The little lady in the dining room

Chapter 138 The two sides
In Yilan Palace, Concubine Li waited for a few days, feeling something was wrong.

Why is there no movement?
Not only the emperor doesn't have one, but the queen mother doesn't even have one, which is so unbelievable - a father and a grandmother don't care whether the prince is real or not?

By the seventh day of the lunar new year, Concubine Li was already pacing up and down the hall anxiously. She was puzzled and wanted to inquire, but she didn't know who to ask.

If it was a few years ago, she might have gone to the Zichen Palace, but now it seems that doing so is too stupid, and she doesn't want to offend Shengyan again.

Then go directly to Changle Palace to ask. She doesn't know what the queen mother thinks now, so she should also be careful.

After thinking about it for a while, Concubine Li invited Chen Jijiang to come.

It was Chinese New Year, and the Zichen Palace was busy. Chen Jijiang wanted to push it away, but after thinking about this matter, he knew that he should not take it lightly, so he leisurely sipped a cup of tea and consumed the people from Yilan Palace for a while. After getting the strength of the imperial court, he walked slowly to Yilan Palace.

After entering the hall, Concubine Li was eating snacks, Chen Jijiang bowed to her, and then made a humble appearance, waiting for Concubine Li to ask questions.

Concubine Li was holding a piece of mung bean cake stuffed with red bean paste in her hand, she didn't put it down when he arrived, but lowered it slightly, and said with a gentle smile: "Master Chen is here to make this trip. I would like to ask, how can your Majesty do it recently?" Did you check what happened?"

Chen Jijiang knew what she was referring to, but said: "Your Majesty is busy with government affairs every day, and there are many major and minor matters to be investigated... I don't know which one Li Concubine is referring to?"

"This palace is only about government affairs." Concubine Li smiled softly, and threw the remaining half of the pastry into her mouth. She lightly brushed her hands, as if carelessly, "I mean, what happened to the Ruan family and the eldest son of the emperor?" , what happened?"

"Oh oh oh...you mean this, ma'am!" Chen Jijiang smiled with relief, then froze for a moment, then became confused for a moment, "The Ruan family and the eldest son of the emperor... what's the matter?"

Concubine Li: "..."

For about half an hour afterwards, Chen Jijiang felt the joy of "playing Tai Chi" in his heart. No matter how Concubine Li threw up her words or made insinuations, he would push them back in a circle, with a complete expression of "Ms. Ruan and the eldest son of the emperor are not concerned about anything." It didn't happen, Empress Li, what are you talking about?"

After he left, Concubine Li became even more confused.For a moment, I wondered if I really said that sentence in Roujia Palace that day—could it be in a dream?Didn't you understand?Otherwise it wouldn't be so quiet!
After some hesitation, Concubine Li finally called Huaye to come in, and asked Huaye to go to Changle Palace to say hello for her, and "by the way" asked the Queen Mother how her old man was doing recently and when it was convenient, and said that she wanted to find a time Kowtow to go.

In a blink of an eye, it was Shangyuan.

This day Su Zixian asked for leave to go out of the palace again, and she didn't go to the palace banquet in Sydney, because the next day there was a palace banquet for A Yao's birthday, and she couldn't stand the torment for two consecutive days, so she simply passed it in Liugeyuan. Anyway, at ease.

Xie Zhao also thought about this, and deliberately showed his absent-mindedness at the palace banquet, in order to let the palace banquet end earlier - to be honest, he has not been idle from New Year's Eve to today.Last year, it was too late in Shangyuan, and he was a little dazed when he celebrated A Yao's birthday the next day. This year, he had to make a choice.

Of course, Ah Yao's birthday is important, there are many festivals in a year, and Ah Yao's birthday is just like this.

Therefore, under his unremitting efforts to pretend not to be interested, the banquet held at Xushi broke up as soon as Haishi arrived.The emperor felt refreshed as he leisurely walked towards Liugeyuan, thinking that he didn't even drink too much wine today, and he could still spend the holiday with their mother and son well.

As soon as he entered the courtyard, he heard Ah Yao's voice coming from the small kitchen in the main courtyard: "Mom! I want to eat fried food!"

He silently stopped the court man's salute and walked towards the kitchen.When I got to the door, I saw that Xueli was cooking with his back facing the stove, and Ayao was bouncing around holding a bowl and spoon: "One more! Just one!"

Sydney is helpless.

The year before last, Shangyuan Ayao was too young to give her something sticky like glutinous rice balls; last year she was three years old, and it was a good idea to give her a sesame stuffed one; this year, I thought she would be older, so I made it for her Two boiled ones, two fried ones, one each with sesame bean paste.

As a result, Ah Yao fell in love with fried sesame stuffing.

