Great Tang Idyll

Book 2: Chapter 29

Volume 02 Chapter 29: The Best Food In The World Is Roasted Chicken

The rays of the setting sun shone diagonally, and when the evening came, two small figures on the grassland attracted almost everyone's attention.

At the beginning they were the last ones, but by now, they have surpassed a lot of people. The two figures have reached the thirteenth and fourteenth positions out of the 133 people. In particular, during the latter part of the course, they ran past one person after another. The children who were overtaken refused to accept this at first, and tried to catch up, but after running for a bit, they ran out of energy.

Almost all of the adults were shocked by these two figures. They didn't stop once they began to run, while the other children were so tired that they wished they could lay down and not move another inch. Those two figures didn't seem to know that what being tired meant and they were too resilient.

The adults envied the Zhang and Wang manors right now. Having two sensible and persistent children like them was what any parent wished for. Unfortunately, they were not their children.

The expressions on the faces of the nine parents whose children have withdrawn from the competition were not so good at the moment. Although another five more children have quitted, it didn't matter since they would only compare their own children to the other two children. Notably, among the children that quitted, there were two ten year olds.

Those two children, who were barely five years old when their ages were added together, were able to persist so why can't a ten year old keep going? They were never deprived of food or drinks growing up, so could it be that those two were fed with something else?

When they blamed their children, they naturally forgot who were the ones that praised their children instead of correcting them when they were running like crazy and wasting their stamina.

Zhang Xiao'bao and Wang Juan of course didn't know what others thought of them. They were still running and they could already see the erected tents up ahead. They looked at each other, nodded, slowed down a little, and changed from running to speed walking. By the time they arrive there, they would have regained their stamina.

Now they have reached the eighth and ninth positions. Among the seven people in front, there were four twelve-year-olds, two eleven-year-olds, and one ten-year-old. Li Xun was among one of them. The children from the Li Manor took up five of the top seven places; the children on the manor were better at enduring hardships, and they were fed good meals for the past few days so it was not surprising that they were be better than other children.

Li Xun was too tired. He was the first one to arrive only because people yielded to him. There were two children from his manor who were faster than him, but near the end they slowed down and allowed him to go on first.

The seven of them had just arrived, and each of them were panting so heavily that they didn't even have the strength to speak. They were obviously hungry, and when they saw the food on the table, they could only gawk at it since they didn't even want to raise their arms up.

Hearing his servant's compliments, Li Xun waved his hand while grinning and grabbed the water bowl next to him. He tilted his head up, and poured the water down his throat. He laid down on the carpet and panted with his mouth open. The other six people were not any better. After chugging down water, they all laid down. They weren't able to eat any of those foods right now.

"Wow, Xiao'bao, look, there are so many delicious foods. Let's stretch our legs, and once we're done, we can eat. I saw simmered tender beef tendons, and there's even beef bone marrow. The chefs at the Between the Water and Clouds are indeed good; they know what we like to eat."

The seven people were still lying there and panting when Wang Juan and Zhang Xiao'bao walked in with their eyes set directly on the food on the table. As Wang Juan took off the backpack, she spoke happily, "There's beef to eat; that's something hard to come by. To eat beef, a fine has to be paid in addition to the money spent on buying the cow."

While talking, the two of them began to stretch their legs to relax their muscles and tendons. From time to time, they glanced at one of the many dishes on the table with expressions full of anticipation.

"Who else has arrived? Feeling tired?" Li Xun, who was lying there, heard someone talking and wanted to show off a bit; after all, he was the first to arrive. Even though he was the Emperor's nephew, he was quite competitive. When he finished asking, he turned his head to look, and he suddenly sat up from the ground.

"You-- you two, how can it be you two? No, wait, why are you two the ones that arrived?" Li Xun asked with eyes wide open while he pointed to Zhang Xiao'bao and Wang Juan, who were stretching their legs and did not appear tired at all.

"Why can't it be us?" Wang Juan and Zhang Xiao'bao responded almost at the same time. They put down the legs that they were done stretching. They washed their hands in the basin next to them, sat at the table and started eating. They specifically selected the good things to eat, such as beef bone marrow and beef tendons, which were tender but still had some bite when chewed on in the mouth.

It didn't matter to the two of them if the other children who came later could still eat these good things or not. After eating a few bites of meat, they did not forget about eating other dishes. The meat and soybean stir-fry was cooked twice because the chef knew that the two of them can't eat foods that were too hard. Not only did the beans become more soft, the taste also became better.

After eating the beans, the two of them started to eat vegetables. Their diet had to be well- balanced. They expended a lot of energy today so they needed to replenish their bodies.

"Xiao'bao, do you see how well that chicken was roasted? It's crispy and brown, so the taste must be great." Wang Juan spoke to Zhang Xiao'bao with a chunk of braised pork still in her mouth and she was pointing to the roast chickens, which was the most abundant dish.

