Chapter 1090: Only love and food cannot be wasted

"Your Majesty, is it possible that you know some magical arts?"

Helan Minyue raised her little face, her eyes full of surprise. The fear she had just felt had been swept away by this series of strange visions.

Lin Lang raised the corners of his lips, his tone carrying a bit of nonchalant arrogance: "My beloved, have you heard of the saying 'turn your hand and clouds will appear, turn your hand again and rain will fall'?"

Helan Minyue nodded hurriedly, like a chick pecking at rice: "I've heard of it! Such strange people and events are recorded in history books, but..."

Before she finished speaking, she saw Lin Lang suddenly raise his hand.

In an instant, the originally clear night sky seemed to be splashed with ink. Dark clouds rolled and gathered at a speed visible to the naked eye. A strong wind suddenly blew, sweeping the fallen leaves on the street into a spiral. Although it was a summer night, the wind made people's backs cold.

Helan Minyue subconsciously hid behind Lin Lang, her fingers gripping his sleeves tightening. "Your Majesty, this... this... can really summon the wind and rain?"

Lin Lang did not respond, but gently turned his palm hanging in the air.

"Crack——!"

A deafening thunder ripped through the night sky, and purple-gold lightning rolled in the dark clouds like a giant dragon.

Immediately afterwards, raindrops as big as beans fell down with a crackling sound, and in an instant it turned into a heavy downpour. The rain curtain was as dense as a white wall.

But strangely, the torrential rain seemed to be blocked by an invisible barrier one meter away.

There was not even a trace of raindrops where Lin Lang and Helan Minyue were standing. The evening breeze was still fresh after the rain, but there was no trace of moisture.

Helan Minyue was so shocked that she covered her mouth, her eyes wide open. After a while, she found her voice and exclaimed with a trembling voice: "Oh my God... Your Majesty, you are so amazing! This is simply a magical method! The rain... The rain is really circling around us!"

She stretched out her hand and tentatively reached forward. Just as her fingertips crossed the invisible boundary, they were wet by the cold rain. She was so scared that she quickly retracted her hand and turned to look at Lin Lang with admiration almost overflowing in her eyes.

Lin Lang put his arm around Helan Minyue's waist, and they walked side by side along the road that was shining with rain, and the evening breeze blew by with a moist coolness.

He looked down at the beauty in his arms and said with a smile, "Don't panic, my beloved. This is just my routine operation."

Helan Minyue leaned closer to Lin Lang's arms like a little fangirl, nuzzling against his collar, and said with a giggle, "Your Majesty has so many amazing abilities. Is there anything I don't know?"

Lin Lang deliberately dragged out his words, leaning close to her ear and speaking in a low voice with a hint of cunning, "I know a lot, but my best skill is... still in bed."

The warm breath swept across the earlobes, and Helan Minyue's face flushed red, even the roots of her ears were pink. She gently hit Lin Lang's arm, her voice as thin as a mosquito's hum: "Your Majesty... You are so bad."

Lin Lang laughed out loud and pinched Helan Minyue's blushing cheeks: "Just kidding. Seriously, where do you want to go next, my beloved?"

Helan Minyue blinked her moist eyes and shook her head in confusion: "Your Majesty...Your Majesty doesn't know either. Everything in Shanghai is too new to me. I really don't know where to find fun."

She looked at the flashing neon lights on the street, her eyes full of curiosity, and looked at Lin Lang with a bit of dependence, "Wherever your majesty says to go, I will go there."

Lin Lang caught a glimpse of a Sichuan-Chongqing hotpot restaurant on the street with warm yellow lights on. He could faintly smell the rich aroma wafting from inside, so he smiled and suggested.

"My beloved, you must be hungry too. There's a hot pot restaurant up ahead. How about I take you there to try some?"

Helan Minyue blinked and tilted her head curiously: "Hot pot? What is that? I have never heard of it before. Is it a food unique to Shanghai?"

Lin Lang smiled and replied, "Shanghai's hot pot is the same as Tang's warm pot. They are both cooked in a shabu-shabu style."

