Why am I, a cook, always involved in cases?

A ripple of inquiry arose in Lin Zhiruo's heart. She walked lightly to the side of the cook and witnessed her sudden decadence.

She slumped heavily into the chair, like a lifeless body, with her head lowered, and the letter full of unfortunate news was carelessly thrown on the table.

The few short words in the letter struck her heart like a heavy hammer:

"I'm afraid my family will lose the honor of being a royal craftsman."

Just a few days ago, she boasted to Lin Zhiruo that her family's paper was highly favored by the court and was extremely honored.

"How could the situation take such a sudden turn for the worse? Didn't we just confidently say we could produce more paper to continue our success?"

The title of royal craftsman is undoubtedly a huge boost to sales.

Those exquisite high-grade papers have always been the favorites of the upper class. How could they not be tempted by the title of royal craftsman?

"The Imperial Physician once said that paper could be mass-produced. Could it be that he discovered the secret to simplifying the process?"

Lin Zhiruo tilted her head, her fingers gently stroking the slightly hard texture of the letter paper, with a confused glint in her eyes.

"We never take shortcuts in our family," the cook said bitterly. Her sister mentioned in the letter that the family had just bought a cow, and her words were full of pride. It seemed that she planned to use the cow to participate in the papermaking work, replacing human power with cow power, which might make the papermaking process smoother.

"Just looking at the paper, I find it hard to believe it could be of the quality required to be presented to the palace."

Lin Zhiruo gently shook the letter received by the cook. The paper was rough and would break if it got wet. The surface was fuzzy, making the handwriting written with a brush unclear, as if it was a mockery of their family's papermaking skills.

The silent cook seemed to realize the insufficiency of the paper.

"...I really don't know what to do with this sudden change."

She buried her head deeply in the table, as if trying to escape this cruel reality.

Lin Zhiruo thought to herself that now was not the time to be immersed in sadness. She carefully examined the letter, trying to find some clues from it.

The coarse paper on the market often contains a lot of impurities, and the grass fibers are processed very roughly. This is probably because they are rushed into papermaking without being finely crushed, which results in the pulp not being able to solidify well and eventually turning into fragments.

However, the fibers of this piece of paper seem to be pounded quite evenly, and the thickness is just right. It can be seen that a lot of care was taken when retrieving the paper.

But even so, its surface was still fuzzy and the four corners would crack with a slight pull.

Lin Zhiruo tilted her head again and read the contents of the letter carefully.

The letter stated that the papermaking process was the same as before and the raw materials were exactly the same as before.

In the letter, the younger sister seemed at a loss and asked her elder sister to come up with a solution. Unfortunately, the elder sister, who had lost half of her masculinity, seemed to be in a panic at this moment.

“How exactly is traditional papermaking done?”

After Lin Zhiruo wiped the medicine bowl spotlessly clean, she put it back on the shelf and placed the kettle on the stove, ready to take a short break.

"It's just like any other papermaking method, except that we have our own unique secret recipe for crushing the raw materials and preparing the pulp. I can't tell you about it."

(How can such a thing be easily revealed to others?)

Lin Zhiruo took the teapot from the shelf while thinking.

She was thinking about what kind of tea to brew, and while searching, she found kudzu powder.

She took it out, added it to the teacup, and put the kettle back on the fire to boil water.

“Does papermaking have special requirements for water quality?”

"That's natural. To ensure the pulp solidifies properly, we specially drew water from the spring to adjust the temperature. As for the next step, that's a secret."

Lin Zhiruo secretly complained in her heart, "She is indeed a cook who is not doing her job properly", but she still put an extra teacup on the table.

She poured boiling hot water into the cup and stirred it vigorously with a teaspoon before it cooled down, quickly creating a thick liquid.

The Kudzu soup is done.

"Is the pulp made from rice washing water or something like that?"

"No, we follow the orthodox method and use flour to dissolve it, otherwise it will be difficult to solidify."

After saying that, the cook suddenly covered her mouth, as if she realized that she had let the cat out of the bag.

Lin Zhiruo didn't care whether she used rice washing water or flour. She placed the prepared kudzu soup in front of the cook.

"Then where do the imperial physicians keep their cattle?" she asked curiously.

"How would I know that?"

The cook looked at the kudzu soup with a bewildered look on her face, as if she didn't understand why Lin Zhiruo suddenly asked this question, but she still picked up the cup and started to taste it.

Kudzu soup is thick and sticky, sticking to the teacup and making it difficult to drink.

"Little girl, the amount of Kudzu soup you gave me seems a bit too much. You can't finish it."

After hearing the cook's complaint, Lin Zhiruo handed her the teaspoon.

"Excuse me, I will teach you how to drink it more conveniently. Could you please do as I say?"

"How do we do this?"

Lin Zhiruo gently held the teaspoon in her mouth, licked it, then inserted it into the teacup and stirred it, then repeated this action several times.

"This seems a bit indecent."

The cook frowned but still did as she was told.

She repeatedly put the teaspoon into her mouth and stirred the kudzu soup, and gradually, she seemed to see the changes.

"Well, it's definitely not that thick anymore."

"right?"

“It’s like water.”

The cook looked at Lin Zhiruo with admiration and asked:

"Kudzu soup is quite similar to paper mache, isn't it?"

"It does look a bit like that. If saliva gets mixed in, the pulp might even lose its consistency."

"I see."

The cook stood with her mouth open in shock, as if she had just suddenly realized something.

"What turns out to be that?"

The slow-witted cook tilted her head while stirring the teacup.

Lin Zhiruo thought to herself, "I've already made it so clear."

But she still didn't seem to fully understand, so she decided to just give her one more hint.

“There’s a lot of saliva in a cow’s mouth, right?”

"Now that you put it that way, it's true."

"How about the doctor confirm where the cows are drinking water? Just to be on the safe side."

Lin Zhiruo thought to herself, "I won't say any more," so she packed up the teacup and decided to return to the Glazed Palace early.

The cook seemed to finally realize something. After hurriedly writing a few words on the paper, she left the imperial kitchen in a hurry to mail the letter.

Lin Zhiruo was thinking about what to do after the cleaning was finished.

Things in the world are often like this, as if there is an arrangement in the dark, and troubles follow one after another.