It was completely dark, and a bright moon climbed up the ridge. The stars were shining brightly among the lush branches and green leaves.

Commandery Princess Jingle, who had already carefully dressed up, finally waited for the opportunity and ran out of the Palace.

Today was Girl's Day. In the evening, the gate of the Palace was wide open. The palace maids and eunuchs could take turns to go outside the Palace and go shopping.

On such a beautiful festival, Jingle certainly wanted to spend it with her beloved man.

She ran to the Ninth Prince’s Mansion in one breath. The door was opened by a person she didn't know.

Jingle was not surprised.

The servants of the mansion had been killed. Naturally, the Palace would send some people again.

Knowing that the Commandery Princess came to find the Ninth Prince, the gatekeeper respectfully led her into the flower hall in the front yard.

Soon, the footsteps came from far to near. The silver-haired man, dressed in a dark green smoke cloud pattern cross-linked robe, stood in front of Jingle.

“Do you want to see me about something?”

The man spoke in a very cold tone. He didn't even call her name.

The man's gorgeous face was as cold as a thousand layers of frost.

The girl's pupils trembled with fear, but she didn't think too much. Her beautiful face was always wearing a flattering sweet smile,

"Ninth Uncle, today is the Girl's Day on July 7 of the lunar calendar. In an hour, the Lantern Festival on North Street will begin. You go with me."

The silver-haired man turned sideways with an expressionless face, avoided the girl's coquettish embrace in time, and said indifferently,

"I have something else to do. I can't accompany you tonight."

"Ninth Uncle... What's the matter with you?"

The girl looked at him nervously, puzzled by his extreme attitude of sometimes being gentle and elegant and sometimes being cold.

"Don't you leave yet?"

In a moment of silence, the man seemed to have no patience with her. A sharp light flashed from the bottom of his eyes as he turned to stare at her.

Jingle clasped her hands and finally had a secret resentment in her heart. She pouted helplessly, and her unwilling eyes peeped at the man's face.

Her two sweaty fingers stirred in her sleeves. The girl lowered her head and whispered shyly and nervously,

"Ninth Uncle... His Majesty said he would give an order to ask you to marry me..."

Before she finished, she suddenly couldn't stand steadily.

The girl was dragged by the man to the middle of the yard.

"Listen, I won't marry you."

The man paused and said coldly.

The girl was suddenly stunned. She struggled to get rid of the man. She stood in front of the man and asked eagerly,

"Ninth Uncle, Ninth Uncle, what are you talking about?"

The man pulled the corners of his mouth and smiled coldly and disdainfully,

"I said I wouldn't marry you."

"Why? I... I have dedicated myself to you. How can you abandon me?"

The girl got serious. She held up her arm to the man's broad and strong shoulder and followed him with burning eyes. The bottom of her eyes was red,

"You are not such a person. You are not!"

The silver-haired man gave an agitated meditation, pushed her away, cruelly raised his eyebrows, and said with a bit of evil banter,

"I'm such a person. What can you do? It's funny. I've slept with many women. If they all want me to be responsible, my mansion can't hold them! Ha-ha..."

"You..."

It was a bolt from the blue. The girl looked at the man who was laughing wildly. For a moment, her mind was blank and she burst into tears.

Seeing her wiping her tears, the man was even more bored. He grabbed her by the wrist and threw her directly out of the gate of the mansion.

"Go away. Sleep with me once, and you'll make me responsible. Don't think about it!"

Ignoring the girl's tears, the man signaled to the guard to close the door,

"Remember, if you dare to let her in later, I'll throw you into the leopard cage and feed Heifeng!"

When he blustered through the corridor and passed through several flower-hanging doors, he was stopped by a long figure that suddenly fell from the eaves.

"Why are you here?"

The man's eyes flashed. He looked at the man's black robe in the moonlight and couldn't help admiring,

"Being young is good. Wearing clothes of this color on you is not inferior to me in the old days."

The visitor looked at him in a lively manner. Under the half bright and half dark moon shadow, his face was clearly outlined by the dark color of his clothes, as white and delicate as warm jade.

He glanced at Gu Di and said in a calm voice,

"You shouldn't treat her like this. She's making trouble and willful just because she's too young. Her nature is not bad."

Gu Di inserted his five fingers into the high bundle of silver hair, stroked it carelessly, and sneered,

"Only by letting her give up completely will she stop pestering you."

The man smiled and looked up at the night sky,

"Since you want to disguise him, why don't you marry the Commandery Princess for him?"

Gu Di shook his head and waved his hand again and again,

"I can't do it. I don't like that girl. It's better for you to save her. By the way, what's wrong with you looking for me?"

The visitor's eyes were closed, and the pupil was suddenly cold,

"Something happened in the mansion. I'm worried about the Ninth Prince..."

―

It was in the Yonglu Temple.

At dinner, Gu Yunxi was still busy in the small kitchen of the royal meditation room.

When she left the meditation room, Huanan He was still lying on his side with his head down and looked depressed.

At dusk, when he applied medicine to Gu Yunxi, he suddenly remembered a scene they had lived in the Eastern Depot.

Even remembering this small scene was enough for him and Gu Yunxi to get excited.

After that, he wanted to strike while the iron was hot and think of more things.

