Chapter 161 – Qing Transmigration Tale (70)
Ninth Prince knelt in front of the emperor. Other than stating his thanks for the grace, what could he say to the old man? What should he say at such a time? Other than receiving reprimands, the old man had never paid sole attention to him.
“How come you are not speaking?” Kangxi frowned. He looked at Nine. The child was a bit foolish, and now, he looked a bit stupid.
Ninth Prince did not know what went wrong with his head. He said, “Khan A-ma is suddenly praising this son, and this son is not used to this. The last time Khan A-ma praised this son, it was when this son was six years old. Back then, Tenth Brother peed his pants in the imperial study. This son was better than Tenth Brother, and did not pee.”
Kangxi stilled. On the side, Li De Quan could not resist laughing.
Kangxi lifted his leg and softly kicked Nine. “How come you are still like this?” Then he could not help but laugh as well.
Ninth Prince wanted to hit himself in the mouth after saying this. This was a good thing, but his mouth had ruined it.
“All right, get up.” Kangxi leaned back. He peeled a mandarin orange and slowly ate it.
Ninth Prince smelled the scent from below. He had rushed into the palace, not eating or drinking before heading in. He entered the palace, and had waited a considerable amount of time. When waiting for the emperor, even his sons would not be given tea to drink. The floor heating in the room had been very hot, and he had been nervous, sweating a lot.
Right now, he was very thirsty. He instinctively stared at the orange in the emperor’s hand.
He gave off a presence of “I want to eat this so much.”
Kangxi, no matter how slow he was, could see Nine’s intention. This child was pretty heartless.
He handed the half-eaten orange in his hand to Nine. Nine did not even think about it and shoved it into his mouth.
As he ate, he said, “This orange is not very big, just the size of a walnut. It is just a mouthful.” He seemed to feel the emperor eating it slice by slice was very pretentious.
After eating it, Ninth Prince realized what he had just said.
He immediately knelt down. “This son has made a mistake.”
Why was he so rash?
Kangxi sighed and said, “All right, rise. The dragon has nine sons, and all his sons are different. If Zhen truly holds a grudge against you, even if Zhen lives ten thousand years, it will not be enough to deal with you all.”
Ninth Prince thought, even like this, people were eager. If you truly lived ten thousand years, people would die from the pressure. So he said, “This son always hopes that you will live ten thousand years. You are my a-ma in the end.”
This was true, but when Kangxi heard this, he found it very amusing. So Nine knew that it had nothing to do with him, so he was more willing to have his a-ma, on the throne.
“All right, you can leave.” Kangxi felt it irritating looking at Nine. “Just work well, and accomplish something.”
After Ninth Prince left, Kangxi ordered Li De Quan. “Reward Nine and Ten each a plate of oranges.”
Tenth Prince looked at the oranges on the table and was a bit stunned. What did this mean? How could the old man suddenly remember him, who was not favored by his maternal grandmother and uncles?
It was not possible.
Xiao Gou Zi was his personal eunuch. He came back to report in a whisper that the emperor had only rewarded Ninth Brother and him.
Thinking of now his ninth brother finally got a chance to meet the emperor and still remembered to mention him, the younger brother, he felt very touched. His ninth brother was so good to his younger brother. This was not his full brother, but better than a full-blooded brother. So he first ate the plate of oranges, and then carefully moved the peels into the princess consort’s room. If this was placed in the braziers, it could scent the room, no?
Tenth Princess Consort saw the plate of orange peels and was on the border of fury. She just managed to control herself from picking up her whip and beating Ten. Tenth Prince went to find his ninth brother to express his gratefulness to Ninth Brother.
Ninth Prince himself was a bit confused. Had he mentioned Ten?
Could he have? He only said a few things.
After thinking for a while, his expression grew strange. “That is…… Ten……” He did not know what to say facing Ten’s grateful gaze. He coughed and said, “Ten, this brother did mention you……”
Ten smiled and said, “I just knew it. Ninth Brother will not forget your brothers regardless of the time.”
Ninth Prince felt guilty and pushed the plate of oranges the emperor rewarded towards Tenth Prince. He felt that these things were very good to decrease the heat in the body. Seeing Ten start to peel and shove fruit into his mouth, he then said, “Your brother, me, I accidentally spoke of how you peed yourself in the imperial study to……” His voice decreased in volume.
Tenth Prince immediately froze. He howled and jumped off the chair. To Tenth Prince, this was a matter that should not be touched. “Ninth Brother, my dear ninth brother, are you my brother? You use your brother’s embarrassing matter to contrast how accomplished you are? Will we be able to be good brothers in the future? We said we would be brothers for a lifetime. What is this?”
