“Madam, it’s right here!” Bi Tao supported Lady Mei, stepping through the soft garden ground and arriving at this bamboo forest. She pointed to a certain spot in the corner of the wall. “Look, there are traces of dug-up soil.”
Just as Lady Mei took a few steps forward, her right foot suddenly sank into the mud. She lowered her head and saw her gorgeous golden silk shoes covered with quite a bit of muddy soil. Lady Mei covered her nose with an embroidered handkerchief, wrinkling her brow as if she found it very unpleasant. “Go, dig out whatever’s buried there.”
Bi Tao hesitated, “Madam, should I go?”
Lady Mei glared at her, “Do you expect me to go?”
They hadn’t brought any accompanying servants this time, so Bi Tao reluctantly walked over and squatted down, using her ten fingers that never touched sun-dried water to dig up the soil.
She hadn’t dug very deep when Bi Tao encountered a small paper package. She quickly brushed away the surrounding soil and picked up the paper package to show Lady Mei. “Madam, look at this!”
Lady Mei used her handkerchief-covered fingers to take the soil-covered paper package and opened it to reveal a small pile of white powder inside.
Bi Tao leaned over to take a look, her heart secretly trembling. She whispered in a low voice, “Madam, could this be… that?”
Lady Mei flicked the medicine powder with her fingers and shook her head. “No, let’s return to the palace.”
Back in the Donghua Courtyard, Lady Mei sent away the servants in the room on pretext, then instructed Bi Tao to bring a golden cage decorated with twisted flowers. Inside was a colorful little parrot, spreading its wings and tilting its head, using its beak to groom its feathers.
Lady Mei held a spoon with gold inlay, picked out a bit of the powder from the paper package, put it in the parrot’s food bowl, and stirred it with soaked millet a few times. She tapped the food bowl with the spoon. “Come, it’s mealtime.”
The little parrot was attracted by the sound, hopping over chirpily and sticking its head into the food bowl as usual, happily eating away. In less than a moment, it finished all the millet.
However, in less than a minute, the little parrot suddenly let out a cry, fell straight from its perch, and its small body trembled in pain for a few moments before going silent.
Bi Tao was frightened and exclaimed, her voice trembling, “Madam… is this… poison?”
Even Lady Mei’s face showed surprise. Clearly, she hadn’t expected this to be a deadly poison. Initially, she had thought it was some sort of drug or aphrodisiac that Bai Lu used for his schemes. She had even mocked him internally, thinking, What else can a former brothel prostitute do to vie for favor but resort to such lowly tactics?
But she never expected it to be poison, changing the nature of the situation entirely.
Lady Mei’s initial shock turned into ecstatic joy.
In fact, even before Bai Lu knew Lady Mei, she had heard rumors circulating in the palace about him and harbored deep hatred towards him. But His Majesty doted on him so much that, even as a Noble Consort, she couldn’t dispose of him as casually as a servant.
But now it was different. She had caught Bai Lu red-handed with a major piece of evidence. This thing in her hand was evidence, irrefutable evidence. Bringing poison into the palace, hoarding poisonous substances, and even secretly burying them in the garden. These charges alone were enough to doom him!
But…
Lady Mei suddenly remembered the incident in the Pavilion that day. For some reason, despite learning such astonishing truth, His Majesty hadn’t punished Bai Lu, not even scolded him. It seemed like he favored him extremely.
If she directly reported to His Majesty about Bai Lu’s secret hoarding of poison, she might not necessarily be able to bring him down. It seemed best to seize an opportunity to take action first and report later. With her family background and this legitimate reason, His Majesty probably wouldn’t blame her.
Lady Mei looked at the paper package in her hand and muttered to herself, “This requires careful consideration…”
Meanwhile, the suspect Bai Lu was unaware that he had become the target of someone’s scrutiny. He was currently in the imperial kitchen of the White Deer Palace, eagerly… no, requesting the chefs to make pearl milk tea for him.
“Pearls? My apologies, young master, but this humble one only knows that grinding pearls into fine powder can improve eyesight and soothe the nerves. It’s a medicine, but I’ve never heard of consuming whole pearls.”
Bai Lu thought explaining modern cuisine to ancient people was quite a hassle. He gestured with two fingers, “It’s not real pearls, they’re small brown spherical balls, edible. The surface is very smooth, and when chewed, it’s soft and sticky with not much flavor, but it’s a perfect match for milk tea!”
The chef looked puzzled, “Edible pearls? Honestly, I’ve traveled far and wide before, but I’ve never heard of such a dish. Dare I ask, young master, what cuisine is this pearl milk tea, where does it originate, who wrote the recipe, and are there any disciples who inherited it?”
“…”
Bai Lu was stumped. With so many people in the world drinking milk tea, who knew who invented it, or even when it began to flood the streets and occupy half of the leisure beverage market.
After contemplating for a moment, he cautiously replied, “I vaguely remember that it seemed to appear out of nowhere, and suddenly captured people’s hearts.”
The chef was astonished, “Capturing people’s hearts?! Could this pearl milk tea be some kind of demonic monster causing chaos in the world?!”
Bai Lu: “???”
Where did you come up with such an awesome conclusion?
Just then, they heard footsteps approaching from outside the kitchen. Bai Lu turned his head and saw Chu Ya entering. He was wearing a black narrow-sleeved equestrian robe, his entire person looking tall and straight, with a heroic and handsome bearing. Even his usually cold and indifferent expression seemed more refined under this attire.
He probably just returned from the martial arts field, accompanied by several tall and sturdy training guards and the familiar figure of the court eunuch.
Seeing His Majesty enter the room, the chefs and kitchen staff all knelt down to pay their respects. The head chef hurried forward, bowing respectfully. “Your Majesty, this kitchen is a place of smoke and fumes, it’s easy to soil Your Majesty’s clothes. Please think twice before entering.”
Chu Ya said indifferently, “It’s fine.”
He then turned to the chef who had been talking to Bai Lu earlier. “What he wants is very simple. Boil water with brown sugar, add tapioca flour, knead it into small balls, and put them into the boiled milk tea. Remember, the milk tea should be made with sweet cow’s milk, goat’s milk, and black tea.”
The chef bowed and complied, “Yes, this one will go and prepare it.”
Bai Lu looked at him puzzledly, “Black tea?”
“It’s red tea. Apart from black tea, there are also white tea, green tea, black tea, etc. But milk tea made with black tea has a better taste.”
Bai Lu casually picked up a chopstick from the stove and played with it like a pen, looking pensive. “You know quite a bit, even though you never drink these things.”
“Because you like it, so I deliberately looked it up.”
Chu Ya gazed at his delicate face, as if seeing the image of his past life through those familiar eyes. He smiled nostalgically, “Actually, I was quite surprised back then too. A boxer with a winning rate of eighty-three percent in combat sports actually liked to drink sweet milk tea.”
Bai Lu blushed, irritatedly breaking the chopsticks in his hand, “Mind your own business! Can’t a man drink milk tea?!”
Chu Ya chuckled helplessly, “I wasn’t mocking you, no need to be so angry.”
Bai Lu: “Hmph.”
Dewy on BLPSG Chapter 86: The Emperor’s old illness: “I want QingCi to give this little wolf a big slap after healing him -__-” Oct 23, 13:18
