The next morning, the Fourth Prince still got up at dawn. He went to Changchun Garden to greet the emperor before leaving. Lanqin was worried that Emperor Kangxi might summon her today, so she didn't dare to sleep in and got up early to wait at Jiuzhou Qingyan.
"Your Highness, breakfast is ready. Please come and have some!" Si Hua saw Lan Qin walking around the room dressed as a concubine.
"Alright, are Hongli and the others awake yet? Go check on them," Lanqin said. She thought that if Kangxi came to call and Hongli was already awake, there would be no need to rush around in a panic.
“Yes. Your Highness, you look so uneasy. The Sixth Prince isn’t going into the palace, he’s just going to Changchun Garden. You’ve never been like this before.” Si Hua said, seeing Lan Qin like this so early in the morning.
"That's right, he was taken to the palace when he was only three months old. I wasn't like this back then, what's wrong with me?" Lanqin laughed self-deprecatingly. To calm herself down, Lanqin went to the dining table to eat.
She examined herself carefully. Why was she also starting to feel nervous, afraid of saying the wrong thing in front of Emperor Kangxi, and so anxious? She could be more relaxed in front of Kangxi before because she had no ulterior motives. But now? She knew that Kangxi had come to the Yuanmingyuan to get to know the Fourth Prince better, to see if he was truly suitable to be the ruler of the country. Therefore, she now had ulterior motives, which was why she was nervous and uneasy.
"Si Hua, remind me that I must read 'Free and Easy Wandering' every day," Lan Qin suddenly said.
"Ah, Master, what is this 'Free and Easy Wandering'?" Si Hua asked, puzzled.
“The name of a book,” Lanqin said, then silently recited a famous quote from Zhuangzi while she began to eat her breakfast.
Just then, a palace maid walked in. She was on duty at the Jiuzhou Qingyan Palace. She stood at the door and said to those inside, "Someone from Changchun Garden has arrived and is waiting outside."
Lanqin quickly said, "Let him in!"
Lanqin saw a young eunuch whom she did not recognize. He bowed and greeted Lanqin before saying, "His Majesty has decreed that Consort Niohuru should go to Hanjin Hall to serve meals. If the Sixth Prince is not awake, let him continue to sleep; if he is awake, they should go together."
Upon hearing this, Lanqin quickly stood up and said to the young eunuch, "Alright, the Sixth Prince hasn't woken up yet. Let's go together now. Sihua, tell Shuiling to take good care of the Sixth Prince."
So, with Si Hua's help, Lan Qin staggered towards Changchun Garden. Although it wasn't snowing outside, the temperature was quite low. Si Hua had brought Lan Qin a cotton cloak, which she draped over her as soon as they went out, and then she carried a hand warmer in her arms.
The Yuanmingyuan Garden had many lakes, so it was especially cold there, even a degree or two colder than in Beijing. Lanqin walked for a quarter of an hour in the biting wind before finally arriving at Kangxi's Hanjin Hall.
"Your daughter-in-law greets Father Emperor!" Upon closer inspection at the door, she had already removed her cloak. Stepping into Hanjin Hall, one could immediately sense that the temperature inside was more than ten degrees higher than outside; it was practically spring-like.
"Hehe, girl, I called you over so early in the morning to have lunch with me. Are you not happy about it?" Kangxi said to Lanqin.
“It is an honor for a daughter-in-law to dine with Father Emperor, how could I not be happy?” Lanqin said.
"How can one be happy to dine with me while being so careful and reserved?" Kangxi continued.
A sense of helplessness flashed through Lanqin's mind. Was Kangxi going through menopause? Or was it just that all emperors, as they aged, developed this kind of paranoia?
“Dinnering with Father Emperor allows me to eat many things I don’t usually get to eat. Wouldn’t that make me very happy, given my love of food?” Lanqin said.
Kangxi was finally satisfied and said, "Come and sit down! Is little Hongli still asleep?"
“Yes, Hongli is still asleep. We’ll come and keep his grandfather company when he wakes up,” Lanqin said.
"Does the little fellow still remember me?" Kangxi asked.
“Of course I remember. He said that my grandfather treated him very well,” Lanqin said.
A gentle light flashed in Kangxi's eyes as he said, "This little guy was held by me when he was only three months old."
Lanqin accompanied Kangxi to breakfast, but found that he ate very little.
"I was just thinking about the wild vegetable cakes you made for me last time. I had the kitchen make them too, but I got tired of them. Do you have anything new?" Kangxi asked.
Lanqin couldn't help but secretly lament that she didn't have that much food in reserve. She could only rack her brains for a moment, hoping to find a terrible dish that could appease Kangxi.
"Father, do you like to eat things like seaweed and glutinous rice?" Having no other choice, Lanqin decided to use some of the delicacies she often ate in her later life to fool him.
"What is seaweed? I do like glutinous rice quite a bit," Kangxi said.
A lightbulb went off in Lanqin's head: seaweed probably didn't exist in this era, so the sushi she had just wanted to make was likely out of the question.
"Then let's make a kind of snack for Father Emperor. It's very delicious, but it will take some time." Lanqin thought of pizza, a Western dish that isn't too complicated.
"Alright, then you can send it over tomorrow morning," Kangxi said without any politeness.
Lanqin felt like she had been tricked. Was this old man, Kangxi, going to send her something new every morning? That would drive her crazy.
"Father, I just remembered a very simple, tasteless dish. Why don't I make it for you now?" Lanqin thought of the "jianbing guozi" (a type of savory crepe) that she often ate for breakfast in the office in her later life. She didn't know if this kind of simple, classic food still existed in the Qing Dynasty at this time.
"Very well, then I'll be watching with bated breath!" Kangxi looked at Lanqin as if she were Kangfu looking at Doraemon.
Lanqin had no choice but to volunteer to go to the small kitchen. Before she'd even had a bite to eat herself, she was sent there to make jianbing guozi (Chinese crepes). Oh, Master, so am I now on the path of a miserable daughter-in-law?!
"Do you have sorghum flour here? Also, eggs, sweet bean sauce, flour, chili sauce, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, lettuce, and chicken. Find everything for me," Lanqin said to the several palace maids and matrons in the kitchen who were looking at each other in bewilderment. They were all imperial chefs brought from the palace by Emperor Kangxi.
Upon hearing this, they realized that these were all common items and not difficult to find, so they immediately went to find them for Lanqin.
Lanqin looked at the stove, trying to find a suitable pan for making pancakes. Unfortunately, there wasn't a very flat pan, so she had to find the largest iron pan and pour the sorghum flour into the bottom of the wide pan.
Relying on her memory, Lanqin began making her first jianbing guozi (Chinese crepe).
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