The entrance to the Marquis of An Guo’s residence.
Zheng Fu got off the carriage and hurried into the palace, going all the way to the courtyard of Shizi Zheng Fan.
The Marquis of An Guo is a hereditary title, and the old Marquis of An Guo only has one son, so he asked him to be his son long ago.
With his title and a sister who was a concubine in the palace, Zheng Fan grew up to be a playboy, spending his days drinking and drinking until he married his wife at the age of 15.
The sound of Zheng Fan and his concubine’s laughter came from inside the house.
Zheng Fu stood in the courtyard, “Shizi.”
There was a pause in the voice inside the house, then Zheng Fan’s voice came out, “Come in!”
Zheng Fu went in with his head bowed.
Zheng Fan gestured for his concubine to go out and asked after a slow sip of wine, “How was it?”
“The old man is back.”
Zheng Fan’s hand holding his wine glass gave a beat, “What did you say?”
Zheng Fu raised his voice slightly, “Old Mister is back, I met Xu Liang when I went to the Li family and asked him myself.”
Zheng Fan put his wine cup down heavily on the table, got up and walked back and forth in the house a few times, glancing at the sky outside, his father had not yet returned at this time, he immediately headed out, “Prepare the carriage, I will go to the Grand Prince’s residence.”
……
Song Wangyue took out a set of keys from the box, closed the box, put it back in the cupboard and left the door of the house.
Xu Liang was already waiting there, and when he saw her come out, he lifted the curtain and waited for Song Wan Yue to get into the carriage, then put away the footstool and put it on the carriage, he sat on the front carriage board and came to the door of the Li family again.
As soon as the carriage stopped, the underlings who were quietly looking out through the doorway immediately opened the door, Xu Liang jumped down from the carriage and asked the underlings, “Is everything packed?”
The servant nodded busily and added, “Master’s medicine has also been drunk.”
“It’s ready to go.”
The subordinate turned and darted off to report, and in a short while, the courtyard resounded with messy footsteps heading for the backyard, and after another moment, the subordinate ran back, “Housekeeper Xu, Master and the others have gone out through the corner door.”
Xu Liang got into the carriage and told the coachman to turn around.
When they were far away, the subordinate closed the door from the inside, bolted the gate and ran quickly towards the backyard.
Song Wangyue’s carriage was in front and the Li family carriage was behind, following them to the front of the mansion in the southern city.
Song Wangyue didn’t get off the carriage and took out the key and handed it to Xu Liang, “I’ll leave it to you, I’ll go over to the pastry shop, when they’ve settled down you go over to me.”
Xu Liang took the key in response.
Song Wangyue told the coachman to turn the horse around and go to the pastry shop.
This mansion was the furthest away from the pastry shop, two streets away.
When the carriage arrived at the pastry shop and stopped, Song Wan Yue lifted the curtain and narrowed her eyes as she looked at the long queues that used to form in front of the door, now there were only twenty to thirty people queuing.
The carriage driver moved the footstool and put it in place, Song Wan Yue had just set one foot on it when the pastry seller at the door saw it and hurriedly shouted, “Miss Song is here!”
The shout was so loud that not only did everyone in the pastry shop hear it, but even Xiao Yao, who was at the back of the shop, heard it and hurriedly put down her account book to welcome her, asking in surprise, “Sister Yue’er, when did you get here?”
“Just arrived.”
After answering, Song Wan Yue pointed outside, “What’s going on?”
The smile on Xiao Yao’s face receded and she told her as she took her hand and walked inside, “A pastry shop has also opened on the street a block away, the pastries inside are similar to ours, but the price is much cheaper than ours, people have gone there, those who stayed are those who ordered birthday cakes, the other pastries are hardly sold.”
“Even Snowmist they have?”
Xiao Yao nodded her head.
Song Wangyue narrowed her eyes, Xue Mei Niang was something that only existed in the previous world, the ingredients used were not said to be complicated, but the average person couldn’t make it in a short period of time.
When she saw that she didn’t say anything, Xiao Yao blamed herself a little. As soon as the shop over there opened, she sent someone to check it out and learnt that the cakes sold there were almost the same as the ones in her own shop, she knew it was no good, but there was nothing she could do but to urge the Huangcao couple to make some new cakes.
The two of them entered the house and took their seats, and Qing’er brought up tea and placed it in front of Song Wangyue.
“You go and call Master Yellow Cake to come.”
When he saw Song Wan Yue, his mouth opened as if he wanted to say something, but after glancing at Xiao Yao next to him, he swallowed his words again.
He didn’t know if Song Wangyue had told her family about what had happened in the capital last year, but if she hadn’t, he was afraid of causing trouble for Song Wangyue if he spoke up at this time.
Seeing his desire to speak, Song Wangyue asked, “Do you suspect that someone has stolen the recipe?”
Huang Gao nodded his head repeatedly and said, “There is milk in Xue Mei Niang’s recipe, and ordinary people would never think of using it.”
Xiao Yao slightly froze, this was something Huang Gao had never said to her before.
“Do you have anyone you suspect?”
Huang Gao shook his head, he had been secretly observing the people in the shop for the past ten days since the shop over there had opened, and none of them had a different colour.
Song Wangyue took a sip of tea.
Xiao Yao returned to her senses and wanted to ask Huang Gao why he hadn’t said this to her, but when the words came to her lips, she felt that it was inappropriate and was about to swallow them back when Huang Gao had already apologised to her with an arch of his hand, “Please don’t blame Miss Xiao, it’s not that I don’t want to tell you, it’s just that there’s a reason for this and I can’t say it without Miss Song’s permission.”
Xiao Yao understood, and looked at Song Wan Yue.
She really didn’t think of it in that way, all these people in the shop were members of the Ding Guo Mansion and all had deeds of sale, the possibility of stealing the recipe was very low, only the Huang Gao couple didn’t have a deed, but the two of them were personally invited by Yue’er, they wouldn’t have different intentions.
Song Wan Yue put down her tea and got up, and went to the pastry shop in front of her. The people in the shop saluted when they saw her, and none of them looked flustered.
Song Wan Yue smiled and said, “After so many days of work, you all haven’t had a break either, so it’s a good time to take advantage of the fact that the shop is not busy now and stagger your rest, so each of you will have two days off.”
All of them looked joyful.
Song Wangyue went back to the back.
Xiao Yao asked eagerly, “Can you see anything?”
Song Wangyue shook her head.
“Then do you want me to ……”
“There’s no rush.”
“How can there be no rush? What if there really is a mole and he steals the recipe for the birthday cake?”
This was the only sign in the shop now, and if someone stole it, they wouldn’t have to open the shop.
“No.”
Xiao Yao then remembered that the final process of the cake had always been made by Huang personally, also in a separate room, where no one was allowed to approach on weekdays.
Xiao Yao let out a long sigh of relief, and self-reproach surfaced on her face, “Yue’er, it was my carelessness.”
Song Wan Yue reassured her, “Boss Huang was just guessing, it may not be that someone really leaked the recipe, or it could be that someone had hired a powerful master and bought our pastries and developed them.”
After that, the topic changed and she asked, “By the way, how is my big brother now? No one is giving him a hard time, right?”