Chapter 72 Attending the Banquet: Old Ten's Salty Fish Festival...

Yin'e's birthday was very close to the Manchu's most important festival, the Banjin Festival. Two days after his birthday was the annual Banjin Festival of the Manchus.

However, this year the Empress Dowager was seriously ill, so the Golden Gift Festival could not be held in a grand manner and would not be as lively as in previous years. Upon hearing that the Empress Dowager was seriously ill, Emperor Kangxi rushed back to the capital from beyond the Great Wall and had no mood to celebrate the Golden Gift Festival in a big way.

Upon hearing the Ninth Prince mention the Golden Offering Festival two days later, Yin'e also looked listless and lacked enthusiasm.

He is still immersed in the pain of being wantonly ravaged by the Manchu script. He is too tired to speak, and it feels like speaking is exhausting. Every word he utters is like draining his life force.

After a while, Yin'e, who was leaning back in the chair, pounced forward and lay on the table. He turned his little face to the side and rested it on the Xuan paper where the ink had dried. His soft, chubby baby fat was squeezed out, and his skin was even whiter and cleaner than the Xuan paper under his face.

With a blank stare, Yin'e stared listlessly at some unknown place, and hummed listlessly, "This year's Golden Festival won't be held in a big way, so we won't have anything to do, and there won't be anything exciting to watch."

The Ninth Prince was aware of this, of course. He simply brought up a topic to distract Yin'e from the pain of learning Manchu and to stop him from going bald from worrying about it.

So he continued, "Even if it's not a grand event, there will at least be a grand banquet for the Golden Festival, and we can go to the banquet instead of having to stay at home every day."

For the past two months, apart from paying respects at the Cining Palace and attending to the ailing Empress Dowager, Yin'e had not left the palace. Upon hearing this, he perked up a bit, raised his head, pouted, and whispered, "This is indeed a good thing."

The break was almost over. Yin'e sat up straight, smoothed out the Xuan paper spread out on the table, and muttered, "Well, Seventh Brother gave me a string of tourmaline beads, which I like very much. I can thank him in person at the palace banquet in two days."

The Fifth Prince lived with the Empress Dowager in the Cining Palace. When Yin'e went to pay his respects to the Grand Empress Dowager, he could see the Fifth Prince and exchange a few words.

However, the Seventh Prince lived in the Gan Dong Wu Suo on the Outer East Road, and he had to study hard in the Imperial Study every day, so he didn't have much free time.

Since the Empress Dowager fell seriously ill, the Consort Gui forbade Yin'e from playing around the palace. Yin'e never went to the Imperial Garden again, nor did he sneak out of the side gate of the Imperial Garden to the Fifth Palace in the East to find the Seventh Prince.

It's been a long time since they last met. The last time they met was in July when the Seventh Prince celebrated his birthday, and he invited Yin'e to the Fifth Palace in Gandong to celebrate with him.

The Ninth Prince couldn't help but pout, and snorted indignantly, "I gave you this gift according to your preferences, don't you like it? Why didn't you thank me?"

Blinking his clear, bright almond-shaped eyes, Yin'e chuckled and skillfully soothed the ruffled Ninth Prince: "Ninth Brother, you're different from Seventh Brother. I'm closest to you, so of course we can be more casual with each other. There's no need for all these thank-yous over such a small thing."

The Ninth Prince, who was easily sulky but also easy to coax, pursed his pink lips, and the angry expression on his face softened considerably. He no longer wore that cat-like sullen face, and with a slight tilt of his chin, he let out a snort from his nose, meaning "That's more like it."

Yin'e's timing was correct; his second lesson with the Ninth Prince soon began, this time in Mongolian.

After Yin'e began his formal education, he studied for one shichen (two hours) a day. He had four lessons in total, each lasting half an hour, in which he studied Manchu, Mongolian, Chinese, and elementary classics.

