The little lady in the dining room

Chapter 76 Hot Pot
When I returned to Zichen Palace, it seemed that the whole atmosphere became a little lighter. After a short rest, dinner was brought in.Seeing that the first to enter were two eunuchs carrying hot pot, Xueli laughed: "Eat hot pot?"

Xie Zhao also smiled: "Yes, let's eat together?"

Sydney: "..."

It is obviously against the rules to let her eat together like this, Xie Zhao suddenly felt a little embarrassed, but after thinking about it, he simply persuaded him as a matter of course: "It's cold, eating hot pot is comfortable, besides, no one picks on you A matter of rules."

He has already talked about this point, Sydney thought about it...it seems to be okay?

He doesn't care about the rules anymore, what else does she care about?And the hot pot is really something that can only be used by others. It is not convenient for the maid to set up a small stove in the room. There are many side dishes, and the meat needs to be fresh. It is troublesome to prepare, and I can’t prepare it myself. Come on, it's not appropriate to ask others to help.

And...she still misses him.Ever since she arrived in the imperial dining room, she had been seeing him all the time, but she hadn't seen him for a long time suddenly, but she got used to it for a while!

Seeing that she refused firmly, Xie Zhao knew that this was the temptation of hot pot. He smiled in his heart and asked people to add chairs to the table.

The chairs, bowls and chopsticks, and sauces are all added, and all kinds of dishes are also presented here.

Seeing the leader, Sydney was taken aback: "Ting Xian?"

"Sydney." Ting Xian nodded and smiled, put the two plates of beef and mutton on the table in his hand, and looked at Xueli with an undiminished smile, "How are you doing recently? I'm afraid you have something to do in the palace..."

"I'm fine..." Xueli simply responded and subconsciously looked at the emperor's expression.She always had an awareness in her heart that "the emperor's rules are strict", so no matter how loose the emperor took her, she still seldom talked with others when she was in Zichen Palace.Seeing Ting Xian talking so recklessly at the moment was a bit unexpected and uncomfortable, but fortunately the emperor was also smiling, and he didn't see any discomfort.

Xie Zhao is used to enjoying himself while eating these things. When the dishes are ready, he asks the others to step back. He raises his eyes to see Ting Xian who is hesitant to speak. After she quits, he looks at Sydney and says with relief : "If you have anything to say, go back and talk slowly."

"Yeah!" Xueli nodded, seeing that he poured the mutton into the pot first, looked for it, and threw frozen tofu into it.

There are many kinds of hot pot prepared in the palace, but the portion of each type is small. For example, this plate of frozen tofu is only four small pieces. Sydney scooped up a piece and ate it slowly. Squeeze out most of the juice in the plate, and then throw it Let it soak up the sauce back and forth in the sesame sauce.

This thing is always very hot because of the soup, so she eats it very slowly, and after eating the piece on hand, she takes a spoon to look for it in the pot...

The other three pieces are gone? !
Xie Zhao calmly threw the last morsel of tofu into her mouth, put her chopsticks directly into the pot, picked up two slices of mutton and threw them into her bowl: "I haven't seen you for a few months, I've lost weight, eat more meat."

...I didn't lose weight because I didn't eat well!

Xue Li was dissatisfied, glanced at him, and explained: "The slave girl has gone crazy."

Xie Zhao just smiled and continued eating on her own. When she raised her eyes again, she still obediently ate the two pieces of meat.

The way she eats always makes him feel very comfortable. Maybe she is not as "pretty and graceful" as a concubine in the harem, but she always eats with great devotion, and enjoys the way she chews the taste of the food slowly.

Delicious food.

These four words flashed through his mind, Xie Zhao suddenly felt embarrassed, Fue emphasized to himself "this usage is wrong", and coughed again to calm himself.

Xue Li looked up: "Your Majesty is not feeling well?"

"No..." As soon as he answered, he raised his head and met her eyes, his face froze again, his head was pinched in the pot, and he didn't know what he picked up, so he choked directly into her bowl.

Xueli looked down at a piece of scallion in the bowl, and she was dumbfounded.

It's wrong not to eat, but how to eat this thing...

Although the scallions in the bottom material have been cooked through, they can't be chewed!He raised his eyes and secretly glanced at the emperor, dispelling the idea of ​​throwing it away quietly—it was too close.

After a while, Xie Zhao felt that something was wrong beside her, and when she looked closely, she saw that she was eating the onion with great difficulty.He gnawed until his brows were wrinkled and he didn't let it go. The onion was wrapped layer by layer, and after being bitten and torn by her like this, it became piled up one by one.

He knew at a glance that this must be the "good thing he did" just now, so he quickly reached out his chopsticks to clamp her mouth, and was even more embarrassed: "Put it down quickly, I didn't pay attention."

Xueli breathed a sigh of relief, and spat out the small piece stuck on her tongue to the side with peace of mind, then looked at the emperor's chopsticks holding the green onion, and immediately said: "Servant, go get a pair of clean ones!"

"No need." Xie Zhao casually threw the green onions into the empty plate next to him, "I don't despise you."

Xue Li blinked at him, thinking that after His Majesty came back, it seemed... weird?

Why is it always a bit at a loss, it seems that the pickled green onion was not meant to tease her just now?But accidentally caught it?

After hesitating for a while, she took the porcelain spoon on the side of the pot and fished the fish balls for him, then asked again after hesitation: "Is Your Majesty really not feeling sick?"

"No." He said firmly, gathered his mind, looked at the camphor wood box next to the house, and said to her, "You eat first."

Then he walked towards the box, Xueli saw that there was something wrong and it was not easy to continue eating, so she walked behind him.

