Chapter 139 – Qing Transmigration Tale (48)
Kangxi looked at Eighth Prince with a gaze of tolerance. “You have brought him here, it shows that you are honest and open.” He thought for a moment and then said, “Speaking of this, while the words of the jianghu masters cannot be fully trusted, sometimes, they have some value of being referenced.”
What did this mean?
Eighth Prince’s heart was beating very fast like it was going to jump out.
Was this the meaning he was thinking of? Eighth Prince was not sure.
Kangxi spoke, “This was not a serious matter. You do not need to be so frightened. For a Daoist, he just said something he felt is the truth. What is the wrong? Take him back and release him.
Something that is the truth? What was the truth? Was it truly “Eighth Prince big?”
Eighth Prince just felt his breathing speeding up.
He did not dare to completely believe such words, but he was willing to believe that such words were true. Words that the emperor said must be true.
Eighth Prince did not know how he left the palace. He felt he was floating, like his heart was going to fly.
Eighth Princess Consort looked in joy at Eighth Prince. “Yin Si, our good times have finally come.”
Since the emperor could say such things, it meant that he wanted Yin Si. If there was the recommendations from the court officials, it was almost certain.
Eighth Prince shook his head. “Do not be happy prematurely. This matter is not so simple.” He feared this was a trap. The emperor had dug it, waiting for people to jump in.
There were three painful lessons in the past. Adding on Thirteen who had been affected as well, there were four examples there. He did not want to become the fifth.
Eighth Princess Consort wanted to speak when she heard the sound of good news.
“Congratulations, Prince, Princess Consort. The emperor just send an imperial edict to promote Concubine Liang to Consort Liang. It is great news.”
If there was anything that could make Eighth Prince happy and excited, it would concern Consort Liang.
Eighth Princess Consort looked back at Eighth Prince, “The emperor just promoted Niangniang. The meaning……Ye, if you miss the chance, it will never come again. Not for anything else, just for Niangniang.”
He, as her son, knew very well what kind of days Consort Liang had lived.
If the emperor did not remember Eniang and did not go to visit her, it was frightening. But if the emperor went, Eniang‘s days were not good. Each time after she served the emperor, Eniang would be given birth control soup. In the inner palace, this was a humiliation. Giving a concubine who had already had an a-ge birth control soup. The meaning in this action was enough that mother and son could not hold their heads high in the palace.
Back when his marriage had been decreed, Eniang had been given an honor to be promoted to Concubine Liang. After ten years, she was promoted to consort.
Only mother and son knew of the sadness they felt.
Now, he was able to fight for honor for Eniang. Why would he not dare to charge?
Si Ye looked at the note in his hand, his expression strange. He did not know what he felt now. The emperor had put down tempting bait, waiting for the fish to bite the hook.
It just depended on whether the fish could resist the temptation.
Not everyone was like Si Ye, able to suppress their restless hearts.
The capital seemed to explode like cold water poured into a pot of oil because of the emperor’s actions.
Ninth Prince muttered in his room, “It is impossible! Does the old man truly think like this? He wants Eight?”
Ninth Princess Consort saw him moving around and around, and felt dizzy. She said, “What? You are not happy? Ye, are you not close to Eighth Prince? If Eighth Prince goes up, will Ye not benefit?”
“What do you know?” Ninth Prince glared at Ninth Princess Consort. “Right now, Eighth Brother is easygoing because he needs to use us brothers. When he has no need for you, who knows what it will be like? You think it is so easy to benefit from Eight?”
