Chengqian Palace at midnight.
"Your Majesty, is it time to rest?"
Hua Quan, half-asleep and with his eyes half-closed, looked at Li Qiji, who was still engrossed in reviewing memorials, and said...
The man on the dragon throne, without even raising his head, casually asked, "What time is it?"
Hua Quan yawned, looked up at the sky outside the window, and said cautiously, "It's past 1:00 AM."
The man remained calm and said, "Yes! I understand."
Seeing that the emperor was still busy, Hua Quan lowered his head and pretended to doze off again, feeling somewhat helpless.
Just as Hua Quan lowered his head, Ji Shang, who appeared out of nowhere, suddenly knelt down in front of Li Qiji.
This caused Hua Quan, who was feigning sleep, to take a few steps back. However, Ji Wu, who was standing behind the emperor, stepped forward excitedly and exclaimed, "Brother, what brings you here?"
Ji Shang "..."
"Your Majesty, I have important matters to report!"
The man who had been looking down at the memorial for so long finally raised his head, twisted his neck from side to side, and said, "Jishang, what do you have to report?"
"Your Majesty, the Empress...."
The Emperor looked anxiously at Ji Shang, who was kneeling on the ground, and asked, "What's wrong with the Empress?"
Ji Shang said, somewhat embarrassed, "It stinks."
Hua Quan exclaimed in shock, "What? The Empress has passed away? Why are you only reporting this now? She's already rotting away by now?"
Li Qiji also believed that the Empress had indeed died and was already stinking before she came to tell him, just as Hua Quan had said.
"What are these guards doing? Why are they only reporting this now?"
Ji Shang quickly said, "It's not dead, it's stinking, it stinks all over."
"It stinks? What do you mean?"
Li Qiji's stern expression swept across Ji Shang's face, as if he wanted to devour Ji Shang alive. Ji Shang felt a chill run down his spine and said under immense pressure, "Your Majesty, I just learned of the news and came to report to you."
Li Qiji stood up from the dragon throne in surprise, staring at Ji Shang kneeling on the ground and asking, "What does that mean?"
Everyone in the room immediately perked up their ears, eager to know what had caused the Empress to smell so bad.
"The guards said they didn't know what the Empress had done, and then she and her personal maid both stinked away."
"Then a lot of black mud flowed out of my body..."
"Black mud?"
"Yes! Black mud, it really is black mud, it's black and smelly."
Li Qiji looked at Ji Shang with some surprise and asked, "So what's the situation now?"
"Get up first!"
Ji Shang stood up from the ground and looked at Li Qiji, saying, "When the guards came, they said that Her Majesty had already washed in the bathroom, but we don't know what the situation is now."
"Hmm! Have you figured out the cause?"
Not yet.
"Why hasn't the matter been investigated yet?"
Ji Shang touched his nose somewhat awkwardly and said, "Your Majesty, we've been in the bathroom the whole time, so they haven't come near us, and..."
Li Qiji frowned unhappily and said somewhat displeasedly, "Then come with me and let's see what happened."
The three people in the room looked at Li Qiji with some strangeness and disbelief.
Ji Wu followed behind his emperor with some curiosity, silently thinking to himself, "Could it be that our emperor is going to climb over the empress's wall again?"
"Oh, our Emperor has this kind of hobby!"
Although Ji Wu was inwardly disgusted, his body was indeed honest. After all, everyone has a gossipy heart, and tonight was another day to watch some gossip, so of course he had to join in.
Li Qiji left Hua Quan in Chengqian Palace and flew towards the Cold Palace with his two guards, one in the shadows and one in the light.
The Cold Palace.
When Guan Zhiyue came out of the bathtub, it was already past 1 AM; she had been soaking in it for a full half hour.
The room had been cleaned up by more than ten palace maids, but there was still a lingering odor. She went in and took a sniff, but still felt uncomfortable, so she came out.
"Your Highness, it seems your room needs to be aired out a bit more tonight. If you don't mind, would you like to sleep in my room?"
Guan Zhiyue looked at the other side room of the master bedroom and said, "No need, your mother is a restless sleeper, I'll just sleep in the other side room!"
"Go find someone to clean this up for me!"
Bilian thought for a moment and said, "Alright, Your Highness, please wait a moment."
Bilian had the rocking chair taken away to be cleaned. Wearing new clothes, she sat on the railing under the corridor, looking at the moon hanging in the sky, and suddenly felt a little hungry.
