Chapter 363: My Days Killing Fish in the Imperial Kitchen
Eunuch Yan had already reached the ceiling of his career, so he decided to switch industries.
This was a very wise choice.
The career ceiling in the palace was very low, and there were too many people, so it was extremely competitive—perversely so.
Yan Jiexi found a new goal and was exceptionally motivated.
He became busy.
He screened the people in the palace and, while he was at it, re-screened all the eunuchs.
Once he left, he was a bit worried because his sister was kind-hearted and easily fooled.
As for Jiang Changtian, as he adapted to being the emperor, his top priority was getting his subordinates to do their work.
He wanted to be the top leader, not only because he always felt someone was out to harm him, but also because he didn’t want to work himself; he wanted to delegate the work to others.
Jiang Changtian had lacked love since he was a child; in reality, his favorite thing to do was to stay at home, cherish his wife, and raise his children.
After taking office, he changed the laziness of the previous emperor. During the previous emperor’s reign, the officials didn’t know what they were supposed to do, and the emperor never issued orders, leaving everyone guessing all day long. They didn’t dare to do anything, fearing that doing more would lead to more mistakes.
But Jiang Changtian was different; he was the type of person who would clearly tell you what needed to be done.
He was never vague and never made people guess.
Moreover, he hated waste, believing in using things to their full potential and utilizing people to their full capability.
After The New Emperor ascended the throne, the ministers all became busy.
But this kind of busyness was better than before. There was no aimless rushing about or trying to guess what was on their superior’s mind, worrying about making mistakes. As long as they did their own jobs well, it was fine. Furthermore, The New Emperor didn’t encourage overtime. Although there was more work during duty hours, the hours themselves were shorter; they didn’t have to get up in the middle of the night and drag themselves home only after dark.
Efficiency improved, days off increased, and overall, everything was flourishing.
Then, the officials discovered that The New Emperor and the previous emperor were indeed family, cut from the same cloth.
While The New Emperor made his ministers diligent, he himself didn’t seem very diligent.
A new cabinet was established, and the several veteran officials who took office were burdened with heavy responsibilities, busy to death.
Memorials were cross-audited, and only those with differing opinions were submitted to the emperor by the Attendant of the Yellow Gate, or the emperor would conduct periodic spot checks.
As for the emperor himself in the palace, although he didn’t build stages or embark on massive construction projects like the previous emperor, he was still quite outrageous.
According to news heard, The New Emperor was focused on raising his children and accompanying the empress in the palace.
As everyone knew, The New Emperor now had two children by his side: a little princess and the son of The Former Crown Prince.
In this era, Mianmian lived quite comfortably. The main hardships had been endured by her sister and Elder Brother, so she hadn’t actually suffered much.
She had always lived quite smoothly, and she had no ambition; she just wanted to raise herself all over again, grow up slowly, and enjoy food, drink, and play without missing out on anything—it was quite good.
She hadn’t expected her Father to think the same way.
He wanted to carefully raise her all over again.
Her Father was already the emperor, yet he actually had time to teach her to read.
It was unscientific.
Jiang Mianmian, the little princess, was dragged up early in the morning, first to exercise and run drills with Mother and Cong Geer.
Then she washed up and ate breakfast.
Then she went to class.
Her own Father taught her personally.
This was completely off the charts—totally ridiculous.
“Father, you are already the emperor. How are you so free that you are personally teaching us to read? Do you not have the money to hire a tutor?”
“Your tutor didn’t want to come, even though I invited him,” Jiang Changtian said helplessly.
He was the emperor, yet when he asked Censor He to come and teach the princess to read, Censor He wouldn’t come.
He refused righteously, piling more work on himself and volunteering for overtime, just so he wouldn’t have to come.
Jiang Mianmian didn’t want to study—well, it wasn’t that she didn’t want to, but being watched by her Father while studying gave her a rebellious spirit.
Moreover, she sadly discovered that her brain might only be superior to her sister’s (though maybe not even that, given that her sister’s great achievements had likely spread throughout the world). She couldn’t compare to her Elder Brother, Brother Chong, or her Father, and she couldn’t even compare to her Mother.
Her Mother just hadn’t studied; if she really did, she might be even better than her.
But her Father was very persistent.
Grand Princess heard that her son was going to teach the class himself.
She dressed up beautifully early in the morning, preparing to come and watch.
She hadn’t raised her own child, and then one day, she realized her own son had suddenly grown up.
She was very curious to know how he raised children.
