Chapter 70 Chapter 70 "Do Shao?"
After saying this, Li Shuyao felt that she was probably thinking too much.
The eldest prince and the crown prince are now arguably the two most precious little kids in the Forbidden City. How could they possibly help her divide the beans?
Li Shuyao threw the beans in her hand back into the plate.
Nanny Yan helped her get off the couch, and Yueshu hurried over and bent down to help her put on her shoes.
Aunt Zhao was checking the hairpins in her hair, while Tian Jiarou was adjusting her Manchu dress.
Several second-class palace maids also started to get busy.
In a daze, Li Shuyao felt that she seemed... quite noble.
At least that's what they saw in the eyes of Nanny Yan and the others.
In the courtyard of Changchun Palace.
The eldest prince and the crown prince walked side by side. As soon as they entered the courtyard, they felt that the atmosphere of Changchun Palace seemed a little different from that of other palaces.
The snow in the yard was swept clean, and all the palace servants seemed very busy. One of them was running hurriedly towards the back hall with firewood in his arms, while another was carrying a tray and carefully walking out from the corridor next to the main hall, then walked towards an ear room on the other side without looking back.
After several breaths, the palace maids in Changchun Palace saw the two of them and hurriedly ran over to pay their respects.
The five-year-old eldest prince put his hands behind his back and nodded his round little head slightly in a very imposing manner, but did not say anything.
The three-year-old prince beside him followed his elder brother's example, clasping his hands behind his back. Then, in a soft, childish voice, he said, "No need to be polite. Get up."
The palace maid of Changchun Palace thanked him and then stood up awkwardly.
The young prince glanced at his brother, and seeing that he still had no intention of speaking, he continued, "Where is your Concubine Ling?"
"To answer His Royal Highness, the Queen is resting in the bedroom."
"Rest?" the eldest prince spoke at this time. After speaking, he looked up at the Golden Crow hanging high in the sky. The dazzling light stung his eyes, so he blinked quickly and turned his head back. "It's already this late, and your Concubine Ling hasn't gotten up yet?"
Somehow, several palace servants heard a hint of condemnation in his tone.
The leading eunuch nervously clutched the corner of his clothes and stepped forward to reply cautiously, "No, the Empress got up earlier, but she's pregnant and shouldn't be working hard. Plus, the road outside is slippery, so Nanny Yan was worried about the Empress, so she advised her to go back and rest. She won't help her walk around after dinner later to help digest her food."
"Just walking in the yard?" The little prince listened attentively.
"To answer Your Highness, yes," said the young eunuch.
The little prince said again: "It's so small here, why doesn't she go out for a walk?"
The young eunuch thought to himself, the queen really wants to go out, but isn't it Madam Yan who won't let her...
The young eunuch shook his head and said he didn't know.
The eldest prince and the young prince did not ask any more questions. The two little guys put their hands behind their backs, took short steps, and walked towards the main hall of Changchun Palace with serious faces.
As soon as they reached the steps of the main hall, they saw Li Shuyao coming out to greet them.
The little prince's eyes lit up immediately, and he called out expectantly, "Empress Lingpin!"
Li Shuyao walked down the steps with a smile on her face, put her hands on her waist, and bowed to the two precious little cubs on the ground.
The eldest prince and the young prince quickly dodged to the side, then simultaneously pulled their hands out from behind their backs, pinched their fingertips together, and bent down to Li Shuyao with a slight bow.
Then Li Shuyao broke free from Nanny Yan's hand and squatted down, reaching the same height as the little prince. She asked him in a clear and loud voice, "How come your highness has time to come and play with me today?"
"Don't you have to do homework? No need to memorize the text, no need to practice writing big characters?"
The little prince had a tense face. Before he spoke, he glanced at Li Shuyao's belly without leaving any trace. Then he said, "I have finished my homework today."
"Wow, so amazing!" Li Shuyao praised with a very sincere smile, and then her watery almond-shaped eyes moved upwards to look at the eldest prince who was a head taller than the little prince, "Big brother, have you finished your homework today?"
The eldest prince had never spoken to Li Shuyao before, and his impression of Li Shuyao was all from what he heard from the palace people.
And then there is his younger brother who is the crown prince.
The prince's younger brother said that Concubine Ling was very timid. When she first met him, she was so scared that she couldn't even speak.
Now look at it...
Are you timid? Can't even speak?
She talks too much.
Thinking of the homework piled up in his room, the eldest prince felt a flash of irritation in his heart. Then he coughed lightly with an unnatural expression and said in a very soft voice: "I will do it when I get back."
Master?
Li Shuyao was stunned when she heard this, and slowly put away the smile on her face. She glanced at him up and down in surprise, then pursed her lips and remained silent.
The five-year-old kid was only as tall as her waistline even if he stood on tiptoe and held his head high.
But he always calls himself "Master" with a serious face...
