CH 35

Chapter 35 - Afternoon Tea

In Yexiao Palace, Su Yu was checking the ingredients sent by the imperial kitchen.

“The quality of this scallop is really good.” Su Yu picked up a fresh scallop and looked at it.

It was as big as the palm of his hand, the flesh was round and plump, and even the shell looked very neat.

“It’s natural to give the best for Niangniang.” The man from the imperial kitchen said with a smile.

Su Yu nodded with satisfaction. All chefs love high-quality ingredients, after all, the better the ingredients are, the better the food will be. Then he looked at the live fish in another basin, there were no problems and he signaled to accept it.

“Five taels of silver, take it.” Yang Gonggong took out the silver and handed it to the eunuch who delivered the fish.

“Wait a minute.” Su Yu who was catching fish suddenly straightens up and stopped the people who were about to leave.

“Why do these things cost five taels of silver?”

According to the Emperor’s appetite yesterday, he decided to prepare more food today, so he bought two kinds of ingredients, just fresh scallops and carp. Even if the scallops were a little more expensive, they wouldn’t cost so much as five taels of silver, right?

You would know, that five taels of silver are enough for an ordinary family to spend for a month! This is simply a robbery!

“Niangniang buys it every day, so it’s especially cheaper for you.” The little eunuch obviously misunderstood Su Yu’s words and thought he was surprised that the price was too low, so he quickly offered some words of praise.

You regard it as cheap and it’s still so expensive!

Seeing the people’s faces as they take it for granted, Su Yu took a deep breath and waved his hand to let the people of the imperial kitchen go back, and then he turned to ask Yang Gonggong.

“Are the prices in the palace always like this?”

“Answering Niangniang, indeed it is.” Yang Gonggong’s face is also full of pain.

He asked the imperial kitchen to send fresh ingredients in the past two days, it had already cost a lot of silver.

The concubines have their own monthly allowances for food and clothing and everything outside the rules requires silver. All things are supplied by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and just like the only shop in a boarding school, the prices were naturally absurdly high.

What’s more, the things in the palace were of high quality, so their price was not low, the other imperial concubines were not like Su Yu who would buy extra things every day.

No matter how high the salary was, it can’t keep up with the soaring price. Su Yu counted on his fingers, and his face suddenly became bitter.

If this continues, he would soon become a pauper again.

Thirty scallops, two of which will be left to make snacks for Sauce tomorrow, and the rest will be steamed with garlic and vermicelli. Su Yu watched the Emperor eat happily one bite at a time.

He only felt that the handsome Emperor had become a golden Pixiu, swallowing a large pile of silver in one bite.

“Why aren’t you eating?” An Hongche glanced at Su Yu, who was staring blankly at the vegetables.

With a slight frown, he put the scallop meat with vermicelli he just picked up into Su Yu’s bowl.

Overwhelmed by favor, Su Yu looked at the scallop in his bowl. He didn’t expect that the Emperor would serve another person dishes.

“Zhen bestows it to you. Do not hurry, eat it neatly!” When An Hongche saw that Su Yu didn’t eat, he couldn’t help getting a little angry.

It was very rare for him to share such delicious food with others, but this stupid slave didn’t appreciate it!

Seeing that the Emperor was about to flare up, Su Yu quickly ate the scallop in the bowl.

“Thank you, Your Majesty.”

An Hongche glared at him and became more and more dissatisfied in his heart. This stupid slave has not spoken to him properly since he entered the palace.

Su Yu didn’t know what to do and looked at the still unhappy Emperor.

Could it be that the Emperor was waiting for him to return the favor? He tentatively put a piece of sweet and sour fish into the Emperor’s bowl with his chopsticks.

Wang Gonggong, who was standing to the side, was too late to stop him. He looked on helplessly as the piece of fish dripping with sauce fell into the Emperor’s jade bowl, and was suddenly scared out of his wits.

The Emperor never eats the food served by others, if anyone dared to touch his food, he would fly into a terrible rage. He was about to come forward to intercede when he saw the Emperor’s chopsticks pick up the tender fish slice and slowly put it into his mouth.

“It’s too sweet.” His Majesty licked away a bit of the sauce from his thin lips. His tone was still bad, but his face softened a lot.

“Then I’ll add less sugar next time.” Su Yu smiled faintly.

He suddenly found that this guy was not as difficult to get along with as he imagined.

An Hongche snorted but said nothing more. He picked up a scallop and continued to eat.

Wang Gonggong silently took back his eyeballs that were about to fall off and turned around to deal with the matter of flipping over the nameplate. He was no longer needed here.

After dinner, Su Yu brought out a normal-shaped crab stick to the Emperor as an after-dinner snack.

“What were you doing at the Anguo Tower today?” His Majesty leaned on the soft couch and used two slender fingers to play with a crab stick.

Su Yu was sitting by the soft couch looking at the dowry list that Yang Gonggong had just sorted out. Hearing this, he raised his head and said: “The Empress Dowager instructed Chen to go and pay respects to the State Teacher every day.”

“Foolishness” An Hongche sneered and took one end of the crab stick into his mouth.

The long crab stick was held by the Emperor on his lips, it looked like he was smoking a cigarette, very dashing.

Merely, just thinking that it was a crab stick, Su Yu really cannot help but purse his lips and smile.

His appearance was inherently warm and gentle, with such a faint smile, it was somewhat pleasing to the eyes.

His Majesty the Emperor frowned. This stupid slave is smiling so seductively, do you want Zhen to get intimate with you? But it’s not bedtime yet, to do it in front of so many eunuchs and maids in the palace, how indecent!

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Pixiu -> a mythical animal that brings luck and wards off evil, having the head of a dragon and lion's body, often with hoofs, wings, and tail. And is said to have a voracious appetite exclusively for gold, silver, and jewels