Gluttonous Crown Princess

to be calm, “I’m glad you like it… Umm, it’s getting late, I’ll go back in to clean up a little, then prepare dinner.”

At that, she got up quickly and walked indoors in a hurry.

Pei Yan looked at her petite back, and the smile in his eyes only gradually faded after a long while.

On the side, Fu Xirui carefully observed the crown prince’s demeanour and thought puzzledly to himself, His Highness had said at the beginning that he was coming to Yaoguang Hall for a short while, and didn’t plan to stay for long… Why is he staying just because the crown princess is frying rice? How strange.

Then again, this crown princess really… doesn’t know the rules at all.
If the crown prince is staying for dinner, if there was not going to be a banquet, there should at least be a sumptuous spread as a sign of giving regard to the occasion.
But she’s really something—yesterday, it was a bowl of noodles, and today, it’s a bowl of rice?! Her husband is the crown prince, not some peddler!

Criticise as he might, when a rich and tempting fragrance wafted from the small kitchen an hour later, there was not a single person in the entire Yaoguang Hall who didn’t stretch out his or her neck to inhale deeply, including Fu Xirui.
Oh Stove Lord, what is the crown princess making? How can it be so fragrant?!

Even Pei Yan, who was sitting in the hall playing chess with himself, paused for a moment holding a black chess piece in mid-air.

Can fried rice smell so good?

Of course——
Fried rice alone did not have such power.
The reason it was so fragrant was because of the salted egg yolk chicken wings.

In the small kitchen, a small pot of boiling oil was bubbling away; chicken wings covered with batter were put into it one by one, immediately emitting a crisp sizzling as they touched the oil, while also exuding an incomparably tempting aroma.

After the wings were fried until they are golden and crispy, she fished them out.
She heated up another wok, put the salted egg yolk and other ingredients needed for the sauce in to dissolve them, then cooked it until a dense golden foam was created.
Finally, she poured the fried wings in and quickly stir-fry them to make sure they are covered with the salted egg yolk sauce.

Thus, a plate of delicious salted egg yolk chicken wings was ready.

After plating them up simply on a dish, Tao Ti turned to make salted egg yolk fried rice.

The rice was the overnight rice she specially got the imperial kitchen to prepare.
Chief Steward Sun had been a bit stunned at first upon hearing this request.
After all, the imperial kitchen only provided freshly steamed rice for the masters in the palace—who would dare to try to pull a fast one by using overnight rice? But since the crown princess specifically asked for it, he had no choice but to brace himself and send a large bowl of leftover rice meant for the palace staff’s meals to Yaoguang Hall along with some other ingredients.

Footnotes:

1 Gaoyou salted duck egg:  Gaoyou, a city in East China’s Jiangsu province, is well known for the production of salted duck eggs, especially the double-yolk duck eggs, which are commonly thought to be more nutritious and are usually more expensive.