After running through the downtown area for an hour, the Jing’an Estate’s carriage finally arrived at the main entrance of Prince Wei’s estate.
Without waiting for Chu Lian to send a manservant over to the guard house with the invitation, a senior servant who had been waiting by the entrance led two younger maidservants over to welcome her.
Chu Lian had just gotten off the carriage with Xiyan’s help when the welcoming senior servant asked with a bright smile, “Excuse me, could this lady be House Jing’an’s young madam?”
Wenlan bobbed in greeting to the senior servant in front of her and replied, “It is.”
“Third Young Madam, we’ve been waiting for you. Our royal princess sent this old servant to wait by the entrance much earlier. Please, come in with us.” The senior servant was only about thirty years old. The combination of her round face, warm tone, and friendly smile gave off a good first impression.
“Then I’ll have to trouble momo.”
When Chu Lian entered Prince Wei’s estate, the senior servant had even prepared a sedan for her. With two menial servants hoisting it, they reached Royal Princess Duanjia’s courtyard in eight minutes.
Prince Wei’s estate was much more imposing than the Jing’an Estate. There were decorative mountains, pavilions, covered corridors, and drawing rooms all over the place. Everywhere she looked, there would be beautiful scenery awaiting her eyes. No wonder Prince Wei’s estate was considered the first amongst the top three estates in the capital.
Chu Lian looked at everything with wide, clear eyes. She openly admired her surroundings.
Although this behaviour couldn’t be considered dignified or elegant, her innocent and honest expressions made it hard to have a bad impression of her.
At least, it was much better compared to the ladies who would feign a reserved manner despite their curiosity, while their eyes were full of jealousy and envy.
Chu Lian sat on the sedan admiring the scenery in Prince Wei’s estate. She felt that this garden wouldn’t lose one bit to the Humble Administrator’s Garden in the modern world.
When she noticed a pavilion as tall as a decorative mountain in the distance, Chu Lian looked it over for a while longer out of curiosity.
The senior servant following next to Chu Lian kindly provided an explanation for Chu Lian. “Third Young Madam, that pavilion is called Buliu Pavilion. The signboard above it is a valuable piece of calligraphy, reportedly written by a great scholar from the previous dynasty, Chu Buliu! That pavilion is a great place to cool off on a hot day like today. When the wind blows, it’s very refreshing.”
Chu Lian nodded and smiled.
With her tender smile, pure gaze and honest personality, as well as the fact that she was someone that the royal princess had personally invited over, the senior servant’s gaze leant more towards goodwill.
When they reached Royal Princess Duanjia’s courtyard, one of the servants supported Chu Lian as she got off the sedan. When she looked up, Royal Princess Duanjia was standing in the corridor outside the parlour.
When she walked up to the princess, Royal Princess Duanjia raised an eyebrow and looked her up and down. The moment the princess noticed the box of food Xiyan was carrying, surprise lit up in her eyes. She strode up to Xiyan and took the box from her hands. Royal Princess Duanjia then raised her chin slightly, turning to Chu Lian as she said, “Chu Liu, this is for me, right?”
Chu Lian didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She hadn’t expected the precious royal princess she had met at the Dingyuan Estate to have such a tsundere personality.
She nodded, and with a forgiving tone, Chu Lian said, “I made these myself this morning. They’re for you, Royal Princess.”
Chu Lian’s voice was soft and kind. Although she was already a married woman, other than the difference in hairstyles from the maiden princess, she looked like a young lady who was still the same age as Royal Princess Duanjia.
While Royal Princess Duanjia’s status was much higher than hers, Chu Lian didn’t act differently in front of her. Instead, she treated the princess like a sister from the same family, without any of the usual fear or carefulness that others might have. This raised her evaluation in Royal Princess Duanjia’s eyes.
Without waiting for Chu Lian’s greeting bow, Royal Princess Duanjia took her hand and led her to the parlour.
After the two of them were seated, Royal Princess Duanjia ordered her handmaid to serve the confections that Chu Lian had brought.
When the confections were brought out in two little porcelain dishes, Royal Princess Duanjia stared at them in a daze.
There were six pieces of confections sitting on one of the exquisite blue porcelain dishes, and there were two pieces of every colour: milky yellow, light green, and light red.
The flat confections had somehow been made into cutely shaped cat heads. Every cat had a different expression, provoking amusement in the onlookers.
Chu Lian smiled a little as she watched Royal Princess Duanjia gape in surprise.
As expected, girls liked cute little confections the most!
