Following the direction of her finger, Yun Lie noticed that a small table had been added to the room. On the table was a small purple clay cup, a small round plate containing about twenty or thirty golden dumplings the size of chestnuts, and a small bowl of white porridge.
"How can you eat this much?" Yun Lie felt a pang of pain in his heart. He walked to the small table, casually lifting the lid of a small purple clay cup. "I want..."
Inside the small bowl, a few tender bok choy hearts pitifully floated in the clear, water-like broth.
Yun Lie carefully examined the small golden balls on the plate with a complicated expression, then looked back at the large fish and meat dishes on the table that belonged to him, and suddenly realized what was going on.
Seeing him turn around and raise an eyebrow with a half-smile, Luo Cuiwei knew that he had seen through her secret. She smiled with her eyes crinkling and moved closer with guilty little steps.
"I'm sorry, the food I gave you was... what I left over."
Yun Lie put down the lid of the cup and pinched her cheek with amusement, "You cunning little thorn strawberry."
Just now, she deliberately put on a pitiful, wronged look. Tsk.
****
The two took their seats and chatted casually as they prepared to eat, when Xiong Xiaoyi's voice came from outside.
"I call it better to arrive at the right time than to arrive early," a hearty voice said as cheerful footsteps drew closer. "I heard from Tao Yin that the Luo family's chef has arrived?"
Before he finished speaking, the large, travel-worn man had already strode into the hall on his own initiative.
Yun Lie looked up at him, gave a faint reply, and then asked, "Why are you back at this hour?"
As arranged yesterday, Yun Lie rushed back overnight, while Xiong Xiaoyi led a group of men this morning to escort the two wounded comrades rescued from the Northern Barbarians back to the capital.
The two men's injuries were not suitable for traveling at high speed; based on their pace, they should have arrived in the afternoon.
"The carriage was still behind us, moving very slowly. I couldn't stand it anymore, so I rode back on horseback, thinking I'd come here to mooch some meat."
Xiong Xiaoyi was grinning when he belatedly realized that Yun Lie was the only one at the table. "Eh, Your Highness, isn't there...?"
"It's here."
Luo Cuiwei put down her half-bowl of white porridge at the small table against the wall and smiled at Xiong Xiaoyi.
Xiong Xiaoyi looked at the lavish feast on the table in front of Yun Lie, then turned to look at the pitiful two plates of food in front of Luo Cuiwei, and his eyes widened in fury.
He stormed to the large table, slamming his paw on the edge. "How can you treat your wife like this? You feast on meat and fish while she's forced to eat boiled bok choy in a corner! It's utterly heartless!"
His dark face was filled with righteous indignation and anger, and his eyes were full of accusation and disappointment as he glared at Yun Lie.
Now the Linchuan army has no worries about food and drink, and even the wounded can be sent to Jishetang for treatment and recuperation. The comrades and their families in the village no longer have to worry about making a living. All of this is thanks to Luo Cuiwei.
Seeing Luo Cuiwei being "bullied" to such a pitiful state by Yun Lie, only able to huddle in the corner drinking plain porridge and eating vegetable hearts, while Yun Lie was eating fish and meat right next to her, Xiong Xiaoyi was so angry that he wanted to rebel.
“Sit down and eat with us,” Yun Lie glanced at him calmly and pointed to the bench next to him. “There’s more in the kitchen if you’re not full.”
"No way! Since there's still some in the kitchen, why didn't you give it to her?!" Xiong Xiaoyi was completely enraged by his calmness and turned to look at Luo Cuiwei. "He's bullying you like this, and you can tolerate it?!"
This was the first time Luo Cuiwei had ever seen Xiong Xiaoyi get angry at Yun Lie. She felt relieved knowing that he was speaking up for her, but she also felt a little amused and exasperated.
She smiled awkwardly and explained in a low voice, "He didn't bully me."
After speaking, he turned and glanced at Yun Lie.
Yun Lie calmly raised an eyebrow, pointed with his chopsticks at the dishes in front of him, and said to Xiong Xiaoyi, "These are the leftover scraps from making those two dishes for her. It would be a waste to throw them away."
Strictly speaking, he was the one who was "bullied".
****
The soup in Luo Cuiwei's small purple clay pot, which looked like boiling water, was actually made by stewing a whole guinea fowl with pork bone marrow, and then filtering it dozens of times with fine gauze to make it crystal clear.
The small, chestnut-sized dumplings were made by grinding caviar into a paste, seasoning it, shaping it into small dumplings, and then frying it in clove oil until golden brown.
These two dishes may seem pitifully simple, but they require an extreme amount of ingredients and labor.
“…After taking the roe, there were a lot of fish left, and it would be a pity to throw them away,” Luo Cuiwei took a sip of soup and pointed somewhat embarrassedly to the plate of fish on the large table, “so we made Eight Treasures Stuffed Fish with the unwanted fish parts.”
Xiong Xiaoyi sat down awkwardly at the large table, dumbfounded.
"After extracting the bone marrow, there will be a lot of unusable pork left..." Seeing that Xiong Xiaoyi seemed greatly shocked, Luo Cuiwei couldn't bear to continue and could only look to Yun Lie for help.
Yun Lie, understanding perfectly, picked up his chopsticks and poked at a meatball drizzled with sauce, waving it in front of Xiong Xiaoyi. "The unused pork was minced and used to make these meatballs. As for this scallion oil chicken..."
“No need to explain, I understand,” Xiong Xiaoyi said desperately, raising his hand to stop him from saying more. “This is the guinea fowl that was discarded after the soup was made.”
Yun Lie swallowed the meatball with a smile, then turned to Luo Cuiwei with a concerned look. Seeing that she was seriously drinking the soup with a small silver spoon and showed no signs of nausea, he was slightly relieved.
“Wait a minute,” Xiong Xiaoyi suddenly looked up, his questioning gaze shifting back and forth between the two princes, “Why are you two eating at separate tables for no reason?”
Are the foods different?
“Oh,” Yun Lie paused in his chopsticks, seemingly casually saying, “My Weiwei is suffering from morning sickness, so she needs to eat light but refined food.”
Xiong Xiaoyi was stunned for a moment before reacting. She couldn't help but glare at him, her teeth grinding. "What are you pretending to be so nonchalant about? Your smugness and boastfulness are practically bursting out of your eyes! Is becoming a father such a big deal?!"
Yun Lie glanced at his face, which was almost distorted with jealousy, and snorted indifferently, "So what?"
Luo Cuiwei, who had been focused on eating, put down her chopsticks at that moment and turned her head to meet her husband's smiling eyes.
His dark eyes suddenly lit up, as if someone had overturned a galaxy within them.
She smiled silently, finally realizing that he was genuinely happy to have the child.
****