Quick Transmigration: The Supporting Female Lead Stays Out of It - Chapter 5: Chef 4

Lin Dan had just settled Qi when a group of people arrived outside the inn, clamoring to find her. The innkeeper, fearing that these people would damage his establishment when they caused trouble, stubbornly blocked their entrance. Unable to get in, these people stood outside the door and cried out, attracting passers-by to stop and watch.

Lin Dan opened a crack in the window to peek, and found that the leader was an old woman, wearing a washed-out garment, without any hairpins on her head, looking very dejected. Yan Shouye was supporting her, calling her “Mother” with every breath, seemingly extremely sad.

It seemed this was Yan Bo’s wife, Lin Baotian’s shiniang (master’s wife), and according to the custom, Lin Dan should also call her Shiniang. But Lin Dan really couldn’t bring herself to use this honorific, just because the old woman’s current actions were enough to plunge the reputation Lin Baotian had worked so hard to whitewash into the abyss.

She saw the old woman pounding her chest and wailing, “Damn Lin Baotian, it’s fine that you bullied our orphans and widows, but you even let your daughter bully us! Your daughter said you took care of my old man’s old age and funeral, that you were filial, I spit on that! Do you not feel guilty when you say these words? The old man had been bedridden for several months, and that Lin Baotian didn’t even serve him, let alone hand him a glass of water; I took care of everything inside and out. I asked Lin Baotian to send a letter to my son, but he was afraid that my son would come back and compete for the family property, and he agreed on the surface, but burned the letter when he went out the door, causing my son to be unable to rush back to see his father’s last side; do you say his heart is not poisonous? The biological son should have inherited the family business, what right does he have to stop it? The old man died, and the son didn’t break the basin, and he used this to blackmail me, making me give him all the money in the family, and if I didn’t, he wouldn’t let the old man be buried. What could I do, with nothing to rely on? The old man’s coffin is still at home, I can’t let him have nowhere to rest…”

The old woman’s heartbroken appearance caused the passers-by to shed tears. If this went on, the reputation Lin Dan had just cleared for Lin Baotian would be blackened again.

Qi, who had finally closed her eyes, had already awakened and said with grief and indignation, “She’s talking nonsense! She’s all talking nonsense! Your shigong (master’s husband) fell ill, and your father immediately wanted to send a letter to Yan Shouye, but your shiniang stubbornly stopped him, saying that Yan Shouye was about to take the imperial examination and couldn’t be distracted. How could she know that your shigong’s illness developed so rapidly, and in less than half a month the person became muddled, and was unable to take care of his own sh1t and piss; at this time, contacting Yan Shouye, he had already gone out to study, and didn’t even know where he had gone. Your father took care of your shigong’s sh1t and piss, served him medicine, and then had to support the family; he did all the work inside and out, and your shiniang stayed far away, disliking the dirt and the exhaustion. When your shigong died, she said that all the money had been given to her son for his studies, and she couldn’t afford to hold a funeral for your shigong, crying and begging your father to think of a way, and finally your father took out all his savings and borrowed fifty taels of silver in interest, and then your shigong was buried peacefully. In order to pay off the debt, your father didn’t rest for a moment, and left to work and earn money the day after the funeral, traveling around and coming to the capital, and he has been continuously sending money back all these years, but it’s a pity that he didn’t leave any proof; we can’t explain it clearly even if we have a hundred mouths!”

Qi opened the bundle and took out two spirit tablets, and cried out, “Your father is a good person, but why do good people not have good rewards!”

She also wanted to run out and argue with the old woman, but the other party was after all Lin Baotian’s shiniang, and had raised him since he was a child; their seniority and kindness were there, and the more she argued, the more she would seem to be disrespectful to the elders and to be mean and sharp-tongued, and instead would be at a disadvantage. This is how the world’s ethics are—elders can do as they please to reprimand their juniors, but juniors cannot disobey them in the slightest, and a single word of “filial piety” can crush a person to death. Moreover, her words were not articulate, and before she could even finish speaking, she would be led astray by others, and in the end, her deceased husband would be wronged even more.

