RPAGF Chapter 211 Reciprocity
Chapter 211 Reciprocity
When I returned to the East Concubine Palace, it was just lunch time. The palace maids were coming in and out, and it was the busiest time in the Concubine Palace.
The arrival of Prince Ming made the palace maids stop and look. Although they had never seen Prince Ming before, it was not difficult to guess his identity based on three important clues: his age, his clothes, and the fact that he returned home with Ji Anni.
They greeted Prince Ming in a friendly and obedient manner, looking him up and down with curious eyes.
Prince Ming was not used to being stared at by so many girls at the same time. His face turned red with embarrassment and he hid behind Ji Annie.
"Haha." Ji Anni poked Prince Ming's soft face and teased him, "Ming'er still knows how to blush."
"Mother..." Prince Ming pouted, looking even more adorable.
"Come, Ming'er, mother will teach you. Boys should not be so shy. You should hold your head high and move forward bravely." As Ji Anni said this, she pulled Prince Ming out from behind her and pushed him in front of a group of palace maids who were paying tribute to Prince Ming not far ahead.
"Mother, mother..." Prince Ming was afraid of standing in the public eye, and hurriedly hid behind Ji Anni.
His panic-stricken look made the group of little palace maids laugh.
Seeing this, Ji Anni half-knelt on the ground, put her arm around Prince Ming's shoulders, pointed to the palace maid in front of him and said, "Ming'er, when someone greets you, you should also greet them back, you can't always hide behind, understand?"
Prince Ming nodded. He listened to his mother in everything.
Ji Anni smiled with satisfaction. Just as she was about to praise Prince Ming for being obedient, Hua Rong stepped forward and whispered in Ji Anni's ear, "Your Majesty, Prince Ming does not need to return the gift."
"Why?" Ji Anni was surprised.
"Because there is a difference between the upper and the lower. The prince is a prince, and the maid is just a maid. We cannot mix up the hierarchy."
After Hua Rong reminded her, Ji Anni remembered that this was not her hometown, but the imperial palace with strict hierarchy. She stood up in disappointment, touched Prince Ming's head, and said to herself: "Hey, isn't it just a greeting? What's the difference between high and low..."
It is said that reciprocity is the key to success. If someone does not reciprocate, it is not polite. If someone comes, it is not polite either.
You can't let Prince Ming become an arrogant, conceited and disrespectful brat, can you?
Thinking of this, Ji Annie's mind somehow popped up the arrogant face of Chang Sun Mingri.
She didn't want Prince Ming to become like Chang Sun Ming Ri...
Hua Rong winked at the palace maids, signaling them to leave quickly. Otherwise, if Ji Anni insisted on asking Prince Ming to return the gifts to the palace maids, and the empress dowager heard about it, there would be another thunderstorm.
Looking at the backs of the palace maids hurriedly leaving, Ji Anni pulled Prince Ming's hand boredly and turned to walk towards her room.
"Your Majesty, I'll go get lunch." Hua Rong followed Ji Anni and said cautiously.
"Go ahead, and bring a few more plates of snacks." Having said this, he lowered his head and asked Prince Ming, "Ming'er, what do you like to eat?"
"I like the shortbread my mother makes." Prince Ming was timid in front of outsiders, but he was very blunt when facing Ji Anni. He gave Ji Anni a difficult question as soon as he opened his mouth.
It's not difficult to make a shortbread, but if Ji Anni specifically wants to make it herself, that's really as difficult as climbing to the sky...
Ji Anni has hardly ever been in the kitchen since she was a child, and her best dish is instant noodles with ham.
Let alone making shortbread, she didn't even know what shortbread was made of.
"Mother?" Prince Ming saw Ji Anni's stiff expression and thought that she didn't want to make pastries for him, so he pursed his lips sadly.
Ji Anni, who had already decided to be a "good mother", couldn't bear to disappoint Prince Ming, so she had to bite the bullet and agreed: "Okay, mother promises you, as long as you are obedient, mother will make shortbread for you."
"Really?" Prince Ming's eyes suddenly lit up.
"Really, really." Ji Anni nodded in an exaggerated manner, paused and added, "But not today."
"Why?" Prince Ming was very disappointed.
"Because it takes too much time to make shortbread, by the time I'm done, you'll be starving, so let's forget about it today. When I'm free, I'll bring the shortbread to visit you in the East Palace, okay?"
