"I heard that the Emperor's trip went well and he will be back in three or four days."
After hearing Qing'er's words, Shui Xinyuan suddenly showed a cheerful expression.
"Really?"
"Zhuge Qing told me that the messenger said this when he returned to the capital this morning. He will leave Liuzhou for Shenzhou today or tomorrow."
"Right……"
Qing'er couldn't help but smile when she saw Shui Xinyuan, who was listless a few days ago, looking happy.
"Very good."
"yes!"
"I just went to the dance studio. I heard that you often go to dance practice recently?"
"That's right! All kinds of people will come to the palace all day long..."
"So that's it."
When the princes and nobles saw that the queen was not in Chunying Palace, they had no choice but to go home, so Shui Xinyuan took Chunxiang to the dance practice every day.
"By the way, Shui Xinyuan, I have something to ask you...about Shui Qiancheng."
"Shui Qiancheng?"
Shui Xinyuan put down the tea cup he originally planned to sip from.
"What's up with him?"
"...Has he been here recently?"
"Uh...it seems he came, but I didn't see him."
"You didn't see him?"
Shui Xinyuan looked around, and after confirming that all the maids had left, he said to Qing'er, "He's not here to see me, he's here to see spring tea."
"...Spring tea? That maid? That young but very charming maid?"
"Yes! Shui Qiancheng seems to like her."
"Yeah……"
Qing'er exaggeratedly leaned her body back, showing surprise.
"Really?"
"I guess so... After the emperor left, Shui Qiancheng came to see me several times. I scolded him and I never saw him again. But he gradually became very close to Chun Cha, and sometimes he would take advantage of my absence.
Enter the palace at that time."
"Oh, that's right..."
Qing'er breathed a sigh of relief, leaned back on the chair and exhaled heavily.
"Because Shui Qiancheng has been coming back late after school recently and going out often. I don't know what he is busy with. Even if I asked him, he only said he was walking around in the capital."
"This kid is really ignorant... I'm sorry for making you worry. If he goes too far, scold him."
Qing'er shrugged and said with a wry smile: "Since he is here, it's no problem... However, I didn't expect that he came to the palace not to see you, but to see Chun Cha. A thirteen-year-old child would look for
Girl, Shui Qiancheng is really a little kid."
"I am sorry……"
"Why are you apologizing?"
"I was also thirteen years old..."
"Ah?...Oh, yes!"
Shui Xinyuan met Lu Fusu for the first time when he was thirteen years old, but they did not see each other for three years after that time.
"If you say that, what should I do?"
"By the way! Qing'er, you fell in love with Zhuge Qing earlier."
"It's good if you know this kind of thing, don't say it out loud! It's so embarrassing."
"But you fell in love with him a long time ago, right?"
…
Shui Xinyuan is changing clothes to go to dance practice.
She added a peach coat to the light pink silk woven coat, tied a dark red belt, changed into light shoes, and inserted a silver hairpin in her hair.
"Then I'll go get ready and pick up the pipa too."
As soon as Chunxiang walked out of the room, Chuncha walked in carrying a teapot and teacup.
"Queen...are you going to practice dancing today too?"
"Yes! I have made an appointment with them. I will go there every day until the emperor comes back."
"Is it okay? You don't look good lately..."
"Oh? Really?"
Shui Xinyuan couldn't help but look in the mirror and didn't feel anything was different from before.
"...Is it true? I look very bad?"
"This is a gift from my mother's family. Would you like to try it?"
Chun Cha poured a cup from the teapot and handed it to Shui Xinyuan with a smile.
"What is this?...Why is it so dark?"
“Because it’s black vinegar!”
"Black vinegar...but, it's too..."
Shui Xinyuan felt that the color of black vinegar seemed a bit light and the taste was different.
"Herbs are added to it. This is a secret recipe passed down from generation to generation in my family. It can nourish the body."
"Is this Chinese medicine...?"
"Just now, my mother-in-law's family just sent a new one. The emperor is coming back soon. If the mother-in-law's complexion is not good, the emperor will definitely be worried."
"..."
Hearing that Lu Fusu would be worried, Shui Xinyuan immediately became concerned about whether he looked really bad.
She really hasn't been sleeping well these days. Even if she doesn't feel particularly bad, in the eyes of others, she may think that her physical condition is not ideal.
