Why am I, a cook, always involved in cases?

"This is a good opportunity." Quan Wushuang looked at the apricot blossoms in the distance, with the corners of his mouth slightly raised.

He recently discovered an interesting little palace maid who might be able to solve the problem at hand.

The emperor's favorite concubine, Yuyao, now has only four personal maids around her. For a high-ranking concubine, this number is too few.

Although those palace maids said they could handle all matters, Concubine Yuyao was still unwilling to increase the staff.

Quan Wushuang knew the reason very well.

Although Concubine Yuyao has a gentle personality, she is also meticulous.

In this harem, even if you are the emperor's favorite concubine, if you don't know how to be wary of others, you probably won't live long.

In fact, she had been the victim of several assassination attempts, especially when she was pregnant with the little princess.

She originally had ten maids around her, but now there are less than half left.

According to the rules, unless there are special circumstances, palace maids must be selected from the palace and no one can be brought in from outside.

She made an exception and brought in the wet nurse for a special reason.

Imperial Concubine Yuyao has always been cautious and would not easily accept palace maids of unknown origin.

But if this continues, it will inevitably be a disgrace.

Quan Wushuang hopes to add at least one more person.

Then he thought of the little palace maid with freckles all over her face.

In order to repay her for saving the little princess, Concubine Yuyao should not refuse.

More importantly, this little palace maid is quite knowledgeable about food, and it would be a shame if she didn't make good use of it.

Although there is no guarantee that she will not abuse this ability, it will be fine as long as she is placed in a suitable position.

"Let's try the beauty trap first." Quan Wushuang smiled like a fox, and even he felt that he was too cunning.

But he has no intention of changing his mind.

This is the meaning of his existence in the harem.

Once you become a personal maid, especially a maid to the emperor's favorite concubine, your treatment will naturally be different.

Lin Zhiruo jumped from the lowest level of menial servant to a middle-level palace maid.

I heard that her monthly salary would also increase, but 20% of it would have to be handed over to the vendors who trafficked her.

This system is really absurd. It must have been set by corrupt officials to enrich themselves.

Lin Zhiruo no longer had to sleep on a large bunk bed, but was assigned a small room.

In the past, she could only sleep on the ground covered with a rough straw mat, but now she has her own bed.

Although the room can only accommodate two beds, at least I don’t have to step on other people’s bodies when I get up in the morning.

There is another thing that makes her happy, you will know it later.

Concubine Yuyao lives in Fanghua Palace, and in addition to Lin Zhiruo, she has four maids serving her.

It was said that the wet nurse had just been dismissed because the little princess was weaned, but Lin Zhiruo knew the reason in her heart.

In comparison, Imperial Concubine Pinglan has more than ten maids serving her, so the staff here is really pitifully short.

When the other maids heard that a palace maid of the lowest rank had suddenly come as their colleague, although they looked embarrassed, they did not make things difficult for her. Instead, they looked at her with pity.

Soon, Lin Zhiruo understood the reason.

In front of me was a table of exquisite imperial medicinal food.

Caiwei, the maidservant of Concubine Yuyao, put a little of each dish on a porcelain plate and placed it in front of Lin Zhiruo.

Although Concubine Yuyao looked apologetic, she had no intention of stopping it.

The other three palace maids also looked at her with sympathy.

This is the bedroom of Concubine Yuyao.

Every day meals are delivered to this elegant bedroom.

To get here from the imperial kitchen, one has to pass through many palace gates, and there is no telling how many people one will meet on the way.

As the emperor's favorite concubine, Concubine Yuyao must be on guard against someone poisoning her on the way.

So I need someone to taste the food.

The prince's affairs made everyone nervous.

There are rumors in the palace that the little princess will also get sick, maybe because of a problem with her diet.

Those palace maids who didn't know where the poison came from were in constant fear.

If a maidservant was sent here at this time to taste the food, it would not be surprising if she was treated as an abandoned child.

Not only did they have to try Imperial Concubine Yuyao's meals, but they also had to try the little princess's weaning food and the supplements the emperor took when he visited.

It is said that when Imperial Concubine Yuyao was pregnant, her food was poisoned twice.

One of the palace maids only felt slightly unwell, but the other became seriously ill and her hands and feet became uncontrollable.

Those palace maids who were trembling with fear while tasting the food must have secretly been glad to have Lin Zhiruo.

Lin Zhiruo frowned as she looked at the porcelain plate in front of her.

(If you are really worried about poison, you should use silver.)

She picked up a piece of sashimi with her chopsticks, carefully observed the ingredients, and smelled the flavor.

Place the fish on the tip of your tongue and make sure there is nothing unusual before swallowing it.

(Actually, I'm not suited to this job.)

Fast-acting poisons are easy to deal with, but slow-acting poisons are useless.

Because she has loved studying food ingredients since she was a child and has tasted various flavors over the years, many poisons may have lost their effect on her.

This is not a job for Zuixianlou or Yanliuxiang, it is purely her own interest.

It is said that some people in the Western Regions call these misunderstood researchers "crazy chefs."

Even the chef who taught her cooking shook his head and sighed at her behavior.

Lin Zhiruo ignored her body's reaction and judged based on her years of experience that there was nothing abnormal, so she allowed Concubine Yuyao to start eating.

Then I tried a bowl of light rice porridge.

"In my opinion, it would be better to use silver instead." She said to Caiwei expressionlessly.

As a report on the first day's work, Lin Zhiruo was called to Caiwei's room.

Although the house is spacious, it has no unnecessary decorations, which reflects the owner's simple character.

The beautiful palace maid, who was about to turn thirty, sighed.

"It is just as Chief Minister Quan said."

Caiwei looked helpless and admitted that they used porcelain on purpose.

It turned out to be Quan Wushuang's idea.

It was probably his arrangement to let Lin Zhiruo taste the food.

Lin Zhiruo tried hard to control her expression and listened to Caiwei continue.

"I don't know why you're hiding these abilities. They can save lives and save lives."

"If you admit that you can read, your salary should be higher."

"I used to work at a restaurant in a small alley, but was later kidnapped and sold into the palace. Every month, I had to hand over a portion of my money to those evil people. It makes me furious just thinking about it."

Lin Zhiruo became calm and her words became serious, but Caiwei didn't mind.

"So you'd rather take a lower salary than give money to those people?"

The clever Caiwei seemed to understand her intention.

Seeing that the other party had no intention of blaming her, Lin Zhiruo felt a little relieved.

"Anyway, a useless maid will be replaced after two years."

Caiwei also understood this meaning.

She picked up the teapot on the table and handed it to Lin Zhiruo.

"This is..." Before she could finish her words, Lin Zhiruo felt a pain in her wrist, and the teapot fell to the ground, cracking a hole.

"Alas, this is a valuable item. I'm afraid your monthly salary won't be enough to pay for it."

"In this case, not only will I not be able to send money back home, but I will also have to compensate for the losses."

Lin Zhiruo seemed to understand Caiwei's intention, and a sneer appeared on her face.

"Please deduct it from the monthly payment. If it's not enough, deduct it from my monthly salary."

"Okay, I'll go to the Internal Affairs Department to handle the formalities."

"By the way..." Caiwei took out a piece of paper from the drawer and wrote a few words.

This is extra salary for the food tasting, just as a reward for your hard work."

The amount was equivalent to Lin Zhiruo's current monthly salary, and she didn't have to hand it in. This benefit was just right.

Lin Zhiruo bowed deeply, turned around and left the room.