Chapter 27 Xiu Yu’s Dexterity “Your expression…” Xuan Ye raised his hand…

"Your expression..." Xuanye raised his hand and scratched Xiu Yu's straight nose. His face deliberately darkened as he said, "Do you know how many women in this harem want to be so arrogant? I don't even have the chance. You don't know how to cherish it."

Xiu Yu tilted her head and said, "Does it mean that everyone has to act respectful in front of the emperor, and can't even get angry or show their temper? What's the difference between people besides their appearance? If you think this is a good idea, then..." She lowered her eyelids and said, "Then I might be able to do it."

Xuanye looked at Xiuyu's serious expression and laughed heartily, "You! What you said is truly irrefutable." He leaned closer to Xiuyu, breathed into her ear, and then said, "I've been defeated by you."

Xiu Yu pursed her cherry lips, smiled faintly, and asked teasingly, "Well, do you like it?"

"Hmm..." Xuanye deliberately hesitated for a moment, then shook his head and said, "I don't hate it."

The two of them lingered on the bed for a while longer, until Liang Jiugong dared to urge them twice outside the warm room. Only then did Xuanye pull Xiu Yu off the bed and said to the door, "Come in and serve me."

Liang Jiugong dressed Xuanye, while Xiao Tao dressed Xiuyu. While the two masters acted respectfully, the two servants exchanged glances, practically spilling their secret gossip right in front of their masters.

Xuanye knew Liang Jiugong's temperament well, and Xiuyu also understood the meaning behind Xiaotao's eyes and expression. However, as a master, one must maintain a certain dignity in front of his servants, so Xiuyu and Xuanye tacitly ignored what they saw.

At breakfast, Xuanye saw a corn and an egg on the plate in front of Xiuyu, and some vegetables in a porcelain bowl. He then looked at the seven plates and eight bowls in front of him and asked, "Is this all you eat in the morning?"

"It's a habit I developed at home." Xiu Yu said as she prepared the sauce for herself.

Xuanye was a little curious: "Is this also popular outside the Great Wall?"

"This..." Xiu Yu hesitated. During her years as chief engineer three hundred years later, she'd inevitably been eating and drinking outside. For her health's sake, when she didn't need to feast, she'd eat light meals, keeping herself reasonably well. Gradually, this habit developed. After arriving in the Qing Dynasty, except for a few years when she couldn't make her own decisions, she'd maintained this habit until today. "It's not popular outside the Great Wall, it's only popular with me."

"Take these seven plates and eight bowls away." Xuanye was in high spirits and actually wanted to eat the same meal as Xiuyu. He ordered Liang Jiugong, "Bring me an exact set of breakfast just like Yu Gege's."

Xiu Yu felt like she'd messed up. She glanced at Xiao Tao, who also looked embarrassed. She'd never encountered such a situation before. But she knew one thing: the emperor should be given whatever he wanted. So, Xiao Tao could only nod slightly, but the embarrassment on her face remained.

After eating the same food as Xiu Yu, Xuanye felt a sense of relief. Liang Jiugong and Xiao Tao exchanged glances. This light meal was bland, truly bland. Xiu Yu, having long been accustomed to it, naturally thought it was nothing. However, the emperor was used to delicacies from land and sea, with dozens of different kinds of food on the table at every turn. Eating this... was a bit of a stretch.

Seeing Xuanye's eager expression, Xiu Yu made up her mind and started to prepare the sauce for Xuanye. "Different foods have different ways of eating. For a light meal like this, the sauce is actually quite good."

"You can cook, and your skills are better than the imperial chef. I believe in you." Xuanye felt that he was being a little blindly obedient. Cooking vegetables and steaming corn with plain water, no matter how good the sauce was, could not make them taste good.

Xiu Yu first scooped up a small spoonful of mahjong and placed it on a small dish. Then he added some sauce, fermented bean curd, and finally some warm water. Stirring it, he said, "The sauces are all ordinary sauces, but the key is the ratio. Different people mix different ratios, and the taste will vary greatly." Xiu Yu smiled and handed the small dish of seemingly ordinary sauce to Xuanye, saying, "Would you like to try it?"

Xuanye was hesitant and curious. He picked up a piece of green vegetables with his chopsticks and asked Xiuyu first: "Just eat it with this dip? There's no oil at all..."

Xiu Yu, on the other hand, became arrogant and said, "If you don't trust Yu'er, just ask the servants to bring up the food. Why force yourself?"

"I just don't believe this!" Xuanye dipped the chopsticks of greens into the sauce and stuffed it into his mouth. The authentic flavor of the greens mixed with the exclusive Xiuyu brand sauce was surprisingly special. "Not bad," Xuanye said with a smile, "Yu'er, you really have a pair of skillful hands."

Xiu Yu replied, "Isn't it good to eat it this way? Light doesn't necessarily mean tasteless. It's also good for your health."

"Really?" Xuanye was still young at that time, at the age of "eating and drinking to his heart's content". If it were not for the royal rules, he would have eaten up all the white meat that the Manchus commonly ate even if a whole plate was served to him.

Xiu Yu replied, "You've read so many books, you should know how to maintain your health."

