Summer had arrived, and freshly offered tribute lychees lay chilling in the Imperial Kitchen's ice chest. Lingnan's lychees were large this year. The fruit growers had gone up the mountains before dawn to pick them, packing several great baskets full, branches and leaves included, and sending them to the Capital City by horses spurred to full speed. Packed in ice, the woven bamboo baskets had traveled north, and when they reached the palace, dew from the South still clung to the lychee skins. De'an had personally gone to the Imperial Kitchen to select a plateful, choosing only the large, red-skinned ones, arranging them on a celadon plate, and setting it on the low table in the West Warm Pavilion of Xuanzheng Hall. Crushed ice in the ice chest chilled the bottom of the plate, and a thin layer of droplets condensed on the lychee skins.
Qi Yu lay against the low table, poking the lychees with a finger. The little prickles on their skins tickled his fingertip; he poked one, drew back, then poked it again. He picked one up and sniffed it beneath his nose, declared that this one was sure to be sweet, and began peeling it. The lychee's skin was hard. After two attempts, he still had not broken it open, and bits of shell lodged under his nails while juice trickled a short way down his wrist. He lowered his head to lick the lychee juice off his wrist, but just as his tongue touched his skin, Qi Xiao took the mangled, half-peeled lychee from his hand.
Qi Xiao peeled lychees deftly. He gently pinched the skin with his thumb, pried along the seam, and the whole piece of shell split with a crack, revealing the white flesh inside. Juice seeped through the split and glistened