Compared to the people outside, Lin Dan naturally believed Qi more. Moreover, in her memory, Lin Baotian was indeed a good person, and had never done anything unconscionable in his life. Since Lin Dan was taking his daughter’s name, she had to find a way to protect his reputation. But arguing and refuting was clearly the worst choice; no matter how eloquent she was, just the seniority of being a disciple’s granddaughter had already lost half the battle. Winning a fight with an elder was not a glorious thing.

“Mother, pack up the luggage, and we’ll leave the capital.” Lin Dan made up her mind, “Give me the spirit tablets, and I will return them to them.”

Qi gave her the things without thinking. Unknowingly, her daughter had long since become her mainstay.

Lin Dan wrapped the spirit tablets with white silk, held them carefully in her arms, and walked downstairs.

“They’re out, they’re out! The Lin family mother and daughter are out!” Someone recognized Lin Dan and Qi, and immediately shouted loudly. The passers-by, who were already very interested in this matter, gathered even more closely to see what was going on.

“Good, you’re finally willing to come out!” The old woman wiped away her tears and rushed forward, preparing to grab the two and argue, and to make sure to ruin their reputation. She was Lin Baotian’s shiniang, Lin Dan’s Shiniang, so no matter what she said, she was in the right, and she wasn’t afraid of the mother and daughter turning the tables.

Lin Dan raised the spirit tablets to block, and when the old woman opened her five fingers to grab her collar, she put the spirit tablets in her hand, then knelt down and kowtowed three times, and said slowly, “Shiniang, my mother and I will leave the capital, please take care. This is Shigong’s spirit tablet, please take it back; my mother and I are not qualified to continue to enshrine him.”

The old woman hated Lin Baotian’s family, and how would she listen carefully to what she said, and without thinking, she slammed the things in her hand onto the ground.

Qi gasped and quickly went to catch it, but she was still a step too slow. The spirit tablet bounced after landing, and the loosely wrapped white silk came loose, revealing the characters carved on it. Everyone stretched their necks to look, and found that this was indeed Yan Bo’s spirit tablet, and the base was mostly blackened, but it didn’t look dirty, but instead seeped out a layer of oily light, which showed that someone had often enshrined incense and candles, and someone had also carefully wiped it with silk cloth.

But the spirit tablet, which had been so well-maintained, was now cracked with a seam by the old woman’s throw, it was truly a sin!

Someone immediately cursed from the side: “Even the spirit tablet of the ancestors is smashed, are you not afraid of being struck by lightning?”

The old woman was stunned when she saw the spirit tablet, and Yan Shouye was also a little slow to react. Qi, however, took the lead in holding up the spirit tablet and kept wiping it with a handkerchief, and her fingertips were trembling when she touched the crack, which showed how uneasy her heart was.

The ever-expressionless Lin Dan finally shed tears, took the spirit tablet, wiped it lightly and carefully with her sleeve, then reverently placed it on the steps, and, holding her mother, kowtowed three times with all her might, and then left with staggering steps.

Their foreheads were both bleeding from the kowtows, leaving two patches of bright red marks in front of the steps, which were shocking to see. They didn’t say a word, but it was more eloquent than the old woman’s thousand words. The passers-by, who had been indignant just now, were all silent, and no longer said they wanted to help the old woman drag out the Lin Dan mother and daughter to give them a good lesson. Who was right and who was wrong, who was loyal and who was treacherous, just this spirit tablet was enough to see clearly.

“Old, old man!” The old woman finally came to her senses, her legs went limp and she collapsed on the ground. Yan Shouye was neither kneeling nor standing, and his face was a mixture of red and white, which was quite impressive.

No one noticed that the old steward of the Yongding Marquis Manor was standing outside the crowd watching, and the Young Marquis was sitting in the tea house opposite, watching this farce unfold. Staring at the direction where Lin Dan and her mother were leaving, he sighed, and then took out a few silver notes and gave them to his attendant to go after them.

