Junior Ms. Qian knew that Manbao had poor health, feared cold in winter, and heat in summer.
Her appetite waned with the heat, hardly craving foods like flatbreads or stuffed pancakes, and now they were on the road...
Although it was just for one day, Junior Ms. Qian was also very distressed.
So she rose before dawn to roll out dough and boiled a large pot of noodles, which she then soaked in cool boiled water, before adding a little water to a crock and pouring the cooled, drained noodles into it.
She minced several pieces of leftover chicken and a fried fish from the night before, stir-fried them with oil and salt, and then packed them into a small jar.
Only then did she make a bowl of tofu pudding and a bowl of egg noodles for Manbao. The rest she handed over to Zhou SiLang to tuck away in the carriage, saying, "At lunch, just lift the noodles out, add some minced meat from the small jar, and a bit of sweet sauce, and that'll do."
