Chapter Nine: Does This Count?

  "Don't let him touch you."

  "Find a way to get this privilege."

  "Absolutely don't become his woman."

  It's easy to say, but according to Feng Changqing's words, she will eventually serve in the bedchamber, whether she likes it or not.

  But when Ah Piao said this to her last night, she saw the seriousness and solemnity that she thought was almost impossible on Ah Piao's face, and also heard the absoluteness in his words.

  She still remembers her asking him out of the blue "If... I really become his woman one day..."

  "No ifs, no buts."

  She hadn't finished speaking when he grabbed her shoulder, negating her words. The faint pain that spread through her shoulders made her feel a small sweetness, so when he pulled her into his arms and held her tightly, she secretly vowed in her heart to protect herself well.

  "Because you're mine alone."

  When she heard this sentence, she seemed to fall into the water, warm water wrapped around her, making her a little happy.

  She reached out with her backhand and hugged his waist, softly saying "good".

  I am yours, all of me is yours.

  She even thought so.

  But she didn't understand what kind of feelings he had for himself? What kind of feelings did she have for him?

  Love? Or dependence?

  "Ahhh!!!!!!"

  "What's wrong?" was pulled back from thought by the ear-piercing scream, Qilin reflexively asked a sentence, but saw the slender and terrified person pointing at her own front, Qilin followed her finger to look down.

  Haha! The fruit prepared for the empress was cut into strange shapes by Qilin, with some of the pulp attached to the skin exceeding a fifth of the entire fruit. Qilin awkwardly twitched her mouth, trying to find new fruit, but discovered that an entire plate of fruit had been messed up and left with hardly anything remaining.

  "What's wrong? I'm fine. I'm okay."

  "You stupid girl, do you know that these are precious fruits from the country of Marnau, which were offered as tribute to the Emperor and are meant for the Empress Dowager? Those concubines who want them can't even get them on ordinary days." Miao Tiao walked up to Qilin with her hands on her hips, shifted her buttocks, and pushed Qilin aside. Looking at the messy place, Miao Tiao turned around and pinched Qilin's arm hard, scolding her: "The Empress Dowager wanted to eat fruit today, so she specially ordered someone to prepare it. Didn't you see that everyone was busy running around today? You're good, taking advantage of the chaos to slack off and make things worse."

  Qilin lowered her head, but her heart wasn't on this matter. She carefully touched the arm that had been pinched, and previously at Zuihuatang, she would often break things, but Qiaoer and Su Fen would help take responsibility, and even help her bear the blame.

  At this thought, Qilin felt a pang of sadness in her heart, and a faint sorrow appeared in her eyes, she lowered her eyelids to prevent Miao Tiao from noticing.

  This time entering the palace, apart from Zi Yue's order, it was also for the sake of protecting Qiao and the others.

  But she wasn't so holy either, so she wavered a bit.

  Suddenly a burst of sharp pain came from her head, Qilin touched her head and looked up at Miao Tiao.

  "What are you looking at?" The slender one seemed dissatisfied with Qilin's attitude, and with a flick of her sleeve, she waved her hand and said "You'd better go apologize to the Empress Dowager, whether you live or die is fate, just don't implicate us."

  As he spoke, he cast a glance at several small eunuchs.

  "Hold on." Qilin smiled slightly, looked at the fruit that had been tortured by herself, and said "Auntie, hand over the fruit to me. I will definitely make the empress dowager satisfied. If not, I am willing to accept punishment, whether it's death or life, I absolutely won't implicate everyone else."

  "What about you?!" A slender figure looked at Qilin with disdain and said, "You're lucky to be able to touch them today, it's the good fortune of several lifetimes. Do you think you can serve the empress?"

  Qilin smiled incredulously, looking at the fruits on the table that were common in the 21st century. Weren't they just some dragon fruit, passionfruit, and kiwi? Although the passionfruit and dragon fruit looked decent, the others didn't look quite right. But these weren't even rare or exotic fruits to begin with.

