CH 63

Villainous Prince (5)

Song Xu Yi’s appetite has clearly improved.

After a few days, Song Xu Yi finally got used to the bumps and jolts of the ship and recovered mentally. Thinking that staying on the ship was boring, Song Xu Yi decided to take advantage of this time to tinker with the food of this world, so after her body recovered, she went into the kitchen with Nie Qian Yu.

Song Xu Yi concluded that the main reason why the food in this world was so difficult to eat was because there were so few seasonings——only salt and sugar were used to make the food, which was a waste of natural ingredients.

Every time she eats, Song Xu Yi misses the variety of modern seasonings and dishes.

When Song Xu Yi entered the kitchen, Nie Qian Yu was already there.

Nie Qian Yu was a young man, standing in the small kitchen as though he was glowing. The way he cooked was so orderly and unobtrusive that he looked like he was painting with a brush rather than cooking.

What an excellent person in every way!

“Brother Nie,” Song Xu Yi said, not only did she not feel weak these past few days, but she had also regained her vitality, and she understood that a lot of this was due to Nie Qian Yu’s food, and thinking that this villain had finally been nurtured by her, Song Xu Yi changed the way she addressed Nie Qian Yu.

Song Xu Yi looked at Nie Qian Yu’s skillful chopping of vegetables with admiration: “Doesn’t your country have a saying that a gentleman is far from a cook? How come you, a prince, can cook so well?”

“Life forces me,” Nie Qian Yu replied in a soft voice as he put the ingredients into the pot without a pause, “I have to cook for myself.”

Nie Qian Yu spoke in a breezy manner and Song Xu Yi assumed that Nie Qian Yu also had a fussy stomach and that the cooks were unable to satisfy his tastes, so she nodded along with him, “Indeed we both share the same opinion, there is still room for improvement in the cooks’ skills…”

In this era, people with special talents have arrogance. The cook who was called by Song Xu Yi as having room for improvement stood aside and looked at Song Xu Yi with slight displeasure: he admitted that his cooking skills lost to Prince Nie, who indeed had a good cooking skill. But he was also a famous cook, otherwise he would not have been chosen to serve the royal family in the palace, and since the princess was so vocal, he wanted to see what kind of food this fussy and unruly princess could cook!

The fussy princess did not cook herself, however.

She pulled out a few oddly shaped pieces of the kind of stems called ‘sweet potatoes’ that she protected these days, fondly instructed her servant girl to peel off the outer skin of the sweet potatoes, beat them into a puree with a clean stone, wrapped them in a coarse linen cloth to squeeze out the water, squeezed them a few times and then took the tub of squeezed water aside to rest.

Then the princess took out another bowl of rice and put some sugar on the side.

At this time, the princess seemed to notice the cook’s gaze, raised her eyes and looked at him, and spoke, “Ten percent rice, one percent sugar.”

The cook was at a loss for words and continued to watch the princess in action with pursed lips.

After frying the rice until it was golden brown, she brought a jar and put the sugar in with the fried rice, poured in half a jar of cold boiled water and put the lid on, sealed a layer of clay around the edge of the lid and placed the sealed jar in a corner of the kitchen, and made a rule that no one could open the jar for half a month.

“Strange!” The cook muttered in his heart.

After all this, the princess didn’t do anything else, staying by Prince Nie’s side and watching him work, asking questions every now and then. It was also because Prince Nie had a good temper and indulged her that he actually listened to her: he took the sweet potatoes and cut them into fine julienne strips, then wrapped them in flour, sprinkled them with a little sugar and salt and put them into the frying pan.

When it came time to stew the meat, the princess disliked the ancient method of stewing meat in boiling water and asked Prince Nie to add a little sugar to the meat with water wine…

The meal took a little more than half a day, thanks to the Princess’s haphazard efforts. However, as he watched, the cook’s face slowly changed and he began to subconsciously remember what the princess had done: although he didn’t know how it tasted, the aromas coming out of the cooking made people crave it, so he figured it couldn’t be any worse…

The prince did not disagree with any of the princess’s whims, so he did whatever she said.

During the meal, Song Xu Yi also gave the cook two sweet potato cakes, and when she saw the look in the cook’s eyes after eating them, she knew that the cook had become convinced of her, and thinking that Nie Qian Yu had worked very hard to take care of her during this time, she wanted to repay Nie Qian Yu, so she stopped letting Nie Qian Yu cook and concentrated on teaching the cook.

As a result, rumours spread on the ship——”The princess began to study her cooking skills because of Prince Nie”.

