Lin Yueniang fell to her knees as soon as she walked in.
She looked up with a tear hanging from the corner of her eye, as if it might fall at any moment. She regarded the Crown Prince with some dissatisfaction and also a great desire.
She had a flirtatiousness that seeped from her very bones.
But Zhao Yuanjing found it very repulsive.
It wasn’t because Lin Yueniang was ugly or anything like that.
On the contrary, she was actually very pretty.
But she was someone that the empress had insisted he marry, so Zhao Yuanjing had been disgusted and didn’t want to have anything to do with her from the bottom of his heart.
On top of that, she was a cruel and prickly character who loved being manipulative, so Zhao Yuanjing hated her for these reasons even more. If it hadn’t been for the empress, he would have kicked her right out of the East Palace a long time ago.
He lowered his eyes and looked at the soup as he said in a distant voice, “Why are you here?”
Lin Yueniang replied in a needy, miserable voice, “I’ve come here to apologize to you, Your Highness. If Your Highness is angry with me, you can beat me or you can scold me, but…please don’t be so cold toward me. It really makes me feel terrible inside…”
When she’d finished saying this, that one teardrop that had been balancing at the corner of her eye fell dramatically at that moment.
The tears flowing down her cheeks could really tug at one’s heartstrings.
“I don’t think I’ve done anything to you, have I?” said Zhao Yuanjing in a calm voice. “Or maybe you’re still not full after eating those pig intestines? Are you here to ask me for more food?”
Lin Yueniang was full. She was extremely full.
But she felt that this might be a good chance to get herself out of eating pig intestines every day.
She quickly nodded her head. “I really can’t get used to eating those pig intestines, please stop asking me to eat them…”
Zhao Yuanjing’s gaze scanned the food on the table, and he casually pointed to a plate filled with red and green things. He said, “If you can finish everything on this plate, I’ll stop making you eat pig intestines.”
Lin Yueniang’s heart leapt for joy when she heard this.
The food on the crown prince’s table couldn’t be all that bad.
As long as she finished the dish he’d pointed to, she didn’t need to eat those pig intestines anymore.
Since this was such a good chance, she had to…
When Lin Yueniang looked carefully at what was inside that dish she was supposed to eat, she immediately froze.
It was a huge plate that held two halves of a fish head, and it was covered with diced red and green chilies.
The colors looked amazing, but this dish must be incredibly spicy.
“Eat up.” Zhao Yuanjing glanced at her with his beautiful phoenix-shaped eyes.
Lin Yueniang got up from the floor and steeled herself. She picked up her chopsticks and started eating.
Zhao Yuanjing slowly drank his soup and added one more instruction, “You’ve got to eat the chilies too.”
Lin Yueniang nearly fainted at those words.
In the end, she didn’t finish the dish.
She had tried her best, but it had fish bones in it.
This awful Crown Prince said that she had to eat the fish bones too.
Lady Lin of Decorous Service was about to die from both a very full stomach as well as the spiciness of the dish. She returned to her quarters with a face covered with tears.
She still had to continue eating those pig intestines.
…
When Liu Dequan came down to the small kitchen, he praised Yun Dai’s culinary skills to the sky.
Yun Dai beamed from ear to ear, and she asked him, “So…did His Highness finish all the food?”
“How could he possibly finish so much food?” Liu Dequan shook his head. “That fish head with chilies was eaten by Lady Lin of Decorous Service.”
Yun Dai was stunned for a moment. “He didn’t take a single bite of the fish?”
Liu Dequan looked at her, then laughed and said, “He didn’t eat the fish. But he drank quite a lot of the soup.”
Yun Dai raised an eyebrow and said with a smile, “The soup is very nutritious, and it’s especially suitable for His Highness.”
“His Highness really liked the soup. He put his rice in it and had two bowls of it.” Liu Dequan was really pleased about this and beamed brightly as he said, “Next time, spend more effort on His Highness’s food. If you manage to strengthen His Highness’s health, then you will definitely be rewarded for your noble contribution.”
Yun Dai smiled and responded, “I’m just doing what I’m supposed to do. I can’t possibly take credit for doing this. If His Highness is in good health, that’s wonderful for all of us, isn’t it?”
“Indeed! Indeed it is!” Liu Dequan couldn’t agree more with this statement. “By the way, His Highness will need to stay up and do some reading, so could you prepare some soup for His Highness to drink at night. Make sure it’s warm, got it?”
Mo Chun heard this and asked with a smile, “I thought His Highness never liked having supper?”
“It’s fine to have supper now and then. Yun, remember that well.” Liu Dequan reminded her again before leaving the kitchen.
Yun Dai thought to herself, “This douchebag is really addicted to the soup.”
That was a good sign. She was going to add even more stuff to the soup.
That night, she stayed alone in the kitchen to prepare the soup.
It was close to the end of spring, and the kitchen was getting a little warm from the heat outside. Yun Dai wanted to shut the window.
But just as she walked over to the window, a hand suddenly reached in from outside and held onto the window…