“Ye knows this?” Ninth Princess Consort raised her eyebrows and said, “Disregarding everything else, if Ye‘s good eighth brother is as half as good to Ye as Fourth Prince to Thirteenth Prince, I will not pick. In these years, how much silver did Ye give to Eighth Prince? What did you get in return? Look at Thirteenth Prince. How has he helped Fourth Prince? Other than weighing him down and weighing him down, he fell into a hole, and Fourth Prince had to try to pull him out. The physicians in the establishment were given by Fourth Prince. Even the milk cake his children eat were made by Fourth Sister-in-law. What is this? This is fraternal feeling. Look at your eighth brother and his wife. Just look at Eighth Princess Consort, how much of our silver did she use, does she give me a good expression? It is like we are trying to gain favor with them? What do they have? In terms of birth, our eniang comes of Gololo-shi, and she was one of the four consorts from a long time ago. Ye, why do you need them to live well? I do not understand these matters, but husband and wife are about the same in their positions. Look at how Fourth Sister-in-law treats Thirteenth Sister-in-law, and how Eighth Sister-in-law treats me and Tenth Sister-in-law, then you know the attitude of her ye to you brothers.”
Ninth Prince had not been feeling well, and with Ninth Princess Consort nagging, he was full of anger. “You, stop. I have never seen people pouring oil on fire like you are to Ye.”
Ninth Princess Consort twisted her lips and said, “I have no son, Ye, even if you earn mountains of gold and silver, it will not fall to me. If you do not want to save for your sons, I do not care. Just think me too meddlesome.”
Ninth Prince’s heart stopped. So it was my fault that you do not have children? Ye has not dared to come back late to sleep since you threw me into the water. You could not wrongly accuse Ye of working, right? If you could not get pregnant, it should be Ye blaming you. How could this woman suddenly grow so righteous?
He glared at Ninth Princess Consort who ignored him, just playing with the rouge. “Ye, you have to bring some silver. There is not enough silver to prepare the new year gifts for the palace.”
This wastrel!
“Not enough?” Ninth Prince almost jumped up. All of them demanded silver. Did they think that Ye was in charge of the treasury?
Bah! Even if he was in charge of the treasury, he could not move the silver of the treasury back for you to use.
Ninth Princess Consort snorted softly, “You have business, but you do not know that the snow is heavy this year, and transportation is difficult from south to north, and the price of things has increased.”
Nonsense!
Ninth Prince did not argue with her. He understood. If he gave Eight or Ten money, the princess consort would find an excuse to get silver from him.
She seemed to say, you have the silver to give to your brothers to spend. You do not have the silver for your wife to buy rouge and powder.
He truly could not live like this.
Brothers, his brothers were not honorable. His wife, his wife did not understand him.
His life had lost meaning.
The new year arrived in such a strange atmosphere.
This year, Consort De’s smile was even more bright. Everyone knew of the three imperial sons who were still standing, two were Consort De’s sons. No one would be at odds were her if they did not have anything.
“How come Hong Zhao is not brought along?” Consort De asked Lin Yu Tong.
Hong Zhao was still young, and Lin Yu Tong naturally did not bear to have the child enter the palace and be restrained. However, in the past, Consort De would not ask like this. Today, asking like this meant that she was confident that even if her grandson made a fuss, no one would gossip.
Lin Yu Tong understood Consort De’s way of thinking like this.
She smiled and said, “Today, we got up early, and the boy could not get up. I said it did not matter, just dress him and carry him, but our ye did not permit it.”
Consort De hurriedly said, “Do not disturb the child like that. There will be more times in the future.”
Lin Yu Tong smiled and said, “In the past, I was patient with Hong Hui. Now, with Hong Zhao, I have no patience at all.”
Consort De smiled in understanding. “You raise mischievous sons, so it is like this.”
After a few words, Consort De could not just talk to Lin Yu Tong and started to pay attention to Fourteenth Princess Consort.
Wanyan-shi‘s second di-son was the fourth a-ge in Fourteen’s establishment. He had been born on the eighth of the twelfth month in the forty-sixth year of Kangxi. He just passed his first birthday.
Consort De asked with the same concern about this child called Hong Kai. When mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law got together, the safest topic was the third generation.
Lin Yu Tong was dazing at the side when Consort De suddenly said, “Have you prepared people for Hong Hui yet?”
Prepare people? What people?
Lin Yu Tong was stunned for a while before she understood that Consort De was speaking of servant girls to teach him matters between men and women.
So, in a blink, Hong Hui was thirteen.
The original of this body had married Si Ye back when she was thirteen.