It's not difficult to make. The raw glutinous rice balls are deep-fried in the pan when the oil is initially hot, and it's fine to leave them when they are deep-fried until they are golden brown.The aroma produced by this method is stronger than that of boiled water, and it is normal for children to like it...

But Sydney is worried that she will feel uncomfortable if she eats too much!
It is not suitable to eat glutinous rice, and this method is more oily.So after Ah Yao finished eating two, she kept a straight face and refused to make any more of these for her, only saying that she could give her two more boiled ones.

But Ayao refused, Ayao said that she could exchange the two boiled ones for a deep-fried one!

Right now A Yao is still tormenting her, Xueli will not give it to her if she can't beat it, put all the fried ones into the plate at hand, and tell A Yao very cruelly: "This is all from the father and mother."

Xie Zhao didn't know the previous situation, he simply thought that the scene of Xueli's serious face and Ayao begging her was very interesting, so he leaned against the door and watched with a smile, until Xueli finished frying a plate and turned his head to see He stopped, and then he asked her: "What's the matter? Shangyuan still doesn't give you glutinous rice balls?"

"She's eaten it, and I'm afraid she'll feel uncomfortable if she eats too much." Xue Li frowned and explained to Xie Zhao what was going on, and Xie Zhao understood.So he stood aside with her very face-saving, and went back to the main room together.

A Yao followed behind aggrievedly, seeing her parents put the glutinous rice balls on the couch table and then sat on the couch, she also climbed up.This time, instead of asking for Sydney, I asked for the emperor.

She stretched out a finger and said, "Father, I'll just eat one more...just one!"

Oh, Yao, you are so pitiful.

Xie Zhao picked one up and put it into his mouth, raising his eyebrows: "No."

Ayao's eyes turned red, and her mouth was flattened, thinking that it might be more difficult to grind father emperor than grind mother, so she went back to Yang Xueli: "Mother, there is only one! I will study for an extra minute tomorrow!"

Little girl, you are getting smarter!

Think about it, Sydney, it's her birthday tomorrow, it's really not good to lock her in the house to study.Then he thought for a while, then embraced her and said, "Is this good? You are not allowed to eat it today. It will really make you uncomfortable if you eat too much at night. Tomorrow is your birthday, and when you get up in the morning, mother will cook it for you. You can eat five .”

five!

Ah Yao's eyes lit up immediately, and he nodded immediately and said yes!Then Xie Zhao coaxed her to play with Yuxiang first, she didn't say anything else, she happily dragged Yuxiang out from under the bed by pulling Yuxiang's paw, Yuxiang was so reluctant...

Watching one person and one lion leave, Xie Zhao also finished the deep-fried glutinous rice balls in his mouth.He thought the taste was too greasy, but it was still delicious when boiled, so Sydney asked brown sugar to be boiled in a small bowl of water.

A bowl of glutinous rice balls is colorful, she said with a smile: "I mixed three kinds of skins, the white ones are glutinous rice, the purple ones are added with purple rice flour, and the green ones are added with mung bean flour. There are five kinds of fillings: bean paste, sesame, hawthorn, walnut, and fresh meat." , Wrap whatever you want, I don’t know which flavor it is.”

When she said this, Xie Zhao suddenly felt that eating this bowl of glutinous rice balls was quite a challenge!
Sydney watched him eat with a smirk.But he was really lucky, a bowl of eight, and after eating five, he could eat all the flavors, so he put down the bowl and wiped his mouth with peace of mind and said it was delicious, but the hawthorn was too sour.

"Zixian from Hawthorn cooks delicious food." Xueli curled her lips, "But she is out of the palace to play again, so I can only cook it!"

She didn't know why Zixian was so interested in going out to play recently, and her family was not in Luo'an, so was it really interesting to go around by herself?

Xie Zhao smiled without saying anything, casually picked up another deep-fried dish to relieve boredom, and said to her: "In two days, you can go to Seventh Brother's house to meet Mrs. Yi, take the child with you, and then make a backup gift." past."

"What are you doing?" Sydney didn't understand.

Xie Zhao said: "Perhaps the fact that the Empress Dowager saw A Yuan and A Ce on New Year's Eve but had a different attitude made the seventh brother uneasy. In the past few days, she always sent things to A Yuan and A Yao when she entered the palace. You saw it too. Go and give it to Yi If you return a salute and reminisce about the past, it will be considered as an attitude to them, so that they can feel at ease."

Such a thing!
Sydney readily agreed to the matter.On the second day I celebrated A Yao's birthday, on the third day I took a day off, and in the evening I delivered a post to the Seventh Prince's Mansion. On the morning of the eighteenth day of the first month, Sydney took A Yao out of the palace.

I don’t know if it’s to let the Seven Kings know that this is the emperor’s intention, and the emperor’s reassurance. This trip out of the palace is quite pompous. It’s A Yao’s identity and the emperor Jiyi’s arrival. The street to walk in the imperial city And the streets on both sides were clean, and the imperial guards escorted them along the way, and the book stretched quite long in front of and behind the carriage.