Come to think of it, Grand Princess was almost the happiest woman in the world: her own Father was an emperor, her brother was an emperor, and her son was an emperor.
She just wanted to see a scene of fatherly love and filial piety.
She didn’t even let them announce her. Now, Grand Princess, who was also the Empress Dowager, was watching quietly outside the classroom like a head teacher.
As a result, she saw her son, who never lost his temper and always smiled at everyone, roaring once or twice from time to time. The little princess looked at the emperor in confusion and surprise, then continued turning the pages, repeating the cycle.
Seeing her gentle and refined son already starting to roar at people.
She was startled and pushed the door open with a click.
After pushing it open, she felt like she had to brace herself to run away.
As it turned out, when Mianmian saw Princess Grandma, it was like seeing a great savior.
Great.
After her Father became the emperor, his temper was clearly a bit fiery, and his voice when roaring was much louder.
She was a bit scared.
Seeing Princess Grandma arrive, Mianmian’s eyes immediately welled up with tears, staring at Princess Grandma as they swirled around.
Princess Huiyun felt her scalp tingle, yet in her heart, she was reluctant to leave.
Old people loved their grandchildren. Although Princess Huiyun didn’t think she was old, seeing her little granddaughter’s pitiful appearance, she couldn’t help but speak up: “How about we stop studying for today?”
Jiang Changtian:???
Do you want to hear what you are saying? I just started teaching???
“Mother, when you were standing at the door, we had only read one page,” Jiang Changtian said with a dark face.
At first, Princess Huiyun was still a bit afraid of her son. She didn’t know why, but she always felt that although he called her affectionately from time to time, he wasn’t close to her.
But now, seeing him roar at his little granddaughter, she wasn’t as afraid anymore; she felt that her son was also a normal person.
So she gathered her courage and spoke.
Jiang Changtian was so angry he laughed.
He was a very qualified emperor; none of those ministers truly thought he had a good temper, and they were all quite cautious when doing things.
But as a son, he probably wasn’t used to it.
Seeing that her Father was truly a bit angry, Jiang Mianmian quickly said: “Father, Father, let’s go see what Mother is doing.”
Jiang Changtian thought that was true. It wasn’t appropriate to argue with his own Mother in front of the children, nor in front of others. He would talk about it later. In this regard, Xia Mei was very good; when he was teaching the children, Xia Mei never undermined him.
His Mother was just a bit too unreasonable.
He looked back at Princess Huiyun, who was laughing until she shook.
Jiang Changtian took another deep breath. Perhaps some people would really never be reasonable in their entire lives.
Cong Geer silently packed up the textbooks.
He was willing to have his uncle teach them to read, though in reality, he was mainly just accompanying Mianmian. He had a photographic memory and only needed to read it once.
However, he quite liked the atmosphere of his uncle accompanying them in their studies. Before, his Father had always been very busy and never had time to accompany him; his Father had even spent more time with his adopted son than with him.
He could understand that his Father had initially done that to treat his illness. Later, he didn’t know why, but even though it was clearly to treat his illness that he did that, he ended up neglecting him and spending the least amount of time with him.
It was like a man striving for the woman he loved. After striving for a long time, he discovered that he spent the least amount of time with the woman he loved. Instead, on the road of striving, he met one like-minded partner after another, feeling fulfilled and upwardly mobile, sometimes even forgetting what his original purpose was.
That was why Zi Congheng liked the time his uncle spent accompanying them in their studies.
Even when wearing the dragon robe, his uncle hadn’t forgotten his original wish, which was to accompany his family and live a happy life.
It was just that when studying, it was a bit hard on the throat.
Jiang Mianmian changed the subject and wanted to see Mother.
Jiang Changtian also put away his anger and wanted to find Xia Mei to comfort himself.
This little brat was bullying people.
The group marched grandly to find the Empress.
At this moment, the Empress was in the Imperial Kitchen.
Qin, the Empress, discovered that managing the inner palace was actually quite difficult.
At least it was much harder than the big house before.
The main thing was that in the big house, it was essentially her own family, and she knew every single servant.
Managing the inner palace meant dealing with people who weren’t her own; it was equivalent to taking over other people.
How to manage this and what the procedures should be was actually a bit difficult.
Although Aunt Yin had told her and Saner had taught her, in matters like this, if she didn’t establish herself, it definitely wouldn’t work.
As a dignified Empress, if she didn’t understand anything and had to listen to others, being constrained by rules, then that wouldn’t be living life; it would be life living her.