She had made a set of cookies. The three different colours also signified the three different flavours of the cookies: milk, matcha, and red date. She had used a cat head shaped mould that she had prepared in advance to make them, and then used some natural food colouring to draw some simple, adorable little expressions on top. The cookies were done after a round of baking in the oven. It was much simpler to make these compared to the Eight Confections.
On the other plate was a display of sugared haw fruits. They were round and red, covered in a layer of white icing sugar. Though they weren’t as sour as eating the haw fruits by themselves, they weren’t sickly sweet either. In addition, the seeds inside had already been removed, so there was no need to spit out anything. They were both delicious and convenient, and were great for snacking.
Royal Princess Duanjia eyes were sparkling as she looked at the confections before her. Her handmaid was also absorbed in staring at the snacks, but she managed to regain her senses and hurriedly turned to serve some tea.
When Chu Lian saw that the maid was about to serve this world’s terrible sencha, she grimaced. She quickly stopped the maid and said, “Princess, this dessert doesn’t go along with sencha; it’ll spoil the taste.”
Hearing that, the princess lost her usual noble bearing as she rolled her eyes at Chu Lian. “Chu Liu, you’re just saying that because you don’t like to drink sencha, right?”
From the shine of Chu Lian’s eyes, she could see that she was just trying to make up an excuse.
The corner of Chu Lian’s mouth twitched speechlessly; this princess was way too clever.
Princess Duanjia’s personal maidservant laughed in response. “Third Young Madam, please be at ease. Our princess doesn’t like sencha either. This servant will be pouring honey water, not sencha.”
Chu Lian sheepishly chuckled. How awkward.
Princess Duanjia picked up a matcha-flavored cookie and asked curiously, “Chu Liu, can you tell me how you made this ‘cookie’?”
Inwardly, Princess Duanjia was thinking to herself, ‘Chu Liu must have come up with the name herself. It’s so weird, and so inelegant. Hmph, all she knows how to do is eat!’
Chu Lian was quite surprised. In the past few days, she had made quite a number of delicacies which exceeded the current standards of the Great Wu Dynasty. Although every dish she made had received tremendous praise, since the people here guarded their secret recipes even more preciously than their own lives, no one had ever straight out asked her for the recipe. That is, until she met Princess Duanjia!
Chu Lian didn’t quite know how to react for a moment. “Princess, do you really want to know?”
“Of course, do you think I’m kidding!?” Princess Duanjia rolled her eyes at her again.
Chu Lian’s eyes were wide open by now, and her thick eyelashes trembled as she blinked. “Since you’re that curious about how the cookies were made… Well, it’s hard to say. It could be hard for some and easy for others.”
“Then make it easy for me.”
Chu Lian almost choked. All she could do was gather up her patience and begin to recite the instructions. “To make these cookies, you’ll need butter, eggs, flour, and sugar. Prepare all these ingredients first, then mix the butter, add in the sugar, throw in the beaten eggs, and stir the mixture. After mixing them thoroughly, add the flour and stir. Shape the dough as you like, then just bake it. However, it won’t be easy for most people to grasp how to mix and bake it properly.”
Although Chu Lian made it sound simple, it was practically impossible for the people of this era to make a proper cookie without experience. They would probably be in over their heads just trying to deal with the butter alone. The recipe was only simple to Chu Lian; it was a completely different matter for other people.
Princess Duanjia frowned. “So that means… for most people, it’ll be very hard to bake this cookie?”
Chu Lian nodded. “Princess, something like this cute matcha cookie you’re holding will require even more steps to make. If you want to try making some, you could learn how to make a simple cookie first, without making any special shapes.”
“No way! I want to make one shaped like a cat’s head, and it has to be matcha-flavoured!”
“Ah?” Chu Lian’s suffering showed a little in her expression, but without waiting for her to gather her thoughts, Princess Duanjia spoke again.
“Bring more cookies the next time you come over! Remember, they must be shaped like cat heads, and they have to be as cute as this one! I won’t let you go if they’re not cute!” A little embarrassed by her own words, Princess Duanjia pouted. Her awkward expression was rather endearing.
Once again, Chu Lian replied with a stupefied, “Ah?”
After some thought, she realised that she had been invited by the princess again.
She suddenly thought that Princess Duanjia’s awkward expression was actually pretty adorable.
Chu Lian smiled, “Alright, I’ll bring some other flavours next time.”
Princess Duanjia’s eyes lit up, but she immediately followed it up with a pout. “Who wants you to come? I just want to eat more of these cute cat-shaped snacks.”
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Since Chu Lian is the Sixth Miss Chu, Duanjia affectionately calls her Chu Liu.