This scene is really funny and hilarious.
However, Li Shuyao did not dare to laugh out loud.
Otherwise, the eldest prince would probably get angry and embarrassed.
She pursed her lips and endured it for a while, then slowly stood up and said softly, "The sun is too bright outside, let's go inside and talk."
The eldest prince and the young prince nodded at the same time and said, "Okay."
Several people quickly went into the house.
During this time, the little prince had been secretly observing Li Shuyao's lower abdomen.
He thought to himself, it's so flat, is there really a baby in there? Could Aunt Ling be lying to him?
He thought back to the people Khan Ama had dragged out of his house some time ago, and what Khan Ama had said to him...
A small emotion called guilt quietly spread to his heart.
Li Shuyao did not notice the little prince's sudden loss.
After joyfully inviting the two little ones to sit down in her little room, she called Tian Jiarou and Yue Shu to her side and softly instructed them to go to the small kitchen to make some snacks. "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince loves sweets and also likes snacks with a stronger milk flavor. As for the eldest prince..."
As she spoke, she looked at the five-year-old kid on the other side and asked softly, "Big Brother, do you like snacks?"
The eldest prince nodded with a serious face, his lips tightly pursed, and he had no intention of speaking. It was obvious that he wanted Li Shuyao to guess his taste.
The little prince next to him couldn't bear to see Li Shuyao embarrassed, so he immediately said crisply: "Big brother and I are the same, we both like to eat the same snacks."
"Who said that I like the same thing as you?" The eldest prince frowned and retorted subconsciously.
The little prince blinked his distinct black and white eyes and spun around on him for a moment, then turned to look at Li Shuyao again, "I said the wrong thing. Big brother actually likes sweeter snacks. When you two aunts make the snacks, please add more honey to Big Brother's portion."
Li Shuyao: "..."
She looked at the eldest prince opposite her, whose chubby face suddenly turned red after being exposed, and she wanted to laugh.
However, the young prince was completely unaware of what he had done. He put on an expression that said, "I understand you." He reached out and patted the eldest prince on the shoulder twice. Then he leaned close to his ear and whispered, "Don't be shy, eldest prince. The snacks here made by Concubine Ling are delicious."
"Because Concubine Ling is the best eater in the entire Forbidden City!"
Li Shuyao heard it.
I couldn't laugh anymore.
The smile directly shifted from her face to the faces of Nanny Yan, Nanny Zhao, Tian Jiarou, Yue Shu, and Wen Mei beside her.
The eldest prince was a little curious when he saw them all laughing so happily.
When he saw the same embarrassment on Li Shuyao's face as his own, he suddenly felt some subtle psychological reactions.
We are all wanderers in this world.
Thinking of this, he turned his head and without saying anything, pushed his younger brother, the prince, who was leaning on him, back onto the couch.
She put on a serious face again and said to Tian Jiarou and Yue Shu beside Li Shuyao, "Thank you for your help, aunts."
Tian Jiarou and Yue Shu quickly put away the smiles on their faces, bowed to Li Shuyao and the eldest prince, and quickly turned and left.
The eldest prince looked around Li Shuyao's room and saw a round table not far away with many things scattered around. He was curious and asked, "What are those?"
Li Shuyao looked in the direction of his finger. "Over there are the tools for sewing, two pieces of moon-shadow yarn, scissors and a ruler, and also, uh..."
"A small basket of unsorted beans." She hesitated for a moment, but chose to tell the truth.
"Beans?" The eldest prince raised his eyebrows.
"What kind of beans are they?" the little prince also asked.
Li Shuyao walked over and took the whole small basket, placing it on the dental table for them to see.
"Green, red, and yellow. The yellow ones are bigger than the red ones, and the red ones are bigger than the green ones. So are these tri-color beans?" The little prince asked innocently.
"Ah?" Li Shuyao was a little confused by his question.
"No, the green ones are mung beans. The lily, lotus seed and mung bean soup you drank in the summer is made with these beans."
"The red ones are red beans. The red bean paste in the red bean pastry is made from them."
"I've never seen the yellow ones before. What are they called? Soybeans?"
The eldest prince had lived outside the palace for a period of time, unlike the little prince, who was raised very carefully since birth.
But he had never seen soybeans before, so after explaining to the little prince, he blinked twice and looked at Li Shuyao.
Li Shuyao nodded directly, "Yes, it's called soybean."
The eldest brother asked again: "What kind of snacks can be made with soybeans?"
Li Shuyao thought about it and couldn't think of any snack made from soybeans, so she said, "I'm not sure, but I know that soybeans can be ground into soy milk and made into tofu."
"Tofu?" The eldest prince and the young prince repeated at the same time, with a questioning tone in their tone.
Li Shuyao nodded, "Yes, it's tofu."
The eldest prince frowned and said, "But the tofu is not tasty at all. It has no taste at all."
