FMEA Chapter 35

As the proverb says, if you don’t court disaster then you won’t end up dying. At that instance of seeing that vegetable knife, Feng Tingye’s heart had already sprouted an ominous premonition.

Swallowing his saliva, just when he was planning on silently leaving, a puzzled Xia Yuqing stretched out her head  to investigate mumbling to herself. “That’s strange. Where did Xiang Er go? Didn’t she say she wanted to help out?”

Sweeping her eyes outside, it finally stopped at the rigid expression of Feng Tingye. Seeing him, Xia Yuqing was slightly surprised. “Your Majesty, why are you here so early?”

Hearing what she said, the palace eunuchs who guarded the doors of the Fragrant Palace Hall couldn’t bear to look at her, their hearts crying out loud. Oh my god! Are your eyes just for decoration? You’ve been looking for so long and you just discovered His Majesty was standing right in front of your eyes? In addition…

The small eunuch anxiously looked towards the vegetable knife that showed off Xia Yuqing’s strength, secretly thinking, our master just now had almost murdered the emperor! Waahhh, this Nu Cai didn’t see anything, nothing at all! Waahhh, my heart’s too strained, I can’t work here anymore!

Xia Yuqing naturally wasn’t able to make out her own palace eunuch’s knot within his heart. Shifting her glance to see the vegetable knife clearly, her eyes brightened. Advancing towards Feng Tingye, she excitedly demanded. “Your Majesty, quick! Help Chen Qie take down the vegetable knife. The dishes will be done in a moment. Chen Qie won’t make His Majesty wait for long.”

Feng Tingye’s eyebrows trembled, his thoughts at a loss. Could Zhen… not help? Although that was what his heart wanted, in the end he still obediently brought the vegetable knife back down and passed it back into Xia Yuqing’s hand.

After Xia Yuqing received the vegetable knife, she quickly headed back into the kitchen. Immediately afterwards, a fit of pots, pans, and bowls could be heard howling in grief, protesting their treatment. Once again turning rigid, his earlier ominous premonition became increasingly intense.

If one was to say hearing Xia Yuqing cook would only make one feel alarmed, if they were able to see the corpses of whatever she cooked laid out on the table, they really would be speechless. Feng Tingye’s current face was already depicting his regret in ever requesting this from Xia Yuqing.

Swallowing down his saliva with difficulty, Feng Tingye quietly asked. “These were all made by Ai Fei by herself?”

“Yes, all of these dishes were specially prepared by Chen Qie. Although the appearance is a bit poor, it’s taste should be passable. Your Majesty, please quickly try it. See if it suits your taste!” Xia Yuqing enthusiastically encouraged Feng Tingye to dine.

Under Xia Yuqing’s hopeful glances, the silver chopsticks in Feng Tingye’s hand that was circling around in midair, finally unwillingly fell upon the black charcoal object in front of himself.

“This is….”

“Oh, that’s Eight Treasured Duck.” Xia Yuqing excitedly introduced.

“Yi?” Including Feng Tingye, everyone within the room who heard those words stared at Xia Yuqing in shock. Their hearts all unspokenly agreeing upon one thing: Ai Fei (Niang Niang), you have actually in fact mistakenly taken a crow and treated it as a duck and roasted it!

Feng Tingye’s silver chopsticks trembled, then retracted back. Coughing a few times, he dignifiedly spoke: “Today’s fairly cold for autumn. Because the previous two days I wasn’t paying attention to my clothing, I have a bit of a cold. The imperial physician said that Zhen ‘s body has received a bit of an internal chill, thus this duck, Zhen is afraid that I won’t be able to eat it today.”

“Yi?” Xia Yuqing was stumped for words for a second, her face showing her disappointment. “If that’s the case, you don’t have to eat that dish.”

But before Feng Tingye could let out a breath of air, another scalding plate of an unknown object was placed right in front of him. With a stiff face, Feng Tingye asked: “This is ….”

“This is fish shred stew. Chen Qie has been boiling this soup since yesterday until now. Since Your Majesty isn’t able to eat the duck, then you can eat the fish shreds.”

