Deadly, Beautiful, Male Empress [EDITING]

Chapter 5 - Cookies & 2nd Prince

Chefs were people with extraordinary cooking skills, able to bring out the greatest flavors and aroma from different ingredients. And the Imperial Palace chefs are of no exception.

They are what you call the pinnacle of the cooking world. They are able to grasp on how to bring out the most amazing taste from the simplest spices, able to make the most delicious dishes from common ingredients.

That is why palace chefs are truly the pinnacle of the cooking world.

But that was a thousand years ago. The people invented more amazing food as time passed by and the modern era was said to be the top of the scale of the era with the most amazing and delicious dishes.

An era in which information of every delicious food are so easily found and are produced the same. And Zixin was originally from that era.

When Zixin and the twin buns entered the cold palace's kitchen, the chef and apprentice chefs were in total disarray. Who would have thought that the rumored Evil Empress would stroll inside the kitchen and started cooking cookies, with such a gentle smile to boot. Anyone would faint at the sight.

Seeing at the gaping chef and apprentice chefs, with a slight frown, Zixin truly wondered if these people were fishes.

"Chef Lu, are you gonna stand there all day until a fly appears and glides unto your mouth?"

Chef Lu was dazed, unable to comprehend what was unfolding in front of him but the Empress' words snapped him back to reality. Bowing down, he begged to be spared...

"I am terribly sorry your highness, please forgive this lowly servant-"

"Do you people always resort to quickly bow down to others even when I never did anything to you?..."

Chef Lu was surprised at the remark of the Empress. I mean, how could you not when two days ago, he threw a tantrum and flipped the whole cold palace upside down. It was pure chaos... The chef knew the Empress fairly well since he was made the Imperial head chef on the day the former male princess, Zhao Li Zixin arrived in the Imperial Palace. He could understand that the very reason to his violent nature was the thirst for the love and attention of one single man and how he was deprived of it. Chef Lu could not explain how the Empress has change but he could sense it; the way how he smiled genuinely told the Chef that he has definitely changed for the better, he had changed for his children.

Zixin saw that the chef was again about to smash his head unto the floor and he was about to stop him but was instead greeted with a thank you. Zixin stared at the chef, thinking on what was on his mind that he changed his thought so quickly. But just brushed it off since it does not matter to him whether the servants like him or not but he will always reveal dominance to those who shows disrespect to him.

After the commotion, he proceeded on baking the cookies for the twin buns. They were happily kneading the dough for the cookies and after shaping them into different shapes, they put them into the brick oven. Zixin then turned around to look at the two dirty buns and then asked----

"We have to wait for three minutes for it to bake, bun buns. In the mean time, how about we go and take a bath, both of you are quite dirty, hehe..."

"Hehe, okaay mama..."

Zixin kneeled to carry the twins and went to his quarters to clean the two. He turned to the head chef and specifically told them to watch the cookies and take them out of the brick oven after 8 minutes to achieve the perfect crisp.

"This servant understands, your majesty..." says the chef and bowed...

Zixin then went and took the buns for a bath. Upon arriving at his room, he took off the children's clothes and one by one put them in a large tub that only reached the children's chest.

After their fun bath, Zixin dressed them up with beautiful clothes and took them back to the kitchen to eat their cookies, however trouble was brewing at the Palace of the Imperial children. A certain red headed prince was throwing tantrums just to annoy and shake off the servant assigned him...

The 2nd imperial prince, Zhang Li Hu was a mischievious and stubborn prince who likes to do whatever he wants to. He particularly hates it when his mother assigns a servant to him. Zhang Li Hu liked to run around and play with hero with his sword but due to his status as prince, no one really wanted to play with him as they might accidentally hurt the prince and die...

This hurt 2nd Concubine, Wu Nou Ju, as she saw her own son acted like he was having fun all by himself. When in truth, he wasn't. Zhang Li Hu liked martials arts in which he both inherited from his mother and father. Often times, the 2nd Concubine would visit his son and teach him martial arts. Still, he wanted to have friends his age. Even if the 2nd concubine played and sparred with her son sometimes, he was still lonely.

She tried asking the Emperor to atleast introduce the 2nd prince to some noble children to ease his loneliness. The Emperor approved and invited However one day, Zhang Li Hu overheard the noble children talked about him and how they only wanted to be friends with him for the prestige that comes along with Zhang Li Hu. He felt betrayed and angry.

He has always thought that being a child of the Emperor would make him look cool in front of his peers and wanted to brag about it to his friends but, it seems they only wanted to be friends with his father, not him. He felt devastated and mad. He wanted them out of his sight and wished to never see them again. However, being as a prince, it was still unavoidable to meet and socialize with other people. He still sees other noble children his age however, he refused to get closer to them. Stuck on his head and heart, his smile slowly withered.

Zixin felt bad for the kid. He knew what it was like to be betrayed and used by other people just to gain whatever they wanted. He felt some sort of small kinship with the 2nd prince. However it does not justify his tantrums and now being bossy to other people and treating them like trash just because of a small betrayal. Zixin believed of one thing and one thing only. A betrayal is expensive so it most be paid back a thousandfold!...