After being reborn as a man, the woman improved her family's fortunes through education.

Chapter 727 Hot Pot Night

Jiang Xiaoqi never expected to be able to eat hot pot at the East Palace. This was clearly one of the New Year's gifts she had given him last time.

I had sent some soup base to the Crown Prince before, but back then he was still the Second Prince, and there were only spicy soup base and clear soup base available.

This time, Jiang Xiaoqi presented dozens of portions of each of the four different hot pot bases, enough for the Crown Prince to eat.

Even if the prince eats it all winter, it will be enough.

However, instead of a four-compartment hot pot, the prince had prepared a unique individual hot pot with only one type of broth.

Jiang Xiaoqi thought of the rotating hot pot in her previous life, and glanced at what was in front of her. Sure enough, it was a spicy broth.

He glanced at Lord Qiu and the Crown Prince out of the corner of his eye; they also had spicy hot pot bases. It seemed the Crown Prince loved spicy hot pot bases the most.

Of course, it's also possible that people feel warmer eating a spicy hot pot base in winter.

I don't know where the Crown Prince's residence found the beef, but it was quite tender.

The lamb was perfectly balanced between lean and fatty, and there were also some rare small green vegetables.

Other ingredients include bamboo fungus, autumn fungus, bamboo shoot tips, and tofu.

Although the ingredients were not as plentiful as those from the Jiang family, they were all extremely fresh.

Jiang Xiaoqi often eats hot pot, but Qiu Cheng had only heard of it and this was the first time he had ever eaten it.

Of course, I've eaten Bo Xia Gong before, and I think it's pretty much the same.

After all, Qiu Cheng and Dong Jin were together every day, and Dong Jin had mentioned hot pot when talking about the Jiang family's cuisine.

At that time, Qiu Cheng thought that hot pot was just spicy hot pot.

The biggest difference is the ingredients used for hot pot; the textures of rabbit meat and beef/mutton are vastly different.

"This is the legendary hot pot?"

"Legend?"

The Crown Prince was puzzled. Had Lord Qiu never eaten it before?

"This... I've never had this before, after all, the ingredients and soup base are not easy to come by."

The Crown Prince then realized that Jiang Xiaoqi might not have sent Qiu Cheng the base ingredients. Sure enough, with such delicious food, the teacher was thinking of his former student.

For some reason, the crown prince's mood suddenly improved.

"It doesn't matter if you haven't tried it before. After all, this hot pot broth is quite rare. Lord Qiu, please enjoy your meal here to the fullest today!"

The Crown Prince generously pushed the beef and mutton towards Qiu Cheng's side, since he actually preferred to eat boiled green vegetables.

There is no shortage of meat in winter; this beef and mutton can be preserved for a long time and is easy to slice even when frozen outdoors.

These small green vegetables are the real treasure, since they have to be transported from the hot spring resort well in advance.

There were several layers of cotton quilts covering the road to prevent frostbite, which was quite rare.

Jiang Xiaoqi could also tell that the Crown Prince liked to eat boiled vegetables, so he tried his best not to pick them up.

I cooked and soaked a lot of common dried ingredients like dried auricularia auricula-judae, bamboo fungus, and dried bamboo shoots by myself.

Of course, Jiang Xiaoqi was more interested in the plate of fish slices on the table. The fish slices were thinly sliced, and they only needed to be picked up with chopsticks and blanched a few times before eating. They were very fresh, tender and smooth.

Qiu Cheng does indeed prefer meat, since beef is a rare treat; his family's kitchen supplies only buy it a few times a year.

Buying beef is a matter of luck.

Lamb can be eaten occasionally, but the quality is far inferior to that of His Highness the Crown Prince's.

The three of them each had their own preferences, so the atmosphere at the dinner table was extremely harmonious.

Since they needed to continue their conversation after the meal, none of the three drank alcohol, opting instead for refreshing herbal tea to help with the spiciness.

Although it's a single-person hot pot, the pot's diameter is quite large.

It's similar to a multi-person hot pot, except that the number of pots has been increased.

The spicy broth was very flavorful, and the ingredients floated and sank in the boiling broth.

They were all very hungry, and the three of them remained silent throughout the meal, displaying remarkable tacit understanding.

The three of them thoroughly enjoyed the hot pot meal. Qiu Cheng put down his chopsticks, still feeling unsatisfied, and exclaimed, "It's truly a great blessing in life to be able to taste such delicious food today."

The Crown Prince smiled and nodded: "The broth that Lord Jiang sent is truly wonderful. I tried the seafood broth a couple of days ago and it was also good, but I still like this spicy broth the most."

"Great minds think alike. I also like spicy hot pot base, but beef tallow is rare, which is why this spicy hot pot base is so rare."

The prince asked with great interest, "Why does this spicy hot pot broth have to be made with beef tallow?"

The Crown Prince asked the same question that Xiao Ming and Liu Peng had asked before.

"Yes, it's best to use butter to make it the most fragrant and suitable for making the broth."

"Okay, then I'll have the Crown Prince's purchasing staff keep an eye out for any available butter and bring it to you."

Well, another one addicted to spicy hot pot.

Jiang Xiaoqi certainly wouldn't refuse. Although he could buy ready-made ones from the system store, he still felt that the ones he cooked himself were more fragrant and didn't have any messy additives.

"Alright, Your Highness, then I'll trouble you. This butter is indeed quite difficult to collect."

After all, although killing a cow wouldn't result in the death penalty in the Great Zhou Dynasty, it would still be punished, possibly imprisoned for several years, and the fine would be substantial.

The Crown Prince would certainly have an easier time getting butter than him, just like Liu Peng got butter back then. It only works if someone with power is in front of him.

Otherwise, if cattle are so rare, why would they all be sold to you alone?

Even if you pay a price higher than the market price, you might not be able to buy as much butter as the Prime Minister's mansion.

This world isn't just about officials praising the powerful and belittling the weak; small business owners and vendors also discriminate based on who they serve.

The hot pot meal took a full half hour to eat. If my stomach hadn't been so full, I probably would have eaten for even longer.

The palace servants filed in and cleared away the mess on the table.

As usual, Chen Lin served some refreshing tea to cleanse the palate, but the three of them couldn't eat anything else, so no refreshment was served.

The three of them drank tea and then compared and contrasted their observations on the maritime and world maps.

"Look here, this is Goryeo. Our fleet can go directly to Goryeo after leaving Japan."

Even if the royal family and nobles there can't afford glass, they can trade it for ginseng. We can trade our own glass ornaments for their wild ginseng; this is definitely a profitable deal.

"Don't they have any money?"

"There should be some. You can exchange silver, ginseng, or other precious medicinal materials for glass."

Glass plates, glass bowls, glass cups, glass bottles—I don't believe the Koreans wouldn't be tempted.

Jiang Xiaoqi didn't hide it from the two of them, after all, he had already reported to the emperor and said that he would discuss the goods to be taken on the voyage with the crown prince.

The emperor valued the glass workshops and also paid attention to the matter of resuming overseas expeditions.

Even if Jiang Xiaoqi came to the East Palace today, it was after some preparation.

The emperor would only assume that he had come to discuss voyages and goods, and Qiu Cheng's arrival would not be out of the ordinary.

After all, many people in the court knew that the Empress had shown Qiu Cheng great favor.

If Qiu Cheng didn't come to his door, he would be accused of being ungrateful.