Chapter 26: Playing Cards
Because the crown prince and other princes were so diligent, obedient, and conscientious, Emperor Jingwen had the illusion that he was particularly good at raising children.
It was not until today that Emperor Jingwen realized that all his previous children were raised in vain. All of them combined were not as troublesome as this one.
The other party would even stop him with words like emperor and subject, father and son.
Listen to this, does this sound like something a two-year-old child would say?
But he couldn’t really say anything like “the emperor and his subjects were the first to rule over him”. Everyone knew it, but they couldn’t put it in the open, as it would ultimately hurt the relationship between father and son.
Therefore, this question has no solution.
For the first time in his life, Emperor Jingwen was not thinking about state affairs before going to bed, but was troubled by the upbringing of his youngest son.
At the same time, the East Palace——When the commotion broke out in Qiuwu Palace, the crown prince had already received the news. However, before he could go to check what was going on, the farce had already stopped.
“Looking at this commotion, I’m afraid that my royal brother has done something to displease father again.” He is worthy of being the crown prince. He has already gotten a glimpse of the truth after only meeting Ye Shuo twice, and his guess is so accurate.
“Oh? From what I’ve seen from your Highness’ words and actions, the little prince seems to be a little naughty?” The tutor beside him had never seen the true appearance of the little prince, but after hearing him say this, he became interested.
The prince twitched his lips when he heard this: “Grandmaster, you don’t know that my brother is more than just naughty.”
The Taifu is the crown prince’s teacher. When facing his teacher, the crown prince has nothing to hide.
So he told everything he had seen.
Then the tutor stopped talking.
Just by lying on a recliner and eating grapes, and having musicians and masseurs, the Taifu thought that it was fortunate that he was not the crown prince, otherwise he would have been a tyrant if he ascended the throne one day.
Fortunately, the one he was assisting was the Crown Prince, so the more useless the other princes were, the better.
“Judging from the current situation, the little prince doesn’t seem to be a cause for concern.” The Grand Tutor had been worried about the Duke of Zhen for two years, and now he finally felt a little relieved.
“But it’s inevitable that those people who go to the study room will have to work hard in the future.”
After all, we are all in education, so we naturally know each other.
As the saying goes, people of the same profession look down on each other, and this is especially true for scholars. Even the Taifu is no exception.
As luck would have it, the person in charge of the upper study now is his old rival, Lord Jin Zhe.
It’s obvious that Concubine Rong dotes on her child. The Emperor has to worry about so many things every day, so it’s basically impossible for him to discipline his child personally, so in the end, the responsibility falls on the prince’s teacher.
Even though the little prince is only a little over two years old now, and it will take him nearly two years to go to the upper study, the Grand Tutor has already anticipated the scene when the little prince goes to the upper study.
Thinking of his old rival’s headache, the Taifu couldn’t help but smile.
When the time comes, I must watch the fun carefully.
On the other hand, as Emperor Jingwen’s mood changed, the hearts of everyone in the harem also fluctuated.
It was thought that the six-month-long house arrest had crushed the little prince to death. As a record breaker, in the eyes of the concubines, the little prince would never be able to turn over again.
Who knows how long it would take before someone saw the emperor carrying him around the palace.
Note, it is carried on the back.
Not to mention other princes, even the crown prince does not have this honor.
The emperor is a typical strict father. Apart from holding the prince when he is born, there is nothing more he does, let alone carrying him on his back.
Even in the homes of lower-level ministers, it was rare for a father to carry his child on his back.
What does father mean? It means unshakable authority and the most untransgressed existence in a family or even a clan.
If you are too close to your children, won’t they lose their sense of awe?
After hearing the news, the Concubine Shu and the others, who had been gloating at first, twisted their handkerchiefs to pieces and felt a sense of crisis. However, before they could come up with a solution, they heard that the Emperor was furious and almost beat the little prince.
What is this about? ?
Emperor Jingwen changed his attitude so quickly this time that the Queen and the others were really confused.
Does the emperor love or is he angry with the little prince?
Not to mention them, even Concubine Rong, his own mother, is almost having a headache. Her son is only two years old, and he is already like this. What will she do when he grows up?
Looking at the child playing wildly in the palace as usual, Concubine Rong decided to let him study in advance.
It is said that books contain beauty and golden houses. Perhaps after he reads the books and understands the principles in them, he will naturally become sensible.
For some reason, Ye Shuo, who was watering the plants and mixing the mud, suddenly felt a chill on his back, as if something bad was about to happen.
Soon, when he saw Su Yue coming over with a pile of books, Ye Shuo realized that it was not an illusion, but something bad was really going to happen.
So Ye Shuo ran away before Concubine Rong could say anything.
“Mom, I suddenly remembered that I have something else to do. Bye bye~”
He is just a two-year-old kid, what the hell is there for him to do?
The child’s back gradually walked away, and Concubine Rong’s expression changed from pretending to be gentle at the beginning to completely losing her trick and turned into anger.
“What are you all standing there for? Why don’t you bring him back to me?”
“Today, even if he says something ridiculous, he must recite this Thousand Character Classic to me!”
“yes!”
…
Although Ye Shuo has small arms and legs, he is not slow at all when running. And because of his small body, he can hide better.