The little prince licked his lips and retorted, "But tofu is soft and tastes like egg custard."
"There's a bowl of tofu and a bowl of egg custard in front of you. Which one do you choose?"
The little prince thought for a moment and said, "Let's go with egg custard."
After saying that, he seemed to feel something was wrong and quickly changed his words, "No, I'm the crown prince, I want both! First the tofu, then the egg custard, who dares to stop me?"
Li Shuyao was stunned when she heard this.
She waited for the little prince to finish his domineering words, then her almond-shaped eyes drifted to the left, intending to see how the eldest prince would argue, oh no, debate, with the little prince.
Unexpectedly, he showed a thoughtful expression.
After a moment, he nodded his round little head seriously and said, "You're right. It would be better if we just don't have any. I guess no dog slave would dare to object!"
Li Shuyao: "..."
They are worthy of being the two most precious cubs in the Forbidden City. What they said is so domineering!
She coughed twice to divert their attention, then whispered, "This morning, I accidentally mixed all the beans together, so Aunt Zhao couldn't make mung bean cakes and red bean soup."
"So just now, I was picking these beans in the house..."
Before Li Shuyao could even take out the map of Yan State, the eldest prince ruthlessly interrupted her with a frown on his face, "Why not leave these matters to the palace servants?"
The young prince clenched his fists and angrily asked her, "Which dog servant dared to order you around?"
Li Shuyao: ...
No, no, Aunt Zhao is not a dog slave!
Li Shuyao was suddenly a little flustered, but the more flustered she was, the harder it was for her to find the right words to explain. Sometimes she felt that what the eldest prince said was right, but sometimes she felt that Madam Zhao must have her own reasons for doing so.
The little prince next to him could no longer hold back and was about to slam the table and stand up.
Fortunately, at this time, Nanny Yan came over and explained to the eldest prince and the young prince in a gentle voice, "This morning, the Empress sent Eunuch Dai from the Imperial Kitchen to serve our Empress. Eunuch Dai knows that the Empress wants to eat roasted whole lamb, and he is preparing it in the small kitchen now."
"But our queen couldn't sit still and always wanted to go to the small kitchen to see how Eunuch Dai baked it. But the situation outside was also seen by the eldest prince and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. The palace servants were busy running back and forth, there was snow on the ground, and the small kitchen was always filled with smoke. We servants were also worried about the safety of the queen..."
The little prince paused as he was about to slam the table, and his chubby little hand just stayed in the air.
The expression on the eldest prince's face also froze.
Then the two of them looked at Li Shuyao in unison.
Li Shuyao nodded hurriedly, "That's right, that's what I meant. I was too restless and disobedient, so Nanny Zhao found something for me to do."
After finishing the work, there will be snacks as a reward.
...Otherwise how could she sit still?
When she gets willful, even she can't control herself.
So Aunt Zhao still has a solution!
The little prince took his chubby hand back with some hesitation.
The eldest prince turned his head to look at Nanny Yan, his dark grape eyes shining brightly.
He immediately grasped the key point of Nanny Yan's words, "Is there a roasted whole lamb to eat today?"
Li Shuyao was stunned. What? Did the two little guys have to stay with her until dinner?
Huipin, will Huipin agree?
As she was thinking, she saw the two little guys opposite her look at each other with tacit understanding, then began to crawl under the couch using their hands and feet, climbed onto the footrest, and bent down to put on their little boots.
After all, the little prince was still young and his fingers were not flexible enough. He tried to bend his fingers for a long time but still couldn't put on his boots.
After the eldest prince put on his boots, he glanced at him. Although they were usually noisy, he was still very concerned about his younger brother, the prince, at this time. So without thinking, he reached out and snatched the boots from the little prince's hand. He pinched his little feet without saying a word and helped him put on the boots in no time.
Then she pulled him up very considerately.
The two of them held hands and ran quickly out of the hall in Li Shuyao's confused eyes, and each gave orders to the palace servants around them.
The eldest prince asked the young eunuch to go to the Yanx Palace to tell his mother that he would stay in the Changchun Palace to eat roasted whole lamb today and would not go back to have dinner with his mother.
The little prince also pulled He Zhuer's sleeve and asked him to go back quickly to tell Madam Ling not to prepare dinner for him. He wanted to eat in Changchun Palace before going back.
At the end, he remembered to say, "Tell Madam Ling and Liang Banban to tell me that I will go back to pay my respects to Khan Ama later, after I finish eating."
"Yes." The two young eunuchs agreed in a low voice, kicked up the hem of their clothes, hugged them in their arms, and ran away quickly.
Li Shuyao, who followed out, was speechless when she saw this scene.
However, he still gave a few instructions to Nanny Yan, asking her to go to the small kitchen and tell Eunuch Dai that the eldest prince and the crown prince also wanted to eat the roasted whole lamb today, and that there was no need to add chili peppers.
