The Prime Minister's Darling
Chapter 645 - 645 308 Fight for Favor Jiaojiao (One more update)

Chapter 645: 308 Fight for Favor, Jiaojiao (One more update) Chapter 645: 308 Fight for Favor, Jiaojiao (One more update) When they had meals at home before, the first bowl of soup was always for the master of the house, which was generally so because they were the ones who made dinner and the act was a way of showing appreciation for their hard work.

But now, inexplicably, Gu Jiao felt that if she were to give this bowl of soup to the old man, it might mean the end of him.

The old master also trembled at the thought, fearing that if she were to serve him the soup, his status as the head of the family would never recover. He’d end up on the emperor’s chopping board, turned into a meaty soup!

Gu Jiao put down her soup spoon and slightly shifted the soup toward her great grandmother.

The emperor’s eyes were as sharp as knives!

Gu Jiao paused for a moment and then tilted the bowl slightly back towards the emperor.

Her great grandmother’s eyes were equally piercing!

There was no need to even consider giving it to Gu Changqing. Gu Jiao quietly moved the soup back in front of her, picked up the spoon, and started drinking it herself.

Both of them huffed and started eating their dinner.

The food was prepared by the old master himself. Yu Ya’s culinary skills were not too bad, but catering to the emperor’s fussy appetite was somewhat challenging.

The old master made five dishes and a soup, mainly catering to Empress Dowager Zhuang and Gu Jiao’s preferences. He had no idea what the emperor and Gu Changqing liked to eat.

Luckily, Gu Changqing was not picky, and it was fortunate that the emperor’s and Empress Dowager Zhuang’s tastes were surprisingly similar.

Empress Dowager Zhuang liked slightly sweet food, such as candied duck. The crispy duck was coated with a layer of maltose after it was cooked, and a few white sesame seeds were sprinkled on top. The skin was crisp and the meat tender; it was sweet but not greasy.

Both Gu Changqing and Gu Jiao barely tasted this dish, and it primarily ended up in the stomachs of Empress Dowager Zhuang and the emperor.

Then there was the brown sugar glutinous rice cake. The old master made two plates of it, one was sprinkled with sesame seeds, which Zhuang Jinse loved, and the other was without sesame seeds, which Gu Jiao loved.

The emperor didn’t even touch the plate without sesame seeds – he preferred the ones with sesame seeds.

The emperor usually dined alone in the palace, only occasionally visiting the imperial harem. The last time he had dinner with the Empress Dowager Zhuang was when Princess Ning An and Empress Dowager Jing were still in the palace.

Back then, he had not yet fallen out with Empress Dowager Zhuang. He saw her as a loving mother and was completely open with her, believing that she treated him as her own son, the same way Empress Dowager Jing did, without any ulterior motives.

However, the reality was cruel.

After assisting him in taking the throne, her mask gradually fell off, and she became disfigured and distant.

She even targeted Empress Dowager Jing to prevent her from becoming an Empress Dowager with equal status.

He had already been adopted by Empress Dowager Jing, he was her son, how could she not be the Empress Dowager?

Funnily enough, even when Empress Dowager Jing was forced into the nunnery, she still defended Empress Dowager Zhuang.

She said all of Empress Dowager Zhuang’s actions were for Zhan Country, and he should never bear a grudge against her.

She also said that he will one day understand the pains of Empress Dowager Zhuang.

Ha?

Her pains?

One year during a heavy snowfall in the capital, Empress Dowager Jing was left to suffer severe illness in the nunnery. As the emperor, he knelt in the snow outside Renshou Palace, pleading bitterly for Empress Dowager Zhuang to take Empress Jing back!

But she didn’t!

He then begged her to gift Empress Jing the lifesaving snow lotus from the mountains, and she didn’t do that either!

She stood by watching someone die without helping!

She forgot about the time when Empress Jing took a sword strike for her when the Liu family wanted to get rid of her!

She also forgot about the time when the late emperor left a will ordering her to be buried with him and Empress Jing risked her life to steal and burn the will!

She is heartless!

She’s just an ungrateful harpy!

“Your Majesty.”

Gu Jiao called him.

The emperor came back to his senses and followed Gu Jiao’s gaze and found that, lost in his thoughts, he had unintentionally used his chopsticks to pick up a piece of brown sugar glutinous rice cake that had already been previously picked up by Empress Dowager Zhuang.

It was the last piece of the brown sugar glutinous rice cake with sesame seeds.

The emperor felt incredibly awkward.

Even if he hated empress dowager Zhuang, he shouldn’t have lost his dignity by fighting with her over a piece of glutinous rice cake. Such an incident could ruin the emperor’s reputation when revealed to others.

In order to show that this was not a deliberate act of petulance, he cleared his throat, and with a very serious face said, “I wanted to honor my mother with this, but I didn’t realize she had already taken it.”

Everyone present: “…”

It’s clear that the Empress Dowager had grasped it first. There’s no need to pretend we’re all blind.

Empress Dowager Zhuang wouldn’t spare him any courtesy. She took the rice cake and gobbled it down without any hesitation.

Nothing was more important to her than a meal. Not a thing in the world would dampen her appetite.

Seeing her nonchalance, the emperor was exasperated. The hour’s meal lost all its flavor!

After the meal, Gu Changqing escorted the emperor back to his room.

The emperor laid on the bed, which was not too wide or too hard. He didn’t like a solid bed, but didn’t prefer a overly soft one either. This one was just right.