Chapter 138 Cold Winter Laba Porridge
At first, many people guessed that the Ling sisters were huddled together, and the situation of what they wanted in the palace did not happen. Ling Yuechan's favorite reflects Ling Xiao's fiasco. The more powerful she gains power, the more Ling Xiao loses her power.
In the evening of that day, Ling Xiao used snacks and was walking out, strolling around in the royal garden for a walk. A palace beauty came to his face.
"Yo, who do I think I am? So it's Ling Jieyu? Why are you still hanging out at this time? Yao squeezed her mouth and smiled meanly. She doesn't like Ling Yuechan, but she has never had a crush on Ling Xiao. For her, as long as she is in the way, she is damned.
"Concubine Yao, aren't you still outside? What? The Empress Dowager won't call you to accompany you?" Ling Xiao also replied rudely, full of sarcasm.
Mu Junyao smiled coldly and said, "Ling Jieyu is still so tidy. She has a kind of quarrel with me. It's really better to think about how to deal with your sister. Tang Jieyu, also the eldest daughter of the family, is now riding on the head by a common mother and sister. Only you can bear it.
"What does Yao say about 'to deal with' and not to 'to deal with'? If the emperor hears this, what will he think of you? Could it be that the gentle and virtuous appearance of Yao's concubine is fake, but in fact, she has a vicious heart in her bones? Ling Xiao looked at a faint orange flower in front of him and gently picked it up. "This is really not good."
Mu Junyao is actually having a hard time. She has offended Ling Yuechan before. Since Ling Yuechan really gained power, she has been targeting her and is in a dilemma. Even if the queen knows, there is no explanation. Yes, what kind of palace rules, in fact, to put it bluntly, it's just a red-top white thing.
"Ling Jieyu, I advise you to pay more attention to serious things. Don't look tall all day long, but no one looks at it." After Mu Junyao finished speaking, she left without a ceremony.
Qingwu looked at Ling Xiao and asked, "Miss, shall we still go to the garden?"
Ling Xiao looked at the distance and didn't know what he was thinking. Hearing the words, he was just gloomy and said gently, "Go back to the palace."
When he returned to the palace, Ling Xiao was still sitting on the chair in the yard. He was about to pick up the book on the small table next to read. He stretched out his hand and found that the table was missing. She asked, "Qingwu, where is the little red sandalwood square table that was originally placed here?"
Qingwu was a little embarrassed. Seeing Ling Xiao staring at her, he squeaked for a moment and replied in a low voice, "Yesterday, a big cat came and knocked over the small table. The square table was a little old again. Just like this, there was a broken foot, so I took it to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to repair it."
"Oh." Ling Xiao nodded thoughtfully, as if to say to himself, "I just sent it yesterday. That's okay. I don't have time."
Qingwu is very uneasy, and I don't know when I can get it back. In fact, Ling Xiao doesn't know yet. Yesterday, when she asked Zhu Er to send the broken table, the little eunuch of the Ministry of Internal Affairs said arrogantly, "Wait, the wall decoration in the Xiaobin's little main palace is not good yet. How can you do such a thing?"
No time? Humph, where can they go no matter how busy they are? Are you busier than the emperor? It's not a matter of time for them now. They just saw Ling Xiao lose their power and immediately slack off. Otherwise, why didn't they be "busy" before? They were extremely attentive.
Qi Luantang seems to have returned to the time when Ling Xiao had never been favored, and even the slaves in the outer palace dared to shake their faces. And this time, the situation will only be worse than before. On the one hand, it is because of my own feelings. As the saying goes, it is easy to go from thrifty, from luxury to frugal, and enjoy the treatment from the past to the extreme. Of course, this situation will feel desolate.
On the other hand, the downtrodden phoenix is not as good as the chicken. What can a disfavored concubine have? Those who were originally flabbed with a shy face have now changed their faces. Even some far-sighted people are worried about what to do if Ling Xiao rises again in the future. Even if they have ideas, they don't want to have anything to do with Ling Xiao in this situation. Isn't that the one who offended Ning Xiao Dian in vain?
"What should I do? The weather is getting colder and colder, but the current situation in our palace is the same as last year. We can't even get a basket of silver charcoal. The little master should suffer again. Zhu Er fiddled with the black charcoal in the stove, choked so much that tears were about to flow out, and said to Er Lan with a bitter face.
Er Lan also picked up a thin fire pliers for the stove and helped Zhu Er play with the charcoal. The black smoke seemed to go down a little and said, "The little master will be back in a moment. Don't say anything nonsense. Don't make the little master sad. Although these black charcoal are not good, they can be used in the lobby during the day. As for the evening, prepare two more quilts.
