The Gentlemen's Alliance and the Essence of the Five Grains

The moonlight shines obliquely as I enter.

Lights were lit in the kitchen.

Lady Wenjing yawned softly and scooped half a ladle of water from the stove.

The water I boiled last night has been keeping warm on the stove, and it's still hot. Perfect for washing up.

She usually only sleeps for two hours every night before getting up to prepare the pastries for the day.

As dawn breaks, the kitchen staff and cooks all start work, and the kitchen becomes extremely busy as everyone prepares the day's meals.

They were busy until the afternoon, past lunchtime, when Dao Baishu stage to tell stories.

Lady Wenjing has some free time, so she'll go and sleep for another two hours.

All in all, she sleeps quite a bit each day.

After getting used to this schedule, even if she gets up in the early hours of the morning, she only feels slightly tired and not too exhausted.

After washing up, I gradually felt my spirits lifted.

Lady Wenjing tied up her sleeves, poured glutinous rice flour into a bowl, mixed it with warm water, and added a little sugarcane juice.

There are five wooden basins. One contains glutinous rice balls in their original color, while the other four are colored with peach blossoms, green sage leaves, banana flowers, and bean flour, respectively.

Pastries in restaurants have always been a signature dish.

The kitchen helpers can easily prepare dishes like roasted mutton and green rice.

The best way to make pastries is for Lady Wenjing to do it herself.

After kneading several glutinous rice balls, Lady Wenjing covered the basin with a damp gauze, lit an incense stick, and started timing.

During this break, she took half a bowl of sugarcane juice from the stove, mixed it with some warm water, and drank it slowly.

Her grandfather died early, and he was already quite ill, which was bad enough.

Her parents passed away one after the other in the previous two years, both due to gastrointestinal problems.

The couple owned a restaurant and made it increasingly successful. They hired helpers and transformed the restaurant into a large restaurant.

As a result, the person who owned the restaurant never ate properly when he was young, and in his old age, he lost his appetite for everything, became sickly, and died.

During those years, her mother often reminded her to pay attention to her diet, and not to eat too much when she got up in the early morning, but to eat something nonetheless.

Can sugarcane juice be used to brew wine?

Lady Wenjing sat by the stove, she suddenly remembered, "I think I heard Old Man Dao mention a poet named Zhang Zai from the Western Jin Dynasty who wrote about wine made from sugarcane in his poems."

"Unfortunately, Old Man Dao probably doesn't know the details."

Lady Wenjing picked up the bowl and took a big gulp. "Then I'll figure it out myself. When I brew it, I'll give that blind man a real shock."

Snap!

Lady Wenjing heard the sound of the white cane hitting the ground and turned her head to look.

Suddenly, Chu Tianshu and the Blind Cheng appeared outside the kitchen.

These two people walk without making a sound.

Did he approach and deliberately tap his white cane to remind me?

A thought flashed through Lady Wenjing's mind, and she smiled as she stood up, saying, "Why are you two up so early?"

"I just went out and killed a few people."

Chu Tianshu pointed at the Blind Cheng and said, "He discovered a group of people with ill intentions during the day, dealt with them at night, and found out through interrogation that those people were specifically targeting Lady Wenjing."

"So I wanted to ask you, does your family have any major enemies in the past?"

Lady Wenjing was slightly taken aback.

Even the Blind Cheng turned his face towards Chu Tianshu.

Why are you so blunt, talking about killing someone right off the bat?

I should have said it myself!

That's right.

Blind Cheng Man added, "Those people are from the Yuwen Lineage, a well-known family in the martial arts world of the Great Tang Dynasty. I already have an old grudge against them, so I'm being extra careful."

"These people are ruthless. They've come a long way, they certainly won't give up after just one failure."

"You need to think carefully. If you were unintentionally involved in any incident, the sooner you figure out the root cause, the better you can prevent and resolve it."

