A pure heart in a jade pot

Chapter 113

Zhan Zhao stepped forward, took the food box, and asked with a smile, "What makes you so happy?"

"You'll see when you open the food box," she said with a smile.

He opened it as instructed, and inside the food box were two bowls of steaming hot, milky-white noodle soup, and a small dish of "meat".

"This is..." Upon seeing this, Zhan Zhao couldn't help but smile, "This is braised pork."

Mo Yan asked curiously, "You recognize him?"

"I live in Wujin, Changzhou, which is right next to Zhenjiang. I ate this dish when I visited relatives in Zhenjiang with my brother when I was a child." Zhan Zhao couldn't help but recall his childhood at home, lowering his eyes and smiling faintly.

Mo Yan clapped her hands happily and said, "What a coincidence! The chef at our Datong Restaurant is from Zhenjiang. He said he can cook many Jiangnan dishes, which I think will suit your taste. When I have free time, I'll go and learn from him. After we get married, I'll cook them for you one by one. Brother, what do you say?"

"Of course it's good."

Zhan Zhao smiled, then suddenly remembered something and said softly, "It's just that the Empress Dowager has passed away, so the princess cannot hold a grand ceremony. Although we are not royalty, I'm afraid our marriage will have to be delayed."

Upon hearing this, Mo Yan's smile dimmed. She bit her lip and said after a moment, "Will it be a long time?... Big brother, you mustn't laugh at me for telling the truth," she paused, then said sincerely, "I really look forward to marrying you as soon as possible."

Hearing her say this, Zhan Zhao was both moved and delighted. He felt a warm sensation in his throat and couldn't help but reach out to pull her into his arms.

“Me too,” he said in a low voice. “I’ve been hoping for this.”

"really?"

"really."

Overjoyed, she tilted her head back and gently kissed his cheek, then cheerfully said, "Let's eat the noodles quickly, they won't taste good if they get soggy. I also added some vinegar to this braised pork, it'll be the best with the pork bone broth noodles."

Zhan Zhao smiled and nodded, released her, took the bowl of noodles out of the food box, and the two sat down to eat.

Three days later, Empress Xiao of the Liao Dynasty was laid to rest and buried in Wangxian Hall on Qingyun Mountain.

To fulfill the proper etiquette, Zhao Yu naturally had to attend the funeral, accompanied by Zhan Zhao and several guards. Zhao Yu originally intended for Mo Yan to go along, but upon hearing it was a funeral procession, Mo Yan's legs went weak, and she immediately ran far away, refusing to go no matter what. Helpless, Zhao Yu, though unaware of the reason, had no choice but to let her go.

“Princess, you can’t go out to the street, so let me go for you and buy some fun things to bring back for you to see,” Mo Yan said to Zhao Yu in a flattering tone.

"Do you think Xiao Guanyin will go?" Zhao Yu was annoyed. Although he knew it was a redundant question, it was always good to have someone to talk to.

Mo Yan shrugged: "The Empress Dowager is a member of the Xiao family, so she will definitely be there. In addition, there are her father, mother, brothers, sisters, younger brothers, younger sisters, aunts, uncles, and princesses. There are too many of them for us to handle. You should not provoke them."

“Nonsense, why would I take the initiative to go…” Zhao Yu glanced at her irritably, “But if they come to bother me, it will be very difficult to deal with them.”

“This…” Mo Yan scratched her ear, then her eyes suddenly lit up, “I have an idea! Since it’s a funeral procession, you just cry!”

"cry?"

Mo Yan nodded with a smile: "Yes, cry! The more heartbroken you are, the better. Since the Xiao family is dead, if you are this heartbroken, they won't have anything to say if they want to find fault with you." Her eyes rolled again, "But crying all the time is quite tiring. Why don't you just cry in front of everyone for a while, and then cry yourself unconscious? That would be much more efficient."

"Crying herself unconscious?"

"Yes, it would be better if he passed out. He can lie down in the carriage and take a nap or just space out, while the outside world goes on and on. It might be a bit stuffy, but surely no one will come into the carriage to cause trouble."

Zhao Yu hesitated and asked, "Will this work?"

“Why not? It’s common for people to faint from crying during funerals in our Great Song Dynasty,” Mo Yan said matter-of-factly.

“That’s true.” Zhao Yu nodded, but hesitated. “However, I’ve never met Empress Dowager Xiao before. Is it too much for me to cry like this? Others might find it very strange.”

