Palace Fighting Naive Concubines’ Ascent to Power
Chapter 86: Don’t Want Them Anymore

Chapter 86: Chapter 86: Don’t Want Them Anymore

After finishing, Lian Hua couldn’t wait to pick up a skewer and took a bite, squinting her eyes in sheer enjoyment, "So delicious, Xiao Qing, you should try some too."

Xiao Qing cleaned up the stove a bit, and, hearing this, she dropped what she was doing, eagerly wiped her hands, and came over to grab a skewer for herself.

Her family was poor, and as a child, whenever the village peddler came to sell candied haws, she had longed for them countless times, even dreaming about eating them. Now, thanks to Young Master’s kindness, she finally realized her childhood dream.

After biting into the candied haw and chewing a few times, Xiao Qing exclaimed in surprise, "Young Master, it really is so good." She then smiled happily, finally knowing the taste of candied haws, sour and sweet, not just good-looking but also delicious.

Lian Hua nodded in agreement, and in no time, she had finished a skewer.

Just as she was about to pick up another one, she suddenly felt a pain in her stomach. Lian Hua steadied herself against the stove, furrowing her brow as she took a moment to recover.

"Young Master, what’s wrong?" Xiao Qing noticed something was off and quickly dropped her candied haw to come over and support her.

Lian Hua waved her off, not needing her support. After a while, when the pain eased and was gone, she said, "It’s nothing, I just don’t know why my stomach hurt all of a sudden."

Xiao Qing asked worriedly, "Young Master, could it be because you ate too many hawthorns? You also felt a bit unwell last night when you came back, and today again. Could it be because you ate too many hawthorns?"

Lian Hua thought this could be true; she had eaten some hawthorns yesterday while picking them and felt a bit sick afterwards, but she was fine after a night’s sleep. Now, after just eating a skewer, she felt unwell again. Could it really be that she had overeaten hawthorns and upset her stomach?

Xiao Qing suggested, "Young Master, if that’s so, you’d better not eat any more."

Looking at the candied haws in front of her, Lian Hua hesitated. She hadn’t had her fill yet, so she asked, "Xiao Qing, do you feel uncomfortable after eating them?"

Xiao Qing shook her head, "No, I feel quite fine."

Lian Hua wondered, "Why is it just me then?" She couldn’t figure it out.

Thinking it over, she still fought off the temptation and made up her mind, "Alright, I won’t eat anymore, Xiao Qing, you and Xiao Jizi eat more. If it doesn’t feel good, stop eating."

Though the hawthorns were delicious, she dared not eat more for fear of getting sick and the trouble of having to call a imperial physician, worrying about the cost of silver.

Right at this moment, there was a noise from outside the kitchen, Xiao Jizi had returned.

Hearing the sound, both of them walked towards the door. Just as they stepped outside, they saw Xiao Jizi carrying a heavy load on his shoulder and in his hands.

Xiao Qing hurried over to help him with some of the items, "Wow, this is so heavy. Xiao Jizi, what did you buy? Didn’t we just ask you to buy some ribs? How come you have so many things?" Young Master was just thinking about making some red-braised ribs.

Lian Hua also went over to help carry a small bag.

Xiao Jizi, gasping for breath and weak, could barely speak. Canglan Court was far, and it had taken all his effort to carry these items back from the Imperial Kitchen; he was very tired now.

Only after setting down the items in the kitchen did he answer Xiao Qing’s question, "I don’t know either, you take a look." He said, leaning on the stove to catch his breath.

Xiao Qing put down the items in her hands and started looking through them, "Why is there rice? And a bag of flour, oh my, these spareribs are huge!"

Lian Hua leaned over to look at the bags as they were opened one by one, revealing their contents. She couldn’t help but say, "Hey, Xiao Jizi, did you find some money?" She wondered how the little silver she gave him had been exchanged for so many goods.

Xiao Jizi, with a dry throat, swallowed and said, "No, Young Master, I didn’t spend any money on these items."

Lian Hua stopped her flipping motion, and asked with a surprised face, "Xiao Jizi, did you steal from the Imperial Kitchen?" How else could there be so much?