Helan Minyue's eyes lit up instantly, and she clapped her hands like a greedy little cat, smiling sweetly, "Warm pot? I know! We often eat it in the palace in winter. It's a copper pot with meat soup and vegetables. It's so warm and comfortable."

"I just wonder how the taste of the hot pot in Shanghai is different from that in the Tang Dynasty?"

Lin Lang replied, "The hot pot in Shanghai has much richer ingredients than that in the Tang Dynasty. There are more than a dozen kinds of meat alone, as well as various aquatic and land-based creatures. You can also mix your own seasonings and enjoy it however you want."

After hearing this, Helan Minyue laughed and said, "Your Majesty, your words have made me drool."

Lin Lang first put on sunglasses, then took Helan Minyue's hand and walked inside. As soon as they entered the Sichuan-Chongqing hot pot restaurant, the spicy and fragrant hot air hit them in the face.

The store was bustling with people. There was an induction cooker on every table, with bubbles bubbling inside, and the red and white soups clearly separated.

Because the private rooms were full, Lin Lang found a seat by the window. The waitress came forward immediately and handed him the menu with a smile.

Lin Lang said arrogantly, "Choose a spicy and mushroom soup hotpot. For the remaining vegetables and meat, whatever is on the menu, serve."

The waitress smiled and asked, "What would you two like to drink?"

"Just bring me one bottle of every kind of drink your restaurant has. This is a tip for you. Please serve the food as quickly as possible." Lin Lang took out a stack of hundred-yuan bills from his wallet and handed it to the waitress without even counting them.

"Thank you, sir! I wish you and your wife a pleasant meal!" The waitress bowed and left happily.

Helan Minyue asked curiously, "Your Majesty, did you just use the banknotes of the Shanghai Kingdom?"

"This is a 100-yuan banknote from Shanghai Country. This is what Shanghai Country's silver notes look like." Lin Lang took out the checkbook from his personal space and handed it to Helan Minyue to take a look.

"Your Majesty, everything about Shanghai is so interesting to me!"

The waitress quickly brought the soup base and placed the distinctly red and white shuangyuan pot on the table. Helan Minyue took a closer look and saw chili peppers and Sichuan peppercorns floating in the red soup, and green onion slices, wolfberries, jujubes, mushrooms, and bay leaves floating in the white soup.

"Your Majesty, this red soup... looks much stronger than the bone soup in the palace. What spices are added?"

Lin Lang patiently replied, "This is called the spicy hot pot base, it's very satisfying. In case you're not used to the spicy flavor, the other side of the shuangyang hot pot is the clear soup base."

"Your Majesty is so thoughtful, hehe..."

While waiting for the food, Lin Lang pulled Helan Minyue to the self-service condiment counter and pointed at the dazzling array of bottles and jars: "These are all condiments, minced garlic, sesame oil, crushed peanuts, chili peppers... Add whatever you like and make your own dipping sauce."

Helan Minyue was dazzled by what she saw. Following Lin Lang's instruction, she added some sesame paste, fermented bean curd juice, chives, crushed peanuts, and sprinkled some coriander.

Helan Minyue came back with a small bowl, her eyes sparkling: "Will it taste special if it's mixed like this?"

"My dear, you'll know once you try it." Lin Lang smiled and sat back in the dining chair.

After Helan Minyue sat down, she saw that the dishes on the table included marbled beef, shrimp balls, fresh duck blood, Chinese cabbage, wide noodles, lamb slices, duck intestines, shrimps, abalone and other ingredients.

The waitress continued to serve dishes, which made Helan Minyue dizzy.

"Your Majesty, the ingredients for hot pot in Shanghai are so rich! I have never seen many of the vegetables before." Helan Minyue looked curious.

"My dear little greedy cat, try the special drink of Shanghai Country first!"

Helan Minyue looked at the drinks on the dining table, including Coca-Cola, Sprite, Rising Sun Iced Black Tea, Zhengguanghe Orange Juice Soda, Coco Tree Coconut Juice, and Almond Milk, and said with a smile, "Your Majesty, you ordered so many bottles of drinks, how can we finish them?"

