Chapter 18 The Eighteenth Kill

In the kitchen, Zhang Chuanjiang had already prepared lunch for Zhou Xunran.

However, recently, the meals he delivered to Qingwuyuan were all returned to the kitchen intact, and most of the soup made by Xiaoyu was eaten.

Zhang Chuanjiang was not sure if the prince really didn't need him anymore, but he didn't dare to stop cooking before receiving a formal message.

It's one thing to do, just like now, after finishing it, he can no longer take the initiative to send it to Qingwu Courtyard.

When Xiaoyu arrived at the kitchen, Zhang Chuanjiang was worrying about the table full of dishes.

She walked over and stretched her head closer to him: "Chef Zhang, what are you thinking about?"

Zhang Chuanjiang was startled by her. When he came to his senses, he saw her coming to the kitchen at dinner time. He thought Xiaoyu was there to cook for Zhou Xunran, and Zhang Chuanjiang felt even more disappointed.

"You don't know what I'm thinking."

Hearing his sour voice, Xiaoyu stroked the goose bumps on her arms and said cautiously, "How should I know what you are thinking? Chef Zhang, you have a wife, you have to respect yourself."

Zhang Chuanjiang knew that she was pretending to misunderstand him, and he said to her irritably, "Come on, come on, stop staring at me. Go make whatever the prince wants to eat yourself."

Xiaoyu chuckled and said, "I am just teasing you. Since you won't cooperate, I won't say much. Come on, put these dishes into the food boxes and send them to Qingwu Courtyard."

Zhang Chuanjiang stood up excitedly when he heard this: "What did you say? The prince wants to eat the food I cook?"

"What else?"

Zhang Chuanjiang immediately became proud. He said, how could a little girl like Xiaoyu, who is still wet behind the ears, be as good at cooking as his master who has been cooking for decades? He smiled and said, "Okay, okay, put it in quickly, don't let our prince go hungry."

Seeing his attentive look, Xiaoyu no longer felt lost. She smiled and told him about this while putting the food on the plate for Zhou Xunran.

Zhou Xunran also agreed: "Zhang Chuanjiang's craftsmanship is indeed good."

The little fish asked him, "Compared to me?"

Zhou Xunran chose to be honest: "You can't compare to him."

"Then why have you been eating my cooking lately?"

Zhou Xunran smiled and said, "Because the dishes you cook have feelings."

"What do you mean?"

"Didn't you say that when you cook, you should love the people who eat it. Then the people who eat it will feel your love and will naturally like the food you cook." Zhou Xunran raised his head and drank a sip of soup, and then continued, "Didn't you also teach this secret to Zhang Chuanjiang? Why, did you forget it?"

Xiaoyu asked in confusion, "I was just teasing him. But when I said that, there were only two of us there. Junior brother, how did you know?"

Zhou Xunran said, "This is my Regent Palace. I know everything that happens in the palace. What's so strange about this?"

Xiaoyu frowned.

[If that's the case, Junior Brother also knows about my meeting with Sixteenth Sister? Then what we said... is over, has my identity been exposed? ]

"Of course," Zhou Xunran put down his chopsticks and looked at her, "I have a lot of things to do all day, and I'm not interested in everything. Zhang Chuanjiang's position is more important, and it concerns my life and death, so the people below pay more attention to him."

Xiaoyu breathed a sigh of relief.

"Sit down and eat together."

Xiaoyu waved her hands, still a little nervous: "No, I'll just eat it later."

Zhou Xunran looked at her and said meaningfully, "You are so careful, could it be that you have done something to let me down?"

[Here it comes again, it's like this, I always feel like I can't hide anything from him. 】

"How could that be?" Xiaoyu grinned twice, and saw Zhou Yi walking in from the corner of his eye, and immediately said: "Guardian Zhou is back, Guardian Zhou, come in quickly, the prince is waiting for you to report today's events."

Zhou Xunran smiled and continued to eat.

Seeing Zhou Xunran only eating and not talking, Zhou Yi really thought he was waiting for him to report back: "Your Majesty, things are going very smoothly. Cao Gong is in the palace today and has not left the house yet. There is also news from the palace that the emperor agrees with General Yu's opinion and has issued an order."

Xiaoyu didn't know what they were talking about. Seeing that Zhou Xunran didn't pay attention to her, she hunched over and quietly slipped out of the room.

Zhou Xunran could see her little move, but he didn't notice it. He put down the soup bowl, wiped his hands with a wet towel beside him, and threw it into the tray.

Zhou Yi continued, "It seems that His Majesty still recognizes the prince."

Zhou Xunran sneered, "He doesn't agree with me at all. He just thinks that the posthumous child is always a threat to him, so he agreed to General Yu's proposal. If it were something else, he would definitely not agree so easily."

Zhou Yi did not mention the matter again. "General Yu wants to ask who should go to the western suburbs of Beijing to take action."

Cao Shipeng was trapped in his house today and cut off from the outside world. He didn't know they were planning to get rid of his posthumous son. If he got the news later, he would definitely not let it go.

Therefore, it is better to do this sooner rather than later.

In addition, he must have deployed a lot of people in the suburban courtyard in the west of Beijing. Zhou Xunran thought about this candidate for a moment and said, "Let Lin Kun take 20 people over there."

Xiaoyu was squatting under the window, listening attentively. She glanced outside inadvertently and saw Nanny Zhao standing not far away, staring at her unkindly.

Madam Zhao had caught a cold a few days ago and was afraid of infecting Zhou Xunran, so she stayed at home to recuperate. Now she came out and looked energetic, so she must be fully recovered.

Xiaoyu smiled flatteringly and got up from the window, "Zhao, Madam Zhao."

