11. Five flavors
◎I was actually worried that the prince would starve to death◎
Chapter 11
As everyone was discussing, a deep male voice interrupted them, "Miss Qiu."
Jiang Qiuye turned around and saw that it was Tian Qu coming down from upstairs. Could it be that Ji Ci came to Jinpin Pavilion and was upstairs?
He asked the sky to come down because he had just heard the farce here.
Her face suddenly turned red, and she didn't know if Ji Ci saw her artificial performance.
Jiang Qiuye took out a handkerchief to wipe away her tears, and tried to laugh dryly: "Brother Tianqu..."
Tian Qu bowed to Jiang Qiuye and, following the prince's instructions, said in a sorrowful tone, "Miss Qiu has truly suffered a great injustice! His Highness Prince Qi is very grateful for the medicinal meals Miss Qiu has prepared recently, and highly praised Guihongtang as an indispensable specialty in Shengjing. Such quality and ability should be a pioneer for all the women of Great Jin to emulate. In my special gratitude to Miss Qiu, I invite you to join me upstairs."
"Oh my god, did His Royal Highness Prince Qi come to Jinpin Pavilion just now?"
"It's actually His Royal Highness Prince Qi."
When the noble ladies around heard the title of Prince Qi, they began to feel impatient, but they did not dare to go up to the third floor privately.
Jiang Qiuye was flattered. The worry that had been hanging in the air because her true identity had been exposed finally settled down. She said modestly, "This is what a commoner should do."
Qiu Ying was struck by lightning and felt even more embarrassed. She burst into tears in front of everyone and stared at Jiang Qiuye fiercely, with hatred in her eyes.
Suddenly remembering Huo Heng who had left, he covered his face with his sleeves and ran away to chase Huo Heng.
This silly second sister is really funny.
Thinking that Ji Ci had actually rescued him, he felt a rare sense of relief.
Tian Qu suppressed a smile, bent down and raised his hand, saying, "Miss Qiu, please."
Jiang Qiuye nodded and followed, walking up to the third floor under everyone's envious gaze, and his figure disappeared around the corner of the stairs.
Jiang Qiuye, who was overjoyed to be about to meet Ji Ci, went upstairs with her head lowered, put on a designed seductive expression, weak yet strong, simple yet tempting, and raised her eyes.
But I found that the third floor was empty. Apart from the sky, there was no one in sight.
Where is Ji Ci?
She felt a little embarrassed and gritted her teeth, but after controlling her emotions, she asked Tianqu: "Brother Jian Xi...where is the prince?"
Tian Qu scratched his head. "Your Highness, Your Highness actually left just before I left the second floor. He only asked me to come and help Miss Qiu out as a token of gratitude. Since the young lady is alright, I will take my leave first."
"Huh?"
When Jiang Qiuye turned around, Tianqu had already slipped downstairs, looking like a child who couldn't leave his parents, in a hurry.
Just as she was feeling resentful, Manager Wang came up to the third floor and called her over, holding an exquisite wooden box in his hand. "Miss Qiu."
Jiang Qiuye asked doubtfully: "What is this?"
Manager Wang raised his thick lips and said, "This is the Spring Flowers Attracting Butterflies Gilded Face Mask. I fell in love with it the moment I saw it, young lady. It felt like fate, so I wanted to give it to you as a gift."
She opened the wooden box, and gilded butterflies seemed to be flying inside, with green leaves and golden peonies, which was luxurious yet not tacky.
"This is too expensive." Jiang Qiuye was a little stunned, not understanding why someone she had just met would give her such a headdress. She didn't believe in the concept of first meeting, or fate.
"Please accept it, young lady." Manager Wang closed the brocade box, placed it in Jiang Qiuye's hand, smiled slightly, lifted his skirt and left.
Jiang Qiuye narrowed her eyes, looked at the exquisite brocade box in her hand, sighed softly, walked to the window, looked at the hustle and bustle of traffic downstairs, and didn't know which one was Ji Ci's carriage.
It happened so quietly, it disappeared so quickly.
…
In Prince Qi's mansion, the imperial physician routinely sees and treats Ji Ci every month.
Light smoke rose from the incense burner. The imperial physician placed his hand on Ji Ci's wrist, squinted his eyes, and nodded slightly, sometimes in deep thought, sometimes in surprise.
After the examination, the imperial physician withdrew his pulse-taking hand and stepped back, bowing and saying, "Your Highness's overall health has improved significantly recently, which is a pleasant surprise to me."