She looked up at Chun Cha and found that her smiling face was indeed slightly plump and her complexion was rosy.
"...does it work?"
"It just doesn't taste very good..."
Spring Tea said: "Excuse me for being rude." He took a sip first, then frowned and smiled.
“Honestly, it’s really hard to drink, but I feel so good after drinking it.”
Shui Xinyuan did smell the aroma of black vinegar. She took a sip and found that it did not taste good.
"How much do you want to drink?"
"It doesn't matter if you drink too much, but have a drink first..."
"..."
Shui Xinyuan took another sip, two sips, and felt that the taste seemed familiar.
She was recalling what it smelled like when she suddenly felt dizzy.
……This is……
Her body swayed.
The teacup slipped from Shui Xinyuan's hand.
"..."
The last thing Shui Xinyuan heard was the sound of a teacup breaking.
…
"Sister...sister..."
Hearing the sound of the teacup breaking, Shui Qiancheng, who was hiding in the opposite room, rushed over immediately and looked at his sister who fell on the ground, and Chuncha who calmly picked up the broken pieces of the teacup.
"Spring tea, what did you give my sister to drink?"
"Wine! It's just wine."
"liquor?"
"Yes, just add black vinegar to the wine. Your sister is a bad drinker, don't you know?"
"No...I don't know..."
When I was in Sanhu Village, no one in my family drank alcohol, and there was no money to buy alcohol.
Chun Cha put the broken teacup on the table and chuckled.
"However, even I didn't expect that your sister's drinking capacity would be so bad. Just in case, I also prepared sleeping pills, but I didn't expect that they would be of no use at all..."
"Does my sister just sleep?"
"right."
At this time, a soft scream sounded from behind Shui Qiancheng.
"Empress?"
"Oops, the nagging ghost is back..."
Chunxiang rushed to Shui Xinyuan with Pipa in her arms and wanted to hug Shui Xinyuan.
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty! Spring Tea...what on earth did you do?"
"Don't argue, you are a proton too."
"……ah?"
Not only Chunxiang, Shui Qiancheng also looked back at Chuncha in surprise.
"I don't despise your sister that much. She is not the kind of rich lady who will cry if she is touched. She grew up in the country. If you kidnap your sister alone, she will run away."
"You want to use her...as a proton?"
"That's right!... Chunxiang, you can't agree, right? We have to go to a far away place for a while, are you willing to leave your beloved Queen alone? It's impossible, right?"
Chun Cha looked at Chun Xiang, whose face was ashen, and smiled sweetly.
"You are the Queen's hostage, and the Queen is your hostage...will you come with us?"
Chunxiang didn't say a word, staring blankly at her good sister who was once a maid... Chuncha, and couldn't help hugging Pipa tightly.
…
Lu Fusu and his party returned soon.
After learning that Shui Qiancheng went to Chunying Palace, not to meet Shui Xinyuan, but to go to the maid Chuncha, Zhuge Qing still had an expression on his face that he couldn't let go.
"...Who is that maid named Chun Cha?"
"Who is she?... Just an ordinary maid! I remember she became Shui Xinyuan's maid since last autumn."
Qing'er changed Zhuge Qing into light indoor clothes, tied his belt, and straightened his collar.
"I'm asking you, whose daughter is that Chuncha? Could the queen's maid be the daughter of some lord?"
"Well... she seems to be the daughter of a scholar. When you hear that she is from a family like that, you will think she is very conservative, right? But she is very charming."
"charming……?"
"...Do you really want to see it?"
Qing'er stared at Zhuge Qing, who smiled stiffly, while shaking his head and waving his hands.
"I don't think so. Besides, I'm not interested in charming women at all."
"Yeah?"
"Just think about it and you will know. If I liked a charming woman, how could I marry you...ah, it hurts!"
"You talk too much!"
"A gentleman talks but does not use his hands, and does not use his hands..."
Zhuge Qing touched the arm that Qing'er pinched and sat on the bench by the window looking at the garden.
Opposite Zhuge Qing and Qing'er's room is Shui Qiancheng's room, with a small garden in the middle.
Shui Qiancheng's room was lit by candlelight, and he was probably studying hard.
"No kidding... So, he is obsessed with the charming scholar's daughter Chun Cha and goes to Chunying Palace every day after school?"
"At least the Imperial Guards at Ximen already know him, which shows that he goes there often!"