Ji Anni thought: Yizhen can make all kinds of snacks anyway, wouldn’t it be nice to ask her to teach me how to make shortbread?
"Your Majesty, I will go get lunch and pastries." Hua Rong asked Ji Anni for her opinion.
"Okay, come back soon."
Ji Anni was a little afraid to be alone with Prince Ming. After Hua Rong left, she felt uneasy.
By the way, why don’t we just go sit in Yizhen’s room…
Having another person by her side would help her to have more courage to face Prince Ming.
"Ming'er, can mother introduce you to a concubine sister? She is mother's good sister, nicknamed 'Little Sweet Date', you will definitely like her." Ji Anni said as she led Prince Ming to the outside of Yizhen Gate.
The door was ajar, and Ji Anni pushed it open gently.
Yizhen was eating when she heard a creaking sound at the door and turned around sensitively.
At this time, the door was only slightly open, and through the crack, only Ji Anni's face could be seen clearly, so Yizhen didn't know that Prince Ming had arrived. She put down her chopsticks in surprise, stood up and walked towards Ji Anni, asking as she walked, "Xiao Zhao, why are you back so soon? I heard that you sent Prince Ming to Wenhua Courtyard early in the morning, right?"
Just as I said this, I suddenly noticed a small figure standing next to Ji Anni.
Yizhen was stunned, and her voice stopped abruptly. It took her a while to react, and she hurriedly bowed and said, "Yizhen pays respects to Prince Ming."
"Hey Yizhen, don't pay your respects, he's just a little kid."
Ji Anni was at a loss whether to laugh or cry. She didn't expect Yizhen to do the same thing after meeting Prince Ming.
However, at this moment, a very small sound came out from Prince Ming's mouth: "An, An..."
The voice was too soft to be heard unless one listened carefully. In fact, Ji Anni didn't hear anything. If she hadn't noticed that Yizhen was staring at Prince Ming intently, she wouldn't have known that Prince Ming had just spoken.
Prince Ming's face flushed, and he clutched Ji Anni's sleeve tightly, as if squeezing out a tube of toothpaste that had long been used up. He used a lot of strength to finally squeeze out a complete sentence: "Tomorrow I will also... also, also, also pay my respects to the queen..."
After he finished speaking, the whole world stopped.
Ji Anni stared at Prince Ming in amazement. Did she hear it right? Prince Ming actually returned the gift just now!
Ji Anni was just about to praise Prince Ming, but unexpectedly, Prince Ming's old problem came back. He hid behind Ji Anni and only poked out half of his head to observe Yizhen's expression.
Yizhen was startled at first, but when she saw that Prince Ming was more frightened than her, she couldn't help but chuckle.
After hearing Yizhen's laughter, Ji Anni also laughed and pulled Prince Ming out from behind her and said, "Ming'er, just when I wanted to praise you for your progress, you hid again. Let me introduce you, this is my good sister, Consort Su Yizhen from Nanhu County." Then she said to Yizhen, "Yizhen, he, he...he is my son."
The three words "my son" felt awkward no matter how she said them. Ji Anni seemed to feel cold sweat oozing out of her forehead.
"Prince Ming has come to the Concubine's Palace today. What can I do for you?" Yizhen saw that Prince Ming was docile and cute, so she joked with him. Prince Ming was at a loss and looked to Ji Anni for help.
"Okay, okay, stop teasing him." Ji Anni helped him out, pulled him into the room, sat him down on a chair by the door and said, "We haven't been together for a long time, so I brought him back today to enhance our mother-son relationship."
Upon hearing this, Yizhen asked in surprise, "Did Concubine An agree?"
"Agreed." Ji Anni said as a matter of course.
"You didn't have a fight, did you?" Yizhen thought that Ji Anni had forcibly snatched Prince Ming from Concubine An.
Ji Anni laughed exaggeratedly and waved her hands hastily, "No, no, of course not, Yizhen, you are worrying about nothing."
"That's good." Yizhen sighed softly, still not feeling reassured. She looked back inadvertently and saw half-eaten food on the table. Since Ji Anni and Prince Ming were the guests, she certainly couldn't eat alone, but she couldn't use the leftovers to entertain the guests either, so she cleared all the dishes away.