Chapter 182

Emperor Yongzheng took the book that he had asked the maids to recite and read it over and over again. He still felt a little confused. He looked at Jiang Haifu who was waiting beside him and asked, "Jiang Haifu, do you know how to raise a child?"

Although he had many princes, this was actually his first time raising a child.

"In reply to your Majesty, I really don't know about this matter, but the maids in the palace are very experienced in this matter."

Thinking of Jiang Haifu being a rootless person, Emperor Yongzheng waved his hand, thought for a moment, and put the parenting manual aside: "Forget it."

It’s not that the child is not close to him, it’s just that he is not as close to his father!

During lunch, Emperor Yongzheng had Jiaojiao brought in. However, Jiaojiao didn't let anyone carry him when he arrived. Instead, he ran over happily holding his big milk bottle. When he saw Emperor Yongzheng, he called out crisply, "Uncle!"

Emperor Yongzheng responded, reached out and held him in the special baby chair beside him, shook his empty short legs, and put the bottle on the table.

The cooking skills of the imperial chef in the palace were so superb that Jiaojiao could eat a simple minced meat and egg custard without even raising his head. His satisfied look made Emperor Yongzheng, who was dining with him, eat half an extra bowl of rice.

Seeing how much His Majesty ate today, Jiang Haifu was so happy that the wrinkles on his face smoothed out a lot.

His Majesty has a stomach problem and has been suffering from a poor appetite for years. He doesn't like to eat, and only eats half a bowl of food at each meal. After he was ill a while ago, he even stopped eating even half a bowl of food. He often only eats a couple of snacks when he can't hold on any longer. This makes Jiang Haifu's hair almost fall out. He risks his life every day to persuade His Majesty to eat more, but no matter how hard he tries, it's useless.

However, ever since the young master Jiaojiao came into the palace, His Majesty has been able to eat more or less with him by his side. This makes Jiang Haifu, who has always been worried about His Majesty's health, very happy. Every time he sees Jiaojiao, he smiles so much that his eyes narrow into slits, and his manner of speaking gives people the feeling that he wants to worship him.

After dinner, Emperor Yongzheng took Jiaojiao to the imperial garden to digest the food.

The weather in February is neither hot nor cold, and you won’t feel scorching even when exposed to the sun. It is the best month of the year.

Almost all the flowers in the imperial garden were in bloom, and their delicate and gorgeous appearance made people feel happy. Jiaojiao, who seldom saw clusters of flowers, liked them very much. She held the emperor's trouser leg while carrying her milk bottle and stared at him intently.

There were also concubines who came out to appreciate the flowers in the imperial garden. When they saw Emperor Yongzheng, they all bowed and then turned their eyes to the three-headed child standing beside Emperor Yongzheng, who was wearing a red brocade robe with silver kirin patterns.

Jiaojiao didn't like to go out. At most, he would run back and forth between Chongde Hall and where he lived. Therefore, most of the concubines in the palace had only heard of him but had never seen him.

Looking at him now, he is truly a beautiful child, especially his eyes, which are big and round. When he looks at people, his eyes are bright like twinkling stars.

Concubine Rong glanced at the child whom her nephew had asked her to help look after, smiled and asked her maid to bring the gold bracelet she had made specially for her, then squatted down and put it on Jiaojiao herself.

With the gold bracelet on her chubby little hand, Jiaojiao looked even more like a little boy sitting under a Bodhisattva.

Jiaojiao glanced at the beautiful golden bracelet on her hand, then looked at Concubine Rong, and bowed politely, "Thank you, Your Majesty."

The little chubby little boy in front of her tried hard to keep his soft face straight, raised his little fleshy hands and made a formal bow. Rong Fei couldn't help but tuck the corners of her upturned mouth with her handkerchief and said repeatedly, "No thanks, no thanks."

As she spoke, she raised her eyes full of smiles and looked at Emperor Yongzheng, saying with a smile: "This child is really rare and attractive. No wonder Your Majesty dotes on him so much. I also like him very much."

Hearing that she was being praised, Jiaojiao puffed out her chest and nodded her head slightly. Yes, Jiaojiao is very good.

