Caleb and the Cursed Kitchen Chapter 4

Caleb Lu stood at the gate of the palace, looking up at the magnificent vermilion gate and towering courtyard wall in front of him.

The copper door nails gleam with a cold metallic luster, and even the stone lions on both sides are exquisitely carved from white jade, all of which reveal the royal family's extravagance and luxury.

It is a very luxurious...

Burial place.

Caleb Lu said in a sad tone: "Tongzi, compared to here, do you think being in prison is not bad now?"

2583: "......"

"What are you dawdling for? Hurry up!" The black-clad guard turned around and urged him impatiently.

He took two deep breaths of free air on the way and followed with a tragic look on his face.

After walking absentmindedly for ten minutes, the Black Demon in front of him suddenly said, "Butler Qian, the person is here."

When he was walking on the road, he was startled and realized that he had unknowingly arrived at the front hall of the palace.

A middle-aged man with a kind face was sitting on the armchair in front of him. He was waving at him with a smile on his face: "Are you the boy who cooked for the prince last night? Come here and let me take a look."

I was terrified all the way and thought of a hundred ways to die, but I never thought there would be such a gentle conversation.

If you don’t know, you might think that they are here to meet the parents of their blind date.

He was confused and stepped forward cautiously and bowed: "I am honored to meet you..."

"It's okay, forget about the formalities, just sit down!" Butler Qian Changqin looked at him cheerfully.

"Your name is Caleb Lu? I'm the butler of the Seventh Prince, you can just call me Uncle Qian. Today I specially asked Guard Han to invite you here, because I want you to stay and be the cook for our prince."

When you are on the road of waiting for death with fear: "......Ah???"

Han Yang, who was standing nearby, snorted coldly and weighed the knife in his arms, obviously sneering at what Butler Qian said.

Butler Qian pretended not to notice and explained in a good-tempered manner: "Our prince has been very impressed by your cooking skills since he ate the noodles you made that day. He wants to hire you to be the head chef in the mansion. Are you willing?"

Caleb Lu opened his mouth wide and asked stupidly: "He likes...the noodles I make?"

Is this referring to the bowl of noodles that almost choked him like a salted fish?

Steward Qian smiled and said, "Xiaolu, our prince has always been very picky about food and has his own unique ideas. There are not many things in the world that can catch his eye, and your cooking skills are one of them."

Road time: "......"

Butler Qian: "Also, I heard that you were fired from Shifang Restaurant starting today? You haven't found a job yet, right? Well, how much was your monthly salary at the restaurant before?"

When on the road, I was in a desperate situation: "Three...three hundred coins."

As a cook who is not yet qualified to work in the kitchen, this salary is already very high in Wangcheng's catering industry. This is also a special treatment for being Conrad Zhao's apprentice.

If he hadn't been deducted a lot of money on the road, he would definitely be the best among his peers.

Steward Qian nodded to show that he understood, and then said, "If you are willing to come to the palace, how about I give you two taels of silver every month? You only need to be responsible for the meals of the prince. If the prince is satisfied, I can multiply it several times in the future."

He stood still on the road with his eyes empty, exuding a calmness that "poverty and humbleness cannot change him", which was awe-inspiring.

But in reality, he was stabbing the system in his mind, "...Is this guy sick? Does he have pica?!"

He is not stupid. Even if he could say with a clear conscience that the bowl of noodles was "not bad", it would never be so delicious that people would "like it very much".

System 2583 was so anxious that a buzzing sound came out of his mind as he was walking: "Host, you don't care if he is sick or not, just agree to it!"

"What do you, a clear AI, know?" Caleb thought there was something fishy going on. "This is a villain who has killed countless people. Who knows what he is up to? And even if he really loves to eat sh!t... you said he was plotting to usurp the throne! How can he have a good ending? If I enter the palace, won't I be dragged down by him when the house is confiscated in the future?!"

2583 kindly reminded him: "But the host is already at the end of his rope, so where is the future?"

Road time: "......"

There is no need to use two idioms in a row to strengthen your tone.

Butler Qian looked hesitant when he saw Lu, but he was not in a hurry. He sipped his tea slowly and winked at Han Yang who was eager to make a move, signaling him to be patient.

"Xiaolu, if you have any other requests, please let me know. Uncle Qian will do his best to satisfy you within his ability." He smiled amiably at the young man.

Caleb Lu gritted his teeth and said, "No, I would like to thank the prince and Butler Qian first."

The system was right. The most urgent thing was to survive. No matter what, at least he could guarantee the economic foundation for completing tasks in the palace. Otherwise, he could only beg on the street with this Erha system.

Let's wait for a while.

"That's great!" Butler Qian smiled and begged a servant, "Butler Zhang, go and arrange a place for him to stay. Xiaolu, come with me. I'll show you where the work is done."

-

The kitchen of the palace was located in a clean, independent courtyard that didn't take up much space. It was around ten in the morning, and smoke was already rising from the courtyard, with several figures busy at work.

When they saw Butler Qian come in, they all bowed and greeted him.

Butler Qian nodded and called the leader: "Old Guo, come here."

The middle-aged man called Lao Guo looked honest and simple, with a neck almost as thick as his head. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and walked up to the two of them, "Butler Qian, what's wrong? What would the prince like to eat now?"

"No." Butler Qian let Caleb Lu step out from behind him, "This is the new cook chosen by the prince. I'm bringing him here to meet you. His name is Caleb Lu, and he used to work as an assistant at Shifang Restaurant. Caleb Lu, this is the current head chef of the palace, Master Guo Bazhen."

