The Noble Woman's Guide On How to Tease One's Husband

Chapter 12 - Xie's Daughter

 The launching of the women school was extremely successful and it had become the hottest matter in Buriram in less than half a month. The illustrious virtue of the Emperor was highly praised by the speeches of the royal ministers. When the Queen Mother learnt of this, she once again summoned the noble girls to enter the Imperial Palace and rewarded them with a great deal of things as commendation.  

As both sides were just acting for appearance sake, there was no point to stay over for too long. Lisa was already on her way out in less than two hours and just when she intended to return home, she unexpectedly was stopped by Xie Yun.  

"Younger sister, please stay."  

Lisa turned around and saw her walking unhurriedly out from the veranda. Her gait was relaxed and her temperament was graceful. She was wearing a light mauve satin palace attire with a simple plain little vest and looked absolutely pleasing to the eyes.  

She arrived in front of her in a blink of an eye. It might be assumed that she came from the flower garden as the light flow of air brought along the sweet scent of the Phoenix Chrysanthemum, hence no wonder they both would only have this chance encounter at the entrance of Hanzhang Palace.  

"Elder Sister Yun, what's the matter?"  

"There's a small matter that I would like to ask you." Xie Yun perked up a thin smile as she made an inviting gesture towards outside the door. "How about we discuss along the way?"  

Lisa silently nodded and walked out of Hanzhang Palace alongside her.  

The weather was gradually getting colder as the frigid winter was approaching soon. There were now not many eunuchs and palace maids shuttling back and forth along this long alley which was surrounded by the vermillion red perimeter walls on both sides. The four masters and servants strolled through where there were some naked branches protruded diagonally from the top of the walls. The original spacious alley became somewhat narrow that one would need to turn sideways just to pass through some part of the alley but this however didn't hindered their talks.  

"Not to hide from younger sister, my family received a raccoon last month. When I saw how intelligent it is, I asked to keep it from my paternal uncle's wife. However, I don't know why it has been losing weight with each passing day and doesn't even want to eat these past few days. I have sought many medical treatments without success, then I suddenly remember that you are raising a giant panda at home. In this respect, you are certainly very experienced thus I will just be brazen to ask you."  

Lisa faintly smiled, "Cannot be mentioned as experience. I am merely more patient and meticulous than others."  

"From your opinion, what's wrong with my raccoon?"  

After pondering for a while, Lisa asked instead of answering, "What food do you usually feed it?"  

Xie Yun answered truthfully, "The person who sent it over said it likes meat, so I sent someone to purchase the freshest fishes and meats from the marketplace which are fed to it after cutting into small pieces. Every bucket of the water which was retrieved from the mountain stream would go through the process of boiling and cooled down before given to it."  

"Perhaps the problem lies here." Lisa was clear-minded about the problem and explained in a soft voice, "I have heard that even though raccoons are carnivorous, they are more inclined to omnivorous that prefer fruits and nuts, such as acorns, almonds and such during the autumn and winter season. Feeding it with only meat will instead make it lose its appetite."  

Suddenly realizing what might have happened, the knitted brows on Xie Yun subsequently smoothen out just like the glimpse of sunlight on the mountains in spring after the ceasing of rain, "So, that's the reason. I should be blamed for having insufficient understanding beforehand and almost harm the little thing.  Fortunately, I have you and it seems I have found the right person today."