Tang Dynasty: Slacking off in the Imperial Kitchen, exposed by Si Zi

Chapter 221 A Great Relief

Su Mu turned into the courtyard of the imperial kitchen.

Everything in the courtyard remained the same; the waterwheel creaked as it turned, the speckled chickens huddled together in their coop, and the potato seedlings in the vegetable garden were glistening with dew.

He put the stew pot into the kitchen, washed his hands, and dried them.

Then he plopped down in the rocking chair.

The rocking chair creaked, the backrest tilted back, and he slumped on it, his arms hanging limply.

tired!

It's not physical fatigue, it's mental fatigue.

From the moment he received the alarm until now, he has been on edge, never letting his guard down. Taking pulses, administering medicine, pressing acupoints, monitoring progress—he counts the intervals of each step with his own heartbeat.

Now that the tension has eased, I feel completely empty.

He stared at the sky above for a while.

The stars hadn't all faded yet; a few bright ones remained in the west, while the east was already covered by the morning glow.

"Fifty-two days —"

He muttered something to himself and closed his eyes.

5:00 AM (卯时).

The main hall of Lizheng Palace.

Empress Zhangsun woke up.

Li Shimin stayed by the bedside the whole time. The empress didn't make much noise when she turned over, but he noticed it immediately.

"Guanyinbi?"

Empress Zhangsun blinked twice, her gaze shifting from a daze to Li Shimin's face.

She opened her mouth and took a breath.

That breath was deep.

The air flows from the nasal cavity into the chest cavity, which expands, causing the ribs to expand slightly outward. The airflow smoothly completes a full cycle, and then it is slowly exhaled.

There were no obstacles.

Empress Zhangsun paused for a moment.

She took another puff.

This time, she almost deliberately inhaled deeply, testing how much air her lungs could hold.

The airflow travels down the trachea, reaching the bottom, steadily and smoothly.

Her eyes reddened.

"His Majesty----"

"I haven't breathed so freely in so long."

Li Shimin gripped her hand, the veins on the back of his hand bulging.

He opened his mouth several times, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down, but he couldn't say anything.

Finally, he rested his forehead on the back of their clasped hands.

Are you hungry?

Empress Zhangsun's lips curved into a smile.

"I want to drink porridge."

Chen Shi (7-9 AM).

When the news reached Chang Le Palace, Li Lizhi was sitting in front of her dressing table, lost in thought.

The palace maid reported that the Empress had woken up and was in better spirits than in the past few days. She had already drunk half a bowl of rice porridge and had talked with His Majesty for quite a while.

The comb in Li Lizhi's hand fell onto the dressing table with a clatter.

Her fingers clenched and unclenched on her knees.

After the bandage was loosened, she looked down at the gauze wrapped around her right hand.

The blisters from yesterday's fire scalding have broken again this morning on the doorstep, and are oozing water.

She rewrapped the gauze tightly.

The news reached the Fang family at the same time.

Fang Qingjun overheard it while grinding angelica root in the courtyard.

The news that Fang Xiang brought back from the palace said that the Empress had fallen seriously ill during the night, and Mr. Su rushed into the palace to treat her, stabilizing her condition before dawn.

Fang Qingjun stopped pounding the medicine pestle in her hand.

She wrapped the ground angelica powder in oiled paper and put it in a bamboo basket.

I stood in the middle of the yard, stunned, for a long while.

Last night, on her way home carrying a bamboo basket, she was still thinking about what Su Mu had said.

"I didn't say you couldn't wait."

She pondered those words over and over in her mind all night.

This statement is now overshadowed by something else.

A kitchen servant, barefoot, rushed into the Lizheng Hall and, when the six imperial physicians were at a loss, used a stewing pot to pull the Empress back from the brink of death.

Fang Qingjun looked down at the remaining angelica powder on her hand.

She suddenly realized that the Su Mu she knew was far more different from the Su Mu in the Hall of State Affairs than she had imagined.

Noon.

Su Mu was woken up by the little ox.

He slapped his face twice, then a warm head nestled into his neck.

