Adorable Food Goddess

They both stopped short.

Ye Jiayao moved first and handed the box that contained the Wish Jade to him. “This looks so precious, I don’t think I should’ve taken it.”

Xia Chunyu opened the box and admired the stone inside. “Your box doesn’t match the Wish Jade. I will get you a better one tomorrow.”

“That’s just a temporary box because I was afraid I’d break it,” Ye Jiayao explained.

“Look after it well, alright? This thing is rare. The whole Huai Song only has one.”

“Of course, I’ll take care of it. But what do I do if a thief breaks into my house?” Ye Jiayao worried. She has two treasures now, the Crown Prince’s calligraphy and the Wish Jade.  Oh, scratch that!  She has the recipes she wrote and the 600 silvers she earned. That was all that she had as well as her first bucket of gold.

There were no safe boxes these days. She couldn’t even build a secret closet because she doesn’t own the house she’s living in.

“Uncle Jiang and Jiang Li are good at making gears. You should ask them for help,” Xia Chunyu suggested.

Ye Jiayao perked up. He’s right. She could ask them to make a box that’d release poisonous gas or arrows if anyone tries to steal it.

“It is your turn now,” Ye Jiayao told him.

Xia Chunyu feigned innocence. “Turn for what?”

Ye Jiayao rolled her eyes at him. “Don’t tell me that you asked Little Jing to invite Assistant Minister Mu to the banquet because you’re just such good friends with him.”

Xia Chunyu’s lips twitched. Yaoyao really was smart. “That servant Lee was kicked out by your stepmother. I learned many things from her. For example, I learned that Wei Liujiang had a part in your abduction. I also knew that your second sister is very vain and showy. She wouldn’t miss the chance to show up at a high profile party, so I set this up.”

Ye Jiayao was moved. Finding a servant who was kicked out from the Ye household all the way in Yang Zhou must’ve cost a lot of effort! It seemed that he’s been at this for a long time.

“So you also arranged Lee’s disappearance?” Ye Jiayao asked rhetorically. She already knew the answer. With Chunyu’s power and connection with the Helian Royal Mansion, it was easy to get a person in and out soundlessly.

Xia Chunyu looked at her with a happy smile. “Just wait, the good part is yet to come.”

The next day, the talk of Jin Ling City’s was Heavenly Residence’s ice cream mooncake.

The ice cream mooncake’s debut yesterday was huge. Everyone in the banquet only had one, and it was not enough for them. No one had ever seen such novel and delicious dessert that they were clamoring for more.

So the next morning, people came to Heavenly Residence to get the famous ice cream mooncake.

Ye Jiayao had anticipated this so she prepared a sign to be put at the door.

Ice cream mooncake is five silvers each. Everyone can only buy five pieces. We’ll start to sell it at 1 p.m. onwards until it’s sold out. The ice cream mooncakes need to be kept in cold storage, so if you don’t have an icebox at home, we sell them for 10 silvers each.

Ye Jiayao was happy about the deal with the icebox. When Shopkeeper Li came in the morning, he told her to sell the ice cubes for herself. He even suggested to price it at 10 silvers each.

Ye Jiayao was touched. Shopkeeper Li really was a good guy!

“Five silvers each? That’s too much!”

“That’s so expensive. My two months salary is worth one bite.”

“There really are so many rich people nowadays. We poor people are simply satisfied with rice.”

“Damn, limited purchase. Will it really kill you to make a few more?”

“Don’t you want to make more money, dumbass…”

“What do you know? Good products are in short supply.”

“It makes people like us, who run errands, tired. Cold drinks made us run around so much, and now the mooncake? I’d probably have to line up here before dawn.”

“It would be too late before dawn. I am going to sleep over here tonight.”

A group of people gathered at Heavenly Residence’s door, complaining about the price and the hassle, but no one left. They just found a cool place to sit down and waited. They were afraid that they’d miss the queue if they left. Most of them were ordered by their masters to buy this famous ice cream mooncake.

In the kitchen, Ye Jiayao and the others were working hard on making the mooncakes.

“Li Yao, people outside have objections about the limited purchase,” Manager Qian told her.

Ye Jiayao was compressing the material and said off-handedly, “Limited purchase is just a trick. Only rich people could afford this and I’m certain that five pieces will not be enough for them. The harder it is to buy, the more valuable it’d seem.”

Manager Qian laughed. “That’s reasonable, but I think 500 would not be enough.”

“Then they’ll just have to come again tomorrow.”

She only made a limited filling for the ice cream and could not make more. She also didn’t want to tell anyone else how to make ice cream so she had to do it by herself at night and have Jiang Li bring it over when it was done.

As expected, the 500 ice cream mooncakes they made were sold within 30 minutes. They also sold about 80 iceboxes.