Stealing in the palace is a serious crime, punishable by no less than twenty strokes of the cane. Stealing so much stuff could be enough to kill Xiao Jizi.

Xiao Jizi: "..."

He looked at the Young Master somewhat speechlessly. How could he be thought of like that...

Seeing Xiao Jizi’s complexion was off, Lian Hua coughed uneasily, "Cough, Xiao Jizi, you must be thirsty, right? Your lips are all dry and peeling. Xiao Qing, quickly give Xiao Jizi some water."

Xiao Qing acknowledged with an ’ai’, picked up the pot, and poured a bowl of water for Xiao Jizi. She was also waiting for Xiao Jizi’s explanation.

Xiao Jizi was indeed thirsty. Carrying so much stuff, stopping and going on his way back, he had been extremely thirsty for a long time. He took the bowl from Xiao Qing’s hand and drained it in one gulp.

After wiping his mouth, he said, "This servant also doesn’t know what happened. When I went to the Imperial Kitchen, I was thinking about following the Young Master’s order to get some spareribs. I didn’t expect the people in the Imperial Kitchen to be so polite. They said there were an excess of spareribs today that couldn’t be used up in the palace and were afraid it might go bad, so they gave this servant an entire rack without asking for silver."

Lian Hua and Xiao Qing both said "oh" in understanding and nodded their heads. Then, they both asked in unison, "And the rest of it?"

Xiao Jizi also didn’t know how to explain. The rest was even stranger. The Chief Steward of the Imperial Kitchen, after stuffing him with a rack of spareribs, asked him whether he lacked grain or oil, mentioning that some old grains that were going to spoil and weren’t being eaten.

Xiao Jizi thought that old grains probably wouldn’t kill a person, so he selected carefully, figuring there would certainly be something edible, and nodded his agreement to take some.

As a result, he was immediately stuffed with two big bags, one of rice and one of flour. When he opened them to look, the old grains looked just like new grains, without any problem at all.

At this point, Xiao Jizi became somewhat cautious, fearing that there might be some trick to it, he became reluctant to take them.

The Imperial Kitchen Chief Steward seemed to see the doubt in his heart and told him that the old grains in the palace were well preserved, hence looking almost the same as the new grains, it was just that the taste was not as good when eaten, and they were going to be thrown out anyway. If he was not assured, they could write him a note as evidence that they were indeed intended to be discarded.

Only then did Xiao Jizi feel relieved.

But the strange events weren’t over yet. After seeing that he was assured, the Imperial Kitchen Chief Steward asked him again if he lacked anything else, whether he wanted other kinds of meat, delicacies from the mountains, even asking if he wanted shark fins, which scared him into shaking his head in horror.

Seeing his fear, the Imperial Kitchen Chief Steward awkwardly smiled and said he was joking; there weren’t so many unwanted items. If there were more unwanted items in the future, they would let him come and take them then.

When Xiao Jizi left the Imperial Kitchen, the Chief Steward indeed wrote him a note, had someone escort him out of the Imperial Kitchen, and before leaving, stuffed another bag into his arms, claiming that everything was listed on the note, all unwanted, and told him to take it all with him.

He didn’t even know what was in it, just sniffed and it smelled like food, so he was reassured, carried it all the way without opening it, until he put it down just now.

After listening to Xiao Jizi’s recount of the events, both Lian Hua and Xiao Qing were utterly confused, unable to make heads or tails of it. They opened the last bag to look, finding some mushrooms, wood ears, and other mountain goods inside, all of which appeared to be of high quality.

Seeing clearly the contents of the bag, Xiao Jizi felt completely relieved; as the Chief Steward had said, everything was listed clearly on the note, so there were no hidden dangers.

The three of them were perplexed, wondering how, on such a clear day, manna from heaven had just fallen upon them?

In the end, it was Lian Hua who spoke up, "Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Let’s not bother about it, let’s eat first!"

This settled the matter.

Having spent so much time in Canglan Court, Xiao Jizi had been influenced to have the same carefree attitude. Seeing that the Young Master had made a decision, he too cast his doubts aside.