Ah Yao didn't care about the ostentation, so he just sat happily in the carriage - I just saw brother A Test yesterday after his birthday, and I can play with him again today, this kind of opportunity is not usually available!
In the car, she always opened the curtain to look out, and kept asking Sydney, "Is it there? Are you there?", and the answer made Sydney's mouth dry.

It was still Wei Chen who was direct, he rode up to him and pushed the curtain, and said to Ah Yao: "If you ask too many questions, the road will become farther."

——In the second half of the journey, Ah Yao was quiet the whole time, waiting anxiously for the carriage to stop, especially regretting that he had asked too many times just now!

At the gate of the Seventh Prince's Mansion, Mrs. Yi had been waiting for a long time, when she saw Lu Bu from a distance, the servants who came out to greet her knelt down neatly.She waited until the carriage came to a complete stop, and saw Emperor Ping'an get out of the carriage first with the help of the maid, and Xue Li also walked down, and said, "It's counted, I'm worried that you have changed your mind."

Xueli also smiled, went forward to reply, and apologized that Ayao was still young and did not dare to let the carriage drive too fast, while Ayao quietly stuck out her tongue beside her, thinking that she had babbled too much just now and made the road longer. Aunt Qi had to wait for a long time.

Then the three of them went to Yi's residence together, and the Seven Kings were not there, so A Test dragged the wet nurse and trotted out to call for his sister.A Yao led his younger brother to play happily, and A Yuan's nanny went with her in her arms.Sydney and Yi Shi entered the room and sat down, Yi Shi blinked at her without saying a word.

"Are you really worried that I will remember you for what happened that day?" Xueli said bluntly, Yi's face flushed slightly, and she immediately said, "I didn't even think about this, I thought it was over and it was over. Your Majesty mentioned it to me that day, and I realized that you were bothered by this. What a big deal, what is there to hold grudges about? Thank you for comforting me that day.”

She spoke quite bluntly, but Yi just sighed, and after a moment of silence, said: "I'm not so nervous as usual, but every day the Queen Mother is in Luo'an, I feel uneasy all day. The matter of the eldest son of the emperor , I don’t know if she will make a big fuss. At first, His Highness and I thought that with a prince, you and Your Majesty would be able to live in peace, but now it seems that we were wrong."

Thinking about this, Sydney also became curious.Thinking back when Yi Shi was pregnant, the Queen Mother was very happy, and later she gave birth to A Test, and the Queen Mother liked her even more.But how come they can't do it...

Xue Li didn't understand, and Yi Shi didn't understand either, so the two of them just sat there, and after sitting for a while, they bypassed the topic, it's better to talk about happy things.

At noon, the two happily cooked together, and the main dish was naturally made of pears—she urged Yi Shi to do it, but Yi Shi refused, saying that what she did was called Guan Gong's big knife in front of the door, which was embarrassing.

However, the two small stir-fries and a plate of boiled poached eggs made by Yi's are really good, especially the poached eggs are cooked very well.The egg white is fully cooked, and the egg yolk is also solidified, and it is thinner if it is further inside.One bite and you can taste the original light umami taste of the egg. Ayao, who has never eaten an egg like this, finds it very novel, and only then knows that the egg can also be "sucked and eaten"!
So A Yao, who was unfamiliar with this method of eating, ate a mouthful of egg yolk, and the two mothers laughed for a long time.When they were leaving, Ah Yao was reluctant to part with this kind of eggs, and Yi Shi squatted down and laughed at her: "It's just ordinary eggs, this method is what my mother used to make when I was a child - your mother will definitely do it too!"

As she spoke, she blinked at Xueli, and Xueli answered immediately: "Yes, yes, mother can do it too, and I'll make it for you tomorrow morning!"

This is not bragging, this is a piece of cake in her eyes!There are eggs, pots, water and stoves and you can come!
Changle Palace.

The empress dowager who had just decided to see Concubine Li was suddenly shocked by the fact that the Ruan family was leaving the palace.

No matter what the Ruan family would say or who they would meet when they went, the emperor's meaning was obvious enough in this matter.

He is doing it for others to see, to let others see how much he doesn't care what Concubine Li said, and to let them know that he completely trusts Ruan Shi—to the point that, in their eyes, "the cusp" doesn't exist at all, he He still treats Ruan Shi as he pleases, so he will let her go out of the palace to meet people with such peace of mind.

The empress dowager was tense for a long time.In the end, she actually flinched, which surprised her.

"Lvxiang." She sighed, "Go to Yilan Palace and call back, so that Concubine Li doesn't have to come tonight, just say that Aijia is not feeling well."

