Chapter 51: The Old Prince Next Door 4

On the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth month, the Duke’s Household sent over a whole cow, already slaughtered.

The moment she saw it, Su Huandan’s mind filled with dishes like tomato braised beef brisket, spiced beef, red-braised steak, oxtail hotpot, and all kinds of other delicious food.

But this was ancient times, where beef was not something people could eat casually. Cattle nowadays were all draft oxen¹, and the authorities did not allow them to be slaughtered freely.

This was an alternate ancient world, and Su Huandan had no way of telling which earthly dynasty the Great Jing Dynasty corresponded to, so she had no way of knowing whether eating beef was permitted here.

If she didn’t understand, surely the servants in the household would.

“I wonder if this cow was only slaughtered because it got too old to plow the fields. When it’s young and strong, it has to toil in the dirt. When it’s old, it still ends up on the dinner table. If I’m unlucky enough to be reborn as a cow in my next life, that’ll be the end of me. A lifetime of hardship and exhaustion, only to die badly in the end.” Her speech made the cook and the other servants all burst into laughter.

Even Prince Chen, who was next door in the pavilion enjoying the snow with only a wall between them, sprayed out a mouthful of wine.

His personal attendant, the young eunuch Gui Xi, went pale with fright and hurriedly wrapped the extra cloak he had brought more tightly around his prince.

Although his prince was a royal prince, personally raised in the palace by the Empress Dowager, and the current emperor’s paternal uncle², with an extremely noble status, he had been sickly since birth.

Every winter, the prince could not go out and could only walk around the courtyard a little. These past few days, with the plum blossoms in bloom, the small pavilion by the corner of the wall on this side was the best place to admire them. During that time, the prince had often overheard the young widow next door talking with the cook about what delicious things to make.

After hearing it, his own prince had the kitchen make the same dishes. And truly, the food was delicious. Once the meat and vegetables were properly paired, his prince had eaten quite a lot of it. His appetite had grown, he had more strength when walking, and even his complexion looked much rosier.

After his prince developed a better appetite from eating food that suited his taste, he liked coming here to sit even more.

That little speech from the young widow next door had really done a number on his prince today. If he got choked badly from it, heads would be rolling all over the prince’s estate again.

Gui Xi quickly lowered his voice and asked, “Your Highness, should we go back?”

Prince Chen shook his head. He could not go out during winter and was lonely beyond measure. Now the young widow next door was one of his rare amusements. Over these past two months, he had eaten quite a bit of the delicacies she had come up with herself, and today she had made him laugh again.

If the person across the wall had not been a widow, he would have wanted to send someone over with a reward.

Gossip could kill, and Prince Chen found it a great pity as well.

Forget it. If the young widow ran into trouble in the future, he would help her out.

The two of them were really much of a muchness.

He had been poisoned in the womb, and was born weak, lacking kidney essence³. He had lived thirty-three sickly years and never left behind any children. He was not even dead yet, and already several of the emperor nephew’s consorts in the palace were scheming to have their sons adopted into the prince’s estate. They made it sound nice, saying the boys would come care for him, their grand-uncle, but in truth they were only coveting his princely title and private fortune.

His private fortune had been left behind by his father, who had served as Retired Emperor⁴ for ten years. His father had also reigned as emperor for fifty years, and his private wealth was vast beyond measure.

Prince Chen had grown utterly fed up and plainly declared that while he was alive, he would adopt no one. After he died, whoever they wanted to adopt could be adopted. Once he was dead, he would not be able to see it, so it made no difference to him.

Only then had he gained these few years of peace and quiet.

And what about the young widow next door?

She had become a widow as soon as she was married. She was honest and dutiful and only wanted a peaceful life, yet she had nearly been killed by her elder brother-in-law’s concubine.

So tell him, were they not much of a muchness?

One lived no easier than the other.

Prince Chen coughed a few times, then recovered and kept sitting there, listening to what was said next.

