Palace Fighting: Naive Concubines' Ascent to Power-Chapter 554: Sugar Rooster

Now feeling "impatient and irritable," he had no interest in dealing with state affairs and it was just the right time to spend with his Little Concubine.

He sat on the dressing stool, holding Lian Hua on his lap, and flipped through her morning’s accomplishments.

Lian Hua joyfully introduced to him what she had written, flipping through the pages and explaining as she went.

The Emperor saw the recently written phrase "imposing appearance" with an additional symbol next to it and couldn’t figure it out.

On this copybook, he had noticed yesterday that some phrases had symbols next to them, some with one symbol, others with two or three symbols.

The reason they were called symbols was that they all shared a common feature: each had a point protruding forward and a hook curved backward.

The Emperor was puzzled for a long time, unable to discern what these symbols were. His attention had been interrupted by external matters the day before, but today he finally had the chance to slowly ask, "Nannan, what are these drawings?"

He remembered that the phrases marked with these symbols were all mentioned to him, apparently as a way of making notes to differentiate them, only why were there more in some cases and less in others?

"This is a rooster," Lian Hua leaned contentedly in the Emperor’s embrace, almost ready to kick her legs in glee.

With His Majesty being so free to come back early and even witnessing her dedication, she knew she needed to work even harder in the future to make him happy.

Pointing at the symbol, she earnestly introduced, "This is a rooster’s head, this is its tail. This rooster isn’t very well drawn. Look, this one is much better, with its long tail and tall comb all depicted, Your Majesty, doesn’t it look like it?"

She was somewhat proud, as she had never before managed to draw something so lifelike. Truly, practice makes perfect; initially, these roosters were nothing but blobs of ink, but after drawing them repeatedly, she could now portray the shape of a rooster.

The Emperor was speechless at once, this cluster of black ink with curved hooks was supposedly the tail of a rooster.

He had never seen such an abstract representation, struggling to give a compliment.

He was silent for a moment, then begrudgingly said with some honesty, "Indeed, this one is better drawn than the one before."

Not getting hung up on their resemblance, he pointed at the vertical line under each rooster and continued, "Nannan, are these supposed to be candy roosters, modeled from sugar? Is this vertical line the sugar stick?"

Lian Hua was overjoyed that His Majesty complimented her rooster drawings.

Hearing the subsequent question, Lian Hua let out a soft "Oh..." and leaned in to take a closer look.

This idea didn’t seem bad at all!

The more she looked, the more she liked it, and unable to resist, she gave a thumbs up and immediately praised, "That’s right, Your Majesty, you have better ideas. Why didn’t I think of that? This rooster is too small, and the legs are difficult to draw, hard to separate. As I drew, they blended into one, so I just drew the rooster standing on one leg. But you’re smarter; I think your idea of a candy rooster fits even better."

Well... his Little Concubine was indeed both innocent and simple.

The Emperor didn’t know whether to agree or disagree, ultimately choosing to fib a little, "Nannan’s drawings are truly unique..."

Born to draw talismans, only she could understand them.

Lian Hua giggled, feeling that in this world, only His Majesty understood her. How wonderful that was. Xiao Jizi, Xiao Qing, and Xiao Linzi had all said they couldn’t understand what she was drawing, but she didn’t mind them. His Majesty complimented her drawings, and see, this was a true display of appreciation.

The Emperor touched his nose, not wanting to dampen her enthusiasm, then asked, "Nannan, these... roosters, why do you draw them off to the side and with varying numbers of lines?"

This he couldn’t figure out no matter how hard he thought, his intelligence offering no clues.

"Oh, this," Lian Hua said with a smile, her finger pointing at several words beside which chickens were drawn, and explained, "This is to show which compliment you like the most. The more roosters there are, the happier you are. Look at this word, there’s only one rooster. It means when I compliment you with this word, you generally like it, just so-so. So, next time, I won’t use it."

This was a strategy she had come up with; she would summarize which phrases worked best and use those more often in the future, while using the less effective ones less.

The Emperor followed her finger to the phrase "magnanimous," and if he remembered correctly, this little rascal had used that phrase to butter him up when she had made a mistake, hoping to get off lightly.

No wonder she had stopped using that phrase afterwards. She must have felt that his reaction was too mild...

Before the Emperor could respond, Lian Hua pointed to several other phrases, indicating which ones made the Emperor the happiest, which ones got an okay reaction from him, and which ones were just so-so. She pointed them all out one by one.

The Emperor thought back and couldn’t help but laugh and cry at the same time. She had guessed every single reaction correctly.

His Little Concubine could be very clueless at times, yet she was extremely clever when it came to these tricks and schemes.

Even Zhang Qing, who had been by his side for so many years, had trouble figuring him out, but this little rascal had him all figured out and used it to her advantage in these underhanded ways, and he indeed found it very pleasing.

It must also be because most of the time, he did not hide his emotions from her.

Indeed, his Little Concubine would be wasting her talent if she didn’t become a master of flattery.

He smiled affectionately and kissed her cheek, then asked, "Why use roosters as markers? Wouldn’t it be simpler to just make some dots?"

There was no need to go through all that trouble.

Without thinking, Lian Hua replied, "Because roosters are both vain and arrogant, Your Majesty. Doesn’t that resemble you? I strive for perfection. I’d rather not do it at all than to do something halfway. If I do it, I’ll do it to the best of my ability."

The roosters she had seen always carried their heads high, quite vain, resembling His Majesty when he was angry and she had to coax him. Turning his head away arrogantly, ignoring her, that expression was the spitting image of a proud rooster, and that was where her inspiration came from.

The Emperor’s face darkened instantly, so this was what his Little Concubine had been secretly thinking of him.

Very good, excellent pursuit of excellence, applied just in this area, too good.

Oops, it seemed she had spoken out of turn...

Lian Hua, after being too full of herself, noticed the Emperor’s reaction and quickly covered her mouth, stealing a glance at him.

The Emperor had to laugh at her audacity, "You say I resemble what?"

Lian Hua sensed the impending danger, swallowed hard, and lowered one leg, quietly moving it, ready to make a run for it.

She started to laugh dryly, "Ha ha, well, I misspoke, Your Majesty. You are the True Dragon Emperor, of course you resemble a dragon, a mighty and domineering dragon. It’s just that, I can’t draw dragons, otherwise I would have drawn ten or eight for you, ha ha..."

"Hmm?" The Emperor’s eyes began to narrow.

His Little Concubine was indeed amusing, as if she was trying to fool a ghost.

"Ha ha ha, oh, roosters are good-looking too, with their colorful feathers, just like a grown-up teasing a small child." Lian Hua felt increasingly unsettled as she spoke whatever came to mind, noticing the more she talked, the more dangerous the Emperor’s gaze became.

Realizing things weren’t going well, she decided it was wise to make her escape, "Your Majesty, I’m going to visit Grandma. I haven’t seen her in so long, and I really miss her."

She stood up, prepared to leave, but the Emperor, quick as a flash, caught her in his arms, his hand supporting her back, his other arm under her knees, and lifted her up.

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