This Isn't a Shura Field (Continued)

Just as Si Ming was thinking this, he saw a beautiful figure rushing towards him, stopping abruptly less than a meter away. It was Si Huaruo.

She asked in a hurried tone, "Si Jingyu announced at the Lineage meeting today that you are not her brother, but an assistant she invited from Su State, and that your true identity is a Mohist Knight Guard. Is this true?"

Si Ming recalled that the other party seemed to have discussed this matter with him. Because dealing with Si Jingzhi was the last task. After overthrowing this corrupt mountain, the Si Clan's affairs would be over. Revealing his identity afterward would not have any impact. Inviting outsiders would certainly cause controversy, but Si Jingyu had just established her authority, and no one dared to jump out and provoke her at this critical juncture.

The matter was discussed before the ancestral worship ceremony, so Si Ming agreed without much consideration. Now, thinking about it, he feels that it has only deepened the misunderstanding.

"Yes, my master owed your manor a favor years ago. He couldn't come because of other matters, so he sent me to lend a hand."

At this point, Si Ming certainly couldn't admit to his newly discovered suspicions and say that he was actually a genuine item disguised as a fake.

"It's actually true..." Si Huaruo snorted twice. "No wonder she was so moved when she offered to give me the position of clan leader. Turns out she set a trap here. How cunning! Even at a time like that, she was still thinking of scheming against me. This person is full of evil. Luckily, I didn't fall for it."

After a moment's thought, Si Ming understood what the so-called trap was.

Once Si Huaruo becomes the clan leader, she can forget about getting married again. Either the man will marry into her family, or she will marry someone from the same clan. If the clan leader of the Si Clan chooses to get married, just like other Aristocratic Clan leaders choose to marry into their families, it will definitely cause a major upheaval, and the Lineage will never agree to it.

Si Ming opened his mouth, wanting to say that he and Si Ming might share the same grandmother and be collateral relatives within three generations, but he immediately realized that the other person didn't seem to care about such things at all. In the family history, there were even half-siblings, so why would they care about a mere collateral relative within three generations?

The Si Clan's bloodline power is water-related, so their descendants often possess Innate Five Elements Physique with water-related attributes. This makes their cultivation of the "Water Moon Precious Mirror" twice as effective with half the effort. For example, Si Jingyu and Si Huaruo both have Water Virtue Physique, and the latter even transformed her water-related constitution into an ice-related one. If they were born in the outside world, they might be cultivated as exceptional talents. However, this kind of constitution is so common in the Water Mirror Manor that everyone is too lazy to mention it. When talking about Si Jingyu, people only think of her Taiyin Dao Body.

The Si Clan has a history of infants suffering from congenital genetic diseases. However, after several generations of research, they discovered a pattern: the stronger the bloodline power, the more it can eliminate genetic diseases. They speculated that the Water Virtue Physique might have the effect of "embracing all rivers". Therefore, they established an unwritten rule that clan members with strong bloodline power must find a spouse within the clan, while clan members with weak bloodline power can marry outsiders.

It's not hard to imagine how unrestrained Aristocratic Clan -clan marriages would be without the scourge of genetic diseases. In the end, the only thing that could stop them would probably be societal ethics and morality, and even that would be a very weak defense.

The only saving grace is that the Si Clan is female-dominated, so they still have a certain level of moral restraint compared to some royal families on Earth. After all, if a man uses force, a woman can only accept her fate unless she commits suicide, but if a woman uses force, a man can grit his teeth and stab himself, while the woman can only scratch the surface.

Si Huaruo asked curiously, "So, Sikong Ming must be your alias. What's your real name?"

Si Ming, "Actually, my surname is also Si. If you remove the character 'Kong,' that's my real name."

"Emptiness means nothingness, so that's another meaning," Si Huaruo nodded, then joked, "You also have the surname Si, perhaps you're a descendant of our Si Clan, a branch that has been passed down through generations."

Si Ming nodded solemnly. "That's possible."

Si Huaruo took it as a joke, chuckled twice, then took out a basket from behind her, uncovered the cloth covering it, and took out a food box, saying, "These are some snacks I made, please try some."

Si Ming looked down and saw that it was a golden-yellow lotus root roll with soybean oil, emitting a fragrant aroma. This could be eaten without chopsticks, so he picked one up with his hand and put it in his mouth, taking a few bites.

"How does it taste? Although my cooking skills are not as good as Zhu Xuanhuai's, I'm still quite confident in this dish."

The original method for making lotus root rolls involved washing and peeling lotus root, cutting it into thin strips, lightly salting it, then mixing it with seasonings such as scallions, ginger, and shiitake mushroom strips, along with a little flour. The rolls were then tightly rolled into a straight strip shape with a clean cloth, wrapped in soybean oil coated with a batter, and cut into cylindrical pieces resembling "wheels" using a sawing technique. Finally, they were deep-fried.