Lianxiang once said that if you meet an aunt who is dressed beautifully in the palace, you should call her "Empress". Jiaojiao remembered it clearly!

Emperor Yongzheng noticed Jiaojiao's smug look and couldn't help but poke the back of his round head.

Jiaojiao staggered forward after being poked. After she stood steady, she raised her hand to touch the back of her head, then tilted her head back and looked at Emperor Yongzheng with a puzzled expression.

Emperor Yongzheng looked up at the sky as if it had nothing to do with him, and his bright eyes moved from his uncle to Jiang Haifu who was following behind him.

Jiang Haifu: “…”

In the end, he still took the blame on behalf of His Majesty, saying that he saw a bug on the back of Jiaojiao's head and lost control of his strength when he reached out to help him remove it.

Jiaojiao generously forgave him, ran to his side, took his hand, placed it on the back of her head and gently poked it, then tilted her fair and soft little face to look at Jiang Haifu and said, "Just use this gentle force from now on."

Jiang Haifu met Jiaojiao's watery eyes, and his heart softened. He said repeatedly: "I understand. Thank you for taking the trouble to teach me."

Jiaojiao waved her little hand, took a candy from her pocket and handed it to him, pursing her lips and smiling, "You're welcome."

Emperor Yongzheng glanced at Jiang Haifu, whose eyes were narrowed into slits from laughing, and reached out to snatch the candy from Jiaojiao's hand. He pinched Jiaojiao's chubby cheek and said in a cold voice, "Are you really good at winning people's hearts?"

Upon hearing this, everyone present was startled and subconsciously felt that something bad was going to happen. Bribing the eunuchs and maids in the palace, especially the senior eunuchs around the emperor, was the most taboo.

Even though a piece of candy could be considered bribery, but...

Just as Rong Fei was about to speak to make the topic less serious, she saw Jiao Jiao puffing her cheeks and patting the hand of Emperor Yong Zheng that was pinching her face. She took out two candies from her pocket and handed them to him, saying vaguely, "Here, uncle."

Emperor Yongzheng glanced at the two candies in his hand, let go of his hand and took the candies with satisfaction. After seeing the not-so-obvious red marks left on Jiaojiao's face, he sighed softly and wiped the red marks with his fingertips. This face is a little too tender.

"Uncle." Jiaojiao rubbed his hand, yawned slightly, and rested her head on Emperor Yongzheng's legs, pulling at his robe with her little hands: "I'm sleepy."

Emperor Yongzheng reached out, picked him up and held him in his arms, then turned and walked back.

Seeing that His Majesty was actually holding the child himself, the concubines in the imperial garden were extremely surprised. Isn't His Majesty doting on the child too much?

Rong Fei sighed inwardly, deeply puzzled. Given how much His Majesty valued this child, why would she even need to take care of him? Wasn't he being overly concerned about his nephew? But who was this child to his nephew? His usually cold-hearted nephew was actually so concerned.

After returning to the side hall, Lianxiang helped Jiaojiao wash up briefly and then put him on the bed.

Emperor Yongzheng washed his hands and face, and planned to come in to take a look at Jiaojiao before leaving. Then he saw Jiaojiao lying on the bed and cocooning.

Emperor Yongzheng said nothing, but stood aside and watched him lying on the bed with great interest.

Jiaojiao, who looked like a little ball, was wearing a snow-white undergarment. She stuck out her little butt and walked all the way from the foot of the bed to the head of the bed. She breathed a sigh of relief and lay on the pillow. She folded her short undergarment upwards, revealing her round, white and tender belly underneath.

After discovering this, Jiaojiao poked her belly for a while before pulling her underwear down to cover her belly and preparing to go to sleep. However, when she turned around, she saw Emperor Yongzheng standing beside the bed. After being stunned for a moment, Jiaojiao, feeling a little embarrassed, quickly raised her hands to cover her face.

Glancing at Jiaojiao's chubby feet, which were digging into the sheets out of embarrassment, Emperor Yongzheng couldn't suppress the smile on his face, and a hint of laughter lingered in his voice: "Are you too embarrassed to face people?"

