7

Chapter 7: “Enjoying Food, One of the Perks of Being Alive”

Yun Yue and Chun Jian were slightly surprised when they felt that their Young Master was more amiable and friendlier as they bowed before exiting the room.

Sima You Yue sat eagerly awaiting in the room, her mind filled with a fantasy of all sorts of delicacies. However when Yun Yue brought the food in, her mind reeled. Afterwhich she blanked out momentarily as she went into a state of shock.

“This..This is the food you prepared for me?” She asked cautiously, as a trembling finger pointed to the food on the table with dishes that looked as though they had only been cooked and blanched in water.

Yesterday, she only had the simple meat porridge and did not really know what the food here was like. When she saw the plain dishes spread out before her, she was shocked to the core.

“Please forgive us!” Both maids quickly dropped their knees onto the round as they started knocking their heads onto the ground while begging for mercy.

“What are you doing?! I’m not blaming you, quickly get up!” Sima You Yue cried out when she saw the huge reaction of the two maids.

Only then did she see from the memory that the previous Sima You Yue was very strict and this has caused fear to be deeply etched into the hearts of these two maids and their reflex actions kicked in when they saw their Young Master’s unhappy expression.

“Thank you, Young Master.” Two girls got up from the ground, with fear still lingering in their hearts.

Sima You Yue no longer bothered about the two of them as her left hand clutched her stomach, while her right hand held up a pair of chopsticks as she tried to pick a dish that looked palatable as she scoured the food placed before her. However after ten minutes, she gave up as she helplessly put the pair of chopsticks back down as she called out: “Give me two fruits instead.”

After eating the two fruits,Sima You Yue rolled on the bed and started to mutter grudgingly as she felt her empty stomach: “I still need proper food…”

“Tsk tsk…You have always been so picky about food, you’re already in the divine ranks and can survive even without food.” A gentle doting voice suddenly rang out in her mind, as if transcending time and space, a familiar memory flashed by.

“Whose voice is this? Is this another memory of this body’s?” Sima You Yue thought to herself, however she could not shake of a nagging feeling that it was not, this body was that of a trash, how could it be divine ranked? Who did this voice belong to? And who was it talking to?

When dinner was still challenging to swallow, Sima You Yue could not take it any longer as she went into the kitchen herself and stirfried two simple dishes.

This was the first time since she has eaten so full since arriving in this new world.

As she drifted off to sleep at night, she had the same dream as the night before, with a shrill voice screaming out the same words: “Sima You Yue… DIE!!!”

She could recognize that this voice belonged to her past life.

“Ximen You Yue. Please die for me. Only when you are dead then I will be the one and only acclaimed genius in this whole world! Hahahahahahahaha”

Who was this? Why did she not have any impression at all?

“Go to hell!”

The two voices resounded in her mind, overlapping each other as the voices grew louder and louder as the cackling and screams echoed and she jolted awake from her nightmare. Her whole body was drenched with sweat as her clothes clung on to her. Her confused eyes darted around as a trace of sadness and loss was reflected in them.

“Why is it these two names again…?” She whispered.

This night, as the moon hung high in the sky, she could no longer sleep a wink. As long as she closed her eyes, the two names resounded in her mind.

Sima You Yue, Ximen You Yue.

She tried to scour through all her memories but there were only traces of Sima You Yue however it was a complete blank for Ximen You Yue. Whether it was the past life of her own or this body’s there was not even a hint of such a name in either of them.

As she tossed throughout the night, when she looked into the mirror the very next morning, she found a pair of puffy eyes resembling a panda staring back at her. While waiting for breakfast with her Grandfather and Brothers, she chatted a bit and cheered them up.

“Third Brother, Fourth Brother, why haven’t you guys gone to the Academy? Big Brother, Second Brother, don’t you need to head out today?” Sima You Yue asked but before she could look at them properly, she got distracted as her eyes rested on the dishes on the table that the maids placed before her. They looked pretty much the same as yesterday’s unpalatable breakfast. Her brows furrowed deeply as she grudgingly picked up her chopsticks and stared intently at the dishes before her.

