After the last separation, Xie Wangzhi hadn't run into Changsheng again until mid-October. The palace maids all had their own things to do, and she wasn't that free, but at least they had chatted with each other a few times, and she was always thinking about him. Then she thought again that they looked like they knew each other, but in fact, they didn't even know where Changsheng was working, and she couldn't even ask him through someone.
She couldn't ask about the things she was thinking about, but Lou Hanyue went around and went out several times a day and found out two things.
The first one was about Shi Manqing. After that day, Shi Manqing never came back, and there was a vacant place in the house. It would have to wait until the next year when a new person entered the palace, and if there were any young palace maids with no place to live, they could fill it.
Shi Manqing would definitely not come back. Lou Hanyue had to ask around for a long time before she found out that she had a high fever after being beaten with a stick. The palace didn't want to keep sick people, so she asked her father to take her back and release her from the palace. But this was also the statement made to the public. The details were unknown. If you think cruelly, maybe she was beaten to death, and they just made up a story to cover it up.
As for the taboo she violated, it was because of the same name. Concubine Xiao's maiden name was Xuan, while her fellow Crown Princess used the word Tang. The two sisters had a deep affection for each other. Concubine Xiao not only avoided daylilies, but also couldn't stand things made of crabapples. Apart from the mistake of deceiving them, Shi Manqing was also unlucky. No matter how meticulous she was, she couldn't think of this.
The second incident happened in the East Palace, and it was no secret. The Crown Princess gave birth to a daughter for the Crown Prince two years ago, and was diagnosed with pregnancy in early October. Now is the time when morning sickness is the most severe, and the little prince is not in good health. He always catches a cold at this time. It is estimated that both mother and daughter have no appetite, and they will come to the Imperial Food Bureau sooner or later.
Now the three girls were sitting around the stove, staring at the bubbling fish soup, thinking about the second thing.
After the Cold Clothes Festival, even in winter, it gets colder day by day. In the past two years, I relied on fish soup to get through it. This method was thought up by Lou Hanyue. Her mother was from Sichuan, and the way to make fish soup was also from Sichuan. Set up a stove in the house, warm it with charcoal at the bottom, stew fish on top, and put any green leafy vegetables or fine noodles you like in the fish soup. As long as the charcoal is not extinguished, everything inside will be hot, and you can eat it even in the coldest days of winter.
The fish soup had just been put on the stove. The bubbles on the surface of the soup burst one by one, exuding the unique fragrance of fish. Yao Yupan swallowed it but had no appetite: "But after what happened last time, will the ladies still let us cook?"
"Could it be that they made it themselves?" Lou Hanyue was very sure, "There are only a few kinds of appetizers, and removing the pits from sour plums is annoying enough. They must have asked us to make it."
Yao Yupan pursed her lips and stopped talking.
Xie Wangzhi still remembered the bamboo whips in her palms and didn't want to get involved in this matter, but she also understood what the two people in the same room were worried about: "If it's an appetite, I remember Yu Pan's sour plum cake is very delicious, not too sweet and sour; Han Yue can make sour soup. If there is really such an opportunity, I guess I will look for you."
"If there's no chance this time, then we'll talk about it next time." Lou Hanyue thought quite openly, "I don't believe there won't be a chance to show up."
Yao Yupan was silent for a moment, and stammered: "But I'm fourteen..."
She entered the palace in March, which was the beginning of spring. Soon after the new year, new maids would enter the Imperial Food Bureau. Lou Hanyue and Xie Wangzhi could wait a little longer, but Yao Yupan could hardly wait any longer. She was also soft-hearted. If she didn't have a chance, she might not be able to get a position as a female official until she left the palace at the age of 20.
Lou Hanyue bit the chopsticks, held back for a while, and then decided: "That's it, I won't do it this time, just say I can't do it. One less person to compete with Yu Pan."
“… How can this be possible…” Yao Yupan widened his eyes in surprise.
"It's okay. I'm only thirteen this year, and there are still two years to go. I don't believe that no one in the palace likes to drink sour soup." Lou Hanyue looked at the fish soup that was almost cooked in the pot and added some green leafy vegetables. "Don't think about it, the pot is hot, hurry up and add the vegetables, hurry up."
As soon as the green leafy vegetables were put into the pot, they were immediately rolled up and down in the milky fish soup, which looked quite nice. Xie Wangzhi picked up a piece of tender white fish meat with chopsticks and just took a bite when he suddenly heard movement from the window.
After all, they were burning charcoal in the house, and none of the three people had the courage to close the doors and windows, so they could only shiver in the cold wind while eating fish. A black claw got stuck in the crack of the window, followed by another one, and the two claws pried the window open together, and then a cat's head squeezed in.
The aroma of fish soup was too strong in the room, and Meiqiu sniffed, and the tips of her ears twitched twice. She crawled into the room through the window, and ran to Xie Wangzhi's side as if she knew the way there, and put the thing in her mouth on her lap.
It was a pearl hairpin with a simple pattern, just medium-sized pearls surrounded by a circle of small silver petals. In addition to the jewelry issued by the palace, the beauty-loving palace maids could also go to the Shanggong Bureau to buy them, depending on the size, quality and workmanship of the pearls. Such a pearl hairpin could be bought for one penny of silver, which was considered a small gift.
When Xie Wangzhi was at home, any earrings she took out of her makeup box could be worth dozens of them. She felt that the thought was precious, but Lou Hanyue was surprised and patted her: "Wangzhi, this cat is really smart. A few days ago, it gave you flowers and leaves, and today it has learned to give you pearl hairpins?"
