Gluttonous Crown Princess

Gluttonous Crown Princess Chapter 21.2

After a while, as if in summary, Pei Yan said, "Xiao Liu is still young and didn’t manage to control her emotions when she suddenly missed her birth mother, so you don’t need to blame yourself."

Seeing that he did not forget to console her, Tao Ti smiled at him and picked up the teapot to add some hot tea to his cup.

Her slender wrist was slightly exposed, and the white jade bracelet on it gleamed in the dim light. Her gesture of pouring tea was gentle and refined, and it seemed as if time became longer in her every move.

"Your Highness must have also missed the late empress when you were young, right?" she asked suddenly.

"..."
Pei Yan's fingertips trembled imperceptibly.

It was quiet— very quiet.

Tao Ti immediately regretted it once the question came out of her mouth. For some reason, she suddenly wanted to know about his childhood, and momentarily forgot that their relationship couldn’t be considered as a close one…
It might be okay to ask such a thing between friends, but the two of them… Were she and Pei Yan considered friends?

It was hard for her to define what they were, so she decided not to think about it for the time being. In any case, it was a social taboo to talk about deep topics with someone who was just an acquaintance! She had better apologise first——

"I’m sor—”

“Mhm.” The pleasant-sounding voice rang out at the same time.

Tao Ti was startled. “…?”

Pei Yan nodded solemnly and said, "I did.”

When he was a child, he would miss her very, very much. But after he grew older… he tried to keep himself from thinking about her.

He had thought that the memory of his mother would gradually fade away with time, but didn’t expect that the bond between mother and child could be so deep, and last for so long.

Every time he thought about her inadvertently, his heart would become heavy and tormented. It was a bitterness that no bowl of medicinal concoction in the world could compare to.

"The late empress must also miss you very much, Your Highness," said Tao Ti comfortingly. After a moment’s thought, she told Pei Yan about the saying of how 'people would become stars and fly to the sky after death’.

Unexpectedly, upon hearing this, Pei Yan laughed softly. He looked straight at her with his peach blossom eyes, and the corners of his lips lifted. “I’m not a child. You should tell this to Xiao Liu… Who knows, she might believe it.”

Tao Ti, "..."
Well, alright. Even she herself felt that this comforting tactic was too outdated.

Pei Yan changed the subject nonchalantly, "Speaking of which, how did you make the ginger milk curd? To think it could make Xiao Liu cry, even I'm a little curious."

When it came to food, Tao Ti had a lot to say. She said, "This dessert is actually very simple to make. Squeeze out the juice of mature ginger, and boil fresh milk with sugar and rose petals until small bubbles form, then quickly pour the milk into the ginger juice and let the two ingredients collide and fuse together naturally. Finally, cover the bowl and wait for a quarter of an hour, then uncover it and it's ready."

Pei Yan raised his eyebrows, "According to your description, milk is used to “collide” with ginger juice, so it should be called milk ginger curd. Why is it called ginger milk curd instead?”1

Tao Ti, "..."
Little guy, you’ve killed the conversation again, you know?

After pondering for a moment, she explained unconvincingly, "That’s probably because it rolls off the tongue better that way. It’s just like how Roujiamo2 is not called Mojiarou."

Pei Yan, "What is Roujiamo?"

Tao Ti, "..." This damned mouth of hers!

She smiled awkwardly, "It's similar to a stuffed meat pastry. I'll make it for you next time I have a chance."

To prevent this "curious baby" from asking any more strange questions, Tao Ti got up and said, "I'll make you a bowl of ginger milk curd to try first. It’s been cold and rainy recently, ginger juice has the effect of warming the stomach, creating heat, and preventing vomiting. It’ll be good for you to drink a bowl to warm your stomach.”

Pei Yan smiled lightly. “Alright, thank you.”

Not long after, Pei Yan got to taste the sweet smoothness of ginger milk curd.

"The fragrance of the milk neutralises the pungency of the ginger, while the unique taste of the ginger relieves the sweetness of the milk. Meanwhile, the roses add to the fragrance... Sure enough, it's really good," he commented seriously.

The rain outside h ad become a little lighter. Pei Yan finished a bowl of ginger milk curd ma and made to leave.

But before he left, he suddenly said to Tao Ti, "After I’m done with the spring taxes, I’ll take you out of the palace for a trip."

Tao Ti was momentarily stunned.

Pei Yan said, "I’d promised you last time, don’t you remember?”

Tao Ti nodded hurriedly and smiled. "I remember." I just didn't expect you to remember.

Pei Yan smiled at her, then left.

Footnotes:

1 ginger milk curd: The term used in Chinese here translates literally to “Ginger colliding into milk”, which is why Pei Yan asked what he asked. As it is milk that is being added to ginger juice, he’s wondering why isn’t it called “Milk colliding into ginger” instead.

2 roujiamo: A Chinese street food sometimes known in the Western world as the Chinese hamburger. It consists of cooked meat stuffed in a type of flatbread. The direct translation for Roujiamo (肉夹馍) is “meat sandwiching the bun”, but the actual food is the bun sandwiching the meat, which is why Tao Ti implied that according to Pei Yan’s question, it should be Mojiarou (“bun sandwiching the meat”) instead.