The Feast Part One

Chapter 24: The Coolie

That rascal was still quite dignified.

Su Nuan Nuan gave Duan Tingxuan's adaptable attitude a positive evaluation. Then, with a wide smile, she led the lot of people into the kitchen. There she mixed a small tub of bean past with sugar, expertly split 20 or so eggs into yolks and whites.

She gave the Duan Tingxuan an extra large bowl of egg whites with a smile: "From now on, we'll have to depend on your Lordship, otherwise even the combine efforts of myself, Hong Lian, Xiang Yun and Si Ping will not be able to achieve the desired results."

Duan Tingxuan frowned at the extra large bowl and the pair of chopsticks and muttered: "Surely you're not telling me to beat egg whites?"

"This kind of work, who doesn't know how to do? Why must it be me? Nuan Nuan, even if it's some kind of a revenge, can't you come up with something less obvious? Can you not play games like this?"

"Naturally, everyone know how to beat eggs. However, I want these egg whites beaten until they turn into bubbles. Aside from you no one else has this kind of strength." Su Nuan Nuan was staring directly at Duan Tingxuan: "Also, your Lordship please don't use common man's eyes to guess at a noble person's intention and imagine that I still want revenge against you. As mentioned before, if I really had any intentions for revenge, a bottle of rat poison is more than sufficient, why should I waste my effort like this?"

"You... a good man does not butt heads with women." Duan Tingxuan fiercely pointed at Xu Nuan Nuan's nose for a bit, before shuffling to the side to beat the egg whites with a depressed air.

As a long practising martial artist, he's already powerful, coupled with the unspent temper which he could only unleash on the hapless eggs whites. In an instant bubbles began to form, more and more bubbles kept on forming, rising higher and higher in the bowl. Su Nuan Nuan, Hong Lian, Xiang Yun and Si Ping all stared in awe at this performance.

"Is this fine?"

He unhappily proffered the large bowl towards Su Nuan Nuan, and watched as she placed some flour into the bowl. Hmm, should be flour, right? It's all white powdery stuff anyway. As someone who could not tell one grain from another, the prince had actually guessed wrongly. What went into the egg whites wasn't all flour, she also added some starch as well. Naturally, this type of detail wasn't something a prince would be interested in anyway.

When the oil in the pot heated up, even Hong Lian and Xiang Yun were surprised. Neither of them had ever eaten such a curious snack before.

They only saw Su Nuan Nuan scoop up a ladle full of the egg white, flour and starch paste, picked up one of the prepared balls of bean paste, covered it with the egg paste before lightly dropping the little ball into the pot of oil. A white dumpling swelled up to bob on the surface, slowly turning golden in colour.

Su Nuan Nuan's movements were extraordinarily quick, rapidly filling the pot with over ten dumplings. Using a bamboo strainer, she stirred the dumplings, keeping a close eye on them. When she estimated that they were about done, she quickly scooped the lot out and transferred them into a large clean bowl. Then, she looked up at Duan Tingxuan's creased brows and smiled. "Well, they're done. Please try one, fragrant and sweet Snow Soft Bean Paste snacks. Guarantee you'll love them."

"Do you think I'm crazy? Putting one in my mouth now, only if I don't want my tongue any more." Duan Tingxuan rolled his eyes at Su Nuan Nuan. Will this woman die if she misses an opportunity to take a dig at him? Was there some kind of compulsiveness that made her turn against him at every point?

Now that he thought about it seriously, there's a possibility that there's an inner compulsiveness that made a woman's resentment terrifying. Just a few days ago a case from Shun Tian court came in. Just because a man decided to keep a mistress on the side his wife ended up cutting off his vital thing with a pair of scissors. The woman was found guilty, of course, and as punishment was banished from Shun Tian. However, the man was already disabled for life.