That's true. I haven't eaten all day, so it's normal to feel hungry now.
So Guan Zhiyue went to the open-air kitchen built in the yard and moved out the stone jar that was being weighed down by a large rock.
Just as they were about to open the city, Li Qiji and his two companions arrived at the hiding place of the secret guards. They saw that the two guards had already covered their mouths and noses.
Ji Shang looked at them with some doubt and said, "How dare you! How can you be so disrespectful before the Emperor?"
As soon as they put their hands down, they smelled a foul odor of feces. At that moment, Guan Zhiyue opened the sealed jar.
"call....."
Guan Zhiyue brought her nose to the edge of the jar, took a deep breath of the stench, shuddered, and smiled with some satisfaction.
"Holy crap, this is the soul of stinky tofu! It's practically the soul of the stinky tofu world!"
Guan Zhiyue raised her head from the edge of the jar and called out in the direction behind her, "Bilian, come and help me start the fire, I'll treat you to something delicious later!"
Upon hearing that there was something delicious to eat, Bilian happily ran out, but as soon as she stepped outside, she smelled a foul odor in the air and couldn't help but gag.
"vomit..."
"Your Majesty, what are you doing now? It smells awful!"
Guan Zhiyue didn't care and quickly said, "Hurry up, I'm still waiting to eat stinky tofu."
Helpless, Bilian took out her handkerchief and tied it to her face, trying to block out the stench.
Guan Zhiyue pouted slightly when she saw Bilian like this, but she didn't say anything and let her start a fire for her.
Now there's no vegetable oil, it's all lard, mutton fat, beef tallow and the like.
Guan Zhiyue had no choice but to scoop out several large spoonfuls of lard and put them into the pot.
"Your Highness, what are you making? Why is there so much oil?"
Guan Zhiyue said with a bright smile, "You'd better start the fire for me while I'm frying stinky tofu, or I won't be able to eat properly and I'll beat you up."
Startled, Bilian quickly lit the firewood. After about four or five minutes, the lard in the pot gradually melted. After another three or four minutes, the lard was smoking. Guan Zhiyue then scooped the stinky tofu out of the jar piece by piece.
"Sizzle... sizzle... sizzle..."
The stinky tofu sizzled and popped as soon as it hit the oil, splashing oil everywhere. Guan Zhiyue, seemingly unfazed by the heat, somehow produced a long wooden chopstick and began stirring it incessantly in the pot.
The originally black and hairy things actually swelled up with small bulges when fried in the hot oil, and each piece of tofu was boiling and rolling in the oil.
After frying about thirty pieces, Guan Zhiyue saw that they had all puffed up, so she asked Bilian to remove them from the heat and scooped them all into a large wooden basin that had been prepared.
"Scallions, chili peppers, cilantro, salt, soy sauce..." Guan Zhiyue put all these things into the bowl one by one.
Bilian looked at the small red chilies she had picked the day before yesterday and swallowed hard, not because she wanted to eat them, but because she was afraid.
Because I've never eaten this before, I don't know what would happen if I did, but her mistress just put it in there anyway.
"Mother...Your Majesty...what's wrong?"
While stirring, Guan Zhiyue said, "What's wrong? Smell it, it smells so good! This stuff may smell bad, but it tastes incredibly delicious!"
"Here, have a taste of the first piece." Guan Zhiyue said, picking a piece from the bowl and handing it to Bilian. Bilian shrank back as soon as she smelled it.
"Your Majesty... please spare this servant! This servant does not want to eat."
Guan Zhiyue was furious and said forcefully, "Eat it right now, or I'll dump you. Pack your things and leave by dawn."
"Ah, Your Majesty, please don't send me away, I'll eat."
Bilian, with a death wish, stretched out her neck and bit into the dark, smelly tofu, her attitude one of "do whatever you want with me," as she carefully chewed the tofu.
Suddenly, she opened her eyes in surprise and looked at Guan Zhiyue, who was eating with great relish.
"Your Majesty, this is so delicious!"
Guan Zhiyue ate heartily, saying indistinctly, "Oh dear, I made a mistake by not adding any broth, but it tastes really good."
Bilian, who had initially resisted, also joined the frantic scramble for food.
The five people in the darkness watched the master and servant fighting over the food, and they swallowed in unison.
"Is it really that delicious?" Ji Wu asked the question that everyone present wanted to ask.
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