Chapter 69: Encountering this aphrodisiac, hadn’t Xiao Yu already stopped taking it?
Hearing what the proprietress said, Yan Shu felt quite embarrassed.
But Xiao Yu on the side looked much happier than before, and held the girl's hand even tighter.
The mutton bone soup that was being slowly simmered in a clay pot in front of the stall was steaming and had a hint of meaty aroma. It looked particularly tempting. Yan Shu was so hungry that she ordered two bowls.
After the two bowls of soup were served, the proprietress also specially brought a plate of golden stone steamed buns that had just been baked.
"You two aren't locals, are you? This soup tastes best when eaten with these stone buns."
Yan Shu was about to ask how much it cost, but the proprietress waved her hand and smiled warmly, "This plate is for you. I think it's delicious. I hope you come here often in the future!"
Yan Shu quickly smiled and nodded, feeling rather flattered. Although she was about to return to Yongcheng and didn't know if she would have the chance to visit Yangu Pass again, she was still particularly happy about the proprietress's kindness.
The so-called "铏羹" is actually mutton soup. Its cooking process requires seven steps, including selecting bones, smashing bones, soaking bones, and boiling bones. The meat is tender and the soup is white, with a fresh and rich taste. Local herbs unique to Yanguguan are also added to it to remove the fishy smell of mutton and mutton bones, making it taste particularly fresh and fragrant.
The stone steamed buns brought by the proprietress have a golden crust, are crispy and chewy, and paired with the mutton soup, it has the richness of noodles and the flavor of fresh mutton, and it tastes very satisfying.
Yan Shu was naturally very satisfied with the meal.
Finally, when the two of them left, they packed up a bag of stone buns and took them away. Yan Shu thought it would be great to eat on the way back to the palace.
When paying the bill, Xiao Yu left a gold ingot. The proprietress was even more surprised when she saw it. She kept saying that she didn't want so much. Finally, under Yan Shu's strong request, she left it.
The proprietress only then realized that the young couple were not an ordinary family, so she didn't say anything else, but just put a lot more stone buns into Yan Shu's cloth bag.
After eating and drinking, Yan Shu took Xiao Yu to the market. Although there were many delicious foods and fun things there, the pottery figurines and pottery bowls made by local craftsmen still attracted Yan Shu's attention the most.
Especially those lifelike little pottery figurines, which are particularly interesting to look at.
One pair of pottery figurines was Yan Shu's favorite.
They were a boy and a girl holding hands facing each other. The boy closed his eyes and kissed the girl's cheek. The girl had curved eyes and a sweet smile.
The carvings are lifelike and the colors are bright and bold.
Yan Shu fell in love at first sight.
When the stall owner saw that the little girl in front of him liked it, he shouted even harder.
"Young lady, you have excellent taste! This pottery figurine is a favorite of newlyweds like you. Buy it home and place it by your bed. You will surely live happily ever after!"
When Yan Shu heard this, her face turned red.
She just thought that the terracotta figurine was very lifelike and interesting, and she didn't think too much about it. Now that the stall owner pointed it out specifically, she felt a little embarrassed.
Xiao Yu, who was standing aside, had originally looked indifferent, but when he heard what the stall owner said, he immediately asked him to wrap up the terracotta figurines in front of him. Yan Shu wanted to stop him but failed.
Fortunately, she really likes it. It will definitely be very interesting if she buys it and puts it in her own Baohua Hall.
In addition to this pair of pottery figurines, Yan Shu also bought some pottery ornaments related to the local customs of Yanguguan, as well as pottery figurines carved into the shape of small animals, and some pottery figurines in the shape of ladies wearing flowers in their hair.
All in all, the girl gained a lot.
After buying these little gadgets, Yan Shu also wanted to buy some local specialties of Yanguguan.
In addition to the stone buns, she also bought some corn, which was the favorite of the locals in Yanguguan. She heard that the porridge made from the corn in Yanguguan was much more delicious than ordinary rice porridge, so Yan Shu bought two small pottery jars of corn.
In the end, I couldn't carry all the bags anymore.
Xiao Yu ordered someone to take the things Yan Shu bought back to the library first.
After finishing her stroll around the market, Yan Shu remembered the tavern opened by people from the Western Regions that Madam Xin had mentioned earlier, and immediately became interested in it.
So he immediately pulled Xiao Yu towards the tavern.
This newly opened pub was doing really good business. As soon as I entered the store, I found that all the seats were occupied.
Fortunately, Yan Shu was still a little lucky. There was still a private room upstairs in the tavern, which was just right for the two of them.
I saw that everyone in the tavern was dressed in Western costumes.
Especially the group of beautiful wine-selling maids and wine-selling men, all of whom were from the Western Regions. The women had graceful figures, and the men had exotic faces that were even more charming.