"What? Of course the pearl hairpin was given to me by someone." Xie Wangzhi didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She hadn't seen Changsheng for half a month, and she didn't know where he was. Meiqiu came every now and then, and this time she brought the pearl hairpin, but she couldn't ask Meiqiu about Changsheng.
"Who?" Lou Hanyue's eyes lit up. "Who sent it?"
Xie Wangzhi instinctively didn't want to talk about immortality, so he said vaguely: "It was a eunuch, the one I asked about Huaci last time."
Lou Hanyue wanted to ask more questions, but Meiqiu suddenly stepped on Xie Wangzhi's knees, pulled her arm, and sniffed at the things in her bowl, his beard trembling slightly.
Salt and dogwood oil were added to the fish soup, and the cat lost its hair after eating it, so Xie Wangzhi quickly moved her hand away. As soon as she moved, Meiqiu knew that she couldn't eat it, so she moved her tail and jumped off her lap.
Lou Hanyue quickly picked up a piece of fish with chopsticks and called Meiqiu: "If she doesn't give it to you, I will. Come here."
Coal Ball glanced at Lou Hanyue, his amber eyes were cold, and he didn't look like he had been trying to tug at Xie Wangzhi before. He turned his head away, ignored Lou Hanyue, used his hind legs to run a few steps, jumped onto the windowsill, and squeezed out through the crack in the window.
"See, last time I said this cat must be fed by a peerless beauty." Lou Hanyue put the fish meat in his own bowl and joked, "It seems that only our Wang Zhi is a peerless beauty."
Xie Wangzhi knew her appearance well. She wasn't ugly, but she certainly wasn't a stunning beauty. She glared at Lou Hanyue and said, "Don't talk nonsense."
Yao Yupan, who had been silent the whole time, suddenly said, "Wangzhi, you just said that the eunuch knew about Haitang and Touhuaci?"
“…Yeah.” Xie Wangzhi didn’t understand, “What’s wrong?”
Yao Yupan swallowed and said, "Think about it, how did he know something that even the Shangshi Bureau didn't know?"
Xie Wangzhi was stunned, and Lou Hanyue also felt something was wrong, so he put down the bowl and said, "There are so many people in the palace, where on earth did he come from?"
When the two asked this, Xie Wangzhi also felt that something was wrong. After holding it in for a while, he honestly said, "I don't know."
"You..." Lou Hanyue was getting anxious, "Be more careful!"
"Although I don't know, I think he is not a bad person." Xie Wangzhi picked up the pearl hairpin on his knees and recalled the pair of eyes that seemed to be filled with broken gold. "Bad people don't talk like that."
Lou Hanyue had no choice but to pick up the bowl. He suddenly thought of something else: "Oh, Wangzhi, that eunuch told you this secret and gave you a pearl hairpin. What did he want to do?"
Xie Wangzhi really didn’t know and shook his head.
Lou Hanyue didn't know anything and just stared at her.
"That..." The two looked at each other for a while, and Yao Yupan on the side said awkwardly, "Eunuchs can't marry. I heard that some eunuchs...will show their affection to the palace maids, and then...form a couple."
**
The only other master of Qingsi Palace, apart from Li Qishen, was Meiqiu, so it went directly into the bedroom through the main gate. All the palace people watched closely and allowed this pitch-black cat to step in with mud on its four paws, leaving a series of plum blossoms on the stone bricks.
The palace maid didn't dare to catch it, but Li Qishen did. Before Coal Ball jumped onto the couch, he was quick-witted and grabbed the black cat by the scruff of the neck, lifted it up in the air, and grabbed its paw. Sure enough, the pad of its paw was covered in mud.
He pinched the claw and smeared it directly on Coal Ball's face: "You want to jump onto my couch without washing your claws? I'm giving you face?"
Meiqiu's face was covered with scratches from his own claws, but he didn't dare to scratch Li Qishen. He whimpered twice in grievance, and his ears drooped.
The cat looked quite pitiful. Li Qishen stared at it for a while, then thought that it was a very cold day and it would not be easy to give the cat a pearl hairpin on a whim, so he let go of the cat.
As soon as he loosened his hand, Coal Ball immediately jumped up, directly to the height of his shoulder, stretched out its two front paws, and slapped his face with its dirty pads. Before Li Qishen could get angry, Coal Ball twisted his waist and ran out, as fast as a black shadow.
Chang Zu, who was standing next to him, didn't react in time. He looked carefully and saw two gray plum blossoms printed on Li Qishen's porcelain-white skin, one on the left and one on the right, quite symmetrical.
Chang Zu suppressed his laughter and leaned over: "Your Highness, would you like to wash your face?"
The maid holding the copper basin was quite good at reading people's expressions, and immediately brought the basin to Li Qishen, keeping her head down so that Li Qishen could not see her face. Changzu twisted a silk handkerchief in the basin and handed it to him.
Li Qishen took the handkerchief, wiped the dust off his face, and wiped his face: "How about cat soup for lunch?"
"What you said is true. I heard that cats don't taste good..." Changzu paused, "Your Highness, are you really going to eat that cat?"
Changzu was good in every other respect except that he was stupid and couldn't tell whether someone was joking or not. Li Qishen felt bored and threw the handkerchief back into the basin. He lay on his back on the couch, with his jet-black hair flowing to the edge of the couch.
"No, let's eat something else. Go to the Shangshi Bureau and ask the palace maid who made the cherry blossom cake last time to make it." Li Qishen put his arm on his forehead and smiled, "Just tell her to cook it well-done."