Lin Lang opened the drinks on the table one by one and replied lovingly, "I want you to try all the drinks in Shanghai. Come, how about trying the coconut milk first?"

As he spoke, Lin Lang poured half a cup of coconut milk into Helan Minyue's cup, his eyes full of doting.

Helan Minyue picked up the cup, tasted the coconut milk tentatively, and her eyes suddenly lit up.

"Your Majesty, I have tasted this sweet, honey-like flavor. The xuxie (Xu Xie) shells, which Yazhou presented to the Tang Dynasty as tribute, have liquid inside them that is like milk and drinkable. This is the same flavor."

The tribute from Yazhou that Helan Minyue mentioned was the tribute from Hainan Island.

Xuxie was the name for coconut in the early ancient times, and in the late Tang Dynasty it was simply called coconut.

After hearing this, Lin Lang smiled and replied, "My beloved is right. This is Xu Xie Juice, which is called coconut juice in our country of Shanghai."

Helan Minyue chuckled and said, "The coconut juice from Shanghai is sweeter and has a stronger coconut aroma than the Xuxie juice from the Tang Dynasty. It's delicious!"

Lin Lang looked at Helan Minyue's easily satisfied appearance, and smiled as he handed her an opened bottle of Coca-Cola. He raised his eyebrows and said, "My beloved, try the Coke. Just drink directly from the bottle."

Helan Minyue held the cold Coke bottle, stroking her fingers gently on the smooth bottle, her eyes full of curiosity.

She tentatively brought the bottle to her lips and took a cautious sip.

Bubbles exploded on the tip of the tongue, bringing with it a slight numbing sensation, and a barely perceptible astringency hidden within the sweetness. The novel taste made Helan Minyue's eyes suddenly widen, and she subconsciously smacked her lips, as if savoring this unprecedented taste.

"Your Majesty, what kind of drink is this?"

Helan Minyue couldn't help but take another sip. The bubbles rushed up, causing her to burp lightly and a lovely blush appeared on her cheeks.

The taste of cola made her feel a little numb on the tip of her tongue, a little sweet, and a little refreshing that was hard to describe. After drinking it, it felt like a lot of little beads were dancing in her stomach.

Lin Lang looked at Helan Minyue's innocent and cute appearance and couldn't help but smile: "My dear, this is called Coca-Cola, a very common drink in Shanghai. Is it delicious?"

"It tastes good!" Helan Minyue held the Coke bottle and drank it in small sips, her big eyes shining, as if she had discovered a new world.

Seeing the pot boiling, Lin Lang used a long serving chopstick to pick up a few slices of fat beef as thin as a cicada's wing, dipped them in the clear soup for a few seconds, rolled them into a roll, and put them into Helan Minyue's dipping sauce bowl, then handed it to her mouth, "Here, my beloved, try this."

Helan Minyue opened her mouth and took a bite. The tenderness of the fat beef, the freshness of the mushroom soup, and the fragrance of the dipping sauce instantly exploded on her tongue. Her eyes widened: "Wow... It's much more delicious than the hot pot in the palace! How can this meat be so tender?"

"This is called Marbled Beef, a specially selected cut." Lin Lang boiled another shrimp ball and put it into Helan Minyue's dipping sauce bowl. "Try this one, it's very chewy."

Helan Minyue picked up the shrimp paste and put it into her mouth. She bit it lightly with her pearly teeth. The smooth and elastic taste made her eyes curved into crescents. She praised it incoherently with the food in her mouth.

"This slippery thing is so delicious! It's even more delicious than the water dragon meatballs!" After saying that, she winked at Lin Lang playfully, and didn't even notice that there was some sesame paste on the tip of her nose.

The "Water Dragon Meatballs" mentioned by Helan Minyue are meatballs made from minced fish, minced shrimp and egg white in the Tang Dynasty.

Lin Lang had just cooked a few more slices of mutton and put them lovingly into Helan Minyue's dipping sauce bowl.

Helan Minyue was flattered and replied, "Your Majesty, please stop serving me food. Eat quickly! What would Your Majesty like to eat? I will prepare it for you!"