Allure of a Country Maiden
Chapter 1033 - 1031_1

Chapter 1033: Chapter 1031_1

"The Duke of Zhen will certainly go with his people, do you want to quietly send some to help Young Master Jiang?" Xiao’er asked while munching on her roasted squab.

This was already her fifth squab of the day, and she did not know why she suddenly craved its taste so much!

She had wolfed down three at lunch, felt it was not enough, and had six more prepared the next’dinner with different flavors.

"No need." Shangguan Xuanyi flatly rejected the idea. If Jiang Yuheng couldn’t handle this little matter, he shouldn’t dream about achieving anything big!

Xiao’er spat out the bones and started on the next squab in the plate.

Seeing her still wanting to eat after two, Shangguan Xuanyi hurriedly put a stop to it: "Enough, don’t eat so much greasy food at night."

Upon saying this, Shangguan Xuanyi casually scooped a spoonful of vegetables into her bowl.

Xiao’er glanced at the roasted squabs in the dish, her mouth watering.

But indeed, light food should be eaten at night. Xiao’er swallowed her drool, deciding to forget it. Tomorrow morning, at noon, she’d eat more to make up for it...

Seeing her drooling like this, Shangguan Xuanyi couldn’t help but scoop her another piece, then signaled for the servants to clean up.

He had just come back and didn’t realize Xiao’er had already eaten three roasted squabs that afternoon! Otherwise he wouldn’t have offered another piece.

Xiao’er looked at the somewhat bland dishes before her, and her appetite was gone.

"The weather is too hot, and it really suppresses one’s appetite. If you don’t eat a bit of an appetizer, you don’t feel like having any meal."

"Tomorrow, have the cooks prepare an extra appetizer or two." Shangguan Xuanyi also had not had much appetite these past few days while he was out. Firstly, because of the hot weather, and secondly, because the food was not to his taste - he was always picky.

Without roasted squab, Xiao’er didn’t feel like eating. Shangguan Xuanyi coaxed her from the side for her to reluctantly eat a bit more.

After dinner, the two walked in the garden for digestion. However, because the garden had been roasted by the sun for a whole day and the heat hadn’t dissipated, Xiao’er was soon sweating. Probably due to the confining space, this summer felt hotter than ever. Even with the ice soul beside her, she still felt hot. She looked irritated and said: "It’s too hot, I don’t want to walk anymore."

Watching Xiao’er break into a sweat on her forehead, and the inexplicable irritability in her mood, he picked her up horizontally, "If you don’t want to walk, I’ll carry you!"

They could totally do other forms of exercise for digestion!

"You’ve gained weight!" Shangguan Xuanyi noticed that Xiao’er had gotten slightly heavier. It seemed she’d been eating and sleeping well while he wasn’t here.

"Really? I’ve been craving for desserts every night these days, and accidentally gained some weight! Seems I need to watch my diet from now on." Could it be that she’d lost her high metabolism without the space? Xiao’er naturally wrapped her arms around his neck, her head buried in his chest, thinking dejectedly.

As for servants seeing them cuddling in broad daylight in the garden, Xiao’er shrugged it off. Her servants were already immune to these sights!

"It’s fine, a little chubbier feels more comfortable to hug! Ideally round and chubby!" like a tangyuan (glutinous rice ball), people would want to take a bite when they see it.

Round and chubby? That’s a ball isn’t it?!

Xiao’er rolled her eyes: "I don’t want to be fat like a ball!"

"Haha..." Imagining Xiao’er looking like a ball, Shangguan Xuanyi couldn’t help but laugh softly, then he said: "Don’t worry, you won’t have that chance!"

"Why?" Xiao’er was surprised by his certainty.

"Because exercise helps with losing weight!"

"No, I didn’t!"

"You’re going to! From now on, you take responsibility for eating more, and I’ll help you lose weight!"

Damn! This lecher!

"In your dreams!" Xiao’er lightly pounded his chest.

"Yes, my dream is to have the best of both worlds!" If she wanted to eat, let her eat, if he wanted to eat, he could eat too! Wasn’t that having the best of both worlds?!

That night, Xiao’er fully understood what it meant by the saying,"absence makes the heart grow fonder".

...

As the weather got hotter, people’s temper also easily flared up. The Empress Dowager had been lying in bed for half a month. She felt not only pain in her feet, but as if her entire body ached.

Unable to bear it anymore, she let her maids carry her to the Imperial Garden to see the flowers.

Among the flowers, two older maids crouched on the grass, picking up the fallen leaves from the flower bed and chattng quietly: "In a few days you’ll be able to leave the palace and go home. Then you can find a good family to marry into, have a chubby baby boy, then I can consider him my godson."

"What are you blabbering about? I’m already thirty now, whether I can have children is still a question!"Maids who reached the age of thirty, if they haven’t been favored by the emperor, could leave the Imperial Palace to marry and have children.

When she first entered the palace as a maid, apart from the fact that her family was poor, she thought of being able to meet the emperor in the palace. She was good-looking, perhaps she could win the emperor’s favor and become a noble.

Who knew that once you were in the palace you had to follow many rules. She’d only seen the emperer from a distance before she never saw him again. She’d wasted decades of her life in this exquisite cell!

Had she known this before, she would never have entered the palace and she’d have stayed home, married and had children instead, perhaps that life would have been much better than this one in the Royal Palace!

"I heard that if you go to the Guanyin Temple to pay your respect to the Guanyin goddess on the first or the fifteenth of the lunar month, you can conceive as long as you’re sincere! Do you remember Ziwei? After she left the palace and got married, she couldn’t conceive for over a year. After she paid respect to the Guanyin, she got pregnant within a month! Now she has a chubby little boy, her husband and mother-in-law are really good to her!"

Of course she remembered Ziwei. She heard that Ziwei had married a man who owns several mills in the Imperial City and was living a prosperous life. Previously, she heard from a nanny who had gone out shopping that Ziwei had been concerned about being unable to conceive for a year after marrying. She never expected Ziwei to have a big fat baby boy by now.

"Is it genuinely effective to go to the Guanyin temple to pay your respects?" The maid was intrigued after hearing this.

"Yes, but I heard the nanny say there are some specifics to this. She told Ziwei about it."

"What are the specifications?" The maid felt she could use this information after she left the Palace, and couldn’t help but inquire more.

The nanny by the Empress Dowager’s side heard the two maids gossiping without doing their work. Fearing the Empress Dowager’s blames, she scolded loudly, "Who’s there!"

The Empress Dowager seeing this raised her hand to stop her, she wanted to listen more. But she was too late.

The Empress Dowager glared at the nanny by her side, who immediately turned pale.

The two maids were scared when they heard the scolding, turning white. As they stood up carefully and saw the Empress Dowager, they turned even paler.

"The servants greet the Empress Dowager, may the Empress Dowager be blessed!" The two maids bowed together.

The nanny, being glared at by the Empress Dowager, did not dare to speak anymore.

The Empress Dowager glanced at the two maids before saying lightly, "You may rise!"

The two maids heard this and their hearts settled a bit. However, they found it odd that the Empress Dowager would let them go so easily!