Jin Wang Dotes on His Concubine

Translated by little monster

Edited by Slowday

Fucheng put both of his hands in his sleeves and stood behind Jin Wang with a triumphant look.

He was wearing a turquoise filigree collar shirt, a black hat, and a pair of black leather boots, with a green bat jade hanging on his waist belt. He looked to be in his early thirties, but Yaoniang knew that Fucheng was actually over forty. Eunuchs usually had fine and tender skin, so they looked much younger than they actually are.

He glanced at the corner when he saw Yaoniang was about to leave.

In fact, Jin Wang also looked in that direction, but his gaze was not so obvious.

“Since Nanny Su is free, then stay and serve the meal for Jin Wang.”

Yaoniang looked up at Fucheng in surprise.

Then she looked at Jin Wang who was sitting at the table. He looked indifferent and did not show any objection. He seemed to have agreed, but with so many maids here, why was it her turn to serve meals?

“Nanny Su is the first to get this chance among the servants.” Fucheng smiled and said.

Servants who were valued by the master indeed had a good tongue. Even though Fucheng didn’t mention what happened in the morning, it was clear that he wanted Yaoniang to spare no effort in her duty since she had received rewards from Jin Wang. She should do her best to serve Jin Wang, and the first thing to do was serve this meal well.

Yuyan and others did not dare to speak while Yaoniang felt a little helpless. In this case, she certainly couldn’t refuse and could only come to the table.

Lu’er took the water basin and let Yaoniang wash her hands, looking at her worriedly.

Serving meals might look simple, but in fact, it’s not something anyone can do. They needed to know the master’s preferences and meaningful glances. If the master wanted to eat one dish, but the servant took another dish, that would make the master unhappy. Of course, the master wouldn’t say anything to guide them on how to do it nor would he instruct, but the servant must be able to handle everything well.

Besides, Jin Wang was famous for being difficult to serve and for his excessive demands.

Also, his stern face. Once he was not happy, he would draw a long face that scared people. She only heard all of those things from Lu’er and others. They could not serve meals for Jin Wang with their identities.

The maids with a given surname of Lu looked at Yaoniang anxiously. They thought that the rewards from His Highness could not be taken casually, as his reward also contained an infinite crisis. One small mistake could lead to an unfavourable end.

Yuyan and Yucui were still calm, there were no expressions on their faces.

Yaoniang cleaned her hands with a dry handkerchief. She first rolled up her sleeves, and then took the long silver chopsticks held by Luyao.

As she did it many times in her previous life, Yaoniang was familiar with serving meals for Jin Wang, so she knew how picky he was. The problem was that he was still the same bad-tempered person. Once he was not happy, his face showed it. In her previous life, Yaoniang was disliked by Jin Wang many times because of this.

Although he didn’t say anything, it was apparent in his eyes, “You don’t even know how to serve a meal, what else can you do?”

At that time, for the sake of avenging an insult and also pleasing Jin Wang, Yaoniang learned it by heart. Even if she didn’t know much about other aspects of Jin Wang, she knew clearly about his little habits in life.

The meals on the table were very rich, good-looking and delicious, with eight kinds of dishes and one soup.

Yaoniang only smelled it and knew that these dishes were from the small kitchen in Zhaohui Hall.

She was not greedy. But after eating Jin Wang’s leftovers several times, she came to know what was delicious on earth. It was so mouthwatering that people could swallow their tongues. In the previous life, Yaoniang was only a concubine. Even if she was doted on, the dishes she ate were from the main kitchen. It was not bad, yet she always felt that the taste was somehow lacking.

As for what it was, Yaoniang couldn’t tell. Anyway, she knew that Jin Wang’s meal was delicious.

There were five meat dishes, three vegetable dishes, and one soup. The meat dishes included sautéed shredded pig trip, sautéed mushroom with sliced chicken, fish ball in light soup, spicy rabbit, and casserole simmer deer tendon. The vegetable dishes included braised bamboo shoots in wine sauce, cabbage with fresh mushroom, and stir-fried wild rice stem. The soup was pork-seafood soup.