Nanny Yan was delighted to hear this.
When he left, his back looked like he was ten years younger.
…
After the two boys finished their instructions, they quickly returned to Li Shuyao's room, helped each other take off their boots, grabbed the cushions on the couch with their fingers, and climbed up with their butts sticking out.
After climbing up, the little prince flicked the basket of "three-colored beans" with his fingers, turned his head and said to Zhao Ma Ma beside him, "My elder brother and I are here to talk to Concubine Ling, and we will not let her leave this room."
"So you can just throw away these beans that have been mixed together. If Aunt Zhao wants to make some snacks, I'll have someone send some more over."
The eldest prince also nodded, obviously thinking that this was a good idea.
However, Li Shuyao strongly disagreed, "These beans are not bad. Take them down and ask the palace maids to share them. They can still be eaten."
The eldest prince hesitated to speak.
The little prince thought for a moment and said, "Alright, then let those aunts go down and divide the beans."
As long as it’s not Concubine Ling who comes to divide it, otherwise it would be too difficult for her.
Wen Mei and a few others came over, lowered their heads and took the basket of beans away.
Seeing that everyone in the room was sent out one by one, Nanny Zhao quickly found an excuse to leave, leaving the space in the room to Li Shuyao and the two princes.
Li Shuyao hadn't noticed anything was wrong with the atmosphere in the room.
She rested one hand on the table, supporting her chin, and with the other hand, she boredly scratched at the animal patterns carved on the edge of the table. She asked, "Big Brother and His Royal Highness, what do you want to say to me?"
The young prince quietly stretched out a finger and poked his eldest brother's side.
The eldest prince reacted instantly.
He quickly straightened his expression, coughed twice, and said to Li Shuyao, "I came here specially to thank Lady Ling."
"Thank me?"
There was a hint of surprise on Li Shuyao's face, and then she suddenly sat up straight.
At the same time, my mind quickly recalled what I had done during this period of time.
When I think about it, it’s either eating, drinking, playing or sleeping... It seems like I haven’t done anything.
So where does the word "thank you" come from?
Li Shuyao blinked her watery almond-shaped eyes and looked curiously at the five-year-old boy opposite her. The curiosity in her eyes was self-evident.
The expression on the eldest prince Baozi's face suddenly became uncomfortable again.
His gaze drifted and finally landed on Li Shuyao's white fingers resting on the edge of the table. They looked like the white jade he had seen some time ago, and quite beautiful.
It's just that the action of scratching the table is not very elegant.
The eldest prince suddenly wanted to grab her hand and tell her to stop scratching...
"Why are you thanking me, Big Brother?"
Seeing that the eldest prince didn't speak for a long time, Li Shuyao simply asked again.
Seeing this, the little prince next to him quickly stretched out two fingers and poked the itchy spot on his brother's waist.
The eldest prince paused for a moment.
...I almost laughed out loud with my whole body shaking.
He quickly stepped aside, then quickly grabbed a few of the prince's younger brother's fingers, glared at him angrily, and whispered, "I know what you're going to say, so stop poking me."
The little prince puffed up his cheeks and nodded very obediently, then pulled back his fingers, placed them on the table, and listened attentively to what his brother and Li Shuyao were saying.
Li Shuyao saw all the little movements between the two, and she couldn't help but become more curious. What exactly did the eldest prince want to say to her?
Why are you taking it so seriously?
The eldest prince quickly raised his chubby face and said in a resounding voice, "I want to thank Concubine Ling for catching the villain who wanted to make me fall off my horse!"
Li Shuyao was stunned.
Her expression became more and more confused. She was just a fuse, and the people who really contributed were Qingyao next door and the eldest prince's own mother?
Li Shuyao quickly waved her hands, not daring to take any credit for the achievement. "Actually, I didn't do anything. It's mainly Qingyao, or Concubine Yi and Concubine Hui, who deserve more credit."
"I know." The eldest prince spoke slowly.
The solemn expression on Baozi's face remained unchanged, and his eyes were very determined.
"I've already thanked Mother, but she said she was the one who gave birth to me and raised me, so it's her duty to protect me. She also said that if it weren't for Concubine Ling's idea, she would have been the first person in the Forbidden City to let a wolf into her house."
What kind of weird statement is this?
Li Shuyao tilted her head, looking very confused.
The eldest prince continued, "As for Concubine Yi, I will personally go to her house to express my gratitude tomorrow."
"Today, I came here specifically to thank Concubine Ling."
After saying this, he lowered his head and reached into his arms twice.
Then he took out a few crumpled pieces of paper.
He unfolded the paper balls one by one and pushed them over. "Here are five thousand taels..."
Before he could finish his words, Li Shuyao interrupted him by raising her voice, "Mr. Duo?"
Five thousand taels?
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