Yan Shu had never seen so many people from the Western Regions before, and she was immediately fascinated by these exotic customs.
I secretly admired in my heart that these women from the Western Regions were indeed very beautiful, just as the rumors said.
The wine in this tavern was indeed as Mrs. Xin said. The fruit and flower wines all tasted surprisingly good, especially the grape wine. Yan Shu felt that it tasted better than the one in Xiao Palace.
But this is not what makes this pub unique.
The reason why this Western Region tavern is so popular is not only because the wine tastes very good, but also because there are various dancers to accompany the meals.
And these dancers are not only women from the Western Regions, but also a group of Western men are among them.
This is the peculiarity of this Western Region tavern.
It is not difficult to find a few beautiful dancers in an ordinary restaurant, but in this Western Region tavern, regardless of gender, all are good at singing and dancing. The men dance the Huxuan dance while swinging silver bells on their waists, and the women play the huqin and sing difficult-to-understand Western Region ballads. Their every frown and smile are completely different from those in the Central Plains, and look particularly fresh.
Just like now, singing and dancing have already started in the hall.
Yan Shu sat in a private room, sipping grape wine and trying various pastries, and looked with interest at the group of beautiful Western dancers and dancers in the hall downstairs.
Xiao Yu's expression was no longer as happy as before.
He saw that the girl's eyes were attracted by the group of men and women from the Western Regions, and his dark eyes suddenly darkened.
"Do you think it looks good?"
Yan Shu was watching with great fascination. When she heard the question, she nodded repeatedly and said, "It's beautiful."
Then he realized the cold tone, his heart skipped a beat, and he immediately turned to look at Xiao Yu beside him.
His eyes were dark, his thin lips were slightly raised, and he looked like he was smiling but not smiling.
Yan Shu immediately thought that something was wrong.
She immediately withdrew her gaze from the group of Western dancers and smiled at him flatteringly: "No matter how good-looking they are, they are certainly not as good-looking as Brother Xun. Brother Xun is the best-looking."
Go ahead, the little girl poured another glass of wine for the man in front of her, and then held it to his lips very eagerly.
Seeing Xiao Yu drinking with his eyes bent, Yan Shu thought she had coaxed him.
So they started eating and drinking happily again.
But it was not until the two of them returned to the residence in the middle of the night that Yan Shu realized that Xiao Yu was still angry.
The moon is now high outside the window.
In the bedroom, one can also hear the rustling of the wind in the canyon not far away, as well as the waves in the long ancient river.
The poor little girl was pressed down on the couch with the curtains torn, bearing the jealousy that the young king had accumulated for a long time during the day.
No matter how she acted coquettishly and begged for mercy, she would be grabbed by the waist and attacked at will.
Even every time he possessed her, Xiao Yu would bite her earlobe and ask her over and over again whether she liked the man from the Western Regions or him.
The last few times, Yan Shu really couldn't bear it.
She could only sob and bite the shoulder of the culprit, crying and saying "Brother Xun is the best, I love Brother Xun the most" before he stopped.
After a long time, the bed curtains stopped shaking.
Looking at the mess on the bed, Yan Shu, feeling weak all over, secretly swore in her heart that she would never dare to provoke Xiao Yu like this again.
He is simply not a human being.
…
The three days of outing passed quickly, and soon it was time to return to the palace.
The carriage was jolting for three or four days, so Yan Shu naturally slept for another three or four days.
It was already late at night on August 11th when we arrived at Xiao Palace.
Xiao Yu directly carried the sleeping girl into his Changming Palace.
Yan Shu also slept until dawn.
The next morning, when she woke up, she found that she was no longer in the carriage, but had returned to Changming Palace.
But there was nothing beside him, and Xiao Yu was no longer there.
Yan Shu rubbed her sleepy eyes, thinking that he must have gone to deal with government affairs again, so she covered her face and yawned lazily, then lifted the bed curtain and prepared to get up.
Qingtao had already heard the noise in the outer hall and immediately hurried into the inner room to serve.
Yan Shu chatted with Qingtao for a while and learned that Xiao Yu had gone to handle the task without having breakfast early in the morning. So she washed and dressed, thinking of sending some breakfast later.
Qingtao did not leave the palace with Yan Shu to go to Yangu Pass this time, but stayed in Xiao Palace to prepare for the relevant matters of the Queen's coronation ceremony on August 15th, the Mid-Autumn Festival.
It is now August 12th, and there are only three days left until the Queen's coronation ceremony, so naturally many things will become busy.
Fortunately, Qingtao has already taken care of many matters in an orderly manner, and Yan Shu does not have much to instruct.
After washing up and having breakfast, Yan Shu remembered the corn she brought back from Yan Gu Pass. She immediately thought that since Xiao Yu did not have breakfast, it would be better to make some stomach-nourishing corn porridge and send it to him.