  "Auntie, if I try my best, at least there's still a chance to make things right." Qilin raised her eyes and looked at Miao Tiao, continuing "If nothing is done, the Empress Dowager will blame us, and Auntie won't be able to escape responsibility either. When that time comes, whether we live or die will no longer be just my fate alone."

  "You?" Although the atmosphere was tense, looking at Qilin made him feel a sense of uncontrollable resistance, and suddenly he lost his confidence.

  Jian Miao's expression softened slightly, and Qi Lin said again, "Auntie, you must be very clear about the pros and cons of this matter. Let me try it out."

  Miao Tiao is also an old hand in the palace and naturally understands the pros and cons of this matter, so she sternly says "Hmph, you said it yourself."

  "Thank you." Qilin smiled slightly.

  What did she used to study? That was design, although it was interior design, fruit plate design, flower arrangement design, and that was a required course. This little thing couldn't stump her.

  In less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, a plate of peony flowers made from fruit appeared beautifully, and the remaining miscellaneous fruits that were not easy to use, as well as the soft-bodied dragon fruits, Qilin put them all together, added some ordinary syrup and others, and also made a special juice with kiwi. Fortunately, my master helped to beat them up, otherwise it would be very difficult for her to do it alone.

  "My goodness, I really can't tell. Surprised by everything in front of her, Miao Tiao also showed a smile 'But it depends on whether the Empress Dowager likes it or not, wait for the Empress Dowager to be happy, then you can be happy.'"

  Qilin nodded slightly. These fruits were specially paired by her to be beneficial for the Empress's digestive system and also had a good balance of sour and sweet flavors, which the Empress would surely like.

  But she knew this was just the beginning.

  As expected, after preparing the ingredients in the afternoon, when everyone was resting, the manager of the imperial kitchen came in with a smile and said that the empress dowager was very pleased and rewarded them with a lot of silver. Of course, Qi Lin, the great contributor, did not take credit for herself but instead gave her reward to Miao Tiao as an "apology".

  "Today, the Empress Dowager rewarded the Imperial Kitchen." At night, Zi Yun was practicing calligraphy in his study as usual. This was his habit, and when discussing matters, he would usually practice calligraphy to calm his mind.

  The man in front of him was drinking tea as usual, with a look of indifference, which was also his habit, he liked to drink tea when discussing things.

  "You don't seem surprised." Seeing his calm demeanor, he became somewhat agitated instead.

  "As expected, why be surprised?" He had always believed in her, and as long as she put her mind to it, she would definitely succeed.

  "But..." The brush paused and continued, "I heard that you made a disturbance in the Emperor's study last night, this is not like your style."

  "Hmm." He hummed softly and continued drinking his tea.

  Only he knew why he had to make trouble in the imperial study, if not, would he just watch Qilin become another man's woman?

  But then I thought about it, isn't what they want to do is to let Qilin gain Feng Changqing's trust? Being a concubine is inevitable... But he didn't want to.

  Why not? He also knows it.

  "You wouldn't have taken a liking to Zilin, would you?" After thinking for half a day, Ziyuan could only come up with this one reasonable explanation, but in his heart he was also clear that it wasn't possible.

  "Yes, I have a crush on her."

  Uh? A sudden sentence made Ziyuan stunned, his hand shook, and a drop of ink fell steadily on the newly written word. He looked up in surprise, but the person in front of him was about to leave.

  "Huh??"

  The words were on the tip of his tongue, but that person was already gone. He shook his head in dismay and then raised the corner of his mouth.

  "This is a wonderful thing!" Green Bamboo immediately smiled and sent tea to Qi Lin, continuing "The Empress Dowager is happy, the young master will definitely see the Empress Dowager."

  Yes, Qilin nodded her head. For now, it's just to let the empress dowager know that there is such an unusual person, but if nothing else is done, she will definitely be forgotten.

  "It's said that Empress Dowager was virtuous and gentle when the previous emperor was still alive, her favorite thing to do was have meals with the previous emperor and the imperial princes together." Green Bamboo's eyes shone brightly as she spoke, "If I can be like that when I'm old in the future, it would be great."

