Qian Jiaoniang looked at Qingya with slight confusion. Taste the dishes? Qingya, hiding her face behind a veil, winked at her. Qian Jiaoniang caught on and glanced over to see the other maidservants each holding silver chopsticks and plates, picking up small bites, chewing, swallowing, then using the other chopstick to feed their mistresses the same dish.
Did they have no hands of their own? Why did she have to rely on others to feed her? Were they afraid of poison?
“I won’t—” Qian Jiaoniang wanted to refuse but got another pinch on her thigh from Qingya. “…Fine.” Probably by the end of this banquet, her leg would be bruised all over.
Hmph, just an imitation. Princess Leluo looked up at Princess Jianan and caught her gaze. Seeing a nod from her, Leluo straightened her back and said to Qian Jiaoniang, “Dingxi Marchioness, you’ve been in Yuzhou all this time. You probably don’t know our local delicacies. Allow this princess to introduce you to a few?”
Without hesitation, Qian Jiaoniang smiled, “Then I will have to trouble you, Princess.”
Leluo smiled inwardly but said earnestly, “Look at that orange in front of you. It’s the first dish at our Yongan feast. They hollow out a fresh big orange with a spoon, mash the pulp, then put it back inside the peel. Then it’s steamed in a small steamer for half an hour before it’s ready to eat.”
Qian Jiaoniang stared at the orange filled with broth and said, “Amitabha, why not just eat the orange directly? Why hollow it out and cook it?”
“It has a unique flavor this way,” Leluo said with a smile. “You should try it and see if you like it.”
The Crown Princess just smiled quietly. Though she knew Princess Leluo was teasing Qian Jiaoniang, she never got involved. Whatever fuss others made didn’t concern her, so she just watched with a gentle smile. The others secretly chuckled, waiting for Qian Jiaoniang to embarrass herself.
Qingya ladled some soup with a silver spoon and said, “Madam, is this dish really made with only orange pulp? I think it looks like crab-stuffed orange, which you like.”
The noble ladies all paused at this.
Crab-stuffed orange? Qian Jiaoniang had heard Qingya mention it while eating crab at Minghu before. It’s made by stuffing crab roe and meat into an orange, steaming it, then adding bitter alcohol and salt—both fragrant and fresh. So this was what they called crab-stuffed orange. Qian Jiaoniang realized Princess Leluo was trying to mock her ignorance. She agreed, “There are different ways to make it. Since you say it’s just orange pulp, then it’s not crab-stuffed orange.”
“Let me try,” Qingya turned away, lifted her veil slightly, sipped, then spat it into a small bowl. “Ah, it really is crab-stuffed orange.”
Princess Leluo hadn’t expected the village girl’s maid to know crab-stuffed orange—a delicacy only found in the palace! How could this village girl know of it? Secretly, she bit her embroidered handkerchief. With her and her maid’s words, wouldn’t it make her look ignorant?
Qian Jiaoniang lightly touched her face and looked at Princess Leluo with a mock surprise, then smiled and looked away. Leluo grew even angrier—what kind of look was that?
The faces of the other ladies shifted slightly. Qian Jiaoniang noticed everything, just as Qingya expected—they were all waiting to see her make a fool of herself. But Princess Jianan’s expression was the most interesting—though unreadable on the surface, the disgust hidden in her eyes could not be concealed.
Was she so fond of Xing Muzheng? Too bad she didn’t seem easy to get along with, and being a princess, if she became Xing Muzheng’s wife, wouldn’t her Chou’er find it hard to stand in the Marquis household? Qian Jiaoniang thought, she had to stop this.
The Second Prince’s Consort said, “Leluo, you don’t even know what’s inside crab-stuffed orange, yet you blurt nonsense to the Marchioness. Aren’t you afraid she’ll misunderstand?”
Leluo hurriedly said, “I only care about eating.” Then added, “Even if I knew there was crab meat inside, I wouldn’t remember to mention it.” She glanced at Qian Jiaoniang, signaling she wasn’t unaware, just forgot.