Song Xu Yi was used to gossip and did not bother to pay attention to it. As to why she had so many ways of handling ingredients, Song Xu Yi also had an excuse: nowadays, in order to highlight the nobility of the family, all the families had their own unique secret recipes that were not passed on to the public, so no one doubted Song Xu Yi’s claim that she had found them.

It was the cook who was full of energy every day after hearing these words: after learning so many secret recipes, he would probably be the best cook in the country! He had originally thought that this trip with the unruly princess would be a disaster, but now it was not a disaster, it was a blessing that could not be found in several lifetimes!

Under Song Xu Yi’s modern teaching, the cook’s cooking skills improved by leaps and bounds, and since people live only for food, clothing, shelter and transportation, the people on the ship also had a better view of the princess by default.

Especially after 15 days, Song Xu Yi used dried and ground sweet potato starch and brewed white vinegar to instruct the cook to cook a sweet and sour pork dish, and after eating new dishes that they had never encountered before, everyone on the ship began to look forward to the arrival of meals, and even the original boring journey became less difficult…

Behind the Princess, the Prince of the Wu Empire, who was rumoured to have been forcibly robbed by the Princess, did not look as sad and resentful as he was rumoured to be. The appearance of the Crown Prince of the Wu Empire was indeed astonishing, and the head housekeeper, who had seen the world at the side of the Wang Clan’s head, had a momentary daze when he saw the Crown Prince of the Wu Empire, and the first housekeeper had his own criteria for looking at people: although the Crown Prince of the Wu Empire was cold, his demeanour towards the Princess was obviously different from that of others. The relationship between them was not as cold as rumoured, but rather seemed to be quite good.

Even though, as the only granddaughter of the Wang Clan, the Princess did not need to worry about the opinions of others, the housekeeper was more than a little relieved to see the Princess in her present state: it was a good thing for the Princess herself that she had changed her nature and was no longer full of hostility.

And only in the evening did he realise why the group was so refreshed: the Princess had such an excellent cook with her!

Some of the dishes were so good that the housekeeper had never seen them before, and the people ate so much that the housekeeper unconsciously added several bowls of rice. Even so, the Princess was still pointing out the cook’s skills, and the cook, who was so skilled, did not look displeased at all, and even accepted the Princess’s advice with the utmost respect and humility…

The head housekeeper couldn’t help but tsk in his mind.

And this was just the beginning.

Along the way, the first housekeeper met a Princess whose temperament was almost completely different from that of her infancy, a Princess who was progressive and kind to others, and who one could not help but like.

And through the propaganda of General Wang and others, the head housekeeper and others became convinced that Song Xu Yi’s change was due to her admiration for Nie Qian Yu, and that Song Xu Yi was so crazy about love that she had made such a big change.

So it seems…

The head housekeeper looked at the way Song Xu Yi and Nie Qian Yu were getting along, and hesitated a little more: it seemed that some of the clan head’s arrangements were not so appropriate.

After giving it some thought, the old housekeeper sent a letter back to Zhongzhou overnight. At the same time, just in case he was afraid that the Clan Head would not agree with his proposal, the old housekeeper decided to do some paving first.

When he saw the starry sky, the old housekeeper would again lament, “Although the stars also have light, the brightest light in the night sky is the moonlight, and the stars can never take away the light of the moon, Prince Nie, do you think I am right or wrong?”

Even when he saw a dish, the old housekeeper had to comment on it, “Although the cabbage in this dish is also tasty, but occasionally we eat a couple of bites for fun, what people are more willing to eat is the meat in it, hey, Prince Nie, what do you think——”

However, before the old housekeeper could finish his speech, his men pulled all the dumplings from the big bowl into their bowl, causing the old housekeeper to blow his beard and glare at them, “How dare you! Who told you to snatch my cabbage-stuffed dumplings…”

……

Song Xu Yi was puzzled by the old housekeeper’s sudden expressions, but when Nie Qian Yu heard the old housekeeper’s words, his eyes unconsciously deepened.

Yunzhou was very close to Zhongzhou, and it didn’t take long for Song Xu Yi’s group to arrive there.

Zhongzhou had long been a rich and affluent place, where the literary style was prevalent and the gentleman’s style was loved. When they first entered the city, the elegant Nie Qian Yu on a white horse attracted countless gazes, and all along the way, girls and daughters-in-law threw handkerchiefs at Nie Qian Yu like they were nothing.