Maybe Yaoniang was truly hungry, so she couldn’t stop drooling and her heart was burning.

Yet, she did not forget the job she needed to do. When she saw Jin Wang holding the silver chopsticks, she pressed her sleeve with one hand and took a few pieces of stir-fried wild rice stem with another hand before putting it in Jin Wang’s porcelain plate.

Probably she was either too familiar with this scene or really hungry, thus for a while, Yaoniang forgot that she was born into an ordinary family. She had never done anything to serve meals after entering the Mansion, so she wasn’t supposed to know how to do it.

Even so, her action was methodical, smooth, and beautiful. She slightly lifted her slender fingers and every move contained calmness. It was as beautiful as a painting. Even people could easily ignore her dress at this time and subconsciously thought that this woman was beautiful.

The most important thing was that she did it without any hesitation, and she seemed to know what dishes Jin Wang would like.

Jin Wang also really liked to eat.

Unlike other people in the army, Jin Wang doesn’t really like meat. He could eat it but preferred vegetables more. Of course, some would definitely want to know why he arranged so many meat dishes when he clearly preferred vegetables. Anyway, Yaoniang had been serving Jin Wang for a long time and knew that there were many strange rules around him.

For example, these dishes. Jin Wang didn’t eat much as he only ate a few for each dish. His preference was very diverse, but there was only one truth, that was, following his eyes.

One picked out the dishes, and the other ate. They cooperated well. 𝑏𝑒𝑑𝑛𝘰𝑣𝑒𝘭.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Seeing this, Fucheng and other people were very surprised.

The room was very quiet as if there was no one there.

Truth be told, Yaoniang had served meals for Jin Wang more than once or twice. She admired him very much as he never made any noise when he was eating, even the sound of chewing.

The dishes Yaoniang took for Jin Wang were finished in a blink of an eye before everyone reacted.

Suddenly, a voice of stomach growling sounded so loud in the silent room.

Yaoniang’s face turned red, and she could not wait to find a place to hide. She thought Jin Wang might scold her for being discourteous, but he didn’t say anything at all and seemed to have not heard it.

Jin Wang took a few more bites and dropped silver chopsticks.

“The rest of the dishes are rewarded to you.”

Jin Wang did not mention the name, but everyone glanced over at her immediately. Yaoniang could not help but think of herself.

She looked at the dishes that were not eaten and thought in confusion, was Jin Wang’s appetite not good today?

***

Jin Wang did not stay long, and he left after lunch.

He seemed to be here only for lunch.

Since Yaoniang got rewarded by Jin Wang, she was able to return to the room to eat. Someone respectfully helped her to bring the leftovers back to her room and place them on the table.

Sometimes Yaoniang didn’t understand this kind of rule, it was Jin Wang’s leftovers. How could it be so different? They were just dishes.

Yaoniang didn’t understand this truth in her previous life and she might still not figure it out in this life. Anyway, she had eaten Jin Wang’s leftovers many times and adapted well. Because these dishes were so delicious, she felt like swallowing her tongue then ate one more bowl of rice until her belly became round.

She couldn’t finish everything, and there was still a lot.

Why not eat them at night?

Yaoniang thought silently, and a little girl named Ah Xia agreed with her.

Ah Xia was fourteen years old and was very beautiful and smart. She just entered the Mansion and now worked as a maid in the small kitchen.

She liked to talk to Yaoniang very much. Although Yaoniang was not much older than her, she had a sense of vicissitudes because of different experiences. There was no doubt that the innocence of Ah Xia was a dazzling view in the Mansion. People couldn’t help smiling when seeing her, so Yaoniang also liked to talk to her.

Ah Xia volunteered to help Yaoniang clean up the dishes this time. As she cleaned the table, she yelled, “I’ll use ice to keep these dishes fresh so it won’t go bad at night. We can add some vegetables and cook again, then it will be a luscious dinner.”

Yaoniang nodded, “Then bother you.”

“It’s fine. This is what I should do.”

Ah Xia was very talented in cooking. She was favoured by Mommy Mo who would teach her something from time to time. Now, she was able to cook some simple dishes. Judging by this, it wouldn’t take a long time for Mommy Mo to accept her as an apprentice.

