The little lady in the dining room

Chapter 20 Winter Solstice
After the dinner was over, all the on-duty and off-duty people in the Shangshi Bureau stayed together until late.

Seeing that there was no movement all the time, the young maids fell asleep in peace.

The female officials tossed and turned on the couch one by one, finally fell asleep and woke up with some movement, and stayed up all night.

In the early morning of the next day, the imperial court had made a breakthrough, and a little eunuch came and revealed something about last night's meal, so that Shangshi Bureau could feel at ease.

I heard that nothing happened to His Majesty after eating, and he played two games of chess with His Highness the Seventh Highness and Lord Wei at the same time. The three of them were in good spirits. Later, they asked the Imperial Dining Room to prepare some desserts that His Highness Qi ate. His Majesty also ate several pieces.

It's fine, it's fine if you're in a good mood.Most of the people sighed with emotion, and the more cautious ladies were a little surprised by the last incident.

——"Let the imperial dining room prepare a few snacks that His Highness Qi eats, and His Majesty also ate several pieces"?
His Highness the Seventh Prince is a child, he likes sweets, so he needs to put more sugar in his desserts; the emperor has never liked sweets, and every time he makes desserts and sends them to Zichen Palace, he only needs to reduce the sugar to five cents.

Now when I suddenly heard that the emperor ate several pieces of ten-cent candy snacks, the female officials who couldn't figure out the situation were a little worried: Have you changed your preference?
Or else...could it be that their Shangshi Bureau's craftsmanship is not as good as others, so the emperor doesn't like those desserts?He loves to eat the ones made by the Imperial Dining Room?

Several eyes turned to the female official Shangshi.Zou Shangshi sat at the desk, lowered his eyebrows and pondered for a while, breathing steadily: "Xu was just in a good mood last night."

She said this calmly, but her eyes were on the eunuch who came here, with a hint of questioning.

The eunuch bowed and said with a smile: "Madam, what you said is true. My master also said that it will not be a sudden change of taste. Yesterday's hot pot made all the ladies worry, and the master will remember everyone's kindness."

This attitude was much stronger than that of Xu Shishui who came to spread the word yesterday, even a little flattering.Several female officials present looked at each other and sneered, with the same meaning in their eyes: Yesterday, they made sarcastic remarks and let the little palace ladies of Shangshi Bureau go in to present food to prevent bad luck, so now they have to smooth things over, right?

In the palace, it has to be so soft and hard, no one can bully others too much.Although it is said that Yuqian governing the food bureau is the same as playing, but if the food bureau is really pushed to the limit, it is not good to prepare meals...

When they died, the people in front of the imperial court had to be buried with them.

Seeing that the other party gave in first, Zou Shangshi didn't put on airs, instead he took two pieces of silver and handed it to the eunuch beside him, asking her to give it to the eunuch, saying in his mouth: "This is our duty, no Dare to thank Mr. Chen for credit. It's just..."

Zou Shangshi smiled slightly: "The Imperial Dining Room is familiar with His Majesty's taste, but Shangshi Bureau is better at the dim sum presented to His Highness the Seventh Prince like last night."

This is another call to the imperial dining room, which blames Chen Jijiang for favoring the imperial dining room.

Everyone in front of the imperial court knew the old grudge of one game and one room. Hearing the words, the eunuch leaned forward and still smiled apologetically: "You are right. In fact, even your majesty rarely orders anything in the imperial dining room. It's just that there is always an imperial dining room. It’s just that this place has been evacuated. Yesterday, the master saw that it was getting late, and the imperial dining room was close after all, so as to save the people from the Shangshi Bureau to make another trip——Furthermore, the master said..."

He turned his eyes, took a step forward, and bowed his head: "Master said, one mountain cannot accommodate two tigers. The imperial dining room was originally under the management of Shang Food Bureau. It would be great if it could be returned."

Suddenly revealing such a meaning, everyone present was pleasantly surprised.In turn, he was even more puzzled, not knowing what Chen Jijiang was planning.

Across a door, a few young maids outside were holding the door, and upon hearing this, they looked at the slightly older sister next to them in unison, and said in surprise: "Sister, even the people in front of the imperial court want to please Shangshi Bureau?"

Su Zixian shook her head blankly: "I've never seen it before..."

"What's going on?" The little maid's voice was a little louder, and Zi Xian patted her head: "Listen carefully!"

She's here to eavesdrop on any bad news.Yesterday they walked in front and behind were all fine, except that Xueli was stopped by the adult guard for questioning, the more she thought about it, the more she worried that Xueli had gotten into trouble.

In the tea room at the back of the Zichen Hall, the chief supervisor Chen Jijiang rarely took a rest, drinking the good tea served by his disciples, but he couldn't taste anything.

No matter how I think about it, I feel that something is wrong recently.

It's nothing serious, just that there are some strange things that he can't see or touch in the ends of various twigs.

Chen Jijiang is a few years older than the emperor, and he has been with the emperor since he was a child. He has always understood the emperor's affairs, but now there is something "invisible" and "intangible", which makes him very special. feel scared.

