The Prime Minister’s Darling-Chapter 423 - : 213 Small Clean Space Fighting Counterfeits_2
Chapter 423: 213 Small Clean Space Fighting Counterfeits_2
Not to mention the distant past, recently the border pass has been unrest, mostly because the city walls of the border pass have collapsed in several places due to heavy rain.
The city walls of Zhan Country were too fragile; they had to be rebuilt every few years, and even so, they were prone to collapse.
The Turks were lying in wait, posing as horse thieves to invade several times. If this continued, the border pass would inevitably fall into a more significant crisis.
Zhan Country was not a military powerhouse. A war with Chen Country several years ago had badly wounded Zhan Country. If there were another war at this time, the cost would be devastating.
The court was discussing how to repair the city walls as quickly as possible. If this special mortar existed, wouldn’t they stop worrying about the walls collapsing?
This contribution was not smaller than that of the bellows!
A faint flame of excitement rose in Consort Shu’s heart, and she couldn’t wait any longer, “Where is the fifth prince? Hasn’t he been found yet? What is he doing?”
A eunuch said, “The fifth prince has gone out of the palace, said he had an appointment with a friend to recite poetry. He probably won’t be back until nightfall. Eunuch Li has already gone out to find the fifth prince, but I don’t know if -”
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I don’t know if he can be found or not.
The Fifth Prince was their young master; he would not report his whereabouts to his subordinates, so Eunuch Li could only try his luck following the routes the Fifth Prince often took.
Consort Shu thought about it; whether he was present or not didn’t matter, as long as it was his work.
“Where is His Majesty?” Consort Shu asked.
The eunuch said, “At Taiye Pool.”
Consort Shu adjusted the tassel on her hairpin, “Oh, why didn’t His Majesty go to the Empress today?”
The eunuch laughed, “Maybe His Majesty is tired of staying in the Empress’s palace and wants to get some fresh air. His Majesty always feels at home here at your palace, Consort Shu.”
If there were a favorite among the ladies in the Imperial Harem, it would be Consort Shu, who had never fallen out of favor since she entered the palace. It was only after His Majesty returned from Jiangnan and became infatuated with alchemy that he had stayed away from women for a short time. Before that, His Majesty used to spend five or six days a month in her palace.
Hearing this, Consort Shu smiled faintly, “Alright, let’s go.”
“Yes!” The eunuch gave a wink to the servants, and they took a bucket of glutinous rice mortar to Taiye Pool.
The weather was fine.
When Consort Shu arrived at the pavilion of Taiye Pool, the other concubines had also arrived.
There was nothing surprising about it. The emperor had been absent from the Imperial Harem for so long, and his sudden appearance made everyone flock to him like flies to an egg.
But what surprised Consort Shu was that the Empress and the Noble Consort Zhuang were also there.
Both of them were among those in the Imperial Harem who didn’t need to compete for favor. Besides, His Majesty had been visiting the Empress’s Kunning Palace in recent days, so why did she need to split His Majesty’s favor with the other concubines at this time?
Consort Shu wasn’t here to compete for favor today and she didn’t mind the crowd.
She walked forward and bowed to the emperor and Empress Xiao, “Your Majesty, Empress.”
Empress Xiao seemed to be in a good mood and smiled at her.
The emperor raised his hand, “Rise.”
Then, Consort Shu paid her respects to Noble Consort Zhuang.
Noble Consort Zhuang rose slightly to return the gesture.
Then Consort Yu and other concubines paid their respects to Consort Shu.
Consort Yu automatically gave up her seat, and Eunuch Wei went to get another chair for her.
However, Consort Shu didn’t rush to sit down. She stood before the emperor and said with a smile, “Your Majesty, I have something to present to you.”
“Oh?” The emperor paused in his tea-drinking.
Consort Shu ordered the eunuch to bring up a few green bricks that had been separated and bonded together.
Everyone watching was somewhat surprised by these green bricks.
The emperor looked baffled, “Consort Shu… are you presenting bricks to me?”
Consort Shu covered her smile with a handkerchief, “Not the bricks, but the mortar between them.”
She then explained how the Fifth Prince had come up with the idea of using glutinous rice as mortar the night before.
After finishing her story, she stood in place with an expectant smile, awaiting the emperor’s praise.
However, the emperor didn’t give any.
The pavilion suddenly fell into an eerie silence.
Everyone, including Empress Xiao and the other concubines, was looking at her with changed expressions.
