Housekeeper of the Hundred Blossom Palace

After listening to the brief explanation of what had transpired until now, the crown prince was convinced, and he nodded.

“I see, so you met Youren. Not only that, you came across a bad scene. ”

‘Eh, he wasn’t surprised about the matter of the imperial prince running away.’

Conversely, Yui Mei was the one surprised, but the crown prince started talking again.

“Yui Mei, do you want to drink some tea before we talk? I also want to take a break. ”

“Then, I will prepare immediately.”

At his words, the lady-in-waiting was about to begin preparing the tea, when Yui Mei shyly asked.

“Ahm, would it be alright if I ate some manju?”

The lady-in-waiting smiled when Yui Mei took out the bundle of manju from her bosom.

“Then, let us reheat it? I just lit the fire to boil water.”

Furthermore, she made a delightful proposal. She was truly gentle towards a low ranking court lady. She was vastly different from the other maid who took the imperial prince away.

“Yes, please!”

With this, it became a snack time with warm manju and luxurious, flower-scented tea.

‘Hmm, so delicious!’

Yui Mei savored happiness as she bit into the manju.

In a world with no microwave oven, eating warm snacks was the highest form of luxury.

The crown prince watched her with a smile as he had his tea. He held a beautiful, leaf-shaped baked sweet while he relaxed for a moment.

Libin did not take a break, and remained on standby.

It seemed as if Yui Mei was a guest in this place.

It was a strange feeling since she was a court lady with the lowest status.

After Yui Mei finished her manju and was feeling relaxed, the crown prince got down to business.

“So, Yui Mei, regarding the matter of Youren.”

“Ah, yes.”

Yui Mei who had completely relaxed, nodded in a fluster.

‘That was close, I had been too happy that I forgot my purpose!’

Libin glared at her, seemingly seeing through her thoughts, but she ignored him and maintained a smooth expression.

The crown prince pretended he didn’t see their silent attack-defense interaction, and he began talking about the imperial prince.

“The first time I saw that spectacle was at the banquet hosted by Father.”

The young prince Youren was taken by his mother, Consort Hu, to greet his father, and afterward they were guided by the lady-in-waiting to their seat, then they started the meal.

“However, right after the meal started, he started to struggle abnormally.”

Imperial Prince Youren supposedly ate the same food as everybody else, but he was the only one suffering, so the venue was in an uproar.

Naturally, it was suspected to be poison, but the tester for poison did not have any abnormalities, and the other people who ate the same food were also the same. No poison was detected even after examination.

The matter was concluded with the explanation that his body must have been unwell at that time.

“However, the same thing happened at every gathering.”

It would leave a bad impression if the occurrence was repeated frequently.

Eventually, the empress dowager could not take it anymore.

‘That child is possessed by a curse, get him out of my sight!’, she yelled.

‘I see. So he lost weight because of an eating disorder.’

A person who had a hard time during mealtimes would then shirk at the very thought of eating.

It would be in line with the reason why an imperial prince who was supposedly blessed with food, became so thin to the point that it was very obvious.

Anyway, the circumstances behind the imperial prince’s problem became clear.

“Were the dishes served at the banquet made to suit the taste of His Majesty?”

The crown prince shook his head at Yui Mei’s question.

“No, Father was not picky about his food, in fact, he is indifferent about that. That’s why most of the time, the dishes served would be according to the preference of the empress dowager.”

“I see,” mumbled Yui Mei.

“The empress dowager will eat lavish dishes for sure, right?”

“Well, she loves luxury, so that is for certain. She would always have them use high-grade ingredients, after all.”

The crown prince shrugged at Yui Mei’s words.

In any case, the Inner Palace was a place where a huge amount of money would be gone in a blink of an eye. If the empress dowager who was at its pinnacle preferred extravagance, then her followers would also imitate her.

Perhaps, the crown prince was experiencing headaches due to financial problems.

“I would like to ask one more thing, does His Highness the Imperial Prince Youren eat manju?”

The crown prince was stupefied for a moment due to the sudden change of topic from the banquet, but he then answered properly.

“He can eat it, I think? He supposedly loved manju.”

“Hmm, hmm.”

‘Yup, just as I thought.’

The crown prince’s eyes shone at Yui Mei’s convinced expression.

“Yui Mei, perhaps you know the truth about the ‘curse’?”

Yui mei nodded her head distinctly at the crown prince’s query.

“Relatively, yes.”

“Really!?”

“Well…”

Libin and the lady-in-waiting were also taken aback, so she replied.

“After hearing the explanation just now, there was one reason that came to my mind.

Food allergy, in other words, it is hypersensitivity.”

Everyone fell silent at her words.

“… Alerji? Hypersensitivity?”

Hearing these unfamiliar words, the crown prince looked at Libin and the lady-in-waiting, but both of them could only shake their heads.

Hi everyone, Hanazakura here, thanks for reading, I’m grateful to you guys! Hope you enjoyed this chapter. We reached our 10th chapter milestone, hurray! Housekeeper of the Hundred Blossom Palace will now have a set schedule!  We will be releasing a chapter three times a week from now on. It will be every Mon, Wed and Fri, at 8:00 GMT. 

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