Rise From the Humble

In the Taicang Bank, there is a post every five steps and a sentry every ten steps, so the defense is extremely tight.

Zhu Ping'an silently observed the strict defense of Taicang Bank while dealing with the greetings of Jia Langzhong and others. After walking in the reservoir area for about five or six minutes, we arrived at Taicang Dining Room.

This is a large dining hall, long from east to west and narrow from north to south. It can accommodate about seventy or eighty people dining at the same time. There are about ten tables in it, and the tables and chairs are relatively simple.

There was food set out on one of the tables, eight dishes and two soups, to be exact, four dishes and one soup, but each dish was served in duplicate.

The dishes are very ordinary, with two meat dishes and two vegetable dishes. The meat dishes are braised pork with tofu and stir-fried pork with cabbage. The vegetarian dishes are cucumbers and braised eggplants. The soup is a large bowl of gluten soup.

Such eight dishes and two large basins of gluten soup filled the table.

"Come, Mr. Zhu, please take a seat."

Zhang Guanku stood in front of the chair facing the west, smiled warmly, and extended his right hand to invite Zhu Ping'an to take a seat.

In ancient times, banquets were very particular about seating arrangements. On the one hand, it was because of the tradition of a country of etiquette, and on the other hand, there were differences in hierarchy. For the current dining room that is long from east to west and narrow from north to south, the most prestigious seat in the dining room is to sit in the west facing east, followed by sitting in the north facing south, thirdly sitting in the south facing north, and the most humble is sitting in the east facing west.

The seat where Zhang Guanku invited Zhu Ping'an to sit was the most prestigious seat in the dining room.

"Master Zhang, please." Zhu Ping'an smiled and shook his head, extending his hand to invite Zhang Guanku to take a seat.

The Ming Dynasty is a feudal society that pays great attention to hierarchy. The most obvious manifestation is the seating arrangement. There are strict rules on what seats should be occupied by those with higher levels and those with lower levels. Sitting randomly is to overwhelm the guests and usurp the host. There are also the following crimes: Dislike.

Zhu Ping'an would not make such a low-level mistake and leave no excuse for others.

Moreover, Zhang Guanku is the boss of Taicang Bank. People say that Qianglong is not as powerful as the local boss. What’s more, he is not even a Qianglong. Compared with Zhang Guanku, a third-grade official, and others, he, a sixth-grade official, is the best. At most it is a small earthworm.

In addition, just outside the bank gate, Jia Langzhong and others looked at him with contempt, and did not take him seriously.

In this case, I can't let them down.

After some pushing and pushing, Zhang Guanku finally sat in the first place, and Zhu Ping'an sat in the position below Zhang Guanku.

Seeing that Zhu Pingan was so knowledgeable, the Taicang officials felt even more relaxed. In their opinion, this aggressive inspection was easier than before.

"Oh, there are four meat dishes, not bad, not bad. Thanks to Mr. Zhu, we finally have meat dishes."

After sitting down, Taicang doctor Zhao Dingtian glanced at the food on the table, with disdain in his eyes, but there was an expression of surprise on his face, and he thanked Zhu Pingan in a fuss, as if he really didn't know the taste of meat in March.

Zhu Ping'an curled up the corners of his lips slightly, "Haha, you performed well. It would be even more perfect if you could wipe off the smell of bear paws on your body and the shiny oil stains on your mouth..."

Zhang Guanku glared at Mr. Zhao, who then shut up angrily, with a look of displeasure on his face, as if he was wrong to tell the truth.

"Haha, we in Taicang, a remote and remote area, are not as good as you in the city. They are all just living on a mediocre diet and providing poor hospitality. Please don't be offended, Mr. Zhu." Zhang Guanku said to Zhu Ping'an with a slight smile.

After the words fell, Zhu Ping'an looked up at Zhang Guanku, and then glanced at everyone present, his eyes were deep and his eyebrows were also wrinkled...

Zhang Guanku and all the Taicang officials present were frightened by the look in Zhu Pingan's eyes, especially Langzhong Zhao, who was even more frightened, thinking that Zhu Pingan had seen some flaw.

next second

But Zhu Pingan's eyes became darker and his eyebrows furrowed more intensely.

The people in Taicang present felt increasingly uneasy.

However, the next second, I saw Zhu Ping'an's deep eyes were moist, his eyebrows were together, he took a deep breath with his mouth open, and said with a very moved face: "Master Zhang and all the other masters are guarding you." Taicang Bank has such strict demands on itself. This kind of sentiment really makes Ping An admire him. Mr. Zhang made an exception for Ping An and prepared such a table of sumptuous delicacies. How can Ping An be dissatisfied."

Hi Nima!

It turns out that this guy was moved by our "frugality". Damn, I thought this guy had discovered some flaw.

Damn, I was worried for nothing.

Let me just say, how could he see the flaw? Haha, it turns out that the worry was in vain. A calf is a calf, and a rookie is a rookie! Being fooled so easily, what a bullshit champion, a fresh-faced nerd, this kind of person is good at eight-part essays, but if you ask him to do other things... haha...

After this incident, everyone looked down upon Zhu Pingan even more.

Four dishes and one soup, two meat and two vegetarian.

Except for Zhu Ping'an, everyone else at the table was not interested and basically didn't use their chopsticks.

It is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but it is difficult to go from luxury to frugality.

They had just come out of the "late night cafeteria" and all they had eaten were bear paws, abalone, and delicacies from the mountains and seas. Now if they were allowed to eat cabbage and tofu, wouldn't it be difficult for them to take off their chopsticks?

However, Zhu Pingan ate very well.

Zhu Pingan has not drank a sip of water or eaten a grain of rice since early in the morning.

But there were a lot of things going on that day. I got up early in the morning and went to Dali Temple first. As a result, the deputy envoy Qu Tongyang of Dali Temple suffered a stroke. Then he heard the news that Si Nan was imprisoned, so he went to the Meridian Gate without stopping.

Then he rode with Gao Rui to the Taicang Bank, but Gao Rui "fell off his horse" halfway, and he turned back to the city to find the doctor.

Then I spent half an hour basking in the sun outside the Taicang gate...

Zhu Ping'an had long been hungry and thirsty.

In addition, the "frugal package" launched by Mr. Zhang and others with ulterior motives also gave Zhu Pingan a surprise. It looks like cabbage and tofu, but sometimes the same ingredients, cooked by different chefs, taste very different.

Zhu Ping'an was sure that the Taicang cook's cooking skills were definitely not inferior to those of the imperial chef.

This looks like ordinary cabbage, tofu and cucumber, but it tastes amazingly good and is so popular that people can't stop using their chopsticks.

Zhu Pingan was like a rice pail, eating non-stop. Everyone in Taicang despised Zhu Pingan for his good appetite. He was really a bumpkin from the countryside...

"Well, Mr. Zhang, you can eat too. You don't need to take special care of me. Come on, Mr. Zhao, this tofu braised meat tastes good."

While Zhu Ping'an was immersed in eating, he raised his head and looked at the crowd. Seeing that everyone didn't move their chopsticks very much, he was "touched" and advised everyone to eat the food without taking special care of themselves. He especially paid special attention to Mr. Zhao and used serving chopsticks to spread a lot of tofu on Mr. Zhao. Braised pork, who made you so surprised just now that you finally saw meat?

"Ahem, no, no, I'll do it myself."

Zhao Langzhong looked at the big meat slices in the bowl and felt nauseated. Who the hell would eat such pork? When he saw Zhu Pingan's passionate eyes, Zhao Langzhong stuffed a big meat slice into his mouth as if he was swallowing a fly...