Caleb Lu stepped forward and bowed, but Guo Bazhen did not move. He looked at him with a puzzled look: "New cook? But we don't need any help in the kitchen, and I don't need any help here."

My heart skipped a beat as I walked along the road.

Then, Steward Qian said calmly, "He is not here to help. From today on, he will be responsible for all of the prince's meals. You don't have to worry about it anymore."

Guo Bazhen: "......"

Road time: "......"

Caleb Lu maintained a stiff smile on his face, but in his heart he screamed: How could you fire him in front of me! Are you afraid that you can't help me raise the hatred value to the maximum? !

As expected, Guo Bazhen's originally curious gaze suddenly turned into hostility.

He stared at Caleb Lu in disbelief for a long time, then rubbed his thick neck in frustration and asked, "Your Majesty, do you dislike me? You don't want me anymore?! Then I, then I'll go pack my bags now..."

"Come back!" Butler Qian shouted.

"Xiaolu is only responsible for the prince's meals. You will be in charge of the kitchen as usual, and your monthly salary will remain the same. No one wants to fire you, so don't talk nonsense."

What would it look like if the prince heard it?

Guo Bazhen's expression eased a little, but when he looked at Lu, his eyes were still full of jealousy and unwillingness to accept.

The chefs in the Seventh Prince's Mansion were changed frequently, and Guo Bazhen knew this when he arrived at the mansion a year ago.

He had worked hard this year, trying his best to please his master, but he had never received a single compliment from the master of the palace. To this day, he didn't even know what the Seventh Prince liked or disliked about food.

Caleb Lu's appearance was a heavy blow to him.

Butler Qian saw it all, but he smiled and said nothing. He asked Guo Bazhen, "What was the prince's original lunch today?"

Guo Bazhen glanced at the stove, "Fresh shrimp with pepper and vinegar, steamed chicken with five spices, deep-fried taro chips, stir-fried bamboo shoots with pickled mustard greens, and fish sashimi with scallions and water shield. The fragrant rice is already on the steamer, and the last thing to do is to make a goose fat roll with fluffy stuffing."

"Since the young master is here, please show us your skills." After saying this, he stood aside and stared at the fair-skinned young man in front of him, determined to see how this kid was better than him.

"......" Caleb Lu's throat rolled up and down, half of it was greedy, and half of it was panic.

It was like he was listening to a TOEFL listening passage. In a long and overly complicated passage, he only grasped a few simple nouns - shrimp, chicken, fish, goose, and rice.

What are all those other bells and whistles???

Just as he was panicking, Butler Qian spoke up to help him out: "All that is not needed, take it away. Xiaolu, the prince asked you to just cook a bowl of noodles from that day."

After that, Butler Qian emphasized: "It has to be exactly the same."

Caleb Lu: "???"

He said that the prince was sick!

-

Even though he was sick, Caleb Lu certainly had no right to say no to the first request of his big boss.

The palace did not have ready-made sun-dried noodles, so he had to knead and roll them himself when traveling.

He took a small amount of flour and poured it into a bowl, then added water. Before he had kneaded it a dozen times, the batter started to stick to his hands and he couldn't tear it off.

The system reminded him that there was too much water, so he added some flour. The batter was no longer sticky, but turned into dry lumps that could not be rubbed apart.

Just like this, if there is too much flour, add water, if there is too much water, add flour, if there is too much flour, add water again...

The servants in the kitchen couldn't work seriously anymore. Their eyes kept drifting towards Caleb Lu. They watched the dough on the chopping board grow bigger and bigger while they excitedly whispered to each other:

"Where did this country bumpkin come from? He doesn't even know this? The Shifang Restaurant isn't that great!"
"Look at his thin legs. Can he hold the pot?"

"Is he really a cook? Could it be that the prince is..."

"Hush! You've lost your mind! How dare you gossip like this in the mansion... Watch out for your skin!"

I finally woke up while waiting for the train, and the sun had already climbed high to the zenith.

Everyone else had finished their work and gone to eat, leaving Caleb Lu alone in front of the stove, holding a rolling pin, ready to roll the divided dough into noodles.

The system couldn't bear to watch it any longer: "......Host, don't do this anymore. I'll give you a simpler one." If they continued doing this, it would be dark.

Caleb Lu: "Why didn't you tell me earlier? Which one do you want to change to?"

The system released the picture, and Caleb Lu’s eyes suddenly lit up.

Another twenty minutes passed, and Caleb Lu scooped up the cooked noodles and put them into a bowl. He carefully and seriously added seasonings into it, and handed the noodles to the maid who was in charge of serving the dishes.

He watched the bowl of noodles go away, turned around and breathed a sigh of relief, pinched his sore forearm and said to the system: "I just tasted a little secretly, this bowl of noodles is the most delicious thing I have ever made in my life."

In order to leave a good impression on his boss when he first took up the job, he used up all his intelligence and talent.

If this doesn't work, then nothing will.

After a cup of tea.

"......no."

Butler Qian still smiled cordially, and said as he stood in front of him, "The prince said that this bowl of noodles is not as delicious as the one he had that day, and he wanted to eat the noodles that night. Why don't you think about it again, what went wrong?"

Caleb Lu looked at the almost untouched noodles in the bowl and thought with gritted teeth, maybe there is something wrong with the prince's brain!