Gasp! She's a Time Traveler Using Modern Tech to Improve Ancient Life-Chapter 376 - 373: The White Feathered Divine Chickens Have Been Released

Chapter 376: Chapter 373: The White Feathered Divine Chickens Have Been Released

In the ancient world of music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, Lin Wanwan found it hard to compete directly with them, after all, they had been immersed in these arts since childhood, while Lin Wanwan grew up with exam-oriented education.

So why could she master the chess game today? It’s simple, there’s a secret under the desk!

Lin Wanwan had hidden a phone equipped with the national team’s training AI software system underneath. Whenever she seemed about to lose, she enlisted the AI’s help; it would be strange if they could win.

But Lin Wanwan used this cheat mainly to deal with someone coming to the banquet in the evening.

Yes, it’s Xiao Chong.

The idea of tricking Xiao Chong had been swirling in Lin Wanwan’s mind for a long time.

Recently, during the slack farming season, labor at the Ta Mountain Dam started up again, and Xiao Chong was too busy even to touch the ground.

Apart from the Ta Mountain Dam, Sun Lake was also being excavated. Xiao Chong was determined to get the water conservancy project done, spending all the profits from the salt field without rest.

Being such a foodie, he couldn’t even spare the time to sneak into the lunch banquet, indicating how busy the County Government’s affairs were.

Watching Xiao Chong’s rapid expenditure on building projects, the collective gentry and aristocrats of Mao County felt anxious.

Lin Wanwan also sensed she might be fleeced, but she was lucky to have White Feathered Chicken as a subsidy.

During the locust plague, the batch of White Feathered Chickens bought by the common people from the County Government was left in the fields to eat insects daily; in less than a month and a half, they were ready for market.

For a time, Mao County’s market was flooded with White Feathered Chickens, with supply exceeding demand, of course making the price much cheaper than ordinary chicken.

The plump, stocky White Feathered Chickens ready for market in just forty-two days made the common people extremely happy, even calling Xiao Chong the "Blue Sky" in praise.

Currently, there’s a rumor circulating in Mao County that Xiao Mingfu and Village Lady of Le’an are both deities descended from the stars, otherwise how would they have managed to produce the White Feathered Divine Chicken ready for market in forty-two days?

Mao County’s locust control report had already been sent to the court, and but for the slow transportation of ancient times, the locust-afflicted northern areas should have responded and sought the White Feathered Divine Chicken by now. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

After all, this chicken could eat locusts and grew fast, a rare good thing for the Great Tang where many starving and impoverished people lived.

As of now, the Great Tang hadn’t yet excluded chicken from the ’meat’ category, making eating chicken a rare luxury for the common folk.

Be it postpartum recovery, recuperation after illness, or banquets, chicken eggs and chicken soup were indispensable, showing how nourishing chicken was considered by the common people.

Come next year, which is the fifth year of Zhenguan, chicken would be excluded from the meat category by Tang Taizong Li Shimin.

Why did Li Shimin do this? There’s a noted historical anecdote here.

In the early Tang Dynasty, the country was extremely poor, and despite the strong foundation left by the Sui Dynasty, it wasn’t enough to support all the common people, still leaving many mountain dwellers hiding as unregistered citizens, unwilling to come down.

To enforce frugality and curtail lavish tendencies, the court set rules prohibiting Imperial Censors from eating meat on tours.

Back then, Li Shimin had a favorite official named Ma Zhou, who was clean-handed, highly capable, and his only hobby was eating chicken.

Once, Ma Zhou was on an outing as an Imperial Censor eating chicken, which was spotted by a petty official aiming to bring him down. The official immediately reported to Li Shimin, accusing him of eating meat!

To protect his beloved official, Li Shimin cleverly exempted chicken from the meat category, arguing, "I prohibited the Censors from eating meat, fearing the counties might overspend; what burden is chicken?"

Well, you’re the Emperor, your word is law. From then on, chicken was no longer considered meat in the Tang Dynasty.