It doesn't matter anything else, I'm just afraid that something will go wrong because of my ignorance, and it will be difficult to handle at that time.

This feeling of "wrongness" was originally caused by a small accident.

——He looked through the records of rewards in and out of the palace when he had nothing to do, and accidentally discovered that the emperor rewarded Wei Chen, the commander of the imperial guard, with ten tribute pears, but Wei Chen brought only four out of the palace.

A trivial matter, but so unreasonable.

If it's gold and silver rewards, it's normal to leave the palace so short for a few taels, it's a reward for a palace man who runs errands.But there are six less tribute pears...

Not to mention whether the palace people dare to accept this reward.A total of ten and less than six—is there anyone who rewards them with big heads?
Chen Jijiang murmured in his heart at that time, and knowing that Lord Wei was close to the emperor, he added a bit of thought to this matter.

As a result, within a few days, he saw Gong Li appear at the Mid-Autumn Palace Banquet with his own eyes.

It was presented to Qiao Xuanyi, and that day, Qiao Xuanyi, who had never met Sheng several times in total, happened to be called to accompany the driver.

Chen Jijiang is a person who doesn't believe in coincidences, he doesn't believe that there is no ghost here.

From the moment he heard the emperor "inadvertently" boasting that the pear was made skillfully, Chen Jijiang was completely sure that something was wrong.But he didn't know what was going on, so he didn't dare to inquire about it for the time being—he didn't know if the emperor had other arrangements at the moment, so he rushed to inquire about it rashly, in case the emperor found out and caused trouble.

So until yesterday, he still stood still and acted as usual, but what happened last night was a bit strange.

It was fine for the emperor to invite the seven kings to have dinner with Mr. Wei, but after Mr. Wei entered the palace, he whispered a few words to the emperor with a complicated expression. He saw the slight change in the emperor's expression, and then let the palace people leave first.

And then, Master Wei went out in person and blocked half of the maids who were delivering meals.

—how strange?It's okay for the monarch and ministers to discuss matters, but why do you block the dishes halfway?Unheard of ah!
"Master, do you have something on your mind? Let me share the burden with you?" Xu Shishui nodded and asked carefully, but Chen Jijiang said: "You share the fart! Listen carefully, and be careful when you are in the Shangshi Bureau, in case something goes wrong. What's the matter, watch your head!"

Whatever it was was obviously something to do with the Emperor.He hasn't figured out that he can't talk nonsense, but he still has to mention the people who should be mentioned.

The winter solstice is another time to be busy.

The palaces will start buying new clothes and jewelry for the New Year almost from now on, and the Shangshi Bureau can also start arranging the menu for the New Year palace banquet from this day on.

Of course, this Japan also has some special meals to prepare.

Dumplings, glutinous rice balls, rice cakes, red bean and glutinous rice are indispensable, and the ingredients have been prepared half a month ago.Except for dumplings, glutinous rice was used for the last three items, so the amount of glutinous rice that came in that day surprised the young ladies who had just entered the palace.

I thought it was to eat glutinous rice as rice.

Cui Wan is a good hand at making rice cakes, so the job was naturally entrusted to her.

Leading a group of maids under his command to wash and crush the glutinous rice, spread it on a cloth and steam it in a pot for a while.

As soon as the slightly sweet aroma of glutinous rice overflowed from the side of the pot, the little girls began to inhale vigorously, and then they became more active in their work: hurry up and finish the work of each house, and then you can make your own!

A young envoy ran into the dining room, looked around on tiptoe, and then ran to Sydney who was making bean paste.

Pulling her sleeves, the young master timidly said: "Sister Xueli, the female officer Shangshi told you to go."

"Oh!" Xue Li replied briskly and was about to go, but Cui Wan next to her frowned.

This young envoy was also assigned to her, a very lively child, it was rare to see her look like this.

Cui Wan stopped her: "A Luo, what did the lady officer say?"

Xue Li looked over suspiciously, this time, she also noticed A Luo's nervous face.

But Ah Luo didn't say anything, and after squeezing for a long time, he could only say "It's nothing, but the female officer looks bad".This made Cui Wan helpless, she frowned again, and nodded to let Xueli go.

Xueli washed her hands and exited the dining room, walked quickly to the door of Zou Shang's dining room, raised her hand and knocked on the door lightly: "Lady, servant Xueli."

"Come in."

Zou Shangshi's voice was even and steady.Sydney pushed open the door and saw that the three people in the same room were inside.

Jiang Yuyao's face was cold, Bai Ji's face was terrified, and Su Zixian's eyes were red from crying.

In addition, there were two older court ladies she had never seen before.He's not from the Shangshi Bureau, but he doesn't seem to have a low status.

Zou Shangshi's eyes fixed on Xue Li's blank face for a while, his eyebrows frowned slightly, and he pushed the things on the case forward: "What's going on, you can tell yourself."

Xue Li looked along, and was startled when her eyes fixed.

Zou Shangshi frowned further: "It seems that you really recognize it?"

Of course she recognized it, it was a birthday gift from the commander.She likes it very much, but has no chance to wear it, it has been kept under the pillow...

(End of this chapter)