Chapter 7: Applying Eye Drops When I was woken up at four the next morning...

When Qi Buchen was woken up at four o'clock the next morning, she felt her whole head was swollen. While Baohuan was dressing her, she was so sleepy that she dozed off.

Even when she saw Yinzhen, she still looked confused: "...I'll take you there, be careful on the way..., well,...eat breakfast before you go..."

Yinzhen looked at her nodding her head, thinking she probably didn't know what she was doing, and felt sorry for her: "You don't have to get up to send me off in the future. It's freezing."

Qi Buchen looked at him blankly for a while, then nodded and said slowly: "Okay, eat quickly, you still have to go to school."

Yinzhen felt that she had touched a certain spot in his heart, and his hands were itching to rub that fair and tender face.

He held back again, picked up the vegetable and meat porridge that Qi Buchen had specially ordered in front of him and drank it, then ate a few small buns the size of kumquats, and finished it.

Even though Qi Buchen was dazed and dazed, he subconsciously felt that he hadn't eaten enough. He frowned and said, "Did you eat too little? You get hungry easily when you study hard."

Yinzhen felt that he had eaten just enough: "No, it will be breakfast in three hours."

"Rest now when you're done." Yinzhen stood up and was about to leave, but after a pause he gave another instruction, "I'm going to pay my respects to my mother today, so remember to be respectful and polite."

I originally wanted to say, "No matter what mother says, don't take it to heart," but after thinking about it, I decided not to. This is the first time my daughter-in-law has come to pay her respects alone, and mother shouldn't say anything inappropriate.

Yinzhen left with some uncertainty and worry. After Qi Buchen instructed Lin Changqing to bring him some food and milk on the way, he fell headfirst onto the bed and lost consciousness.

However, within two hours she was called up again. Baozhu whispered in her ear, "Fujin, it's time to get up. You still have to pay your respects to the Imperial Concubine and the Virtuous Concubine."

Qi Buchen was sobered up a bit by the words "Noble Consort" and "Venerable Consort": "Is it time already?"

"Yes," Baozhu replied, "It takes quite a while to get there from the South Third Institute, and there are no sedan chairs available today."

Not everyone in the palace could use a sedan chair. Qi Buchen had been carried to Ningshou Palace yesterday because of her recent wedding. From now on, she would have to walk to the harem to pay her respects to the Empress Dowager and the other ladies.

Qi Buchen sighed deeply. Fortunately, he didn't have to go every day to pay his respects. When he lived in the palace, he only had to go once every five or ten days. After leaving the palace, once a month would be enough.

When he arrived at Qixiang Palace, he was told that the imperial concubine was getting dressed. Qi Buchen waited in the greenhouse for a quarter of an hour before he saw her.

"Your son greets the Imperial Concubine and wishes Her Majesty good health." Qi Buchen bowed politely.

"Hurry up and get up." The imperial concubine acted quite amiable. "I've kept you waiting for a long time. I'm keeping the Eighth Princess now, and she makes a lot of noise at night, so I got up a little late in the morning."

"Your Majesty, I didn't wait long. Thank you for your hard work." Qi Buchen flattered.

"It's not that hard." The imperial concubine smiled. "Although Ba Gege is not my biological child, I have raised her to this age. No matter what I do for her, I am happy. When you have children in the future, you will understand."

Qi Buchen just lowered his head shyly: "My queen is making fun of you."

The imperial concubine chuckled and said, "Well, you're still young. From now on, you don't have to make another trip to pay your respects. Just go directly to your mother. I'm old, and I'm raising an eighth princess. You're being suspicious, but I just want to sleep a little longer in the morning and can't bear to see anyone."

"Your Majesty is still very young." Qi Buchen said with a red face, but he did not refuse and came to pay his respects. Who wouldn't want to sleep a little longer?

After a few more words, the imperial concubine sent Qi Buchen to Yonghe Palace.

When Qi Buchen arrived at Yonghe Palace, he was led directly in. Concubine De was already waiting there.

After the same greetings, Concubine De started the conversation: "Come to think of it, that naughty Fourteenth hasn't apologized to you, his sister-in-law. I sent someone to wake him up a long time ago, but he still hasn't woken up."

"Apologize?" Qi Buchen was surprised. "Why would Fourteenth Brother apologize to me?"

"You don't know?" De Fei seemed even more surprised than she was. "It was the night before yesterday. That little naughty monkey was going crazy. I heard he bumped into you and made you kowtow while playing with someone. The Emperor scolded him for that, and he came back and cried to me."

Concubine De looked amused, as if she remembered Fourteen's rogue behavior.

Qi Buchen suddenly realized that she had indeed been bumped on the head that night, but she only remembered communicating with the residual consciousness of her original body at the time and did not pay attention to it. Later, she was busy and forgot about it. Unexpectedly, the person who bumped into her was actually Yinzhen's younger brother, the fourteenth prince Yinzhen, and was even reprimanded by Kangxi for this incident.

Defei said it jokingly, but Qi Buchen didn't dare to take it as a joke. In her previous life, she had read many speculations about the relationship between Defei and Yinzhen. No matter how it happened, the conclusion was always that Defei favored her youngest son and didn't care much about Yinzhen, the eldest son, and that the two had a bad relationship.

Now, her beloved youngest son was reprimanded by the emperor because of his eldest son and his wife. How could she be happy?

Qi Buchen's heart was filled with alarm, and he pretended to be at a loss. "How...how could this happen...? How much strength could a small person like Fourteenth Brother have? In fact, I just tilted my body at that time, but I was nervous at the time, and maybe the maid next to me saw it wrongly. I lowered my head at the time and didn't notice it was Fourteenth Brother. I wonder if he was hurt? Later, there were too many things to do, and I was so busy that I forgot about it. How...how could the emperor know about it?" Qi Buchen looked confused and said carefully, "How about...how about I go and talk to the emperor and tell him that nothing happened?"

