Chapter 927: Chapter 737: There Is No Worst, Only Worse
Yesterday, Zhou Mu set both the Imperial Palace and the Imperial Kitchen of the Traveling Palace on fire, and the people from both royal places unanimously kept it a secret.
But today, His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mu, early in the morning, ran to the Residence of the Left Prime Minister, making such a mess of their kitchen that chickens fluttered and dogs dashed, leaving behind only ruins. Before leaving, His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mu even expressed his dissatisfaction with the Left Prime Minister’s kitchen to a terror-stricken Left Prime Minister!
This… there are no walls that do not let the wind through, and no news that cannot get out, especially when it concerns the Crown Prince and the Left Prime Minister. The news spread like a stone causing a thousand ripples!
The entire civil and military officials of Great Zhou were in a panic. Although the news in the palace was tightly sealed, the urgent dispatch of craftsmen by the Minister of Works yesterday to enter the palace was something they had heard about, and those craftsmen were sent to repair the Imperial Kitchen!
The civil and military officials thought of the destroyed Imperial Kitchen in the palace and then connected it with the burned kitchen of the Residence of the Left Prime Minister. As they pondered, being people of insight, they suddenly had a moment of realization, which sent a cold sweat down their backs!
Godfather, looking at Crown Prince Mu’s stance, he’s practicing his culinary skills to amuse the Southern Emperor. Since the Imperial Kitchen is destroyed, the Heavenly Palace’s Traveling Palace hasn’t been spared, and the Left Prime Minister’s kitchen also met its end. Who will be next?
In an instant, the entire civil and military officials of Great Zhou were filled with alarm, each person prayed fervently that it wouldn’t be their house! Absolutely not their house! Hoping Heaven’s eyes would spare them, that the Crown Prince wouldn’t visit their… kitchen!
“Hmph! Civil officials are as timid as mice!” Yet among these court officials, there were one or two discordant voices. The speaker was a bearded man wearing the official robe of a second-rank Great General, with a broad sword at his waist, looking very imposing.
“Soh Wu, don’t be cocky. If His Royal Highness the Crown Prince does come to your house, you’ll have a taste of it!” The Left Prime Minister, upon hearing this, was so angry that his brows furrowed up and down. His kitchen! He, a dignified Left Prime Minister, had to eat a bowl of tofu pudding from the street for one wen of money for breakfast today. Can you believe it?
This was the kind suggestion of His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mu before borrowing the kitchen!
Could he… could he not eat it?
There was some resentment over breakfast, but when the Left Prime Minister returned home and saw his completely devastated kitchen, and then saw the Crown Prince with a face full of disdain, he immediately knelt down. Not only did he kneel, but he also had to appear grateful and tearful. His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mu meant well. If he hadn’t followed His Highness Prince Mu’s advice to go to the street to drink the delicious tofu pudding from His Highness’ mouth, he probably would have been left hungry!
What a wretched kindness! His kitchen still wasn’t fixed! Today’s lunch was still up in the air!
Thinking of this, the Left Prime Minister felt like crying!
“Hmph! This General is not like you civil officials. Useless like a scholar, all you know is to pray to Heaven and Buddha when things happen!” Soh Wu retorted defiantly at the Left Prime Minister’s words. Fortunately, the court session was over, so he didn’t linger, flicked his sleeves majestically, and turned to leave.
Speaking of Military General Soh Wu, when he returned home from the court, he was greeted with chaos. The soldiers and maids in the General’s Mansion were like headless chickens running wild, which truly startled him. He grabbed a servant to ask the reason and learned that the chaos stemmed from the kitchen. Soh Wu’s face changed, a bad premonition filled his heart, and he immediately disregarded his imposing demeanor as a first-rank officer, his hefty legs striding forward, and rushed to the back kitchen.
Along the way, Soh Wu really wanted to slap a few mouths!
Logically, trouble shouldn’t have come to his mansion, right? First the Imperial Palace, then the Heavenly Palace, and then the Left Prime Minister…
Even if we go down the hierarchy one by one by position, ahead there were the Right Prime Minister and those four elder Grand Secretaries. How did this even jump ranks?
Before Soh Wu even got close to his kitchen, he heard a clanging and clashing sound from inside. That feeling, it was like a battlefield, something he was all too familiar with from his military background!
Thank goodness! Thank goodness! It hasn’t burned!
It is said that the kitchen in the Left Prime Minister’s house burned so thoroughly that even the walls were broken…
“Hiss!”
As soon as Soh Wu pushed open the door, he saw a strip of pork tenderloin shooting rapidly towards his face. Unable to dodge, he took it head-on, his old face instantly scraped a bloody mark!
He was a Military General, with no low martial skills, and yet he got injured by a strip of tenderloin! This… Soh Wu for a moment was dumbfounded, suddenly felt a sense of defeat that there are always people better than oneself.
Then looking again, alright, in front of the kitchen chopping board, there was a purple-gold figure of a Jade Tree of Qiong Branch wielding a Soft Sword, the sword flashing silver light continuously, with enormous force, was fiercely chopping a large slab of pork, with flesh and blood splattering everywhere akin to a disaster scene!
“This official Soh Wu greets the Crown Prince!” Soh Wu sweated; he could finally understand the Left Prime Minister’s feelings.