Jiaojiao, who was already shy at the age of four, rolled back and forth on the bed. She sat up, stretched out her little hands to rub her messy hair, looked at Emperor Yongzheng expectantly, and said softly, "Uncle didn't see anything!"

Emperor Yongzheng sneered: "Uncle saw everything."

Jiaojiao puffed out his cheeks in frustration. Emperor Yongzheng reached out to poke him out of his arse: "It's rare to see you so lively."

Jiaojiao is quiet by nature, and after leaving Yin Zheng, she became even quieter than a child of her age. In the first few days after coming to the palace, she would sit at the door with her bottle in her arms waiting for her father to come back. Therefore, Emperor Yongzheng developed the habit of carrying a handkerchief with him, always ready to wipe the tears of this crybaby.

Jiaojiao was lying on the bed. Seeing that Emperor Yongzheng had no intention of coming up, she raised her hands and grasped them twice, like a kitten opening and closing its paw pads: "Uncle, uncle, come quickly!"

Emperor Yongzheng was not used to sleeping with others. Every time he went to the harem, he would leave after finishing his business. In the past two years, he seldom went to the harem. So after Jiaojiao came, he was forced to develop the habit of sleeping alone. Anyway, there were palace maids and nannies watching over him closely, so he was not too worried.

However...looking at Jiaojiao's expectant eyes, Emperor Yongzheng inexplicably reached out and held Jiaojiao's hand.

He didn't come to his senses until he lay down on the bed. He immediately felt that his illness had worsened. Otherwise, why would he have been so foolish as to accompany this child for a nap? He was so small that he was afraid that if he turned over, he would break his arm.

While Emperor Yongzheng was still feeling frustrated, Jiaojiao, who had been sleepy for a long time, had already fallen asleep.

Gradually steady breathing sounds were heard, and Emperor Yongzheng turned his head to see Jiaojiao curled up in the quilt, her forehead resting on his arm, and she had fallen asleep.

From his angle, he could see the child's slender, curled eyelashes, straight nose and chubby face that looked very cute.

So small!

He sighed once more, giving up the urge to get up immediately. There wasn't much to do today, and the paperwork and memorials had already been reviewed early, so it wasn't impossible for him to lie down for a while.

Thinking of this, Emperor Yongzheng lay relaxedly on the bed, with a rare laziness between his eyebrows. His bony yet pale fingers poked the sleeping Jiaojiao's face from time to time, and from time to time he would fiddle with his eyelashes and small hands that were pressed down.

Lazy sunlight shines in from the window lattice, falls obliquely on the ground, and dust invisible to the naked eye dances in the beam of light. The room is quiet but not dead silent, but has a sense of tranquility and comfort. There is only the sound of a shallow breathing in the room, and gradually, I don't know when it was mixed in with another breathing, and the two breathing sounds alternately rise and fall.

No one knew that when Jiaojiao was asleep, a spiritual force invisible to mortals radiated from the palace at an extremely fast speed. The spiritual force quickly passed through the places it had been to before and headed towards the northwest direction that had not been set foot on yet.

Blood and smoke filled the air, broken flags were stuck in the flesh and blood, the corpses of war horses and people were intertwined, and some people were moving around, trying to pick off the armor on the corpses.

The bodies left uncollected on the battlefield would be burned by military servants as ownerless corpses, and their belongings would be stripped away. This was just one glimpse of the cruelty of the battlefield.

The recruits who had just experienced a war all had pale faces, with more or less fear and fatigue on their faces, except for one recruit.

Yin Zheng washed the blood off his body with a bucket of cold water and sat in the corner of the tent, looking down at the rattle in his hand.

The spreading mental tentacles saw this scene and tilted their heads. The next second, all the extended mental powers gathered together and condensed into a palm-sized little man that no one could see.

Jiaojiao, who finally found her father, ran forward with her short legs, shouting happily: "Dad, dad, dad, Jiaojiao missed you!"

