Chapter 110 - The Tenth Brother's Lazy Habits (Birthday of the Tenth Brother)

Although the riding and archery class was very interesting and effectively relieved the boredom of the academic classes, Yin'e and the Ninth Prince were still a bit overwhelmed on their first day of school and their first experience with the high-intensity teaching mode of the Imperial Study. By the end of the class, they were so sleepy that they could barely stand.

Although Yin'e and the Ninth Prince managed to sneak in a nap at noon, it wasn't enough to make up for their drowsiness caused by their disrupted biological clocks.

If it weren't for the afternoon's "physical education class" being interesting enough to keep Yin'e and the Ninth Prince engaged and energized, making them less sleepy, Yin'e and the Ninth Prince would have already closed their eyes and fallen asleep on the ground.

In the end, Yin'e and the Ninth Prince were carried back by the strong and robust eunuchs who were in charge of the princes, just like when they came to the Imperial Study for class in the morning.

This can be considered a unique way of having a beginning and an end, a way of echoing each other ╮(╯▽╰)╭

When Yin'e and the Ninth Prince returned to the West Third Palace, they were already fast asleep. Fortunately, the wet nurses they brought from Yongshou Palace and Yikun Palace to manage the affairs of the princes' quarters were very capable and had a good understanding of the situation.

Knowing that they would have various difficulties adapting on their first day studying in the Imperial Study, their nannies had already made all sorts of preparations at the Princes' Residence. After returning to the West Third Residence, Yin'e and the Ninth Prince did not need to give any instructions; they could simply wash up and lie down on the bed to sleep.

When Yin'e was still living with the Consort in Yongshou Palace, in addition to two meals a day, breakfast and lunch, he would have extra snacks every one or two hours. With the small kitchen in Yongshou Palace as a backup, Yin'e was never hungry.

However, after he turned six and moved to the West Third Palace to establish his own household, no one in the palace treated Yin'e as a child anymore, but as an independent individual.

Yin'e could no longer eat complementary foods like he did when he was a child. He had to be an adult in the Qing Palace and follow the palace's two-meal system—breakfast at 5 a.m. and dinner at 1 p.m. Of course, those in the palace who had the means could also have a late snack at 5 p.m. to avoid being hungry and unable to sleep in the middle of the night.

This is why Yin'e and the Ninth Prince went straight to bed after school and returned to the West Third Palace. Even if they were awake, there was no food to eat in the Princes' Palace. At most, they could take a few pastries from the pastry box to fill their stomachs.

Although Yin'e wanted to open a small kitchen in the West Third Palace, it was not something that could be accomplished overnight.

In any case, in the short term, the food at Ganxi Sansuo was nowhere near as good as that at Yongshou Palace.

Because the small kitchen in Yongshou Palace had been built for eight or nine years, the palace servants serving at the stove were all people the Consort was used to. Moreover, the small kitchen was well-staffed, so whatever the Consort wanted to eat, the small kitchen could immediately meet her needs.

As for Yin'e's Ganxi Third Palace, everything still needed to be developed from scratch. If it weren't for the Imperial Concubine assigning two cooks to Yin'e, his small kitchen would have started from an even lower point.

After formally entering school, Yin'e and the Ninth Prince quickly integrated into the circle of the Imperial Study, and went out and came in with their older brothers, with whom they had not had many opportunities to interact before, and formed a friendship as classmates.

Even if they didn't develop a deep brotherhood, the bond of studying together in the same classroom meant they were no longer strangers or estranged.

However, Yin'e and the Ninth Prince were still quite unfamiliar with the Crown Prince. Although the Crown Prince also studied in the Imperial Study, he occupied a separate room and usually did not take the initiative to contact the princes. Naturally, Yin'e and the Ninth Prince had no interest in approaching the Crown Prince.

Gradually, as time passed, Yin'e and the Ninth Prince became accustomed to the daily routine of leaving the Imperial Study at dawn and returning at dusk, and to the life of three times seven days a week—

You have to get used to it, no matter how you feel. Anyone forced to arrive at school at 3 a.m. every day and not be able to go home until 7 p.m. would adjust their biological clock under such a strict schedule.

