#prawn and other stuff wrapped in beancurd and fried

[huaandbloom]

Starting my art social media shenanigans by spreading the Heiqing agenda, cos why not?

[alyseinpalace]

Chapter 29 - The Princess’s birthday

Xian Fei’s arrest was the talk of the palace for some time but all rumours and speculations ebbed quickly when the verdict was finally out. When Alyse heard that Xian Fei was sentenced to live the remainder of her life in the Cold Palace, she was relieved that at least the former consort’s life was spared and history remained unaltered. Of course the Emperor did not kill his own brother as well, and the Prince was sent to defend the fort near the Mongolia borders.

The somber incident was quickly forgotten when the palace prepared for the celebration of Yan Guifei’s daughter’s full moon birthday. Red lanterns and banners were hung at doorways, but what most looked forward to was the celebration banquet. Most being the ones who were invited. Besides the Empress and Yan Guifei of course, all the consorts from the rank of Imperial Concubines and above were invited. The consorts were also allowed to bring along their attendants who must be at least noble ladies, and to Gasha’s displeasure, Qi Fei had decided to let Nara tag along instead of her.

The dinner took place at the Hall of Union and Peace, which was a huge hall used primarily for receptions and celebrations. Nara accompanied Qi Fei for the long walk from the consorts’ house to the hall and arrived two hours before the start of the banquet, which was the expected etiquette. The Consorts and Imperial Concubines greeted each other and socialised while waiting for the banquet to start and one Imperial Concubine walked over to greet Qi Fei. It was Imperial Concubine Ling, the imperial concubine who had recently caught the Emperor’s attention, and a big braggart.

“Greetings to you, Sister.” Imperial Concubine Ling greeted, her chubby cheeks even more conspicuous with her grin. “Oh I didn’t know you’re bringing Nara! What happened to your other attendant?”

“You mean Gasha? She has already accompanied me to quite a number of banquets, so I reckon I should let Nara have the chance to experience this too.” Qi Fei smiled and nodded to Nara.

“Thank you for giving me this rare opportunity, my Lady.” Nara quickly replied with an appreciative curtsy.

“Such a sweet mouth. No wonder Sister prefers you now.” Imperial Concubine Ling snorted. Nara thought she snorted like a pig, but still returned a smile cordially.

“Anyway, how’s your dog, Sister?” To Nara’s annoyance, it seemed the imperial concubine had no plan to wrap up the conversation anytime soon.

“Beibei is healthy and fine.” Qi Fei smiled, wondering why the sudden mention of her dog.

“That’s good! Dogs are usually more obedient too, unlike my Rong’er. Just two weeks ago, she climbed up a very tall tree in the garden and gave me such a shock!”

“Oh? So how did you get her to come down the tree?”

“One of those lady guards climbed up the tree to catch her! Luckily we have people like her around! I won’t know what to do if Rong’er were to fall! I mean, Rong’er was a gift from the Persian envoy to His Majesty and  he gave her to me, so I treasure her a lot!”

“Of course you should.” Qi Fei smiled and nodded. Now she understood why the imperial concubine mentioned her dog. So that she could mention her precious cat which was given to her by the Emperor.

“Nara loves her too! She always brings this special snack she makes for Rong’er whenever she visits me!”

“As much as I love Beibei.” Nara added quickly with a smile to Qi Fei.

As Imperial Concubine Su walked over to greet Qi Fei, Imperial Concubine Ling had to put a stop in her bragging. Qi Fei quickly started a conversation with Imperial Concubine Su and exchanged opinions about a novel they had both recently started reading. Seeing that they were talking about something she could not comprehend and had no interest in, Imperial Concubine Ling bowed and left. Nara was very certain she heard an audible sigh of relief from Qi Fei.

