Chapter 290 - Savory and Spicy River Snails (1/2)

“Since our honored guest who has traveled from afar has a request, as the hosts we will do our best to fulfill it! Little Shitou, find Fangping and grab that bucket. We are going to gather river snails ah!” Yu Xiaocao naturally treated this stunning beautiful man, whose every elegant motion spoke of royalty, with great importance.

Who knew what type of temperament the heir of Imperial Prince Jing had?! Although he always had a smile on his face, she felt deeply scared of him. There was a type of person in the world that could be called a smiling tiger. These people could cut off your head with a gentle smile on their face. Naturally, these people were much more scary than the young royal prince, who outwardly had a grouchy exterior. Although the young royal prince had a somewhat explosive temper and nasty tongue, he had never exploded at her. Even when she infuriated him to the point of him glaring at her, he never accused her of a crime. The young royal prince was probably someone who had a lot of bark but no bite right?

If she had seen Royal Prince Yang in the past, when he killed people without blinking, she wouldn’t be thinking this! The ‘cold faced death god’ wasn’t his nickname for no reason. Zhu Junyang was only able to tolerate the tyrannical antics of Yu Xiaocao alone!

When Zhu Junyang saw Yu Xiaocao fawning over the emperor like a slavish dog, he felt his temper rise as he sourly remarked, “Why is it that when he wants to eat some, you jump to make it, yet you don’t take my words to heart eh?!”

Yu Xiaocao righteously replied, “The heir of Prince Jing is my guest, so I naturally have to cater to his requests.”

“Am I not a guest then ah?” Zhu Junyang pointed at his nose as he asked discontentedly.

Yu Xiaocao curled her lip, “Are you still considered a guest? You come over every few days to bum food and drinks off of me. If I truly treated you as a guest, wouldn’t I be exhausted to death ah?! Alright, I’ll bring you along to gather river snails and allow you to experience this novelty. Do you want to come?”

“Don’t want to!” Zhu Junyang arrogantly turned his head away as he lifted his head up high and snorted, “You won’t make the food I want to eat and even make me do work. No manners!!”

Everyone in the Yu Family had long gotten used to these two bickering and picking at each other constantly. So, they all went about their business as usual. Zhu Junfan, on the other hand, regarded the two of them with growing interest. His younger cousin always had a stiff expression on his face and regarded his words like gold. In fact, he even faced him, the emperor, with that constipated look on his face. He never would have expected that the cold faced death god also had such a childish side as well. For the sake of a plate of savory and spicy river snails, he was actually willing to quarrel until he was flushed with anger. Tsk tsk tsk! This was truly eye opening!!

“Second Sister, Young Royal Prince, are you guys coming to gather river snails ah?!” Little Shitou had been watching the two of them quibble back and forth silently. He looked at the color of the sky and decided that if he didn’t stop them now, they wouldn’t have enough time to gather river snails for lunch.

Yu Xiaocao answered in assent and turned around so Zhu Junyang could only see the back of her head, “Doesn’t matter to me whether you come or not! You can just stay in the courtyard ah! My lord, do you have any interest in coming to gather river snails with us?”

Zhu Junfan had never had the opportunity to experience farming in both of his lives. It was a rare chance for him to leave the imperial palace, so he naturally wouldn’t bypass this hard to get opportunity.

Yu Xiaocao held a bucket as she took her two younger brothers along as well as the ‘heir of Prince Jing’ to go into the back courtyard. The back courtyard was also completely planted with vegetables. There was a small, stone-paved pathway in the garden that brought them to the back gate. After opening the gate and walking a few steps, they were at the shore of a lake.

This lake was quite large. Its waters were a tranquil aqua-green color. In the distance there was a flock of ducks cheerfully swimming around in the water and their occasional quacks could be heard. Qian Wu, who was at the lakeside watching over the ducks, swiftly scampered over when he saw Little Shitou and Liu Fangping.

When he saw the buckets in their hands, Qian Wu became even more happy and called out, “Little Shitou, are you here to catch some fish ah? Let me help too!”

Little Shitou waved the bucket in his hands and laughed, “Nope! Second Sister is bringing us to gather river snails. We’re going to stir fry them for lunch!”

Qian Wu smacked his lips in delight, “Xiaocao’s savory and spicy river snails are so good! I’m also good at gathering river snails, let me help you ah!”

The three little boys grouped up together and ran into the shallow waters of the lake together to gather river snails. Perhaps it was because of the drought, but the lake waters were quite low right now. The children rolled up their pant legs and stepped into the mud at the shore. They carefully put their hands in the water to find river snails.

“I found a big one!” Little Shitou’s shout of pure glee broke the silence as he thrust his hand into the air. He had managed to find a river snail that was the size of a pigeon egg.

“I also found one!!” Liu Fangping refused to be outdone and took the river snail he found and compared it to the one that Little Shitou found to see which one was larger. No matter who found a bigger one, neither would be unhappy. The sounds of their delighted laughter echoed around the lakeside.

Yu Xiaocao found a relatively gently sloping area by the lakeshore and spread a bunch of straw on the ground. She said to the 'heir of Prince Jing’, “My lord, you can sit down here and rest a bit. The lake has a lot of river snails and we have a lot of people. We’ll be able to gather enough for lunch in a jiffy!”

She rolled up her sleeves and walked towards the lake. She carefully inspected the water for any signs of river snails. After her parents passed away in her previous life, she spent a lot of time in the nearby waters looking for river snails to add to her younger brother’s and sister’s diets. She was quite experienced at this!