Luxiang responded with a "promise" and went to report.After a while, the Empress Dowager called Xu Chunsheng again: "Go to Zichen Hall and ask Your Majesty, if he is free tonight, come to Ai's house for dinner."

Xu Chunsheng was slightly taken aback, but he also responded with a "promise".When he went to the Zichen Palace to report the speech, not only he himself was full of surprises, but Chen Jijiang who was next to the emperor was also full of surprises.

When Xu Chunsheng withdrew, Chen Jijiang stopped him, and asked with a smile: "Brother Xu, the queen mother will not ask her majesty to go to Changle Palace for dinner, this time..."

"Don't ask, I'm wondering too." Xu Chunsheng shook his head and waved his hands, expressing that he really didn't know.

Then Chen Jijiang stopped smiling at him, and said, "Brother, go slowly", Xu Chunsheng walked away without looking at him.

Both of them were thinking straight in their hearts.Chen Jijiang was worried that the Queen Mother was going to put pressure on His Majesty for the matter of the eldest son of the emperor, while Xu Chunsheng, who knew more about the details, wondered if the Queen Mother wanted to give in to His Majesty?
Just thinking about each other for a while, the two put aside these thoughts for a while, and went to their own affairs again.

In the evening, the emperor finally found time to go to Changle Palace.He is not in the mood to have dinner with the queen mother, but now that this matter is left, he has to listen to what the queen mother means.

After entering the hall, the meal was ready, the emperor bowed, the queen mother said to sit down, and the emperor sat down at the table.

The empress dowager waved the palace people back, and after that, the atmosphere in the hall was beyond words.

After a while, it was the emperor who spoke first: "What's the matter with the empress?"

The Empress Dowager nodded, and after deliberating for a while, she said: "The Ai family heard about the matter of the eldest son of the Emperor. You don't care about it, so you don't doubt it at all?"

"Yes." The emperor said calmly, "I can trust her. You don't need to like her, Queen Mother, but you don't want me to accuse her of this kind of crime."

He was tired of whitewashing the empress dowager, so he made it clear from the beginning.

The empress dowager nodded again, she didn't seem to understand the innocence in his words, she calmly said: "You have been with Ruan for a long time, there is a reason why you trust her, the Ai family just ask about this matter."

The emperor was slightly startled, and then became suspicious.Let the queen mother show weakness... It seems that he has never seen such a thing since he can remember.

The empress dowager's indifference remained unchanged: "Since you are sure that it is your son, it is best to settle this matter in peace. If there is no reason to investigate, the gossip will be with him forever."

It was the same as he thought.

The emperor sat still and said nothing, the empress dowager took the chopsticks first, and gave him a chopsticks of garlic and white meat. She smiled slightly and said, "The Ai family called you here to tell you about this year's selection."

Time to pick again?It took a while for the emperor to react in his heart, and the embarrassment appeared on his face for a moment.

The empress dowager said with a pleasant face: "You didn't add anyone three years ago, so this time you can add a few more. There are many good girls in the world, and there will always be someone you like."

"Mother, Sydney..."

"You can't just guard her, you are an emperor." The empress dowager smiled slightly, "You can love her and her children, but you always need children who can inherit the throne."

The emperor replied "Oh" and said: "Then I will discuss it with her and see if she is willing to have more children."

The Empress Dowager's expression was slightly severe, and she forced herself to calm down, and scooped up another spoonful of cold tofu and put it on his plate, implying: "Li Chu is not as long as you like it, you have to be qualified."

"Yes, Li Di, Li Chang, Li Xian." The emperor clicked his tongue, "A Yuan is a 'Chang', but he is still young, and it is hard to see how talented he is. If he is not good, how can he be a smart and capable man in the future?" Yes, I will try my best to let her have a son-in-law as soon as possible, so that the mother won't have to worry about it."

He finished speaking calmly, waiting for the queen mother to be unable to restrain her anger with him, just like she did several times before.

The queen mother added two slices of cool lotus root to his plate, and his uncharacteristically good temper made him feel weird.

Then she said: "You need a prince with a noble enough status to inherit the great line. Many aristocratic daughters in Luo'an City can do it, even the daughters taught by the seventh-rank sesame officials are better than the Ruan family."

"The empress mother always likes to determine the outcome by her birth and family status." The emperor looked at her coldly, unbearably mean, "Empress mother, don't forget, when I succeeded to the throne, your mother's family had already collapsed."

The empress dowager turned pale: "Be careful what you say!"

The emperor smiled without saying a word.

She took a deep breath and reassured herself: "Look at the dishes on the table. The main dish is still the main dish even if it is cold. No matter how well the cold dish is cooked, it is also a foil. Do you like a lowly maid from Shangshi Bureau so much?" For a long time, this principle should not be difficult to understand!"

There was a loud "snap", and the emperor's hand slammed on the record: "Mother, please be careful when you speak!"

(End of this chapter)