In the Western Han, there were already two meals a day. It was only after the Eastern Han that it gradually became three meals a day. By the Qing dynasty, it had become two meals a day again, so Cao Yue still continued her previous habit, two meals a day.
Aside from the two main meals, Cao Yue would also have a snack after breakfast and before dinner. As for after dinner, in order to maintain her figure, she never ate anything.
Because she did not want to let her skills get rusty, this snack was often made by Cao Yue herself.
There was a small kitchen in the main courtyard, specially tidied up for Cao Yue to make pastries.
Cao Yue had an apron around her, and her pair of soft hands were white, delicate, and slender. Starting from kneading the dough and making the dough herself, without relying on anyone else, An Ning occasionally helped nearby: “Miss, today we met that young master. If we don’t return to the residence tomorrow, then all the effort spent today will probably be wasted.”
Tomorrow was the day the imperial carriage would arrive at the Cao residence. If she did not return to the residence, then she would not be able to expose his identity in public.
The dough in her hands gradually turned into a smooth dough ball. Cao Yue stopped her movements and rested for a moment. “I am going back, but not now.”
Since the imperial carriage was willing to visit the Cao family, it was naturally the utmost glory for the entire Cao household. The Cao family masters would naturally have to welcome the imperial carriage on time, none left out, in order to show the Cao family’s importance.
However, if she was lucky, or if Kangxi had that intention, she would see him again before dinner.
Cao Yue did not say it very clearly, but after An Ning thought it through carefully, she immediately said sourly, “Looks like this servant won’t have the good fortune of eating the pastries Miss makes today.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t leave you without any.” Cao Yue teased her. “Besides, haven’t you eaten enough on ordinary days?”
An Ning wrinkled her nose and giggled, “Miss is the best.”
She took out the peach honey made in summer and kneaded some of it into the dough. Then she used a rolling pin to roll the dough thin, folded it up and continued rolling. After repeating this about a dozen times, she added peach flesh into the rolled-out dough like making buns, and finally pressed it into shape with a peach blossom mold before placing it into the steamer.
“Since we’ve been given peach blossoms, of course we should pair them with peach blossom cakes for more charm.”
After calling in a maid who tended the fire to watch the flame, Cao Yue spread her arms and had An Ning untie her apron, then went to the hot spring to bathe and wash up.
She liked making pastries, but she did not like having the smell of oil smoke on herself.
In the room where Wang Shi was being settled, Wang Shi looked at the four dishes on the round table that could not be more plain, along with a tofu soup, and her expression immediately turned somewhat ugly. She looked at the maid serving the food and said unhappily, “How come they’re all vegetarian? Not even a bit of meat?”
The maid was not frightened by Wang Shi’s displeasure. She said unhurriedly, “Miss Biao, please forgive us. The kitchen at the estate did not prepare any meat dishes.”
Wang Shi wanted to say that if they had not prepared any, they should think of a way to get some. But just as the words reached her lips, she suddenly remembered her current circumstances, and could only wave her hand to tell the person to withdraw.
Only Tao Yu remained in the room to attend her. Wang Shi no longer had any scruples when she spoke: “Clearly she’s a young lady from a noble family, yet she’s stubbornly a young lady’s body with a maid’s fate. This whole life, she can only eat these low-class dishes that can’t even be brought to the table.”
She had been raised in the Cao family for two years. During these two years, she had lived in fine clothes and good food, and had grown used to the Cao family’s wealth and luxury. Mountain delicacies and sea delicacies, bird’s nest and donkey-hide gelatin, she had eaten plenty of all of them. Suddenly having to eat such plain rice gruel and simple dishes was like a wealthy young lady suddenly turning into a beggar. It would be strange if Wang Shi could eat it comfortably.
Tao Yu pressed her lips together tightly. After hesitating again and again, she finally stepped forward and served Wang Shi a bowl of tofu soup. “Miss, the situation now is beyond anyone’s control. Let’s endure it for now.”
For someone the Cao family had abandoned, where was there still any right to be picky?
Wang Shi let out a heavy huff. In the end, hunger in her stomach won over her disdain. She picked up the bowl, took a sip of the soup, then quickened her movements, and soon the bowl was empty.
Outside the door, the maid who had just withdrawn did not leave immediately. Instead, she waited outside for a while. After she had heard every word of Wang Shi and her servant’s conversation, she then turned around and went to the main courtyard.