After entering the Imperial Study, Yin'e mechanically went to and from school every day, leading a monotonous and unchanging life.

Yin'e felt that his life in the Imperial Study was like a stagnant pool, completely devoid of any excitement. Every day was a repetition of the previous day, with no difference except for the different knowledge being learned.

As Yin'e and the Ninth Prince continued to slack off in the Imperial Study, the tutors there gradually discovered their lazy nature.

Although Yin'e and the Ninth Prince did not have a good attitude towards learning, they were able to keep up with the pace of the Imperial Study and their studies remained at an average level. They were neither reckless nor falling behind. Gradually, the teachers in the Imperial Study got used to their laziness and stopped bothering to punish them.

After all, Yin'e and the other two were just slacking off; they didn't cause any trouble in class or interfere with the teachers' instruction.

The eunuchs in charge of teaching at the Imperial Study gradually learned to ignore the little tricks of Yin'e and the Ninth Prince, turning a blind eye to their slacking off in the Imperial Study, and ignoring them as long as it wasn't too outrageous.

Only Gu Badai, who was rigid by nature and strict with others, remained as strict with Yin'e and the Ninth Prince as before.

So much so that Yin'e and the Ninth Prince were most afraid of Gu Badai in the Imperial Study. Every time they saw Gu Badai, they were like mice seeing a cat, not daring to make the slightest move. In his class, they were even more obedient than the best students, more proactive and motivated than the real good students.

The Fifth Prince was extremely envious of the "treatment" that Yin'e and the Ninth Prince received in the Imperial Study. He also wished that his teachers would turn a blind eye to him and let him be a lazy bum who just lay around doing nothing all day.

Unfortunately, not only did the Fifth Prince have a problem with his attitude towards learning, but his academic level was also at the bottom of the Imperial Study, causing his tutors a lot of headaches. They gritted their teeth and tried their best to teach the Fifth Prince to a passing level, so they naturally kept a strict eye on him and did not give him the opportunity to indulge himself.

Life in the Imperial Study was monotonous and repetitive. In the blink of an eye, Yin'e and the Ninth Prince had been enrolled for half a month and had spent half a month of torment and hardship in the Imperial Study.

October 30th is the Fourth Prince's birthday; he will be eleven years old this year.

From that year onward, the Fourth Prince no longer had a mother to hold a birthday banquet for him, celebrate his birthday, or prepare longevity noodles.

According to the rules of the Imperial Study, princes were entitled to a day off on their birthdays. They could visit the East and West Six Palaces to pay their respects to their mothers, spend a day with them, and reminisce about their mother-son relationship.

Empress Xiaoyi has passed away, and the Fourth Prince has returned to Consort De's care.

Regardless of the relationship between the mother and son, whether Consort De welcomes the Fourth Prince or not, and whether the Fourth Prince is willing or not, the rules are the rules. On his birthday, the Fourth Prince must go to Yonghe Palace to pay his respects to his birth mother, Consort De.

After Empress Xiaoyi passed away, the Fourth Prince, who had endured a long period of mourning, lost a lot of weight and became very quiet. He began to keep to himself and became increasingly aloof in the Imperial Study, appearing even more stern and aloof than the Seventh Prince.

Even the oblivious Fifth Prince noticed the changes in the Fourth Prince, so much so that when the Fourth Prince's birthday came this year, the Fifth Prince didn't dare to use the Fourth Prince as an excuse to ask for leave from the Imperial Study.

On October 30th, Yin'e and the Ninth Prince, who had rushed from the West Third Palace to the Qianqing Palace, stepped into the Imperial Study Room right on time.

After sitting down in his seat, Yin'e subconsciously scanned the classroom and, as expected, did not see the Fourth Prince, who was always diligent and never late or absent.