At night, Lin Yu Tong sighed about this to Si Ye.
Si Ye may have been thinking of the matters of the palace, and only focused after making noises for a while. He smiled and said, “The child has grown up, this cannot be avoided. He has had his first emissions, he needs to be taught, and then he will not be curious about these matters between men and women. People will not be able to tempt him.”
Lin Yu Tong could not say if this method was wrong or right. If nothing went wrong, Hong Hui would take over for Si Ye. If she asked Hong Hui to only have one wife and no concubines, not just Si Ye, even the emperor would not agree.
The emperor would summon Hong Hui every few days since he came to Changchun Garden. It was very low key, just eating a meal together and talking. Occasionally, they would speak of stories from books. Speaking of this, there were no rumors of this matter even now. The emperor had been good at keeping this a secret.
Si Ye knew that the emperor liked Hong Hui.
So, on this matter, Lin Yu Tong did not have much control.
The saying went not to push one’s dislikes on others. Because of this matter, Lin Yu Tong was unable to sleep half of the night.
It was not so easy to explain the matters between men and women. She hoped that Hong Hui’s princess consort was a woman who could grab onto his heart.
In Si Ye’s view, the matters on Lin Yu Tong’s mind were just because she had too much free time.
He had more important matters to work on, and had no attention to spare for her moans about imaginary issues.
After the new year, the memorandums from the different regions about the crown prince were delivered.
Si Ye walked around the study, a bit stuck.
People had to recommend someone for the crown prince position. He could not be an exception. But the candidate was a great dilemma. He was not willing to recommend anyone, but he had to recommend someone.
If he did not recommend, it meant he had selfish thoughts. If he recommended, he felt that other than the deposed crown prince, everyone else was not suitable. Of course, Si Ye would not do something as stupid as recommending himself.
Bring the deposed crown prince back out? Si Ye felt it was a loss.
Just as he was distracted and restless, Su Pei Sheng came to report, “Fourteenth Prince has come asking to meet Ye.”
Si Ye frowned. Why was he coming at this time? Whenever Fourteen came to find him, it was never anything good.
As expected, when Fourteen started to talk, Si Ye wanted to throw him out.
“What is bad about Eighth Brother? Fourth Brother, why do you look down on him? Right now, in the the entire court, who does not know that Eighth Brother has the fate of heaven? Fourth Brother, you have always been at odds with Eighth Brother. If you do not use this chance to restore ties with Eighth Brother, when will you wait until?” Fourteen’s tone was very solemn, and he continued to deceive, “Fourth Brother, do not have any dreams about yourself. Do not joke, you have offended everyone. Who will recommend you? If Thirteen comes out, he may recommend you, but what to do? Your thirteenth brother is imprisoned in his home right now. Do not hope that I will recommend you, us brothers cannot be tied together, right?”
Si Ye closed his eyes. He did not want to pay attention to this idiot who thought the entire world was made of idiots. If he recommended Eight, it meant giving up on the struggle. Then if Fourteen defeated Eight, everything would be smooth.
But why should he do that?
Si Ye felt his temples pulse. He could not stand it and threw an ink stone at Fourteen.
Fourteen jumped in fright and dodged. He was about to shout when he saw Si Ye’s expression. He immediately said weakly, “Regardless of whether Fourth Brother believes it or not, this is for Fourth Brother’s good. You…… bite the hands that feeds you, you do not want to take care of you.”
Then he ran away.
Si Ye breathed on his own in the study to suppress the anger he felt.
Lin Yu Tong learned of this later and sighed. He was seeking death! If you made Si Ye angry, you will suffer.
Eighth Prince was very popular in the capital. Suddenly, an imperial edict suddenly lowered the temperature of the capital.
The emperor suddenly promoted Fourth Beile as Prince Yong of the first rank, Third Beile as Commandery Prince Cheng, Fifth Beile as Commandry Prince Heng, and Seventh Beile as Commandery Prince Chun.
Among the commandary princes, Si Ye, as the only prince of first rank, was very eye-catching.
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