I, the one in the heavens, am here to protect my bottom line in all realms.

The rice cake she prepared was filled with sesame and peanut fillings. In order to make it look more beautiful, she also used some purple sweet potato flour as decoration. It can be eaten after being steamed.

But she didn't do much this time. On the one hand, there was the problem of materials, and on the other hand, there was the problem of grinding rice. Manual grinding was too tiring, and her great power in this world was also greatly weakened.

The rice cake was soon out of the pot, and it smelled sweet of rice and sesame. The old woman had woken up a long time ago, and seeing her busy in the kitchen again, she was unhappy and kept staring at her. She also smelled the fragrance as soon as it came out.

She couldn't help but ask, "What did you do? It smells so good."

Zhang Chengyuan glanced at her, turned around and put the rice cake on a plate.

After decorating it, she took a piece and handed it to the mother-in-law, and tasted a piece herself. It was soft and sweet, and the lava peanuts and sesame seeds in the middle were hot and fragrant, and tasted very good.

After putting the whole plate together, there wasn't much left, so Zhang Chengyuan gave three pieces to the old woman and packed the rest for himself.

Seeing this, the old woman said nothing and sat back down.

Zhang Chengyuan went to look for Zhang Yuzhi with some pastries, but he didn't see anyone in the yard. He grabbed a maid and gestured to her with difficulty to find out where she had gone. Finally, he found out where she had gone.

It turned out that not long after she left, Zhang Yuzhi took Ruyi and the others out, and she overheard that the eldest lady went to see her cousin.

Zhang Chengyuan reluctantly took the cakes back. When the old woman saw her coming back, she couldn't help but ask, "Why are you back again?"

Zhang Chengyuan took the things to the kitchen first and put them away before going to the old woman and slowly explaining things to her with gestures.

After gesturing for a long time, the old woman finally understood that she was assigned by the young lady to take care of the small kitchen. The reason why the food was brought back was not because the young lady didn't like it, but because she had gone out.

Probably because she knew that she would be under Zhang Chengyuan's care from now on, the old woman's attitude became much better and she took the initiative to gossip.

As she wentssiped, Zhang Chengyuan learned that she was actually the cook in the small kitchen, and she was usually the only one in the small kitchen.

She was sold into the mansion a few years ago. After doing odd jobs for two years, she was assigned to the small kitchen in the eldest lady's courtyard.

Zhang Chengyuan felt that this person did not look like a tasker, so he identified her. As expected, the result was that she was just an ordinary person.

Now, she can rest assured. She doesn't have to go out and show her face in public. The people she is with are few and ordinary people. As long as she is careful in the future, she will definitely be able to survive to the end.

Zhang Chengyuan listened to the old woman talking on and on without interrupting her.

Around evening, the front yard became lively. She went to take a look and found that it was the eldest daughter who had returned. She turned back to the small kitchen and happened to meet a maid coming over to exchange for hot tea.

Only then did she realize that someone was always keeping the tea hot.

But this is not important. She now needs to warm up the pastries and bring them to the eldest lady for tasting. Zhang Yuzhi thought they were delicious, so she rewarded her with a few silver melon seeds and let her leave.

She returned to the small kitchen, took out the reward, gave half to Mrs. Yu, and then had nothing to do.

Mrs. Yu took advantage of the situation and whispered to her that she could have some food in the kitchen to satisfy her hunger.

Zhang Chengyuan asked her if she would be punished for this, and Mrs. Yu said, "Not really. The small kitchen always has food on hand. In winter, we change it every ten days, and in hot weather, we change it every three or four days. If we don't eat it, it will go bad. As long as the beauty says so, it's fine."

She nodded thoughtfully when she heard that, thinking to herself, if that was the case, she would not be polite.

Zhang Chengyuan gestured towards Mrs. Yu and asked her if she could use some ingredients to make steamed buns now?

Mother Yu nodded and said yes, and she immediately took action. She had not eaten enough during this period. The original owner was in the stage of growing up, and she would be hungry not long after eating. In addition, she also needed energy to practice martial arts.

She planned to do more so that she could share some with Ruyi later. As for Linglong and Liuzhu, Zhang Chengyuan felt that he was not very familiar with them and it was enough to just give them face.

Since the kitchen didn't have any meat, the bun filling had to be vegetarian. She prepared a small bowl of filling and quickly kneaded the dough.

She was almost done and it was getting dark. She thought to stop steaming and wait until Zhang Yuzhi fell asleep before steaming. This would save her from having to use water when she was halfway through steaming.

Zhang Chengyuan washed his hands and just sat down when Mrs. Yu stood up and walked to the small kitchen, saying, "It's time to boil water for the young lady. She will need water in a while."

She had no choice but to get up and help. Mrs. Yu went straight to light the fire. Zhang Chengyuan saw that she was lighting the big pot at the innermost part, so he added water into that pot.

The water had just been filled up, and Mrs. Yu started to boil the pot in the middle.

There are three pots in the small kitchen. The largest one is half a meter deep and about one meter in diameter. The middle one is smaller, and the smallest one is about half a meter in diameter.

After the two pots were full of water, she cooked while Mrs. Yu helped watch the fire.

Mother Yu started talking again. Perhaps it was because she had been alone for too long and she had more to say when there was someone to keep her company. Or perhaps it was because she was mute, so she could say whatever she wanted without any scruples.

Most of the words were meaningless, so Zhang Chengyuan just let them go in one ear and out the other, but she did hear a few useful ones.

For example, every morning the maidservant would have to go to the big kitchen to get some pastries, and she would have to boil water in advance for the young lady to use when she woke up. There needed to be a pot of hot water at all times, etc.

It turned out that Mrs. Yu was not as idle as she saw. However, this was much better than serving Zhang Yuzhi, and she didn't find it troublesome.

Almost as soon as the water began to boil, a maid came over to fetch water.

Zhang Chengyuan stood up to help fetch water. The two pots of water were soon empty. She looked at Mrs. Yu, who had already sat back down to add more firewood. Seeing her looking over, she said, "Fill up the two pots. We still have to watch over them at night."

Zhang Chengyuan continued to add water obediently, and then gestured to ask the reason and what time they needed to wait.

"There is no fixed number for this. We have to make sure that the young lady has water whenever she needs it. I usually sleep on the floor in the small kitchen, take a nap, and then get up to add some firewood and water.

Now, we two can take turns. Do you think we can do it one night each, or in the first and second half of the night?"

Zhang Chengyuan didn't even have to think about it, he would definitely choose the first option. His body couldn't bear it if he came in the first or second half of the night.

One person per night, someone can catch up on sleep during the day and feel much better.

She pointed at herself and pretended to sleep. Mrs. Yu smiled and said, "Okay, then we'll each have one night. You stay here tonight while I get some sleep. You'll take over tomorrow."

Zhang Chengyuan nodded to show his agreement.

Mrs. Yu didn't say anything else after that, but she kept yawning, and it seemed that she hadn't had a good rest for a long time.

The water started to boil again. Mrs. Yu stood up and yawned as she said, "When Ruyi and the others come to get some water, just fill the pot and keep it boiling. A maid will come to change the water at night. There's nothing else to do."

She saw Zhang Chengyuan nodded and walked out.

(End of this chapter)