The first two lessons were the hardest for Yin'e. For him, recognizing the winding Manchu and Mongolian characters and memorizing them completely was harder than climbing to heaven.

Yin'e was in his element in the last two lessons. He had a good foundation, so he learned with ease and was even able to do other things during the Chinese class, such as reviewing the Manchu and Mongolian languages ​​he had just learned.

The Ninth Prince was the complete opposite of Yin'e. He had an exceptional talent for languages ​​and was able to learn three different languages ​​and scripts with ease and proficiency, as if playing with a toy.

However, when it came to elementary classics, the Ninth Prince's learning progressed much slower. He didn't have any special talent in this area, and his progress was similar to that of normal children in their early education. He couldn't compare to the Third Prince's outstanding literary talent, nor did he learn as easily as Yin'e, who was repeating the course.

The grand banquet held two days later on the Golden Festival was the most important festival of the year besides the New Year. Not only would Manchu princes and nobles from outside the palace attend the banquet, but all the concubines in the palace would also participate, as would the older princes and princesses.

On the day of the Golden Banquet, Yin'e changed into an ochre-red python robe and put on a ceremonial crown. He obediently followed the Noble Consort and met up with Consort Yi, who was accompanied by the Ninth Prince. The group then traveled from the Western Six Palaces to the Hall of Preserving Harmony, where a grand palace banquet was to be held.

On the way, the Ninth Prince came over and held hands with Yin'e. The two brothers reunited and walked hand in hand toward the Hall of Preserving Harmony.

The Ninth Prince was dressed in a bright blue python robe and wore an auspicious crown. The bright and vivid blue color made his features look exquisite, his lips red and his teeth white. Standing there, he looked exactly like a little fairy. At first glance, he seemed to have a clear mind and a handsome and well-behaved appearance.

Of course, these are just appearances. The Ninth Prince's personality wasn't the obedient type at all; he only seemed like a little fairy when he wasn't talking. Once the Ninth Prince opened his mouth, others would quickly discover his mischievous nature and learn what it meant to be deceived by appearances.

Holding the Ninth Prince's warm little hand, Yin'e turned his head and glanced at the procession in Yikun Palace. He leaned close to the Ninth Prince's ear and whispered, "Why don't I see your younger brother Yinzhi? Isn't he attending the Golden Festival banquet?"

Because children in the palace were not easy to raise, the custom in the Qing palace was to arrange their order of birth every ten years.

Since the re-ordering of the imperial genealogy in the 23rd year of the Kangxi Emperor's reign, the Imperial Clan Court has not produced any more jade genealogies for newly born princes in the palace during these three years, nor has it included them in the order of birth or recorded their names in the register.

Although Emperor Kangxi bestowed names upon Yinzhi, Yintao, and Yinxiang, they were still young princes who had not yet reached the proper order of seniority, so the way they were addressed in the palace was rather ambiguous.

Yinzhi was the son of Consort Yi, the head of Yikun Palace. The term "Yikun Palace Prince," which was previously used to refer to the Ninth Prince, can now also be used to refer to Yinzhi.

However, Yin Tao and Yin Xiang did not have this convenience. Yin Tao lived in Zhongcui Palace with his birth mother, Consort Wanhali. However, Yin Tao was not the son of Consort Rong, the principal consort of Zhongcui Palace, so it was inappropriate to refer to him as the "Prince of Zhongcui Palace".

The same applies to Yinxiang. His mother, Consort Zhangjia, lived in Consort De's Yonghe Palace, but she was not a principal consort. Therefore, Yonghe Palace, which belonged to Consort De, could not be attributed to Yinxiang.

"Yes, Yinzhi isn't attending." The Ninth Prince nodded, answering casually, "Mother reported him as ill, so he doesn't have to go to the banquet at Baohe Hall."

The dishes served at the Grand Palace Banquet were all exquisite delicacies meticulously prepared by the Imperial Kitchen. However, to prevent any unforeseen circumstances from disrupting the banquet's proceedings, the dishes were prepared well in advance.