“Nanny Su, you don’t know. Everyone envies you so much, they say that you have great skills, and His Highness rewards you many times.”

Yaoniang laughed blushingly, “How can they say so exaggeratedly? It is just a coincidence that I had a chance to serve meals for His Highness, so His Highness rewarded me.”

“Anyway, Nanny Su is a lucky girl. Tell me about it, are you afraid of His Highness? Why is it that every time I see His Highness from a distance, I feel that people are afraid of His Highness, so I don’t dare to look directly.”

Yaoniang hesitated and said, “In fact, His Highness is a very good person. He sets clear rules for reward and punishment, and also takes care of his people.” She didn’t know how to describe him, so she could only say something relatively easy to understand.

“I truly envy Nanny Su. You don’t know how much they talked about you today. There are two annoying women in the kitchen, always saying sour words, and? how they want to cooperate with other people to make Nanny Su spend lots of money to buy food and drinks.” Ah Xia wrinkled her nose, showing disgust on her face.

Yaoniang was not surprised. These people weren’t bad, they were only jealous when they saw her getting rewards. They were trying to secure some kind of psychological balance in this way. Yaoniang didn’t feel anything wrong, because she had planned to invite everyone to have a drink this time.

She just couldn’t help sighing in her heart when she remembered the things Jin Wang rewarded.

After Ah Xia left, Yaoniang went to the cabinet and pulled out a small cloth bag.

There were a month’s wages, pieces of jewelry, and silvers rewarded by the Side Consort Hu last time. There were also the things rewarded by Jin Wang today in this small cloth bag.

If these things were replaced with equivalent silver, there would be a few hundred liangs. But the problem was that each of those rewards had Jin Wang Manor’s emblem printed on them, so she couldn’t sell them.

Yaoniang suddenly became annoyed.

This kind of grudge was not only for this life but also for the grievances in the previous life.

It was the same in her previous life. Jin Wang rewarded her with all sorts of gaudy things. They were beautiful and valuable, though some were worthless. Unfortunately, these things were registered and mustn’t be lost.

The money that she needed the most was from her poor wages every month. She did not dare to ask Jin Wang more for her son, so she could only save from her wages. Yet, she spent more than half of it on rewarding people. She couldn’t send much money back home.

Inviting people to drink wines and eat food would cost more than ten taels of silvers. After all, she got rewards from Jin Wang and also got so many good things. If she wasn’t generous, they would say bad words and think that she was stingy. However, whenever she thought about how she only had thirty taels of silvers in total and would need to spend one-third of it, it felt like her heart was twisted by a knife.

When could she save enough money to go home?

Yaoniang sat there sighing for a while, then took out ten taels of silvers from the cloth bag, and planned to put the bag back. After thinking it through, she took five more taels.

It was better to prepare more. If she didn’t have enough money, she would be embarrassed.

***

In Zhaohui Hall, An Shi coldly stood with his hands in front of the bookcase and said, “Nanny Su ate a lot. She ate two bowls of rice until her belly was round and didn’t throw the rest of the dishes. She planned to warm it for dinner.”

As a shadow guard under Jin Wang, An Shi would inevitably help him to discover something in secret. Generally, in this case, he would choose to report in detail and without any personal emotions, because only in this way could his master accurately analyze it.

So, Yaoniang ate two bowls of rice, didn’t throw away the rest of the dishes, and planned to eat them at night. Those things were reported to Jin Wang.

Jin Wang showed a smile and was about to say something when he heard Fucheng coming in.

Seeing this, Jin Wang waved his hand, and An Shi disappeared before Fucheng showed up.

“Your Highness, someone is passing the message from Siyi Courtyard.”

Jin Wang took a glance at him.

Fucheng hesitated for a while and said, “It’s someone from Consort Jin’s courtyard. He said that the birthday of Consort Jin is on the fifteenth day. Consort Jin intends to host a banquet at Siyi Courtyard, and hopes that Your Highness will be able to grace her with Your presence.”