Jiaojiao ran to her father and suddenly stopped, tilted her head back and opened her mouth in surprise. "Dad has grown taller, so tall!"

After a moment of surprise, Jiaojiao came to her senses and reached out to Yin Zheng who was sitting there: "Daddy, hold me."

Yin Zheng could neither see nor hear the bright light condensed from his spiritual power, his eyes still fixed on the rattle in his hand.

After waiting for a while and seeing that her father didn't hold her, Jiaojiao tilted her head in confusion.

Then he found that his little hands were transparent!

Jiaojiao looked at her hands, then lowered her head to look at her feet. Only when she found that they were all transparent did she realize that her father couldn't see her.

He puffed his cheeks unhappily, then grabbed his father's trouser legs and climbed up. After climbing onto his father's shoulders, he sat on his shoulders and rubbed his face with his little hands: "Dad, Jiaojiao has missed you for a long, long time."

Yin Zheng didn't react much. He moved his fingers and gently shook the rattle in his hand. A "dong dong" sound came from the rattle.

The people who were also in the tent turned their heads when they heard the voice, and turned their heads back after finding that it was Yin Zheng. Several of them were whispering to each other, and from time to time they secretly glanced at Yin Zheng sitting in the corner, with undisguised admiration in their eyes.

This Yin Zheng was the champion in the new recruits' competition. His performance on his first battlefield was no less than that of the veterans. He killed the barbarians as easily as cutting melons and vegetables. Not long after joining the right army, he became a centurion. He will definitely achieve great things in the future. It's just that his temper is a little difficult to get along with. However, capable people always have tempers. The military camp is a place where people admire the strong, so the soldiers don't care about this.

Jiaojiao, who was sitting on her father's shoulders, raised her head to look at what her father was holding. When she found it was a rattle, she curled her eyes. Her father had repaired his rattle.

He climbed up and down from his father's shoulders, all the way to his father's palm, and reached out to touch the rattle that was almost as big as him.

Hehe, Dad is thinking about Jiaojiao!

Jiaojiao thought with a smile on her face.

When Jiaojiao misses her dad, she will stare blankly at the cloth cover that her dad sewed on the bottle. Now her dad is staring blankly at Jiaojiao's rattle, which must be because he misses Jiaojiao.

Thinking about sitting on her father's palm, Jiaojiao looked up at her father, counting on her fingers and muttering to him very seriously: "Jiaojiao will not eat candy or buy new clothes in the future. This way, raising Jiaojiao won't cost money, and Dad won't have to work so hard to make money, so he can come back. Jiaojiao misses Dad for a long, long time..."

When Emperor Yongzheng woke up, the sun was already setting. He turned his head to look at the sun outside the window, his eyes dazed for a moment. He didn't know how he fell asleep and how he slept for so long.

He looked at Jiaojiao, who had also woken up and was sitting on the bed, holding her bottle and grinning foolishly. He frowned and poked Jiaojiao's face: "Why are you grinning foolishly? Did you sleep silly?"

"Uncle, Dad misses Jiaojiao." Jiaojiao shared with him happily.

I guess I was dreaming about Yin Zheng!

Emperor Yongzheng thought about withdrawing his hand, said "oh" expressionlessly, then picked up Jiaojiao from the bed and threw her to Lianxiang.

Lianxiang picked up Jiaojiao and put clothes on her with swift and skillful hands.

After putting on her clothes, Jiaojiao ran forward and grabbed the robe of Emperor Yongzheng who was walking out, and followed him out.

Emperor Yongzheng glanced at him, but did not refuse. There was no expression on his face, but his pace slowed down a lot.

After seeing Emperor Yongzheng's attitude towards Jiaojiao with their own eyes, the concubines in the harem who had been able to sit still could no longer sit still. Given Emperor Yongzheng's emphasis and favor on this child, if he were a prince, he would be the biggest danger, but if he was not a prince, he would be a great help.

The former court and the harem began to investigate the child's past again, but unfortunately the results were no different from those of other ordinary people, and there was no useful information.

The court officials and concubines concealed their doubts and felt that no matter what the child's identity was, since he was so valued by the emperor, they had to win him over.