Zhu Er nodded, but she couldn't help thinking that she didn't know what was wrong with the emperor. She had never been here since she left Qiluan Hall that day. The emperor spoiled the little master so much before. How could he say that he didn't love him? Is it true that the little master will never come out again?
Not only the slaves and concubines outside the palace, but also some of the servants in Qiluan Hall have complaints. Although Ling Xiao treated them well in the past, that's how people are. He may not be grateful if you give him a favor, but if you involve them, you should blame you.
Ling Xiao doesn't know these. Fortunately, she has never experienced such a situation. She asked Erlan and Qingwu to pay more attention to them. Once she found any unintentional and infidelity, she found a stubble to drive them out of the palace. Just in time, she took this opportunity to clean up the Qiluan Hall.
Lu Qianmo and Lin Xuanyu also came to visit, but their condition was not much better than that of Ling Xiao. At this time last year, although everyone was not favored, there was no particularly favored newcomer. The most favored people were the medicine concubine and the noble concubine. At that time, they didn't pay attention to Lin Xuanyu at all, so they were not embarrassed at all.
I just don't know what's going on with Ling Xiao at that time. When the treatment of each newcomer is almost the same, she is controlled everywhere. The treatment is extremely poor, and she still needs to rely on Lin Xuanyu to help. And this year is even worse, because Ling Yuechan has gained power. Lin Xuanyu and Lu Qianmo are well-known people who are in line with Ling Xiao. Of course, life is not easy. Everyone is too busy to take care of themselves, so what else can we talk about?
Soon, the Laba Festival arrived. Several large pots were vacated in the imperial dining room and porridge was boiled for most of the day. Among them, red dates, lotus seeds, longan, lilies and other ingredients were added. The aroma was fragrant and the nutrition was extremely rich. These are all given to the palace people of each palace. Today, whether it is the big maid in the queen's palace, the big eunuch, or the low-level palace people in the raccoon bureau, everyone can get a piece of the pie, and even Shen Xingsi can get a bowl of porridge.
As for the concubines, the treatment is naturally different, and there are no specific rules. As long as they are in their own palace, they can be boiled and drunk in the small kitchen. The imperial dining room only provides some basic ordinary ingredients for the palaces, such as deer antler, Ganoderma lucidum and other precious medicinal herbs. Some people cook them in porridge to nourish the body, but it depends on whether your master is favored and whether you have these good things on hand.
Ling Xiao, in terms of the current situation, of course, can't come up with anything good, but when she was favored before, Feng Yuqi still appreciated her a lot of valuable things. However, when cooking porridge this time, Ling Xiao did not let Erlan and others pick it up, but only used the most common things such as red dates.
According to the usual practice, the concubines cooked Laba porridge by themselves to send a bowl to the queen. Although the queen may not drink it, it is a little intention of the concubines. And if this intention can be tasted by the queen in public, it will naturally be a great honor. Therefore, the concubines have tried their best in this matter and are not willing to fall behind.
So on the day of Laba, when Ling Xiao arrived at Zhaoyang Palace with red dates and miscellaneous grain porridge that night, he found that it was simply a feast of porridge. It not only smells extremely sweet, but also very nutritious. Even if you look at it, you will feel very beautiful.
Like the Laba porridge of the medicine concubine, with bright red plums, the petals are still intact. You can almost see the veins in it clearly, mixed with a grain of crystal clear rice, red and white, which looks extremely attractive. Sniffing carefully, it seems that you can still smell the intoxicating fragrance of Lamei. There is also red jujube meat cut into cubes. The jujube fragrance is very attractive.
If the porridge offered by the medicine concubine belongs to the delicate style and wins with beauty, then the ice concubine's porridge probably stands out with elegance. At first glance, Bingfei's porridge was crystal clear, snow-white and flawless, like a vast expanse of white snow. She gently stirred it with a small silver spoon, but found that it was a little emerald green, which turned out to be fine green onions. In spring and summer, this is naturally nothing, but now it is a few cold days, and it is not easy to cultivate green onions. Turning down, I found that there were still broken bamboo shoots and soft glutinous small glutinous balls at the bottom of the bowl, which made people's index fingers move.
These are not particularly valuable, but what is rare is this thought. However, in Ling Xiao's opinion, although it is rare, it is also divorced from the original meaning of cooking Laba porridge in Laba Festival.
You don't have to think about it. Ling Xiao's bowl of so-called red dates and miscellaneous grain porridge was naturally ridiculed and disdainful.
"Ling Jieyu, you used to be favored. Why can't you even take out this good thing now?" Luoshang's words are particularly mean, especially the word "in the past", which is particularly loud.
What Ling Xiao didn't expect was that the queen's last drink on the day was actually the bowl offered by Ling Xiao.
The queen seemed to be very satisfied. She smiled at her and praised, "This is the real Laba porridge. I haven't tasted it for a long time."