Lady Wenjing, hands on her hips, fell into deep thought.

The incense sticks in the corner burned lower and lower until the last bit of incense fell into the ash.

Lady Wenjing came to her senses.

"Have you finished lighting the incense?"

She returned to the wooden basins, took out a wooden mold, pinched off pieces of glutinous rice flour and filled them into the mold. Once it was full, she quickly poured it into the steamer, patted and shook it out.

The Blind Cheng said, "Don't panic, you can think about it slowly."

"I'm not panicking."

Lady Wenjing smiled and turned around, "Making pastries requires quick hands and feet, so your voice might sound a bit chaotic."

She looked down at the glutinous rice ball, her hands still moving, and said...

"You are always timid and unwilling to get close to me. Do you think that I, a commoner, can't really take a calm look at the life of you Jianghu people?"

"Actually, before this place became the royal city, it wasn't this peaceful. The atmosphere of swordsmen dueling was very strong both inside and outside the city."

"I've seen quite a few fresh corpses since I was a child, and I've personally washed the floor more than two or three times."

Although Lady Wenjing had her head down, she was clearly smiling.

"The first time you took action inside the building was by stopping two swordsmen who wanted to duel here, preventing them from ruining the place."

"So, you should have expected things to be unsettled here, yet you're treating me differently. Is this just a case of being too concerned to think clearly?"

The Blind Cheng's hands tensed slightly, then relaxed, and he sighed, "Let's get down to business."

Lady Wenjing suddenly looked up at him.

That glance, with its clear almond-shaped eyes, possessed a captivating power.

The gentle and kind feeling she usually had seemed to ferment at a certain point just now, revealing her true nature and transforming into a determined and spirited charm.

Chu Tianshu watched the play from the sidelines, finding it quite interesting.

Even Blind Cheng, casual turn of his body and a slash could kill three or four Lady Wenjing.

But at this moment, the sense of power and weakness between the two of them is completely reversed.

"That's why I'm saying all this first, because I can't think of anything else important."

Lady Wenjing had already looked away, stacked the steamers one by one, moved them into the large pot, and turned to sit on the small stool behind the earthen stove.

When flint and steel collide, first light the grass, then burn the firewood.

After setting up a few pieces of firewood, she clapped her hands and came out.

"I really can't imagine what I could have gotten myself involved in recently that would make Lineage from the Great Tang come all this way to kill me."

"If it's an old grudge, then it shouldn't be."

The Lady Wenjing said calmly, "My grandfather's generation was captured by the former king of Nanzhao. Like other Tang People who were captured, they were forcibly relocated to various parts of Kingdom of Nanzhao."

"It wasn't until my parents' generation that the restaurant gradually became successful."

"We commoners would never have any deep-seated grudges with the Great Tang."

Chu Tianshu pondered, "That's really strange."

"If the murderous intent doesn't stem from old grudges or recent events that might have involved them, then it could be due to... their identity."

Chu Tianshu raised a question, "After your family came to Nanzhao, besides opening a restaurant, did you obtain any other status?"

Lady Wenjing's expression shifted. "Back when the six Zhao kingdoms were unified, this city was already one of the leading cities in the Kingdom of Nanzhao, and Tang People had already migrated here."

"They weren't used to the local customs and traditions back then, so they needed to stick together and help each other, and they formed a ' Gentlemen's Alliance '."

"As heaven's movement is ever vigorous, so should a gentleman constantly strive for self-improvement; as earth's nature is receptive, so should a gentleman cultivate virtue and bear all things with magnanimity."

"Later, the former king of Nanzhao repeatedly plundered the Tang People. All the Tang People who migrated here received some protection from the Gentlemen's Alliance and thus joined it."

Lady Wenjing counted on her fingers, "Our family has been involved for over thirty years."

"The Gentlemen's Alliance holds an annual fundraising event, and the donated money is carefully planned and recorded to help members' families who are truly in need."