"I understand, but what about the methods in the book..." He hesitated to speak. The four words "difficult to persist" were sometimes difficult to say.

Xiu Yu naturally understood what Xuanye wanted to say. She handed the peeled eggs to Xuanye and then, with her eyelids lowered, said, "If you have the sauce I made for you, the methods in the book might also work, right?"

"Yes! Now I have you!" This was the first time Xuanye had eaten like this since he was a child. Although it was indeed "against the ancestral rules", he felt inexplicably comfortable. "In a few days, I will take you to the southern suburbs to hunt. The sauce should be added when grilling..."

"Leave it to me," Xiu Yu promised, patting her chest. Then she took a bite of the corn. Her face was filled with the expression: This corn is so delicious! Xuan Ye, influenced by Xiu Yu, also found this authentic, unprocessed food delicious.

In Chengqian Palace, Nianhulu Yanlan was also having breakfast, but her face was as dark and ugly as it could be.

"My Lord, the Emperor must have left for some important matter at court. Don't take it too seriously." Xiumei, Yan Lan's personal maid, consoled her while serving her the food. "After all, the Emperor stayed at your place yesterday."

Yan Lan put down her chopsticks and said, "Since I entered the palace, nothing like this has ever happened. I don't even know when he left, let alone helping him get up and serve him breakfast. I..."

"Master," Xiumei urged again, "you still have to go and pay your respects to the old ancestor. If you look angry, the old ancestor will become suspicious again."

Yan Lan clenched her right hand into a fist and said, "Shouldn't the ancestor be concerned? How many outrageous things has the emperor done for a beautiful girl? That place of his, that place of his..." Yan Lan's voice gradually faded, and finally it was almost inaudible: "I have never been there."

Xiumei really didn't know how to persuade him. How could one tell clearly what men and women liked and disliked? Moreover, her mistress was going to be the queen in the future. Shouldn't a queen be more open-minded?

As expected, Nianhulu Yanlan went to pay her respects to Empress Xiaozhuang in anger. Even though Empress Xiaozhuang was still tending to her flowers and plants, she could sense the anger and resentment coming from this grandson's wife.

The ancestor is the ancestor after all. She has been in the deep palace for so long, and she knows exactly what is wrong with her granddaughter-in-law without having to see or ask.

"Yanlan, please sit down first and wait for me to finish watering the flowers." Xiaozhuang didn't even turn her head and continued to water her beautifully blooming flowers.

Yan Lan forced a smile and said, "If the ancestor doesn't want to sit, how can I dare to sit?"

"Then come with me to look at these flowers." Xiaozhuang handed the watering can to Su Moer and picked up the scissors to prune the branches. "Look at these flowers! If only one or two were in bloom, they would not only be lonely but also ugly. They have to be in full bloom, a riot of color. Only then can our ancestors' greenhouse be called a greenhouse, don't you think?"

No one, whether in the former dynasty or the harem, could match Empress Xiaozhuang's ability to use objects to illustrate people. Niuhulu Yanlan, raised in a family of scholars, naturally understood the deeper meaning of her ancestors' words. Furthermore, she had the constant guidance of her father, Ebilun. But she had been doted on by Ebilun since she was a child. How could someone so pampered at home accept being surrounded by flowers and splendours all of a sudden?

When Xiaozhuang saw that Nianhulu Yanlan did not answer her question, she handed the scissors to Su Moli, then held Yanlan's wrist and walked out of the greenhouse with her.

Xiaozhuang took her seat first, and then asked Yanlan to do the same. She then continued, "The Emperor has already told me that once the Imperial Observatory selects an auspicious day, he will make you empress. Someone who is about to take the throne as the Empress of the Qing Dynasty should have a more open mind."

"Grandfather." Niu Hulu Yanlan still couldn't figure it out for a moment: "I heard that the emperor's recent series of unruly actions were all for a beautiful girl."

"Breaking the line?" Empress Xiaozhuang scoffed. "I've noticed the Emperor has been doing quite well lately. He's not neglected a single piece of government, and he's done every single thing he should have done. Did he stay in Chengqian Palace last night?"

"But..." Niu Hulu Yanlan wanted to say more, but Su Moer came up with tea and snacks, placed the snack plate on the tea table next to Yanlan, and said, "This is the snack I made recently. Please try it first, don't be angry."

Su Moer always takes care of the younger generation. When Yan Lan saw Su Moer's expression, she knew that she was signaling her not to continue talking.

"Thank you, aunt." She couldn't vent the anger in her heart after all, and she also hit a snag with the Empress Dowager. Niu Hulu Yanlan just felt wronged, really wronged.

After the concubine who had come to complain knelt and left the Cining Palace, Empress Xiaozhuang sighed, "Thank goodness you brought the snacks. Otherwise, she would have kept talking for who knows how long. She's about to become the empress, and yet she's still so stubborn."

Su Moer poured some tea for Xiaozhuang and then said, "There are very few people in this world who are insightful. People as insightful as Gege are even rarer."

Xiaozhuang picked up the teacup and took a sip. "The position of Empress Dowager depends on your family. But how long you can hold it depends on yourself."