Xie Zhao bent down to open the wooden box, and the full box came into view.

There were too many things brought back along the way, and this box was full of small items, so he asked someone to put them in directly.

Seeing her follow, Xie Zhao touched her with his arm: "Choose the one you like."

Sydney had seen many good things in the palace, but she was still attracted by the few hairpins placed behind the partition on the left side of the box.

Those hairpins... She couldn't tell what material they were made of, most of them were made of various flowers, and each one was brightly colored.

——It attracts attention because the color is too bright.Different from the common "lifelike" flower hairpins, this hairpin is radiant and translucent, making people know "well, this is fake" at a glance, but they will feel the beauty is breathtaking, and the petals are so beautiful. They all look exquisite and thin, and the whole branch has an indescribable "weird beauty".

In short, she originally thought that it would look good only by "making it look real", but this abruptly did the opposite, which made her stunned.

She picked a small comb and held it in her hand. It looked like a peach blossom. The petals were light pink and the stamens were dark pink. There were three clusters of flowers, and the green leaves next to them had different arcs: "It's so delicate. Ah... what is this made of?"

"I don't know." Xie Zhao smiled helplessly, "The craftsmanship of the local craftsmen in Qingzhou is not rumored, and it is not easy for me to ask."

She nodded when she heard the words clearly, and the expression in her brows and eyes showed that "there are many folk wizards" or something like that.Seeing this, Xie Zhao heaved a sigh of relief: As long as you like it.

She didn't know that this hairpin was presented to Yuqian at first, and when he looked at it casually, the first thought in his mind was "Sydney will look good wearing it", so he specially asked someone to buy it.

At that time, he had a simple thought in his heart, thinking that he must bring something to her when he went to the south.When I came back to see her again, I was inexplicably nervous, or maybe it was because I was separated for a long time that I was a little uncertain about her preferences, and I was worried that she would not like her.

Sydney really likes this thing, the luster seems to soften my heart.Looking left and right, I couldn't help but smile, and became more relaxed, and asked: "Is this what Ting Xian is wearing?"

"Ting Xian?" Xie Zhao was taken aback.

Xue Li looked at him and said: "The one next to her ear, I thought it was a piece of jade just now... Actually it should be this one too?"

"Oh..." Xie Zhao remembered now, and nodded, "Yes, the day it was just delivered, I just rewarded some people in front of the imperial court, and she happened to be right in front of me."

Thinking about it this way, he still remembered that Yue Shi specially picked the pear blossom one, which looked very inconspicuous among the pile of things. He heard her saying to herself: "I can see Sydney every day!" - he was He almost withheld that hairpin and kept it for himself.

Xie Zhao saw that she couldn't put it down to the little peach blossom comb, picked it up casually and put it on her temples, then looked at her orange chest-length skirt, and picked it off for her silently—it didn't match .

"Put it down first, and someone will carry it for you later." He put the comb back into the box, and Sydney was startled: Is this going to be given to her? !

Looking around, there are forty or fifty sticks inside!
"Take it and play with it, and you can give it away if you want." The emperor said with a smile, but somehow swallowed back the sentence "I bought it just for you".

Hiss...why am I timid today?I was at a loss in my own palace.

He looked serious, covered the box, nodded and said: "Let's eat first."

When Yue Tingxian returned to his residence, the small courtyard was very happy for a while.Su Zixian asked her to rest and made tea for her. Fugui took her to ask questions, wondering what interesting things happened in the south.

Dou Sha, who was not always close to Ting Xian, was a little bored, standing two steps away and listening, occasionally laughing in agreement.

Ting Xian took the initiative to give her a box, and said with a smile, "This is for you."

After thanking Dou Sha politely, she took it, opened it and saw that it was a pair of pearl earrings, and then Ting Xian said again: "Your Majesty rewarded them, I wear them to show my dark complexion, you can take them."

Dou Sha felt a little awkward hearing it, so she accepted it first, and looked up at the courtyard gate: "Sister Li!"

She took advantage of this to bypass the topic of the earrings. As soon as the box was put on the stone table, she ran to meet Xueli, and when she walked in, she hurriedly stopped and said, "Master Chen."

"Hey, Dou Sha has also grown taller." Chen Jijiang smiled leisurely and warmly, looking in a good mood, and even patted Dou Sha on the forehead.

He ordered the eunuch behind him to put down the suitcase, and then exchanged greetings with Xue Li: "Take a good rest these few days, you will be busy during the New Year."

"No, this servant knows." Xueli responded.She spent New Year's last year with Mrs. Lu, but she came back every day, just by looking at her, she knew she would be very busy.

Chen Jijiang nodded in satisfaction, and left with a flick of his whisk. The Sydney Fortress thanked him for his trip and he didn't accept it—hey, coaxing Sydney's errands is a good job. I don't know how beneficial it will be in the future, so I won't miss her. This little money.

As soon as he left, the small courtyard that had just "behaved" for a while became bustling again.Fugui opened the box first, looked at most of the unidentifiable things inside, and held back a long time before saying: "Your Majesty gave it to you?"

"Yeah." Xueli nodded, and just about to let them pick and use what they like, Zixian squeezed her wrist hard, causing her to stop talking in pain.

What are you doing!

Xueli glared at Zixian angrily, but Zixian ignored her, her expression remained unchanged, and it was not her who was in pain.

"I heard that Sydney went to the harem and went to Zichen Palace to serve meals, so it's time to rest." Zixian held her wrist firmly, and told Fugui and Dousha to pack the things inside together, and put them in the Dousha room first. Then he dragged Xue Li's arm and headed into the room, his voice was very low, "I have something to tell you...you come here!"

(End of this chapter)