Neither of them touched the chicken. While eating other things, they kept boasting about how good the chicken was. The other six people lying on the ground had their appetite stimulated by their words and they thought about getting up to eat the chicken.

Only Li Xun did not move. He was still looking blankly at Zhang Xiao'bao and Wang Juan who were in the middle of eating and drinking. He kept muttering to himself, "How could it be them? How could it be them? That's not right, it shouldn't be them."

When the six people got up to wash their hands, Li Xun was still muttering, and the servant next to him had to come over and remind him, "Young Childe, should you also eat something? This time a cow was slaughtered. In just a bit, it will be all eaten by them, There's only one portion of deep-fried cow brain, Young Childe."

When the servant spoke this time, his eyes never left Zhang Xiao'bao and Wang Juan. He noticed that these two children really knew how to eat as they ate only the delicious foods. The single portion of deep-fried cow brain was now half gone now because of them.

"Tell me, what happened? Why was it them? Go and get Li Cheng to come here, I want to ask him." Li Xun finally returned from a certain type of mysterious realm, and he muttered something and got up. He went to wash his hands and got ready to eat.

The six people were each holding a roasted chicken and gnawing on it. He was not a fool like them. He sat next to Zhang Xiao'bao and pushed the remaining cow brain to the front of the two of them and motioned them to finish it off. As for himself, he picked a piece of beef bone marrow and started eating slowly.

"Zhang Xiao'bao, can you tell me how the two of you got here?" Li Xun put down his chopsticks after eating a piece of beef bone marrow, and he looked at the two people who were still eating.

"We of course ran here. I'm exhausted. Childe Li, eat that chicken. Let me tell you, the best part is the chicken skin. If you don't believe me, try it for yourself."

Zhang Xiao'bao didn't even bother to be polite; he divided the cow brain and shared it equally with Wang Juan. The cow brain was not that small to begin with but it shrank a lot in size after being fried in oil. When he talked to Li Xun, he didn't forget to introduce the chicken.

Li Xun pursed his lips. He felt that his question was pointless since he didn't obtain any information. As for chicken, he wouldn't even consider eating it. He picked up a knife and cut a bit of meat off the chin of the roasted whole lamb. He dipped the meat in the salt and pepper placed on the side, and then he placed it in his mouth and chewed it carefully.

"Who knows why they ran so slow, we're also wondering the same thing. Of course you would be tired, you came in first and you were running so fast. We got here at a later time." Zhang Xiao'bao finished a small bowl of soup, and placed his chopsticks down. He spoke to Li Xun and pointed to the roast chicken again.

"Childe. Li, you must not know that the best part of the chicken to eat is the butt. After you remove that little part from the butt, it tastes delicious. Think about it, that part is rich in fat, so after roasting, the taste is simply indescribable."

Right after he said this, two out of the six people actually bit the chicken butt. However, Li Xun put down his chopsticks. Originally, he wanted to eat some marinated beef, but when he heard about the chicken butt and how fatty it was, he felt disgusted. He was not a child of a poor family, so he didn't like to eat fatty meats.

He opened his mouth to continue to ask more questions, but he thought about how pointless his previous questions were. So instead, he scooped some soup and drank it slowly, while he waited for Li Cheng to arrive.

Zhang Xiao'bao and Wang Juan obviously would not wait for him to continue to ask them questions. As soon as they finished eating, they went outside for a walk to help with digesting the food. They were now waiting to take a bath and then going to sleep afterwards.

Li Cheng hurried over from the outside, and at the same time, the other people arrived here in discontinuous streams. After a few more people entered this tent, those who came later would have to go to other tents. Of course they couldn't eat any cow brain since there was only one portion.

"Young Childe, are you looking for me?" Li Cheng approached Li Xun and asked respectfully. He helped Li Xun pick some meat from around the sheep's eyes and placed the meat on the plate in front of Li Xun

"Yes. That Zhang Xiao'bao and Wang Juan, did they get here themselves? No one took them on a ride on a carriage or something?"

Li Xun picked up the tiny bit of meat and asked before placing the meat into his mouth.

"Young Childe, they got here themselves. At the beginning, they were falling behind but later, when others got tired, they sped up and caught up. For the last part of the way, they ran. Many people didn't want them to pass and ran with them, but they were still overtaken by the two of them. Quite amazing.

Oh, Young Childe, there's one more thing. The two of them napped for a while in the afternoon. At noon when others were hungry, they made their own meal. Maybe it was because they ate food? Otherwise, given their small age, they should have fallen over from exhaustion. "

Li Cheng replied, and he also told Li Xun about the incidents at noon. Judging by Li Xun's expression, he knew that this was really shocking.