A few individuals realized that the child's past had been erased by His Majesty, and they immediately withdrew their hands and dared not investigate further.

The court officials and concubines who had found out nothing began to try to win over Jiaojiao. However, those who had noticed Jiaojiao's peculiarity a long time ago but were beaten to the punch by Emperor Yongzheng before they could make a move, had no intention of winning over this child at all.

"I didn't expect that I was a step too slow and let His Majesty get there first."

The old marquis of Zhongyuan Marquisate was heartbroken.

I originally thought that after what happened with the previous emperor, the current emperor would be very disgusted with medicine men, but I didn't expect...

It is human nature to desire life and fear death. The old marquis is certainly also afraid of death. Although the late emperor died in the end, the elixir was indeed useful. At least it delayed the late emperor's aging. So the old marquis, who was also afraid of the coming of death, set his sights on the late emperor's elixir formula.

He didn't dare to think of using the princes and grandchildren of the emperor as medicine. If he dared to touch the princes and grandchildren, their majesty would probably dig up all the ancestral graves of his family. So, the old Marquis Gu set his sights on those who were born with extraordinary talents or those with great fortune.

The child named Jiaojiao was an unexpected surprise. His eyes were first fixed on the white deer which was said to be a sacred deer. A deer which was said to be able to make river fish automatically carry up drowning people was certainly enough to attract his attention.

After sending people to investigate the authenticity of the legend, he became more concerned about this divine deer.

Moreover, he found out that in Lijia Village where the deer lived, wild vegetables that could feed people grew overnight in the mountains and fields during a famine. This made him more determined to use the divine deer as a medicine.

But after observing the deer for a while, his eyes gradually fell on the child named Jiaojiao.

He repeatedly sent people to inquire about Lijia Village and the matter of the divine deer, not missing any details.

Once, I heard that the daughter-in-law of the village chief of Lijia Village, who had not been pregnant for ten years, suddenly became pregnant, and then three daughters-in-law became pregnant one after another. When the eldest daughter-in-law was in labor, the mother-in-law rushed out of the delivery room and went to Yin Zheng's house with a clear purpose. When she came back a while later, the eldest daughter-in-law who had been in labor and mother and child were safe.

The moment he heard the news, Lord Gu suddenly thought in his mind that perhaps the so-called divine deer was not the giant white deer, but the child who was picked up from the mountain and brought back to Lijia Village.

After all, before the white deer appeared, the hunter named Yin Zheng had dug ginseng in the mountains several times to buy. Ginseng is not a common wild radish, so how could he find it again and again? Or was it that he had not found it for more than 20 years, and suddenly found it after that child came?

With this idea in mind, he asked someone to bring the three grandchildren of that family to threaten them and force them to tell him everything about the child. Unexpectedly, he actually got a lot of rewards.

He was so overjoyed that he immediately planned to use the child and the white deer together to make medicine. Unfortunately, the child was protected by people from the Xie family and the Qin residence, so he couldn't do it.

Especially the younger generation of the Xie family, Xie Shuyu, is not someone who can be easily fooled. If he finds out something suspicious, he will definitely follow the clues and expose his past.

Moreover, he guessed that His Majesty must be very disgusted with using human blood to make elixirs, so he was more cautious in doing this.

But he didn't expect that before he could do anything, the child was brought into the palace by His Majesty. The Taoist priest who was exiled to the mountain in the palace was not dead yet. He knew without thinking why His Majesty brought the child into the palace. He thought His Majesty was different from them, but it turned out that no one was different when facing death.

After the child was taken away by His Majesty, Old Marquis Gu turned his attention to the deer. Unexpectedly, the deer and another strange-looking child were taken away by Xie Shuyu.

Although Old Lord Gu was angry and annoyed, he did not give up.

I don't know when the rumor spread in the palace that His Majesty brought the child into the palace to make medicine with him, so he gave him so many honors.

The concubines who knew about the late emperor's affairs were horrified when they first heard the news. They vaguely remembered that the late emperor used the princes and grandchildren to make medicine. The concubines who gave birth to princes were even more frightened and had nightmares and could not sleep at night, fearing that one day they would wake up and find that their own princes were being used to make medicine.

