Qiqiao pretended to pat her on the back: "Girl, still sleeping? Breakfast time is long over, it's lunch time now, if you sleep any longer you'll only have dinner."
"Let's steam them now, just in time for afternoon tea," Wushuang said sweetly. "Then dinner, and a late-night snack, that's three meals in total. How about three for each meal? With more ginger and vinegar, we won't catch a cold."
The little girl had a sweet tooth and ate nine crabs the size of her palm in less than half a day. Her stomach got cold, and she woke up crying in the middle of the night from the pain. She had to call a doctor and take medicine. The whole ordeal lasted until dawn, and she hardly slept at all.
However, this was not the most distressing part.
Wushuang kept ten baskets of crabs for herself, but as a young girl, her appetite was limited, and she couldn't finish them even if it was late into winter. So the old lady requisitioned three more baskets to prepare for Wuyou's three-day homecoming banquet.
At noon that day, Wushuang, holding her still aching stomach in her hands, sat down with a worried and tearful expression.
Sitting to her left, Chu Wan asked, puzzled, "Why is Shuangshuang unhappy? Doesn't Shuangshuang like eating crabs? But you said in your letter before that you really liked them..."
The Marquis of Runan's mansion held a crab feast, and Chu Yao, who delivered the crabs, was naturally invited. After all, he was the future son-in-law, so he wasn't an outsider, and it was normal for him to bring his sister to the family banquet.
Before Wushuang could answer, Chu Yao and several other men, including Jun Shu, entered the dining room.
“Brother, sit here.” Chu Wan immediately jumped up and patted the spot where she had just been sitting.
"Good girl." Chu Yao was very satisfied and patted his sister's head.
"Your Highness, please take a seat," Jun Shu said.
No matter how easygoing Chu Yao was, his status remained unchanged. As a powerful prince and the emperor's own nephew, how could he be allowed to squeeze in with his own juniors?
Chu Yao waved his hand: "No need. Since this is a family banquet, we should sit according to seniority. I should also take care of Wushuang." After saying that, he flicked his robe and sat down next to Wushuang in a generous manner.
Chu Wan then took small steps to Wu Shuang's right and said to Wang Hongbo, who was sitting there, "Brother Bo, I want to sit next to Shuangshuang. Could you move over a bit?"
Even someone as intelligent as Wang Hongbo was a little taken aback—she had clearly given up her seat next to Wushuang to her brother… Oh well, could he really hold such a grudge against a little girl?
Wang Hongbo had no choice but to move to the right. After Chu Wan sat down, she took Wu Shuang's arm, tilted her head, and said innocently, "Sister Wuyou is already married. When will it be Shuangshuang's turn? My brother and I are looking forward to your marriage every day."
Chapter List 109 | 105 | 106 | 107 | 108
Chapter 108:
The old lady, who was being served tea and rinsing her mouth by her maids and servants, nearly spat out her tea. (www.qiushu.cc No pop-up ads)
She knew that Chu Wan was simple and innocent, so she glanced past Wu Shuang and landed on Chu Yao. It seemed that the older brother couldn't stand being alone and had instigated his sister to force her into marriage.
But she had just married off one of her beloved granddaughters, and she couldn't bear to marry off another one so soon.
"This..." The old lady spat out the tea in her mouth and said slowly, "The young princess is too young to know. In our capital, if a family marries off their daughters one after another, they will be laughed at. So, there should be at least two or three years between marriages, and it will have to wait until Wushuang is around eighteen years old."
Junshu and Madam Yang quickly agreed. They only had two daughters. Their eldest daughter was too young to marry and they had been separated for seven years without seeing each other. This pained the parents greatly. Therefore, they had already decided that their younger daughter should stay with them for a few more years.
Chu Wan frowned, her disappointment evident: "Five more years... By then, she might be married, how will she be able to spend every day with Shuangshuang?"
Chu Yao said, "This is only natural. I also don't want Wanwan to get married too early, so I understand. Wanwan doesn't need to be too sad. Anyway, you can often invite Wushuang to visit our palace."
"Then how about I invite Shuangshuang to stay for a long time?" Chu Wan asked.