The voices in the room stopped immediately. The next moment, Zhou Yi appeared by the window, "Madame Zhao, Miss Xiaoyu, why are you here?"

Madam Zhao narrowed her eyes and glared at Xiaoyu: "Let her speak for herself."

Seeing this, Zhou Yi couldn't help but understand. He said to Xiaoyu, "Come in first."

Seeing her walk in with her head down and dejected, Nanny Zhao continued to patrol her territory with her head held high like a victorious rooster.

Xiaoyu lowered her head, held the corners of her clothes tightly with both hands, and walked into the room nervously.

Zhou Yi had already left, and only Xiaoyu and Zhou Xunran were left in the room. Xiaoyu looked up at him and said, "Prince."

Zhou Xunran asked: "Why don't you call me Junior Brother?"

"Heart, guilty conscience." Xiaoyu explained.

Zhou Xunran clasped his hands together, placed them on the table, and looked at her with his chin propped up. He didn't sound angry, "Since you know eavesdropping is not good, why do you still take the risk to do it?"

Xiaoyu spoke more fluently, "I'm worried."

"Worried about my health?"

[I am worried, but that is not the reason for eavesdropping. I am worried that you have discovered my and Sixteenth Sister’s identities.]

Of course I can't say this.

Xiaoyu pursed her lips, not wanting to lie to him, nor to speak out what was in her heart.

Zhou Xunran sighed: "Okay, I'm full, clean up here and send it to the kitchen."

Xiaoyu looked up in surprise: "Junior brother, you won't punish me?"

I've seen people being beaten, but I've never seen anyone asking for a beating like this.

Perhaps the military management methods I had taught her before had touched her heart, Zhou Xunran smiled and said, "You are not a member of my army, why should I punish you?"

Xiaoyu answered as a matter of course: "I was wrong for eavesdropping. When I was at my sister's house, I was punished for any mistakes I made."

Zhou Xunran asked curiously, "So according to what you said, how should I punish you this time?"

Xiaoyu thought for a moment and said, "Then give me twenty strokes of the cane."

Anyway, she has thick skin and recovers surprisingly quickly. After being beaten with twenty boards and lying in bed for half the night, she will be able to get out of bed and walk the next morning.

Before she eavesdropped, she had already prepared herself to be punished if she was discovered.

"This punishment is not good. I think you should be deprived of food for two days." Zhou Xunran said. Compared with being beaten with a stick, not being able to eat would hurt her more.

As expected, as soon as these words came out, Xiaoyu wailed and refused: "Goodbye, Junior Brother, I am very weak and I will faint if I don't eat for one meal."

Zhou Xunran said: "Then let's change someone else and punish you from calling me like that again."

He had already taken a step back, and now he took a second step back. Xiaoyu was too embarrassed to say anything more. But not calling him Junior Brother...

"Junior brother, there are only two of us here, can't we call out?"

Zhou Xunran shook his head. "After all, I am almost ten years older than you. Besides, we have never met the master together. I think this title is still a little inappropriate."

[You're saying so much, you just dislike my young age. I wanted to be a good senior sister and take good care of you. Humph, you don't listen at all. If you don't want to be a junior brother, then don't be a junior brother. I think I'm a disgusting person for calling a 30-year-old man a junior brother! ]

Thirty-year-old old man Zhou Xunran: “…” Forget it, just say whatever you want in your heart, as long as you don’t call him a disgusting old man in front of him, he will pretend not to hear you.

"If you don't want to shout, then don't shout," Xiaoyu walked out with the tray in his hand. Before he left, he shouted at him angrily, "Master Wang!"

After delivering the dishes to the kitchen, Xiaoyu returned to Fengheyuan in a depressed mood.

Junior brother no longer allowed her to call him junior brother. Perhaps the next step would be to deny their relationship as senior sister and senior brother. After that, it would even become a problem for her to stay in the palace.

Xiaoyu muttered a few words, "Could it be that he really wants to chase me away?"

She couldn't leave now, because the Sixteenth Sister was still hiding in the West Courtyard, watching her junior brother with eager eyes. What if she left and her junior brother got tricked and killed by the Sixteenth Sister?

The junior brother is immature, and as the eldest senior sister, she cannot let him do whatever he wants.

She was lying on the bed thinking of a solution when she heard a "pop" sound outside the window.

Xiaoyu got up from the bed and looked out the window, but she didn't find anything unusual. When she turned around again, she was shocked to see a man with a face mask standing in the empty space in front of her bed.

The mask and his clothes were embroidered with the logo of the Worry-Relief Sect, and the sect leader's outfit was exactly the same as the one Xiaoyu saw last time.

"Master!" Xiaoyu called out, and then reacted immediately. She approached her and wanted to pull her down, but she dodged her again.

Xiaoyu said anxiously, "Sixteenth sister, you are lying to me again! It's not even dark yet, how dare you be so bold as to wear this dress in the palace? Are you trying to save your life?"

'Sixteenth Sister' looked at her and said in a rough voice, "Sixteenth Sister? Is she the sixteenth female assassin in the Ten Women's Hall? Didn't she betray the sect and be expelled from the sect? Why do you say that? Could it be that she has returned to her old ways and started selling assassins?"

Xiaoyu was stunned for a moment, carefully comparing the figure of the person in front of her with that of the Sixteenth Sister. She was so frightened that she squatted on the ground and said, "Master, is it really you?"

The sect leader looked down at her from a high position and said, "From what you said, Sixteen dared to pretend to be me?"

"No! No! Absolutely not! My Sixteenth Sister and I were just joking. Please forgive me, Sect Master!"

"So, you really met Sixteen? Tell me! Where is she?! Is she trying to make peace with the business?"

The little fish wished he could bite off his tongue.