“We were waiting for you, we had to make sure that you were alright first. We still have some time, it’s still not too late to leave.” Big Brother Sima You Qi replied.

“What happened to your eyes?” Second Brother Sima You Ming stared intently at her dark undereye circles.

“Two huge mosquitoes in my room made my whole night restless.” She replied bitterly.

It was now summer, hence the appearance of mosquitoes were not a rare occurrence.

She picked and nibbled on breakfast and put her chopsticks down midway.

“Why have you stopped eating?” Sima Lie asked with deep concern.

“The food is horrible, and I have lost all my appetite.” Sima You Yue replied very matter-of-factly.

“Haven’t you been eating like this all these while?” Sima Lie asked in a befuddled tone as he looked at the breakfast before him and couldn’t find any difference from what they usually had.

“Since You Yue doesn’t want to eat anymore, clear the table.” Sima Lie said aloud.

The maids scurried over and cleared the table up quickly. The other brothers did not voice out any opinions as they didn’t really need to rely much on food anymore. The only reason they were eating together was to spend time with Sima You Yue.

“Well then, we’ll head over to the Academy now.” Sima You Ran stood up as he prepared to leave.

“We’ll also head out now.” Sima You Qi chimed in.

“Go on, go ahead.” Sima Lie waved his hands casually and after all the brothers left, it was just the two of them alone. Sima Lie asked: “You Yue, what are your plans for today? What are you going to do?”

Her initial plan was to study more about this new world and she had wanted to go to the library to read and gather more information, however the quality of food here haunted her so much that she blurted out: “I want to go to the kitchen and have a look. At the same time, I want to teach the chefs a thing or two about cooking!”

“Teach… teach the chefs how to cook?!” Sima Lie choked out, as he stared at her with wide eyes as he stood stunned in place.

“Yes. Oh, weren’t you invited by the Emperor to the palace to discuss some things? Don’t worry, I won’t go out, I’ll be good and stay home the whole day.” She reassured him. She knew her Grandfather was afraid that if she went out on her own, she might get bullied again. Now that she had given him her word, he should be more assured.

However, Sima Lie did not believe her entirely as she had done this countless times in the past, once he stepped out, she followed suit and went out on her own. But when he saw her head straight to the kitchen, he could only throw in more faith in her words and hope she would stay home as promised.

Sima You Yue stayed in the kitchen the whole day and when Sima Lie returned from the palace, she called out excitedly: “Grandfather, come quickly! Try out these new dishes they’ve prepared!” She grabbed a pair of chopsticks and picked up the closest dish and fed it straight into Sima Lie’s mouth.

“Mmmmmm!” Sima Lie was surprised as he closed his eyes and slowly savoured the delicious food she just fed him. “What dish is this? How is it so delicious?!”

“This was what I’ve taught them today! How is it? Isn’t it delicious?” She asked with a sparkle in her eyes.

“Hahaha, really much better than before!” Sima Lie beamed with pride.

“Of course, they spent the whole day practising to finally get to this point.” She quipped. Although they failed to meet her requirements, this was still much better than what she had been eating the past few days.

She even dragged Chun Jian and You Yue into the kitchen when she felt that they had a bit of talent in this area. In fact, the dish that she had just fed Sima Lie was cooked by You Yue.

“Very good, let them prepare more delicious food for you next time. See, you can do it if you put your mind to it! In future, you can spend more time teaching them more dishes.” He tried to encourage her as she rarely had other interests. She only knew how to chase handsome men or create trouble.

“I know, don’t worry.” She answered softly. Suddenly, she thought of something and she immediately put down her chopsticks and sat up straight before she looked at Sima Lie warmly.

“Grandfather, I would like to go to our Book Pavilion to have a look at some books.” The Book Pavilion was what they called the library in her previous world. She really had to get used to the different terms they used in this new world.