Chapter 177 Speaking Frankly About In-Laws

Emperor Kangxi truly doted on his third daughter. Although Princess Chunxi's husband, Bandi, was also quite good, Kangxi chose him based on his status and the prestige of the Khorchin people. He didn't really investigate Bandi's character much.

However, the marriage of the Third Princess was different. Emperor Kangxi sent people to carefully investigate Urgun's life and understand his character before arranging the marriage and betrothing the Third Princess to Urgun.

After standing there in a daze for a while, Yin'e suddenly let out a long sigh: "I have never heard Mother mention that aunt who lives far away in the Balin tribe. I suppose Mother and she are not close."

The aunt who married into the Balin tribe was Ebilun's eldest daughter, several years older than Empress Xiaozhao. It's likely that when she married, the Consort was not even born yet, or was only a few years old and too young to remember anything, so she wouldn't even know her elder sister.

When the Imperial Concubine grew up and became aware of things, her elder sister was far away in the Bairin tribe of southern Mongolia and had no opportunity to return to the capital to visit her family. Naturally, she could not see the Imperial Concubine. At most, they exchanged a few letters throughout the year and exchanged gifts for festivals. With only these contacts, it was impossible to establish a deep relationship.

Princess Balin's second son is of marriageable age, while Yin'e, the eldest son of the Imperial Concubine, is not yet seven years old. Just by calculating the age difference between Yin'e and Urgun, it's clear that the Imperial Concubine and Ebilun's eldest daughter, her own elder sister, didn't have much interaction when they were at their maternal home, and didn't have the opportunity to forge a deep sisterly bond.

The fact that the Imperial Concubine and the Princess of Baling were not familiar with each other and were somewhat estranged was not difficult for the Third Prince to discover if he calmed down and thought about it carefully.

But whether it was concern that clouded his judgment or simply a fear of the worst, the Third Prince was so concerned that he wanted to nip even the slightest possibility of the Imperial Concubine in the bud in the bud, as the Princess Consort of Balin was interfering with the Third Princess's married life with Urgun, and he completely eliminated this possibility from the very beginning.

With his lips pressed tightly together, Yin'e's expression was complex, and it was difficult to discern which emotions were mixed in. After a long while, he murmured, "For such a relationship that can hardly be called close, Third Brother is actually willing to put aside past grievances and greet me with a smile. This shows Third Brother's love and care for Second Sister."

The Seventh Prince nodded slowly, his usually aloof and indifferent expression showing some emotion: "My second sister and I have never been close before, and we only see each other occasionally during the New Year. But after my second sister's marriage to Balin County in southern Mongolia was arranged, I couldn't help but worry about her."

Otherwise, the Seventh Prince would not have connected the Third Prince's recent unusual behavior with the matter of Emperor Kangxi arranging a marriage for the Third Princess.

He closed his eyes briefly, and Yin'e's voice lowered, becoming almost inaudible: "Royal princesses and daughters of the imperial clan are all to be sent to serve in Mongolia. This is a fate they cannot escape... I am actually somewhat grateful that I do not have any sisters from the same mother."

Emperor Kangxi had many children, many of whom shared the same mother, but even more were half-siblings. In the disharmonious environment of the palace, the feelings between siblings, whether they shared the same mother or not, were different. Without adults having to teach them, the princes and princesses naturally learned this through observation and experience.

When half-sisters married far away to Mongolia, the princes would sigh and lament. If they were their own sisters from the same mother, they would feel even more sorrow and heartache for them.

If Yin'e hadn't caused the butterfly effect, the historical tenth prince would have had a younger sister, two years his junior, who died young and never had a chance to grow up.

Yin'e had previously felt a sense of relief that his younger sister had been lost to him, partly because he didn't want the Consort to suffer further damage to her health from consecutive pregnancies, and partly because he didn't want her to experience the heart-wrenching pain of losing a daughter.

But now, there's another reason: if he's destined to have a younger sister, he hopes she won't be born into the Qing Dynasty imperial family, or into a feudal society. He wants her to be born in a later era, into the time and society he came from, where there's a wider world to explore.

The Manchu nobles intermarried among themselves, creating a complex and intertwined network of kinship ties. Even the maternal families of the princes were linked by marriage. A careful count reveals that almost any two princes could re-establish kinship ties through their maternal families.

Before this, no prince cared about marriage alliances between noble families. The princes only considered each other as brothers and as related to the Aisin Gioro family. They would not get closer to a prince or improve their relationship just because of marriage ties with their maternal families.

Like Yin'e, his maternal family was the Niohuru family, the Guoyi Duke's Mansion.

His maternal uncle, Faka, had a second wife, a Hesheli clan woman, who was the younger sister of Empress Renxiao; his maternal uncle, Yanzhu, had a wife, the daughter of Tong Guowei, who was the younger sister of Empress Xiaoyi; and there was also Aling'a, who had already moved out of the Guoyi Duke's mansion, whose wife was a Wuya clan woman, who was the younger sister of Consort De.

If you count on your fingers, Yin'e's maternal family had marriage ties with the Hesheli, Tongjia, and Uya clans, which gave him a kinship relationship with the Crown Prince and the Fourth Prince.

Previously, Yin'e knew about these things, but he never took them to heart, and he did not think that the marriage between Niohuru clan and other major Manchu clans would affect him or require his attention.

The Third Prince had never cared about these marriage alliances between nobles before. This time, he bowed down to Yin'e because the Third Princess was going to become the daughter-in-law of Yin'e's aunt. This was simply because marriage ties had a greater impact on the women in the inner quarters.