The Fourth Prince's seat was empty, with only the writing implements he used every day in the Imperial Study, which he didn't need to bring back to the Fifth Palace every day, neatly and forlornly placed on the table.

The Ninth Prince noticed Yin'e's gaze and looked over as well. He pursed his pink lips and whispered in Yin'e's ear, "Tenth Brother, do you also feel that Fourth Brother is quite pitiful?"

With the passing of Empress Xiaoyi, the truth about the Fourth Prince's long-buried background came to light, and almost everyone in the palace knew about it, including Yin'e and the Ninth Prince.

The Ninth Prince and the Fourth Prince were incompatible and their relationship was never good; even though they were classmates, they didn't become close. However, after learning about the Fourth Prince's background, the Ninth Prince surprisingly changed his opinion of him. Although he didn't actively try to get close to the Fourth Prince, he no longer treated him disrespectfully.

In the Qing Dynasty palace, it was common practice to find high-ranking concubines to be the foster mothers of princes and have them raise them. The biggest difference between the Fourth Prince and the other princes was that, before his foster mother, Empress Xiaoyi, fell seriously ill, he had no idea that he was an adopted son, let alone discover that Consort De was his biological mother.

The eldest and third princes were both sent out of the palace by Emperor Kangxi to be raised by ministers, but they knew their identities from a young age and that they were princes living outside the palace.

The Fifth Prince and the Eighth Prince were raised by the Empress Dowager and Consort Hui respectively. They knew who their birth mother was and had daily contact with Consort Yi and Consort Wei. They were not completely unaware of their birth mother.

Only the Fourth Prince was excluded because Emperor Kangxi had entrusted him to his cousin, Empress Xiaoyi, to raise. In order to ensure that the Fourth Prince truly became Empress Xiaoyi's son and to prevent any estrangement between them as mother and son, Emperor Kangxi deliberately blocked the possibility of the Fourth Prince discovering the truth.

He turned to look at the Ninth Prince, Yin'e's lips moved but he didn't say anything, only sighed inwardly.

He knew that the Ninth Prince was not only talking about the Fourth Prince, but also about himself.

Nearly five months have passed since Empress Xiaoyi's death. During these five months, everyone in the palace has seen clearly how Consort De treated the Fourth Prince and her youngest son, Yinzhen. Consort De made no attempt to hide her dislike for the Fourth Prince, and didn't even bother with formalities.

Seeing the Fourth Prince's plight after Empress Xiaoyi's death, the Ninth Prince felt a deep empathy for him. This shared sorrow erased his prejudice against the Fourth Prince, and even though the two were inherently incompatible, he never bothered the Fourth Prince again.

But it's clear that the Fourth Prince's situation is much worse than the Ninth Prince's.

Consort Yi did not dislike the Ninth Prince, but she inevitably showed favoritism and ranked her three sons in terms of importance.

The Fifth Prince and Yinzhi also treated their Ninth Prince, their half-brother, with special affection, harboring deep brotherly feelings. However, the Fourth Prince's relationship was not so harmonious. Neither the Sixth Prince, who died young, nor the still-young Yinzhen were close to the Fourth Prince.

Yin'e originally thought that the Ninth Prince said the Fourth Prince was pitiful because he was neglected by Consort De, but to Yin'e's surprise, the Ninth Prince actually saw other aspects as well.

"Tenth Brother, have you noticed that Eighth Brother isn't as close to Fourth Brother as he used to be?" Sitting close to Yin'e, Ninth Prince subtly cast a complex glance at Eighth Prince, who was sitting with Seventh Prince, and whispered these words in Yin'e's ear.

Yin'e's clear, bright almond-shaped eyes widened suddenly. He looked at the Ninth Prince in surprise, his low voice revealing a hint of disbelief: "Ninth Brother, are you not stupid?!"

Ninth Prince: ?

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Author's Note: Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 2023-04-24 22:03:24 and 2023-04-25 17:43:48!

Thank you to the little angel who irrigated the nutrient solution: 6 bottles of "Drinking Alone in the Jade Pavilion";

Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!