xymnovel Chapter 53 Guidance from a Master, Li Shimin's Imagination
Chapter 53 Guidance from a Master, Li Shimin's Imagination
Chapter 53 Guidance from a Master, Li Shimin's Imagination
He was stunned.
Pushing a millstone—a form of spiritual practice?
Hard beans, after being ground, become a cohesive batter.
Li Shimin looked at the soft pancake in his hand, which was wrapped with egg, scallions, pickled vegetables, crispy fried dough, and even lettuce.
This seemingly rough dough can actually wrap all these miscellaneous ingredients of varying textures and textures inside, making them a seamless whole.
This is what tolerance is all about!
"What a wonderful saying, 'Only by calming one's temper can one become a useful person!'"
Li Shimin slapped his thigh suddenly, his eyes gleaming. "A master! This is a master enlightening me!"
Li Lizhi: "Huh?"
She was just casually relaying that guy's excuse for being lazy, how did that turn into enlightenment?
Li Shimin ignored his daughter's bewilderment; the more he thought about it, the more profound it seemed. He looked at the now-softened crispy pastry, then at the incredibly chewy dough.
"I understand."
Li Shimin muttered to himself, his expression becoming extremely solemn.
"This thin crispy pastry is extremely crispy and hard, while the dough is extremely soft and tough."
The right path lies in balancing strength and gentleness.
But once the crispy pastry is cooked out of control and absorbs moisture, it transforms from hard to soft and melts into the dough.
This is telling me that excessive rigidity leads to breakage! In governing a country, one cannot be solely forceful; one must be like this coarse grain noodle sheet—unassuming yet capable of encompassing all things and defusing sharp edges!
He took a big second bite, this time eating with utmost reverence.
Even though his cheeks ached from stretching the dough, he felt that he was experiencing the hardships of governing a country.
"Mr. Su is using this as a metaphor to advise me not to be too oppressive to powerful families and clans, nor to relentlessly wage war against the surrounding barbarians."
Li Shimin's eyes reddened with emotion. "Even I, the emperor, need to be like these beans, rolling around in the millstone to cool off!"
Li Lizhi stared wide-eyed as her father, the Emperor, looked at half a cold pancake with deep sorrow and contemplation on life.
She really wanted to say that Su Mu just wanted her to do hard labor.
"Ah Ye————"
Little Sizi, who had been lying by the imperial desk, finally couldn't hold back any longer.
She stood on tiptoe, her small hands tugging at Li Shimin's sleeve, her big eyes filled with sympathy.
"That crunchy one—it's not like that."
Li Shimin was immersed in the realization of "harmony between man and nature" when he looked down at his youngest daughter: "Hmm? What did Sizi say?"
The little boy swallowed hard, then stretched out his chubby hand and made a big circle: "When it's fresh out of the pan, it's rock hard! When you bite into it, it makes a crunchy sound! Like—like biting into a bone!"
To make it more vivid, she even opened her mouth wide and made an exaggerated chewing motion.
"That kind of noodle isn't like that! It's piping hot, scalding hot! A little bit charred on the outside, soft on the inside. And when you brush the sauce on it, it makes a sizzling sound—"
The more Xiao Sizi talked, the more tempted she became. Even though she had just eaten her fill, a glistening smile appeared on her lips as she recalled the memory.
"What Aye is eating—it's all soft and mushy, like a muddy duck."
Click!
The towering structure of "governing the country" in Li Shimin's heart shattered instantly.
Mud?
He looked at the half-eaten jianbing guozi in his hand.
After the over-interpreted sense of sacredness faded, the greasy, congealed taste of cold oil returned to my mouth.
The chewiness of the dough is no longer inclusive, it's just tough on the teeth; the thin and crispy texture is no longer a transformation from firm to soft, it's just become damp.
"Crispy————"
Li Shimin gritted his teeth, his mind automatically filling in the scene that Xiao Sizi had described.
A steaming hot griddle, golden and crispy pancakes—one bite and the sound is crisp and pleasant, the sauce flows out.
Instead of this lump of "mud" in my hand!
Li Shimin took a deep breath, stuffed the last bite of pancake into his mouth, and chewed it vigorously, as if he were chewing on that scoundrel living in the woodshed.
"Beautiful".
Li Shimin swallowed his food, his expression shifting unpredictably.
"Your subject is here."
"Mr. Su—did he say anything else?"
Li Shimin was not giving up.
He didn't believe that the person who could make such delicious food was really just a lazy cook who was just waiting to die.
Li Lizhi thought for a moment, then her eyes lit up: "That's right! Su Mu also said that if these jianbing guozi (Chinese crepes) were kept in the army, they would be top-quality military rations!"
Li Shimin's eyes sharpened instantly, and his previous dejection vanished.
"Military rations? Explain!"
He said that mixed grain noodles are filling, easy to carry when made into pancakes, and can wrap all kinds of things, such as wild vegetables and dried meat. When marching or fighting, you can carry an iron plate and eat hot food.
Li Shimin suddenly stood up and paced rapidly around the hall with his hands behind his back.
"Wonderful! Wonderful!"
"The border war is intense right now, and the transport of supplies is difficult. Although that flatbread keeps well, it's as hard as a rock, making it hard for the soldiers to eat and difficult to digest. This pancake—if only the flour could be pre-cooked or made into dry powder—"
Li Shimin became more and more excited as he thought about it.
That nonsense about grinding grain for cultivation might be false, but this strategy of using local materials and rolling up everything to make military rations is definitely solid and practical!
"no."
Li Shimin suddenly stopped and turned to look out the window.
It was already dark there, and the direction of the imperial kitchen was hidden behind layers of palace walls.
"Such a talented person is wasting his talent by keeping him cooped up in the woodshed making snacks for you!"
He glanced at himself, still savoring the taste of that muddy mess, and that sour feeling welled up inside him again.
Why should I be overanalyzing old news while that kid is having a good time over there?
I must find a way to bring this extraordinary person out of seclusion!
The autumn wind slipped in through the cracks in the broken wall of the imperial kitchen's backyard, swirling up a few withered yellow sycamore leaves from the ground.
As the sun began to set, the lunch in my stomach was almost digested, and my mouth started to taste bland.
Su Mu stood in front of the cutting board, holding a large piece of pale yellow grease in his hand.
This isn't pork fat; it's butter that he had the system extract specifically for him.
Anything produced by our system is guaranteed to be of high quality.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The rolling pin struck the butter heavily, producing a dull, powerful sound.
Li Yuan sat cross-legged on his personal mortise and tenon reclining chair, holding a teacup in his hand, his eyelids twitching.
"Hey Su, do you have a grudge against this oil?"
Li Yuan blew on the tea foam floating on the surface. "All afternoon, I've just watched you banging and pounding, but you haven't even started cooking. You've folded and refolded this dough ball over and over again—are you folding a quilt?"
Su Mu didn't even look up, his hands continuing to move.
The block of butter was flattened and then completely wrapped in a rolled-out sheet of dough.
"What does the old man know? This is called puff pastry."
Su Mu exerted force with his wrist, pushing the rolling pin evenly across the dough, rolling the oiled dough into a long strip, then folding it from left to right towards the center like folding a quilt, rotating it ninety degrees, and continuing to roll it.
"To make this dough so flaky, you have to go through this process. One layer of dough, one layer of oil, then another layer, and another layer of oil. This whole process involves at least a thousand layers."
"Thousand-layer cake?"
Li Yuan placed the teacup on the armrest, leaned forward, and said, "Keep bragging! This skin is so thin, how can it have a thousand layers? I don't think even the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams Formation in military strategy is as complicated as this dough ball."