Chapter 6: Self-heating Hot Pot

Liu Che had been on the throne for nearly ten years, but he still had no sons.

Liu Che, who had an imperial throne to inherit at home, urgently needed a son to stabilize his imperial power. So now, Wang Meiren, who was pregnant with the imperial heir, was like having a gold medal for exemption from death; she could not be killed.

Ajiao also understood this truth, but she was not reconciled to letting the real culprit who indirectly killed her daughter go so easily. She turned her head to look at Liu Che, trying to see a trace of anger on his face for the culprit who harmed his child.

However, there was none.

Upon hearing the news of Wang Meiren's pregnancy, although no expression change could be seen on his face, the slightly raised eyebrows showed his good mood.

Ajiao's heart went cold, and she looked coldly at Wang Meiren, who was crying and begging for forgiveness as she was about to be taken away, looking so pitiful.

Wang Taihou spoke at the right time: "Wang Meiren is certainly wrong, but the child in her womb is innocent."

She paused slightly while speaking, and then continued: "In my opinion, order Wang Meiren to nurture her pregnancy well in the Lanlin Palace. If she gives birth to an imperial prince in the future, then today's mistake can be offset."

After the words were finished, everyone seemed to have no opinion. Wei Zifu clenched her fists tightly. Even if she was dissatisfied with such a result, she had to accept it, only hoping that the child in Wang Meiren's womb was definitely not a boy.

Liu Che said slowly: "Since this is the case, let's do as Mother says. Wang Meiren, you will be confined to the Lanlin Palace from now on, and reflect on your mistakes behind closed doors until the child in your womb is born."

Hearing the pardon for herself, Wang Meiren kowtowed repeatedly: "Thank you, Empress Dowager, thank you, Your Majesty."

"Heh." Ajiao sneered, her beautiful phoenix eyes seeming to be frozen with ice as she looked at the emperor on the side: "So in Your Majesty's heart, this unborn child is more important than A Li."

Facing Chen Ajiao's gaze, Liu Che was slightly startled. He opened his mouth to say something, but suddenly felt that there was no need to explain anything to her for any decision he made now.

He raised his eyebrows slightly and admitted: "This child is of course important."

Hearing his words, Ajiao slowly lowered her eyes, only feeling that everything before her was so ironic. She even felt a bit glad that her A Li was already gone; otherwise, how sad would A Li be to hear her father say such words?

Chen Ajiao stood up, held Liu Li's hand, and said: "A Li, let's go." She felt uncomfortable staying here for even a moment longer.

The Empress Dowager and the Emperor were still here, yet the Empress left on her own. The beauties in the hall looked at each other, only feeling that the atmosphere in the entire hall had become a bit subtle.

Liu Li followed Ajiao and prepared to leave the Changxin Hall. When she passed by Zhang Tang, she stopped.

Ajiao looked down at her.

Liu Li looked at Zhang Tang and said: "I heard that Tingwei Zhang has always taken the law as the standard and is upright and admirable. Now that the perpetrator can be pardoned, yet Tingwei Zhang doesn't have any opinion. Tsk, you are nothing more than this."

Zhang Tang: "..." Being told this by a child, he felt a bit ashamed.

After finishing her verbal attack, Liu Li pulled Ajiao and prepared to leave. Just as the two reached the door of the Changxin Hall, they heard Zhang Tang behind them suddenly speak: "Your Majesty, Empress Dowager, this minister believes that Wang Meiren cannot be pardoned, otherwise the laws of our dynasty will become a mere decoration, which is unfavorable to the country."

Wang Meiren, who was still rejoicing at having escaped a disaster, was dumbfounded: "??"

Ajiao naturally heard Zhang Tang's words, but she had no interest in knowing the result anymore and boarded the phoenix carriage with Liu Li and left.

On the carriage, Liu Li leaned against Ajiao and asked: "Don't you want to know the final result of Wang Meiren?"

Ajiao scoffed, mocking lightly: "No matter what the result is, Wang Meiren will definitely not be punished for now, at most it will be waiting until she gives birth to the child before punishing her."

But no matter what the punishment was, it had no meaning anymore. Chen Ajiao suddenly felt that she was such a failure, unable to protect her daughter, and even unable to avenge her daughter. She missed the time when her grandmother was still alive; at least at that time, no one dared to bully her A Li.

So what was the point of heaven letting her walk this life again? For a time, Ajiao fell into her own thoughts.

Seeing Ajiao's lost mood, Liu Li stretched out her little hand to gently hold Ajiao's hand, comforting her: "Don't worry, Wang Meiren's child is definitely not a boy. After she gives birth to the child, we will take revenge again."

Facing Liu Li's big black eyes, Ajiao's mood improved a little, and she raised her eyebrows and asked: "How do you know it's not a boy?"

