Rumble, rumble...
Four carriages laden with large wooden barrels swayed down the long street, gradually reaching the back alley of Paulownia Street and stopping outside the kitchens of Four Directions Studio.
Dressed as a wandering swordswoman with a bamboo hat on her head, Zhe Yunli lay prone atop a building and looked down into the sprawling kitchen courtyard. Steam billowed inside, and an open-air stove stood in the middle, roasting a lamb. An apprentice brushed sauce onto it, roasting it until it glistened with fat, crisp outside and tender within...
"Cheep!!!"
Niao Niao stared, eyes fixed, its little feet disobediently carrying it toward the sight.
Zhe Yunli hurriedly pressed Niao Niao's head down and carefully surveyed the kitchen, which might conceal crouching tigers and hidden dragons. She spotted a white-bearded old man emerging from a room with a tobacco pipe and approaching the carriages.
"Why did you buy so much?"
"Well, a big shipment came in, and the seller was eager to get it off his hands. The price was low-practically giving it away..."
"Never heard that cheap goods are no good? This goes into our guests' mouths. How could you pick the cheap stuff?"
"I checked it. It's from Sauce King Workshop in Yanzhou. The quality's excellent..."
The white-bearded old man looked quite fierce. He had the workers lift the tarpaulin, picked an unopened barrel at random, pried off its lid, then took out a brick of sauce and weighed it in his hand.
"Hah! It really is from Sauce King Workshop... Cut it open and see whether there's yellow mud wrapped inside. Those Yanzhou merchants have black hearts..."
"Right away..."
Seeing the kitchen workers actually cut the sauce brick open, Zhe Yunli felt bewildered. What happened next made her eyes jolt.
Once the two workers split the