Returning to the palace, it was already early evening, and Zhao Yao was so hungry his chest was sticking to his back. As soon as he got back to Kunde Hall, he yelled for dinner.
Liang Zhaoyi saw her son looking like a starving ghost reincarnated and felt both pity and amusent: "Eat slowly, be careful not to choke."
Zhao Yao’s mouth was full of food, so he couldn’t answer Liang Zhaoyi’s question right away.
Fearing Zhao Yao would choke, Liang Zhaoyi quickly served him a bowl of soup.
Zhao Yao swallowed the food in his mouth, but sure enough, he choked. He hurriedly picked up the soup that Liang Zhaoyi had prepared and drank it in big gulps.
Liang Zhaoyi quickly patted Zhao Yao’s back: "I told you to eat slowly, why are you in such a hurry?"
"I’m hungry." Zhao Yao said, pouting slightly, "I’m almost starving." After speaking, he lowered his head and continued to eat voraciously.
"Eat slowly, be careful not to choke again."
After eating another bowl of rice, Zhao Yao finally felt that his stomach wasn’t as empty. His eating pace gradually slowed down and he was no longer gobbling up his food.
"Didn’t you eat anything for lunch?"
"I did eat, I finished both the pancake and the stead bun." Zhao Yao held up three fingers, "I was afraid I’d get hungry in the afternoon, so I even ate an extra piece of pancake and stead bun."
"You even ate more?!" Liang Zhaoyi was astonished by her son’s words, "Wasn’t the pancake and stead bun hard to eat?"
"They weren’t tasty, they were hard and scratched my throat when swallowed." It’s the first ti in Zhao Yao’s life eating sothing so unpalatable. "If I didn’t drink water while eating them, I couldn’t have gotten it down."
"I thought you’d disdainfully refuse to eat at all." This child Yao Yao has been pampered and living in luxury since birth, always having the best food. She worried he wouldn’t finish the stead bun at lunch, but didn’t expect him to eat more.
"If I didn’t eat, I’d be hungry. Besides, everyone else was eating it, why shouldn’t I?" He likes good food, but that doesn’t an he only eats good food and nothing else. "Fourth Brother said there are still many people out there only eating hard pancakes and stead buns, and many can’t even get those."
Hearing Zhao Yao say this made Liang Zhaoyi feel very comforted.
"Your Fourth Brother is right, there are still many who can’t even eat hard pancakes and stead buns."
"If we can find the potatoes and sweet potatoes from my dream, then the people could be well-fed." Today’s spring plowing, even though he did little planting, even just eating those hard pancakes and buns gave him a sense of the people’s hardships. "Potatoes and sweet potatoes, when cooked, are soft and tasty, and they’re more filling than pancakes and buns."
"I hope your eldest uncle can find soone to discover them."
"While they felt filling at the ti, shortly after, the pancakes and stead buns left hungry again." Zhao Yao said rather disdainfully, "They really don’t satisfy."
"They can only stave off hunger for a short ti." Liang Zhaoyi asked again, "Did you learn how to plant rice seedlings?"
"I did. Fourth Brother praised my planting skills, but unfortunately, he only let plant for a while before stopping from working in the fields."
"The water in the fields is cold, your Fourth Brother was worried you’d catch a chill." Liang Zhaoyi gently caressed her son’s small face and said softly, "Focus on staying healthy this year so that you can join the planting in next year’s spring."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Yao beca wary: "Mother, you’re not going to make drink tonics, are you?"
"Not tonics, I’m planning on having you eat dicinal cuisine." Liang Zhaoyi had been consulting recipe books recently, including dicinal cuisine ones.
"Will the dicinal cuisine taste bitter?"
"Not bitter." Liang Zhaoyi smiled and said, "dicinal cuisine is also very tasty."
Zhao Yao was half-skeptical: "If the dicinal cuisine is bitter, I won’t eat it."
"Alright, if it’s bitter, you won’t have to eat it." Liang Zhaoyi asked again, "What else happened today?"
"Second Brother competed with the Crown Prince in planting rice seedlings and lost. Father kicked Second Brother...", Zhao Yao animatedly recounted the contest between Prince Dai and the Crown Prince to Liang Zhaoyi.
After hearing it, Liang Zhaoyi frowned with displeasure: "Competing over rice planting is really too childish, and the Emperor actually agreed."
"Father probably wanted to teach Second Brother a lesson." Zhao Yao recalled the Crown Prince’s skillful planting moves and was amazed, "The Crown Prince seems so gentle and frail, but he plants seedlings so well."
"The Crown Prince often goes down into the fields to farm with the Emperor, so it’s not difficult for him to plant rice seedlings."
Zhao Yao said while chewing on his chopsticks: "Actually, the Crown Prince is really nice, I think he’s better than Second Brother."
"The Crown Prince is gentle by nature and serious in his duties, indeed he’s good, but sotis being too good isn’t an advantage, especially as the Crown Prince." Liang Zhaoyi said with a aningful look, "As a Crown Prince, one must not be too gentle, sotis you have to be firm."
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