The hot spring in the main courtyard was built indoors. The entrance to the hot spring was separated by a six-panel screen that Cao Yue had set up. The maid then stood slightly bowed outside the screen and repeated one by one the words she had overheard.
Cao Yue reached out and stirred the water. She was not hearing about Wang Shi’s narrow-mindedness for the first time, so after rewarding the maid, she had her withdraw.
But An Ning felt indignant for Cao Yue because of this. “A pheasant is just a pheasant, yet it still dreams of flying up a branch and turning into a phoenix. Vegetables and fruits in winter are more precious than meat, but she doesn’t understand that, and even has to speak ill of you behind your back.”
When she said this, An Ning had already cursed Wang Shi countless times in her heart. Miss had been prone to vomiting at the sight of meat since she was little, and not being able to taste meat already made her miserable enough. Yet Wang Shi still said those things to stab at Miss’s heart.
An Ning clenched her teeth fiercely. If Wang Shi were standing in front of her right now, she might just pounce on her and take a bite.
Cao Yue also felt somewhat uncomfortable. Although she did not care about Wang Shi, that did not mean Wang Shi could eat the Cao family’s food while slandering her behind her back.
Narrowing her eyes and looking at the steam rising before her, Cao Yue said word by word, “She’s lived too many good days and no longer knows where she came from.”
Out of the hot spring, Cao Yue casually pulled the cloth hanging on the rack and wrapped it around her body, then silently kept a tally in her heart for the Cao Yin couple and Wang Shi.
If not for the stupid things done by Cao Yin and his wife, why would she have to suffer this kind of anger.
“Before midnight today, have someone keep an eye on Wang Shi. Do not let her step out of her room even one step, and do not let her make noise. If you can’t keep her under control, then any method will do.”
The method she was referring to was naturally inner-hall tactics like sedatives.
Her long hair, reaching down to her knees, was dripping with water. An Ning quickly took another cloth and wrapped Cao Yue’s hair with it. “This servant understands.”
After a round of bathing and changing clothes, it was almost time for dinner.
Cao Yue was wearing everyday clothes, her hair was simply styled into a bun, and she wore no powder or rouge. She looked fresh and plain, more real than the carefully dressed-up appearance she had this morning.
She sat under a peach tree in the courtyard, one black piece in one hand and one white piece in the other, playing chess against herself.
“It’s about time. Should this servant have people set the meal?”
Cao Yue slightly shook her head. “Wait a little longer.”
The people who should come still hadn’t come. Setting the meal now was a little too early.
An Ning looked up at the sky. “The sun is already beginning to slant westward.”
One white piece blocked the black piece’s path. Cao Yue captured a large group of black pieces. “What’s the rush? Good food isn’t afraid of being late. I can wait.”
Once upon a time, she also could not tolerate waiting. But now, even if the sky were to fall at this very moment, she could still calmly finish getting herself ready and choose the prettiest way to die for herself.
The outcome of the game was already decided. Cao Yue leisurely picked up the chess pieces one by one and put them back into the chess box.
When the person from the kitchen appeared for the third time near the peach tree and gave An Ning a look, there was finally movement at the courtyard gate.
The gatekeeper servant came in with his hands tucked inside his sleeves, his ears red from the cold. “Miss, several young masters have come outside the gate. They say they want to have dinner at our estate.”
Before the words even finished, An Ning subconsciously let out a sigh of relief. It was good that they had come.
Cao Yue slightly curled her lips, her voice soft. “Guests are guests. Since they are only here for dinner, invite them in. However, in the end, there is still a difference between men and women, so I will not go see them.”
The peach tree was on the west side of the courtyard gate. When a person stood at the gate, as long as their gaze swept slightly to the side, they could see someone.
Therefore, when Kangxi heard Cao Yue’s words and saw that Cao Yue had already gotten up and was preparing to avoid them, he did not wait for the servant to invite him in. He stepped directly into the courtyard. “How coincidental. I was saying why the sound seemed especially familiar. So it’s Miss.”
Since someone was cooperating so well, Cao Yue naturally took up the topic Kangxi had thrown out, and she turned around with feigned surprise. “Young master, it’s you?”
When the servant saw this scene, the words he had been about to use to scold Kangxi for entering without being invited were swallowed back down, and he quietly returned to the gate to continue keeping watch.
