zChapter 1269 - [YeXi] Roaring with laughter (2/2)

“Why laughable?” Rui’er asked next.

“Because your imperial mother thinks it’s funny.” Long Feiye replied.

“Why is it funny?” Rui’er was all serious.

“Because imperial father’s off to approve memorials now. Does Rui’er want to come?” Long Feiye asked.

“Why are you going to approve memorials?” Rui’er asked next.

That’s right, Long Feiye had already starting giving random answers. He said, “Because all of the courtiers are waiting.”

“Why are they waiting?” Rui’er kept going, still ignorant to the fact that his father was fooling around.

“Because they like to wait.” As Long Feiye spoke, he took Rui’er away with him—but not before shooting Han Yunxi an ugly look from the door. Han Yunxi had stopped laughing but couldn’t help starting again at the act.

When father and son had both gone, Han Yunxi finally crawled to her feet. Her face was stiff from all the laughter. She thought for awhile and realized there was a perfect idiom to describe Long Feiye’s actions just then: the fear of an adulterer caught in bed!

Zhao mama had been waiting outside until she saw the little master and emperor leave. She immediately went to deliver the breakfast personally prepared for the young boy. With her in charge of Rui’er’s three meals, Han Yunxi rarely had to worry.

Now that Rui’er had followed Long Feiye to the imperial study, she had more than half the day free. Every time Rui’er would sit on top of Long Feiye’s expansive ebony wood table and flip through his memorials while asking his father to teach him how to read. Long Feiye was busy and had his eunuchs do it, but Rui’er wasn’t willing. In the end he had to summon Gu Beiyue to win over Rui’er. Sometimes Rui’er would flip through confidential texts that only Gu Beiyue had clearance to. None of the eunuchs dared to read them.

Han Yunxi cleaned herself up, ate a casual breakfast, and went to the kitchen. She had spent two whole months under the tutelage of the head chef to learn how to hand-roll noodles. Then she spent a third month to make her noodles look halfway decent. These days she was studying how to make soup. If it was an ordinary bowl of egg noodles, she would have mastered it ages ago, but she wanted to cook balls of flour—the Chinese equivalent of filling-less gnocchi. For that, the first step was to learn how to make noodles well while the second depended on cooking up a good broth.

She was in excellent spirits today as she entered the kitchens with a smile. “Good morning, everyone!”

All of the chefs knelt down to pay their respects at her greeting. Each and every one of their faces was greener than the last. The head chef could only sigh internally. She’s here again!

The second chef was complaining internally, She’s going to pull noodles again!

The third chef only mused, I have to get to the bathroom first this time.

In any case, the ten or so chefs wore only respectful expressions despite their hidden sighs. They would rather eat the emperor’s attempt at noodles than drink the empress’s personally brewed soup!

“All of you rise. Stay on the sidelines. I’m in a good mood today, so I’ll invite you all to drink soup!” Han Yunxi smiled.

“Thanks to Esteemed Empress for her grace!” the group chorused while backing away towards the ways. Their expressions were all in sync and equally…grief-stricken! Yesterday the empress had already prepared an ingredients list for them to wash and ready ahead of time. Their morning’s work was spent preparing these items and putting them on the table. Thus, everyone knew exactly what kind of soup the empress was planing today.

Han Yunxi lifted the gauze cover on the table and saw all of her ingredients ready and lined up in order. They included old hen meat, chicken bones, chicken innards, pigeon, pork bones, lobster meat, rock sugar, white peppercorns, longan meat, ginger, and wolfberries. Although there was a wide variety of ingredients, the basics were still four components: chicken, lobster, pork, and condiments.

These chefs had followed Zhao mama for years and knew the flavor of the emperor’s order of old hen with lobster soup in the past. Thus, the empress’s recipe made them quake.

Han Yunxi quickly boiled the water and tossed in the ingredients. She knew the flavor of old hen and lobster soup better than anyone else. It was engraved in her memory, so she was quite confident about today’s combination. Long Feiye had Zhao mama stew her old hen soups until the meat was completely tender. This time she was using the flavor of lobster to make the soup while the other ingredients were there to remove its fishy taste. Combined with the freshness of chicken, the combinations wouldn’t clash but mutually benefit instead. She had taste-tested herself multiple times before settling on this combo.

Most importantly, as long as she succeeded with her soup, she could finish things once and for all. In modern times a broth like this would be a treasured stock that could be used for hot pot flavorings or to make anything especially delicious!

Would Han Yunxi succeed this time?