Feng Tingye stared at the small thin white shreds floating on the surface of the gray coloured stew, all sorts of feelings welling up in his heart.  

The palace eunuchs and palace maids waiting upon these two people were unable to hold back their curiosity and stared at what was within the porcelain pot. From one glance, the corners of their mouths twitched, each and every one of them distorting their face.  

Niang Niang, aren’t those spider threads inside the fish stew? Why does some of those fish shreds floating on the surface of the soup seem to resemble a tight knitted cobweb, oh my!

Feng Tingye’s chopsticks halted in the air for a long time. In the end, he was still unable to heartlessly continue fighting on this battlefield and took back his chopsticks. “This dish, Zhen regarding these fishy food, I am unable to adapt to them. I usually rarely touch these kind of dishes, I’m afraid this fish shred stew, I also can’t…..”

“Seafood allergy?” Xia Yuqing once again was stumped for words. Her stares at Feng Tingye becoming increasingly looking as if she felt wronged. Her eyes clearly showing some condemnation, she criticized. “Your Majesty, if you aren’t able to eat these fishy dishes, why didn’t you tell Chen Qie earlier? Chen Qie had prepared so many dishes and they all have to some extent been polluted by fish. Wouldn’t it basically mean you can’t eat any of the dishes then?”

Having heard her say that, Feng Tingye’s eyes shown with light, his heart beating endlessly with excitement. Putting on a regretful expression as disguise, he lowered his voice. “I can’t believe I could have forgotten to let Ai Fei know that Zhen isn’t able to eat fishy food. This is definitely Zhen’s negligence, Zhen hopes Ai Fei can forgive me.

Today, let’s first eat the meals prepared by the imperial kitchen. Another day…. Some other day if we have the opportunity, then you could let Zhen sample Ai Fei’s cooking skills. Come, someone come and quickly remove these dishes.”

Once Feng Tingye finished speaking, he urgently called the people at the side and gave them all a meaningful look to hint to them that he wanted all these food form lethal weapons to be thrown away.

Just when Feng Tingye had thought he had just escaped, he suddenly heard Xia Yuqing call out. “Hold it.”

His heart started beating fast. “Ai Fei, what’s the matter?”

Xia Yuqing’s eyes were shining bright as she stared at the steamed bun like round items within the plate that Lu Rui was holding, pleasantly surprised. “That dish of chestnut cakes aren’t fishy. Your Majesty, Chen Qie heard from Xiang Er that you love eating desserts, so I especially prepared that chestnut cake for you. You wouldn’t also….”

Feng Tingye was about to find another reason to reject her when he suddenly choked, inwardly cursing Liu Yixiang a thousand times. Seeing Xia Yuqing’s ‘you aren’t even aware of the hardships I went through and is about to cry’ facial expression he finally swallowed his saliva, then with trembling hands, he reached out with his silver chopsticks. Subsequently, under everyone’s sympathizing or curious gazes, his chopsticks advanced towards the chestnut cakes that were as hard as rocks. Picking the tiniest piece, he placed it in his mouth, chewing it…

“Ah…. Your Majesty…. Your Majesty, what’s wrong?” The Fragrant palace hall was once again filled with yelling.

The palace eunuchs and palace maids accompanying Xia Yuqing were woken up as if from a dream by Xia Yuqing’s screams. Each and every one of them disorderly rushing over to surround them. Then who knows which palace eunuch called out: “Ah…. Ah. The silver chopsticks have turned black. OH MY GOSH! Imperial physician, call the imperial physician…. The emperor has been poisoned!”

“….” The eunuchs who were stationed to guard outside the palace hall silently took a glance at the group of people inside the palace hall who have formed a circle then silently looked up to the sky.

Before it was common to hear older people say that in this world the most difficult thing to bear was receiving a beauty’s kindness. At that time he was still small, so he did not understand that statement! However, today it has finally become clear to him. A beauty’s kindness is not something that an average person is capable of bearing! This is just too savage and cruel to watch!

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