Kangxi looked at the woman before him, who had not been carved or adorned in the slightest, yet whose appearance did not pale at all in comparison to those imperial harem consorts who had been meticulously dressed up. He nodded and smiled. “I met Miss in the peach forest this morning, and then met Miss again this afternoon. It seems Miss and I are fated.”
Liang Jiugong followed three steps behind Kangxi, his eyes on his nose and his nose on his heart. The emperor had clearly seen the intelligence Feiyanggu had investigated and deliberately done this, yet in the emperor’s mouth it became fate.
Kangxi’s words sounded normal, but for a woman who had been kept in a secluded boudoir and had never come into contact with men, they could be considered somewhat offensive.
Unfortunately, Cao Yue had no reaction to such tactics, and in order to pretend that she was feeling her spring heart stir, she put on a slightly shy expression and hurriedly, and rather stiffly, changed the topic. “Isn’t the young master here to have dinner? I’ll have people arrange it right away. Young master, please follow me first.”
As she spoke, she actually personally led the way and brought Kangxi to the main hall at noon to sit down.
Looking at the somewhat nervous Cao Yue, Kangxi found it amusing in his heart, but on the surface he said with concern, “It is exactly the time for dinner right now. May I ask whether Miss has eaten yet?”
This time Cao Yue did not speak, leaving An Ning to answer with obvious irritation, “Our Miss was just about to eat when the young master arrived.”
Not hearing Cao Yue speak personally, but instead being indirectly accused by a servant girl, Kangxi was somewhat displeased, but he did not show it. His voice carried a hint of apology. “In that case, it is my fault then. May I know whether I can eat together with Miss?”
Cao Yue hurriedly declined. “It goes against propriety for an unmarried man and woman to remain in the same room. Young master need not worry. This place is my family’s estate. Could it be that I would still be starved here as the master?”
After finishing that joking final sentence, Cao Yue politely curtsied and then left the main room.
That same old saying, too much of a good thing is as bad as too little.
Besides, counting the time, elder brother should also be arriving on schedule.
Failing to dine together with the beauty, Kangxi was somewhat regretful, but it vanished in an instant. He had taken a liking to her, so there would be plenty of chances to eat together in the future, no need to rush at this moment.
The meal prepared for Kangxi was also a table of vegetarian dishes, only there were more dishes, a total of eight dishes and one soup, along with a plate of peach blossom cakes personally made by Cao Yue.
Unlike Wang Shi, Kangxi had no dissatisfaction with this at all. On the contrary, he even eagerly picked up a piece of peach blossom cake first and took a bite.
With one bite, he bit into the filling made from sweet peach flesh inside. The taste was fresh and sweet, obviously a pastry that girls would like to eat.
After finishing one piece of pastry and before he even had the chance to taste the other dishes, he saw Liang Jiugong somehow take out a silver needle. With Kangxi’s face growing faintly dark, Liang Jiugong tested each dish one by one, then tasted a bite from each as well.
What a joke. Since this concerned the emperor’s safety, even if the emperor was displeased, he still had to test for poison.
But speaking of which, this peach blossom cake was rather tasty.
Liang Jiugong stuffed the remaining half piece of peach blossom cake in his hand into his mouth, chewed it up and swallowed it, and his eyes unconsciously drifted toward the remaining peach blossom cakes on the plate.
Then he thought again that it was already fortunate enough that he had eaten one piece of this peach blossom cake, and it would not be proper to eat a second piece, so he could only harden his heart and look away, picking up the serving chopsticks to help Kangxi with the dishes.
Feiyanggu had followed Kangxi around the peach blossom forest for most of the day, and had then hurried everywhere to investigate the Cao family. He had long since been starving. Looking at the appetizing dishes on the table before him, even though they were vegetarian, his mouth could not help but secrete saliva.
When he was starving badly, he could only curse Liang Jiugong while shifting his thoughts. Liang Jiugong could still use the excuse of testing the food for the emperor to eat a few bites to pad his stomach, but he was no better off, not even one bite to eat.
After Kangxi had eaten until he was about seventy percent full, he put down his chopsticks.
Just after rinsing his mouth and preparing to get up to look for Cao Yue, there was another burst of commotion at the estate gate, and then Kangxi heard a voice that was all too familiar: “What is Yue’er doing?”