After Sui Sui left, no one dared to breathe. His Royal Highness the Prince of Qi was usually kind to his servants and seldom punished anyone, but no one dared to act rashly, especially after he took command of the troops, he had an aura of majesty without even getting angry.
Gao Mai took a deep breath and asked bravely, "Your Highness, the wine and food are cold, do you want to change them?"
Huan Xuan didn't have much of an appetite to begin with, and after being disturbed by the hunter girl's matter, he lost interest even more. He waved his hand and said, "Dismiss the meal."
Gao Mai did not dare to persuade him anymore. He signaled with his eyes to the eunuch to remove the food table. He also ordered the cook to prepare some soups and porridge in case His Royal Highness the Prince of Qi got hungry in the middle of the night.
Huan Xuan got up and went to the study in the front yard. He took a volume of "Strategies of the Warring States" from the bookshelf and flipped through two pages, but did not read a single word.
He placed the hunter woman here, firstly to avoid trouble, and secondly to out of sight, out of mind.
But he still overestimated his own willpower. Just when he saw Ruan Yuewei in the palace, the dam he had spent three years building collapsed.
He came here somehow.
In fact, until just now, he had not made up his mind whether to let this hunter girl sleep with him.
It's better to have such a fuss, so that he can save himself from worrying tonight.
He put down the book, walked to the window, and quietly looked out at the darkening night.
He sighed deeply, called Gao Mai and ordered, "Ask Gao Ma to come over tomorrow and teach the hunter girl the rules."
Gao Mai was shocked. Originally, Grandma Gao was a maid in the Empress Dowager's palace. She started taking care of the Prince of Qi when he was still in his infancy. The Empress Dowager seldom saw her grandson, so it can be said that the Prince was raised single-handedly by Grandma Gao.
His Highness left the palace at the age of fifteen to set up his own residence, and within two years he brought Grandma Gao out to live out her days in retirement.
Grandma Gao holds an extraordinary status in the palace. There is no mistress in the palace, and all domestic affairs are handled by her.
His Royal Highness the Prince of Qi actually called Grandma Gao over to teach her a lesson, which shows that he still has feelings for Lady Lu.
He thought that after this incident, the young lady was doomed, but unexpectedly, the situation took a sudden turn for the better.
But he had learned his lesson and no longer dared to comment on these matters. He just bowed and said yes.
Huan Xuan added: "Send more people here. Grandma Gao is old, don't let her suffer."
…
When Sui Sui returned to the courtyard, Chun Tiao came up to him expectantly and asked happily, "My lady, how was it? Did His Highness praise your cooking skills?"
Sui Sui was both angry and amused: "No, Your Highness poured out all my chicken soup and drunken pine mushrooms."
"Ah?" Chun Tiao was surprised. "How could this be? Your Highness doesn't like it?"
The favored concubine in their governor's mansion would send soup and cakes to her husband's room whenever she had nothing to do, and she thought it was a common way to win favor.
Sui Sui was helpless and sighed, "The palace has strict rules and His Highness is so noble. After all, if something goes wrong with what you eat, ten heads won't be enough to chop off."
She knew that Chun Tiao also had good intentions and did not want to blame the girl, but there were some truths that she had to let her know. While she was around, she could help her shoulder the burden, but after she left and was left alone in the palace, she would have to take care of everything on her own.
Chun Tiao was also frightened, and broke out in a cold sweat, tears welled up in her eyes, and she cried, "I was wrong, I didn't think so much..."
"Don't worry, I didn't give you away," Sui Sui said, "Next time, just discuss it with me first."
Chun Tiao breathed a sigh of relief, then bit her lip: "Have I caused trouble for my wife? Will His Highness dislike my wife and drive us out..."
Sui Sui chuckled: "Not really. It's just a pity for my pine mushrooms."
Chun Tiao hurriedly said, "There is still half a plate left in the kitchen. I couldn't bear to eat it, so I saved it for you."