Manchu women are considered noble, and even after marriage, they are treated as honored guests when they return to their parents' home. However, after marriage, they spend most of their time confined to the inner quarters of their husband's home, interacting primarily with female relatives by marriage. The quality of these in-law relationships directly impacts their married life.

Men are different. They can travel outside before and after marriage, pursue fame and fortune, and have many things to do and are qualified to do. For them, marriage is about suitability, social standing, exchange of benefits, and binding relationships.

Whether a marriage is successful or not doesn't directly affect a man's career or life. When his own interests aren't threatened, he naturally won't bother to pay much attention. Take the Third Prince, for example; if it weren't for the Third Princess's impending marriage to the Prince of Balin, he wouldn't have cared about the Balin Prince's family genealogy or marital relationships.

The Ninth Prince was closest to Yin'e and overheard a fraction of his barely audible murmurs.

He tilted his head and thought for a while, then suddenly looked up at the Fifth Prince, and then nodded in agreement with a sorrowful expression, saying, "Tenth Brother, you are right."

Fifth Prince: ? Tenth Brother is right, then he is right. Why is Ninth Brother looking at me all of a sudden?

Before the Fifth Prince could even ask, the Ninth Prince, who always dared to speak his mind, sighed and said, "Although you, Fifth Brother, are quite fond of Mongolia and will surely be able to adapt to the food there, I just feel very reluctant to imagine you going to Mongolia and never coming back."

"???" Three question marks popped up above his head, and the Fifth Prince's slightly round, chubby face was full of confusion. "Why do you imagine that I'll go to Mongolia and never come back? A prince is not allowed to leave the capital forty miles without an imperial decree. Have you forgotten that rule?"

The Fifth Prince was truly naive; he didn't grasp the implied meaning of the Ninth Prince's words and was even kindly reminding the Ninth Prince not to forget the rules and not to break the precepts.

Glancing at the Fifth Prince, and seeing Yin'e turn away to chuckle, and the Seventh Prince's lips twitching as if he was trying to suppress a laugh, the Ninth Prince said very sincerely, "I don't have any sisters from the same mother, so I'm using you as a substitute!"

The Ninth Prince was telling the truth, and he wasn't being sarcastic, but his words were even more frustrating than his usual sharp tongue. At least the Fifth Prince was speechless for a long time before finally managing to utter, "Why don't you think of me when good things happen?"

"Of course I don't think about you when good things happen." The Ninth Prince nodded generously, and naturally added with a double standard, "If I were to think about you, I would think about the Tenth Brother."

Although he had long known that the Ninth Prince and Yin'e had a close relationship and a much deeper brotherly bond than the Ninth Prince and Yin'e, the Fifth Prince still felt a pang of sadness upon hearing the Ninth Prince say it so bluntly: "Ninth Brother, couldn't you have been a little more tactful?"

The Ninth Prince glanced at the Fifth Prince, a strange look flashing in his eyes for a moment: "I'm just telling the truth." After a pause, the Ninth Prince added something the Fifth Prince couldn't refute: "Compared to the Tenth Prince, you came later, so is there a problem with me being closer to the Tenth Prince?"

The Fifth Prince's chubby face fell. He couldn't refute the Ninth Prince's words, nor could he express his dissatisfaction or raise any objections.

The Fifth Prince, who was raised by the Empress Dowager, was a simple-minded child. Although Consort Yi often visited him, she couldn't go to Cining Palace every day to accompany him.

Therefore, the Fifth Prince did not have a clear understanding of the fact that Consort Yi was his biological mother when he was young. Before he became old enough to understand, the Fifth Prince did not care about the existence of his younger brother, the Ninth Prince, and did not distinguish the Ninth Prince from his other brothers.

Not to mention, it was Yin'e who first started the relationship between the Fifth Prince and the Ninth Prince, and brought the Ninth Prince to the Cining Palace to pay respects to the then-living Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang and to play with the Fifth Prince. This is how the brothers, the Fifth Prince and the Ninth Prince, came into contact outside of the New Year's gatherings.

The Seventh Prince pursed his lips, stepped forward to smooth things over, and changed the subject, saying, "Ninth Brother, your birthday is in a few days. What gift would you like?"

Rather than sending a gift that ends up being stuffed into a warehouse, it's better to ask beforehand. This way, the giver feels at ease, and the receiver is happy.

The Ninth Prince liked this topic. He didn't realize that he had just poked the Fifth Prince's fragile heart hard. He said excitedly, "Seventh Brother, don't send me anything from the palace. Send me something without any palace markings!"

Yin'e covered his face in disbelief: Wasn't this practically a gift he could resell for money? What was the difference between this and directly asking for gold and silver as a birthday present? He really was being incredibly frank and unashamed…

The Seventh Prince glanced at the Ninth Prince knowingly, but he wasn't angry. He simply nodded calmly and said, "I understand. I'll keep it in mind."

Although he didn't know what the Ninth Prince needed money for or why he was short of funds, the Seventh Prince didn't mind lending a hand. In any case, the Seventh Prince had quite a few valuable items without palace markings, which would be of help.

The Seventh Prince's adoptive mother was the wife of Prince Chun. The Seventh Prince would leave the palace once every half month to visit Prince Chun's residence. His relationship with the residence was never broken. He had many nice things given to him by Prince Chun's wife, unlike other princes whose possessions were all gifts from their elders and were not easy to handle.

After a moment of dejection, the Fifth Prince quickly recovered from his sadness and depression, and interjected with a smile, "Ninth Brother, I know what kind of gift you want. I will definitely send you one that you like."

The Ninth Prince looked at the Fifth Prince suspiciously, then decided to be more direct with him: "Fifth Brother, just give me a gold and silver ingot directly, I like it!"

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Author's Note: Just one chapter today. Six chapters a day tomorrow.