Emperor Xuanwu's interest was piqued. Castration could make pork taste better? Pork had a strong, unpleasant smell, it was not cheap, and the texture was not particularly good either. Usually only common people ate it. Why was this person so determined to eat pork?
And how had he discovered the effects of castration?
The Left and Right Chancellors, meanwhile, were focused on a different point. This person had drawn those paintings because of the Vice Minister of Revenue, so… what exactly had the Vice Minister done?
This was important. They were already getting on in years, and now their lifelong dignity had been ruined.
Both men shot knife-like glares at the Vice Minister of Revenue, who now wanted nothing more than to close his eyes and faint on the spot.
He knew. He finally knew which little secret this person had planned to use to threaten him.
This absolutely could not come out!! If it did, then he truly would want to gallop straight out of this world.
Ha. He was already considering digging himself a grave right there in the audience hall and crawling into it.
The Vice Minister of Revenue silently began praying for his ancestors' protection, while Chu Yi sank into thought.
The diary entry he had written yesterday was not this one. But if the sky screen had never appeared, then this probably was what he would have written.
In other words, the diary entries written by the current him were different from the entries he would have written in a world without the sky screen.
He slowly let out a breath of relief. Good, good. That was actually not so bad.
As for the matter of pork mentioned in Chu Yi's diary, some people were already getting restless. If castrating pigs really could make pork delicious, then having a new kind of food appear on the dining table would not be a bad thing.
Although people said pork was food for the poor, pork was not actually cheap.
After all, there was no refrigeration technology at present, nor were there proper methods for curing and smoking meat. They did not even make sausages.
So butchers and meat sellers took on real risk when selling meat. Winter was manageable because the cold preserved it, but summer was another matter. Of course, anyone capable of working as a butcher or meat seller generally had at least some connections and family resources.
Before Emperor Xuanwu could think about it any further, the scene on the sky screen changed.
【Judging from this diary entry, the rise of pork as a common food probably began around this time. You have to understand that meat from uncastrated pigs not only has a strong, unpleasant odor, but the texture isn't very good either. Once the pigs mature, their animal instincts become pronounced—they go into heat—and afterward they stop putting on much meat. That is one of the reasons pork was not especially popular in ancient times.】
Chu Wan tapped the screen and displayed photographs of huge modern pigs, along with dish after dish of modern pork cuisine.
【According to historical records, pork really did begin appearing on ordinary people's dining tables in large quantities starting around Xuanwu Year Ten. By then, the meat had already changed. Its unpleasant odor had more or less disappeared, the price had dropped somewhat, and large amounts of cured and smoked pork products began appearing. But I've searched through a great many sources and still haven't found the name of the person who first proposed castrating piglets…】
[Thank you, ancestor. I have to say, red-braised pork really is delicious.]
[A foodie will seriously do anything for something tasty. Who would have thought pigs started getting castrated because one glutton wanted better pork?]
[Is nobody paying attention to the fact that this ancestor is Chunhe Sanren?]
[Husband!! Chunhe Sanren didn't only paint the two chancellors. His beauty portraits included all kinds of handsome young gentlemen from the Xuanwu era…]
[Our museum still has works by Chunhe Sanren on display…]
Chu Yi covered his eyes and hoped he was hallucinating. Unfortunately, he clearly was not. The suggestive beauty paintings he had drawn had survived into later generations. Hahahaha. Wonderful. Just wonderful.
Chu Wan grew even more excited and pulled out his research materials.
【Everyone, if the diary's owner really is Chunhe Sanren, then according to these records, Chunhe Sanren should have had another hidden identity!! Taotie Daoist!! You may not be very familiar with the name Taotie Daoist, but surely everyone knows the God of Agriculture.】
Chu Yi blinked and pointed at his own nose in disbelief. Huh? Him? The God of Agriculture? Taotie Daoist?
Why did it feel like his future self was about to carry his present self straight to greatness?
