Zhu Junyang almost wanted to vomit blood. Just when did he ever bully this stinky brat? Clearly, the one being bullied was him, alright??? ‘My delicate little heart has been wounded too heavily. I need a hug, I need some pets, I need some comforting, otherwise, I can’t go on!!’

On the other hand, Little Shitou was so delighted by this turn of events that he proudly gave Zhu Junyang a knowing look and grinned in a cute way, “Second Sister is the best! Looks like the one that you love the most is still me! With those words, who would dare try to bully me?”

“Childish!” At his age, he still wanted to act spoiled in front of his older sister. The most annoying part was that this brat was acting spoiled in front of his wife. Zhu Junyang didn’t want to admit that he was feeling incredibly jealous now!

Yu Xiaocao could feel the fury coming off of her husband as if it would solidify at any moment. She knew now that she had to spend a lot of effort to comfort this beast when they got back home. After conversing a bit longer with her younger brother, she finally gave out her invitation, “Three days from now, my residence will be holding the first ‘tasting delicacies event’ and I need a few young scholars to act as judges. At that time, you can invite a few of your good friends over.”

“Tasting delicacies event? Is this related to eating good food ah? You absolutely have to keep this on the down low, otherwise I’m afraid your entire residence would be filled to bursting!” Whenever he remembered the cacophony that was his birthday banquet, Little Shitou always felt some lingering fear. It had originally been planned to be a small family feast, so who would have thought that they would have to reserve the entire Medicinal Cuisine House in order to have enough food to feed all of the guests that had come over?

Yu Xiaocao simply described the event she was planning. It was just an event where the young maidens of the inner courtyard would make some delicious and creative desserts. Those desserts would be sent out to the outer courtyard, where the youths could judge them and decide which ones took first, second, and third place. Those maidens who placed in the top three would naturally get a prize. As for the prizes, Yu Xiaocao had already come up with a good idea. She was planning on giving a membership card to ‘Creative Pastries’ to the winners. This membership card gave them the privilege of getting half off everything at ‘Creative Pastries’!

Oh ho, even the prizes were being used to advertise her not-opened next business! With this type of boss, did her businesses ever have to worry about not being popular?

……

Zhu Junyang was unhappy, extremely unhappy! This period right after being married was supposed to be for the two of them to spend in bliss together. However, his new bride was ignoring him!

Ever since they got back to the estate after visiting her maternal home, his little wife had become extremely busy. First, she summoned over some craftsmen to build five large ovens and stoves in the back garden. Then, she brought over all of the employees from her dessert and pastry shop to undergo some strict training. All of the servants in their residence had been ordered completely around by his wife, who was immensely enjoying all of this.

As the chief stewards of the inner courtyard and affairs, Meixiang and Liu Dequan did their utmost during this time period. This was the first time that Imperial Prince Xu’s Estate was holding a big event and all of the upper class noble maidens, matrons, and noblemen would be attending. Thus, they needed to make sure everything was done perfectly in order to avoid the estate’s reputation from being stained. As for the steward in charge of purchasing, he was even more cautious. Every day he would consult with the princess consort's store manager, Yangliu, as he was afraid that he might miss some important ingredient necessary for the event.

The vast majority of Xiaocao’s time was taken up by the rearrangement of the back flower garden. Fortunately, the servants in the residence were hardworking and capable. Otherwise, being able to completely renovate the garden in two days would be a pipe dream! All she had to do was voice her ideas and the stewards of the outer and inner courtyard would immediately bring her vision to fruition perfectly. This was also the opportunity for the stewards, servants, and maids to show off their abilities to the new princess consort! Everyone employed in the residence worked their hardest as they were afraid that the princess consort might become unhappy.

Although they were technically employed by Imperial Prince Xu, who in the capital didn't know that their master was completely obedient to their mistress even prior to their marriage? After marriage, he had become the epitome of an ideal husband and seemed to wish to be stuck to their mistress’s side. Those who had been picked out by Zhu Junyang naturally weren’t stupid and they had long noticed that the princess consort was the one in charge here. Even though their master wasn’t happy about the fact that his newly wedded wife was busy with the pastry competition during their honeymoon period, he still ordered all of the servants to do their best for her. Tsk tsk, who would dare to slack off now? If their mistress got angry at them, the master definitely wouldn’t say one word for them and instead applaud her for being right. For the sake of their own futures, especially those in managerial positions, they needed to show off their abilities and allow their new mistress to regard them in a pleasant light.

Despite the fact that all of the servants were doing their utmost to help, Xiaocao still ended up doing a lot of work and was quite exhausted by all of this. In order to ensure that this event went off smoothly and up to her standards, Xiaocao had the servants running around throughout the day. At night, she would pick up her personal notebook and write down any ideas that came up. That way, she would remember to implement them on the next day. Sometimes she would stay up for half of the night in the small study in the inner courtyard.

When he saw his wife working so hard, how could Zhu Junyang bear to add to her troubles? He needed to love her, pamper her, and support her completely! Even though he was unhappy inside, he still continued along his perfect husband persona and helped his wife take on a lot of burdens.

No one knew who spilled the beans but the news about the ‘making your own pastries event’ had somehow spread on the second day. Starting from when she got up in the morning, Xiaocao had a wave of calling cards to receive and all of them were from prominent families. These matrons came over with their daughters who ranged from ages eight to sixteen to see her. Their mission was simple. They wanted to cajole an invitation to her upcoming event.

Originally, Xiaocao’s intention in creating this event was to invite her second older brother-in-law's sweetheart over to play around and allow Princess Consort Jing the opportunity to see her future daughter-in-law. She was cognizant of the fact that the young maiden might feel awkward on her own, so she decided to invite over maidens from families that were familiar with their two families to accompany her. The idea to have them make their own pastries was also done to increase the fun at this event.