The Crown Princess raised her hand and said since it was cold, everyone should hurry and eat. Everyone picked up their chopsticks; their attendants tasted first and then fed their mistresses. Qingya told Hongjuan to take away the crab-stuffed orange, and after tasting several dishes in turn, had her maids clear them. Qian Jiaoniang watched helplessly as the delicious-looking dishes were taken away, afraid to speak for fear of more pinches. The Second Prince’s Consort curiously asked her, “Why are you taking away your mistress’s dishes? Is she not eating?”
Qingya let out a light sigh, looking as though troubled, and said: “Second Prince Consort, you may not know, but our Madam is easy-going in all else—only her tastes in food are the hardest to grasp. Just now, the phoenix stewed with peony was a little bland, the mandarin ducks frolicking with flying dragon was too salty, the lotus shrimp was too tough, and the jade-garden tortoise was too soft. My Madam won’t eat any of it.”
No, she would eat—just hearing those names, one knew the dishes must be delicious. A little bland, a little salty, a little tough, a little soft, it was nothing. Qian Jiaoniang secretly swallowed her saliva.
The other ladies present did not know what Qian Jiaoniang was thinking, but they were all astonished by Qingya’s fluent naming of the dishes as if reciting treasures. That a maid of a supposed village girl could be so familiar with such imperial banquet delicacies, and even so picky about them, showed how refined and pampered her mistress must be, to turn up her nose even at the Crown Prince’s prized fare.
Qingya further ordered that two meat dishes be removed, saying that Qian Jiaoniang disliked eating meat. Qian Jiaoniang’s heart bled—she loved meat, all kinds of meat. She looked pleadingly at Qingya, but Qingya only returned her a look. Clutching her grumbling stomach, Qian Jiaoniang turned her gaze to the few remaining vegetable dishes.
The other women glanced hesitantly between mistress and maid, not knowing how they ought to move their chopsticks. Princess Leluo swallowed the shrimp meat in her mouth without any taste—what had seemed delicious a moment ago now struck her as tough.
This was no village girl’s palate. All the noble daughters present had refined tastes, yet none more exacting than hers! To mock her would already be a risk—not being mocked by her was fortune enough!
The Crown Princess laid down her chopsticks with a soft sigh. “I did not expect the Marchioness also to have such refined tastes. She truly reminds me of an old acquaintance.”
At these words, everyone’s expression changed. Princess Jianan too let her face sink, her manicured fingers tightening beneath the table. All her life she had hated two people most: one was the Marchioness Dingxi before her eyes, the other was that “old acquaintance” the Crown Princess now mentioned.
“I wonder who this old acquaintance is, whom the Crown Princess speaks of?” Qian Jiaoniang asked.
The Crown Princess replied: “The Marchioness likely would not know. The acquaintance I mean is none other than Prime Minister Hang’s deceased wife, Madam Di.”
“Prime Minister Hang’s wife?”
The Crown Princess nodded. “Yes—Madam Di, the wife of Prime Minister Hang. In her lifetime, she could be called the most precious young lady of the Great Xie court,” she glanced at Princess Jianan and added, “of course, excepting the princesses of the palace.”
Qian Jiaoniang asked curiously: “Why does the Crown Princess say so?”
“You may not know, Madam Di was not born to any grand clan. She was even orphaned, her family fallen to ruin. Only because of distant kinship with the Hang family did her nurse take her there for refuge. Who would have thought she was both naturally beautiful and clever? Prime Minister Hang always cherished this distant cousin. While in Nanling, she was showered with favor—eating the finest delicacies, wearing the richest silks and brocades, with more maids and servants in her courtyard than the true Hang daughters themselves. If you had seen her household then, you would know what a true great young lady was.” The Crown Princess sighed.
Someone below smiled and said to the Crown Princess: “But no matter how precious she was, surely she was not more precious than the Crown Princess and Princess Jianan?”
The Crown Princess only smiled, looked at Princess Jianan, and nodded slightly, saying no more. She herself knew she could not compare with that one. Princess Jianan had even tried to emulate her, but alas—when one paints a tiger… it comes out as a dog.
