Unlimited estates for rural beauty-Chapter 625 Second update, here comes the bird (3)

"The girl who accompanied you last time, was she your cousin?" Taking a few more steps forward, he recalled that the somewhat boisterous girl seemed to have called her cousin, which probably meant she was indeed the daughter of the Zhennan Princess, Commandery Princess Bao.

Speaking of his cousin, Xiao Jiazhen felt quite the headache. Last time she ran away from home, and had he not dragged her back forcibly, she would have likely continued to play wildly outside for a while. Remembering that he hadn’t seen her in a long time, he genuinely missed that wild girl: "Yes, my cousin, Fo Conghui, we haven’t seen each other for a long time."

"She seems very... fierce." He almost said ’brave’ before catching himself, glancing at her briefly. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

A vein slightly bulged on Jiazhen’s forehead, recalling the chance encounter, truly speechless: "My cousin is actually very nice and amiable, especially known for defending the underdog, the last time was completely a misunderstanding."

Lou Qianyu nodded: "She is a person of character."

Xiao Jiazhen just smiled, looking down as he continued to lead him to the Warm Pavilion.

As lunchtime approached, everyone saw the long table laid with various fresh cakes, some yellow, some green, and some even had a layer of white on top with a juicy cherry placed upon it.

Further in was the cold dish section, each dish elegantly presented on exquisite plates, appearing very appetizing. Without moving further, a savory aroma wafted over, with familiar and unfamiliar scents, revealing a rich variety of hot dishes upon closer inspection.

At this moment, a group of Palace Maids carried stacks of delicate small plates, methodically placing them on the table, followed closely by chopsticks, small bowls, soup spoons, and the like.

Everyone looked at each other, not understanding how to tackle this meal. Ci Li asked the person next to him: "Brother Wei, are we supposed to serve ourselves?"

Wei Zheng shook his head: "Not really sure, let’s wait and see, the Empress might arrive soon."

"Yeah, but it’s rare to have such fresh fruit in this season." Ci Li saw the fruits that looked as if they’d just been plucked, exuding an alluring fragrance.

Wei Zheng agreed: "Indeed, the Empress is now the exclusive favorite of the six palaces. Just look at this Liuli Warm Pavilion, it must have taken at least several hundred thousand taels to build."

"Hmph, not just several hundred thousand taels, as far as I know, it was a full three hundred and fifty thousand taels of silver." Ci Li widened his eyes, looking enviously at the Warm Pavilion with a twist of his mouth.

"What?" Wei Zheng hadn’t expected the Warm Pavilion to cost so much silver.

Seeing that his exclamation had attracted the attention of those nearby, Ci Li tugged at his arm to quiet him: "Keep your voice down, isn’t this amount rather extravagant? And this is just the construction cost. Just look at those rare and exotic plants. Have you ever seen them before? They probably had to be dug out of the deep mountains. Do you know how many wild beasts are in those mountains? They probably don’t even know how many people died to find these."

Weigh Zheng swallowed hard, the adage ’beauty is like a scorpion, with a wicked heart’ seemed to be true, he wiped the sweat from his forehead: "Normally, the Empress stays secluded deep in the palace, and public praise for her is unending outside. The high-yield rice was cultivated by the Empress; the fruit wines and flower wines, too, were all her creations. Never would I have thought that underneath it all she could be so venomous."

"Exactly, and these fruits, they’re not as effortless as they seem." Ci Li said disdainfully, eyeing the fruit on the table.

"Let’s not talk about it, look, the Emperor’s Dragon Carriage has arrived." He tilted his chin, his gaze directed toward the Dragon Carriage that had just stopped outside the Liuli Warm Pavilion.

Wei Zheng followed his gaze and saw the Emperor assisting the Empress from the Dragon Carriage, their expressions full of affection. It made sense, considering the Empress’s beauty, one wouldn’t be likely to look away without a second thought.