Lin Dan naturally declined the Young Marquis’s help. Her intuition told her that only by staying far away from the Young Marquis and Yan Langqing could she live a peaceful life.

Seeing the attendant bring the silver notes back untouched, the Young Marquis was at a loss for words. He had originally thought that he knew Lin Dan very well, but it was only now that he realized that she was so stubborn, and also so fiery, that even though she knew the road ahead was full of thorns, she would still wade through it barefoot.

When the Young Marquis returned home, dejected, the old steward was reporting the situation to the old Marquis in detail: “When your old servant went, that Zhou was making a scene, attracting many people to watch, and pouring bucket after bucket of dirty water on Chef Lin’s head, scaring Lin Dan and Qi to not show their faces. Seeing that they were saying more and more outrageous things, your old servant was about to step forward to stop them, when Lin Dan and Qi were forced out, and they didn’t say a word of defense, but returned the spirit tablet of Imperial Chef Yan to them, and kowtowed three times to Zhou and the spirit tablet, and then left. Zhou knew that it was the spirit tablet of Imperial Chef Yan and slammed it on the ground, immediately smashing it open a big crack…”

In fact, Zhou didn’t know that it was Yan Bo’s spirit tablet at all. She was cursing fiercely at the time, and coupled with Lin Dan’s deliberate slow pace and soft voice, she couldn’t tell carefully. It was just that others were particularly concerned about Lin Dan’s words, so they all knew that what was wrapped in the white silk was precisely Yan Bo’s spirit tablet, and naturally thought that Zhou knew.

Hearing this, the old Marquis sighed: “Even the spirit tablet of the deceased husband was smashed, it is obvious that Zhou’s words before were all nonsense! She truly had no feelings for Imperial Chef Yan, and how could she have taken care of him when he was seriously ill, not to mention her unfilial son. If it weren’t for Baotian, the Yan family wouldn’t be where it is today. It’s still about money causing trouble, these people are truly money-grubbing, and have no conscience.”

The old steward echoed, “That’s right! If they didn’t sling mud at Chef Lin, how could they legitimately seize the Golden Knife, the recipe, and the restaurant? Chef Lin finally built up the reputation of Yan family cuisine, and they just wanted to take advantage of it, thinking everyone else was a fool and couldn’t see through their schemes! No matter how they slander Chef Lin as being unkind, unrighteous, disloyal, and unfilial, this constantly enshrined spirit tablet alone is enough to shut them up! If they had really done something to betray their master and ancestors, would Chef Lin dare to enshrine his master’s spirit tablet in his home every day? Instead, that Zhou and Yan Shouye, at the sight of the spirit tablet, were so frightened that their legs went weak, showing that they had done no small amount of things against their conscience.”

“I know what kind of person Baotian is; he would never do those evil things. Inheriting the mantle isn’t inheriting the family fortune; if it’s given to you, it’s yours, and you can use it as you please; first, you must have that ability. The Imperial Chef’s Successor is not an easy role to fill; whether or not you have real skills can be seen as soon as you get to the stove. Unless Imperial Chef Yan was old and confused, he would pass the mantle to the useless Yan Shouye; wouldn’t that just ruin his own reputation?” The old Marquis grew angrier as he spoke.

“That’s right! The Yan family has seized on the fact that Chef Lin is already dead and can’t come forward to confront them. It’s pitiful that Lin Dan and Qi can’t argue back, and can only leave dejectedly.” The old steward shook his head repeatedly and sighed.

“Send someone to bring them back; it’s not easy for an orphan and a widow.” The old Marquis couldn’t bear it and finally waved his hand.

The old steward hurried off, and the old Marquis then discovered his son standing at the door. He frowned and said, “Go send Yan Langqing away; our Marquis Manor won’t keep people of such bad character. I can hire as many skilled chefs as I want; I don’t lack her.”

The Young Marquis nodded, cupped his hands, and left without a word.

Yan Langqing, who had been preparing to stay in the Marquis Manor and make a big splash, never dreamed that a big scene staged by her grandmother and father not only failed to restore the Yan family’s reputation, but instead ruined her good job.