The little lady in the dining room

Chapter 1
The palace banquet in Hanyuan Hall was coming to an end, and Shangshi Bureau was still busy.

The light of the knife flashed across the dried bamboo shoots that had been marinated for a long time and soaked in clear water, and the bamboo shoots melted into shreds wherever they passed.The strands of dark yellow bamboo shoots have a sour smell, they are all of the same thickness, and both ends are chopped to the same length.

Slender fingers shoveled and moved the kitchen knife persistently, and put the shredded bamboo shoots into a clean white porcelain plate for later use.

On the other side, sliced ​​chicken breasts have been put into the pot.Slices of chicken as thin as cicada's wings, each with a narrow silky skin, roll in the pre-boiled broth, and soon turn white, bursting with fragrance.

Several seasonings were put into the pot, and Gong'e, who was holding a spoon, waited patiently for a while. After waiting for all kinds of fragrances to accumulate, she took a plate and poured the sour bamboo shoots.

The pot lid made of purple sand is pressed, and the hot air flows out of the small hole, and the fresh fragrance and hot air are wafting together, but the fragrance is not greasy.

After a while, turn off the heat and uncover.

A porcelain bowl has already been prepared next to it, the mouth of the bowl is no bigger than a man's palm, and the light blue glaze color is even and pleasant.

A spoonful of soup.The clarified soup does not contain any impurities, and an attractive golden color is reflected on the bottom of the plain white bowl.

Two scoops with chicken.A spoonful of half soup and half meat was put into the bowl, the golden color became thicker, several slices of almost half-transparent chicken overlapped in the middle, and the thin skin that was half-cooked in the boiling soup was swaying in the soup .

Three spoons of soup with bamboo shoots.It is still half of the soup. After the soup is exhausted, the sour bamboo shoots at the bottom of the spoon are poured on the previous chicken, half-covering the chicken, adding a darker color to the golden soup.

"Sydney." The maid who was serving the soup raised her voice to call, and the little palace maid who had already been waiting at the side stepped forward.

A small hexagonal food box was presented in his hand. The soup bowl was placed firmly on the left side of the food box, and there was another puff pastry bean paste cake on the side.The lid of the box was closed, Xue Li bowed her knees, and retreated from the dining room.

The cool wind of early autumn blows slowly, blowing non-stop among the palace roads, but because the roads are swept clean, it is difficult to find even a single leaf.

From the Shangshi Bureau to the Zichen Hall where the emperor lived, there is a short distance.

The errand of delivering supper every night, according to the rules, is sent by the middle envoy of the ninth rank, followed by another envoy of the ninth rank.It can be delivered to the gate of Zichen Palace, and the palace servants in front of the imperial court will pick it up and present it to the emperor, and those who are still in the food bureau can leave on their own.

Sydney walked all the way, the sound of fine footsteps resounding softly in the wind.Finally arrived at Zichen Palace, walking up the long steps, she gave a blessing to the eunuch at the door: "Master Zhong, this is..."

"Shangshi Bureau?" A voice next to him came to his ears long and long, with a bit of yin and yang.Xue Li looked up, then quickly knelt down and said, "Supervisor."

The eunuch in charge, Chen Jijiang, walked closer, lifted the lid of the food box she was holding, glanced at her, and asked her, "Sour bamboo shoots and chicken skin soup?"

"Yes." Xue Li bowed, the eunuch smiled lightly, and said, "Send it in by yourself."

Xueli was stunned, and looked up in puzzlement, not knowing why there was such an unruly order.

In fact, it was because the emperor got angry at the palace banquet just now, reprimanded a group of palace people and abolished a concubine.Right now, all the palace servants who were supposed to serve inside have been sent out, leaving no one in the palace.

The people in Yuqian could understand that the emperor was angry now, and since he opened his mouth to drive everyone out, he was afraid that whoever went in would suffer bad luck.It's better to let an outsider go in to die, let the emperor vent his anger first, and they will have an easier time doing things under the nose.

Xue Li didn't know about these twists and turns, she just felt that the order was novel, and thought that she didn't understand the rules of imperial servants at all.With a little thought in my mind, I remembered a sentence that the older maid in the Shangshi Bureau had told me before:

"When you go to Zichen Palace to deliver things, you don't have to deal with the people in front of the imperial court, just do your job well. Those palace people in front of the imperial court... have a lot of thoughts, even two hundred of them are not enough for you to suffer!"

Still haven't figured out what "loss" in this link is for her, after thinking about it, she handed the food box in her hand to the envoy who came with her, and dropped the bracelet with her hands.

The emerald jade bracelet is held in both hands, and the fineness can still be seen through the light reflected from the hall.

It's a good item, and a low-status maid like her can only catch this one in a year, and it has to be a reward when the lord of the palace is in a good mood during the Chinese New Year.

Xue Li lowered her head, but her big watery eyes kept turning, while she thought about it, she said: "Master Chen, this servant is just a handyman, so how can I serve soup to Your Majesty?"

Let's stop talking.He neither said what it meant, nor did he mention "bribery".

Chen Jijiang smiled contemptuously, flicked the whisk in his hand, and said in a tone: "You are young, and you have a lot of ghosts. You can see, we were kicked out by His Majesty. Now entering the palace, that is called resistance. You Why don't you send it in quickly? Wait a little longer, the soup is cold, can you bear it?"