Sui Sui immediately became happy: "Let's cook some glutinous rice porridge tomorrow morning and have another meal with it. Is there any venison left? Cut a plate and steam it, and then use the remaining chicken soup to stew two cabbages..."
Chun Tiao is not stupid. She knows that Sui Sui said it so lightly just to comfort her.
She committed such a serious mistake. If it were her previous master, a beating and sending her to the farm would be the lightest punishment. She might even be dragged out and sold.
The root of her nose felt sore and swollen. She used to always complain about herself and feel wronged, but now she realized how lucky she was to have a good-tempered and responsible master. She realized that the past six months were the most comfortable days of her life.
"My lady..." She buried her face in her sleeves, "Even if Your Highness never comes again, I will do my best to serve you..."
"Alright, alright, don't cry, Chunjo-sister," Sui Sui patted her back, "It's not a big deal."
Chun Tiao sobbed for a while, and finally stopped crying. Suddenly, she got excited and stood up, dragged out the rattan box containing clothes, dug out a small silk bag from the bottom, and held it in front of Sui Sui: "Madam, how about I go and ask General Manager Gao to let us out? I still have some savings..."
As she spoke, she untied the five or six knots on the silk bag and unfolded it layer by layer. Inside were a few pieces of silver, a jade pendant of ordinary quality, and two silver hairpins.
Sui Sui burst out laughing: "Sister Chun Tiao, don't show off your wealth. Hurry up and put away your dowry."
Chun Tiao glared at her angrily and said, "Don't laugh, my lady. I know that this amount of money is not enough to support a family, but we can first work for a rich family for two years and then save some money..."
She bit her lip and said, "My wife is so beautiful and capable. It won't be a problem for her to marry a minor official, let alone a man from a high-class family..."
Sui Sui didn't expect that this girl could say such words, which were really from the bottom of her heart.
She smiled and shook her head: "I don't want to leave."
Chun Tiao frowned and said, "My lady, I'm telling you the truth. Although His Highness is good, I'm afraid I can't even be a concubine because of my background. It would be better for me to find a small family and be the wife of a small family..."
Even if she entered the palace as a concubine, what good life would that be? She had seen a lot of the bitterness of the concubines in the governor's mansion. They were called masters, but they had to live by the mood of their husbands, and they were looked down upon. In fact, they were not as upright as the servants like them.
"I understand. You don't have to persuade me." Sui Sui's eyes moved in the flickering firelight, like the foggy surface of a lake, making it difficult to see clearly.
"What do you want, lady?" Chun Tiao asked.
Sui Sui lowered his eyes and said after a while: "I just want to see him."
Chun Tiao opened his mouth in surprise, then sighed in disappointment.
It turns out that not only men are lustful, but women can also be blinded by beauty!
…
That night Huan Xuan naturally did not ask Sui Sui to sleep with him.
The next morning, Sui Sui heard the sounds of people shouting and horses neighing in the distance in his sleep, and knew that the King of Qi was approaching.
She opened her eyes and saw that the room was dark and the window paper was dim, so she got out of bed quietly.
Chun Tiao was sleeping soundly on the couch. Sui Sui knew that the girl was worried about something last night and must not have slept well, so he didn't wake her up. He tiptoed to get some cold water to wash up, changed into his usual coarse cloth short coat and deerskin boots, then gently opened the door and walked out.
It was not yet dawn and the sky was still blue-gray. The courtyard was filled with morning mist and dewdrops condensed on the stone steps and the grass.
As Sui Sui walked out of the yard, the sounds of wheels, horse hooves and footsteps of his entourage gradually faded away.
She stopped and waited for the sound to disappear, then she opened the door, walked to the kitchen, took a hatchet and a bamboo basket, and still went to the back garden along the same route as yesterday.
This time she went to a bamboo forest by the lake.
