For a long while, the Empress finally recovered from her shock and asked in disbelief, "Are these three crops truly so high-yielding? Has Minister Chu planted them? Are there any actual samples?"
"Reporting to Your Majesty, this minister has already experimented with planting them. The samples are outside the hall." Chu Chen smiled slightly.
The Empress eagerly called out, "Guards, bring in the samples Minister Chu has brought."
"Yes!" Several guards went out and, to their embarrassment, found they didn't have enough hands. They called for dozens more people, and it took several trips to carry them in.
Seeing the hall filled with baskets, with some even spilling out onto the palace steps, the Empress and the civil and military officials were stunned.
"This, this, there are actually these crops? It's not that Chu Chen fabricated them to deceive His Majesty?"
"Am I truly ignorant? But there's no reason why I, the Vice Minister of Agriculture, wouldn't recognize these crops!" He Wen, from the Ministry of Works' Department of Agriculture, looked as if his world had been turned upside down.
The Empress recovered and, disregarding her imperial dignity and etiquette, rushed down from her throne to the baskets. She picked up a sweet potato and asked, "Is this red one the highest-yielding sweet potato? Is it edible?"
"Yes, this is a sweet potato, and it is absolutely edible." Chu Chen nodded and asked with a smile, "Would Your Majesty like to try it?"
"How is it cooked?" the Empress continued to ask.
"It's simple, just steam it in a pot." After speaking, Chu Chen called to a nearby guard, "I have prepared a pot and firewood outside the hall. Bring them in as well."
The guards' mouths twitched. They looked at the Empress, and seeing her nod, they dared to act.
"Your Majesty, cooking in the main hall is unprecedented and goes against protocol!" A middle-aged Censorate official hesitated for a moment before stepping forward to protest.
"Silence!" the Empress roared. The Censorate official was startled and retreated, not daring to speak further. The other Censorate officials saw this and did not dare to intervene.
Soon, a pot was set up in the hall, and firewood was thrown in. Chu Chen waved his hand, sending out a stream of spiritual energy to ignite the firewood. He then took out over ten sweet potatoes, wiped them briefly with his sleeve, and tossed them into the pot. Chu Chen had cleaned the items before coming; this was merely for show.
Everyone present watched the pot intently, eager to know if the sweet potatoes were edible and what they tasted like. Soon, the water in the pot boiled. After waiting for another quarter of an hour, Chu Chen opened the lid. He extended his hand into the pot, circulating his spiritual energy, and levitated the ten-plus sweet potatoes onto the pot lid in his left hand.
"Your Majesty, you can eat them after peeling the skin. Be careful, they are hot." Chu Chen carefully enveloped his right hand with spiritual energy and handed one to the Empress. The Empress followed suit, enveloping her hands with spiritual energy to receive it and quickly peeling it. Before she had finished peeling, she had already brought a part of it to her mouth and was blowing on it.
While she was doing this, Chu Chen summoned a guard and said, "Distribute these to the ministers, half a piece each to try."
"Yes!" The guards took them and began to distribute them.
"I, for one, want to taste this food that is said to yield thirty-three shi per mu. Is it truly edible?"
"They look quite large. If they are truly edible, one might be enough to fill one's stomach." The ministers whispered amongst themselves as they received the sweet potatoes, blowing on them like the Empress.
A moment later, feeling they were cool enough to eat, the Empress eagerly took a bite. The boiled sweet potato was soft and melted in her mouth, with a sweet and fragrant taste. In that instant, it conquered the Empress's taste buds.
"Delicious! This is truly edible, and incredibly sweet, though it lacks a bit of chewiness," the Empress said, her voice slightly muffled as she chewed.
"Uh, boiling them directly in water is the fastest way to cook them. Steaming them for a bit longer would retain the chewiness," Chu Chen said, then hesitated and looked at the Empress before continuing, "Also, this can be eaten raw."
"It can be eaten raw?" The Empress was taken aback. Not believing him, she picked one from the basket, wiped it, peeled it, and took a bite. She exclaimed in surprise, "It tastes like a radish! It can truly be eaten raw!" This meant it could be directly used as rations for marching troops. How could she not be pleased?
Neither the Empress nor the ministers had ever eaten sweet potatoes before. Their first taste was of something they found incredibly delicious. Including the Empress, everyone who received a boiled sweet potato ate it heartily. In a short while, they had finished, looking longingly at the unboiled ones.
"Hiccup~" Having eaten half a piece more than the other ministers, a whole sweet potato down, the Empress seemed to have eaten a bit too much and let out a loud burp. Her face immediately flushed, and she said sheepishly, "This food is truly too delicious. Without realizing it, I ate a whole one."
"This minister understands," Chu Chen replied, suppressing a smile. The Empress nodded and turned her gaze to the other two baskets of corn and potatoes in front of her, asking, "Are those two also this delicious? Can they also be eaten raw?"
"They cannot be eaten raw, and their taste is inferior, but their nutritional value is much richer than sweet potatoes, and they can be eaten for a long time," Chu Chen said, glancing at the baskets as the Empress did.
"Eaten for a long time? Minister Chu, do you mean this sweet potato cannot be eaten continuously?" The Empress's heart suddenly tightened.
"This sweet potato is extremely filling. An ordinary person can be full after eating one of average size, boiled. Its taste is also good, and its yield is very high. With so many advantages, it naturally has its drawbacks. One of them is insufficient nutrition."
"Secondly, eating too much of it can cause... flatulence."
As if to verify Chu Chen's words, in the government hall, someone suddenly let out a loud fart.
"..." And this was just the beginning. One after another, loud farts echoed through the hall. Chu Chen was stunned. He thought he had just heard the Empress fart as well?
"What is going on? System! System Daddy! Are there any problems with these sweet potatoes?" Chu Chen exclaimed in his mind, startled.
[This system has improved the crops to adapt to this world's soil, but it did not state adaptation to the human body. However, it is not a major issue. It is merely that upon initial consumption, as the body has not encountered it before, gas will be produced.]
[If you consume it more frequently in the future, you will not expel gas simply because you eat it infrequently.]
The system, unusually, provided after-sales service and explanation. It was very conscientious. Chu Chen was relieved and even had time to mentally give the system a thumbs-up.
"Your Majesty, this is how it is the first time eating it. In the future, as long as you don't eat it frequently or in large quantities, this will not happen." Chu Chen thought for a moment and decisively shifted the blame to everyone's constitution, resolutely refusing to take responsibility.
However, at this moment, the Empress had no desire to speak to him. She covered her mouth and nose with her sleeve, her face flushed with embarrassment. For the dignified Empress to fart in front of her ministers, and so loudly, with civil and military officials all around – it was utter social death! Fortunately, the Empress was not the only one farting; if they were to die socially, they would die together. It was just that the hall had become a bit smelly.