Chapter 160 I Just Have to Say It

It's Shou Kang Palace again.

It's the same seat again.

The Empress Dowager leaned against the headboard, holding Qingying's hand with one hand and Hongzhao's hand with the other.

Perhaps it was because she was getting older, but the Empress Dowager felt that she was becoming increasingly weak. So she called the two children to her side more and more often.

Hongzhao was, as always, lost in thought, when suddenly he snapped back to reality and a very blunt remark barged into his ears.

"Grandmother, what if one day all the men in the world only have wives and no concubines? How wonderful that would be, everyone could be a single-minded person." Qingying's eyes were filled with longing, but the Empress Dowager's expression grew increasingly grim as she listened.

"What nonsense!" The Empress Dowager glanced at Hongzhao, and only felt slightly relieved when she saw that he was still calm. She continued to scold him, "Who taught you to say such things? Good child, your future in the palace is limitless. You must keep the concepts of emperor and subject, husband and wife, legitimate and illegitimate children, superior and inferior in mind every day. You must not speak recklessly just because you hear something."

Qingying wanted to speak up and defend her thoughts, but the Empress Dowager squeezed her hand slightly and then turned to look at the Crown Prince beside her.

“Hongzhao, you have always been the most well-behaved and reasonable child. You know Qingying’s personality. She is young, so you should teach her more in the future. It will also help you to make up for your calm personality. That way, Grandma Huang can rest assured.”

Hongzhao could only say that he was indeed a shrewd person, able to smooth things over even in such a situation. In the past, he wouldn't have wanted to argue, preferring to go back and talk to his father rather than waste his breath. But today, for some reason, the words stuck in his throat and he couldn't swallow them back as usual.

He twitched the corners of his mouth, revealing an extremely perfunctory smile on his lowered face—"Young? Does Grandmother remember how old I am this year? She is a few years older than me. She has been in the palace for many years, supposedly as a companion to the emperor, but she probably hasn't learned any real etiquette."

This was the first time the Empress Dowager had been questioned so bluntly by the Crown Prince, and she froze, unsure of what to say.

Qingying stepped forward to soothe the Empress Dowager, her eyes filled with reproach as she looked at Hongzhao—"It was just a casual remark. If Your Highness doesn't agree with Qingying, then don't say it. Why be so aggressive?"

“Aggressive?” Hongzhao turned his head to look at him. He rarely acted like a prince in normal times. Most of the time he was gentle and refined. Today was a rare sight. “I have already given the princess enough face because of the Empress Dowager.”

He pointed outside—"The football that Hongzhou was holding that day was given to him by the princess. It just so happened that he walked straight into the trap set by Granny Zhu. My sixth brother was happily playing with his new toy, but he broke his elbow because of the ball. He still has a sling on his arm and a persistent low-grade fever. Princess, have you asked him anything about it?"

His gaze seemed to possess a magical power that could see through everything; when his dark pupils stared directly at you, it was as if he wanted to suck your soul into them.

"Where did that ball come from? And why did you give it to Hongzhou on that particular day? Did you speak a single word to Hongzhou before?" Hongzhao pressed him repeatedly, leaning forward. The Empress Dowager could sense an unusual sense of pressure emanating from this young body.

Qingying hesitated to answer the question, partly because she felt guilty. Hongli had asked her to give the ball to her sixth brother to play with. Hongli said that if she said he sent it, her sixth brother wouldn't want it, so she gave it to him under her own name. As long as her brother had fun, nothing else mattered...

Brother Hongli would never lie to me.

Seeing Qingying's bewildered state, the Empress Dowager sighed inwardly and released her hand—"Qingying, go and check if the medicine in the small kitchen is ready."

Looking at the now imposing Crown Prince, she sighed softly, "Hongzhao, Qingying has misunderstood. How could she have known those people had such a scheme? Even if she hadn't delivered the ball that day, who knows what else might have happened..."

“Grandma,” Hongzhao interrupted her rambling, “Grandma doesn’t even know the inside story yet she’s defending the princess like this. Has Grandma summoned, or even personally left Shou Kang Palace these past few days, Hongzhou to check on his injuries?”

He lowered his eyelids, his whole demeanor no longer as sharp as before. He concealed his arrogance and fell silent again. Without waiting for the Empress Dowager to find a reason, he answered for her directly—"No, because you are not in good health and cannot be exposed to the wind. Because you often have to take medicine and need to rest at all times, but in less than ten days, you have summoned your cousin Hongkai twice."

As he spoke, he raised his head and looked into the pair of old, slightly cloudy eyes opposite him, and said with utmost calmness, "Before, when my fourteenth uncle's family failed to return to the capital, I didn't realize how obvious it was. Now, it was I who personally suggested to Father Emperor that we bring my fourteenth uncle back. It is also because of me that my fourteenth uncle was able to settle down in the capital."

"But all these actions have only made me rank lower and lower in my grandmother's heart. My cousin is ranked before me, and even a princess from a minister's family is ranked before me. I think I have been patient enough. What more does my grandmother want me to do? To be trampled on without saying a word? Am I still the Crown Prince of the Great Qing?"

The Empress Dowager was completely stunned by these questions. Now she seemed to be seeing the child before her in a new light; before, she had only thought of him as intelligent and filial. Now, she saw that he also had a rebellious side.

Hongzhao also felt that he had said too much today, so he stood up and respectfully bowed to the Empress Dowager. "I have offended you today. I hope you will not be angry, Grandmother. I will copy the Classic of Filial Piety a hundred times to reflect on my actions. It is time for evening lessons. I will take my leave now."

After saying that, he stood up, took two steps back, and then walked out of Shou Kang Palace without looking back.

"Zhu Xi, do you think I'm really getting old?" The Empress Dowager looked at the swaying curtain and sighed to Zhu Xi, who had been by her side for decades.

Zhu Xi had no choice but to say, "Your Majesty, you are in good health, but I still have to say something. The Crown Prince is different from the Emperor's other children. He has never suffered any hardship or loss since he was a child. He has been pampered and raised in the Emperor's palm. It is very rare for him to grow up to be such a fine and elegant person. For the sake of the Emperor's mother-son relationship with you, you should pay more attention to the Crown Prince."

"Alas—" The Empress Dowager sighed deeply—"How could I not want to mend things? But so many years have passed like this, and now the Fourteenth Prince has returned, and..."

Zhu Xi knew this was an old problem of her Empress Dowager, but she also had her own ways of advising her.

"The Fourteenth Prince has returned, but whether he stays or leaves is still up to the Emperor. Empress Dowager, you can't let the Emperor feel that you've neglected him now that the Fourteenth Prince is here."

The Empress Dowager had often said that "Rou is too soft-hearted and Yixiu is too ruthless, neither of them are suitable to be empress." But now Zhuxi thinks that this Qingying Princess is even less suitable for the palace, yet the Empress Dowager is determined to choose her.