Chapter 36 Onions and the Wrath of the Emperor

Mu Yu exclaimed in surprise.

"What's wrong, Xiao Yu'er? Is something wrong?" Xiao Beichen reacted the fastest. He almost immediately squatted down, carefully holding Mu Yu's small arm with his large hand, and anxiously checked her body from head to toe, afraid that she had been burned by the flames. "Were you scared by the fire? Don't be afraid, brother is here."

"Little Yu'er, let your sister take a look." Qin Zheng also hurriedly came over, her delicate eyebrows furrowed tightly, and reached out to touch Mu Yu's forehead.

However, Mu Yu seemed not to hear them, staring blankly at the pile of ashes on the stone table that was still emitting wisps of heat.

Only Chu Chongjin and Yan Ziche, who were a little further away from her, keenly noticed the abnormality on her face.

“Something bad… has escaped…” Mu Yu’s voice was barely audible. She raised a small hand and pointed tremblingly at the pile of ashes.

Bad stuff?

Following her finger, everyone looked at the stone table, but apart from the dark, damp ashes left after the paper had been extinguished by water, there was nothing else. A gentle breeze blew by, stirring up a few pieces of black ash, which swirled in the air before gently falling back down.

The tenth prince, Chu Zhao, who had caused a great disaster, was already pale with fright and his heart was pounding.

But after waiting for a long time, he didn't see Mu Yu rushing up to him crying to settle scores. Instead, she pointed at a pile of ashes and talked nonsense. His bluffing courage immediately grew again.

"What bad thing? I didn't see anything!" He stubbornly argued, "You...you're not trying to extort me, are you! Let me tell you, my father loves me the most! I burned your painting, so what...I'll just pay you back!"

Before he could finish speaking, a delicate yet deliberately arrogant voice drifted in from outside the moon gate.

"Hey, what new game are they playing in this yard? Why is there so much smoke and fire? Are they trying to imitate those street performers and have a barbecue? It smells really bad."

Everyone turned around and saw the Crown Prince's daughter, Princess Jia Hui, walking in slowly with two personal maids, each holding a round fan painted with a picture of a lady.

Princess Jia Hui is seven years old this year. She is wearing a pink palace dress with intricate lotus vines embroidered on the skirt. Her hair is styled in an exquisite double bun, adorned with tiny pearls.

She perfectly inherited her father, Crown Prince Chu Hong's, arrogance. When looking at people, she always slightly raised her chin, and her eyes carried an innate criticalness.

"A prince of such high status, playing with fire and setting things on fire in the princess's residence. Doesn't he care about disgracing the royal family if word gets out? He's utterly unfit for the table." She snorted lightly, not even bothering to give Chu Zhao a proper look, and walked straight to Mu Yu, saying in a condescending tone, "Little sister Mu Yu, don't play with these uncouth boys. It's beneath your dignity. Let me show you something more refined."

As she spoke, she clapped her hands lightly.

A palace maid immediately presented a sandalwood tray lined with bright yellow brocade, on which were placed several brightly colored and differently shaped vegetables and fruits. Next to it was a small Western-style dinner knife with a handle inlaid with mother-of-pearl, which looked shiny.

"This is a new thing I learned from a Western picture book, called 'salad'." Princess Jia Hui picked up the small, sharp knife, twirled it between her fingers with a smug look, and the flash of the blade was dazzling. "Today, I'll open the eyes of you country bumpkins and show you how real noble ladies of the court cook and have fun."

With an air of authority, she picked up a plump, purple onion, placed it on a small ebony cutting board, and began to clumsily cut it, mimicking the manner of a royal chef.

She was just a seven-year-old child, weak and inexperienced in manual labor, so the knife seemed particularly unruly in her hands. She cut crookedly, and purple juice splattered everywhere.

“Look, cut it into neat little pieces like this…” she explained enthusiastically while trying to shake off a large chunk of onion stuck to the blade so she could continue with the next cut.

She gave her wrist a delicate twitch.

The gleaming knife, carrying a large, juicy slice of onion, traced an unexpected and near-perfect parabola through the air.

"Smack!"

With a soft thud, the piece of onion landed squarely and precisely on Mu Yu's right cheek.

The onion juice splashed into Mu Yu's eyes without any obstruction.

Mu Yu felt she couldn't control her tears, and they flowed down her cheeks.

She frantically covered her eyes with her little hands, and her small body began to sob.

Princess Jia Hui was also stunned; she hadn't expected to cause trouble.

"What happened?!"

Emperor Chu Yuan, accompanied by his chief eunuch Li Defu, arrived excitedly with a box of large pearls, freshly brought as tribute from the East Sea and intended to be used as marbles by his little lucky star. However, upon reaching the door, they heard Mu Yu crying.

His heart tightened suddenly, and he rushed in with the stride of a dragon and the gait of a tiger.

He was angry.

"Who did this?!"

The emperor said angrily in a loud voice.

"Thump! Thump!"

All the little kids in the courtyard, along with the guards and palace servants, knelt down in unison.

Chu Yuan strode forward and pulled the weeping Mu Yu into his arms.

His gaze slowly swept across the entire room.

Finally, the image freezes on Princess Jia Hui, who is still standing there dumbfounded, and the onion on the ground.

Everything became clear.

"Good, very good!" Chu Yuan laughed instead of getting angry.

"What a fine daughter the Crown Prince has raised! She is truly my good granddaughter!"

He held Mu Yu, who was still sobbing, tightly in his arms and announced:

"Issue my decree!"

Everyone present had their hearts in their throats.

"Since today.!"

"Anyone, regardless of status, position, or reason, whoever dares to make the princess shed another tear..."

He paused slightly.

"—There will be punishment!!!"

The last four words terrified everyone.

The princes, princesses, noble ladies, and other noblewomen kneeling on the ground, including Jia Hui who had just been swaggering and Chu Zhao who was trying to remain calm, were all a little scared.

They knew the emperor wasn't joking.

...

In Consort De's Chang Le Palace, the air was filled with the fragrance of incense.

When the trusted eunuch relayed the emperor's oral edict from the residence of Princess Anguo verbatim, vividly and verbatim.

Consort De, who was pruning a pot of precious orchids, paused for a moment.

She remained silent for a long time; the palace was so quiet that one could hear the rustling of the wind through the bamboo leaves outside the window.

After a long while, she put down the golden scissors in her hand, and a strange, cruel, almost ecstatic smile slowly appeared on her well-maintained, beautiful face.

"Will there be punishment?"

She murmured softly, in a voice only she could hear, savoring the domineering power contained in those four words.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, do you really love that Mu Yu that much?!"