Cypress Boat Floating

Chapter 178 Mother and Son

The weather is great today and the sun is shining brightly.

After Lu Ci Qiu and Lu Zhi Xing retired from the court, they walked towards the harem together. Today was the day they went to the palace to visit their mother. In the past two months, Lu Ci Qiu had not been to the palace because of house arrest. Concubine Shu missed him very much. Today, she was finally able to come to the palace. Concubine Shu had prepared food early and was waiting for them to come.

"Mother~" Lu Ci Qiu's voice spread before he arrived. When Concubine Shu heard his voice inside, she was so excited that she quickly came out to greet him.

When she saw him, her eyes were sore and tears almost fell. She tightly grasped the hand of Lu Ci Qiu who ran to her like a child and said, "Why have you lost so much weight?"

Concubine Shu reached out and touched his face. The baby fat on his cheeks was gone, and his jawline was clear and sharp. When she touched it, it was all bones, with not much flesh left.

"Isn't this because I miss my mother? Xiao Ba hasn't seen my mother for a long, long time." In front of Concubine Shu who truly loved him, Lu Ci Qiu still liked to act like a spoiled child, and it was very natural.

"Okay, you're already grown up, and you're going to get married, but you're still so clingy to mother." Lu Zhixing, who was following behind him, pulled him by the collar and pulled him away from Concubine Shu, then saluted to Concubine Shu obediently: "Mother."

"Come, come, come in quickly. Your mother has prepared food for you. Eat more. By the way, your mother will cook some refreshing water chestnut cakes for you today. Can you take them back?" Concubine Shu took one son in each hand and walked towards the dining room. As she walked, she sighed that Lu Ci Qiu was too thin. She felt distressed for him.

Lu Ci Qiu kept explaining that he was not thin, but that he was growing taller. Only then did Concubine Shu half-believe and half-doubt when the topic was brought up.

The mother and her two children had a happy breakfast.

Normally, a prince would go to the palace to see his mother, have breakfast together, and then go about his business. Those who have official duties would do their own things.

But today, it was indeed because they hadn't seen Concubine Shu for a long time, and they both wanted to stay with her for a while longer. After paying their respects to the Emperor, they applied to him and were finally approved. Today, they can stay in front of the palace gate and then go back.

When raising her children, Concubine Shu always let them do things by themselves. So after breakfast, she asked her two sons, who had already become princes, to go to the yard, where the horse hooves had not been peeled yet and were still whole.

Concubine Shu had three small chairs brought over and gave one to each of the brothers, and then they sat together in the yard to deal with the horse's hooves.

"How have you two been doing lately?" Concubine Shu asked as she moved her hands skillfully.

The other two were not bad either. After all, they had been helping Concubine Shu to process food ingredients since they were young, and they were very familiar with these tasks.

"I have a good news to tell my mother. Wangshu is pregnant." Lu Zhixing said this with his head down, fiddling with the knife seriously and cutting the horse's hoof. His face was still as cold as ever, but Concubine Shu and Lu Ci Qiu saw a smile that could not be hidden in him.

"Really?" Concubine Shu exclaimed, "Then I have to prepare some things to protect the pregnancy. You take them back and give them to Wangshu. Find a few more imperial doctors to protect the pregnancy. Remember to check all the prescriptions written by the imperial doctors. Pay more attention. By the way, how many months has it been? Yuanyuan is still young at this time. I am afraid that it will offend her mother. Do you want to send her to me for a while?"

Concubine Shu was extremely happy, but a woman's pregnancy was a big deal, and she was extremely worried about her daughter-in-law, fearing that she would lose the pregnancy because of some dirty things.

Lu Zhixing smiled: "Mother, don't worry too much, Wangshu understands everything. As for Yuanyuan, forget it. Her mother will definitely be sad if she suddenly leaves her mother, and children at this age like to be with their parents."

Lu Ci Qiu was also happy for Lu Zhixing, and teased Concubine Shu with a smile on his face: "That's right, mother, the palace is a mess, and Yuanyuan is still young and naive. She is not as comfortable in the palace as in the palace. My sister-in-law and my second brother are taking care of her, so what are you afraid of?"

"You kid." Concubine Shu pretended to pat Lu Ci Qiu, but the other party dodged it.

In a small courtyard, the three people sitting here at this moment seemed to have returned to the past, without so much trouble. Lu Zhixing also returned safely from the battlefield. Lu Ci Qiu was still young and could only cling to others and call "brother, mother". If no one responded to him, he would keep calling.

