"Your Majesty, please come here. We have prepared the ingredients you ordered yesterday."
The cook washed and cut the ingredients that Qiao Yu was going to make and placed them in small bowls, then just waited for Qiao Yu to cook.
Seeing these materials, Zhu Er immediately recognized what Qiao Yu was going to do and rolled up her sleeves:
"Your Majesty, please let this servant come and help you."
In front of Qiao Yu, Zhu'er still calls her Miss, and only calls her Madam in front of outsiders. Both the master and the servant understand this tacitly.
"You are still injured, so please stay active and follow the doctor's instructions. This is what I will do for the Emperor."
When Zhu'er thought of the "tonic" that the emperor's daughter drank, she felt uncomfortable all over, and she didn't want the daughter to cook for the dog emperor herself.
He could only reluctantly push it aside and lend a hand to Qiao Yu: "Here."
After a bit of hard work, the cakes were ready. Qiao Yu said to Su Fang:
"You don't need to come with me today. I will show Zhu'er the way."
The job of guiding the palace maids to find their way required the master herself. Sufang thought that the queen had other intentions, so she didn't foolishly say that she would guide Zhu'er to find her way.
"Then I'll have to trouble Miss Zhu'er today."
Zhu'er just thought that the young lady preferred her to serve by her side, but she had no intention of showing off to the palace maids in Lan Zhao Palace.
Anyone who can serve the young lady wholeheartedly is one of her own. She cannot let the young lady down and hurt her own people in the palace.
Yan Fu was in the imperial study at this time. Yu Yuanting saw that Qiao Yu was smiling, so he simply used a silver needle to test the snack as usual.
"Thank you, sir."
"This is what an old slave should do."
Yu Yuanting took the lunch box and turned to enter the imperial study. This time, Qiao Yu did not leave directly like yesterday, but slowed down his pace.
"The Emperor and Empress Hua sent some pea yellow today. Would you like to try it?"
Yan Fu looked at the pastries that Yu Yuanting handed over. Pea yellow is a famous snack in the capital. Yesterday's soup was made by Hua Yunlan. Would it be the same today?
"Princess Xuanhua, come in."
"Ah, I'll go right away."
Empress Hua was not waiting outside the door just now, but girls walk slowly, so it took him a while to catch up with her.
As expected, when Yu Yuanting trotted out, Qiao Yu had just reached the corner:
"Your Majesty, the Emperor has seen your cakes and is calling you in."
Qiao Yu was not as overjoyed as the other concubines. She smiled shyly and followed Eunuch Shangyuan.
"Good luck to the Emperor."
Zhu'er, who was following behind Qiao Yu, kept her head down the whole time, and did not secretly look at the emperor like some pheasants trying to climb up the tree.
Yan Fu didn't even glance at Zhu'er, to be more precise, he didn't even glance at Qiao Yu.
"No need to be polite. From now on, there's no need for us to do these empty formalities. Come and grind ink for me."
Since yesterday, Yan Fu liked to call her Lan'er, but Qiao Yu still called herself a concubine and did not naively think that this was Yan Fu's special treatment of her.
Just like Yan Fu said there was no need to perform formalities, when she was useful, it was Yan Fu's favor, and when she was useless, it was Qiao Yu's lack of courtesy.
"Yes."
The room was quiet. The girl was grinding ink obediently. She didn't feel bored or want to attract his attention.
However, after Yan Fu finished reviewing the memorial in his hand, he took a moment to glance at the girl.
Hua Yunlan was truly beautiful, but she was so still and motionless, just like a fine landscape painting of distant mountains and lotus flowers:
"I've long heard that Lan'er is a talented lady from the capital. I wonder if I'll have the honor to appreciate her character today?"
As he spoke, Yan Fu took out the paper and wanted to see what Qiao Yu had written, because he was a little tired from marking the memorials.
"That's just some empty reputation. If I write something ugly, Your Majesty, please don't laugh at me."
Qiao Yu also picked up the pen and began to write: In spring, I admire the flowers; in winter, I watch the snow. But when he was about to write a word, he stopped again:
"My handwriting is too disgusting to be seen, so I will not offend the emperor."
The words on the paper are more than pleasing to the eye; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to frame them and hang them up.
The girl's handwriting was the hairpin-flowered small regular script that most women in the Dongxu Dynasty could write, but most women's handwriting looked a bit delicate because they lacked the wrist strength to have the grandeur of running script or cursive script.
But Qiao Yu's calligraphy makes the hairpin-flowered small regular script both soft and elegant, and also vigorous and unrestrained.
Yan Fu was able to see the girl's neck completely from this angle. Besides the bruises left by yesterday's absurdity, there was also a slight redness on it.
Red to the ears:
"But I feel that Lan'er's words touch my heart deeply, so I have to finish writing the poem line by line."
Yan Fu picked up the pen and completed the sentence: I miss you when I am awake and I miss you when I am dreaming.
The poetic quality is no longer important. When Qiao Yu saw the words, he admired him from the bottom of his heart. Yan Fu was worthy of being the emperor.
The vigorous and powerful calligraphy, as graceful as a startled dragon, can express the original meaning of the love poem and express the author's broad-minded and magnanimous character:
"The only person in the world whose calligraphy can compare to the emperor's is probably my grandfather!"
It was obviously flattery, but the girl said it so sincerely that it made people feel very comfortable.
The grandfather that Qiao Yu mentioned was the Duke of Hua who had passed away in office. His calligraphy did have a certain status in the Dongxu Dynasty, and many literati and scholars wanted to collect a scroll of it.
However, the calligraphy of Duke Hua is worth a fortune, so Qiao Yu's praise of him is a high compliment.
"My handwriting is even worse than your grandfather's."
Yan Fu spoke softly, as if recalling his few encounters with the old Duke Hua, when he was adopted by Empress Dowager Xue as a child.
He was still young and didn't know how to restrain his edge. It was the old Duke who told him that he would be considered grown up when he could calm down and write a piece of calligraphy that he was truly satisfied with.
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