Ji Ci's expression remained unchanged as he nodded calmly, saying, "This prince has been taking some medicinal food every day recently. Although he still has no desire for other foods, he has not taken Bi Yuan Pills since taking this medicinal food."
"Oh? What kind of medicinal food has such miraculous effects?"
Ji Ci lowered his eyes and thought of the medicinal food, and suddenly remembered the artificial performance of the young widow in Jinpin Pavilion. Although her little tricks were revealed, they were not annoying.
He chuckled softly and said, "Guihongtang's medicinal food. I never thought that the medicinal food would actually arouse my appetite."
The Imperial Physician knew of Guihongtang's recent fame in Shengjing City, but he had never imagined that it had such achievements in treating anorexia.
It's fine to skip Biyuan Pills or take them sparingly; the pills are meant to suppress vomiting, but they don't stimulate appetite. This forces people to consume food for the sake of survival, but prolonged use can be detrimental to the body.
He stared at Prince Qi in front of him, with his sharp eyebrows and bright eyes, and extraordinary talent. But when he first met Prince Qi many years ago, he was still a skinny and withered boy.
The world only knows the great reputation of Prince Qi, who introduced new policies, quelled wars, and maintained peace and tranquility between the two countries for three years. The people relied on him and praised him endlessly. However, they did not know that after his death, he was tormented and his liver was torn apart, and his days were like a hell of wine and food.
The Imperial Physician smiled and said, "It would be best to find something that can stimulate His Majesty's appetite. His illness originates from his heart and spreads to his body. Now that His Majesty's vitality is gradually improving, the prescription can be adjusted accordingly. I will adjust it and reduce the dosage."
Does it originate from the heart and extend to the body?
The late autumn wind blew in through the window, lifting the two strands of fine hair scattered on his forehead. His expression was as calm as water.
"Trouble."
"This is the duty of an old minister. Your Majesty may continue to use the bergamot incense you normally use. It is harmless and can gradually improve the spleen and stomach."
"The king knows." Ji Ci stood up, gave Tian Qu a look, and sent the imperial physician out of the palace.
After all this trouble, it was already dinner time, and Ji Ci naturally thought of Jiang Qiuye's medicinal food. In the past, she would deliver the medicinal food on time, and she had been doing so for more than two weeks, but she didn't come yesterday.
Maybe she had something important to do yesterday.
Yes, after what happened at Jinpin Pavilion yesterday, I might have felt aggrieved and forgot about sending the medicinal food.
Thinking of this, Ji Ci was handling official business when dusk fell.
But Jiang Qiuye still didn't come to deliver the medicinal food.
The old butler stepped forward and knocked on the study door. "Your Highness, dinner has been prepared for a long time. Would you like to eat now?"
Ji Ci was stunned for a moment, put down the file in his hand, glanced at the sky outside, and the sunset was no longer there.
The black chicken soup from three days ago came to mind. The soup was light yellow yet clear, with a thin layer of sesame oil floating on it. The black chicken was torn into pieces in it, with small pieces of fish maw hidden in it. It was surrounded by white bamboo fungus, a few pieces of deep red hawthorn, a few wolfberries, and fresh green onions scattered on the soup.
The soup bowl was brought to him in hot water. When he opened the lid, it was fragrant. He didn't know what kind of love potion the young widow had put in it, which made him hungry.
"In a moment." Ji Ci closed his eyes and replied.
Then he picked up the file again and started looking through it.
Half an hour later, the dinner prepared in the kitchen had gone cold and had to be heated up again. The old housekeeper came to the study again to inquire.
Ji Ci came back to his senses and found that he had not read a single word in the past half hour. Instead, he was thinking about the bowl of black chicken soup in his mind.
Ji Jianxi, how can you put aside your official duties just for this appetite?
Forget it, forget it.
"Let's set the table."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Walking all the way from the study to the dining table, Ji Ci silently recited the Tao Te Ching: "The five colors blind the eyes, the five sounds deafen the ears, and the five flavors refresh the mouth."
“The five flavors are refreshing!”
After all, I have been learning the ways of scholars since I was young, and following the teachings of sages as my guiding principles. The mere desire for food is nothing more than that. Throughout history, there have been warnings against greed.
With this line, the "Tao Te Ching" finally succeeded in restraining the churning chicken soup in my head.
Sitting down at the table, I looked at the simple dishes on the table: a dish of stir-fried asparagus, a dish of prawns, and a small bowl of vegetable and tofu soup.
He has always lived a simple life, and his illness has caused him to have a poor appetite, so the food on the table has always been simple and small.