When Qingtao heard this, she said she would just ask the small kitchen to do it.
Yan Shu nodded, but she still wanted to see how this corn porridge was different from ordinary rice porridge.
So after breakfast, he took Qingtao to the small kitchen of Changming Palace.
As soon as he entered the kitchen, he saw that in addition to the palace maid who was cooking corn porridge, there was also a young eunuch who was cooking some kind of soup in front of the stove.
Seeing Yan Shu coming in, the eunuch's expression suddenly changed, and he immediately closed the ceramic lid quickly.
"Your humble servant greets the queen." The eunuch immediately bowed to Yan Shu, looking obviously a little flustered.
Yan Shu's eyes naturally fell on the pot of medicine. She frowned and immediately took a few steps forward. Ignoring the eunuch's attempt to stop her, she opened the lid of the medicine through the thick cloth.
Suddenly, the familiar bitter smell of medicine entered Yan Shu's nose, and she immediately remembered the day when she met Zhou Tong outside Changming Palace, and the bowl of medicine he was holding.
But didn't Xiao Yu stop using this aphrodisiac? Why is he still cooking it today?
Yan Shu was confused, and the young eunuch's face had turned as pale as paper.
"Did the king order you to cook this medicine?" Yan Shu asked immediately.
Upon hearing this, the eunuch could only nod tremblingly.
Yan Shu became angry immediately after hearing this.
Xiao Yu had clearly promised him not to drink the medicine anymore, so why did he come back and cook it? Could it be that he had never stopped taking the medicine since the day she found him?
No wonder he was still full of energy every night after she found him, and it didn't look like he hadn't taken the medicine. It turned out that he had never stopped taking the medicine.
But Yan Shu still had some unresolved confusions in her heart.
But during the time we were in Yangu Pass, I never saw Xiao Yu drink this medicine, so why didn't his energy diminish?
Isn't this medicine an aphrodisiac?
The girl's heart skipped a beat and she immediately became suspicious.
So he immediately arrested the eunuch and asked him what the medicine was used for.
But the eunuch just shook his head and replied in fear that it was just an ordinary tonic.
How could Yan Shu possibly believe his lie that this was just an ordinary tonic? But in order not to arouse suspicion, she pretended to be calm and did not continue to question the eunuch, but just spoke in a gentle voice.
"When the medicine is ready, bring it to the king. Don't let it get cold."
After saying that, Yan Shu went to the side to watch the palace maids cook corn porridge, as if she didn't care about what happened just now at all.
Seeing this, the young eunuch felt relieved immediately.
In fact, he didn't know what kind of tonic he was making, but Zhou Shiling ordered him to be careful when making the medicine so as not to be discovered by the servants in Baohua Palace.
Being caught by the queen, the young eunuch was naturally frightened. Fortunately, the queen did not ask any more questions and went to busy herself with other things. He immediately felt a lot more at ease.
So after the medicine was boiled, the young eunuch immediately served it, paid his respects to Yan Shu, and then hurriedly took the medicine out of the small kitchen.
On the other side, Yan Shu saw that the person had gone far away, so she immediately asked Qingtao to take some of the medicine residue from the soup bowl.
"Princess, do you suspect there's something wrong with this medicine? Why don't you just ask the king?" Qingtao held the bowl of black medicine residue and looked at her princess with some confusion.
Yan Shu shook her head slightly when she heard this.
"If he wanted to tell me, he would have told me clearly when I saw him. But now he is still hiding it. No matter how much I ask, he won't tell me."
Instead of asking again and again and making Xiao Yu cover up the truth, she might as well ask a medical officer to examine the medicine residue to see what kind of medicine he had drunk.
Just when Yan Shu returned to Baohua Palace and was about to ask Qingtao to take the medicinal residue to the Imperial Physician's Office to ask a doctor to check it out, she received a message from the female official in charge of Empress Dowager Zhaojing.
"The Queen's coronation ceremony is imminent, and the Queen Mother has summoned you to discuss the ceremony's etiquette. This concerns the dignity of the ceremony, and the Queen must personally review it."
The female official in charge had a smile on her face, and her tone was firm and unquestionable. Her eyes were fixed on Yan Shu's face, as if waiting for her to respond immediately.
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The author has something to say: I changed the title of the book. Now it is called "Bound Golden Beauty". My dears, please don't make a mistake.
…
Xiao Yu doesn't want Shu Shu to have a child. As mentioned in the previous article, he feels that his bloodline is dirty and despicable, so he feels that he is not worthy of Shu Shu to have a child. As for why he thinks he is dirty, I will talk about his miserable childhood later.
The Queen Mother is now in a state of mind of revenge because her son was killed, but she is not innocent either. Xiao Yu's miserable childhood was also caused by her.
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