“Oh dear, General Soh, are you hurt?” Yuan Bao, waiting nearby, heard the sound and turned his head, seeing Soh Wu’s half face covered in blood, ahem, and even hung with a strip of meat…
“People of the military, licking blood from the blade, what’s this little injury!” Zhou Mu, still battling the pork, didn’t even turn his head, coldly spoke, not even sparing Soh Wu a glance, focusing entirely on handling the pork.
Soh Wu, hearing these words, was immediately choked, alright, with the Crown Prince’s words, what could he say? Anything he said would seem pretentious!
Soh Wu knelt on the ground and said nothing more.
“Soh Wu, this Prince wishes to borrow your kitchen, are you willing?” Zhou Mu’s cold voice came again.
Hearing this, Soh Wu’s head lowered even more, “Willing, absolutely willing, Your Highness, please feel free to use it.”
Your honored self has already used it, and now ask whether the host is willing or not, isn’t it a bit late? Also, how is this borrowing, Your honored self is clearly forcefully occupying, becoming the king of the kitchen!
“I suppose you wouldn’t dare not be willing.”
Your comprehension is truly high.
“I am borrowing the kitchen. You’re likely to miss your lunch here. Let me suggest trying the street tofu pudding, it’s quite tasty.”
Again with tofu pudding, indeed General Soh is the second coming of the Left Prime Minister!
Just like this, a dignified military general, under the forceful invasion of Crown Prince Mu, didn’t dare make a peep and was casually dispatched to eat tofu pudding on the street!
However, he had it worse than the Left Prime Minister. The Prime Minister was timid, never even got close to the kitchen, so he escaped unscathed, whereas General Soh didn’t!
This truly is a case of the timid and smart outliving the bold!
The first-rank military officer General Soh, following the Left Prime Minister, was gloriously driven to the street to eat tofu pudding. Such a people-friendly act has become a scene on the streets.
Countless citizens gathered around to watch, pointing fingers at him, making General Soh feel like he was sitting on pins and needles, wishing nothing more than to scurry away in shame.
“General, news just came in that the wedding items for the Crown Prince have been stolen from the Ministry of Rites; His Royal Highness has already rushed over there!” A Mansion Soldier ran to General Soh, who was eating tofu pudding, and whispered in his ear.
Upon hearing this, General Soh’s eyes widened immediately. He slapped the tofu pudding bowl on the table, speaking in disbelief, “So you’re saying the big Buddha is no longer in our mansion?”
“Exactly, absolutely true.” The Mansion Soldier nodded.
“Splendid theft! Wonderful theft! Remarkable theft!” General Soh gleefully slapped his thigh, but then realized he misspoke, quickly feigning a cough, and after paying the tofu pudding with Silver Coin, dashed back to his General’s Mansion.
On the way back, he still thought, well then, His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mu didn’t occupy his kitchen for long after all; it seems his kitchen could be spared from disaster.
With the relief of having survived a calamity, General Soh returned to his mansion, only to find the site where his kitchen once stood completely empty as if struck by lightning, turning into a mummy. It took him a long time to finally swallow and speak, “Where is my kitchen? Where is it?”
“This… that…” An old steward stammered, pointing at the ground with a face full of disbelief, “Isn’t it right here…”
On the ground, the debris and dust were so evident, like a millstone had rolled over…
General Soh’s burly body suddenly trembled, almost fainting from anger.
“General, when His Royal Highness heard that the wedding items were stolen, he was furious. In the blink of an eye, the whole kitchen turned to dust. If I, the old servant, hadn’t run fast enough, the General might have never seen me again…” The old steward thought of the thrilling encounter earlier, shivering with lingering fear. The celestial powers of Prince Mu, indeed, live up to their reputation, truly terrifying! Really terrifying!
“Who wants to see you! I want to see my kitchen!”
Just when the old steward was feeling fortunate, a loud roar came from overhead by his own General.
General Soh stood woodenly in front of the ruins of his kitchen. Yes, that’s it, ruins. The kitchen left behind by His Royal Highness’s ordeal in the Left Prime Minister’s residence could still be deemed a wreck, whereas here, not even the repair procedure was needed—they directly became ruins!
Standing before the ruins of his kitchen, the Wooden Stake-like first-rank military officer General Soh, his lips drooped slightly, his old eyes somewhat cloudy…
Reflecting back on himself, General Soh, having spent half his life in the military, accumulated military merits and official status, living to over forty years old, has never been so desolate before. He can’t even preserve his own kitchen…
He could even foresee that tomorrow in court, the Left Prime Minister and others would surely ridicule him to their fullest ability…
Why is his life so bitter!
Thinking of this, General Soh turned and walked out.
“Master, what about the lunch for the people in the mansion?”
Seeing his own General turn and walk out, the old steward hurriedly followed and asked.
“Set up a stove and cook on the spot; more than half in the mansion have fought alongside me, does this need me to teach? Or do you want to emulate the servants of the Left Prime Minister’s residence and stay hungry?” General Soh didn’t even look back as he marched out, with a tone as unfriendly as it could be.
“Then, General, where are you going?” The old steward asked worriedly.
“I’m going to the National Protectorate Temple to ask for a Great Buddha and offer incense and worship!”
“General has never believed in gods or Buddha, why…” The old steward was stunned upon hearing this.
“I’ve decided to start believing from today. You see, it’s because I didn’t pray to gods or worship Buddha like other officials that His Royal Highness came to my mansion. I suddenly feel that these things are indeed governed by gods and Buddha!” General Soh spoke resolutely and firmly.
Old steward: “…”
Stunned, unable to recover for a long time…