Chu Lian hadn’t seen Royal Princess Duanjia for quite a few days, so it was a pleasant surprise to run into her here.
She was about to speak when she noticed Royal Princess Duanjia looking her up and down with a measuring gaze. Finally, the princess’s gaze landed on the remains of the half-eaten mooncake in her left hand. The princess blinked and asked, “Chu Liu, what are you eating?”
The moment she heard that, Chu Lian didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She held up the remaining mooncake in her hand and replied honestly, “This is a type of snack I made earlier; it’s called mooncake.”
“Mooncake? It sounds really tasty. Chu Liu, how could you bring snacks into the palace? Why didn’t you bring some for me, too?!” Royal Princess Duanjia’s cheeks puffed up as she questioned her friend.
Chu Lian replied very intelligently with an ‘uhhhh’. She really didn’t know how to deal with Royal Princess Duanjia.
Suddenly, Royal Princess Duanjia held out an open palm in front of her face.
Chu Lian stared at Princess Duanjia’s face in befuddlement before looking at her open palm. “Princess?”
“What are you blanking out for? Hand over all your food!”
Chu Lian: ……
“Princess, you were a little too late. I just finished everything; there’s only this half left…”
Chu Lian pressed a hand against her forehead. Why were the people around her such gluttons for food?! It was just a simple snack, so why were there waves of people trying to snatch it away from her? Did they really have to be this way?!
Royal Princess Duanjia thought for a moment before harrumphing in her uniquely tsundere manner. “Well, if you’ve only got that half left, then so be it. I just want a small taste first. You’ll make more for me later anyway, right?”
Chu Lian stared at her. This half was only a half because she’d eaten the rest already. Her saliva was already on it…
In the end, Chu Lian didn’t have any other choice but to hand it over. “If Royal Princess Duanjia would like more, there’s still one more box of it that my maidservants are carrying.”
Royal Princess Duanjia tossed the piece of mooncake into her mouth without any hesitation. She chewed it for a bit before her eyes lit up. “Chu Liu, this ‘mooncake’ is a lot tastier than those round cakes!”
Eunuch Sun’s eyes were twitching when he saw the normally calm, cool, and collected Royal Princess Duanjia was acting like a naive, haughty child.
The two girls sat in Mixiang Pavilion for a while longer. However, because Chu Lian was afraid that more strange people would pop out of the bushes, she dragged Royal Princess Duanjia off to the Empress Dowager’s Ninghe Palace before long.
At a corner hidden out of sight from Mixiang Pavilion, Eunuch Wei stood before the Emperor. He offered the purse he took from Chu Lian to the Emperor with both hands, and the Emperor, in turn, received it.
The purse itself was light in colour, and there was some oil paper sewn inside of it. On the outside, the embroidery was fairly elaborate, but it wasn’t anything special. It looked just like a simple snack purse that any noble would prepare for their children.
The Emperor opened the little purse and looked inside, only to see the last remaining pastry within. It was about half the size of an egg and circular in shape, and its maker had imprinted the word ‘fortune’ on top of it. Overall, it looked delightful and well-made.
The Emperor took it out and had a taste. His deep eyes squinted. The stuffing inside was actually quite salty!
When he took a closer look, he discovered that the stuffing was made of salty egg yolk.
It seemed that that girl did possess some talent in the culinary arts after all.
Eunuch Wei stood behind the Chengping Emperor, sweating a little. If Honoured Lady Jinyi hadn’t already been married off to House Jing’an’s third son, he would have thought that their Emperor’s heart had been moved by the Honoured Lady.
“This pastry is quite good. Since Jinyi was able to make it, then it’s not strange that she could have made better longevity peach buns than Mr Wang.”
“It is exactly as the Emperor says. Honoured Lady Jinyi seems a little different from most noble ladies!”
The Chengping Emperor finished the mooncake in just two or three bites. He seemed to have recalled something, as he burst into laughter and said, “She is indeed a little different from most. She’s much braver than the average noble lady as well!”
The corners of Eunuch Wei’s mouth twitched. Wasn’t that just so? If it had been any other lady who had found a disgusting, black, wriggling worm inside of a fresh peach, they would have surely screamed in fright. However, Honoured Lady Jinyi had the guts to pick out that disgusting worm and instead used it to scare the person who had tried to prank her instead.
However, when he thought back to how Imperial Concubine Wei and her handmaid had tried to trick Jinyi into losing composure before the Emperor, Eunuch Wei thought that Honoured Lady Jinyi’s actions had really made for quite the satisfying end.