Liu Li raised her little chin slightly and said: "Have you forgotten? I am a person from the future. History records that Liu Che's eldest son was born to Wei Zifu. And Wei Zifu only gave birth to the eldest imperial son after giving birth to three daughters. So the children in Lady Wei's and Wang Meiren's wombs cannot be boys."

Ajiao listened to Liu Li's analysis and whispered: "Is that so?"

It was still Wei Zifu after all... His first child was born to Wei Zifu, and his first son was also born to Wei Zifu. Chen Ajiao thought of herself in her previous life, often quarreling with Liu Che because of Wei Zifu's existence.

The palace servants all said she was arrogant and jealous, but if she didn't care, how could she quarrel with Liu Che again and again?

And Liu Che was truly heartless. Their many years of husband-and-wife relationship eventually turned into a sentence—"The Empress has lost her order, is deluded by witchcraft, and cannot bear the mandate of heaven. Take back the seal and ribbon, and retire to the Changmen Palace."

Reborn back to the third year of Jianyuan, Chen Ajiao learned to be obedient. She didn't want to love Liu Che anymore, so whether he wanted to take in beauties or favor Wei Zifu, she didn't care.

Looking at Ajiao's sudden melancholy, although Liu Li didn't know what she was thinking, she could feel that she was not very happy.

"After returning to the Jiaofang Hall, let's eat hot pot together." Liu Li said.

Ajiao recovered, a bit puzzled: "Hot pot?"

Liu Li nodded, her little expression carrying a bit of coquettishness: "There is nothing that a hot pot can't solve. If there is, then eat two."

Ajiao was amused by her appearance and nodded with a low laugh: "Okay." Although she still didn't know what hot pot was.

Liu Li stared at Ajiao's smile in a daze. The way she smiled was truly beautiful, her phoenix eyes curved into crescent moons, her charming smile making it impossible for people to move their eyes away.

For a moment, Liu Li realized why she felt Wang Meiren was familiar when she saw her in the Changle Palace just now; her lively and vivid appearance was very similar to Ajiao before her.

What's going on? Does Emperor Wu of Han also play the "resemblance" game? But isn't Chen Ajiao still alive and well?

——

After returning to the Jiaofang Hall, Ajiao waved her hand to signal the palace maids to retreat, leaving only the two of them in the room.

Liu Li took out the self-heating hot pot she had redeemed and placed it in front of Ajiao: "Look, this is the small hot pot I was talking about." It was a pity that the points she currently had could only be exchanged for these snack-type foods. After she had more points or unlocked other types, she should be able to eat more things.

Ajiao stared curiously at the small box in front of her: "Can this be eaten?"

Liu Li nodded. She knelt beside Ajiao, moved her little butt, opened the self-heating hot pot, and inside were vegetable packs, meat packs, and a heating layer.

After preparing the seasonings for the two self-heating hot pots, Liu Li wanted to pick up a water pot on the side to add water. Ajiao took the water pot from her little hand and said with a smile: "I'll do it."

Ajiao carried the water pot, pointed to the layer and asked: "Just pour the water in, and that's it?"

Liu Li nodded: "En en, that's right."

Ajiao poured the water into the layer as instructed, and Liu Li moved to put the lid on: "Wait a few minutes and it will be ready to eat."

The two sat around a small table. Ajiao was full of curiosity about the small hot pot in front of her. After a while, hot air began to rise from the small hot pot, but clearly, there was no fire at all?!

"Does the future... have many things like this?" Ajiao turned her head to look at Liu Li, her beautiful phoenix eyes carrying a gentle smile: "This is also something from your future, right?" Saying this, she took a piece of facial tissue out of her sleeve.

This was the facial tissue she had redeemed when Liu Li gave it to Ajiao to wipe her tears.

Liu Li nodded: "Right, this is called facial tissue."

"Paper?" Ajiao found it incredible: "So thin and delicate, it's actually paper?"

At this time, there was actually paper, but the process of papermaking was cumbersome and expensive, so only wealthy nobles could afford it. In the entire Weiyang Palace, only Liu Che's Xuanshi Hall had paper, which was produced in small quantities every year.

Liu Li smiled and said: "There are many types of paper in the future. There is paper specifically for writing, paper specifically for wiping things, and paper used for packaging."

"Truly magical." Ajiao carefully put the facial tissue away again. If possible, she really wanted to see the world of the future with her own eyes.

"The hot pot is ready to eat." Liu Li had long smelled the fragrance from the small hot pot, and the saliva in her mouth was secreting non-stop.

Ajiao looked at the steaming hot pot and sniffed the smell, feeling a bit incredible: "So fragrant." This was a smell she had never smelled before.

Liu Li broke the disposable chopsticks in the package and handed them to Ajiao: "Try it."

Ajiao took the chopsticks, saw the lotus root slices in the hot pot, picked up a piece and was just about to eat it, when she heard Liu Li remind: "Be careful, it's hot."