"My family restaurant was harassed by some people in the early years, but thanks to the intervention of the Gentlemen's Alliance, the business prospered, and we donated a lot of money every year. Now I've also earned a title as an elder in the association."

Upon hearing this, Chu Tianshu and Blind Cheng immediately realized that this must be the reason why Lady Wenjing was being targeted by the Yuwen Family.

"The Gentlemen's Alliance is supposed to help the Tang People have migrated here. Why would a Lineage from the Great Tang attack us?"

Lady Wenjing asked, puzzled, "Do they want to control the Gentlemen's Alliance and eliminate any obstacles?"

"But that shouldn't be the case. My status as a senior member of the association is just that of a donor; it sounds good, but I've never held any real power."

Blind Cheng said, "It's better to be safe than sorry. Have someone remind the Gentlemen's Alliance members."

Lady Wenjing laughed and said, "Those who truly hold power in the Gentlemen's Alliance have actually all obtained some official position in Nanzhao."

"After the king moved the capital here, they were essentially living within the royal city. As their status rose, they recruited swordsmen and guards, making their defenses much tighter than mine. It's not so easy to be assassinated here."

Even so, when the kitchen helpers arrived one after another, Lady Wenjing sent a few people away, each carrying a box of pastries, to visit the elders of the Gentlemen's Alliance on her behalf as a reminder.

When Chu Tianshu saw the pastries coming out of the steamer, he couldn't help but go over and take two plates.

The kitchen was already bustling with activity.

He and the Blind Cheng went to the main hall, got some plain water and pastries, and enjoyed them.

There is a lot of sugarcane in Nanzhao, but the sugarcane juice here is not very sweet. Moreover, the taste of boiled sugarcane juice is actually a bit strange and not as sweet as eating it raw.

Lady Wenjing had a very good grasp of stirring, kneading, and controlling the heat.

The cooking time for glutinous rice cakes, both on and off the stove, and the heat in the stove must be carefully controlled. Too little heat will result in a slightly bitter taste, while too much heat will make the cakes overly sweet and give them a musty, rusty flavor.

Only by controlling the heat perfectly can the natural sweetness and aroma of glutinous rice be brought out.

It blends with the flavor of sugarcane juice, compensating for each other's shortcomings.

Chu Tianshu had ordered pastries several times in the past few days, all of which had been cooled down. They were sweet and slightly chewy.

When eaten hot, the aroma is stronger and the texture is softer and more glutinous, but after eating it, your mouth won't feel cloyingly sweet; it has a plant-like aroma similar to green sugarcane.

"Good!"

With each piece of cake Chu Tianshu ate, he would drink a large gulp of water. The hot cake and the slightly hot water gave him a feeling of clarity and well-being.

It was an experience similar to, yet different from, the exhilarating feeling of eating spicy food or meat.

Breakfast should be light, with refined grains and hot water.

Chu Tianshu felt the food moving through his stomach, feeling his intestines as flexible as his fingers.

If he wanted, he could digest everything he had just eaten in a short time.

However, it can also control its digestive ability, slowly breaking down and absorbing nutrients gently and peacefully.

If he chooses the former, he won't feel any difference whether he eats meat or vegetables, since he digests everything whole and absorbs it rapidly.

However, if you choose the latter, because the slow absorption process is so subtle, only grains offer the most comfortable experience, without the dryness of meat or the coldness of vegetables.

"I see. Those who eat grains are wise and skillful. They have truly reached the realm of Eating Makes an Immortal. Controlling their digestive abilities and not eating meat or vegetables is relatively easy for them, but they still have a certain dependence on grains."

Therefore, the highest requirement for fasting among ancient practitioners was described using the term "Bigu" (辟谷).

Chu Tianshu ate another piece of peach-colored pastry, then closed his eyes and seemed to be lost in thought.

Eating Makes an Immortal, the ultimate achievement!

(End of this chapter)