He racked his brains to remember. Finally, he was so tired that he was dizzy. His temples were sore, but he couldn't think of anything again.

Gu Yunxi advised him not to be eager for success. After comforting him for a while, she coaxed him to bed, and he closed his eyes.

She put on her blouse and went to the kitchen to cook for him.

The people in the temple were vegetarian. Naturally, there was no meat in the food.

Gu Yunxi knew Huanan He's eating preferences. He liked meat and dessert best.

As the saying went: You couldn't make an omelet without breaking eggs.

It would be difficult for other women who wanted to cook their husbands' favorite foodin the temple without meat. But it was not difficult for Gu Yunxi.

She chose more than a dozen ingredients, such as carrots, potatoes, mushrooms, nostoc commune, black fungus, oil gluten, bean skin and so on.

First, she soaked three bean skins in the warm water.

Then she washed all kinds of vegetables and put them aside for standby.

She ground glutinous rice with a rolling pin, stir-fried it in an iron pot until golden, and set it aside.

After the preparation, Gu Yunxi mixed the sauce with a small amount of soy sauce, powdered sugar, yellow rice wine, and water starch.

She took out the bean skins soaked in water, applied sauce, put a layer of bean skin, and then applied sauce.

In this way, three bean skins were stacked repeatedly. She rolled them into rolls, wrapped and tied them tightly with cotton thread, and steamed them in the drawer for a moment.

During this time, Gu Yunxi took carrots and potatoes, sliced them respectively, and blanched them in hot water.

She cut 18 kinds of vegetables such as mushrooms, Tricholoma, nostoc commune, bamboo shoots, Flammulina velutipes, black fungus, and oil gluten into sections and fried them in the oil until cooked.

She put an appropriate amount of soy sauce, minced ginger, and white sugar, and put them on the plate. This was the "Arhat's Delight" that was often eaten by people in the Buddhist temple.

Taking 18 kinds of vegetables to cook the dish showed the cooker’s respect for the eighteen Arhats in the temple.

As for the second course, she cut the Pleurotus eryngii into thick slices, then cut the cross with a knife, mixed sesame oil and soy sauce, then wrapped them with starch, and fried it until golden.

In another oil pan, she stir-fried the fried sliced Pleurotus eryngii with shredded water bamboo, shredded pepper, and shredded green pepper to form a "Fried Pleurotus Eryngii with Water Bamboo".

At this time, thick white smoke rolled out of the bamboo drawer on the stove, and the smoke was suffused with a very special smell, like meat.

Stewed Bean Skin Rolls with Sauce was finished.

However, this was not a real main dish, but the main ingredient of a special dish.

Uncovering the bamboo drawer, Gu Yunxi took out the steaming porcelain dish from the hazy smoke.

The bean skin roll absorbed the fresh flavor of the sauce under the strong pressure of hot water vapor in the drawer, like a fat and greasy meat dragon lying in the middle of the plate, with juice fragrance overflowing. It could replace streaky pork and had the effect of confusing the false with the true.

Gu Yunxi sniffed at the bean skin roll and closed her eyes intoxicatedly. There were light smile vortexes on her red cheeks.

She immediately cut the cotton rope outside the bean skin roll and cut the bean skin roll obliquely into sections with a knife.

She heated the oil in an iron pot, put in the bean skin sections, and then sprinkled the mushroom soup, minced ginger, yellow rice wine, white sugar, and soy sauce in order.

She simmered until the soup was ready, cooled it slightly, and then put it into a large bowl. She covered the fried glutinous rice with the bean skin and steamed it in the drawer for another 15 minutes.

This dish was called "Immortal Meat", which came from the "The Exquisite Collection of Delicacies". It was a vegetarian food with the bean skin instead of streaky pork. It was especially suitable for Buddhist monks.

Although the materials used in this vegetarian food were simple, the cook's cooking skills were the most exquisite in the two processes of soaking the bean skin and mixing sauce.

First of all, if the water temperature of soaking the bean skin was too cold, the beany smell cannot be completely removed during the soaking process.

If the water temperature was too hot, the bean skin would lose its original toughness in the process of soaking.

The process of mixing sauce was more exquisite. Whether the bean roll could be cooked with meat flavor depended on the sauce.

While the "Immortal Meat" was steamed in the drawer again, Gu Yunxi took fresh lotus roots, removed their skins, cut them into cubes, blanched them with green beans in hot water, fried them in oil, seasoned them with sugar, vinegar, and salt, and sprinkled a small amount of white sesame on the plate, which was "Sweet and Sour Green Lotus Root".

As for the soup, Gu Yunxi used white radish slices and a small amount of black plum, plus rock sugar, green and red silk, and osmanthus sugar brine to make an appetizing Black Plum Radish Soup.

When the food was on the table and a jar of cider was opened, Gu Yunxi and Huanan He sat opposite at the table.

When he first saw the steamed pork in the center, he was surprised and asked Gu Yunxi how she secretly brought the steamed streaky pork into the temple.

Gu Yunxi looked at his eager and serious appearance and couldn't help laughing.

Then she honestly explained that it was vegetarian food mentioned in her mother's book.

After taking several mouthfuls of food dubiously, Huanan He gradually realized the mystery and then praised Gu Yunxi's cooking.