Chapter 176: Secret words hidden in the shade of locust trees, the hidden plan begins to take shape
By the time the sun reached the treetops, the shade of the locust trees at Shufangzhai had already spread across half the courtyard. Little Swallow was sprawled on a stone table, watching a crape myrtle embroidered purse. Her turquoise skirt lay on the cool stone surface, and a freshly picked white jasmine flower tucked into her hair trembled gently as she shook her head.
"Look, sister! If the mandarin duck's eyes were embroidered with red gold thread, it would definitely look more lively!" Xiaoyanzi poked the mandarin duck on the purse, her fingertips dabbing a bit of rouge, leaving a small red mark on the white satin. Ziwei took the purse with a smile and gently picked out the loose threads with an embroidery needle. "You only know how to make trouble. This is a peace purse embroidered for the Emperor. It must be made solemn in red."
"I know, I know," Xiaoyanzi drawled out her words, and suddenly stood up and looked towards the door. "Why haven't Fifth Prince and Erkang come yet? Didn't we agree to go to the guesthouse to try the food today?" Just as she finished speaking, Yongqi came in, lifting the curtain. The hem of his royal blue dress swept the moss on the threshold, and he was holding a food box in his hand.
"Who said we didn't come?" Yongqi put the food box on the stone table with a smile, "I just went to the imperial kitchen to ask for some freshly made almond cakes for you, they are still hot." As he spoke, his eyes fell on the jasmine in Xiaoyanzi's hair, his fingertips moved slightly, but in the end he didn't dare to touch it.
Erkang followed in with a collection of poems in his hand, and walked straight to Ziwei: "For the poem "Autumn Night in the Mountain Retreat" you talked about yesterday, I found several annotated versions. See which one you like better." Ziwei took the collection of poems, and her fingertips accidentally touched his hand. They both retracted their hands as if they were scalded, and their cheeks flushed slightly.
Little Swallow looked at the two of them with a smile, and reached out to open the food box: "If you keep looking so affectionate, the almond pastries will get cold!" Just as she opened the lid of the box, she saw Little Stool crawling in from outside, with a lot of mud spots on his gray cloth pants.
"Princess! Princess!" Xiaodengzi ran breathlessly, holding onto the door frame with one hand and patting his chest with the other. "Oh no! Something happened over there... over there in the guesthouse!"
The almond cake in Xiaoyanzi's hand fell back into the box with a "click": "What happened? Were Liu Qing and Liu Hong bullied?" She stood up suddenly, and the jade pendant on her waist hit the corner of the stone table, making a crisp sound.
Xiaodeng swallowed his saliva and said hurriedly, "Someone is causing trouble at the guesthouse entrance! They're saying...that something was put in our dishes and it's sickening our guests! There's a lot of people gathered around now, they've even blocked the door!"
"How dare you provoke trouble in broad daylight? I'll mobilize the guards right away!" Yongqi frowned, placing his hand on the sword at his waist.
"Wait!" Xiaoyanzi tugged at his sleeve, her eyes sharp. "This is very strange. Liu Qing personally oversaw the preparation of all the dishes at the guesthouse. How could something go wrong?" She lowered her head in thought for a moment, then suddenly looked up at Erkang. "Uncle Fu, who do you think did this?"
Erkang stroked his chin and pondered, "There's never been a single problem at the restaurant since it opened. It just so happened that something went wrong today when we were about to go sample the food. I'm afraid someone is deliberately targeting us." He looked at Yongqi, "Mobilizing the guards would make too much noise. Why don't we go quietly and take a look at what's going on?"
Yongqi nodded. "Okay. I'll prepare the carriage. We'll go out the side door." Xiaoyanzi suddenly smiled, grabbed a piece of almond biscuit from the stone table, and stuffed it into her mouth. "No need to go to such trouble." She turned to Xiaodeng and said, "Go get Xiaotan Xiaowenzi. Let's go to the guesthouse for 'dinner' today."
As they reached the palace gate, they saw the 12th Prince, Yongqi, approaching with a young eunuch. Yongqi, dressed in a dark blue uniform with an intricate cloud pattern embroidered around the collar, quickly saluted upon seeing Xiaoyanzi. "Good luck to Princess Huanzhu," he said, his eyes brimming with curiosity. "I heard you're leaving the palace?"
Xiaoyanzi liked this gentle little prince the most. She smiled and rubbed his hair: "Yes, let's go to the guesthouse for dinner. Do you want to come with us, Twelfth Prince?" Yongqi's eyes lit up, but he quickly lowered his head: "My mother asked me to pay my respects to the Empress Dowager. I'll go with the princess next time." As he spoke, he secretly glanced behind Xiaoyanzi and saw Yongqi looking at her with a slightly hot cheek.