When the banquet was almost starting, both Yan Guifei and Chu Guifei entered the hall. All the consorts greeted the two Noble Consorts and waited for them to take their seats before taking their own. Nara was mesmerised by how elegant both Noble Consorts looked in their beautiful ensemble. Yan Guifei was in an emerald silk gown and wearing a set of tiger’s eyes necklace and earrings. She was too slim to look like she had recently given birth, and her smile to the consorts was radiant. Chu Guifei was in a duke blue silk gown and wearing a citrine necklace together with her sapphire earrings. Her smile to the consorts seemed more brief. Both Noble Consorts had beautiful headdresses too, Yan Guifei had yellow peonies as accessories while Chu Guifei had orange roses. Though she could not hear the conversation between Yan Guifei and Chu Guifei from her seat right at the other end of the hall, Nara could tell from their demeanor that they were close.

While Yan Guifei and Chu Guifei engaged in their small talks softly, the rest of the consorts in the hall remained in their awkward silence. Fortunately the nanny arrived shortly with the princess in her arms and the three Consorts Qi Fei, Ji Fei and Yi Fei walked forward to have a look at the birthday girl. It was glaring to Nara how Qi Fei and Yi Fei genuinely enjoyed playing with the baby while Ji Fei was just standing there out of perfunctory courtesy.

The Head Eunuch standing at the door announced the arrival of Imperial Noble Consort Shujia and Empress Huizhang, and everybody rose to greet them. Imperial Noble Consort Shujia was merely in her mid twenties, and Empress Huizhang in her late twenties, but both women looked mature for their age. Nara reckoned it was due to the deeper hue of their silk gowns, and the long pearl necklaces and jade bangles added to a couple of years too. Both women stood by their seats and with the final announcement, the Emperor swaggered into the hall, dressed in a royal yellow changshan with the embroidery of an imposing dragon in the middle. Greetings for the Emperor reverberated around the hall as he took his seat, with Empress Huizhang on his left and Imperial Noble Consort Shujia on his right.

After the Emperor proudly announced his new born’s name as Princess Moren and made the wish that she would grow up in good health, he raised his cup of wine and drank. The whole hall thanked him for the wine and all the women drank from their cup. That was the signal for dinner to start.

“My Lady, why are we the only ones invited to the banquet? How about the directorate of the different departments?” Nara whispered to Qi Fei.

“Oh silly, they already had their banquets. Ours is the last one.” Qi Fei chuckled lightly at that question.

“Oh! I see!” Nara nodded bashfully, chiding herself for asking such naive question.

When the dishes were served, Nara was in awe. They started with a hot pot of bird’s nest soup with roast chicken, then a cold dish platter of deep fried codfish, marinated wild greens, black fungus, abalone in rice wine and drunken baby pigeon. The main dishes were stewed sea cucumber with mixed mushrooms, sauteed prawn and crab roe on glutinous rice, a hot pot of shredded lamb stomach and mutton, a hot pot of smoked meat and pine nuts, deer’s tail in brown sauce and finally steamed rice with conpoy. Desserts were the Emperor’s favourite osmanthus cake with wolfberries and potato dumpling with apricot filling in almond paste.

The dishes were served at a slow pace so that everyone could take a rest between each dish, to cleanse their palate with the pickled vegetables. Nara took the chance to peek at the Emperor when Qi Fei was talking softly with Yi Fei. He looked younger than she expected, but his voice was firm and authoritative. From how he smiled and nodded when Empress Huizhang spoke, and the way he chuckled lightly with Imperial Noble Consort Shujia, she could tell that he respected the former, but loved the latter more.

While Nara was enjoying her feast, Grace had her usual dinner with Alyse and Irgen. She could not help grousing as she picked up a small shrimp from the plate of stir-fried river shrimp with fried beancurd. “This is not fair!”

“The Emperor can’t invite everyone to the banquet, Geleishiyi.” Alyse said calmly. She, on the other hand, was quite pleased with the pot of braised lotus roots and mushrooms with roast pork.

“So they get to eat all the good stuff, and we have to eat this.” Grace groaned as she chewed a little too hard and too long on her shrimp.

“But they gave us this!” Irgen took a big bite on the peach-shaped mantou. “This birthday mantou is nice! I like the red beans filling!”