  Yes, women always hope to have someone to rely on in old age.

  Her eyebrows furrowed slightly, as if something was about to flash out of her mind.

  "Little master?"

  "Stop arguing." Qilin carefully recalled what she was just about to think of.

  Green bamboo didn't dare disturb her either, standing aside and watching Qilin.

  "Slap"

  Qilin clapped her hands suddenly, her eyes lit up, and she rushed out the door. She opened the door again and stopped for a moment, saying to Green Bamboo: "Right, there's still some fruit juice left from today, although not much. Have someone deliver some to the Emperor and remind him to take care of his body."

  "What's that?" Just as she was about to say something else, Qilin had already disappeared into thin air. Lüzhú pursed her lips and said, "The young master has finally come around."

  Little did they know, Qilin rushed into her own kitchen as soon as she went out, scaring the eunuchs who were chatting idly so much that their whole body trembled.

  Zhilin didn't care about the bad things she had just heard about herself, and walked into the kitchen to take a look. The equipment was simple compared to the imperial kitchen, it wasn't even worth mentioning.

  "Prepare flour for me, and get some fresh vegetables and fruits that can be used. Make the fire well." She said all the things she needed in one breath, but saw the eunuchs looking at each other.

  "Reporting to young master, none of these things are here."

  Zi Lin looked at the eunuch in charge, she remembered that this was the general manager of her palace, seemingly named Li Ping, oily and smooth-tongued, usually not lacking in taking advantage of situations, and towards her as his master also showed five parts flattery and five parts disdain.

  "Nothing?" Qilin glanced at the melon seeds and fruit pits on the ground, and smiled slightly "Then... what do you have?"

  "You're really good at joking, Master. If you don't have something, how can we servants possibly have it?" Li Ping said with a smile.

  "It's really unfair to you all to follow a master like me who has nothing. However, I'm not entirely penniless." Qi Lin walked over to the stove and continued speaking.

  Thinking there would be a reward, Li Ping and others immediately raised their eyebrows.

  "Jing Yu." Qilin smiled slightly and nodded slightly as Jing Yu walked in.

  "What are your orders, young master?" Jingyu glanced at Li Ping and the others, her brow furrowed slightly.

  "Li Gonggong has worked hard and achieved great things, taking good care of me every day." He looked at Jin Yu and saw that she understood, then continued, "Today, I should reward him properly. Take him away and give him twenty heavy slaps."

  The last sentence of Qilin almost exhausted her strength, causing the people under the hall to be stunned, and Li Ping was even more frightened.

  "Hey, young master, even if we are to be punished, there should be a reason for the punishment, right?" Li Ping seemed to have seen that Qi Lin wouldn't punish them and continued, "Those who know say that you, young master, are wise, but those who don't know will say that you..."

  "Is that so?" Qilin smiled slightly and said, "Does deceiving the superior and fooling the inferior count? Does defying the master count? Does manipulating public opinion count? Does cutting corners count?"

  Every time she said a sentence, Qi Lin could see the sweat on Li Ping's forehead slowly increasing, which was quite good.

  "Master, you're actually willing to be a slave, are you?"

  "Am I blind?! You several dog slaves, relying on the fact that I haven't been paying attention to palace affairs recently, have become so arrogant. Are you waiting for the day when you can ride roughshod over me?! As she spoke, Qi Lin carefully observed the expressions of the people below her. The previously bold and confident ones had now clearly been intimidated by her actions, good."

  "But I am not a heartless and ruthless person." She slowed down her tone, saw the people below with a hint of joy on their faces, and smiled slightly.

  "I'll just follow Master's orders."

  Clap your hands and say "What is it that this palace wants?"

  "I'll go and take care of it right away." He said, then hastily retreated.

  After Li Ping and others retreated, Qi Lin stuck out her tongue and smiled slightly at Jin Yu, "Does this count as the master's demeanor?"