The queen is spoiling the king and madly criticizing him for spoiling her

Xie Qingzhi said generously, "If the Queen likes it, I will have someone make it for you tomorrow."

"Thank you for your kindness, elder sister." Gu Jianchu said thank you perfunctorily.

What melon? What melon?

Hearing about the melon, Xie Qingzhi immediately became interested and pricked up his ears.

[Ever since Gu Geng was expelled from Yousong Academy, he has only wanted to become the son-in-law of the Zongzheng Temple Minister family.]

Xie Qingzhi: ...

Damn, I was so busy pestering the Queen to eat melons that I forgot to tell that old guy, the Minister of the Imperial Clan Temple, about this news.

Gu Geng found a poor scholar, paid him a large sum of money, and wrote him a bunch of love letters. He then sent them to the residence of the Minister of Imperial Clan Affairs every day, sometimes sending two letters a day. However, they were often intercepted by the Minister. Seeing this was not going well, Gu Geng devised a plan. He tied the love letters to a dog and let the dog enter the residence through a dog hole. Gu Geng had previously let the dog smell Miss Rong's handkerchief, and the dog followed the smell to find the lady's courtyard.

Miss Rong was a kindhearted person. After seeing the dog, she fed it some cakes. She accidentally discovered a letter on the dog's body. She untied it and saw that it was a love letter from Gu Geng. After reading the letter, Miss Rong immediately fell in love and replied to Gu Geng.

[So, over the past few days, the two of them used this dog to keep in touch. The Minister of the Imperial Court didn't continue intercepting the love letters, and thought Gu Geng had given up on the idea, so he relaxed his vigilance.]

[Gouzi himself never thought that one day he would end up working as a messenger.]

[Shit, Gu Geng actually proposed the idea of eloping with Miss Rong, and even told her in a letter how much he liked her. However, the Minister of the Imperial Clan looked down on him as a poor scholar, and there was no way a marriage between them was possible, so he wanted to elope with Miss Rong and go to the ends of the earth with her.]

What a piece of shit! Marrying her formally is her legal wife, but eloping makes her a concubine. Gu Geng has no good intentions. If he really liked Miss Rong, he could have shamelessly tried to wangle the Minister of the Imperial Clan's Regimental Affairs with him, insisting he marry his daughter to him, or even just marry into the Minister's household as a son-in-law. All of these would have been possible. But he came up with the idea of eloping.

[He clearly wants to ruin the reputation of this young lady from the Rong family. Once word gets out that she eloped, her reputation will be completely ruined. No one will want her anymore, and she'll have no choice but to marry Gu Geng. How could such a shameless person exist in this world?]

[Oh my god, Miss Rong is really obsessed with love.]

Xie Qingzhi stared at Gu Jianchu with eyes wide open.

What does the Queen mean by this?

[Ms. Rong unexpectedly agreed to elope with Gu Geng. The two will leave tonight.]

[Miss Rong packed up all her valuables and waited for the night to climb over the wall with Gu Geng to escape the capital and live in Jiangnan.]

When he had eaten this part of the melon, Gu Jianchuqi's fingers clenched the spoon in his palm.

I don't know where to start scolding.

[How can there be someone more love-brained than Princess Wan Ning and the Queen? They're truly hopeless.]

Xie Qingzhi: ...

Thanks, I got scolded again.

What’s more friendly is that this time Wan Ning was also dragged into being scolded.

[The Minister of the Imperial Clan is a good man. Let Yunhe remind him to prevent his daughter from making a mistake.]

Rather than asking Yunhe to remind the Minister of Zongzheng Temple, Xie Qingzhi would rather be there to watch the exciting scene.

Xie Qingzhi racked her brains and said, "Your Majesty, I remember there's a place on Tongluo Street that makes excellent crystal pork elbows. If you put the pork elbows in a Hu pancake and pair it with their secret bone soup, the taste is truly delicious. Your Majesty, would you like to try it?"

She had indeed heard the palace people mention that shop. In addition to the crystal pork elbow, their most popular dish was the Hu pancake with pork elbow. It had only been open for a short year, but it had several branches in the capital. It was said that it was run by a woman. A foodie like Gu Jianchu had wanted to eat it for a long time, but it was inconvenient for her to leave the palace. Every time she wanted to leave the palace, she had to ask Xie Ci'an for a long time. Not only that, she had to pay a price when she came back.

Gu Jianchu nodded, "I want to."

"Then let's go out of the palace and try it." Xie Qingzhi raised his eyebrows and looked at Gu Jianchu with an encouraging look.

Gu Jianchu looked conflicted, "Eldest sister, I'm afraid it's not a good idea for us to leave the palace without permission."

"What's wrong with that? We can disguise ourselves and no one will recognize us. The emperor is busy with state affairs all day and has no time to pay attention to our affairs. If you are worried, you can pick a few people with good martial arts skills to protect you and me. We are just going to eat something and will be back soon. It won't take long." Xie Qingzhi kept tempting Gu Jianchu.

For a foodie like Gu Jianchu, it really has no appeal.

She remembered that Tongluo Street was just across the street from the residence of the Minister of the Zongzheng Temple, so maybe she could go there and have a look.

The Emperor has been busy discussing the selection of the tutor for Yousong Academy with the Minister of the Central Secretariat and the Grand Secretary of the Hanlin Academy. There have been continuous reports of disasters in Zhejiang, and he is so busy that he really has no time to pay attention to her.

"Sister, please wait a moment. I'll go change my clothes and then we'll set off." Gu Jianchu asked Zhuxi to help him change his clothes.

Yunhe had already prepared a carriage for them to leave the palace.

Yunhe learned some skills, and Gu Jianchu brought Zhou Hui with him.

Since the matter of the King of the Southwest was resolved, Zhou Hui was kept in the palace. Xie Ci'an saw that Zhou Hui had good martial arts skills, so he kept her by her side and arranged for her to be a sword-bearing guard to protect her safety.

Zhou Hui is a cautious person, so Gu Jianchu feels more at ease working with him.

It was too troublesome to take care of a child, so Gu Jianchu did not take Mianmian with him. Instead, he promised the little girl that he would bring her some pork elbow to eat.

After Xie Qingzhi changed her clothes, the two left the palace together.

By the time they arrived at Lin's Bakery on Tongluo Street, it was already getting dark.

The carriage stopped not far from Lin's Bakery. Xia Zhi helped Gu Jianchu and Xie Qingzhi get off the carriage respectively. The fragrance wafted over from the opposite side of the shop, a faint aroma of cakes mixed with the aroma of braised pork elbows.

The whole shop was brightly lit, bustling with activity and filled with customers. In order not to attract attention, Gu Jianchu asked Yunhe and Zhou Hui to wait by the carriage, while Xie Qingzhi and Gu Jianchu brought Zhuxia and Xiazhi into the shop.

A waiter came out immediately and took the two of them to one of the few empty seats. Gu Jianchu ordered a few pork elbows with Hu pancakes, another pork elbow, and two more pork elbows and pork elbow with Hu pancakes, and took them back to Mianmian and Xie Ci'an.

The pork elbow was braised, and the Hu pancakes were made very quickly. They were served together in a short while. Gu Jianchu divided four Hu pancakes with the pork elbow and gave them to Zhu Xia. "Send these to Yunhe and Zhou Hui to try."