Chapter 5: The Three Meals of the Duke (Part 2)

  Zhao Yan stormed into Cao Ying's room, holding her own breakfast and slamming it down in front of Cao Ying, who was eating. "I know the empress ordered you to supervise my convalescence, and I know you dislike me," she said angrily, "but you can't take revenge on me by feeding me this swill every day!"

  "Your Highness, Duke's Mansion, are you saying that anything you don't like to eat is pig food?" To Zhao Yan's surprise, Cao Ying heard his words and also stood up angrily, loudly saying, even without wiping her mouth, Zhao Yan could see a small grain of rice still stuck at the corner of her mouth.

  "I..." Zhao Yan originally had a belly full of anger, but when he saw the food in front of Cao Ying, he suddenly felt at a loss for words. The reason was that the other person's food was exactly the same as his, the only difference being that Cao Ying's food was almost finished, while his own hadn't been touched at all.

  "I... I'm a prince of the Song Dynasty, and I'm also ill. How can I eat these things every day?" Zhao Yan was being unreasonable, but he just couldn't swallow these vegetables and tofu no matter what.

  "What's wrong with this? Our imperial family has always been known for being frugal and simple, and as a member of the royal family, we should set an example for the world. Even officials and nobles eat very simply every day, let alone the prince who is not in good health and cannot eat greasy food. That's why he can only eat these light meals. And there's nothing wrong with these dishes, I eat them too every day. If they were served in an ordinary commoner's home, people would probably be grateful to have such a meal!

  Cao Ying was also very angry. She had already felt humiliated enough by marrying someone like Zhao Yan, and now she had to take care of him while he was ill, but she didn't expect him to be so picky about his food. In her opinion, this was just making trouble out of nothing."

  "Alright, I don't mind having some light meals, but after all, I'm a prince, and every month I receive a considerable allowance. Can't you take out some money from my allowance to improve our food? Every day it's just vegetables and tofu, I'm going to become a monk! Zhao Yan stood firm on his own standpoint, not feeling that he had done anything wrong. He also knew that the Song Dynasty's allowances were notoriously generous. As a prince, he received 300 taels of silver every month, plus a large quantity of cloth, grain and other goods worth several hundred taels more. Just relying on these allowances was enough to cover the entire palace's expenses."

  "Bang!" Just as Zhao Yan's words fell, Cao Ying took out a stack of papers from a small box beside her and slammed them on the table. Her beautiful face was filled with anger as she said, "Your Highness is indeed a noble who forgets things easily, why don't you take a look at these first?"

  Zhao Yan was also startled by Cao Ying's inexplicable anger, although in his opinion, the other party was just a girl who was only a few years older than his previous students. However, ancient women seemed to be particularly precocious, and at least when facing Cao Ying, Zhao Yan always unconsciously treated her as an adult, even though she was only fifteen or sixteen years old.

  "In the sixth year of Jiayou, on the third day of the sixth month, Zhao Yan owed Gao Liang 1,000 strings of cash and drew up a deed; in the eighth month of the same year, on the sixteenth day, Zhao Yan owed Cao Cong 1,300 strings of cash and drew up a deed; in the seventh year of Jiayou, on the twenty-third day of the second month, Zhao Yan owed Hu Yanping 2,100 strings of cash..."

  As Zhao Yan looked through the stack, his heart grew more and more shocked, cold sweat dripping from his forehead. The entire stack of IOUs belonged to him, totaling over twenty sheets, each one worth no less than 1,000 taels, with the largest reaching as high as 5,000 taels. It could be said that this stack of IOUs added up to a total of around 50,000 to 60,000 taels. Heaven knows how young Zhao Yan managed to accumulate such massive debts outside?

  "Your Highness, I suppose you've finished looking? These are just a part of the debts you've accumulated outside. I've already sent someone to retrieve the IOUs and return the money. There's still 63,710 guan left unpaid. In a few days, I'll have some of the palace's assets, along with my dowry, sold off to make up for it. Although it might not be enough, the remaining debt won't be too much either. If the palace is frugal for a few years, we should be able to clear the debt." Cao Ying spoke in an icy tone, having completely lost hope in her marriage. Other women married for happiness, but she was stuck with a profligate husband and a massive debt to boot - even her dowry had to be used to pay off the debt. Was there any woman more miserable than herself?

  Zhao Yan felt a twinge of guilt when he heard that Cao Ying was going to sell her dowry to pay off debts, although these debts were incurred by the previous Zhao Yan. Now that he occupied someone else's body and inherited his identity, according to the principle of equivalent exchange, he couldn't just enjoy the rights without assuming the obligations, and these debts were one of them.

  "What's the point... these IOUs don't even have a repayment date, and no one has come to collect debts either. I think it's better to wait for now and figure out a way to repay them later. We can't let the entire Wang Manor suffer just because of debt repayment, and our daily expenses can't be too strained!" Zhao Yan said somewhat awkwardly, after all, Cao Ying was his wife, and he didn't want her to suffer with him as soon as she entered the manor. Besides, he wasn't too worried about these debts either, since he was a time-traveler from over a thousand years later than the Song Dynasty, he was confident that he could find a way to make money!