Princess Shou'an was particular about the bamboo here, and the bamboo was also a famous variety brought from the south of the Yangtze River and Sichuan.
Sui Sui picked up a solid bamboo, chopped it off with a hatchet, cut it into three-foot long pieces, split it, and then carefully carved it into a bamboo sword.
The sky gradually brightened, and the warm light of the first day poured into the bamboo forest.
She raised her head, and the mottled shadows of the bamboo fell on her fair face.
It's another sunny day.
He put down the hatchet, took out a silk handkerchief from his sleeve, tore it into strips and wrapped them around the "sword handle", then began to practice swordplay.
She practiced with the sword for half an hour, and estimated that Chun Tiao would wake up soon, so she put away the sword reluctantly, walked deep into the bamboo forest, buried the bamboo sword in the pile of dead leaves, then picked up the bamboo basket and began to dig bamboo shoots.
Autumn bamboo shoots were rare, so she managed to collect half a basket and walked back with the basket on her shoulder.
It was inconvenient to carry so many things in my hands, so I had to take a long detour and go through the door on my way back. When I left the garden, the sun was already very high.
I walked along the path through the maple forest to Qixia Pavilion, where I saw an old woman wearing a brown plain brocade cotton robe standing outside the door.
The old woman had a long face, deep nasolabial folds, sharp triangular eyes, a hump-like bulge in the middle of her nose, and a hooked nose tip, making her look very fierce.
She looked at Sui Sui with hawk-like eyes and stepped forward to salute: "Excuse me, is this Lady Lu?"
One glance at her clothes and you'll know she's no ordinary servant - don't be fooled by the dark color of the material and the inconspicuous pattern; it's actually made of double-victorious silk from the Da Nei Ling Jin Fang. Unless a servant is highly valued by her master, she would never wear it.
The topaz hairpin on her gray hair was as shiny as chicken fat and was not an ordinary item either.
The King of Qi was not a man who lived an extravagant life, and his eunuchs were also very sensible. The fact that this old lady was dressed like this showed that she had an unusual status in the palace.
Sui Sui felt that the old woman looked familiar, but couldn't remember where he had seen her before, so he nodded: "Yes, this madam is..."
The old woman said, "I am Gao, an old servant who originally worked in the inner court of the palace. I am here to serve you, my lady, under the order of Your Highness."
Her attitude was respectful and there was no fault to be found in the rules, but the twitching of her eyes and eyebrows expressed her reluctance and contempt.
This set of kung fu cannot be mastered without decades of practice.
As soon as Sui Sui heard her last name, he suddenly understood.
Four years ago, she sent people to investigate Huan Xuan and found out that there was a nanny named Gao in his house, who was originally a maid in the Empress Dowager's palace.
Huan Xuan was raised by her and she had a special bond with him. After leaving the palace, the nanny was in charge of the internal affairs of the palace. She had an extraordinary status and was considered half the master.
Sui Sui couldn't help but be puzzled. Why did Qi Xuan suddenly send such a trusted nanny? Could it be that he became suspicious of her identity and asked someone to keep an eye on her
She quickly recalled what happened last night. No matter how she thought about it, she had not revealed any flaws from beginning to end, and Huan Xuan did not show any suspicion.
She suppressed her suspicion, showing three parts of bewilderment and seven parts of embarrassment: "Madam, that's not true. I am just a country girl. Thanks to your kindness, Your Highness, for saving my life. How can I be worthy of your service?"
Not really stupid, thought Gao Mama, and said calmly, "Of course not. Madam is His Highness's distinguished guest, and it is my duty to serve her."
This sentence clearly distinguishes the host from the guest - since he is a guest, he cannot be considered the real host, and naturally has no right to interfere in the affairs of this mansion.
Sui Sui saw through it but didn't say anything. She smiled brightly and said, "Thank you so much, Madam."
This smile made the corners of Grandma Gao's tense mouth turn down again, and her nasolabial lines became deeper.