Chapter 142 Plum Blossoms Warm

Taking advantage of the Third Prince's speechlessness after being tricked by the sour oranges, Yin'e grabbed the Seventh Prince: "Let's go! Seventh Brother, you don't want to keep listening to Third Brother boasting about his sour poems, do you?"

The Seventh Prince was slightly taken aback, a smile flashing across his eyes. He then readily accepted Yin'e's pull and stood up, joining the Ninth Prince, who had also gotten off the soft couch at some point.

The Third Prince, his face contorted in a grimace, couldn't bear it any longer when Yin'e criticized his short poem as "pretentious poetry" for the second time. He gritted his teeth and demanded, "Whose poem are you calling pretentious poetry?"

Yin'e had already led the Seventh Prince and the Ninth Prince to the curtained door of the side room. Hearing this, he turned around and made a face at the Third Prince: "Whoever gets impatient is the one who gets it, it's definitely not me~"

The Third Prince wanted to retort, but Yin'e had already lifted the curtain and gone out, silencing him and leaving him speechless.

Seeing the Third Prince's expression, the Fifth Prince scratched his head and chuckled, "I wonder what they're going to do. I'll follow them and see."

With that, the Fifth Prince slipped away without even offering a decent excuse, leaving the Third Prince dumbfounded and unable to handle the Fifth Prince's unpredictable behavior. He could only stare intently at the Fifth Prince's retreating figure.

Once outside the side room, Yin'e and the other two didn't try to get close to Kangxi. They didn't approach the group of people gathered in the center of the main hall, but instead slipped along the side, tiptoeing like thieves, almost walking on tiptoe.

Although they didn't approach Kangxi, Yin'e and the others overheard the conversation in the main hall as they passed by. It was the Empress Dowager sighing wistfully: "Now that Chunxi has left, I don't know when she will have the chance to return to the capital."

The Empress Dowager's tone was filled with heartache for Princess Chunxi, but even more so with a lonely sigh and melancholy. It's hard to tell if she was thinking of herself when she said this, reflecting on the years she had spent alone in a foreign land.

Since the Empress Dowager married into the capital from Khorchin, she had never returned to the Khorchin grasslands. Although Emperor Kangxi went hunting outside the Great Wall almost every year after he assumed power, and the Empress Dowager often accompanied him, the Khorchin grasslands were still a long way from the meadows where Emperor Kangxi camped during his hunting trips.

After leaving the main hall, Yin'e, the Ninth Prince, and the Seventh Prince stood under the eaves. The three of them looked at each other for a few moments and remained silent.

The Empress Dowager was Kangxi's legal mother, and there were no close relatives of her own in the palace, so none of the princes and princesses in the palace were her blood relatives.

Over the years, the Empress Dowager has always been kind and gentle, treating every prince and princess with kindness and care, and never making things difficult for any of them.

All the princes and princesses in the palace who had come into contact with the Empress Dowager and received her care loved this kind and gentle old lady. They admired her and genuinely respected her as an elder.

Now, although Yin'e had only overheard a few words while passing by, that simple sentence allowed them to hear the Empress Dowager's suppressed homesickness and her deep loneliness.

Yin'e, who tricked the Third Prince and "rescued" the Seventh Prince, didn't actually have a plan for what to do when he ran away. He just impulsively used a freshly peeled sour orange to ambush the Third Prince.

Standing under the glazed tile eaves for a long time without moving, Yin'e remained silent for a while before saying, "There is a grove of plum trees in the garden of Ning Shou Palace. The plum blossoms are in full bloom right now. Let's go pick a few branches to put in a vase for Grandmother Empress!"

Yin'e had previously visited Ning Shou Palace specifically to find the recipe for making milk powder. While waiting for the nanny to bake the milk powder, Yin'e and the Ninth Prince, having nothing to do, wandered around under the guidance of the Fifth Prince, getting to know the layout of Ning Shou Palace and its surroundings.

He remembered that the plum grove was located in the northwest corner of Ning Shou Palace. When he passed by, the plum blossoms had not yet bloomed, with only a few scattered buds dotting the plum trees. Now, half a month later, the plum grove should be in full bloom, with vibrant red plum blossoms proudly blooming in the wind and snow.

"Okay, okay!"

As soon as Yin'e finished speaking, voices of agreement rang out. But the ones who responded were not the Ninth Prince or the Seventh Prince, but the Fifth Prince who had caught up from behind.

The Fifth Prince nodded repeatedly like a chick pecking at rice, and couldn't agree more with Yin'e's suggestion: "Grandma Empress was just talking about it the day before yesterday, saying that the plum blossoms will be blooming soon."

The Ninth Prince turned to look at the Fifth Prince, raised an eyebrow and smiled, "Fifth Brother, did you also get fed up with Third Brother, which is why you came out with us?"

He wanted to tease the Fifth Prince with a mischievous grin, but the Ninth Prince caught a glimpse of a shadow out of the corner of his eye. His face turned deathly pale as if he had seen a ghost, and then immediately darkened.

With his hands on his hips, the Ninth Prince sternly scolded, "What are you doing running out here? You're not even wearing a cloak. Are you made of iron and don't you feel the cold? Or are you out of your mind and don't you know to put on some clothes?"

After scolding him, the Ninth Prince looked around again, his brows furrowing even more: "Where are your wet nurse and nanny? They weren't with you, so they just let you out like this?"

After being scolded by the Ninth Prince, the Eleventh Prince pouted in grievance, took small steps over, tugged at the Ninth Prince's sleeve, raised his thin little face, and whispered in a soft voice, "Ninth Brother, please take me with you, I want to play with you."