Still, he could understand how it might happen. Once he successfully raised castrated pigs, then for the sake of good food, he really would go to enormous lengths to track down every other edible crop and ingredient he could remember.
Beside him, Hua Cheng patted his shoulder and swallowed his saliva. “Do you think… pork from castrated pigs is really that delicious? Those pictures up there are making me unbelievably hungry.”
There was a reason Hua Cheng got along so well with him. The two of them were not close enough to entrust their lives to each other, but they were certainly kindred spirits when it came to eating.
When food was involved, the two of them were completely on the same wavelength.
Chu Yi was convinced that Hua Cheng had definitely contributed to at least some of those things shown on the screen.
Emperor Xuanwu sat up straighter. The God of Agriculture????
That was no small title. The Great Xuan Dynasty had only been founded a little over a century ago. The realm had only recently stabilized after rebuilding from chaos, and life was still far from easy for ordinary people…
In fact, just by looking at the people on the sky screen, the comments scrolling below, and the images and objects Chu Wan displayed, one could tell that people in later generations lived very well.
At first, Emperor Xuanwu had treated the sky screen as entertainment, but now he could no longer laugh.
The God of Agriculture. People only called someone a god when that person had created a miracle. A miracle in agriculture…
Who exactly was this man? Where was he? What miracle had he created?
Emperor Xuanwu was beginning to grow impatient.
The Left and Right Chancellors no longer had time to murder the Vice Minister of Revenue with their eyes. Every official below the court wore a solemn expression as they stared at the sky screen.
Food was the foundation of the people's lives. This had now touched upon something fundamental.
One by one, they waited for Chu Wan to continue.
【Of course, this is only my guess. We'll know if we keep reading! I'm getting excited now.】
[Host, don't get excited yet. Hurry up and keep reading. I have a feeling something huge is about to come out.]
[Speaking of Taotie Daoist's cookbook, I remember that only fragments survived, but even those fragments contained a lot of information.]
[The first recorded appearance of potatoes was in Taotie Daoist's cookbook, along with refined sugar and fine salt.]
[Right, right. Before those things appeared in Taotie Daoist's cookbook, the earliest other records of them were from more than ten years into the Xuanwu era. Taotie Daoist's cookbook predates those records by quite a bit. Doesn't that mean… Taotie Daoist may have been the one who introduced all of them?]
Chu Wan turned to the third diary entry.
【October 8. Still clear.
The weather is clear today, but my mood isn't. I found an estate I really like, but it's extremely, extremely expensive…
I can't afford it with the money I have, so I've decided to return to my old trade! I'll keep drawing beauty portraits. I can't draw the Left and Right Chancellors again, so I've decided to torment somebody else instead. Heaven gave me black eyes, yet I use them to search for beauty. Sometimes I feel like an egg—just a tiny bit yellow at the center. I really wasn't like this originally.
But ever since I discovered that the burly Vice Minister of Revenue is actually Xiaowanyi, the celebrated “talented lady from the waterlands,” I've started to think my own ideas aren't that bad~
After all, who could have guessed that the broad, rugged Vice Minister of Revenue was the person who wrote “Fragrance Under the Bright Moon”…
Hehehehe. I wonder whether the Vice Minister's wife knows that her husband secretly writes erotic novels.
My lord… you wouldn't want people to find out that you write erotic books while pretending to be a talented lady, would you~】
[I can't take this!! Xiaowanyi is actually Vice Minister of Revenue Wei Qingwei's secret pen name????]
[Holy crap! “Fragrance Under the Bright Moon”!! I can't even laugh anymore. The prose is delicate, the wording graceful, restrained yet bold, bold yet shy… My entire worldview has collapsed.]
Emperor Xuanwu fell silent for a moment. He had never read the book himself, but when he turned to look at the Vice Minister of Revenue, the man's eyes rolled back. With a thud, he fainted on the spot.
In the instant before he lost consciousness, Wei Qingwei had only one thought: Chunhe Sanren, this old man is taking you down with me!!!