For some reason, he recently realized that he seemed to be too simple.
The emperor had hundreds of delicacies every day. Although he was not an emperor, he was still a prince after all.
“The five flavors are refreshing!”
Forget it.
He took the pill that Tian Qu handed to him, squinted his eyes, and picked up a piece of asparagus that was as clear as it could be.
Staring at the bamboo shoots in front of me, the pale yellow yet clear soup base, with a thin layer of sesame oil floating on it...
You are finished, Ji Jianxi. The "five flavors make your mouth refreshing" floated away with the black chicken soup and disappeared without a trace.
Ji Ci sighed, put the asparagus back on the plate, smiled bitterly and said, "Tian Qu, you come and eat these."
After saying that, he stood up and prepared to go to the study. He moved his chair away, paused for a moment, turned around and said, "Finish these, don't waste them."
He left without waiting for Tian to react.
Tian Qu: “?”
Does the prince love me so much?
…
On the other hand, Guihongtang's business is booming. Ever since Jiang Qiuye launched the beauty and skin-nourishing medicinal food, the number of customers coming to taste it has increased even more than the number of scholars before.
Through this move, Jiang Qiuye began to get to know the noble ladies of Shengjing City.
During this period, Wang, the head of Jinpin Pavilion, came twice. The first time, he was looking for a herbal remedy for headaches, and the second time, he was trying this beauty-enhancing herbal remedy. After trying it, he liked it very much and recommended it to the Jinpin Pavilion, which attracted many noble ladies to try it.
After watching the kitchen guys, she went back to the small room on the second floor to rest, and Jinhong followed her all the way upstairs.
Jinhong watched Jiang Qiuye casually pull out an account book from the bookshelf and continue to calculate the accounts, and she was worried: "Are you giving up on Ji Ci?"
Jiang Qiuye didn't look back at Jinhong. He sat down calmly and began to calculate. He chuckled and said, "Why rush? There's no requirement to hand over the city defense map and the list of spies when they should be handed over. As long as we can really get close to Ji Ci, we'll naturally have the antidote. However, if you want to try to get close to him yourself, I won't stop you."
Jinhong was nervous and wanted to get close to Ji Ci, but there was a strange woman named Jiang Qiuye around. She said she wouldn't stop her, but did she dare?
"It's been four days, and you haven't tried to get close to him anymore?"
"It's the fourth day..." Jiang Qiuye stopped what he was doing, looked out the window, and bit the tip of his pen. "It's been a bit long."
Just when Jinhong thought she would do something, she unexpectedly lowered her head and continued to work, saying absentmindedly, "But what about that?"
Until closing time, Jiang Qiuye saw Ji Ci leading Tian Qu to Guihong Hall again.
It was unknown how many days had passed since their last quarrel when Ji Ci appeared.
But he looks very different today.
Extremely...haggard...
For the first time, she felt the word "haggard" in Ji Ci. Although he suffered from anorexia, as the Prince of Qi, he always managed to put on a perfect appearance in front of outsiders and always had a great temperament.
Now he is like an animal...
Well...it's the white-faced monk-faced monkey.
The so-called white-faced monk-faced monkey, as the name suggests, has a black body and a white face, and an expressionless and desireless face like a monk, which deserves the word "haggard".
She had never seen a real white-faced saki monkey, but she had seen one in a picture book and it was very impressive.
Jiang Qiuye suppressed the urge to laugh out loud, stepped forward and bowed, saying, "Greetings, Your Highness. I wonder why you suddenly came to my humble abode today?"
The white-faced monk was silent for a while, then said calmly, "Tian Qu wanted to eat partridge, so he brought him here."
Tian Qu: “?”
Didn’t you say before that you can’t eat partridge in the middle of the night?
The reason he came to Guihongtang this time was that the prince had not eaten for three consecutive days. He did not expect that one day he would worry that the prince would starve to death, so when he left the palace today, he took the initiative to ask the prince if he wanted to eat at Guihongtang.
He is obviously the prince and the master, and he wanted to come here to eat on his own!
Jiang Qiuye saw through it but didn't say anything. She was holding back her laughter, but she had practiced acting for thousands of years and had a strong sense of professional ethics. She still had a gentle and sweet smile on her face. "Then Your Highness, Brother Tianqu, please take a seat. I'll ask the kitchen to prepare it."
After Ji Ci sat down, Jiang Qiuye asked, "What would you like to eat, Your Majesty?"