In conclusion, the original dish of lotus root rolls with soybean oil was a purely vegetarian dish, but through continuous improvement by later generations, it has evolved into many variations. For example, the lotus root rolls with soybean oil made by Si Huaruo mix egg liquid into the soybean skin, making the soybean skin smoother. The filling also includes minced meat and yam. Moreover, instead of simply frying it, it is first fried, then steamed, and then drizzled with a thickening sauce, so that it does not taste as hard and crispy as rice crust, but rather has a soft and crispy texture.

More importantly, Si Huaruo doesn't simply wrap the filling inside the bean curd skin like dumplings. Instead, it first makes rolls out of the bean curd skin, and then fills the gaps between each layer of bean curd rolls with the filling. So when you bite into it, it's not a double-layered texture, but a stepped, multi-layered texture, just like playing the piano, with the scale rising layer by layer.

"It tastes really good. It's strange, though, why doesn't something so delicious glow?"

Si Ming took another one and stuffed it into his mouth.

"Hehe, I'm still a little short of making glowing food. After all, to make dishes shine, besides having impeccable skills, you also need a Culinary Heart, similar to a swordsman's Sword Intent. But I only treat cooking as a skill and don't have the idea of pursuing the Culinary Dao, so it's impossible for me to have Culinary Heart," Si Huaruo explained.

Si Ming had a great appetite and ate one dish after another. Just as he reached for the last one, someone else beat him to it.

"Let me try it. Hmm, the heat was clearly not controlled well. One part is burnt, and you didn't pay attention to spreading it evenly while frying. The outside is hard, and the inside is soft. Also, the filling is not right. You should add some vinegar to remove the fishy smell."

Si Jingyu tasted the food while pointing out its shortcomings. "You think you can make 'glowing' delicacies with this level of skill? Ha, who are you underestimating? Go back and hone your cooking skills more, at least don't make the tasters choose to say insincere compliments."

Si Huaruo was so angry her hair stood on end. "I didn't make these snacks for you, and you're eating someone else's food and then talking bad about them! Spit them out right now!"

"Oh, I heard you asking others how it tasted, and I thought you wanted them to evaluate your cooking skills, so you volunteered. But to be honest, with food of this caliber, you shouldn't embarrass yourself by showing it off. Otherwise, it will only backfire. It won't increase goodwill; it will make people think you're trying to commit murder with food."

"Who would want to commit murder with food! Si Jingyu, what are you doing here? Don't get in my way, okay?"

"Oh, of course I'm here to check on my lovely little sister, so I'm specifically pointing out your shortcomings in the hope that you can improve."

"Hey, don't try to be friendly, okay? Are we that close? Since Si Ming isn't your brother, why should I acknowledge you as my sister!"

"Don't say such hurtful things. We used to be best friends who could talk about anything. Now we should put aside our grudges and rekindle our friendship."

"We only have a tragic fate, no feelings between us! Hey, what are you trying to do? Get your filthy hands off Si Ming's shoulders right now!"

"Oh dear, I'm sorry, I got so into acting that I almost forgot he's not my brother," Si Jingyu withdrew her hand, pressed it to her lips, and looked thoughtful. "Hmm, since we're not siblings, that means we can actually form another kind of intimate relationship."

Si Huaruo immediately had a bad feeling and hurriedly reminded her, "Don't forget, you are the clan leader. The clan leader of the Si Clan can never marry an outsider!"

Si Jingyu smiled and said, "Yes, the head of the Si Clan cannot marry, but there's no rule that the young head of the Si Clan cannot marry."

Si Huaruo dropped open in astonishment. "So that's why you refused to take over as clan leader after the ceremony... Impossible! Everyone believes you are the next clan leader and will not allow you to act recklessly in this matter."

"It's all up to human effort. At worst, we can amend the family rules. It's not like we haven't done it before. Once you open a crack in something, it's much easier to widen the fissure. Maybe the Si Clan will produce a male patriarch in the future," Si Jingyu said meaningfully.

At this moment, Si Huaruo recalled many people's evaluations of Si Jingyu. This person was good at using a series of schemes. Each step seemed insignificant, but in fact, they were all very meaningful and interconnected. Often, it was only after the result came out that people would realize that she had already laid the groundwork beforehand.

Si Huaruo gritted her teeth and said, "I won't let you succeed!"

She pondered whether she should leverage her mother's influence to become a staunch opposition party member and closely monitor every policy of the ruling party.

Si Ming watched from the sidelines with a headache, wondering whether he should privately reveal the speculation about Si Huaruo Ruo's true identity to Si Jingyu. If the speculation was true, he could barely accept it, but his own sister had indeed crossed some lines.

Most importantly, what if there's a crackdown?

Just then, a maid came up to report, but was startled by the tense atmosphere between Si Huaruo and Si Jingyu.

"Don't worry about it, just tell me what's wrong."

"It's like this, a guest has arrived outside, claiming to be a friend of Si Ming, and has come specifically to see you."