Sometimes, he felt that he couldn't understand Ding, just as he couldn't understand all the women in the Eastern Palace. But so what? He could firmly control those women, and those women could only wear silk and satin and use the valuable Mihexiang with his help. Only with his help could their mother's family gain a firm foothold in the court and even rise step by step.
Therefore, he didn't need to understand them at all, because if he told her to give birth, she would give birth, and if he told her to die, she would die.
Ding used to report the household expenses to him. At the end of every month, Ding would hold the account book and tell him in detail about the monthly expenses of the Eastern Palace, tens of thousands of taels of silver. He listened to her in a disjointed manner. Later, he got tired of her and stopped listening. After sending Ding away, he felt that listening to these gossips was far less enjoyable than riding a horse in the suburbs of Beijing.
But he really liked Ah Chou's chattering to him about the same family matters. One or two coins. Even ten or twenty coins. Pork vermicelli buns, these were things he could never touch before. But now he listened with great interest, listening to Ah Chou's description of shepherd's purse vermicelli buns. He even felt like drooling.
"What is shepherd's purse?" Zhong Mingwei was particularly curious after listening to Ah Chou describing the big-stuffed buns for most of the day.
"You haven't eaten shepherd's purse? Tsk, tsk, tsk, how pitiful." Ah Chou smacked his lips and pouted, "I used to envy you nobles who eat abalone, shark's fin, and bird's nest all day long, but now I'm not envious anymore. I haven't eaten abalone, shark's fin, and bird's nest, but haven't you eaten shepherd's purse either? Hehehe, let me tell you that shepherd's purse is really delicious. It's delicious when fried, eaten cold, and made into soup. But I like eating buns and dumplings stuffed with shepherd's purse the most. Hehe, just saying this, I'm hungry. Are you hungry?"
Zhong Mingwei was hungry, or was made hungry by her nagging, so he just said "hmm" softly.
"That's it. I'll go cook right away. But it's too late today. I'll make you buns with big fillings tomorrow!" Ah Chou reached down and applied ointment on his lower abdomen. Then he got out of bed, kicked off his shoes, and went out to prepare dinner.
~……
As soon as the sticky and warm red bean porridge that they had tonight entered Zhong Mingwei's mouth, he noticed something different: "Did you put sugar in it?"
"Well, I bought a bag of rock sugar," Ah Chou said to him with a smile as she stirred the porridge, and scooped another spoonful of red bean porridge to feed Zhong Mingwei, "I was worried that you would have no taste in your mouth if you drank plain porridge every day."
Zhong Mingwei opened his mouth and swallowed the red bean porridge in the white porcelain spoon. It was sweet, really sweet. Maybe it was because he hadn't eaten sweets for a long time, but Zhong Mingwei felt that the red bean porridge was so sweet that it was greasy. As a middle-aged man who didn't eat much sweets, he found this sweet and hot porridge delicious.
"Have another bowl?" Achou put down the empty bowl, picked up another bowl, and pretended to feed Zhong Mingwei.
"Why don't you eat?" Zhong Mingwei did not eat the spoonful of red bean porridge handed to him, but looked at Achou eagerly.
"There's some in the pot. I'll eat after you're full," Ah Chou said hurriedly. As if afraid that he wouldn't believe her, she straightened her back and said, "Really, there's still more than half of the pot left. I have a big appetite, and I eat twice as much as you every day!"
Zhong Mingwei looked at her skinny arms, obviously not believing what Ah Chou said. He raised his chin and said to Ah Chou, "I'm full, you eat."
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