The other party glanced at Jiang Qiuye standing in front of her. She was wearing a lotus-pink Confucian skirt today, with a lotus flower on her stunning bun. Her slender white jade fingers stroked her pearl earrings, which was too sweet.
She seems to have a special preference for the stunning bun.
"The black chicken soup you sent to the palace last time was barely acceptable."
Jiang Qiuye curled the corner of his mouth. What do you mean by barely acceptable?
Forget it, I already knew that this person was a half-mute who couldn't speak.
"Yes, Your Highness, please wait a moment. I will cook for you myself."
The soft and sticky voice blew past Ji Ci's ears, making him feel a little itchy and stirring the desire in his stomach.
After not eating for three days, I feel really... hungry.
An hour later, Jiang Qiuye served the meal. In addition to the fish maw and black chicken soup, Jiang Qiuye also made two side dishes.
Ji Ci felt a little happy when he saw the images in his mind over the past few days finally become reality.
He drank the whole bowl of black chicken soup gracefully, not even leaving out a wolfberry or a chopped green onion.
Jiang Qiuye originally thought that he would not eat the side dishes as before, but unexpectedly, he ate both plates of side dishes.
This time she improved some of the recipes in the medicinal food and added a few herbs.
Could it be that this new formula worked?
Ji Ci looked at Tian Qu who was still enjoying the medicinal food and pretended to clear his cough twice.
Tian Qu turned to look at Ji Ci's slightly furrowed brows, and instantly realized that his master found him an eyesore. So without saying anything, he took the bowl and squatted at the door of Guihong Hall to continue.
Jiang Qiuye looked at Tianqu's behavior and asked suspiciously, "Why did Brother Tianqu go outside to eat? It's so cold outside."
Ji Ci does not show off his true colors, "Heaven loves to feel nature."
Jiang Qiuye was stunned: "Feeling nature?"
"Well, he usually likes to eat outdoors, where he can enjoy the breeze. The combination of food and nature is particularly beautiful."
Jiang Qiuye looked at the sky outside, which was shivering in the strong wind, and then looked at Ji Ci, who was serious and flawless in front of her. If she hadn't known how serious Ji Ci was, she would have almost thought he was lying to her.
"It's really a unique interest."
"Um."
Seeing that Jiang Qiuye couldn't hide her surprise and was still glancing at the sky, Ji Ci thought about the purpose of his visit and continued, "What happened in the past few days?"
Jiang Qiuye came back to his senses: "Nothing happened, what's wrong?"
Ji Ci: "..."
"Oh, by the way, I launched a new medicinal food at Guihongtang. It's good for beauty and skin care. The ladies love it very much. Business is better than ever."
Ji Ci thought about the past few days when the carriage had passed by Guihong Hall several times. He lifted the curtain and saw that the carriage was crowded with people.
"Well, you did a great job."
"That's right. I've put a lot of effort into Guihongtang. Back when it first opened, we'd hardly see a single customer in a day. I grew up in Wuzhou and never learned any business skills. I just learned my way around it, and now I've made some progress. Maybe I was born to be a wealthy woman."
Rich woman's fate...
Ji Ci couldn't help but smile when he heard it.
Jiang Qiuye was stunned when she saw Ji Ci's face. This was the first time she saw Ji Ci smile. His face was like the four seasons, spring, summer, autumn and winter, rich and charming.
"Prince Jian...you look so beautiful when you smile." Jiang Qiuye said sweetly, showing her two dimples.
Ji Ci clenched his fist and placed it in front of his mouth, suppressing the upward curve of his lips that he had been unable to suppress.
After a moment, he asked in confusion, "What did you add to the medicinal food? Why is it so appetizing?"
Jiang Qiuye hid her thoughts, pursed her lips, looked at Ji Ci's mirror-like pupils, which reflected her innocent cheeks, and said, "Your Highness, you actually have anorexia, right?"
Ji Ci clenched his fists under the table, his pupils dilated, and his eyes instantly dropped to freezing point, bone-chillingly cold, just like the first time he saw Jiang Qiuye. One could only feel the chill spreading down the spine.
"How do you know?"
The author has something to say:
Tianqu: Am I a part of your play?
The white-faced monk said: What do you think?
You can look up pictures of white-faced saki monkeys, they look really funny.
"The five colors make one blind, the five sounds make one deaf, the five flavors make one's mouth numb, galloping in the fields makes one's heart crazy, and rare goods hinder one's progress." From Lao Tzu's "Tao Te Ching".
"The five flavors make the mouth pleasant" means that the five flavors make the taste buds go bad, so it is against indulgence.
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