CH 41

Chapter 41 - Spicy crab

Su Yu subconsciously lowered his head and looked at his clothes, he was wearing a regular wide-sleeved royal blue long robe, and there were no exaggerated ornaments, except for the outer layer of mermaid silk, which was somewhat luxurious…

Wait, leaving the palace?

Su Yu finally reacted, the Emperor was going to take him out of the Palace! The corners of his mouth gradually rose. “Your Majesty…”

“Don’t think so highly of yourself.” An Hongche glanced at Su Yu, who was smiling foolishly.

“Zhen has to go outside the Imperial Palace for important matters, not to accompany you to see that toilsome restaurant.”

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East Street was still as prosperous as ever.

Mermaid silk was too precious, common people couldn’t buy it even if they had money, so he couldn’t wear it out of the palace. Su Yu simply took off the outer layer of mermaid silk, but as a result, the Emperor was very dissatisfied and said that he was wearing too little, stunned he asked Wang Gonggong to go find another garment.

Although it was not as valuable as mermaid silk, it was also worth a lot of money. The royal blue wide-sleeved robe and white jade glazed crown set off Su Yu’s gentle and handsome face, attracting many young girls to look back.

However, the incomparably beautiful Emperor did not attract many gazes and smiles from those young girls instead. Some people were born to shine and attract the attention of all people, but when they are dazzling to the point that they can compete with the sun and moon, then people didn’t dare to look directly at them.

An Hongche didn’t have a young master’s bearing when he walked, his steps were unrestrained and firm, and his whole body was surrounded by a “Do not approach within three feet” aura.

He was strangely distinguishable from the noisy crowd, not vigorous nor prestigious, with an imperious aura as if made by heaven.

Su Yu followed behind the Emperor and quietly looked at the man’s back. No matter how grumpy and awkward he was in private, he was definitely a qualified Emperor in front of others.

Stopping in front of a booth selling small jewelry, the Emperor suddenly reached out and fiddled with a string of silver bells with a serious expression. He slowly extended his fingers and gently flicked it, and then flicked it again.

“Young Master, these little bells are so beautiful, buy one to give to your beloved, ba.” The auntie selling jewelry smiled sincerely.

An Hongche raised his head and looked at the older lady, then he looked at the small bell in his hand. He raised his hand and threw it to the person behind him. “For you.”

The auntie smiled and looked over.

“The young lady has really good fortune…” The words got stuck in her throat halfway through.

The bell fell into the hands of another person, who was wearing royal blue precious clothes, with gentle eyes and a handsome and charming appearance, but honest to god it was actually a man!

The corner of Su Yu’s mouth twitched.

“My Lord, this an accessory for women.”

“Buy.” His Majesty the Emperor said stiffly and then left with his hands behind his back.

“Aiya, it’s a token of good intentions, do not let him down, Young Master.” The auntie came to her senses and realized that the Young Master in white wanted to buy it because of the phrase “Your beloved”, she immediately hastened to persuade Su Yu to accept it.

Because the imperial family can marry male concubines, although common people can’t marry male wives, they were very tolerant of men falling in love with each other.

Do not let him down… Su Yu’s whole face twitched, that guy must have bought it because he thought it was fun, he didn’t intend to give it to him at all.

Besides, even if he wanted to give it to him, how could he make the recipient pay for it?

He silently paid for the fancy string of silver bells and threw it into the basket held in his hands. Su Yu thought of the sympathetic look in Wang Gonggong’s eyes when he gave him the money bag before leaving the palace, and wanted to cry but had no tears.

He had just left the palace and the Emperor has bought two hydrangeas, three tassel pendants, a set of brass rings, a string of silver bells, and a package of fried fish… Anyway, it seems that they were all for Sauce!

And because he thought he would lose face holding them, all of it was thrown to him!

Who said he has a natural royal bearing just now? Who said he was a qualified Emperor? Who said that!

Su Yu stared at the handsome Emperor’s back, took a deep breath, then looked up at the sky, it was almost noon and the Emperor was still strolling around. The so-called “Important Matters” weren’t just buying cat toys, right?