Gradually, the concubines began to harbor murderous intentions towards the exiled Taoist priest, thinking that once he died, the emperor would not know the recipe for the medicine and would not be able to use their son to make the medicine.

Emperor Yongzheng naturally also heard the news, but he did not take action to clean up. Instead, he was interested in seeing what these people were going to do and how capable they were.

By April, the thunderstorm season, there were three days of thunderstorms. The unexpected drop in temperature made Emperor Yongzheng, who was left with only a decorative frame, fall ill. The illness was so severe that he slept for two days before waking up. During the two days that Emperor Yongzheng was unconscious, the court was silent and no ministers dared to make trouble.

Years of experience have taught them that as long as it is not confirmed that Emperor Yongzheng is really seriously ill and about to die, it is best not to have any bad intentions, otherwise they will go to burn incense for you during the Qingming Festival next year.

When Emperor Yongzheng woke up, he leaned on the bed with a hand warmer in his hand. Even children didn't feel cold in this weather, but he felt it was freezing.

He coughed softly a few times and listened to Jiang Haifu talking about the reactions of the court officials and concubines in the past two days. After a while, he heard the sound of footsteps. He turned his head and saw Jiaojiao running towards him with her short legs.

Jiaojiao ran cautiously, holding a bowl of lotus seed soup. She tiptoed forward and stuffed the lotus seed soup into Emperor Yongzheng's hand: "Uncle, drink it. It's sweet and your mouth won't feel bitter after drinking it."

Emperor Yongzheng scoffed: "Only children are afraid of hardship."

Having said this, he still took the bowl of lotus seed soup. After taking a sip, even with his strong composure, his expression couldn't help but twist for a moment.

Seeing this, Jiang Haifu, who was standing by, hurried forward with a cup of tea.

Emperor Yongzheng recovered after taking a sip of tea to suppress the taste in his mouth. He glanced at the remaining lotus seed soup in the bowl with lingering fear. He looked at Jiaojiao expressionlessly, his voice carrying a hint of coldness: "What did you put in it?"

"Sugar," Jiaojiao replied crisply, "Jiaojiao put in a lot of sugar. She put all the sugar in the jars in the small kitchen."

Emperor Yongzheng looked at his bright eyes seeking praise and rubbed his forehead with a headache. Countless assassinations and poisonings, even the madman of the previous emperor, had failed to take his life. Unexpectedly, today he was almost killed by a bowl of indescribably sweet lotus seed soup.

"No sweets or snacks of any kind for three months."

"ah?"

Jiaojiao's eyes were full of confusion, and she obviously didn't know what she had done wrong.

Emperor Yongzheng asked Jiang Haifu to take the bowl of lotus seed soup away and then turned around and ignored Jiaojiao.

This bowl of bitterly sweet lotus seed soup left a shadow on Emperor Yongzheng. It is very likely that such a delicacy as lotus seed soup will never appear in the imperial palace again in the future.

Jiaojiao, who didn't know what he had done wrong, scratched his face. Unable to figure it out, he simply stopped thinking about it. He ran to Emperor Yongzheng with his hands swinging, took off his shoes and climbed onto the bed.

Emperor Yongzheng, not knowing what he was going to do, watched his movements coldly. Then he saw Jiaojiao climb onto the bed, move forward for a while, and then nestle directly into his arms.

Emperor Yongzheng: "...? What are you doing?"

"Be a big heater for uncle!" Jiaojiao said as a matter of course, pulling his fingers, pulling his hand over and placing it on her warm belly, and rubbing the back of his cold hand with her little hand, as if she was afraid that he would catch a cold.

Emperor Yongzheng was stunned for a moment, then came to his senses, moved his fingers, poked the soft belly of his subordinate, and rested his chin on the head of this large heater with satisfaction: "Forget it, three months is a bit long, so I won't eat sweets for half a month!"

Upon hearing this, Jiaojiao blinked in confusion. Her uncle was really a strange person.