Regarding clothing, food, housing, and transportation, before she came, Aunt Yin had told her about all sorts of strange things in the palace.
Eating food could lead to poisoning, wearing clothes could lead to poisoning, bathing could lead to poisoning, and lighting incense could lead to poisoning. Many children in the palace couldn’t be raised, because poison was impossible to guard against, and in the end, they all died mysteriously without anyone knowing how.
Clothing, food, housing, and transportation—everything could have problems.
Think about it; this wasn’t a home; this was a dragon’s den and a tiger’s lair.
Living like this definitely wouldn’t work. It made no sense that her daughter, who was raised lively and bouncing outside, couldn’t be raised well once they arrived in the palace.
So Qin Luoxia decided to start with food.
Mianmian always said that illness enters through the mouth. When eating, she was even particular about making everyone wash their hands and wouldn’t let them drink raw water. Of the whole family, Mianmian was the most afraid of death and the most particular. Sometimes Qin Luoxia felt a bit heartbroken, feeling that her family had caused the child to suffer, causing her to develop a timid and fearful nature.
The kitchen in the palace had a high-end name called the Imperial Kitchen. The character “Dinner” was very difficult to write, and she had studied it for a long time.
There was a whole group of people cooking for the emperor; thinking about it, it was a bit incomprehensible.
However, there would be various banquets and such in the palace, and for large-scale banquets, it made sense to have more people cooking.
But doing this every day meant people were left idle.
When people are idle, trouble is easy to arise.
These people were all exceptionally skilled. Sending them out of the palace just like that would be a waste. Her husband said these were all master chefs and were very useful; if used well, they could make a lot of money.
Since ancient times, those ministers had been impeaching the emperor all day long, saying the emperor wasted money. If the emperor used his own private treasury, perhaps they would nag less.
Qin Luoxia came to manage the Imperial Kitchen today and decided to do something practical.
She was dressed neatly in casual clothes and arrived at the Imperial Kitchen with a knife.
“I heard that a minister presented two baskets of fish today. They are very fresh, so I came to take a look.”
Indeed, there were two large baskets of lively, jumping fish.
The Imperial Kitchen was still wondering how to cook the fish to please their masters. Now that there were few masters and many of them, they were all in a precarious position, putting all their effort into competing.
Qin Luoxia didn’t come today with any management or analytical techniques; she was just here to kill fish.
She took a fish out onto the cutting board and, in a few swift moves, removed the scales, chopped off the head, sliced the meat, and removed the fish bones…
Then she took out another fish and continued removing scales, chopping off the head, slicing, and removing fish bones…
Chopping off the head, slicing…
Chopping off the head…
Slicing…
The people in the Imperial Kitchen were all quiet as chickens, watching the Empress kill the fish with swift strokes of her knife.
Watching a basket of fierce fish turn into neat fish slices, fish bones as fish bones, fish heads as fish heads, and fish scales as fish scales, it was exhilarating…
Qin Luoxia felt as if she had returned to the time when she was hunting in the big mountains of Kaner Village. Because she was worried about being discovered, she always had to process the prey by the deep pool first, cutting every piece of prey neatly, stacking them flat, draining the blood, and slicing them—she was very skilled.
At first, blood and meat chunks would splash onto her, but later, to avoid dirtying her clothes, she became especially careful. Over time, her knife skills became proficient.
She hadn’t done this for a long time.
Killing fish in the Imperial Kitchen so exhilaratingly, Qin Luoxia felt very comfortable.
Satisfy herself first, then talk.
Then, Jiang Changtian, the Emperor, who had arrived, watched Xia Mei’s swift knife strokes… He thought to himself, it was fortunate that he had always treated Xia Mei with sincerity.
Grand Princess, the Empress Dowager, watched her daughter-in-law’s serious fish-killing stance: “My daughter-in-law is truly virtuous…”
Jiang Mianmian saw Mother killing fish in the Imperial Kitchen, and the thought flashed through her mind: “My days killing fish at RT-Mart…”
She silently recalled whether she had provoked Mother recently. It seemed she hadn’t; she had been very well-behaved lately.
Zi Congheng, who never liked knife points, felt it was pleasing to the eye when watching Aunt Qin kill fish because Aunt Qin’s movements were too neat and had a great sense of aesthetics. Watching fish of different appearances all turn into neat, thin slices was indeed very refreshing…
And the people in the Imperial Kitchen were trembling, each of them imagining themselves as a fish.
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