Ninth Prince hurriedly comforted him, peeling the oranges for Tenth Prince and even feeding him. “It is because your brother only has been praised once before in this lifetime by Khan A-ma. I got happy and excited, and just blurted it out.”
Tenth Prince swallowed the orange in his mouth and looked in disbelief at Ninth Prince. “Brother, you just talked about such useless things in a audience with the emperor?”
Ninth Prince reached out to slap his own mouth. “Isn’t it all because of this bad mouth?”
“I just knew that us brothers do not have the fate to be accomplished.”Tenth Prince ate the last orange, and then handed the plate to Ninth Prince’s personal eunuch. “Send it to Ninth Sister-in-law to scent the room.”
Ninth Prince was in the middle of his regret right now, and had not realized what Tenth Prince ordered to be delivered. He just casually waved a hand for the servant to leave.
Ninth Princess Consort looked at the plate of peels in front of her. She used a chopstick to sift through. These were just orange peels.
She immediately threw the chopstick in her hand to the ground. What was this? Last night, he asked her if she liked him or not. Today, he gave her a plate of orange peels.
Did he want to say that her face was like the orange peel, yellow and pitted? To mock her for being a yellow skinned old woman? Or to say that she only had her appearance, but no substance?
The more she thought, the more angry she was.
Ninth Prince finally managed to get Tenth Prince to leave and went back to the inner courtyard. He had to talk to Ninth Princess Consort. They could not go to Four empty handed. He had benefited so much. If he treated it as expected, he was truly not aware.
Ninth Princess Consort saw Ninth Prince lift the curtain and enter. She did not want to pay attention to him and turned to enter the inner room.
What did she mean? She was embarrassed by what he had asked her last night?
They were an old couple, and she was still so bashful. Ninth Prince feared that she would be even more embarrassed and did not chase her. He only asked loudly from outside, “What gifts will you bring with you?”
Ninth Princess Consort was angry when she thought of the plate of orange peel and snorted a laugh. “Isn’t it on the table already? Aren’t the things that Ye want to say already there?” He truly gave a good puzzle.
Ninth Prince was stunned. What was on the table?
He looked down. Was it not just a plate of orange peel?
Gift this?
It was not appropriate.
But Four would not like if he gave gold or silver. He may get reprimanded again.
He looked at the orange peels again. Was there some tradition in this? Or a certain hidden meaning?
He looked at the table. In reality, they were still orange peels.
Suddenly, a light went on in his mind. He seemed to understand a bit.
Orange peel, what was this? It was something useless. Maybe it would have some use, for example, if it was dried or to scent the room. Was this not the same as him? He did not have great use, but he may occasionally be of minor use.
But one day, when someone treated him so importantly, then would he not repay them greatly?
So, he took a white jade box from the shelf, and put the peels in.
Four was the jade box, and he was the orange peel that was not of much use. Four was willing to be a steppingstone for a useless person like him. Was this not the same meaning as using a jade box to hold orange peel? He did not have to say any words of thanks, and the meaning would be delivered.
The princess consort was so smart! She knew that his mouth was not very useful at key times.
Such a method was very good, better than any words.
So without a word, he carried the box away and left.
Ninth Princess Consort did not hear any noise outside and worriedly came out. When she looked, she did not find him. She looked again. The orange peel on the table had disappeared.
She immediately paled. Her ye‘s head truly was not very good. He truly lacked a lot.
She hurriedly sent someone to see if they could stop him in time.
When Ninth Prince went out the door, he thought he had a great idea, and was very excited. He wanted to quickly reach Four’s establishment and have them know that he was also a refined person inside.
So he rode quickly on his horse. The people that Ninth Princess Consort sent did not manage to catch up to him.
Fifth Prince had drank plain water for half a day with Si Ye. He had went to the toilet five times, and Ninth Prince finally arrived.
Fifth Prince sighed. This worrisome person finally arrived.
He had originally been waiting for Nine to say a few words of thanks. But then Nine just placed the jade box on the table, pushed it in front of Si Ye, and then did not say a word.
Si Ye thought, if this was silver, once he opened the box, this matter could not be resolved. Had Ye done this for silver?
He did not move and said, “What is this?”
Fifth Prince was a bit gratified. Nine understood the conventions a bit. He knew that he could not come to give his thanks with empty hands. He had to bring a gift, no matter the value. Also the box was very good. He reached out to take the box. “Fourth Brother, it is Nine’s regard, no matter the amount. He has no other intentions……” Then he opened the box.
His voice cut off.
Fifth Prince looked at the orange peels in the box, the veins pulsing at his temples.
Si Ye took a peek and thought, what did Nine mean? Mocking him for looking like gold and jade on the surface but was rotten cotton inside? Or to say that he had other motives? So his expression could not help but turn dark……
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