Impératrice douairière Xiaoxuan

Chapitre 106

Zhan Zhao had no choice but to stand up and reply, "Your Highness is too kind. It's probably because the princess can't hold her liquor and is tired from the journey."

Yelü Hongji laughed and said, "It was my oversight. Please return to your tent and rest, Princess. We still have a long way to go tomorrow."

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Upon hearing this, Zhao Yu felt relieved and was about to rise gracefully when a commotion suddenly broke out outside the gun stronghold. Everyone looked up and saw a young woman dressed in a scarlet-green short coat riding into the stronghold. When she saw Yelü Hongji sitting in the seat of honor, she immediately smiled, dismounted, and quickly stepped forward.

“Brother Chaci (Yelü Hongji’s courtesy name was Chaci)!” She walked forward with a smile, her riding whip still in her hand. “So you and your bride were hiding here drinking. Why didn’t you call me?”

When Yelü Hongji saw her, he looked somewhat embarrassed and laughed, "Why aren't you keeping the Empress Dowager company? What are you doing out here again?"

The woman didn't shy away from the situation and sat down next to Yelü Hongji. She took a big gulp of wine before smiling and saying, "Since you're getting married, I naturally had to come and see." As she spoke, she turned to look at Zhao Yu, her beautiful eyes scanning her up and down before she looked away. She didn't say anything, but just smiled at Yelü Hongji.

Zhao Yu was somewhat annoyed by the woman's rudeness, but he had to admit that she was extremely beautiful, with a spirited and heroic demeanor, quite different from the delicate women of the Song Dynasty. Mo Yan, who was behind her, had already sized the woman up and down, her gaze finally settling on the amber necklace she wore. Under the lamplight, the amber was crystal clear, and inside was a tiny butterfly about to take flight, lifelike and quite beautiful.

This thing is incredibly rare and must be extremely valuable, Mo Yan thought to herself, but she wasn't particularly interested in its owner. In her opinion, although the woman was beautiful, she was nothing special and couldn't compare to her senior sister, Ning Wangshu.

Zhan Zhao, sitting below, remained impassive, yet he had already sensed the woman's obvious hostility towards Zhao Yu. Before coming here, he had heard that Xiao Guanyin of the Xiao clan in the Liao Kingdom was both beautiful and talented, and that the Xiao clan had intended to marry her to Yelü Hongji; he figured it must be this woman.

Just as Zhan Zhao had predicted, the woman was Xiao Guanyin. She had come overnight specifically to see what this Song Dynasty princess who had replaced her looked like.

“Princess, this is Princess Xiao Guanyin from my grandmother’s family, Princess Ruixiang,” Yelü Hongji said to Zhao Yu with a smile, “my little sister.”

Suppressing her anger, Zhao Yu smiled reservedly at Xiao Guanyin: "So it's Sister Xiao. Thank you so much for coming to welcome me in the middle of the night."

Xiao Guanyin smiled, poured herself a bowl of wine, raised her eyebrows at Zhao Yu, and said, "It's our Liao custom to drink three bowls of wine when we meet. Do you dare to drink with me?"

"Guanyin'er, how can her drinking capacity compare to yours? Don't tease her," Yelü Hongji hurriedly said.

“Since she married into the Liao Kingdom, she is a Liao person. How can she not drink?” Xiao Guanyin said crisply. Everyone at the table could hear her words, clearly intending to embarrass Zhao Yu.

"How could I refuse such a kind invitation from my sister?"

Zhao Yu was quite confident. She gestured to the maid to pour more wine. It was just water anyway; she'd drink as much as thirty bowls, let alone three, as long as she didn't get too full. The maid poured the wine, and Zhao Yu raised her glass to Xiao Guanyin, then downed it with a hearty gulp. After finishing, she immediately had the maid refill her glass…

When Mo Yan overturned the wine jar earlier, Zhan Zhao had already guessed that she had done something. Now, when his eyes met Mo Yan's, her relaxed appearance made him feel more certain, and he couldn't help but smile slightly.

Xiao Guanyin hadn't expected Zhao Yu to be so straightforward, but she wasn't afraid. She and Zhao Yu drank three bowls of wine together, one after the other, before wiping their mouths and sitting down. She smiled at Yelü Hongji and said, "Sister, you have such a good capacity for alcohol. Brother Chaci, you were worried for nothing."

"The princess certainly has a high tolerance for alcohol."

Seeing that Zhao Yu drank three bowls without changing his expression, Yelü Hongji was now certain that there was something fishy about the wine, but he didn't say anything. He just spoke gently to Zhao Yu, and then turned to Xiao Guanyin with a smile, saying, "You've had your wine. Did you bring your pipa? Why don't you play a tune for the princess of the Song Dynasty?"

