After Iris left the back kitchen, the excitement on her face disappeared in an instant. Now she felt so uncomfortable, looking as if she was going to be slammed.

Confess everything to her grandmother? Or to deny it?

"Eh? Your Highness, why are you standing in front of the kitchen?" Xiao Tao asked.

"Huh? Nothing! Are these for me?"

Before Xiao Tao could respond, Iris carried away the dinner plate Xiao Tao was holding.

"Your Highness, be careful of the heat!"

A short while later, Xiao Tao held a glass of milk in her hand and placed it next to Iris 's hand, "Why isn't Your Highness eating? Is it because my cooking is not to your liking? Do you want me to make one for you again?"

"Xiao Tao, when you make afternoon tea for my grandmother, remember to call me. Remember! Be sure to wake me up."

"Yes! Your Highness."

Iris ate some breakfast and walked towards her bedroom, just in time to bump into Ye Li who was getting up.

"Good...good morning, dear grandmother." Iris stammered, not daring to look at Ye Li for fear of being discovered to have stolen Ye Li's afternoon tea.

"Em! Have you eaten breakfast?" Ye Li asked amiably.

"Ate it."

"Then you rest well. You have been meditating all night." Then Ye Li got dressed and left the bedroom.

After Ye Li left, Iris sighed: "So dangerous. My grandmother still doesn't know that I stole her afternoon tea."

In the afternoon, Iris planned to ask Xiao Tao to teach herself to make an identical afternoon tea and apologize to her grandmother. Now she only hoped that the hundred canes and whippings would be reduced.

...

"Your Highness, please wake up!" Xiao Tao urged.

"Just a little more sleep!" Iris replied reluctantly.

"I'm sorry! Your Highness." Xiao Tao then directly lifted the blanket off of Iris and kept tickling her feet.

In the end, Iris had no more sleep and realized that she had to make afternoon tea for her grandmother. So she quickly tied her long silver hair back! Iris was too lazy to wear those cumbersome clothes. She simply wore a nightgown, wore the flip-flops and came to the tea house with Xiao Tao.

The tea house was greeted with the fragrance of various tea. Although Iris could not tell the name of them, it did not prevent Iris from loving these tea.

"Xiao Tao! I want to make an afternoon tea for my grandmother personally. Can you teach me by hand ..."

"Okay!" Xiao Tao nodded, then fetched an apron and helped Iris put it on before starting to make afternoon tea.

Xiao Tao took some flour with a bag of blood and was ready to start making it.

"Eh, it should be done by me? Xiao Tao, why are you getting involved?"

"Sorry! Your Highness, I'm not very good at teaching people."

"It doesn’t matter! You tell me what ingredients to add and how long to bake for. And you don't need to get involved in the whole process."

"Okay!"

"Your Highness, put in 100g of butter, 40g of sugar and mix slightly. Then add an egg yolk and mix slightly until the yolk is invisible. Next add the sifted flour and mix into a homogeneous dough. Don't use the stirring method, otherwise it will make the dough rise."

"No problem!"

Listening to Xiao Tao's instructions, Iris felt that afternoon tea was not that difficult to make! It was just that she was green hands so that the process was not smooth enough.

"What should I do next? Xiao Tao." Iris asked.

"Next, Your Highness, please pour the bowl of mixed ingredients on the plastic wrap, then roll it up and roll it into a cylinder through the mold." Xiao Tao said.

Iris poured the ingredients on the plastic wrap according to Xiao Tao's method and covered it with the plastic wrap.

"Your Highness, let me finish this step, otherwise it will be troublesome to open it next." Xiao Tao persuaded.

"That's fine!"

The next steps were then performed by Xiao Tao. In a short while the ingredients wrapped in plastic wrap were passed through the mold.

Then a gush of cold air rose from Xiao Tao's hands. In a short while the ingredients were frozen.

"Xiao Tao, why not use the refrigerator?"

"Er ...because it takes time for Her Highness to wash up, plus it takes a little time for me to teach you. If I don't use magic I won't be able to deliver the afternoon tea to the Empress Dowager on time."

"It's all my fault for not being strong-willed enough!"