"Okay." Ajiao replied, blew on it gently, and took a small bite of the lotus root slice.

A fragrant and spicy taste filled her taste buds. This was a taste she had never eaten before. She didn't know what words to use to describe it, but in short, it was very novel and delicious.

"Is it tasty?" Liu Li was better at eating than Ajiao. She ate the meat slices inside in the first bite, and it was so hot that her words weren't even clear. In the more than half a month since she transmigrated to the Western Han, she had been eating the coarse grains here that had no nutrition, and she had been craving hot pot for a long time.

After Ajiao finished the lotus root slice, she began to try other things in the hot pot. There were many things she didn't know what they were, but seeing Liu Li eating happily, she didn't ask anymore, but slowly tasted this rare delicacy.

Her mood seemed to have really improved a lot.

Liu Li finished her small hot pot quickly, burped comfortably, and patted her little belly that was already full. Then, she rested her chin on one hand and watched Ajiao eating gracefully.

So it turns out that good-looking people look good even when eating hot pot.

After the two finished eating the hot pot, Ajiao stared at the box that held the hot pot and asked: "What should we do with the rest of these things?" She subconsciously felt that these things still shouldn't be seen by others; otherwise, it would probably be very troublesome.

When Ajiao asked this, Liu Li also realized a point she had ignored.

These were all plastic packaging, and they couldn't be thrown away casually. Not to mention polluting the environment, if they were picked up by others, she wouldn't know how to explain the origin of these things.

Liu Li thought for a while and said: "Let's wash them clean and hide them first." It seemed she couldn't redeem things with plastic packaging like this in the future; the trash was hard to deal with.

Ajiao nodded: "I will let Fuqu take these to be washed clean."

Liu Li suddenly asked: "Is Fuqu... reliable?"

Hearing Liu Li ask this, Ajiao nodded with a smile: "In my previous life, I was deposed, and it was Fuqu who accompanied me to the Changmen Palace, and she was the one who accompanied me until the end."

"That's good." Liu Li nodded and looked up at Ajiao: "Since you trust her, then I trust her too."

The reason Liu Li asked if Fuqu was reliable was because the Furong who used to take care of the original owner was not reliable at all.

On the day the original owner fell into the water, it was actually Furong who deliberately made the original owner cry, and then Furong told the other palace maids in the Jiaofang Hall that the princess wanted to see the Empress, which brought the original owner out of the Jiaofang Hall.

Furong had been threatened and bought off by Wei Zifu.

Furong had once stolen the original owner's things and wanted to take them out of the palace to sell for money, but she didn't expect to be caught by Wei Zifu's younger brother, Wei Qing, who was a guard in the imperial palace. Wei Zifu used this to threaten Furong to bring the original owner out of the Jiaofang Hall.

That was why the original owner "happened" to meet Wei Zifu.

Wei Zifu's original purpose was just to let the palace servants see the original owner's limp and simple-minded appearance with their own eyes, so that the rumor that Princess Chen was a simpleton would become true.

Yet she didn't expect that while she was calculating others, there was also a Wang Meiren calculating her.

Wang Meiren had long known that she was pregnant, but she deliberately hid it because she wanted the child in her womb to become the Emperor's eldest son. Thus, a conspiracy against Wei Zifu began.

It was just that what Wang Meiren didn't expect was that Princess Chen would fall into the water with Wei Zifu, and in the end, she herself was dragged out. Fortunately, because she was pregnant, she temporarily saved her

life.

In Wei Zifu's Pixiang Hall, her personal palace maid Xia Ling was massaging Wei Zifu's shoulders. She said: "Fortunately, the little imperial prince in the concubine's womb is blessed, otherwise he would have really fallen into Wang Meiren's poisonous scheme."

Wei Zifu gently stroked her belly, her eyes gentle: "Yes, fortunately this child is fine." Saying this, she couldn't help but think of that Princess Chen, feeling surprised in her heart.

Clearly she was a fool, why did she suddenly return to normal? And when facing Liu Li's gaze, she always felt like sitting on pins and needles. Was this a gaze a five-year-old child should have?

"Xia Ling, find a time and let Zhongqing (Wei Qing) come to me." Wei Zifu said to the maid.

Xia Ling nodded quickly, a very obvious joy appearing on her round face: "Nuo."

In the Jiaofang Hall, Fuqu washed the two boxes of unknown things according to Ajiao's instructions and asked: "Little Mistress, do you need to serve dinner now?"

Ajiao and Liu Li had just eaten hot pot and were not hungry at all now. Ajiao was about to say that there was no need to serve dinner, when another palace maid ran over in a hurry and said: "Little Mistress, a message from the little yellow gate (commonly known as a eunuch) beside His Majesty says that His Majesty is staying in our Jiaofang Hall today."

The expression on Ajiao's face froze. ===== CHAPTER 7 =====

The expression on A Jiao's face froze.