Zhao Yu's heart stirred. He hadn't expected this Khitan woman to be able to play the pipa. Fortunately, he had also brought his guqin. If she were to make trouble for him later, he wouldn't be afraid.

"I was in such a hurry to come out that I forgot to bring my pipa," Xiao Guanyin said with some regret. "What tune would Brother Chaci like to hear? I'll play it for you when we get back." She then glanced at the neatly cut meat on Zhao Yu's plate and said sourly, "Brother Chaci, did you cut this meat?"

"No, it was the princess's maid who cut it," Yelü Hongji gestured behind the princess.

Xiao Guanyin raised an eyebrow slightly with interest, glancing at Mo Yan casually: "You're the cook?"

Mo Yan shook her head, but it was in vain. After asking her question, Xiao Guanyin didn't look at her again. Instead, she turned to Zhao Yu and said, "Sister, you drink quite heartily, but you should learn to eat meat properly. We Liao people don't eat meat in such a stingy way."

To say that the Song people were petty, Mo Yan raised her eyebrows and answered for Zhao Yu, who was already furious: "The princess was grateful for the food Your Highness had prepared for her, so she did not want to eat it in a hurry. She specially ordered me to cut it into small pieces so that she could eat it for a longer time and savor Your Highness's kindness. It was truly a sign of her cherishing it."

The excuse was so convincing that even though Zhao Yu didn't want to touch the meat on the table anymore, she picked up a piece and put it in her mouth, chewing it slowly and carefully. The two of them were remarkably in sync.

Xiao Guanyin then looked directly at Mo Yan. The latter's eyes were bright and piercing as she looked at her without any hesitation, and then she spoke again.

"Princess Ruixiang meant well, but if others heard this, they might think that the princess was judging others by her own petty standards, which would damage the princess's reputation." Her tone was surprisingly calm, but her words could infuriate someone.

Zhan Zhao lowered his head to cut the meat, concealing the smile in his eyes. Zhao Yu felt a surge of joy and couldn't help but eat a few more slices of venison, forcing himself not to look at Xiao Guanyin, lest he reveal the smugness in his eyes.

Gritting her teeth inwardly, Xiao Guanyin smiled at Zhao Yu and said, "So that's how it is. I misunderstood you, sister. In that case, why don't you let her cut it for me too?"

Zhao Yu smiled slightly and nodded to Mo Yan.

Although her kung fu was lacking, her cooking skills were quite good. Mo Yan walked up to Xiao Guanyin with a smile and asked, "Does the princess prefer thicker or thinner slices?"

"It needs to be even thinner than the princess's meat, so I can savor it slowly." The slices of meat in front of Zhao Yu were already as thin as silk; how could they be any thinner? Xiao Guanyin was clearly deliberately making things difficult for her.

"So the princess wanted to savor it more slowly, I understand."

Mo Yan smiled, picked up two silver knives from the table, held one in each hand, twirled them a few times, and then brought them down. The two silver knives fluttered up and down like butterflies, swift as the wind, and what was even more remarkable was that there was no sound of the knives hitting the bottom of the plate... Although Xiao Guanyin was close at hand, she could not see how Mo Yan used the knives.

After a while, the two silver knives drew bright arcs in the air and were simultaneously sheathed. The meat on the plate looked exactly the same as before it was cut.

"Is it all cut?" Xiao Guanyin asked curiously, staring at the meat.

"Please enjoy your meal, Princess."

Mo Yan put down her knife, and as her gaze swept across the room, she cast a smug glance at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao sighed inwardly. He knew without even thinking that if she was so smug, then Xiao Guanyin was likely to be disappointed.

Xiao Guanyin picked up her chopsticks to pick up some meat, but the meat crumbled into pieces and fell to the ground. Just as she was about to question Mo Yan, the latter preemptively said, "Princess, this meat is very thin, so you have to pick it up gently. You can't use force like this."

She had no choice but to be patient and try her best to pick up the meat gently, but it was still crushed to pieces.

"Let me see it." She gestured to Mo Yanyi.

Having anticipated her move, Mo Yan smiled and picked up her chopsticks, perfectly picking up a thin slice and putting it into her mouth, then another slice, and another... These were the slices of meat she had reserved when she cut the meat; the rest was all minced meat.

"It's not that I cut it badly, it's that you don't know how to eat it, so you can't blame me," Mo Yan said, looking at Xiao Guanyin, before gracefully retreating behind Zhao Yu.

Chapter Forty

Author's Note: Given that Guanyin appeared too often, Yelü Guanyin Nu was renamed Yelü Pusa Nu. Knowing that Xiao Guanyin was unhappy but could not express her anger, Yelü Hongji reached out and gently patted her back, but smiled at Zhao Yu and said: "The Great Song Dynasty is indeed full of talented people. Even the little maid beside the princess has such talent. It is indeed not to be underestimated."