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Anger is one thing, but tasks must still be done.

Xia Zhen lowered his head and let out a sigh, rhythmically tapping on the table. After a moment, a man dressed in all black appeared before him, kneeling on one knee with utmost respect.

Xia Zhen cleared his throat, disguising the unease on his face, and spoke solemnly, "Yi, as the Deputy Commander of the Hidden Guards, I am well aware of your loyalty and capabilities."

"Thank you, Great commander!" Yi responded still with his head lowered, without any superfluous words.

"Cough cough." Xia Zhen’s face grew hot with embarrassment, "Therefore, today I have an extremely important mission for you, a mission of utmost importance that is even related to the fate of the entire military camp and the Dayong dynasty.

I trust no one else with this task. Are you capable of accomplishing it?

Moreover, you must ensure that the mission is completed excellently at all costs, can you? "

Yi felt a jolt through his body as if a heavy burden had been placed on his shoulders, but he showed no sign of shrinking back; instead, he was rather excited. For a Hidden Guard, serving the military camp and the Imperial Court, even sacrificing for them, was their honor.

With his hands clenched into fists, Yi’s resolute gaze as if it could pierce through the ground, "Please rest assured, Great commander, even if I have to scale mountains and dive into seas of fire, I will certainly accomplish the mission without fail!"

Xia Zhen had already begun to sweat, rubbing his palms together with embarrassment, "Set off now, to Zhuma Town, find the second young master. Follow his commands in every aspect."

"Yes!" Although Yi was somewhat puzzled as to why the task was being assigned by the second young master, he still faithfully withdrew to prepare his horse and set off immediately.

Watching Yi’s retreating figure, Xia Zhen bit his lip with guilt, spreading his hands in apology, "Ah, don’t blame me, there was really no other way."

Knowing that Xia Zheng would leave the next day, Lin Yuan planned to make him something delicious tonight. She had promised to make steamed pork ribs with rice flour before, so as soon as she got home, she started to get busy.

She decided not to cook another dish, because she had prepared some dough in the morning, which was just right for steaming buns.

Therefore, Lin Yuan planned to make a pocket pancake as well, a new treat she had never made before.

It would certainly make Xia Zheng want to eat it again and look forward to returning to the Capital city from Zhuma Town early to find her.

The thought flashed through Lin Yuan’s mind, and she suddenly slapped her forehead; he hadn’t even left yet, and she was already hoping he would come back soon. If the narcissistic guy knew about this, he would surely act conceited again.

But even though she was thinking about this, Lin Yuan took unusually great care and attentiveness in cooking this time. As the saying goes, to capture a man’s heart, one must first capture his stomach, and Lin Yuan certainly took this to heart.

Now her home was well-stocked with ingredients, so whatever Lin Yuan wanted to make deliciously was within easy reach.

First, she chose several pieces of good quality pork ribs, washed and chopped them into small pieces, then marinated them with white liquor, soy sauce, salt, and green onion, ginger, and garlic.

Lin Yuan began preparing the rice flour.

Since there was no ready-made rice flour at home, she had to make it from scratch, which luckily wasn’t very hard.

She put the dried rice directly into the wok and dry fried it.

To give the rice flour more flavor, she also added some Sichuan peppercorns and small red chili peppers, and kept stir-frying over low heat until the rice turned slightly yellow before taking it out of the wok.

Because the rice would have a natural aroma after being fried, Lin Yuan fried more than necessary. Half of it she ground into coarse powder using a small mill, and the other half she saved for cooking porridge later.

Since the steamed pork ribs don’t require very fine rice flour, she did not grind the rice a second time.

Keeping some of the grains in the coarse powder would make it tastier.

She mixed the coarse powder with the marinated pork ribs, ensuring each piece was covered with the mixture.

Finally, she placed them in a large pot to steam for half an hour, and with that, the task was accomplished.