Pursing his lips, two men carried two baskets of fruits and placed them in front of Shen Fanxing.
“Red bananas and oranges, one basket each.”
Shen Fanxing glanced at the fruits and frowned slightly.
He didn’t look very outstanding.
Could it be that the fruits in Country Y were so tasteless?
But in the past few days, be it the fruits in the palace or the ones Bo Jinchuan had specially prepared for her, any one of them was more pleasing to the eye than the two baskets of fruits in front of her.
Seeing Shen Fanxing’s expression, Qiao Biluo shouted angrily at the two men,
“These are gifts for the palace. Why are they all like this?”
The two men said, “Of course we know that this is fruit for the palace. This is the best fruit in the orchard now.”
Qiao Biluo frowned and walked into the kitchen without a word. She came out with a red banana and an orange.
“These should be picked from the orchard, right?”
The few of them glanced at the fruits in her hand. Their size and quality were indeed better than anything in the basket.
Shen Fanxing’s eyes flickered and a sarcastic smile flashed across her face.
Seeing that Shen Fanxing was silent, Qiao Biluo continued,
“You clearly have better fruits to send to the palace, but you took out these. You’re really bold.”
The two men shook their heads. “I don’t know. Mr. Jili is usually the one guarding the courtyard. If you don’t believe me, you can ask him directly.”
Qiao Biluo’s expression darkened slightly, but she still called Mr. Jili over.
The person was a rough-looking man with yellow hair and aquiline nose. He was tall and had a beard that was the same color as his hair.
He entered and greeted Shen Fanxing respectfully. She nodded and waved her hand in the air.
Everyone was confused. Shen Fanxing held the thermos flask and leaned against the sofa unhurriedly. She turned to look at the confused Qiao Biluo.
“Continue asking. Where is your imposing manner just now?”
Qiao Biluo’s face stiffened as she looked at Jili. When she spoke again, her tone was completely different from the two men’s. It was much gentler.
“Is this really the best fruit in the entire orchard?”
“Of course. The fruits shipped to the palace are always the best.”
The man danced around and spoke in a strange accent, but she could understand him.
Qiao Biluo showed him the fruit in her hand.
“What about these?”
Jili glanced at it and his beard twitched. After a long while, he said,
“Aren’t those for Madam? Madam lives in the manor. If you want to eat fruits, you should pick the best for her first.”
“So… the fruits sent to the palace are all eaten by Madam every year?”
Qiao Biluo frowned and looked at Shen Fanxing awkwardly.
“This… Princess Fanxing, I don’t think Madam did it on purpose… She might not have thought so much… She definitely didn’t do it on purpose.”
Shen Fanxing drank her water with a faint smile on her face.
“How big is the orchard in this manor?”
Jili said, “Including the back mountain, it’s more than fifty hectares.”
“You’ve worked hard to manage such a huge orchard,” praised Shen Fanxing with a faint smile.
“It’s my duty! I’m grateful to the royal family for giving me this job and helping me settle my family’s finances.”
Shen Fanxing pointed at the two baskets of fruits and said, “Indeed, they’re not presentable. But… I’m curious about what kind of monster your wife is. She can finish the best and biggest fruits in the entire orchard in a few days.”
The thick beard on Jili’s face twitched again as he looked at Qiao Biluo.
Qiao Biluo panicked. “All these years, the queen has refused to let our Madam enter the palace. It’s normal for her to have some resentment…”
Shen Fanxing closed the lid of the thermos and smiled at her as she tightened it.
“So you’re saying that your wife is deliberately going against the palace and secretly competing with the Queen?”
Shen Fanxing spoke bluntly.
“What you said should be considered sowing discord, right? You want me to go back and convey it to Grandma, then what?”
“What then? What are you talking about?”
Before Qiao Biluo could speak, a gentle voice sounded from the stairs.
Shen Fanxing looked up.
The woman was in her thirties and wasn’t very tall. Her hair was placed neatly on one shoulder and she was wearing a woolen shawl. She had a faint smile on her face as her gaze landed on Shen Fanxing. Her bare face was fair and beautiful.
Qiao Biluo’s expression changed abruptly. In the end, she turned around calmly and looked up. She smiled and said, “The fruit I just picked is for Princess Fanxing to take a look.”
Mu Wanwan’s gaze landed on Shen Fanxing.
Shen Fanxing said calmly, “That’s right. However, the quality of the fruits is really not good. At first, I thought that all the fruits in the orchard were like this. In the end, Madam Qiao Biluo took out the same fruits from the kitchen. They’re much bigger than the ones in front of us…”
Mu Wanwan suddenly stopped in her tracks and looked at Qiao Biluo’s hand. Indeed, she saw the two fruits in her hand.
Without thinking, she knew what he meant.
She walked to the living room and glanced at the two baskets that didn’t match the room. She sat on the sofa opposite Shen Fanxing calmly.
“His appearance is indeed not good. I heard from Mr. Jili that this year’s weather will definitely be a bumper year. The fruits that we just picked not long ago do look good. Why has he become like this in just a few days?”
Shen Fanxing raised an eyebrow. Mu Wanwan’s words were too interesting.
After a few seconds of silence, she smiled and said,
“Crops are all dependent on the heavens. It seems like Mr. Jili has made a wrong judgment. Since these are all the best, I’ll bring them back to the palace.”
Mu Wanwan pursed her lips and said, “It’s not convenient for me to go to the orchard now. If this is the harvest this year, then that’s the only way.”
Shen Fanxing glanced at Qiao Biluo before she stood up and placed the two fruits in her basket.
“It’s rare for one or two to be acceptable. Let me take them back. With comparison, I think Grandma will probably investigate what’s going on.”
Qiao Biluo and Jili’s expressions changed.
Mu Wanwan smiled and said, “This is the harvest this year, what’s there to investigate… How about this? If the Queen really pursues the matter and sends someone to ask, it will take time to go back and forth. When you leave later, take Mr. Jili and Ms. Qiao Biluo away and let them explain to the Queen. I’ll treat it as giving the two of them a break. After all, they’re husband and wife. It’s hard to be apart from work.”
Shen Fanxing raised an eyebrow and sized up Qiao Biluo and Jili playfully.
“Huh? So the two of you are husband and wife?”
Qiao Biluo’s lips twitched, but she didn’t laugh.
Shen Fanxing nodded and said, “Let’s do that then. When the time comes, the two of you can come back with me. Explain properly if your wife hates the queen and left the leftovers for her or if the harvest this year isn’t that good. There aren’t even two baskets of fruits…”
Then, she changed the topic. Without giving anyone a chance to speak, she looked at Mu Wanwan and said,
“What do you mean by not feeling well?”
