The words "plum blossom cake" made Feng Ye look up subconsciously. Before his death, his master, Pei Jiusheng, had made a box of twelve plum blossom cakes. One was eaten by Her Highness the Princess, and at Her Highness's request, he coated the remaining eleven with resin and other materials. After a series of processing, these cakes were sealed forever. Those plum blossom cakes were no longer food, but Her Highness the Princess's most beloved ornaments.
Jiang He stood up straight, somewhat bewildered. He didn't know yet that the plate of cake he had thrown away was actually plum blossom cake, but Ling Shumo's expression and the sudden chill in the room gave him a bad feeling.
Ling Shumo's gaze finally locked onto Jiang He. Before she came back, Jiang He was the only one alone in her room, and if she remembered correctly, when she pushed the door open, Jiang He was sitting at her desk.
Jiang He almost stuttered when he spoke, "I noticed that the table was a bit messy, and Your Highness hasn't come back yet. I was really bored, so I tidied up the clutter on the table for Your Highness..."
Ling Shumo interrupted his nonsense directly, "So you admit that you moved the blue and white porcelain bowl with lotus pattern on the table."
Ling Shumo's face was so gloomy that it looked like water could drip from it. Her eyes were even colder than before. "So, what about the plum blossom cake in the porcelain bowl? Where did you put that bowl of plum blossom cake?"
Jiang He was so frightened that he even took a step back, his voice even lowered. "The plum blossom cakes inside were thrown away by the servant." He realized something was wrong as soon as he said this, and hurriedly explained, "The servant saw mold on the cakes and was worried that Your Highness would have problems eating them, so he was kind enough to dispose of the spoiled cakes."
Ling Shumo reached out and grabbed Jiang He's collar. Her eyes seemed to be spitting fire. "Dealt with it? Who gave you the guts to deal with my things casually?"
Ling Shumo's heavy breathing sprayed directly on Jiang He's face, and Jiang He felt his legs weaken. His voice was already tinged with tears, "Your Highness didn't know how much you valued those plum cakes. If they weren't moldy, I wouldn't have let them be thrown away..."
Before Jiang He could finish his words, Ling Shumo suddenly let go of his collar. He lost his balance and fell to his knees. Jiang He's ankle hit the table leg hard. He wanted to scream in pain, but he forced himself to hold it back. His eyes were filled with tears, and he looked up at Ling Shumo with confusion and innocence.
Ling Shumo had no sympathy for the pitiful Jiang He. What distressed her most now was the eleven pieces of plum blossom cakes that Pei Jiusheng made for her. "Jiang He, where did you throw the plum blossom cakes? I'm telling you, if I can't find them today, you don't have to live anymore."
Jiang He's face was pale. He didn't even dare to say that he was the one who threw away the plum cake. Instead, he changed his words, "The servant poured the plum cake into the slag bucket, and then called a servant who served in Guangming Palace to come in and take the slag bucket out."
Soon, the servant who emptied the slag bucket was called in. This servant's name was Ping'an, and he was usually a third-class servant responsible for sweeping the courtyard. Since he didn't serve in the main house, he didn't know the significance of those plum blossom cakes to Ling Shumo.
Originally, Jiang He was hungry, and the second-class attendant Ankang was supposed to bring him cakes and fruit wine. However, Ankang knew that Her Royal Highness the Crown Princess was not in the inner room, so he felt lazy and asked Ping'an, who was sweeping the yard, to take his place.
When Shi Qi found Ankang, he was playing cards and chatting with several servants from the outer courtyard. He suddenly learned that Ping An had dealt with the plum cakes that the princess usually treasured like her eyeballs. He was so frightened that he felt like his bones were falling apart and collapsed to the ground.
But even if he fainted now, he could not escape the punishment he deserved.
The two attendants, Ping'an and Ankang, had their trouser legs lifted up and were hit on the calves with bamboo sticks as long as forearms, and they soon became a bloody mess.
Jiang He watched the two servants being beaten, and he felt as if he was also being held down by someone. He was stiff and didn't dare to move.
After Ping'an took out the trash can containing the plum cakes, he poured the plum cakes and the other dirt inside into the huge garbage bucket in the backyard.
Fortunately, it was the time when the servants in the泔水处 were collecting garbage from various palaces. Everything in the dirty buckets was poured into bags, pulled out from the back door of the East Palace, and dumped into the garbage truck. Now, even if they were not sent to the incinerator, those pieces of plum cakes were mixed with the huge amount of dirt, and there was no possibility of finding them again.
Ping'an and An'kang were locked up in the woodshed by Shi Qi's orders. Even though their legs were only injured, in this weather, without medical treatment, their wounds would soon fester, fester, and then maggots would infest them. Once their legs were broken, they would be dead.
Ling Shumo grabbed an enameled phoenix vase and smashed it down on Jiang He's head.
The sound of porcelain shattering exploded in his ears, and Jiang He closed his eyes in fear. But after a long time, the intense pain he expected did not come. Jiang He carefully opened his eyes. The enameled phoenix vase had shattered directly behind him, and the porcelain fragments were scattered all over the floor.
Jiang He closed his eyes and didn't know what had just happened, but Feng Ye saw it clearly.
Ling Shumo was originally going to use the vase to chop Jiang He's head open, but just before the bottom of the vase touched the top of Jiang He's head, Ling Shumo's wrist suddenly turned, and the vase fell from Ling Shumo's hand, hit the floor and shattered.
My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com