Although after the fifth year of Zhenguan, in official terms chicken was not meat, for the common people, whether it was meat or not was only truly understood by the stomach; everything else was empty talk.

Due to the surging demand for White Feathered Chicken across Mao County, Lin Wanwan even had to invest in a chicken farm recently in the modern world as a cover.

After all, it’s easy to buy finished White Feathered Chickens and White Feathered Chicken eggs, but buying a large number of ancestral White Feathered Chickens was not easy, requiring a channel.

Lin Wanwan initially just wanted to get some White Feathered Chickens for her clan, supplementing the family quietly, but following Xiao Chong’s divine rituals, the operation scale rapidly expanded.

After several bulk purchases, she realized things couldn’t continue like this—so many chickens disappeared into her little villa, she feared being noticed by big shots who might seize her for research.

Not to mention if people at Lin Family Manor would wonder why her home incubated chicks so quickly, not even in modern times could she explain it away.

Especially with two carpenters renovating her second floor, looking at her more strangely day by day.

Thus, once when her young aunt was cleaning Lin Wanwan’s villa and saw the White Feathered Chickens she bought, she quickly mentioned having a distant nephew managing a chicken farm on rural land.

Suggesting Lin Wanwan could buy chickens from him next time, Lin Wanwan had a sudden flash of brilliance and promptly contacted the nephew through the young aunt’s connection to invest.

Initially, the nephew thought Lin Wanwan was joking, as young people nowadays rarely return to rural areas to raise chickens. But when Lin Wanwan swiftly brought forth real silver, he understood she was serious.

Lin Wanwan’s saying was that she wanted a batch of purely green White Feathered Chickens, believing nutritional chicken feed was fine but absolutely no antibiotics or similar drugs could be added.

Her investment wasn’t for profit; she just wanted to eat green, nutritious chicken meat.

This reasoning was incredibly compelling, instantaneously convincing the nephew (mainly because she offered so much money, there was no reason to refuse).

Thus, Lin Wanwan transformed into a co-owner holding a forty percent stake in the chicken farm.

Returning to the cocktail party, Lin Wanwan had conquered on the chessboard arena in the afternoon, earning the title of a chess master.

In the evening, representatives from the Xiao Family of Qiantang, related to Lin Wanwan, arrived.

Siblings from the direct lineage such as Xiao Xianghua, Xiao Ronghua, and Xiao Jingkun attended the banquet, which wasn’t a small affair, naturally coming to congratulate.

The only direct descendant Xiao Jingfeng didn’t come, probably feeling embarrassed after the drunken mishap incident last time, shying away from visiting again.

In Great Tang’s rules, the official banquet was considered in the evening, the noon session was just a warm-up, so throughout the day, the guests were young ladies with the same peerage as Lin Wanwan.

The evening banquet was different, besides the Xiao Family, other families interacting with the Lin Family came, from old to young, carrying gifts to congratulate.

Xiao Chong also arrived just before the evening banquet began.

He was accompanied by his staff member and cousin Xiao Ce, his cousin Dugu Di, and Doctor Chen Liang, who frequently trained Lin Wanwan (guided) in acupuncture skills.

The evening banquet offered a more abundant selection compared to the luncheon.

Various popular pancakes from Chang’an were served, including steamed cakes, fried pancakes, and Hu pancakes; Jiangnan people’s loved rice was also featured, not just everyday rice, but bamboo tube rice specially made by Lin Wanwan after chopping bamboo from the mountain with Sun Chuyao!

Bamboo tube rice is one of the specialty dishes of Lingnan Road.

This bamboo tube rice, cooked with sticky rice, japonica rice, preserved pork, kimchi, carrots, salt, soy sauce, oyster sauce, cooking wine, black pepper, and a little olive oil, was aromatic and soft, with a fragrant glutinous texture, combined with the bamboo’s fresh aroma, allowing a group of Mao County elites who never tasted such deliciousness to savor it endlessly and salivate over.

If not reserved for other delicacies, Xiao Chong alone could probably devour three bamboo tubes.