Shen Tang carefully sucked all the rich broth out of the soup dumpling.
She circled around it, biting through the crystal-clear, tender skin, and only then savored the plump meat filling. After she had polished off six baskets that way, Chu Yao's initially kind, expectant expression gradually became harder to maintain. Shen Tang stopped halfway through and asked in confusion, "Wuhui, are you eating?"
Surely not. Chu Yao had never been that stingy.
Chu Yao looked at the last soup dumpling.
The gray-haired young man let out a heavy sigh. "My lord, you can have it."
Shen Tang eyed him suspiciously, but she could indeed eat a little more, so she accepted the last dumpling without hesitation. Just then, her teeth struck a round, scorching-hot hard object. She took it out and saw what it was—
A newly minted copper coin bearing the words "Yuan Huang Tongbao."
Chu Yao's smiling eyes held a touch of helplessness. "I clearly put this coin in the first basket. Who would've thought—"
Shen Tang had eaten every dumpling before finding it.
Chu Yao had thought the coin was lost.
"It's a folk custom. They say that if you eat a dumpling with a coin inside, you'll have great fortune and wealth in the coming year. I'd meant to make dumplings, but my lord said yesterday that you wanted soup dumplings, so I thought putting a coin in one would mean the same thing. A dumpling full of fortune!" To make sure his lord could get the one with the coin, Chu Yao hadn't dared touch a single one. Thanks to Kang Jishou, his lord could only rely on the consolation prize in activities that depended on luck.
Shen Tang tilted her head in confusion. "Did I say that yesterday?"
She couldn't remember it at