"Your Highness, don't say that. It's because Xiao Tao didn't wake you up in time."

Iris was in a daze and did not pursue whose fault it really was.

"What's next?" Iris asked.

"Your Highness, remove the plastic wrap, and then cut it into small pieces with a knife, and just add some blood with sliced almonds on top."

Iris picked up the knife. With "snapping" sound in the tea house, soon Iris has done it, but the thickness was really a little improper.

Then Iris dripped some blood on it. She could not have the good command of the amount of blood, so there is much blood on some cookies and less on others.

Xiao Tao felt surprised on the side while seeing Iris’s behavior. However, because of the identity of Iris, she didn’t dare to say anything more. Because Iris forgot to add almond slices, the last step was done by Xiao Tao.

After putting these into the oven, Xiao Tao said, "Just wait for a quarter of an hour."

Under Xiao Tao's guidance, Iris brewed a cup of black tea as the drink of afternoon tea. Then a strong fragrance of tea came to the nose, but it still felt less than what Iris drank yesterday.

"So it is called black tea. It tastes quite good." Iris murmured.

Then Xiao Tao placed the baked cookies neatly on a dinner plate and washed a few strawberries aside for decoration.

While Xiao Tao was taking out the napkin, Iris took a piece of the cookie and savored it secretly. In general the taste was hardly different from yesterday's cookie.

Xiao Tao put the napkin inside the tray, stretched her back and said, "Great work is done! Please serve it to the Empress Dowager personally!"

"Okay! Xiao Tao, you can go and rest! It was hard for you last night too. You waited until I finished my meditation and cooked me a meal. I’m so sorry for you."

Iris felt a little sorry for Xiao Tao. As usual, she stays up late and practices meditation at home. If she feels hungry, she just takes a blood bag and sucks it. No one will wait for her to give her some food and when Iris finishes meditation. Besides, the usual food is just blood bag.

"You’re welcome! You are the future Queen. It is my great honor to serve you!" Xiao Tao replied.

"You can go and rest first!"

"Thank you, Your Highness!"

After Xiao Tao left, Iris sighed. Iris smiled helplessly, and said to herself, "Queen?"

...

"Knock knock knock! Knock knock knock!"

"Come in!"

Iris walked into the top of the castle with a tray, while Ye Li was still staring out at the snow.

"Grandmother? What is wrong with you?" Iris waved her hands in front of Ye Li.

"Why do you come here? Why does Xiao Tao not come?" Ye Li looked at Iris in surprise.

"I let her go to rest. After all, I meditated until dawn last night, and Xiao Tao waited for me at the door all night." Iris explained.

Iris placed the tray on the table, and then knelt down in front of Ye Li.

"I'm sorry! Grandmother, I was too hungry yesterday so I stole your afternoon tea. Please punish me."

Iris lowered her head, not daring to look at Ye Li. Iris thought that Ye Li should be angry.

"Take it easy. You stole afternoon tea, but it doesn’t matter. Why are you polite to me like that? I will not punish you, get up! If you really like the afternoon tea, I will let Xiao Tao make two portions in the future."

"Thank you, Grandmother!" Iris looked at Ye Li gratefully.

"Did you make all these?" Ye Li asked.

“Yes! Is it not delicious?"

"Want to hear the truth?"

"Yes!"

"It's not good than what Xiao Tao made! But it's made by my granddaughter, I'll eat it all up." Ye Li smiled and stroked Iris 's head.

"Is the difference that big?" Iris picked up a cookie and tasted it. Wow, this one was too sweet.

Indeed, her cookies were very different from those made by Xiao Tao, and even much worse, mainly because the ingredients put by Iris were uneven, some sweet, some light.

Ye Li and Iris were sitting inside the house and were enjoying the snowy outside. They were sitting by the fireplace, and were talking about some usual past events. The scene was very warm. Inadvertently, Iris experienced the feeling of "home" once. And Iris likes this grandmother more and more. This grandmother will not punish Iris for some trivial things. Besides, she will solve some cultivation problems for Iris, as well as describe the direction of the future advancement of the summoned beast to her.