The pastry that Gu Yanyue made this time is plum blossom cake, a famous local snack in the Jiangnan region such as Nanjing, Suzhou, and Wuxi.

After Yuwen Ran took the first piece of plum cake with his chopsticks, the rest of the group quickly followed suit. If it weren't for the fact that they were in public and Yuwen Ran couldn't just grab the cake with his hands, he would have already finished a piece by now, and wouldn't have bothered to chew it slowly and carefully.

After Gu Yanyue made this plum blossom cake, Yuwen Ran also ate it for the first time. Yuwen Ran originally wanted to sneak a piece this morning, but was unexpectedly rejected by Gu Yanyue. She told Yuwen Ran to wait and eat it with the court officials, so that it would feel like a surprise.

Yu Wenran picked up a piece of plum blossom cake and took a bite. He immediately felt a rich aroma emanating from his mouth. It was several times more delicious than any cake he had eaten before!

The Yuanxiao on top of the plum blossom cake tastes very sticky, the raisins are very fragrant, the red bean paste inside is very fine, and the white sugar melted at high temperature has a caramelized aroma, plus colorful embellishments. The red bean paste wrapped in a slightly tough shell has a soft texture, concentrated sweet aroma, and the hot filling pleases all the taste buds in your mouth. Eating this is simply a wonderful feast for the tongue.

Compared to the cakes Gu Yanyue had made before, the sweetness of Gu Yanyue's this time was not as sweet as the previous ones. Instead, it was just the right sweetness. Even if he ate several pieces in a row, he would not feel sick of it.

Gu Yanyue probably took into consideration that besides the Queen Mother, there were many elderly court officials. Elderly people shouldn't eat anything too sweet, as it's bad for their health, so she reduced the sweetness of the cake.

The court officials sitting below had not expected that the plum blossom cake, which did not look delicate and beautiful, tasted quite delicious. They had originally prepared themselves for it to be unpalatable, but it turned out to be sweet but not greasy, soft and crispy, with a long aftertaste, which also removed the greasiness left in their mouths from the previous dishes.

In a matter of moments, the overflowing plates of plum blossom cakes in front of the courtiers were completely devoured, and the situation on Yuwen Ran's table wasn't much better. Even after Yuwen Ran had finished his meal, he still wasn't satisfied. He took advantage of his longer arms and scooped a few plum blossom cakes from Gu Yanyue's table onto his own plate and began to eat them. When there were no more, he would go to Gu Yanyue's plate again.

After doing this a few times, Gu Yanyue was a little annoyed by Yu Wenran's actions, so she asked Yu Wenran to take the plum cake on her table and eat it, so that he wouldn't have to come to her every now and then to get the plum cake to eat.

When Yu Wenran heard Gu Yanyue say that she would take the initiative to give him her share of plum cake, he felt touched. After pretending to refuse for a while, he unceremoniously took all the plum cakes from Gu Yanyue's table, even the plate that held them. He took them all.

Not only that, the court officials below also praised it highly.

"Your Majesty, to have a beauty like the Empress by your side is a blessing you must have earned through countless lifetimes."

"That's wrong. It should be said that Your Majesty and Your Majesty are in love with each other. They are a perfect match, a man of talent and a woman of beauty!"

"Yes, yes. In that case, it is thanks to Your Majesty's blessing that we are able to have such delicious cakes."

…

After tasting the cakes made by Gu Yanyue, the Queen Mother sitting at the top had to admit that her cake-making skills were truly first-class. Compared to her skills, the imperial chefs in the palace were probably still a little inferior.

Faced with Gu Yanyue's superb culinary skills, she had no choice but to change her strategy and let Yuwen Ran take Liu Yanyan as his concubine. As the saying goes, if you want to capture a man's heart, you must first capture his stomach. After all, Gu Yanyue was definitely not a fool. With such superb culinary skills, how could she not seize the opportunity to capture Yuwen Ran's stomach and leave him with a good impression of her?

But no matter what, Gu Yanyue's method was also very clever. After all, since she came into his life, Yuwen Ran never looked at other women in the harem again. He even stopped staying overnight in other concubines' palaces. After court every day, he went straight to Gu Yanyue's Fengqi Palace. People who didn't know him would think that Yuwen Ran's bedroom was Fengqi Palace.

The Queen Mother took out a handkerchief from her sleeve and wiped her mouth, then said to Yu Wenran in a pertinent manner, "The Queen's cooking skills are indeed quite good. It tastes better than those made by the imperial chefs in the palace. It's just not as good as that long-established pastry shop in the capital. But for the Queen to be able to make something like this, it's quite good."

Yuwen Ran put down the plum cake he was holding. After all, the Queen Mother had suddenly come to talk to him, so she must have something else to tell him. It looked like it was still related to asking him to take Liu Yanyan into the harem. Otherwise, why would the Queen Mother praise Gu Yanyue for no reason? It was already good enough that she didn't cause her any trouble or find fault with her.

As expected by Yuwen Ran, the Queen Mother's next words were, "Emperor, the harem hasn't had any new people for a long time. I think this Miss Liu Yanyan from the Liu family is quite good. Although she's not as good at cooking as the Queen, she likes you very much. I think she would be a good match if she really entered the palace."

The Queen Mother had already proposed at the palace banquet that Yuwen Ran take Liu Yanyan into the harem. If Yuwen Ran refused, it would be a blatant act of disobedience to the Queen Mother, and would be embarrassing for her. Besides, now was not the right time to antagonize the Queen Mother or Prince Xiang, so Yuwen Ran had no choice but to agree: "Since the Queen Mother finds her pleasing, then I will confer the title of Consort Liu, the eldest of the Four Consorts, and grant her the throne of Yanxi Palace."

Yuwen Ran's words once again alarmed the court officials below. If they had known that bringing up the Empress Dowager would make Yuwen Ran willingly accept concubines, why hadn't they considered asking the Empress Dowager for help when they submitted a memorial to implore Yuwen Ran to expand his harem?

The most unbelievable thing was the Zhenbei Marquis's family. When the Queen Mother specifically said that she wanted to bring Liu Yanyan to the palace today, the Zhenbei Marquis had a vague feeling that the Queen Mother might have taken a fancy to Liu Yanyan and either wanted to adopt her as her goddaughter or to ask Yuwen Ran to take her into the harem.

When he saw the Queen Mother ordering someone to move Liu Yanyan's seat next to hers, he became more certain of this idea. However, when he saw Yu Wenran's attitude towards Liu Yanyan was not very good, he thought that there was really no hope. Unexpectedly, there was a twist in the end, and the Queen Mother personally intervened.

The Queen Mother's words made Yuwen Ran appoint Liu Yanyan as the palace concubine, and she was the first of the four concubines.