When Bai Fengjiu entered Taichen Palace to serve as a celestial maiden, she adopted the alias Xiao Jiu. For good reason: she certainly couldn't let everyone know that the Princess of Qingqiu had come to work as a lowly maid for Emperor Donghua himself. That would bring shame not just upon her own head, but upon the entire house of Qingqiu. To say nothing of how her father would let her off lightly, she wouldn't even have the face to look her ancestors in the eye.
As Fengjiu was about to join the competition to become a Taichen Palace celestial maiden, Siming gave her a few final words of caution, reminding her to look after her own safety and under no circumstances reveal her identity as the Princess of Qingqiu. But Fengjiu was already too impatient to wait, nodding eagerly to everything Siming said before bounding off happily to the tryouts. Siming watched her skipping away in delight, and murmured softly to himself, "I only worry that all your passion will come to nothing..."
Inside Taichen Palace, Princess Zhihe was currently vetting the candidates for the celestial maidens. Every pretty maid who stood before Xiao Jiu had been summarily rejected by Zhihe, and soon it was Xiao Jiu's turn. *Oh no, please don't,* Fengjiu thought to herself. *If I came up here to repay a kindness, only to be kicked out before I even catch a glimpse of my benefactor, Siming will never let me hear the end of it.*
As it turned out, Fengjiu's luck held. Just as Zhihe was about to reach her, a palace maid hurried over to announce that Emperor Donghua had returned. Overjoyed, Zhihe instantly lost all interest in inspecting the remaining candidates. With a wave of her hand, she dismissed them all, implicitly granting every single one of them a place, and hurried off in high spirits to welcome her adoptive brother.
For hundreds of thousands of years, Emperor Donghua had lived a life of total leisure, but recently he had suddenly taken up cooking—specifically, a profound obsession with making Sweet and Sour Fish. Third Prince Liansong had tried it once and flatly refused to ever touch it again. Yet when the Emperor invited him back to sample his culinary arts, Liansong had no choice but to trick Siming into coming along with him. The moment Siming heard they were heading to Taichen Palace, his mind was entirely occupied with thoughts of Fengjiu, so he readily agreed to accompany Liansong. Poor Siming was so distracted by worrying about how Fengjiu was faring in Taichen Palace that, sharp-witted though he usually was, he completely missed the sly grins Liansong kept flashing all along the way.
As soon as they stood before the Emperor, Siming respectfully picked up his chopsticks and took a bite of the Emperor's Sweet and Sour Fish—a generous mouthful at that! Even as he chewed, Siming was stealthily glancing around in hopes of catching sight of Fengjiu, while automatically swallowing the fish.
Seeing this unfold, Liansong watched as Siming's earnest scanning suddenly ground to a halt. His eyes froze, his throat seized up as if blocked by some foreign object, and he gasped for breath twice. Then, a look of utter blankness and sheer disbelief washed over his face as he pitched backward onto the floor.
Taking it all in with a nervous laugh, Liansong turned to the Emperor and said, "Look at Siming—he was so overjoyed by Your Majesty's culinary skills that he actually passed out. I told him not to come, but he insisted."
The Emperor walked over, cast a single glance at the fallen man, and walked away. The moment the Emperor was gone, Liansong hastily urged Zhonglin to revive Siming. "Quick, save him! You all know what the Emperor's cooking is like—are you trying to watch Siming throw his life away?"
After a frantic flurry of rescue efforts, Siming was finally brought back to consciousness. Gasping for air, he pointed a trembling finger at the plate of Sweet and Sour Fish, utterly unable to form words beyond repeated croaks of "Poison... poison..."
Once he had recovered somewhat, Siming glared at Liansong. "Third Prince, we've had no grievances between us for hundreds of thousands of years. Why would you try to murder me like this?"
Liansong replied smoothly, "If I don't enter hell, who will? Siming, you truly live up to your reputation as the foremost right-hand man under the Grand Emperor of Antarctica—such profound enlightenment, saving all living beings."
Even Zhonglin couldn't stand listening any longer and chimed in, "Third Prince, the Emperor explicitly invited only you..."
Sensing an opportunity to slip away, Liansong started to edge toward the exit. Siming caught his breath and added a parting threat, warning Liansong that he might just have to drop by to audit Lady Chengyu's destiny ledger...
Siming had made the trip to Taichen Palace only to suffer unspeakable torture, and he hadn't even managed to catch a glimpse of Fengjiu. Little did he know, Fengjiu was currently enduring her own trial in the side hall of Taichen Palace—which happened to be the quarters of Princess Zhihe.