji nodded: "It's true. It was the first time I wrote. My hand was very steady, the strokes were very round, and the size was very even. It didn't look like someone who was writing for the first time."

"I've never learned to write Fulangji characters before. I can only speak." Min Xi had to lie. He looked at Yun Ji's face carefully. I thought he wouldn't be jealous because he wrote better than him.

However, Yun Ji did not show any jealousy, but said: "I said that you are talented, ninth brother. It is a great loss that you cannot go to school. If you can start studying early, you will definitely be a talented person in the world."

Min Xi was embarrassed. He didn't have the talent to rule the world. He waved his hands and said, "Seventh brother, please don't flatter me. I know my own limitations."

Yun Ji shook his head: "No, you don't know." There was regret in his eyes.

Min Xi walked over to him and looked at the painting on the rice paper. The lines were basically drawn: "Seventh Brother, is it time to color it next?"

Yun Ji nodded: "Yes."

"There are still some paints that the Baron gave us last time. If it's not enough, we can go buy some more. But you need to make a few new ones. I'll help you." Min Xi successfully changed the subject.

The pigments that Fernando gave Yunji were naturally pigments for oil paintings, but they were basically mineral powders extracted from minerals and plant pigments, not pigments diluted with turpentine. Yunji only needed to mix these mineral powders and plant powders with water, and they would become the gouache pigments needed for Chinese painting.

Yun Ji said: "Okay, thank you!"

"We are brothers, why are you thanking me?" Min Xi said with a smile.

Although Europe was already highly civilized during this period, it still presented many inconveniences to the two foreigners, Min Xi and Yun Ji, and they had to rely on themselves for many things. Fortunately, it was not a primitive society, but only partially missing.

The first time I made a brush, it was very rough. The second time, with experience, it was much better. I selected the long hair on the back and tail of the rabbit skin, cleaned and straightened it, wrapped it with thread, trimmed it neatly, boiled fish bladder into glue, and glued it into the brush holder. There was no bamboo in Europe, so I could only select branches of suitable size, dig a groove at one end, and then glue the brush head into it.

This is also a very delicate job. It takes one or two days to make a pen. Fortunately, it can still be finished in time for the birthday party.

When Yunji was coloring the "Magu Offering Longevity Picture", Min Xi was already able to write the advertising slogan for the wooden box.

He had practiced it very well. He used a goose feather pen dipped in ink to write on the corner of the lid of the wooden box. The artistic style looked quite beautiful and a little bit out of place on the natural wood box, but it was okay after getting used to it. At least the advertisement was out.

It's not that Min Xi has never thought about opening a snack shop, but now there are few people and he is too busy, so he suppressed this idea. After a while, when reliable people are trained in the kitchen, he can open a snack shop. Writing advertisements for the box now is also to prepare for the future.