27 Chapter 27

◎Mother. ◎

Fusu was still young after all, and he knew that his father would not let him leave the palace alone. However, since the words had been spoken, in addition to diverting his father's attention, Fusu did have the idea of ​​leaving the palace.

No matter how spacious the palace is, it only has this much space. Fusu wants to go out and get some fresh air.

"Father, I won't go out alone. Please send someone to follow me." Fusu said without waiting for his father to refuse.

Ying Zheng was so angry that he laughed: "That's a good plan. How long have you been thinking about it?"

It will only take a minute, Fusu thought.

Fusu looked up and smiled a lovely smile, innocent and naive. "I just...thought of it. Father, please don't wrongly accuse me. I didn't think about it for long."

But Ying Zheng didn't believe it. He rubbed his chin with his fingers and asked, "What fun things are there outside the palace? What do you want to do outside the palace?"

Fusu replied as a matter of course: "It is precisely because I don't know what fun things there are outside the palace, father, that I want to go out and have fun!"

This sounds reasonable at first glance, but...

Ying Zheng raised an eyebrow and asked, "Did those people around you never tell you what's going on outside the palace?"

Fusu shook his head. "No, only Meng Hua told me about his family. Father, you know, his father is very strict, even stricter than Mr. Han."

"Hmm?" Ying Zheng asked, "Is Meng Tian usually so strict with his children?"

"Yes, yes!" Fusu nodded in affirmation.

"That's right. I was too lenient with you." Ying Zheng looked thoughtful.

Fusu shook his father's sleeve and begged, "Father, please don't. I won't leave the palace."

Seeing this, Ying Zheng couldn't help but laugh: "Fine, fine, fine. I'll let you leave the palace, but not now. Wait... after the New Year, I'll take you out."

Fusu had already prepared himself to stay in the palace for a while, but he was pleasantly surprised by the unexpected turn of events. Instead of kowtow to express his gratitude, he hugged his father's arm and shouted, "Thank you so much, father! You are the best!"

Ying Zheng smiled and scolded him lightly, "You have no manners." But he had no intention of pushing his eldest son away. Instead, he enjoyed this closeness very much.

…

The next day, in order to welcome the arriving mothers, Li You and the other three changed into new clothes. As they had not seen them for many days, they were waiting anxiously and did not even have the mood to eat properly.

Fortunately, someone came to divert their attention soon. The princesses and princes invited by Fusu arrived as scheduled. Everyone greeted each other and had no time to think about anything else for a while.

Fusu arranged them to sit down one by one, and ordered someone to bring the snacks he had asked the kitchen to prepare.

"Try it." Fusu said with a smile, "They are making it for the first time. If you find anything not good, just tell me."

The sweetened snacks quickly captured the hearts of the children. They discussed with each other which one was delicious and exchanged them with each other. The hall suddenly became lively.

The ladies entered the palace at the order of Empress Dowager Huayang, so they had to pay their respects to the Empress Dowager first and then come to Fusu's palace. However, because they missed their son so much, they moved quickly. After they had cleared the table for the meal, the eunuch came in to inform the ladies that they had arrived.

Fusu sympathized with them and said, "Go out and welcome them."

Li You and the other three thanked the eldest son and ran out to greet their mother.

Seeing this, the eldest princess Ying Yue asked, "They are so anxious, is the person coming from outside their mother?"

Fusu smiled and said, "That's right. It's all because of me that they were separated from their mother and son. The only thing I can do for them is to ask the Queen Mother to let them see their mother in the palace."

Ying Yue's mother was also from an aristocratic family. She could read and write, and she taught her to read, so she understood the principles of the relationship between the ruler and his subjects.

Ying Yue smiled and said, "They will understand the eldest master's intentions."

To win people's hearts, of course you have to do things that touch their hearts.

Fusu did not dislike the implication of Ying Yue's words. He turned around and said with a smile: "Sister, you and I are so polite to each other that it makes people feel unfamiliar."

Ying Yue said, "Brother."

Second Young Master Gao, hearing what they said, thought the eldest young master wanted them to be closer, so he came over and asked, "Brother, I really like butterfly cakes. Can you give me a plate? I want to take some back for my younger sister to try."

Ying Gao had a younger sister who was less than two years old and had not yet been named. Usually, he and his mother just called her "little sister."

Fusu nodded and smiled, "I'll have someone give you the recipe for the snack. And you..." He tilted his head to look at the children who were eager to try it, "If you like any of them, copy it and take it home. If you want to eat it, ask the chef to make it for you."

"But..." Fusu's face turned stern again, "Desserts are snacks, but you can't skip the food during meals, understand?"

Everyone agreed at once and thanked Fusu with joy.

Children have simple minds, and just a dessert recipe is enough to make them like Fusu, the big brother.