The entire Jun family was utterly astonished. They were all staying permanently; what difference was there between that and the woman marrying into the family? Besides, what unmarried daughter would stay permanently with her future husband? Even if they couldn't marry into the royal family, someone as obedient and adorable as Chu Wan was already so domineering and unreasonable; how much more so when she had an older brother who held the power of life and death over all officials…
However, Wushuang, the person being discussed, was completely oblivious to the situation, focusing intently on the crab dishes on the table, swallowing her saliva repeatedly, and didn't hear a word of what anyone was saying.
Seeing Wushuang's hungry look, Chu Yao considerately picked up a plate of food for her before picking up his chopsticks: spicy crab, steamed crab, crab roe tofu, crab mushrooms... piled up like a small mountain.
To everyone's surprise, Wushuang didn't even touch her chopsticks. Her longing expression turned into one of impending tears, and she frowned and glared at him angrily.
Chu Yao was completely baffled. Even if he wasn't usually very doting on Wushuang, he would never treat her badly in front of his future in-laws. So he asked softly, "You didn't get what you wanted to eat?"
He scanned the table, making sure he had grabbed everything. [Qiushu.cc has almost every book I want to read; it's much more stable and updates faster than most novel websites, and it's all text with no ads.]
Just then, the maids filed in, each carrying a blue and white porcelain cup.
It turned out there were still some dishes that hadn't been served yet. Chu Yao suddenly realized that this must be Wu Shuang's favorite dish.
The maid in the lead walked to Chu Yao's side, put down the porcelain bowl, and lifted the lid to reveal orange-stuffed crab.
Chu Yao immediately moved it in front of Wushuang: "Shuangshuang, eat first."
However, Wushuang still didn't move, so Chu Yao simply picked up a spoon and scooped up a spoonful to feed her.
Wu Shuang turned her head away, her resolute expression like that of an assassin forced to confess by words and actions...
The maid at the back of the procession approached Wushuang. Unlike the others, she carried a mahogany tray with food arranged on it on the table in front of Wushuang: "Third Miss, this was specially cooked for you. Please enjoy."
Chu Yao looked at it and saw that it was a bowl of white porridge, a plate of pickled vegetables, and a plate of rose-flavored fermented bean curd, and nothing else.
If he hadn't known all along that the Marquis of Runan and his wife doted on Wushuang, he would have almost thought that his fiancée would be treated harshly in front of him.
"What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell? Or do you not like eating crabs anymore? What do you like to eat? I'll bring you some more," Chu Yao asked softly.
The old lady watched with a cold eye, extremely satisfied with the series of behaviors of her future grandson-in-law of noble status. She laughed and said, "Your Highness, don't worry. This girl loves to eat, but she loves to eat too much. She eats without restraint. Yesterday, she ate ten crabs by herself halfway through the meal and made herself sick. The doctor said that she needs to avoid raw and cold foods for the next few days and can only eat porridge to nourish her stomach."
Chu Yao wanted to laugh, but he was afraid of hurting Wushuang's feelings and angering her, so he comforted her, "It's good that you like to eat them. I think we could dig a pond in the palace and raise crabs just for you. That way, you'll get used to them and won't find them so special, so you won't be greedy when you eat them."
They had seen people dote on their wives, but they had never seen anyone dote on them like this. The crowd couldn't contain themselves and burst into laughter.
Wushuang was truly humiliated and spat out, "Who...who wants to raise crabs? I just love eating congee, is that not allowed?" With that, she picked up the bowl of congee, turned around, and ran out.
The Jun family had many mouths to feed, and by the time Wushuang had recovered from her stomach upset, the twenty baskets of crabs had been almost completely devoured. She wrote a letter to Chu Yao, ostensibly to complain but actually to whine, and a few days later, a carriage from the Prince of Ying's mansion arrived again outside the gates of the Marquis of Runan's mansion, delivering ten baskets of fresh autumn crabs. However, this time, the designated recipient was not Wushuang, but Lady Yang, the Marquis's wife who could keep an eye on her eating.
Madam Yang knew in her heart that her future son-in-law was not showing filial piety to her, his mother-in-law. She only gave one basket to each of the other courtyards, leaving the rest for Wushuang. However, she also had to control the quantity, since crabs are cold in nature, and even if they didn't cause stomach upset, they wouldn't be good for her daughter's health in the long run.
After getting the crabs, He Caiqiong took the initiative to suggest to Jun Nian that she send some back to her parents' home, but the amount was not easy to determine.