He heard the cook next door say cheerfully to the young widow, “Madam, you’ve lived in the inner quarters⁵ all year round, so you don’t know. It is true that draft oxen aren’t allowed to be slaughtered on the open market, but in wealthy and noble households, the court does allow private cattle raising. Once the cattle are raised, half are turned over to the court, and the other half are kept for the family’s own use.”

That phrase, “kept for the family’s own use,” left a lot open to interpretation.

You could eat them if you wanted, or you could keep them as laborers on your family’s farm estate.

Once Su Huandan understood that, she stopped worrying. This beef had definitely been raised by the Duke of Yi Household and was now being sent over for her to eat.

The original owner of this body had only moved out to live on her own this year. Before that, she rarely ate meat, and mostly had chicken, duck, fish, and shrimp. This time was different. The family had split, and for the sake of its reputation, the Duke of Yi Household would not mistreat the original owner. So they had sent over the beef. As for whether she ate it or not, that was her own business.

“Oh ho, they even sent the hide over? And the offal was cleaned before it was delivered too? You all are in for a treat. I came up with a new recipe for braised meat a couple days ago. Let’s first braise the tripe, heart, lungs, intestines, tendon, and head meat all in one pot. As for the rest of the meat, cut it up and put it in the ice cellar. Freeze it first, and we’ll eat it slowly.” As soon as Su Huandan finished speaking, the cook got to work.

An hour later, the fragrance of braised meat from Su Huandan’s home had spread across the whole of Pingkang Street.

That scent was truly overpowering.

The Great Jing Dynasty also had recipes for braising spices. It was said that braised meat had existed since the previous dynasty. But those recipes simply could not compare to Su Huandan’s.

Su Huandan’s spice blend used more than seventy kinds of medicinal herbs and seasonings. Having many ingredients was only part of it, and on top of that, Su Huandan had also added Spiritual Spring Water.

How could the flavor possibly be the same?

This braising spice blend was the very one that had been used for decades in the Siheyuan in her previous life.

As her Eldest Brother-in-law used to say in her previous life, “In this lifetime, for every other dish, all I can say is that I know how to make it. But when it comes to braised meat, I absolutely have it mastered.”

And mastered it he had. His two sons were selling braised meat overseas, and eventually turned it into a chain business.

This was a braising spice recipe that had gone through the modern age of mass information and been unanimously praised with a thumbs-up by vast numbers of customers.

Prince Chen was no longer there. He had gone back to take his afternoon nap, only to wake and be assaulted by that domineering aroma of braised meat.

Twitching his nose, Prince Chen wrapped the quilt around himself, sat cross-legged on the heated kang bed⁶ with only his head sticking out, and said weakly to Gui Xi, “Do you think if I took silver next door, I could buy some braised meat?”

Gui Xi thought to himself, as long as Your Highness wants it, even if it’s the recipe, that young widow would have no choice but to hand it over.

“No, that won’t do. Wouldn’t that be oppressing the common people? That young widow has it hard enough as it is. We absolutely can’t do something like that. I remember there was venison and bear paws among the New Year gifts sent from the palace, right? Go in person. Take a whole deer and a pair of bear paws and trade them for some braised meat.” After Prince Chen said that, Gui Xi looked at his prince with an expression that was hard to describe.

“Your Highness, didn’t you hear it yourself just now? The pot next door is full of braised ox head meat and all kinds of offal. You don’t even eat that stuff.” Gui Xi was truly in a bind.

Prince Chen yawned and glared at Gui Xi with his dead-fish eyes. “That’s because none of you know how to cook. Smell that, hurry up and smell it. How come that little widow next door can make it smell so good? Get going, and while you’re at it, ask her what makes it taste good.”

Gui Xi let out a sigh and hurried off.

Carrying venison and bear paws, along with some apples, pears, and other fruit from the palace that could be stored for a while, he stepped out of the prince’s estate gate and, in front of the little widow’s house, ran into the steward from the house next door to next door, the third steward of the Marquis of Ruyang Estate.

Translator’s Notes