Song Xu Yi had already known about Nie Qian Yu’s ability to attract butterflies, but she didn’t expect to see the famous scene of ‘throwing fruits to fill the carriage’, and she sat in the carriage and kept laughing at the scene, but she didn’t notice Nie Qian Yu’s face getting darker in front of her.

It was not known which girl from which family had thrown a big lotus puff to Nie Qian Yu, which inadvertently hit Nie Qian Yu’s forehead with a ‘bang’——

The crowd sucked in a breath of cold air, and Song Xu Yi was also stunned by the action, while Nie Qian Yu seemed to be unable to endure it any longer, so he turned around and got into the carriage and sat beside Song Xu Yi, dropping the curtain…

Song Xu Yi moved closer to Nie Qian Yu and nervously checked his face, seeing that there were no smashed marks on his perfect face, her heart relaxed, and listening to the growing sighs by the carriage, she couldn’t help but whisper out, “Aren’t you going out? Everyone seems to like you so much——”

Nie Qian Yu’s normally expressionless face frowned for the first time in his life, a distinct crease in his brow, and he pursed his lips, “But I merely love this skin!”

Song Xu Yi opened her mouth to say that she couldn’t blame the people, it was because Nie Qian Yu was so strikingly good-looking that he had caused everyone to lose their composure, but before she could say anything else, a hand reached out in front of her——

Nie Qian Yu’s hands were extremely beautiful, perhaps because he hadn’t developed as a teenager, his bones were much smaller than the average man’s. His fingers were long and slender, his skin as white as jade, and he had a few peeled lotus seeds in his palms.

Song Xu Yi looked at Nie Qian Yu, whose lips were pursed, and realised afterwards that this was Nie Qian Yu’s attempt to silence her, so she stopped talking and ate the lotus seeds quietly.

Nie Qian Yu was generally a young man, always putting on an indifferent face at a young age, as if nothing could move him, and Song Xu Yi did not expect him to suddenly show such true emotions in front of her.

However, this was also a sign that Nie Qian Yu was beginning to trust her.

Song Xu Yi was happy in her heart and felt that she had taken care of the villain. A smile spilled out of the corners of her lips, and as she ate her lotus seeds, she subconsciously praised Nie Qian Yu once again: “If Brother Nie doesn’t want to go out, then don’t go out! Just stay here for me to look at alone. I won’t get bored of looking at you for as long as I can…”

“I hope the princess still thinks so after later.”

She thought that Nie Qian Yu had gotten used to her rainbow farts and wouldn’t pay any attention to her, but this time Nie Qian Yu didn’t ignore her words as Song Xu Yi had imagined, Nie Qian Yu looked up at Song Xu Yi and tugged at the corners of his lips, his eyes were a bit strange, seemingly… a bit annoyed?

Song Xu Yi froze for a moment, remembering that the old housekeeper had dragged Nie Qian Yu into the corner to talk for half a day before entering the city, and frowned in confusion: could it be that the old housekeeper had said something unpleasant to Nie Qian Yu?

……

By the time Nie Qian Yu had finished eating the lotus seeds in his hand, the group had arrived at the Wang Clan’s home.

On the way, the people had already inquired about the origins of the group, and after hearing that the jade-like prince was the one who was rumoured to have been robbed by force, they all sighed that Prince Nie was unlucky and had a bad fate…

The first of these words, which Song Xu Yi had long been accustomed to, reached the ears of Wang Mian, the head of the Wang Clan, who grew increasingly pale as he listened.

Wang Mian had fathered several sons before, and only in his old age did he have a daughter, who grew up like a pearl, and treated the only daughter of Empress Wang with the utmost care, Wang Mian even spoiled her to the skies, and after knowing the news of Song Xu Yi’s imminent arrival, Wang Mian had prepared a lot of jewellery and gifts for Song Xu Yi…

One of the gifts was a bit special, originally after hearing the news from the old housekeeper, Wang Mian did not intend to take it out again, but now——

Wang Mian gave a cold laugh and narrowed his eyes…

Soon, Song Xu Yi knew the reason why Nie Qian Yu had spoken so much in the carriage.

When Song Xu Yi entered the Wang Clan, Grandfather Wang Mian was as warm and welcoming as she remembered, favouring Song Xu Yi almost without principle. She was welcomed by piles of jewellery, beautiful clothes, and a magnificently decorated courtyard that dazzled her eyes——

While Song Xu Yi was lamenting the Wang Clan’s wealth in her heart, several beautiful young men of different looks suddenly came out from the four corners of the courtyard.

The beautiful youths lined up in front of Song Xu Yi and bowed in unison.

“Greetings, Princess!”