Not far away was Xianmantang, Su Yu was thinking about how to lead the Emperor there, so he could get the job done in the meantime.

“My Lord, it’s almost noon, where should we go eat?”

An Hongche glanced at the look all over Su Yu’s face that said “Follow me Follow me”.

“Let’s go to that restaurant of yours, ba.”

“Good, ah! Your Majes… My lord, please follow me.” Su Yu was so happy that he stretched out his hand to pull the Emperor’s sleeve. He just pulled when he realized something was wrong.

The Emperor wore narrow sleeves, so he was basically holding the Emperor’s hand when he pulled the cuff, he then quickly let go.

“Hmph.” His Majesty snorted coldly.

This stupid slave is becoming more and more arrogant and willful, obviously, he wanted to go, but insisted that he, the master, had to speak out.

He held the hand that was holding his cuff in the palm of his hand. Really, he even pulled his sleeve and acted like a spoiled child. If you wanted to hold hands, just say so… Um, as a tolerant master, he could still satisfy this small request.

The palm wrapped around his fingers was warm and dry, and Su Yu’s fingertips couldn’t help trembling.

He was dragged by the Emperor for a few steps, the pedestrians by the roadside looked at them and whispered timidly, which finally made him react.

He quickly drew his hand back but provoked His Majesty's displeased glare.

“...It’s time to go upstairs.” Su Yu realized that the movement of his hand was a little too abrupt and pointed awkwardly at the wooden spiral staircase, he meant that it was inconvenient to go upstairs while holding hands.

“It’s fine.” His Majesty raised his hand and motioned for Su Yu to extend his hand. The sudden withdrawal made him feel a little reluctant, he wanted to hold it for a little while longer.

Su Yu looked at those stubborn beautiful eyes and couldn’t refuse, stretching out his hand again and quickly taking the Emperor upstairs.

The business of Xianmantang was still booming, the lobby was full of people. His Majesty started to get impatient after standing still for a while, so Su Yu quickly lead him to the back kitchen courtyard.

A bucket of fresh pike crabs had just been brought to the kitchen, from the basket of chili peppers that he got last time, except for those planted in the hamlet, the remaining half has been kept in the back kitchen untouched.

Su Yu remembered what he had promised the Emperor last night, so he picked some crabs and chili peppers and made some spicy crab for His Majesty with his own hands.

Fragrant fried sweet potatoes and peanuts, red crabs served with brunt chili, and spicy crab soup with seasonal fresh vegetables, it was delicious beyond words.

His Majesty poked the crab on the plate with his chopsticks and curled his lips in disdain. The pike crab was a kind of inferior crab, it had more shells than meat and it was hard to eat.

It was basically impossible to see this kind of crab in the Imperial Palace. Besides, usually crabs were eaten whole, but Su Yu chopped them into pieces, so it looked ugly.

“Although it’s not a great ingredient, it’s definitely delicious.” Su Yu chuckled and gave him a crab leg.

With his thin lips slightly pursed, An Hongche slowly moved the crab leg into his mouth with a look of ‘Seeing that you look so pitiful, Zhen shall reluctantly eat it.’.

In his previous life, Su Yu was first trained on how to make spicy crab, his control of ingredients and heat had reached the level of perfection, even with ordinary pike crabs he could make excellent delicacies.

After eating a crab leg, the Emperor stopped talking and began to eat one chopstick after another.

After setting down His Majesty the Emperor, Su Yu took the time to look at the recent cooking skills of his two apprentices, and he also checked the accounts with Mister Yuan.

This month, because Su Yu was not in the restaurant, the two little disciples could only cook a limited variety of dishes, although business was not bad, there were no pleasant surprises. After the calculations, he could give Su Yu 180 taels of silver.

He took a part of it and had someone send it to the Su Residence to give to his mother, then packed the rest to take it when he was ready to return to the palace.

“There are several hamlets outside the city, this useless old man went to see them but they were more or less unsatisfactory, so I cannot decide at the moment.” Mister Yuan brought out a book that recorded the general situation of several hamlets, including the number of fields, what the terrain was like, and the asking price, it was very detailed.