At this moment, Li You and four others came in to greet his mother.

Fusu led a group of children to greet the four ladies and asked them to sit down.

The four ladies at home had heard that the king favored the eldest son. When they saw him today, they were surprised by his handsome appearance and good manners. They felt that their husbands were making a big fuss. If such a child was born in their own family, they would also like him. The king is also a human being. What's wrong with favoring his own children?

Fusu seldom dealt with female relatives and didn't know what to say to them. After sitting for a while and chatting awkwardly for a few minutes, he directly invited them to the greenhouse in the back yard.

Because there were too many people today and they couldn't all go in at once, Fusu asked Li You and three others to take their mother in first, and the rest of the people went in groups of two to see it separately.

At this time, chicks and ducklings had already hatched. No one present had ever seen such a scene. Two little princesses were holding hands, seeming a little scared, but also very curious. They stood on tiptoe and watched very seriously, shaking their hands.

After the eggs hatched, Fusu made a statistics and found that the hatching rate was only 60%, which was not very successful.

This was the first thing they did independently, and they failed. Not only the two younger ones, but also Li You and Mi Qing were very disappointed.

Fusu consoled him, "Failure is the mother of success. We didn't do well this time. Let's learn from our experience and try again."

Meng Hua pouted and said, "But...what if we fail again?"

Fusu said: "Then learn from your failures and try again. Every time we accumulate experience from failure, we are one step closer to success."

For those who had never tasted inspirational quotes, Fusu's words were very effective. They immediately regained their confidence and decided to do it again.

This time, not only Fusu had to take notes, but everyone of them had to do it.

Their discussion infected the princesses and princes who were watching. Since Fusu had always been easy to talk to, and with the snack incident before, Ying Gao directly asked Fusu on behalf of everyone if they could follow suit.

Fusu had already planned this, and it was even better when they took the initiative. He nodded immediately and said, "It's all right, but this room is too small. Let them use it. I'll have someone build a few more kangs in the bigger room over there for you to use."

The mothers watched this scene and found it quite incredible that their sons, at the signal of the eldest son, explained the key points of hatching eggs to the princesses and princes respectively.

Deep down, they were not as able to accept as their son's father that he would enter the palace to serve as an attendant to the eldest son.

Their children were raised in luxury, and now, once they enter the palace, they have to rely on the eldest son's favor. How can their mothers bear this? If they had to seek official positions after they reached adulthood, it would be fine. But at this age, are they not allowed to have a few days of leisurely life?

Among them, the mothers of Meng Hua and Wang Li were the most worried. After all, their sons were too young. As for the two older ones, at least their mothers knew that they were well-informed and would not cause any trouble.

However, all these worries disappeared with everything I saw in the palace today.

Fusu was the one with the least time, so he approached the four ladies and said, "Ladies, would you like this method of hatching eggs? It's very simple. You can send your servants to try it when you go home."

Madam Li bent down to accommodate Fusu's height and said with a smile, "Since the eldest son is willing to give it to us, we naturally want it, but I'm afraid we must first seek the king's instructions."

Fusu smiled and said, "It's not a big deal. Madam, just take it with confidence. I will tell my father."

Lady Li did not think that the method of artificial hatching eggs was Fusu's own idea. After all, it only sounded simple, but looking at what they did, there were still many difficulties involved.

In the past two months, many shocking things have appeared in the court. They all came from the palace and from the king's mouth. Hatching the eggs must have been the king's instruction. The reason why Fusu led Li You and the other four to do it must be that the king was coaxing the children into doing it. After all, this is not an important matter like paper, iron smelting or horse harnesses.

Because this matter was not important, Lady Li had no intention of arguing with Fusu over it. After all, no matter how well Fusu behaved, in Lady Li's eyes, he was just a child. As a mother of several children, she was very experienced and knew that children had to be compliant, otherwise the more you pushed them, the more stubborn they would become.

So, Lady Li thought of just getting away with it and then asking the child's father to ask the king for permission. If the king agreed, they would use it. If the king did not agree, they would just pretend nothing happened.

Madam Li smiled and said, "That's great, thank you, Master. I'll send someone to try when I get back."

The other three ladies were also very smart. Seeing this, they all said, "Thank you, young master."

Fusu then explained the method of hatching eggs, and brought the method and drawings of making a kang, asking them to copy them down.

——Although Fusu could see through their perfunctory attitude, it didn’t matter. His father was just hesitant about spreading the hatching of eggs to the common people, and he didn’t forbid the nobles and scholars from learning it at home.

With the dedicated efforts of both parties, the activity of inviting parents to the school was a complete success. When Fusu went to have dinner with his father in the evening, he enthusiastically suggested that more such activities could be held in the future.