Like Pearl and Jade

Chapter 16

Gu Ru Jiu felt that it was not appropriate for her, an outsider, to sit here during Empress Dowager Zhou and the emperor's mother-son time. So she suggested leaving.

"It is almost noon. What are you going to do when you return?" Empress Dowager Zhou immediately refused. "I had the imperial kitchen prepare your favourite dishes. If you leave, won't those dishes be wasted?"

Jin Yang also smiled and said, "Junior Sister, do not leave. I still want to get a free meal from Mother-Empress with you. If you leave, Mother-Empress will not be in the mood to dine, and I fear I will be disliked."

Empress Dowager Zhou smiled and glanced at Jin Yang. She nodded and said, "Emperor is correct."

Since the two already spoke like this, if Gu Ru Jiu still refused, then it would be untactful. Also, in the past when she came to Kangquan Palace, the empress dowager frequently dined with her. If she persisted in leaving today due to the emperor's presence, what if she caused the young emperor's unhappiness and he bullied her father?

This young emperor was at the age of teenage rebellion.

Seeing Gu Ru Jiu finally stop mentioning leaving, Empress Dowager Zhou's smile grew bigger. She had the palace attendants serve a cup of appetizing tea for Jin Yang and Gu Ru Jiu and spoke of what had happened a few days ago at the racecourse in front of the emperor.

"I heard that the two girls in the accidents were all from legitimate branches?" Empress Dowager Zhou looked at the emperor who was drinking tea with his head held low and said meaningfully, "The women of these two families are not simple people. Jiu Jiu, you have to be careful when you interact with these girls in the future."

"This subject will remember." Gu Ru Jiu nodded and said, "The girls from the Sima Family are pretty good." She hesitated and did not say that Sima Ling had warned her to be careful.

In her eyes, this may just be the other innocently giving her a kind reminder. But after the horse accident, everyone's actions would be magnified. Even ordinary concerns would have different meanings in other people's eyes.

She and Sima Ling had not had many private interactions and their relationship was a surface one. But Sima Ling treated her with more friendliness than hostility, so she was not willing to think the worst of a girl not yet fifteen.

"The Li Family..." Empress Dowager Zhou recalled that someone had mentioned a few days ago that the Li Family wanted to be in-laws with the Gu Family. But the Gu Family hadn't had any interest and then the matter was left unsettled. But she swallowed the words as she did not want to mention this matter when she thought about Jiu Jiu's young age. "I've had the imperial chef learn the recipes you gave me a few days ago. Remember to have a taste and see if the imperial chefs have mastered them."

Gu Ru Jiu smiled and responded positively. The pair's conversation moved from the racecourse accident to delicious food.

When women were extremely interested, men could not participate in their discussion. Jin Yang listened silently from the side as the empress dowager's topics reached further to the grudges of the past few decades.

Matters such as the patriarch of the Li Family being a famous jade-faced young master in the past, the conflicts between the three branches of the Sima Family, or what absurdity the Wu Family had once had.

When Jin Yang heard of how a man of a certain family had secretly kept a mistress outside and cried and begged when his wife found out and beat him up, he took a sip of water to suppress his shock.

As expected of the women in the capital. They were even more ferocious in personality than the women he encountered in Jin Prefecture.

He inexplicably glanced at Junior Sister Gu. Seeing her listen intently with her eyes shining, Jin Yang couldn't help but cough. "Mother-Empress, it is already noon."