Chapter 2 Imperial Kitchen

Amidst the gurgling sounds, Li Xuan calmly licked the hair of his little master on the bed.

Princess Ankang went to the Imperial Garden today, and her activities were much more than usual. A bowl of porridge at night was not enough to fill her up.

But she still closed her eyes tightly and forced herself to fall asleep as soon as possible.

Although Princess Ankang was only twelve years old, she was particularly sensible because she had experienced many hardships.

The monthly expenses of Jingyang Palace were fixed, and it could be said that they lived a tight life.

I think the emperor never thought of treating his daughter so harshly.

But the problem was that there were too many people in the palace who wanted to bully this twelve-year-old girl to death.

With the tacit consent of many nobles, a princess could naturally live a more miserable life than anyone else in the palace.

The rumbling sound of her stomach continued, but Princess Ankang's breathing was obviously much more stable.

Li Xuan knew that the little girl had finally fallen asleep.

After rubbing his furry forehead against the little master's forehead, Li Xuan couldn't help but sigh and said:

"Who told you that you are my child?"

Li Xuan jumped off the bed lightly, and then climbed out the window.

The moonlight was just right tonight, and the silver color sprinkled all over the ground, adding a filter to the most luxurious building complex in the Daxing Dynasty.

Li Xuan quickly jumped onto the palace wall and walked along the bricks and tiles to the other end of the palace.

The palace was still brightly lit at night, and teams of patrolling palace guards held torches and passed by each other, with almost no gaps.

A black cat walking in the palace at night naturally did not attract too many people's attention.

Occasionally, a master of the palace glanced at Li Xuan, but after seeing that it was just a cat, he withdrew his attention.

There were many strange animals in the palace, and a black cat was already very normal.

Generally, these palace guards did not dare to interfere.

After all, no one knew which nobleman's pet this was.

As long as they didn't cause any trouble, they would just pretend they didn't see it.

Li Xuan had no trouble along the way, and soon he found the imperial kitchen.

The food in Jingyang Palace was bland every day, and the nutrition was definitely not enough.

He could bear it as a cat, but Princess Ankang was weak, so she had to eat something good to replenish her body.

And even if the days in Jingyang Palace were difficult, he never missed a bowl of porridge.

For this reason, Li Xuan couldn't let his little master go to bed hungry.

He quickly found a window that was not closed tightly, and after pulling open the bolt, he slipped in.

Where in the palace is there delicious food, it must be this imperial kitchen.

Don't think there is nothing to eat here at night.

On the contrary, there will be a large number of exquisite dishes left here overnight every day.

Emperor Daxing has a full 48 dishes for each meal, including staple food, cold dishes, soups, snacks, fruits, everything is available.

Moreover, the emperor only ate three bites of each dish, and if he ate more than three bites, a special eunuch would record it.

This was not for balanced nutrition or to prevent the emperor from being picky eaters, but to prevent someone from poisoning him.

Although eunuchs would test the poison of each dish, the test could only test the strong poison that would take effect on the spot.

Chronic poisons were difficult to test immediately, so there was a rule that each dish could not be eaten more than three bites.

This also resulted in a large amount of leftovers in the imperial kitchen every day.

These leftovers would be placed overnight and distributed to the people below the next day.

Not everyone was qualified to eat the emperor's leftovers.

The emperor's leftovers would be placed in the imperial kitchen overnight, and then rewarded to favored ministers and confidants.

You should know that this was not just leftovers, but also a special honor.

Next were the eunuchs in charge of the palace, most of whom had a pivotal position and role.

The leftovers would not be passed on, but would flow to restaurants outside the palace through special channels.

This is also the way for some eunuchs and maids in the palace to make money. Dishes with the name of imperial cuisine are always in high demand.

However, Li Xuan secretly cut in line and got ahead of his trusted ministers.

The whole process was optimized to: emperor, thief, trusted, eunuch in charge, imperial restaurant.

In the imperial kitchen, three large tables were placed with many delicacies from land and sea.

These were all left over from the emperor's meal today, and many of them were not even touched.

Li Xuan found a small food box in the imperial kitchen that he could carry and began to choose from a number of dishes.

"Let's get some meat. The little girl hasn't tasted meat for several days."

"We have chicken legs and braised beef."

"And lotus crisps. The little girl loves this the most."

Li Xuan was busy picking and choosing, and soon filled the food box.

He only took a little of each dish, but even so, he filled the food box with a dazzling array of dishes.

Li Xuan stopped when he saw that he was ahead and continued to put the food in. Not only did he not have enough to carry it, but it would also be easy for others to notice.

After closing the lid of the food box tightly, Li Xuan picked up the food box.

It was a little shaky at first, but he found his balance immediately.

After all, the power of a cat is limited. Even if Li Xuan controlled the weight, his movements would always be affected by holding a food box half the size of his body.

On the way back, Li Xuan carefully avoided the imperial guards.

Even though he is now a cute little cat, the imperial guards would always stop him and interrogate him if he passed by with a food box in his mouth at night.

After all, this is not the same as a kitten taking a walk at night.

It took Li Xuan more than twice as long to get back to the vicinity of Jingyang Palace.

There were fewer imperial guards here.

As he approached his home, Li Xuan also relaxed his tense heartstrings.

But at this moment, a ferocious and burly shadow suddenly stretched out from the corner in front of the Jingyang Palace.

"Oh no!"

Li Xuan immediately held the food box in his mouth and hid in the shadow under the corner, motionless.

"Meow-woo!"

Accompanied by a sharp and high-pitched cry, the owner of the shadow came out, wandered in front of the gate of Jingyang Palace, and kept shouting at the gate.

It was a one-eyed tabby cat with muscle outlines, and its size was also amazing.

Behind the tabby cat were two lackeys, Fat Orange and Cow.

The two also followed the big tabby cat, echoing from time to time.

"Meow~woo~woo~"

"Meow-woo!"

"Meow...woo!?"

Li Xuan listened to two sentences in secret and shook his head.

"What kind of quality!"

The tabby cat cursed so badly that Li Xuan was embarrassed to translate.

Where there are people, there are rivers and lakes.

The same is true where there are cats.

The leading tabby cat was the cat bully in the palace, and he would bully any cat he caught.

Originally, Li Xuan had been living in Jingyang Palace, and there would be no conflict with this cat bully.

But later, Li Xuan began to patrol the imperial kitchen at night, and accidents followed.

We are all cats. When we go out at night, we often see each other.

One time, Li Xuan was holding a full food box and was about to go home to replenish his master's body. As a result, he ran into this cat tyrant and his little brother.

Both sides were stunned at the time.

Then a big fight broke out.

Li Xuan laughed at the time: "A few little cats dared to bully me."

He did not realize the seriousness of the matter at the time.

He was beaten the hardest in his two lives because of this.

The food that he had worked hard to "bring" was eaten up, and the food box was trampled...

Li Xuan still remembers the humiliation of that day.

Since then, Li Xuan has been walking around this cat tyrant.

But the cat tyrant does not think so.

Since he had tasted the sweetness, Mao Ba often came to Jingyang Palace to block the door, hoping to rob the food in the imperial kitchen again.

However, Li Xuan was tough and remained unmoved by Mao Ba's trash talk outside the door. He was also very cautious when inspecting the imperial kitchen at night.

Originally, he was not supposed to inspect the imperial kitchen today, but Ankang went to bed hungry, and Li Xuan couldn't bear it after all.

Unexpectedly, an accident really happened.