Faced with his younger brother's coquettish behavior, the Ninth Prince pursed his lips and looked away, his subconscious reaction being to avoid the situation.

Ignoring the Eleventh Prince, but not forcibly pulling the hem of his robe from his grasp either, the Ninth Prince simply looked up at the Eleventh Prince's wet nurse, who was running towards him carrying the cloak, following the increasingly hurried footsteps.

When the princes gathered in the side room, sitting and chatting, the palace servants who were serving them did not go in with them.

The personal eunuchs who had moved to the princes' quarters were now kept in the corner rooms; princes under six years old still needed wet nurses and nannies, so these women were assigned to the tea room. The tea room had stoves to keep cow's milk and goat's milk warm, so the young princes could be fed whenever they were hungry.

The corner rooms and tea rooms were not far from the main hall and the side rooms on both sides. If the princes had any orders, the palace servants waiting there could respond immediately and meet their needs.

However, when Yin'e and the other two slipped out of the main hall, they moved very quietly and did not intend to call out to Xiao Linzi and other personal eunuchs who were waiting in the tea room.

When the Eleventh Prince slipped out of the side room behind the Ninth Prince, his wet nurse and nanny, who were in the tea room, were unaware that the Eleventh Prince had gone out. They were only informed by the palace servants guarding the main hall entrance afterward, so they hurriedly put on their cloaks and rushed over, which is why they were a step late.

The Ninth Prince was fully aware of these matters, but in order to dissuade the Eleventh Prince from going out and having fun with them, he sternly ordered the Eleventh Prince's wet nurse, "Take Yinzhi back."

“It’s cold outside, the wind is strong and the snow is thick. Yinzhi can’t stand it.” The Ninth Prince snatched his robe back from the Eleventh Prince and emphasized with a serious expression, “Keep a close eye on him. Don’t let him sneak out without even putting on his cloak again.”

The eleventh prince's wet nurse was half-squatting as she draped a large bell-shaped cloak over him. Hearing the ninth prince's harsh command, she nodded repeatedly in a panic, meekly replying, "Yes, yes... this servant will take the eleventh prince back right away."

The eleventh prince, draped in a cloak and picked up, glanced longingly at the ninth prince, whose face was etched with "coldness." Seeing that the ninth prince's attitude was resolute and there was no room for negotiation, the eleventh prince pouted his slightly pale lips in grievance, turned his head to face the fifth prince, and stretched out his hands to him for help, saying, "Fifth brother, I want to play with you."

The Fifth Prince glanced at the Ninth Prince's cold face, shook his head helplessly, then carefully examined the Eleventh Prince's expression, frowned, and said disapprovingly, "Eleventh Brother, you'd better not think about going out to play. Go back to your room and stay there."

The eleventh prince pouted, and his phoenix eyes, which were just like Consort Yi's, immediately filled with tears, revealing a tearful expression.

Fearing that the eleventh prince might start crying and make a scene that would be too chaotic and difficult to control, Yin'e stepped forward and said with a warm smile, "Eleventh brother, we're not going out to play. We're going to pick plum blossoms in the plum grove to put in a vase. The plum grove is dense with trees and snow, and Ninth Brother is only keeping you out of concern for you."

Yin'e nudged the Ninth Prince with his elbow and continued, "Eleventh Brother, you stay in the room and wait patiently. How about I pick out the best-blooming plum blossom for you to bring back?"

Receiving Yin'e's hint, the Ninth Prince puffed out his cheeks and reluctantly nodded in agreement, "Yes, as long as you behave and stay in the room without running around, I'll bring you back a plum blossom, and I guarantee I'll choose the most beautiful one for you!"

That's why the Eleventh Prince likes the Ninth Prince the most. Although the Ninth Prince's attitude was perfunctory, the Eleventh Prince still bought into it. He immediately stopped crying and smiled. A sweet smile bloomed on his thin and delicate little face. He waved his little hand at the Ninth Prince in a cute way: "Ninth Brother, I will be good. I will be good and not run around."

Having dealt with the eleventh prince, who was always following him around, the ninth prince immediately grabbed Yin'e and turned to leave without any hesitation.

The four of them, including Yin'e, were all dressed in thick clothes, wrapped up like big round balls. Underneath their python robes, they all had thick leather coats. Even without wearing large cloaks, they wouldn't be cold for a while. However, they couldn't stay outside for too long, since it was the north and they would eventually get sick of it.

Today is a rare good day in winter; there is no snow, and the sun hangs in the sky, constantly casting golden rays onto the ground.

Although the temperature in Beijing was still low, the sunshine felt much warmer, and even the howling north wind of winter was much gentler, without the biting chill of heavy snowfall.

It snowed lightly yesterday, but the palace servants at Ning Shou Palace were very diligent in shoveling snow. There was no snow on the path leading from the main hall to the plum blossom grove, and the bricks and stones with different patterns were swept clean. They were very stable to stand on, so there was no need to worry about slipping.

The winter sun shone brightly and warmly, and the Ninth Prince, bathed in golden light, was in an exceptionally good mood. He walked with light steps: "Tenth Brother, let's build a snowman together later."

Yin'e was somewhat tempted, but after glancing at the Ninth Prince and his own attire, reason prevailed over impulse: "We're not wearing cloaks."

The Ninth Prince's enthusiasm was not dampened at all. He casually said, "Then let's just pick the plum blossoms and go back to put them on. Anyway, I don't want to stay in the house listening to Third Brother nagging."

Most importantly, the Ninth Prince has already filled his stomach with snacks and dried meat, so he can go out and play and roam around.