He asked Mister Yuan to buy a hamlet, and it was not only to make a living for his First Mother and concubine sister but also to try to grow chili peppers.

Su Yu didn’t know how to farm, so he was also at loss about how to choose a hamlet to farm.

“Mister, just do what you think is best, just buy it before the end of this month, so we can plant the chili peppers.”

It was hot now and it was easy to grow chili peppers, but if it gets cold later, it won’t be as easy.

Mister Yuan nodded.

“The hamlet bought needs to be looked after, does Niangniang have any reliable servant at home?”

“Mister, don’t call me Niangninag.” Su Yu said bitterly.

These days he was called “Niangniang” and “Niangniang” every day in the palace. It was not easy to leave the palace, so at least let him be a proper man for a day!

Mister Yuan stole a glance at the Young Master in white sitting not far away eating crabs, and immediately understood.

“This old man misspoke.”

Su Yu’s identity was very clear to him, he had just now seen the two of them holding hands when they went upstairs, so that person's identity was self-evident.

At any rate, Mister Yuan was a guest of King Zhao’s Wangfu, and having seen much of life, he naturally knew that the Emperor couldn’t be recognized when he left the palace in disguise, so he pretended that the Emperor was just someone who came to eat with his master and didn’t even greet him.

Although Mister Yuan’s idea was quite different from Su Yu’s original intention, Su Yu would be satisfied as long as he doesn’t call him “Niangniang” anymore.

“There are still a few things to be entrusted to Mister…” Su Yu felt a little embarrassed when he said this.

Now he had no manpower available, so he had to trouble Mister Yuan with everything, but he had limited time outside the palace and there were still many things to do. Even as he said this, he still had a plethora of things to tackle and didn’t know where to start.

“Are you still not done?” Just as he was saying this, His Majesty the Emperor finally reached the end of his patience.

He lifted Su Yu up and then threw him to the stone table.

“Eat!” From an angle invisible to Su Yu, he gave Mister Yuan a cold look.

Su Yu was in a hurry to finish the arrangements, so he was not in the mood to eat at all. He turned to face Mister Yuan but found that the person was gone.

“You went out of the palace for the sake of taking this?” An Hongche pointed at the small pile of silver on the table.

“Yes.” Since Mister Yuan ran away, Su Yu could only pick up his rice bowl. The spicy food whetted his appetite, so he felt hungry after two bites.

“Is it worth making a trip for such a small amount of money?” An Hongche frowned.

“This bit of money can be of great use to Chen.”[TL_Note: Chen-> This minister] Su Yu couldn’t help glancing at the Emperor. All of his hard-earned money was eaten by this guy and he was still talking nonsense here.

His Majesty was silent for a moment. After looking at Su Yu and the scattered silver, his pale lips gradually pursed into a straight line.

“Why didn’t you tell Zhen if you are short of money?”

“Chen is a man, so naturally, he should rely on himself to support his family.” Su Yu bit open a crab claw and sucked out the crab meat.

In fact, if the seafood in the palace was not too expensive, he would be very happy to buy food for the Emperor. In this way, he could secretly imagine that he was keeping the Emperor.

His Majesty the Emperor was not happy at all.

“You belong to Zhen’s, so it’s only right and proper for Zhen to support you!”

“Cough cough cough…” The crab claws were a little mushy from being stir-fried, and they were filled with spicy oil, so when the meat was sucked out, the meat and juice came out in one mouthful. Su Yu immediately choked.

The author has something to say:

Small Theater:

Little Fish: Your Majesty, what am I to you?

Cat Gong: You are my little fish, ah

Little Fish: Huh? So it turns out that I’m food, ah!

Cat Gong: In this way, I can eat you up~ （⊙ω⊙）

Younger Brother: Brother, what am I to you?

Meow Gong: You are my Younger Brother ya ~

Younger Brother: (Overwhelmed by an unexpected favour) So you do know that I am the Younger Brother, ah

Meow Gong: In this way, I can beat you ~（⊙ω⊙)