Whenever he was asked to help with work, he would be lazy and would rely on Concubine Shu and refuse to move, and would have to rely on his mother. At this time, Lu Zhixing would usually step in, grab the back of his neck and press him onto a small stool, forcing him to do the work instead of pestering his mother.

Lu Zhixing was very authoritative like an older brother, which often made Lu Ciqiu afraid to say too much or move too much when facing him. Whatever he said was what it was, but this brother loved him very much and would always think of him when there was something good.

As soon as the first tray of water chestnut cakes comes out of the oven in summer, the first piece after it cools down will always be his, even when he has grown up.

Pan Tang water chestnuts were brought as tribute by the Lingnan Jiedushi when he came to Beijing to meet the emperor a few years ago. The fresh water chestnuts were peeled, cleaned, chopped and set aside for later use.

It takes too long to grind water chestnuts into powder, so Concubine Shu had supervised the servants to roast the water chestnuts into powder over a slow fire a few days in advance. She didn't want to delay her time with her two children because of such a small matter.

Add water from the well to the water chestnut powder in proportion to make a slurry. If you want the slurry to be smooth and free of grains, you have to sift it. The sifted slurry is called raw slurry. Put the raw slurry aside for later use.

Take a pot, add water and sugar, and put the fresh water chestnuts on the side in and cook together. When the sugar melts, scoop a spoonful of the starch paste on the side and add it in. This is called cooked paste.

When the cooked pulp is boiled until it becomes silky and smooth, pour it into the raw pulp that has just been placed aside, stirring while pouring to make it evenly mixed. This is called raw and cooked pulp.

Only when the batter is fully stirred and evenly mixed will it not separate into layers when steamed.

Now everything is ready, the only thing missing is a favorable wind. Find a tray. If you want to eat the water chestnut cake directly, pour all the raw and cooked paste into the tray in one go and steam it.

If you want to eat thousand-layer water chestnut cake, it’s a little more troublesome. Pour a little and steam one layer at a time. When one layer is cooked, pour the next layer and continue steaming.

When her son grew up, Concubine Shu no longer did everything by herself, so she just stood by and directed her son to pour the pulp.

Lu Zhixing poured the paste, covered it with a lid and let it steam for about quarter of an hour.

The three of them sat aside and chatted while waiting. Lu Ci Qiu was bored and threw a few sweet potatoes into the stove. When the water chestnut cake was ready, the sweet potatoes could be eaten.

"Xiao Ba, mother heard that your house will soon have a mistress?" Concubine Shu was holding the tea and sipping it nonchalantly, but her eyes clearly showed "I want gossip".

Lu Ci Qiu paused as he fiddled with the firewood, but soon returned to normal: "That's impossible. Where did mother hear that?"

Concubine Shu: "There's no need to go anywhere to hear this. It's known everywhere that the Eighth Prince brings a woman in and out every day."

Lu Ci Qiu glared in the direction of Lu Zhixing, expressing his severe condemnation.

How could the eye contact between the children escape the eyes of Concubine Shu: "Don't look at your brother, that's not what your brother said."

Lu Ci Qiu gritted his teeth. He wanted to tell his mother openly that he liked Ye Jianqing, but he didn't have enough confidence to protect Ye Jianqing. He also didn't want to make up Ye Jianqing's identity in front of his mother. Just when he was struggling and didn't know what to say, Lu Zhixing spoke first: "Mother, that woman is my secret guard. Send her to protect Xiao Ba openly. He is a rookie and acts impulsively, which will easily arouse jealousy and hatred."

Concubine Shu nodded in agreement: "Indeed, Xiao Ba has made a lot of achievements in the past two years. Some people may regard him as a thorn in their eyes, so it would be a good idea to find someone to protect him."

Lu Ci Qiu quickly changed the subject and quickly moved the topic to something he was more concerned about: "Mother, stop talking about me and my second brother all the time. How are you doing in the palace recently? Is there anything interesting?"

Concubine Shu's expression remained unchanged. She just smiled and waved her hand: "Well, what's so interesting in the palace? It's just the same thing coming and going. There's nothing to say."

Lu Ci Qiu frowned secretly, feeling that something was wrong with the situation.

Normally, when my mother saw them, she would always pull them aside and talk a lot, sometimes she would tell them about what happened in the palace, but today she was so abnormal and kept silent.

Could it be...that something really happened to my mother?

Before my rebirth, Concubine Shu's death was pushed back a few years, so it shouldn't have happened that soon, right? Or was it really my appearance that caused the timeline to be messed up, thus bringing forward Concubine Shu's death?

When Lu Ci Qiu thought of this possibility, his face turned pale.