A dark flash passed through Concubine De's eyes, and she smiled and said, "Why are you so nervous, child? That naughty monkey always teases cats and dogs. I'm almost annoyed to death by him. Now it's good to ask the emperor to say a few words. At least I can have a few days of peace and quiet."

"This...it's me who has implicated my fourteenth brother." Qi Buchen said with a look of shame.

"It's okay to say it all. It's all the boy's fault. It's none of your business." Concubine De waved her hand and smiled.

Afterwards, the two chatted about other things and Qi Buchen said goodbye. From beginning to end, he never saw the three-year-old Fourteenth Prince, but he did see the Thirteenth Prince who was raised by Concubine De.

The cute little bun greeted Qi Buchen solemnly, which made him love him so much. Thinking that this was the future chivalrous Thirteenth Prince, he liked him even more.

After Qi Buchen left, the smile on Concubine De's face gradually faded. After thinking for a while, she called a maid and ordered, "Go and find out how the emperor knew that Fourteen had hit someone."

As soon as Qi Buchen returned, he instructed Nanny Yue: "Go open the storehouse, pick up some children's toys and send them to Jingren Palace. Say that I, the fourth sister-in-law, gave them to my fourteenth brother."

He called Lin Changqing over again and said, "Can you send some food over? Is it okay for me?"

"I delivered it personally. The prince used some of it, but not much." Lin Changqing replied with his brows lowered.

Qi Buchen nodded in satisfaction: "From now on, you don't have to go there yourself for such errands. Just ask a clever eunuch to do it. I still need you here."

The study in the east wing had been cleaned up. Qi Buchen went in and felt it. He was very satisfied with the warmth, so he asked Baozhu to take out all the account books and prepare to study.

Just as he started, Qi Buchen thought of something else and told Lin Changqing, "Oh, I almost forgot. The study in front of me is still not well kept warm. I'm afraid it will be even colder at night. Go to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and ask someone to make a footstool..."

Qi Buchen described the shape of the foot pedal that could hold charcoal, which was actually the same principle as a hand warmer. Lin Changqing understood it as soon as he heard it, and immediately took people to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to customize it.

"Fuyun, you are good at sewing, so make a few cushions in the next two days, stuff them with cotton, make them soft and elastic, and draw a few lines in the middle to fix the cotton. The size... just make the ones that are placed on the imperial chair." Qi Buchen felt pain in his buttocks when he thought of Yinzhen sitting on that cold and hard imperial chair for several hours to study. The design of the computer chair in the previous life was such that people were prone to sciatica after sitting for a long time, not to mention the hard wooden chair now.

After everything was almost arranged, Qi Buchen began to look at the account book carefully, but after looking at it for a while, she got a headache.

At that time, the account book was just like a diary, written in vertical lines without punctuation. Without an abacus at hand, you would forget the previous number as soon as you turned the page.

The original body had never learned it either. She got married too early and was only taught some basic things about housekeeping before marriage.

Qi Buchen sighed and wanted to make a table with Arabic numerals, but when she looked at the maids serving her around her, she had to give up.

But looking at the account book this way, she estimated that it would take her several months to figure it out, and she didn't know how to use an abacus.

There was no other way but to call all the people who brought him into the palace, and pick out those who could read, and ask them to sort the account books carefully according to his requirements, and then check the numbers in them.

Qi Buchen spent the whole day doing this.

Yinzhen, who was already practicing martial arts and archery in the training ground at that time, felt that the two meals he had today were extremely comfortable. In the past, he always felt that he was not up to the task when practicing. Although his archery accuracy had not improved today, he felt that his arms were stronger, and the arrows he shot were no longer ridiculed as soft.

The third brother, who used to mock him because he was better than him, now had an expression as if he had stepped on someone else's shit. As soon as the martial arts training time was over, he left in a huff.

"Third brother has always been very clean, so he must be in a hurry to go back and take a bath. Don't mind me, fourth brother." Eighth Prince Yinsi smiled and said, "Fourth brother, your archery movements just now were very neat and clear. I can't compare to you."

Yinzhen handed the bow to Su Peisheng beside him, looked at Yinsi with a strange expression, nodded and said: "Eighth brother is not bad either, I will go back first."

To be honest, Yinzhen himself knew very well that his martial arts skills were not that good. Among his brothers of similar age, he and Yinzhi were the bottom two. In the past, he was even worse than Yinzhi.

As for his younger brothers, they were just starting out, so comparing them wasn't embarrassing enough. Even some of them, like the tenth brother, Yin'e, were more talented, and they would probably leave him far behind if they were two years older.

When Yinsi said this to him today, he just felt unhappy.

What does "Fourth Brother, don't mind" mean? This means he is dissatisfied with his elder brother! Even if he is really dissatisfied in his heart, can he say it out loud? If the emperor heard this, what would he think? He would think that the fourth brother is dissatisfied with his elder brother and does not have the virtue of "brotherly love and respect".

Having left a bad impression on the Emperor, how could he expect anything good to happen to him?

Moreover, he felt that he was not as good as Yinsi. Yinzhen thought it was a mockery of himself. Although Yinsi was three years younger than him, he was still talented in riding and shooting, which was obvious to any discerning person.

Therefore, Yinzhen felt that his eighth brother, who always had a smiling face, was very hypocritical, and loved to sow discord and secretly deceive people!

The author has something to say:

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Yinzhen: The eighth brother is so cunning and evil at such a young age!