"That's easy. Just have a few maids and guards tell everyone that Your Highness greatly admires Empress Xiao and has long admired her. You were eager to meet her soon, but unfortunately, you were separated by death just one step away... You, Your Highness, can definitely say more than I can."

"Saying nice things isn't hard, but do people believe them?"

Mo Yan shook her head and said, "If enough people say it, naturally some will believe it. Speaking of which, this trick was taught to me by your royal uncle, Prince Ning." She recalled what happened when she returned to the capital with Ning Jin and Bai Yingyu.

"Little Imperial Uncle?" Zhao Yu was taken aback.

"Hmm, now that I think about it, he was quite clever. It would have been really fun if he had come to Liao Kingdom."

At this moment, Ning Jin, who was drinking tea at Qingyun Villa thousands of miles away, suddenly sneezed a few times. He lost his grip on the teacup and spilled some water droplets onto his robe.

He put down his teacup, casually dusted off his sleeves, and picked up a piece of sweet rice cake, putting it in his mouth. Behind him, Wu Zichu looked at the delicate pink and yellow sweet rice cakes, the ivory-white and fragrant square-shaped cakes, the slender and crimson jujube cakes, and the wide and pinkish-white half-sugar cakes on the table, and sighed inwardly. He himself had to go to the Zhouqiao rice cake shop every few days to buy rice cakes, which wasn't a problem, but when would His Highness ever get tired of such sweet things?

Chapter Forty-Six

On the day of the funeral, before dawn, Yelü Pusa Nu knocked on the door of the Datong Hall. He had been ordered to come and fetch Zhao Yu.

A maidservant ushered him into the main hall and served him tea. But he neither sat down nor touched the teacup, and coldly said, "Has the princess not gotten up yet? To be asleep on a day like this is disrespectful to the Empress Dowager."

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhao Yu gracefully emerged from behind the hall, dressed in pure white, with his guards, including Zhan Zhao, also wearing white robes.

"How could I dare to be negligent in the slightest at the Empress Dowager's funeral?" Zhao Yu said lightly, glancing at him expressionlessly. In his heart, he was secretly glad that Zhan Zhao had thought things through and called everyone to get up and prepare at cockcrow, so that they would not lose their manners in front of the Liao people and give them something to talk about.

Yelü Pusa Nu showed no remorse whatsoever. He looked Zhao Yu up and down, noticing that she was dressed very carefully. Not only was she dressed in plain clothes, but she also wore no gold hairpins, and her black silk shoes were not adorned with pearls. Indeed, she was impeccable. Seeing the disdain and extreme rudeness in his eyes, Zhao Yu was secretly annoyed. At this opportune moment, Zhan Zhao stepped forward, cupped his hands, and smiled, saying, "Thank you for leading the way, Vice Envoy."

"The carriage is already waiting outside the pavilion," Yelü Pusa Nu said, before he had even finished speaking and went straight out the door.

Gritting her teeth, Zhao Yu glared fiercely at his retreating figure, but had no choice but to swallow her anger for the time being, glancing sideways at Zhan Zhao beside her. The latter smiled calmly; he was well aware of Zhao Yu's grievances, but one must bow one's head when under someone's roof. Compared to the storms to come, this man's malicious words and deeds were nothing.

"Princess, please," Zhan Zhao said softly.

Zhao Yu took a deep breath, stepped forward, and thought to himself: Judging from this situation, nothing good will happen at the funeral. It's better to just faint; at least out of sight, out of mind. It's just that it will be hard on Zhan Zhao, running around and explaining things to people; he'll inevitably have to waste some time. Oh well, what can I do? He's Guard Zhan. I can't worry about that now. I'll reward him handsomely when we get back.

After boarding the carriage, the group departed in the morning light, and the Datong Inn immediately fell silent. In a side room in the inner courtyard, a person was still wrapped in their quilt, fast asleep, deep in a sweet dream, completely oblivious to what was happening outside.

Needless to say, this person is Mo Yan.

All was quiet. She slept soundly until the sun was high in the sky before opening her eyes and staring blankly at the sunlight outside the window… Yesterday, when she dodged the arrow, of course, it wasn't originally aimed at her, but that wasn't the point. The point was the figure that flashed past on the wall. She vaguely felt that she had seen it before, but it was indistinct and she couldn't remember where she had seen it before.