"Brother!"

Su Mu opened one eye.

Little Sizi leaned on the armrest of the rocking chair, her hands gripping his collar, her face close to his.

Nose tip to nose tip.

The little girl's face had been washed, the traces of chili powder were gone, her cheeks were rosy, and her eyes were shining brightly.

"Ah, wake up!"

Su Mu hummed in agreement.

"Mom said she hasn't breathed so comfortably in a long time! Mom even drank some porridge! Mom even laughed!"

Xiao Sizi's speech became faster and faster, and her legs kicked back and forth on the side of the rocking chair.

"You're so amazing, Guoguo! None of the imperial physicians could do it, but you could!"

Su Mu reached out and ruffled her hair.

"Did you finish your spicy snacks from last night?"

Xiao Sizi's expression froze for a moment.

He grinned, revealing two small front teeth with missing corners.

"It's so spicy! It's killing me! My tongue is all swollen!"

She opened her mouth for Su Mu to see. Her tongue was sticking out, and the tip was indeed a little red.

Su Mu flicked her forehead.

"Serves you right, I told you to eat less spicy food."

Little Sizi covered his forehead, but instead of being annoyed, he chuckled.

She took something out of her sleeve and patted it onto Su Mu's palm.

An egg.

"Sizi went to the chicken coop today and caught this! For the pot!"

Su Mu held the egg, which was still warm from his body, and weighed it in his hand.

Just one?

"The hen only laid one duck! The rhinoceros can go touch it again tomorrow!"

Su Mu placed the eggs on the stone table.

"Okay, I'll stir-fry it for you tomorrow morning."

Little Sizi cheered and ran around the stone table twice, her skirt flying up and brushing against the table legs.

Sunlight streamed down from above the courtyard wall; the May sun was scorching, but the waterwheel in the courtyard was still turning, the sound of water being scooped from bamboo tubes gurgling.

Su Mu sat in the rocking chair, watching the little girl run wildly around the yard.

He leaned back in the rocking chair, his hands behind his head.

The eggs were placed on the stone table, slightly warm from the sun.

The afternoon sun was setting in the west, casting a long shadow from the courtyard wall that covered half of the vegetable garden in shade.

Little Sizi was tired from running, so he lay down on the stone table, swinging his legs, his face pressed against the stone, and muttering to himself.

"Guy, it's so hot!"

Su Mu leaned back in the rocking chair and tapped his fingers twice on his knees.

The system panel hovered in the lower right corner of his field of vision, with a line of small text that had been hanging there since last night, but he hadn't had a chance to look at it closely.

[Hidden Hint: Princess Jinyang (Li Mingda) has abnormal physical signs]

[Congenital qi deficiency, weak spleen and stomach, insufficient central qi, and imbalance of nutritive and defensive qi]

Current physical assessment: Weakened immune function and delayed organ development.

[Historical trajectory: Died young (in the seventeenth year of the Zhenguan era, at only twelve years old)]

Su Mu's fingers stopped.

He turned his head and glanced at the little girl lying on the stone table.

The four-year-old was a head shorter than other children his age.

Her arms were so thin that you could hold them in one hand; the knuckles of her wrists protruded, and there was a groove between the wrist bone and the flesh.

She collapsed after running for less than 15 minutes.

A normal child this age could run around the yard for half an hour without getting out of breath.

Su Mu had noticed this before.

The little girl has a small appetite; she can't even finish half a bowl of rice before she says she's full.

My stomach keeps rumbling after I finish eating. It's not because I'm hungry, but because my spleen and stomach can't process the food properly, and it's stuck there.

My nose gets runny when it gets cool, and I get heatstroke when it gets hot.

I get hives in spring, cough in autumn, and my hands and feet are so cold in winter that you could stuff ice cubes down someone's neck.

He had been busy with the Empress's affairs, so the princess was just eating regular meals and hadn't had time for a systematic recuperation.

The Queen's crisis has now been resolved, and she has entered a period of stable recovery.

It's this little girl's turn.

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