Consort Shu didn’t understand what was wrong. She looked at Empress Xiao and Noble Consort Zhuang, and others, “What…what’s the matter?”
Empress Xiao’s eyebrows crinkled slightly.
Zhuang the Noble Consort, however, covered her face with a handkerchief and let out a giggle.
The virtuous imperial concubine looked at Zhuang with a serious look: “Noble Consort, what’s so funny?”
Zhuang, struggling to suppress her smirk, pointed at a bucket by the side of the Consort of Joy’s feet, saying, “Are you referring to this kind of mortar?”
The virtuous imperial concubine’s expression changed for a moment.
The color of it clearly indicated it was glutinous rice mortar!
How could this be?
She turned back to check the eunuch she brought with her – indeed, the bucket of mortar was in his hand – so where did this bucket of mortar come from?
Just as this thought crossed her mind, she heard a yelping sound.
She turned and saw three little rascals squatting on the bridge of the Taiye Pool, busying themselves with mortar.
The three were engrossed in their fun, unaware that they were being observed by the Emperor and the imperial concubines.
The cause of this commotion dated back to when an eunuch from the East Palace secretly reported to Empress Xiao about Qin Chuyu playing with mud.
Upon hearing that her precious son was acting like a countryside child, squatting on the ground and kneading mud, Empress Xiao almost passed out.
She stormed off to find her son, only to find that the trio had already left the East Palace. After searching for half a day, she’s found them near the Diligent Government Hall.
At that time, Qin Chuyu was helping the Emperor plaster a wall with his little friends.
Looking at the Coiled Dragon Stone Wall of the Diligent Government Hall that had been smeared to mess, Empress Xiao almost fell apart on the spot: “What… what are you doing?”
Xiao jingkong, currently plastering the wall with a small brush, replied, “The wall has cracked, so we’re fixing it.”
Gu Jiao often did some odd jobs like fixing roofs and plastering walls for the neighbours, hence Xiao jingkong couldn’t resist giving it a try.
But there was no wall for him to plaster at home.
There were many damaged walls here, and he wanted to plaster them.
Empress Xiao: That’s not a crack! Those are patterns! Historic relics! That’s the Coiled Dragon stone that the Founding Emperor had left behind, the one that had allegedly shielded him from a landslide!
And hence, it was named — the Coiled Dragon Stone!
Even more tragic was that they didn’t stop at the Dancing Dragon Stone Wall but went on to smear the Emperor’s viewing wall as well. They saw a wall, they plastered it, and continued their spree the whole way.
Only Xiao Jingkong’s handsome face kept Empress Xiao from fainting on the spot.
Too occupied with the crisis at hand, Empress Xiao had no time to scold her son and his playmates, and hurriedly ordered the servants to scrape the mortar off the Coiled Dragon Stone.
Indeed, the mortar ought to have been easy to remove with a writing utensil or a spade, but this time something seemed to have gone wrong as it simply wouldn’t come off.
Empress Xiao realized the enormity of the mess her son had made; she contemplated on finding a scapegoat if need be, however, the Emperor arrived at the scene.
The trio was caught red-handed!
Empress Xiao was scared to death!
Surprisingly, the Emperor didn’t punish the three children.
The brother of the young miracle doctor was of course precious to the Emperor; he wouldn’t dare punish him, even though the sight of the plastered Coiled Dragon stone pained him to no end.
Soon enough, he realized something was off about the mortar, specifically, it was not ordinary.
How could there be such firm mortar?
Xiaoqi didn’t have the brains for such a feat, so the Emperor skipped over Qin Chuyu and asked Xiao Jingkong and Xu Zhuzhu, the young son of the Secretary of War: “Where did you get this mortar from?”
Xiao Jingkong tilted his little head, replying, “We made it ourselves!”
The Emperor was quite surprised: “You know how to make this too?”
Xiao Jingkong replied seriously, “Jiaojiao does this all the time! I’ve learned from watching her!”
The Emperor looked at Xiao Jingkong then at the plastered Coiled Dragon Stone, he suddenly laughed like a fool.
Empress Xiao seriously suspected that he had gone mad from the shock.
Then we come to the present time.
The trio used up all of their mortar and were here to make more.
The glutinous rice soup was requested by Qin Chuyu from the Imperial Kitchen; it was added to the concoction to make the mortar, which was commonly done as the Virtuous Imperial Consort had mentioned.