Arriving at the guesthouse entrance, they found a crowd gathered there, arguing loudly. The leader, a bearded man in a coarse cloth jacket, was banging on the table, shouting, "This is the shady place! My brother ate their braised pork and is now vomiting and having diarrhea. You must give us an explanation!" Liu Qing stood on the steps, arguing, the veins in his neck bulging. Liu Hong, guarding the golden lock behind her, clutched a shoulder pole tightly in her hand.
"Hey, what's going on?" Xiaoyanzi pushed through the crowd and walked in. The hem of her turquoise skirt swept the dust on the ground, and the jasmine in her hair exuded a delicate fragrance as she moved. "Brother Liu, Liu Hong, didn't I agree to come for a food tasting today? Why is it so lively?"
Seeing her elegant clothes, the bearded man thought she was there to support him, and said with his neck stiff, "Who are you? Mind your own business! This store sells black-hearted vegetables, and it has caused my brother to be bedridden!" But Xiaoyanzi ignored him and went straight to the guesthouse. She picked up the braised pork on the table, smelled it, and picked up some with a silver hairpin and put it into her mouth.
"It tastes good," Xiaoyanzi smacked her lips and looked at the bearded man. "You said there's something wrong with this meat? But it tastes delicious to me. Could it be that your brother got sick from eating it and wants to blame others?" The big man was choked and speechless, his face flushed red. "You...you're talking nonsense! My brother clearly got hurt because he ate this!"
Yongqi stepped forward at the right time and said, "Since you said there's something wrong with the dish, why don't we ask the government to come and check it out? If there really is a problem, the shopkeeper will naturally accept the punishment; if you're deliberately looking for trouble, don't blame us for being rude." He looked sharp as he spoke, and the bearded man shrank his neck unconsciously.
Erkang walked into the crowd and whispered to the old woman selling flowers nearby, "Grandma, did you see what just happened?" The old woman quietly pointed to the corner of the street and said, "Just now, a maid in a pomegranate-red dress gave this man a piece of silver and whispered something to him."
Xiaoyanzi heard this and sneered inwardly. Suddenly, she raised her voice, "I know! You must be jealous of the hotel's good business and are deliberately causing trouble!" She shouted to the outside of the crowd, "Little table, little mosquito, take this big man down and hand him over to the authorities!"
The small table immediately took a stance: "Look at my shadowless kick!" The little mosquito shouted on the side: "Good boy, long bang, there's no way you can deny your debt! The officials are waiting for you to be beaten with a stick!" The two of them sang in unison, making the onlookers laugh. The bearded man saw that the situation was not good, and said "Just you wait" and wanted to run away, but was caught by the police who arrived later.
After the crowd dispersed, Liu Qing wiped the sweat from her forehead: "Xiaoyanzi, thanks to you today." Xiaoyanzi waved her hand, walked to the back kitchen and picked up the plate of braised pork: "This meat has indeed been tampered with. It was sprinkled with croton powder instead of pepper." She suddenly looked out the window, and the pomegranate-red figure on the corner of the street flashed by, and a sneer appeared at the corner of her mouth.
"It seems someone doesn't want us to live in peace," Yongqi said in a low voice as he walked over to her. "Do you want me to tell the Emperor?" Xiaoyanzi shook her head and poured the braised pork into the slop bucket. "No, we can handle this little trick on our own." She turned to Liu Qing and said, "Brother Liu, from today on, keep a close eye on the kitchen. Don't accept anything from strangers."
As they were talking, Ertai walked in with a food box. Seeing Liu Hong, his eyes lit up: "I brought you some sugar paintings from the east of the city. They're freshly made and still warm." Liu Hong glared at him, took the paintings, and secretly pursed her lips. Xiaoyanzi looked at them and smiled secretly, suddenly clapping her hands: "Come on, let's go upstairs to try the food! It's my treat today!"
In the upstairs private room, the carved wooden windows stood open, revealing the bustling street life. Jinsuo served freshly cooked squirrel mandarin fish, its sweet and sour sauce gleaming amber in the sunlight. Xiaoyanzi took a piece of fish and suddenly winked at Yongqi. "Tell me, who gave you this 'gift' of croton powder?"
Yongqi paused as he picked up the food, his gaze fixed on the crabapple blossoms outside the window. "No matter who it is, we must be careful. The people in the palace are much more difficult to deal with than this charlatan." Ziwei held Erkang's hand and whispered, "From now on, we must go in and out together. We must not give the bad guys any opportunity to take advantage."
Little Swallow smiled and raised her teacup: "Don't worry, with our Zhuyu Shuanghui and two talented men here, we are not afraid of any demons or monsters!" The crisp sound of clinking glasses floated out through the window lattice and landed on the bustling crowd downstairs, startling a few sparrows perched on the crabapple tree, and they fluttered off to the blue sky.
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