The sales of mooncakes were through the roof. The customers who came to eat also increased drastically. All the tables were full during lunch and the compartments were booked out for tomorrow and the day after that.

Heavenly Residence became the most popular restaurant in Jin Ling City overnight, and Head Chef Li Yao was the one behind it all.

After they finished their work, Shopkeeper Li asked her to come to his office so he could pay her. For the 500 mooncakes she sold, she got 725 silvers, and on the 76 iceboxes, she got 760 silvers. She got a total of 1485 silvers in just one day.

Ye Jiayao was shocked. She finally knew what it was like to make a bucket of gold every day.

Shopkeeper Li almost cried with jealousy as he looked at the numbers. “Li Yao, you are rich now! Your one day’s income is more than what the restaurant get for days! But this was all thanks to your skill so you deserve this.”

“Manager, don’t be sad. You are making more than me. I only get 30% and you take the remaining 70%. Despite the cost, you still have 60%. One day’s sale of mooncakes is 3000 silvers, not even adding all those from other meals. I heard from Manager Qian that all the compartments were booked until the day after tomorrow, so cheer up. You’re the rich one!” Ye Jiayao said.

Shopkeeper Li tamped down his tears. If he had known that Li Yao’s ice cream mooncake would sell this well, he would’ve never given up the restaurant. He was so jealous and bitter, but he couldn’t take it out on Li Yao. All the chef ever did was work hard and bring fame to the restaurant.

He forced a smile and said, “I will give you your salary every three days as well as your silver notes. Are you okay with that?”

“No problem. I don’t really mind.” Ye Jiayao shrugged.

It would be better if it was a few days later since she was still waiting for Jiang Li to make her a safe box.

Manager Li handed over a few lists to her. “Five families have invited you to do their dinners. I think that the timing is good, but I am afraid that you’d get too tired as you’re still doing the mooncakes.”

Ye Jiayao looked at the list. They were all high-status governers! There was even Left Minister Su’s family for the celebration of his wife’s birthday. Ye Jiayao suddenly remembered Zhao Qixuan’s Little Su. Would the son show up on his mother’s birthday?

“I gave the quotes of 300 silvers and 400 silvers for you,” Shopkeeper Li said.

“I’ll take this. Making money is supposed to be tiring so I have no complaints.” Ye Jiayao nodded. “Shopkeeper Li, if there’s nothing else, I’m going to leave now.”

Ye Jiayao bowed and proceeded to the kitchen to take an ice cube for the gifts she needed to send.

When she walked out of the restaurant, Ye Jiayao saw Chunyu’s horse cart parked under a willow tree about 30 meters away. She was walking towards it when she heard someone call her name.

“Yaoyao!”

Little Jing?

“Why are you here?” Ye Jiayao asked.

Helian Jing jumped down the horse and smiled enthusiastically. “I am looking for you!”

Oh, crap. Ye Jiayao glanced at Chunyu’s horse cart anxiously. It looked like she wasn’t getting on that today.

“Yaoyao, I am bringing you the money for the mooncake. It’s 1100 silvers, you can count them if you like.”

Ye Jiayo put the money in her pocket without even looking at it. “I don’t need to count it.”

“Oh? Is the mooncake inside that?” Helian Jing went to grab the icebox.

Ye Jiayao moved it out of the way. “This is for the Crown Prince.”

“It doesn’t matter if I eat one,” Helian Jing teased.

“Or you can come tomorrow and I will make a few for you.”

“I’m kidding, Yaoyao!” Helian Jing rolled his eyes at Yaoyao’s tight grip at the icebox. “Are you going to the Crown Prince’s mansion now? I can take you there.”

“No, no, there’s no need. I can go there by myself.”

“Do you know where the Crown Prince’s mansion is?”

Well, I don’t actually.

Helian Jing laughed. “Let’s go, I’ll take you. Horse riding is faster than walking.”

Horse riding? Together? Ye Jiayao glanced at the horse cart again. If she gets on the horse with Little Jing, Xia Chunyu would get mad at her again.

“I don’t like horse riding. I will just walk. It is healthy to walk,” Ye Jiayao declined.

“The Crown Prince’s mansion is far from here, but if you really want to walk, I’ll walk with you.” Helian Jing took the icebox from and wound the horse’s leash with his other hand.

Ye Jiayao had no choice but to follow him.

Xia Chunyu scowled as he watched Yaoyao and Helian Jing walk away. He has waited for her for hours only to get stumped by Little Jing again. The worse part was that he couldn’t even take her back!

He was furious.

This whole disaster with the Ye family needs to be over soon so that Yaoyao could reclaim her status again. I am not going to be able to sleep well knowing that anyone could just take her anywhere!