This meant not accepting her "bribe" at all.Xueli became more and more anxious, curled her lips and bit her lips secretly, feeling that she had bad luck today.Without revealing anything, he generously took the bracelet back to his hand, took back the food box, gave Chen Jijiang a blessing, nodded and walked into the hall.

The young envoy stayed outside, and Xue Li went to the side hall by herself, took out the soup and snacks from the food box, and put them on trays.

Then walk all the way in along the west wall of the hall, and walk towards the inner hall.

Walking and walking, Xue Li's self-maintained calmness gradually faded away.I feel that the palace is terribly quiet, and since I'm young, I can't help but think wildly when I'm afraid.

It is said that the emperor has a cold temper and is not a benevolent emperor.At the beginning of enthronement, there was a lot of construction work, and the Zichen Palace was refurbished, and there were a lot of people in the harem...

A tyrant no matter what.

She couldn't help shuddering, she stopped without realizing it, she turned her head and looked eagerly at the entrance of the hall, she really wanted to escape.

But there is no escape.This soup must be delivered, whether it can come out alive depends on fate.

Xue Li took a deep breath, frowned tightly with her slender eyebrows, and continued to walk towards the inner hall.

The inner hall seemed to be quieter, and a burst of warmth came across the threshold.Xue Li resisted not to look at the emperor, only glanced at where he was, and then walked towards the desk.

Only the sound of flipping through the memorials could be heard softly. Xue Li approached, walked around the desk to the side of the emperor, and knelt firmly: "Your Majesty."

The emperor who was watching the memorial was taken aback by the visibly trembling voice, turned his head to look over, and frowned slightly: "What?"

"The servant girl is a maid from Shangshi Bureau, here to deliver supper to His Majesty." Xue Li lowered her head and said, paused, and then said, "Sour bamboo shoot and chicken skin soup. The palace banquet has just ended, and Your Majesty is sober; Crispy bean paste cake, it’s…”

As I was talking, my mind went blank for a moment before I realized that the bean paste cake had no special effect.In the middle of the sentence, I couldn't stop talking, my heart trembled, and I didn't dare to make up a random theory to deceive the emperor, so I added five words: "Snacks to relieve boredom."

"Snacks to relieve boredom?"

"Yes..." Xueli's shoulders trembled, her heart skipped a beat, and she didn't dare to say a word.

After hearing a chuckle, she heard another sentence: "Bring it here."

Trembling in her heart, Sydney complained that she was not tall enough.Trying to keep the tray as stable as possible, he rubbed his knees forward and moved closer.

She tried her best to lift her arms higher, she just felt that the emperor would be able to easily reach it.But I don't know that it shouldn't be like this at all, if the supervisor is in front of me, I'm afraid she will be dragged out immediately and punished - it should have been the people from the imperial palace who brought in the supper, put it on the emperor's desk, and then gave her a silent blow Resignation is polite, and the emperor has never been allowed to do it himself.

The atmosphere between the two froze for a while.

Sydney really couldn't figure out what this quietness meant.His arms were sore, and he didn't have the guts to look up at the emperor's expression.I had no choice but to hold on, and it was very hard.

Thinking in his heart, if this goes on like this, he will soon be unable to hold on, if he just spills the soup like this, maybe he will die!
Xue Li's two thumbs on the tray tightened at the same time, and the nails turned white for a while. She forced her courage to speak, but stuttered: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty..."

Suddenly felt a lightness in the hand, and even brought a light to the eyes.

The emperor reached out and picked up the soup bowl, put it on the table, and then went to get the plate of bean paste cake.Seeing her white teeth biting her pink lips tightly, she subconsciously said, "Back off."

The sound of a long sigh of relief could almost be heard clearly.The emperor held the dessert plate steady on the table, and when he glanced again inadvertently, she had already turned around and walked out.

...He didn't know the etiquette of retreating to the door and turning around at all.

Things in the palace are the easiest to pass on to ten or ten to hundreds.

The next morning, just after breakfast, Sydney was surrounded by a group of maids of the same age, who chirped and asked her what it was like to serve soup in the Zichen Palace yesterday, and what the emperor looked like.

Xue Li dodged left and right in embarrassment, her fair face blushed slightly, she bit her teeth again and again, stomped her feet, and said, "I don't know!"

"How come you don't know!" The maid who was close was full of curiosity, "A Ying, who went with you, can tell you that the soup you served to His Majesty when you entered the palace yesterday was so close!"

"I... I didn't dare to look up!" Xue Li frowned and stared at her, explaining like this.I was also a little annoyed in my heart, why didn't even look at it, just went in and out like this without thinking.

"Xue Li!" Someone outside the crowd called anxiously, Xue Li stood on tiptoe and saw that it was Su Zixian, who was in the same room, knowing that something was wrong, she hurriedly squeezed out of the crowd.

Su Zixian dragged her and ran, until she reached a very secluded place in the west corner of Shangshi Bureau, and then stopped, bent over to pant for a long time, and carefully looked around for a long time, then opened her bright eyes and said anxiously: "Something has happened, you may...can't stay in Shangshi Bureau."

(End of this chapter)