Princess Consort Jing and Xiaocao only planned on inviting over people they were familiar with. Thus, they only prepared twenty invitation cards. Princess Consort Jing was given ten cards and Miss Han was given five so she could invite her good friends over. Thus, Xiaocao was left with only five herself.

However, on the next day, since the morning, Xiaocao began to receive guests at the residence. Sometimes she even had to receive a few matrons and their children at the same time. She continued to receive calling cards until the evening and was so busy that she barely got to eat lunch. In one day, there were over twenty or so families who had left their cards. Some of these families, whether it was Xiaocao or her husband, had barely even interacted with them in the past and couldn’t even be considered acquaintances. Despite that, they still shamelessly came over, begging for an invitation to the upcoming event.

In a short period of time, they had increased the number of guests at this event by almost double. Thus, they naturally had to prepare more materials for these people. Fortunately, Imperial Prince Xu’s back garden was spacious, so all that was needed was to buy an extra stash of ingredients in order to avoid this party from becoming a fiasco.

As for the guests in the outer courtyard, it hadn’t become crazy. Zhu Junyang had given invitations to his subordinates and military officials that he was close with. Little Shitou had given invitations to his group of five to six friends, whereas Imperial Prince Jing had given invitations to youths in his circle and the Han Family also had invitations...

Xiaocao was grateful that this event had been put together at last minute’s notice. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be just around twenty people who had come begging for invitations. The families who had gotten the news late and found out that they had missed out on their opportunity to sidle up to Imperial Prince Xu’s Estate and have their daughters show off to promising youths in the capital not only wailed in disappointment but also became much more sensitive to the future movements of the prince’s residence. That way, they could strike first the next time Princess Consort Xu organized a gathering.

On the third day, which was the day of the event, there were all sorts of carriages parked in front of Imperial Prince Xu’s residence. From the insignias on these vehicles, one could see that almost all of the third-ranked and above official’s families were here. Naturally, there were more people than that.

Princess Consort Jing had used this gathering as the perfect excuse to come over and see her daughter-in-law as it was the first time Xiaocao was holding such a large event after getting married. However, she didn’t even get to see her daughter-in-law before she was pulled into receiving all of the higher ranked matrons who had arrived.

As the hostess, Xiaocao naturally couldn’t be idle! Fortunately, her good friends, He Wanning and Royal Princess Minglan, gave her a big hand. These two had long swam in these higher-ranked circles and they had married husbands who were also high-ranking. Thus, they knew pretty much every single maiden and young matron who had received invitations to this event today and were naturals at interacting with them. With them in charge of the younger guests, Xiaocao was able to be at ease.

News had quickly spread that this gathering would allow them to personally make pastries. Not only did this pique the interests of the young maidens in the capitals but their older sisters-in-law and older sisters who had gotten married were also very intrigued. Thus, everyone who had gotten an invitation brought along their entire family. Mothers, daughters, sisters, and sisters-in-law of the invitation holders all arrived. Fortunately, Xiaocao had prepared a large amount of materials needed. Otherwise, this event would have ended up becoming a farce.

The spacious back garden in Imperial Prince Xu’s Estate had been divided into two parts. In the middle was a bamboo thicket separating the inner side from the outer side. On the inner side was where the matrons and maidens were currently chatting, whereas the outer side had been prepared to allow the noble youths to taste tea, play board games, play at throwing arrows into a pot, and compete at archery. Imperial Prince Xu had pretty much gathered all of the talented youths in the capital in one place. Thus, from time to time, the matrons on the inner side would glance through the less dense areas of the bamboo forest separating the two sides in a telling manner.

A pure and clear stream ran through the inner and outer parts of the garden. On both sides of the water were low tables and colorful blankets on the ground. From time to time, one could see flower petals floating down the water…

Little Shitou and his close classmates saw this stream and couldn’t help but laugh, “Looks like Imperial Prince Xu’s Estate is trying to mimic the ancient people’s ‘winding stream party’[1] ah! What an elegant sight!”

On the inner side of the garden, there were maidens, young matrons and children who had not yet reached the age of thirteen. Xiaocao simply outlined the rules of this competition and emphasized that there were three elements that were being judged: ‘creativity’, ‘aesthetics’, and ‘taste’. The top three in each category would get a prize.

When the maidens and young matrons heard this, they all became incredibly excited. Xiaocao didn’t bother to speak too much and very quickly proclaimed the start of the competition.

For the creative pastries competition, it was split further down into four groups: cookies, cakes, chocolates, and miscellaneous. The children aged ten and below had all been grouped up together. Under the help of experienced pastry chefs, they were learning how to make some simple cookies and chocolates.

These cookies and chocolates didn’t take much skill to make. The competition had prepared a variety of animal and flower molds. All the children had to do was to use the prepared dough and the molds to press them into different shapes before placing them in the oven. After being baked, sweet and delicious cookies came out. As for the chocolates, all the children had to do was to pour the already melted chocolate into the selected molds. After the heated chocolate cooled, they could take them out of the molds. In order to avoid the kids from getting scalded by the hot chocolate, other than the experienced pastry chefs, each child also had two sharp-eyed maidservants at their side. Thus, safety was of paramount importance here.

As for the older children and maidens, they were able to do more hands-on work. They could mold the dough into the shapes of their own choosing and frost the small cakes with the provided frosting and jams and decorate them with chocolates. As for the chocolate group, they were able to add some novel and fun ingredients into the melted chocolate before letting them solidify…

[1] winding stream party - an old Chinese custom in which the participants wait by a winding stream and compose poems before their cups full of rice wine float down to reach them