Recently, the emperor's daughter was about to get married, and the emperor was deeply troubled because the princess was missing...
The princess Xiyao's husband-to-be looked at the fake maid sorrowfully. The fake maid, trembling, looked at the emperor sitting on the throne. The emperor on the throne was far from calm. In fact, he couldn't be calm at all!
Ji Feiyu on the side comforted him softly, "Since Xiyao doesn't like it, just let it go..."
The emperor held back his anger for a while but still said, "I can't swallow this humiliation!"
Ji Feiyu coughed lightly. "Actually, apart from her status which you're not satisfied with, she's really good. She's truly wonderful!"
"Good... good for what? My daughter is a princess. How could she just abandon her husband-to-be and elope with a cook! Especially when this cook is..." The emperor glanced at Ji Feiyu and suddenly fell silent. Ji Feiyu adjusted her expression and said to the husband-to-be beside her, "Ahem, Your Highness the Husband-to-be... How about I hand this girl over to you and confer on her the title of a county princess? Your status will remain unchanged..."
The husband-to-be forced a bitter smile. "Your Majesty the Queen, what I want is not this title. I just simply like Xiyao."
The emperor muttered to himself, "No. I must send someone to bring these two back!"
Ji Feiyu then comforted the husband-to-be, "Since His Majesty intends to send people to chase them, Your Highness the Husband-to-be, please wait for a while..."
The husband-to-be was extremely helpless but sighed. Wearing a red robe, he bowed and took his leave.
...
At this moment, Xiyao was dressed in a plain robe and galloping on horseback with someone.
"Hey, where do you think we should go?" Xiyao's voice was full of cheer. She had never imagined that she would elope with the little cook she loved!
"Never mind. Let's first find a remote mountain forest to hide." The handsome man behind her spurred the horse on while protecting the fragrant little princess in front of him, afraid that she might fall off the horse. It had to be said that deceiving a princess was truly an exciting thing to do. He desperately needed to calm his excited heart.
Xiyao laughed. "Great! I love living in seclusion, especially with you."
The handsome man behind her smiled. Then their figures disappeared into a forest in the distance.
...
In the forest, Xiyao looked at the house built on a big tree curiously, excited.
"There's actually such a fun thing in the world. Why have you never told me about it?"
Someone said, "There are many novel things in the world. If you like them, Xiyao, I can play with you every day."
So Xiyao climbed up the simple house on the tree contentedly. Someone let out a sigh of relief and took out a small bamboo piece to engrave words on it carefully. It read, "Father, I've found the jade as you instructed and successfully lured out the daughter of Queen Ran Su. We're now in one of the tree houses you built before. I intended to follow the original plan, but suddenly I found that I can't bring myself to do it to her..."
Xiyao was very curious up there. She didn't pay attention when she saw someone engraving something while leaning against a tree below. Their acquaintance started from the carving of the imperial palace dishes...
That time, she accidentally broke into the imperial kitchen and saw a little cook carving a white radish.
"Ah! This is so beautiful. How did you do it? Teach me!!!" Xiyao's sudden exclamation startled the person who was engrossed in carving. When he saw it was a cute girl, he immediately said coldly, "Don't come here to cause trouble. I'm busy."
Xiyao naturally refused to accept this. Hearing his words, she instead squatted beside him and watched.
At first, the person didn't pay much attention. He thought she was just a bored little maid. After all, in a place like the imperial kitchen, the person he was looking for wouldn't come. So he was rather cold to her. But Xiyao seemed to be fascinated by his skillful hands. She came to watch him carve every day. Later, she simply said she wanted to worship him as her teacher and asked him to teach her.
He was initially reluctant. But later, seeing that she was truly eager to learn, he agreed. So for a long time, the two of them would stay in a corner of the imperial kitchen, studying how to carve with vegetables together.
After persisting like this for a while, Xiyao's carving skills were passable. But their relationship remained lukewarm with little progress. The real turning point in their relationship came when Xiyao brought a butterfly-shaped jade pendant one day.
That day, the person was carving. Suddenly, he noticed a jade pendant on Xiyao's skirt. He picked up the jade and asked, "The carving of this jade is so beautiful. Where did you get it?"
Xiyao thought the little cook simply admired the carving skills of the jade. She picked up the jade, wiped it carefully, and said proudly, "Of course, someone gave it to me!"
"Oh? Why didn't I see you wearing it before?"
Xiyao thought for a while, scratched her head, and said, "I forgot before..."
The person then smiled at her. When teaching carving techniques, his voice was a bit gentler. After Xiyao left, the person secretly took out an identical jade pendant from his bosom and thought happily, "Father, all your hard work in sending me into the palace was not in vain. I've finally found the person you asked me to look for."
Since then, the person's tenderness was revealed under his cold exterior. With his handsome appearance, excellent skills, and every frown and smile, he made Xiyao fall in love with him.
Later, the person used all the tricks he had learned from his father to deal with women and successfully took her away before the princess's grand wedding. From then on, they were carefree.
...
Three days later, the person and Xiyao were lying on the grass under the shade of a tree, chatting.
The person had a foxtail grass in his mouth and said, "Xiyao, don't you regret running away with me like this?"
Xiyao turned her head and glanced at the person beside her, smiling slightly. "Why should I regret it? I think this kind of life is great now! Except that I'm bitten badly by mosquitoes."
"Got bitten? Where?" Seeing this, the person sat up and looked at Xiyao's arm. But Xiyao hid her arm behind her back. "Don't look."
But the person didn't care. He pulled out her hand and said, "Let me take a look, okay?" Seeing that he was very concerned about her, Xiyao had no choice but to roll up her sleeve.
As a result, when he saw it, the person gasped. On Xiyao's snow-white hand, there were many swollen red bumps, which looked really distressing.
Although the person was reluctant to admit it, his heart still twitched when he saw Xiyao being bitten.
"Xiyao... If you follow me, there will be a lot of hardships in the future. Maybe one day, we'll have nothing to eat." After thinking for a while, the person still decided to tell her about the possible hardships in the future to make her back off. After all, he was serious while Xiyao was naive.
"I was just bitten by mosquitoes. So what? I don't mind. I really don't mind." Xiyao looked at him with a smile. Then she wrapped her arm around his and leaned on his shoulder. "It's okay. If we have nothing to eat, we can eat wild fruits. Even if we get tired of wild fruits, we can carve them into various shapes and pretend we're eating something else."