Chapter Sixteen: Settling a Grudge

  I originally thought Zhou Muyan was a pretentious and artificial young lady, usually with a weak and delicate appearance like Lin Daiyu, but I didn't expect her to be so kind and gentle, allowing me to play and joke around with her without any airs of superiority, it seems that she had a good relationship with Wuman Ya before.

  On the second day, early in the morning, Moon served Mu Yan to get dressed and washed up. I also couldn't stay in bed, so I quickly got up to wash my face, waiting for breakfast.

  Eating in the palace is not like eating at home, where meals are uniformly distributed by the Imperial Kitchen. The variety and quality of dishes differ according to the rank of each master. As a concubine, Mu Yan only gets four dishes and one soup per meal, with each plate having just a small amount, looking delicate but unable to fill her stomach.

  No wonder the women in this palace are all slender and weak, it turns out that they are all blaming the emperor for being too stingy and not giving his wives enough food to eat.

  Finally waited for dinner, I was hungry all night, yesterday was busy all day without eating, last night walked half of Beijing, this morning had to wait for the people from Shang Shi Bureau to send food, at this moment, I was so hungry that I was anxious.

  I don't know how the master eats, all the slaves still have to wait beside him, watching the master eat. Because of the presence of others, I couldn't sit down and dine with Mu Yan at the same table, I could only watch her finish the dishes on her plate one bite at a time. My heart ached again and again, really wanting to rush up and snatch it away to eat.

  After serving Mu Yan with a meal, we will clean up the bowls and chopsticks and then eat in the back house.

  This emperor is not only stingy to his wife, but also to us, a group of underlings. He's an unscrupulous capitalist who only knows how to exploit our surplus value and doesn't care about our lives or deaths.

  Let's not talk about how bad the dishes are, let's just talk about the quantity. There are seven of us in total: me, Yue'er, Wang Gugu, Zizi, Rui'er, Xiaofuzi and Xiaorongzi. But the white rice is less than two catties in total. How can we distribute it? We are all frontline workers, how can we have energy to work if we don't eat enough? In the past, I thought two liang of rice per meal was enough to fill my stomach, but now that's just an appetizer. Moreover, we have two young eunuchs here, and we can't ignore the fact that men generally eat more because of their physical condition.

  That dish was the best of the best, a total of two large bowls, one bowl was stewed cabbage with potatoes, and the other was stewed radish with beef... no, no, no, where's the meat? It was very thin, basically just radish soup. Luckily, there were some leftover dishes from Mu Yan, but there wasn't enough to go around, everyone took a bite, and it was almost all gone.

  Although the dishes are not very appetizing, in this class, having food to eat is already a blessing, no wonder those palace maids are fighting to be the emperor's woman, being with the emperor means getting full meals!

  As I watch the bustling crowd eating, my heart can't help but quietly recall the happy days at Old Man Zhou's house, and Yu'er's skillful hands, her cooking is unparalleled in the world, a hundred times better than the imperial chefs in this palace. I really miss her dishes, and don't know if she's doing well or not.

  I was absent-minded for a moment, and when I came back to my senses, oh my god, everything was completely gone, not even one dish was left for me. I was furious, I glared at everyone who was eating. When I saw Wang auntie, she didn't even lift her head to look at me, and scolded, "What are you looking at? Eat quickly!"

  This stinky woman actually dared to scold me. Since you like calling people to eat so much, I'll let you have a meal at noon that's worth eating.

  I quickly finished the rice in my bowl, got up to pour a whole bowl of hot water, and put it to my mouth, pretending to drink. Seeing that stinky woman eating with gusto, I got up and walked towards her from behind, intentionally tripping my left foot on my right foot, my body tilting, and falling beside Rui'er. Taking advantage of the momentum, I threw the bowl in my hand, which happened to hit that woman's shoulder. A bowl of scalding hot water poured down, splashing... All I heard was a "crash" sound, one bowl shattered, followed by another "crash" sound, and another one broke.

  Oh no! I'm scalded to death! That Sanba Dali is so painful, it's already knocked me to the ground.

  At this time, I didn't dare to laugh loudly, and hurriedly pretended to be afraid. Rolling and crawling, I rushed to the side of that woman, helped her up, and asked with a slightly tearful tone, "Auntie, auntie, are you okay? It's all my fault for being clumsy, I fell down myself and also hurt you."

  As I spoke, I pinched those jade-like hands that had been scalded by hot water and were now even more tender and red.

  "Ah, it hurts! I'm going to die! You little scoundrel, did you do that on purpose?" She cursed at me while enduring the pain.

  I didn't retort, letting her scold me as she pleased, thinking that being scolded by her wouldn't hurt. But this shrew suddenly became furious and slapped me with the back of her hand, heavily hitting my left cheek.

  It hurts so much, my face suddenly swells up high and becomes scorching hot, tears well up in my eyes. She hit me today, I'll definitely return this slap to her someday, no, not just one slap, I'll pay her back tenfold.

  At this time, if I still linger here and entangle with her, I might get slapped even more. She has been in the public eye for many years, so she must have a lot of followers. It would be unwise to make an enemy of her rashly. As a small palace maid like me, even if I were killed by mistake, no one would care. It's better to take advantage of my loud crying and run away, first avoiding this storm. Anyway, the goal of not letting her eat has already been achieved.

  Thinking, just about to leave, suddenly thought of sending her another gift, while pretending to cry, secretly retreated to the table and added a few large spoons of chili powder to the soy sauce, shook it evenly and put it back in its original place. Walked to Moon's side, whispered a sentence "soy sauce" in her ear with an extremely small voice, then hurriedly ran out.

  She immediately understood and shouted loudly, "Soy sauce! Scalds will be better with soy sauce."

  I ran outside and listened to the footsteps, turned my head back and took a peek, only to hear the shouting inside getting louder, a sharp voice yelling in pain. Haha, my trick succeeded.