However, Ye Shuo also had his limits in mind. The palace was so huge, and with his small body, if he made a mistake, he might be swallowed up by someone with ulterior motives.
Although on the surface he is quite safe as the son of the imperial concubine, it is always better to be safe than sorry.
If anything happened, her mother, as a royal concubine, would definitely avenge him, but he would be dead by then, so revenge would be useless.
So Ye Shuo deliberately avoided accident-prone areas such as rockery, pools, wells, etc.
Just as he was wandering alone in the Imperial Garden, thinking about what to do next, he suddenly thought of a good place.
If it’s there, it should be fine.
With his sixth brother going to school and unable to enter the Eastern Palace, Ye Shuo felt that it was time to find another good place to go.
Ye Shuo did what he said, and walked towards the destination with his calves.
Not long after Ye Shuo left, Su Yue and the others arrived, panting.
That’s not right. I just saw the little prince here, how come he’s gone in the blink of an eye?
Su Yue couldn’t understand why. The little prince had only been to the Imperial Garden a few times, and the swing he had set up before was not in this location. So how did he remember the route so clearly and even knew where it was better to hide without being discovered?
If Su Yue had not seen the abilities of these young eunuchs before, she would have really thought they were useless.
But now is not the time to talk about this, the most important thing is to find the little prince.
Just as Su Yue was wandering around the Imperial Garden like a headless fly, Ye Shuo had already appeared at the door of Shu Lan Zhai.
He remembered that Concubine Zhao lived here.
Looking at the tightly closed palace gate in front of him, Ye Shuo stood on tiptoe and took great effort to barely reach the door knocker on it.
“Boom boom boom”, “Boom boom boom”.
At that time, Zhao Chongrong was taking medicine.
Since the loss of her child, her health has not improved as before, and she has basically been taking herbal medicine every day.
As a result, just as she picked up the bowl, she heard a knock on the door.
As her place was seldom visited by anyone, Zhao Chongrong initially thought she had misheard. Later, after being reminded by her maid, she asked the eunuch who was serving her to go out and check.
With a creaky sound, the heavy door opened. The young eunuch looked out. Eh? No one was there. Could it be haunted?
Then he heard a clear child’s voice coming from below.
“Excuse me, is Madam Zhao here?”
The young eunuch lowered his head subconsciously. When he saw the red dress, he was stunned at first, and then startled: “Greetings, young prince. Good luck to you, young prince.”
A look of surprise flashed across Zhao Chongrong’s face. When she came to her senses, the little kid had already run towards her.
Zhao Chongrong is not good at dealing with people, including children. Fortunately, Ye Shuo is a chatterbox, so there is no need to worry about awkward silence.
“Why is Concubine Zhao taking medicine? Is Concubine Zhao sick recently?”
Facing the little kid’s slightly worried eyes, Zhao Chongrong felt warm in his heart: “It’s just to take care of my health.”
After saying that, she drank the medicine in front of her, then handed the medicine bowl to the maid beside her and asked her to deal with it.
Wiping his mouth with a handkerchief, Zhao Chongrong asked, “Why is the young prince here?”
The most important thing is that he still remembers her.
“I don’t know why, but I felt a sense of familiarity when I thought of Concubine Zhao, so I came here.” Ye Shuo didn’t feel embarrassed at all when he lied.
“If Madam Zhao finds me annoying, I will leave now…”
The little baby looked so pitiful when he looked depressed.
Zhao Chongrong hesitated for a moment, but finally accepted the trouble: “Wait a minute.”
Zhao Chongrong sighed: “If your Highness doesn’t mind, you can stay with me as long as you want.”
Ye Shuo immediately perked up, no longer feeling aggrieved: “I don’t mind, I don’t mind!”
Seeing that he seemed curious about her palace, Zhao Chongrong thought that there was nothing in it that couldn’t be seen by the light, so she took the initiative to hold his hand and show him around.
When he reached one of the drawers, Ye Shuo suddenly stopped.
This thing… should be ancient playing cards, right?
Although he had recognized what was in the box, Ye Shuo still asked with a curious expression: “Madam Zhao, what is this?”
“You are talking about this… This thing is called Madiao.” Before Zhao Chongrong got married, she often played with her sisters.
Later, she married Emperor Jingwen, who was still the crown prince, and it has been fifteen or sixteen years until today.
This sling was brought here as a souvenir, and now it is old.
Ye Shuo: “Is Madiao a toy?”
Zhao Chongrong hesitated and said, “This…should be considered as such, right?”
Ye Shuo was waiting for this. His eyes lit up, and he looked up and said, “Then let’s play this!”
“Um?”
Zhao Chongrong refused without thinking: “This is not something that children can play with.”
As well as……
“Mahjong is fun only when four people play together, and there are only two of us.”
It’s just a lack of people, that’s easy to handle.
“Concubine Zhao, wait for me. I’ll go call the queens from the two neighboring palaces!” He had noticed when he came that this area was exceptionally quiet. It was not as lively as the Qiuwu Palace at all. It was probably because there were concubines here whose situations were similar to Zhao Chongrong’s.
There was no time to stop him. Zhao Chongrong could only watch the little kid run away.
Zhao Chongrong was stunned.
“Eh???”