"Slow down... have some soup..."
Inside the little room, Le Zhan wolfed down his food. He took the soup bowl from his wife and gulped it down.
"Delicious... absolutely delicious... your cooking is truly..."
Le Zhan squeezed out a muffled compliment between gulps. Before he could finish, a large piece of chicken leg, stewed until tender, went into his mouth.
Madam Le said with a warm smile:
"Once you finish eating, have a bath, then change your clothes..."
Le Zhan had rolled up his sleeves and buried himself in his meal. At those words, he froze and raised his head, staring at his wife in disbelief with his cheeks bulging. Then he struggled to swallow his food and asked incredulously:
"A... a bath? I can have a bath? And change my clothes?!"
Madam Le poured her husband a small cup of Chrysanthemum Wine and answered as though it were perfectly natural, "Of course."
Le Zhan's eyes widened. He accepted the cup instinctively, then suddenly remembered something:
"Wait! That's not right. How did you get in here? Kong Changyu gave permission?"
He had been so excited to hear that his wife had come to visit that he had not looked into it. Now that he thought about it, this was hardly an ordinary imprisonment. Would they really allow family visits?
Le Zhan sipped his wine and pondered what lay behind this.
Madam Le said casually:
"Who needed his permission? I went to the Prince of Badong."
Le Zhan nearly sprayed out a mouthful of wine!
"You... you... when did you get to know the Prince of Badong?"
"Just now."
"What? Just... but..."
Before Le Zhan could think any further about how his wife had managed it, he gave a sudden cry and slammed down his cup, splashing wine onto himself:
**"You