The news flew across the Forbidden City like a sparrow with wings, then slipped out of the palace walls and spread throughout the capital. In the imperial study, the emperor laughed so hard that he fell backward, flinging the memorials with his red seal to the ground, and his white beard trembled like a reed in the autumn wind.
"Your Majesty, the Seventh Prince's decree..." Chief Eunuch Li Zhong held back his laughter and handed over the sobering soup.
"Excellent!" the emperor slammed his desk, his ink splattering. "This is even better than when I punished the eunuchs by making them feed peacocks!" He grabbed his red brush and wrote in a flamboyant manner on the blank space of the memorial: "Reward the Seventh Imperial Concubine with ten kilograms of West Lake Longjing tea, and grant Consort Liu the title of 'Consort Sichen'. I decree this!"
Li Zhong looked at the words "Noble Lady Si Chen" and his face flushed with laughter. "Your Majesty, this 'Si Chen' is not..."
"That's settled!" the emperor interrupted, waving his hand. "Tell her to take good care of the chickens. I'm looking forward to eating the eggs she lays!"
When Shen Weiwan returned to the Seventh Prince's Mansion, Chuntao came running towards her, holding a greasy piece of oil paper, and the velvet flowers on her temples were tilted to the back of her head. "Miss! The storyteller in the West Market has made up a new story!"
A crooked jingle was written in charcoal on the oil paper, and at the end was a drawing of a hen wearing a phoenix crown:
"The prince is a treacherous man and is given a new position.
The noble man went to raise chickens crying,
Tea eggs, cluck,
There was laughter in the imperial kitchen!
Shen Weiwan laughed so hard that she fell backwards. She handed the oil paper to Xiao Yu who had just dismounted: "Your Highness, look, the people are praising you as a 'black-bellied genius'!"
Xiao Yu took the oil paper and shook his head helplessly: "You have made me look less and less like a prince." He paused, leaned close to Shen Weiwan's ear, and his warm breath brushed her temples. "But... seeing her holding the eggs with a sad face, it is indeed refreshing."
"That's right!" Shen Weiwan raised her chin proudly, and the silver bells in her hair rang crisply. "If anyone dares to provoke me again in the future, I will ask His Highness to arrange a 'good job' for her - such as going to the Imperial Hospital to test medicine?"
Xiao Yu scratched her nose and rubbed the marinade on her face with his fingertips: "Okay, okay, I'll do as you say. But next time when you assign errands, can you not always involve food? Last time you asked the young lady of the Taifu family to take care of the manure in the imperial garden..."
"I know!" Shen Weiwan agreed, but secretly stuffed a chili-flavored tea egg into his sleeve, "What about this? Just eat and don't work, pure enjoyment~"
Xiao Yu didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but he took advantage of the situation and hugged her in his arms, smelling the mixed scent of jasmine and braised eggs in her hair: "I have really fallen into the hands of you, little devil."
At night, Chen Weiwan was researching a new braised egg recipe in the warm room. The sandalwood incense from the copper censer mingled with the scent of chili powder. When Xiao Yu pushed the door open, he held a bright yellow envelope in his hand. "My father sent it, and he said it was urgent."
The letter was written in the emperor's usual sloppy handwriting, with a few ink stains on it:
"My daughter-in-law, I heard you sent Concubine Liu to raise chickens? Excellent! I've ordered her to crow at the Imperial Kitchen door every day at 3:30 AM. Remember to let her practice her voice so she doesn't crow worse than the Imperial Kitchen rooster! Also: the chili eggs you sent last time were great. Send me another ten pounds. I'll mix them with venison."
Shen Weiwan laughed so hard that she couldn't straighten her waist. She handed the letter to Xiao Yu: "Father, you want to treat Concubine Liu as a full-time rooster to announce the dawn!"
Xiao Yu looked at the crooked rooster painted at the end of the letter and sighed helplessly: "I now seriously doubt that you and my father are the real father and daughter, right?"
"That's right!" Shen Weiwan raised her eyebrows and pointed at the letter paper with her fingers stained with marinade, "Otherwise, how could the pit people be so in sync?"
The two smiled at each other. Outside the window came the sound of the night watchman striking the clapperboard for the second watch, mingled with the faint sound of a children's rhyme. A new jingle drifted into the warm room on the night breeze: "The princes and the imperial concubines all go to the battle, the green tea lady goes to raise chickens, cluck, cluck, the eggs are fragrant, and the harem will never lack food again!"
Shen Weiwan leaned against Xiao Yu's chest, listening to his steady heartbeat. The image of Concubine Liu fretting over the rooster in the imperial kitchen surfaced in her mind, and she couldn't help but laugh. She knew that with Xiao Yu as her scheming assistant and the Emperor as her "best friend," her future harem life would be even more exciting. And her legend of "deceiving others" would continue to unfold in this deep palace, accompanied by the aroma of braised tea eggs and the clucking of roosters, writing even more absurd and amusing chapters.
At that moment, in the backyard of the imperial kitchen, Concubine Liu was weeping over a flock of chickens. She reached out to stroke the chickens' backs, but a rooster pecked her finger. She jumped in pain and stepped into chicken manure. A young eunuch's chuckled voice echoed from afar: "Look! 'Concubine Sichen' has started talking to the chickens!" Concubine Liu turned sharply, catching sight of her own disfigured reflection in the moonlight. Unable to contain her tears, she squatted beside the chicken coop and burst into tears. Her cries, mingling with the clucking of the roosters, became the most distinctive melody in the Forbidden City's night. Beyond the palace walls, in the streets, the story of "The treacherous prince given the chickens a job" had already made its way to teahouses and operas, becoming a classic joke that the common people never tired of hearing.
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