The Poison Taster Who Outlived the Princess's Dinners novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Beside Her

The whole Pavilion whispered as Ruoxi ate beside the princess, who watched every bite and shared a spoon; then an envoy rode in with a marriage proposal.

By morning the entire Plum Pavilion knew that the taster would eat at the princess's table.

The maids carried it from the bath chamber to the wardrobe room to the kitchen steps.

It was the strangest rule anyone had ever heard.

Ruoxi had never seen a taster seated.

A taster stood at the end of the table, took one bite of everything, and left before the princess lifted her chopsticks.

That was how the post worked.

"It's against the rules," she told Su Lanyin in the corridor.

Lanyin, who was the princess's chief lady-in-waiting, held a ring of keys and a face.

"Whose rules?"

"The palace's. The taster tastes first. If there is poison, she is the one who finds it."

"And if she is sitting down, she can't find it?"

"She can. But it looks like..."

"Like what?"

Ruoxi opened her mouth and could not say it.

"Like a favorite," Lanyin said. "Go and eat, Taster. The princess dislikes cold soup."

At noon the table was laid with six dishes.

Ruoxi stood at the end of it, with the little white spoon on her cord, and tasted each one as always.

Steamed bass, ginger and spring onion.

Braised mushrooms.

A clear soup with pear and lily bulb.

She named every ingredient out loud, which was her habit.

"Bass, rice wine, ginger, a little white pepper, soy that is two days older than I'd like."

"Fang will be told," said Mingzhu from her cushion.

"Mushrooms, sesame oil, rock sugar. Soup, pear, lily bulb, a rind of tangerine peel."

"There," Mingzhu said. "Now sit."

Ruoxi sat.

The cushion was soft, and the table was lower than she was used to, and the princess was very near.

Mingzhu poured her tea.

"Eat," she said.

"After you."

"You eat first. That is the job."

"Then you eat too."

Mingzhu laughed.

It was a short, delighted sound, like a bird finding a window open.

"Fine. Together."

Ruoxi lifted her chopsticks, and a maid by the screen dropped a spoon.

Everyone pretended not to hear.

She ate the bass.

It was very good, the flesh soft and clean, the ginger sharp in the back of her throat.

She looked up from her bowl, and Mingzhu was not eating.

The princess had her chin on her hand, her chopsticks laid down, and she was watching Ruoxi's mouth.

"Your Highness?"

"Mm?"

"You're not eating."

"I am. I'm watching you do it."

"Why?"

"You enjoy it," Mingzhu said, as if that explained anything. "You close your eyes on the first bite and then open them wide when you name what's in it. It's very good to look at."

Ruoxi put her chopsticks down.

Her ears were hot.

"Is this a test?"

"Do you want it to be?"

"I want to know what the post is for."

"The post is for tasting," Mingzhu said. "Taste the soup."

There was one soup, one porcelain spoon in it, and one pair of hands that could use it.

Ruoxi lifted the spoon and drank.

Sweet pear, the faint bitterness of lily bulb, the clean sour edge of peel.

She swallowed and nodded.

"Safe."

"Give me the spoon."

"I'll have a clean one brought."

"I want that one."

Mingzhu held out her hand.

Ruoxi hesitated, and then gave it to her.

Mingzhu's fingers closed over the bowl of it and over Ruoxi's fingers for half a breath.

She drank from the spoon without looking away.

"Pear," she said softly. "It's sweeter when you've had it first."

The maid by the screen dropped a second spoon.

Ruoxi took a long drink of tea so that she would not have to say anything at all.

Afterward, in the corridor, she leaned her forehead against a pillar until her face cooled.

Six years of tasting, and nobody had ever once watched her do it.

She was walking back to the kitchen with her heart going when a eunuch ran up the steps, out of breath.

"Taster! Her Highness is wanted in the Hall of Everlasting Peace at once."

"For what?"

"An envoy has come from the Prime Minister," he said. "He carries a marriage proposal for the princess."

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