No matter how fragrant or delicious the delicacies were when they were fresh out of the pot, they had already lost their original flavor by the time they were served at the palace banquet.

After a long wait, even though the precious dishes were served at the palace banquet still warm due to excellent heat preservation, they didn't taste very good.

Yin'e always ate before attending such grand palace banquets. During the banquet, he would only symbolically pick up a few bites of the cold dishes that wouldn't affect their taste even after being left out for a while, just to prove that he had actually eaten anything.

If the grand palace banquet weren't such a rare and lively occasion in the palace, Yin'e wouldn't have wanted to attend and suffer such hardship.

Clearly, Consort Yi thought the same way. She couldn't bear to send the physically weak Yinzhi to the banquet at Baohe Hall, where he would sit for one or two hours at a time.

You can't run around or move freely at a banquet. The dishes laid out in front of you are all pretty but useless, looking delicious but tasting terrible. Attending a grand palace banquet is not as good as it sounds; it's just a matter of prestige.

Yin'e paused for a moment, then tightened his grip on the Ninth Prince's hand, holding it more firmly: "That's fine then, Ninth Brother. Let's sit together then, and we can talk at the palace banquet."

At the grand palace banquet, everyone sat alone, with their own seat and table, even married couples.

At the grand palace banquet, men and women were seated separately. Princes and nobles of the imperial clan sat in the main hall according to their rank and seniority, while the ladies of noble birth who were qualified to attend the banquet sat in the side hall with other female relatives.

Yin'e and the Ninth Prince were both minor princes who had not yet come of age or been granted titles. Although their seats were in the main hall, they were not qualified to sit with the other princes and nobles and could only sit in the line of the imperial family members.

Even so, Yin'e and the Ninth Prince could not sit with their respective birth mothers. Although the seats for the concubines, princes, and princesses were arranged in the same area, they were not next to each other, but rather divided into upper and lower sections.

The concubines sat at the head of the table according to their rank and status, while the princes and princesses sat on either side at the lower level, arranged according to their age and seniority. Princesses in the Qing Palace were not arranged by age when they were young; they were only arranged by age and given a formal princess title upon their marriage.

The Ninth Prince and Yin'e were next in rank, so their seats were naturally next to each other. In addition, since they were both young princes who hadn't even entered the Imperial Study, basically no one paid attention to them. Even if they weren't so well-behaved, it wouldn't be a big deal for them to leave their seats and squeeze together behind a desk.

The young princes who hadn't entered the Imperial Study were more playful and lively, and their roughhousing was no big deal. The princes in the palace, however, only had this very short period where they could be willful and capricious, without having to conform to rules and etiquette in every action.

Upon entering the Hall of Preserving Harmony, they were led by palace maids to the area where the imperial family members were seated. Yin'e and the Ninth Prince were about to part ways with the Imperial Concubine and the Consort Yi.

One of them was a Noble Consort, and the other was one of the Four Consorts. They both sat in the most prominent positions among the consorts, separated from the princes and princesses by concubines, noble ladies, and a considerable number of secondary consorts.

Even if Consort Gui and Consort Yi wanted to take a moment to keep an eye on Prince Yin'e and the Ninth Prince during the banquet, they couldn't, because there were too many people in between, and their view was completely blocked.

Before parting ways, they could only instruct Yin'e and the Ninth Prince's wet nurse to take good care of them, and also remind Yin'e and the Ninth Prince not to cause trouble at the palace banquet.

Yin'e and the Ninth Prince were led to the area where the princes were seated. They saw that the Third Prince, the Seventh Prince, the Eighth Prince, and Yin Tao had already arrived and were sitting in their respective seats. Only the Fourth Prince and the Fifth Prince were missing.

It seems that one of them was with Consort Tong and the other with the Empress Dowager, and they would both arrive a little later.

As for the eldest prince, since the beginning of this year, his seat has been moved away from the younger princes and placed with the royal family members.