  Cao Ying obviously misunderstood Zhao Yan's meaning, with her bad impression of Zhao Yan, thinking that the other party wanted to default on debt. This made Cao Ying so angry that her face turned bright red, and she slapped the table with her small white hand, saying: "The daughters of our Cao family have never owed anyone anything, let alone defaulted on debts. In the future, I will take care of all the expenses of the Wang Fu, so there is no need for the Duke to worry!"

  Zhao Yan didn't expect that his good intentions would be met with a scolding from the other person, which made him feel embarrassed and angry. He didn't want to explain himself and turned around to leave.

  "Wait, the princess asked me to take care of you while you're ill. In addition to taking medicine, food is also necessary. So please, Your Highness, finish your meal before leaving!" Just as Zhao Yan was about to leave, Cao Ying suddenly spoke up again.

  "What if I don't eat?" Zhao Yan's anger surged up again as he heard that the other party actually wanted to force him to eat, and he suddenly turned around and stared at Cao Ying.

  "This is the county prince's mansion, and if the county prince doesn't want to eat, naturally no one dares to force him. However, I was entrusted by Her Ladyship that if the county prince doesn't eat, then I can only report back to Her Ladyship!" Cao Ying also calmed down her anger at this time, and spoke with a cold face. She didn't actually want to bother about Zhao Yan either, but if Zhao Yan's body had more problems, Cao Ying would also be responsible."

  "Alright! You win!" Zhao Yan heard the other side bring up his mother, Empress Gao, to pressure him, and could only reluctantly sit down, eating his breakfast one mouthful at a time.

  The last memory fragment that Zhao Yan left for him was very few, the most profound one was about the Empress Dowager, and for some reason, the original Zhao Yan seemed to be afraid of his own mother. Last time when the Empress Dowager came to visit him, Zhao Yan also felt that the Empress Dowager didn't seem to care much about her son either, she just asked a few casual questions and let Cao Ying supervise him, without saying any words of concern, then left. Could it be true that in the imperial family, there is no affection, even the relationship between mother and son is so indifferent?

  Thinking of that emotionally indifferent mother, combined with the memory left by Zhao Yan, Zhao Yan also had some reservations about Empress Gao. There was no need to disturb her for some trivial matters. So after Cao Ying brought up Empress Gao, he could only honestly finish his meal. In fact, when dealing with unpalatable food, he also had his own tricks. When he was in school, the cafeteria food was this kind of boiled dish, occasionally with insects or flies inside, and the taste was even more unbearable. However, as long as he closed his eyes while eating and imagined delicacies from mountains and seas, he would find that these dishes didn't seem particularly unpalatable.

  Zhao Yan quickly stuffed breakfast into her stomach, heavily placing the bowl and chopsticks on the table. She raised her head and glared at Cao Ying: "I've finished eating! You're not going to supervise me eating anymore, are you? Fine! I can move around by myself now, no need to deliver meals to my bedroom every day. From today on, I'll eat with you every time. Let's see if you can keep eating cabbage and tofu!"

  Zhao Yan finished speaking and turned to leave. This time, he was really furious and didn't believe it. He had eaten this kind of food for many years in his previous life, so what if he continued to eat it now? It would be like recalling the bitterness and sweetness of the past. However, Zhao Yan didn't think that Cao Ying, a spoiled rich girl, could accompany him in eating plain vegetables and tofu all the time. He had to make her take the initiative to improve their food!

  Unfortunately, Zhao Yan overestimated his own tolerance. As the saying goes, "it's easy to go from frugality to luxury, but difficult to go from luxury to frugality". Although Zhao Yan had suffered before, after growing up, he never skimped on food for himself, which made him spoil his stomach. At the same time, he also underestimated Cao Ying, perhaps because she was naturally fond of vegetarian food or her tolerance was really stronger than his. As a result, after eating green vegetables and tofu for half a month, Zhao Yan felt like he was going to the execution ground every time he went to the restaurant, while Cao Ying could finish her meal with elegance every time.

  That night at dinner, Zhao Yan Bai listlessly stirred the tofu in his plate with a spoon, taking a sip of millet porridge now and then. Finally, he couldn't bear it anymore and coughed, saying: "Uh... Cao Ying, we're not just anyone, we're the masters of the Junwang Fu, and every meal only has this one dish, isn't that a bit too unbecoming?"

  When Zhao Yan spoke, Cao Ying, who was eating, raised his head and looked at him, then unexpectedly nodded and said: "The king, as the prince, only has one dish per meal. It's indeed a bit too little, Xiaodouya. Tomorrow, let someone add another dish for the king!"

  Cao Ying finished speaking and continued to eat with her head down, while Zhao Yan was somewhat bewildered, because from his understanding of Cao Ying over this period of time, she shouldn't be such an easy person to talk to. Moreover, since she also strongly disliked him, it was absolutely impossible for her to agree so readily to his terms.

  Zhao Yan's doubts were answered quickly on the second day. At breakfast, in front of him was no longer a single plate of plain vegetable tofu, but had really become two plates, one with vegetables and one with tofu.