Yuanbao sat obediently on the soft cushion, looking at Yinreng with his brows furrowed into the shape of the Chinese character "川", and stretched out his chubby little hand to caress him.

"Ama, don't be unhappy, you'll age quickly."

Yinreng was slightly startled, and the muscles on his face relaxed in an instant. His eyes fell on Yuanbao's serious little face, and he couldn't help laughing.

"Aging quickly? Where did you hear that?"

Yuanbao asked doubtfully,

"Didn't Ama tell Mother that?"

"When did Amma say that?"

A trace of confusion flashed across Yinreng's eyes.

"Five days ago, after I beat up Minsheng's cousin."

Speaking of this, Yuanbao's mouth drooped, and he was obviously unhappy.

From his perspective, it was wrong for his cousin to catch insects and put them in front of him. Even though he refused, his cousin still made him look at them regardless.

There was nothing wrong in him beating his cousin.

But his mother seemed to be angry with him because of this.

Yuanbao felt a little aggrieved.

Yinreng was a little surprised to hear Yuanbao accurately recount the incident that happened five days ago. After observing carefully, he realized that Daerza might have been wronged.

Yinreng rubbed Yuanbao's neatly combed hair.

"Yuan Bao thinks he did nothing wrong in beating up Min Sheng's cousin, right?"

The little guy doesn't need to shave his head now, but after he turns six years old, he will have his head shaved into a rat's tail.

Yinreng wanted to change this ugly tradition, but everything had to be done step by step. If he took too big a step at once, not only the royal family, but even the hundreds of thousands of Manchu people would not easily accept it.

Traditional culture is something that usually no one emphasizes, but it is a form of national identity, and touching it lightly will cause backlash.

Yinreng only wanted to subtly eliminate prejudices among different ethnic groups and did not want to cause unnecessary trouble.

"Those bugs were so ugly and dirty. He kept putting them in front of my eyes and almost touched my face, so I beat him up."

Yuanbao's face was dejected, and his voice dropped.

"Then, my mother angrily scolded Yuanbao."

Yinreng chuckled and took Yuanbao's little body into his arms.

"Mother isn't mad at you for beating up Min Sheng. I'm mad at you for having a better way to handle it, but you chose the dumbest one."

"ah?"

Hearing this, Yuanbao no longer cared about his grievances and looked up at Yinreng in surprise.

Obviously, I can't figure out what is a better way to deal with it.

"If reasoning doesn't work, you can resort to violence, but you have eunuchs with you, right? You could have just asked the eunuchs to take Minsheng away and you could have handled the situation without getting hurt, but you chose to beat him up yourself."

"Have you ever thought about this? Minsheng is younger than you, and you can easily defeat him, but what if it was Minfeng who clashed with you that day?"

Minfeng is Minsheng's cousin. He is only a few months older than Yuanbao, but he is a whole size bigger.

If Yuanbao fights with him, he will inevitably suffer losses.

Yuanbao whispered,

"Cousin Minfeng doesn't like those disgusting bugs."

Yinreng was speechless.

Minfeng is a big guy, but he is naturally afraid of snakes, insects, rats and ants, while Yuanbao is simply a mysophobia.

"That's not important. You're the crown prince. You need to know how to use the people around you to achieve your goals and not put yourself in danger. You know, your mother loves you the most. How could she be angry because you hit Min Sheng?"

Yinreng did not lie to Yuanbao. The real reason why Guaerjia was angry was that the two little brats fought without restraint and Yuanbao had bruises on his face.

Yuanbao was scolded by Guaerjia, and the eunuchs and palace maids around him were also punished to varying degrees, but Yuanbao didn't know about it.

Upon hearing this, Yuanbao scratched his head, not quite understanding what he was saying.

The carriage was quiet, but Yinreng's mood suddenly improved a lot.

Soetu enjoyed enough wealth and glory in his life, and finally died of old age. After he was gone, with his help to take care of the Hesheli family, the family could enjoy wealth for at least two generations.

I guess he has no regrets.

Soon, Hesheli's family arrived.

Yinreng got out of the car, then turned around and took Yuanbao out of the car as well.

It was Chengfeng who came out to greet them.

"Your humble servant greets His Majesty."

Chengfeng brought a group of servants to pay their respects to Yinreng.

He had followed Yinreng for more than ten years and knew that the man in front of him hated people kneeling in front of him and calling themselves slaves. Even the eunuchs and maids in the palace had to call themselves "Your Majesty" or "I".

So Chengfeng told everyone in advance that they didn't have to perform the kneeling ceremony.

All the people from the Hesheli family who came to greet Yinreng lowered their heads and stood respectfully on both sides of the gate, not even daring to look at Yinreng and Yuanbao's faces.

"Get up and take me to see you, Mafa."

"yes."

Yuanbao held Yinreng's hand and looked around curiously.

He had been to several uncles' homes, but this was his first time here.

After walking a few steps, Yinreng felt that Yuanbao's short legs were too slow, so he picked him up again.

Chengfeng was no longer surprised by this.

But when the servants of Hesheli's family saw this scene, they were very surprised.

The Manchus value holding grandchildren rather than sons, but the emperor openly held His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

The relationship between the emperor and the prince is indeed as the rumors say.

But think about it, the emperor is so old now, and he only has this one child, so he has to hold him in the palm of his hand.

Everyone subconsciously overlooked the fact that Yuanbao had not yet been officially canonized as the crown prince.

Since Yinreng only had this one child, it didn't make much difference whether he was enthroned as the crown prince earlier or later.

Yinreng followed Chengfeng to the outside of Soetu's house and found that the place was already surrounded by people in three layers.

When Aljishan and Gerfen heard the noise, they hurried to the door to pay their respects to Yinreng.

Yinreng waved his hand and drove out everyone except Bosile and Chengfeng.

He sat down in front of Soetu's bed holding Yuanbao.

Soetu had just woken up and was in very good spirits.

When she saw Yinreng, she wanted to get out of bed and salute him.

"Uncle, stop struggling and just lie down."

Yinreng spoke up to stop his behavior.

When Soetu heard the word "uncle", the smile on his face instantly widened.

"This servant... cough... is unworthy of the emperor's address..."

Soetu looked at Yinreng and Yuanbao, who was nestled obediently in his arms, with relief flashing in his turbid eyes.

When Yinreng was deposed, he thought he would never see Yinreng ascend the throne in his lifetime.

Unexpectedly, there is always a ray of hope after a dark period.

Soetu now had to admit that Yinreng's choice was correct.

With the late emperor's temperament, he would have offended his promising son by killing him. If Yinreng had chosen to win over people in the court and build up his power from the beginning, he would probably have had no chance of ascending the throne.