Chapter Six
Crown Prince Yinreng has been recuperating in Yuqing Palace recently due to illness. The imperial physicians have only diagnosed that the Crown Prince is overthinking and has damaged his spirit, and that he needs to calm down.
At first, Kangxi thought it was a matter of studies, and later he thought it was a matter of youthful infatuation. He reluctantly agreed to let Fucha become the Crown Princess, but... he still looked pale and was so upset that he lay on the bed.
Emperor Kangxi was terrified. The imperial physician came to Yuqing Palace every day, and the concubines in the harem all thought that the Crown Prince might be unwell.
That's truly a joyous occasion!
Especially for the concubines who had children, they kept a close eye on what was happening at Yuqing Palace, discovering that the Crown Prince was simply studying so intently that he had fallen ill from exhaustion...
Pooh!
Her mother knows how to flatter herself. Which prince should be in the Imperial Study from 3-5 am to 5 pm to finish his studies? He has to study literature and martial arts from morning till night!
Delicate.
Even the younger princes can hold on, and besides, His Highness the Crown Prince isn't a three or five-year-old. He's been doing this for over a decade, so how could something have happened to him only now?
Little did anyone know, Yinreng was really suffering from a terrible headache. Those voices, whether they should have come or not, kept coming into his ears. It took him more than half a month to barely get used to it.
It was also discovered that if the distance is far, the voice can only be inaudible from about 1.5 zhang (5 meters) away.
He couldn't control who he could listen to and who he couldn't, but he could barely manage to ignore them.
However, he remembered that the first time he could hear his own heart was because of the princess of the Fucha family.
Chen Jialuo... well, she should be renamed Fucha Jialuo now. When she came out of the palace, the Fucha family was already waiting at the palace gate.
Jialuo's innocent and lovely smile shone as she looked at her younger brother, waving her big hand, "Li Rongbao, Li Rongbao, I'm here."
Seeing his sister emerge safely from the palace, Li Rongbao breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness, nothing bad happened.
"Sister, we're home." Li Rongbao still cared deeply for his sister; to put it bluntly, he treated Jialuo like his own younger sister. He didn't even ask about the selection process, and simply took his sister home. However, before the Fucha family could prepare themselves, the Emperor's 'reward' arrived.
Jialuo was also full of surprise, didn't she say...
However, those four old women, two of them were burly and thick-waisted, and the other two looked sharp-tongued and mean-spirited... well, perhaps her Chinese wasn't very good, and she couldn't use the right words to describe them.
But, at first glance, he's not someone to mess with. Oh, no, I should say, he's very strict. You can imagine how hard he'll have to work in the days to come.
While still in the palace, Jialuo's makeup mostly leaned towards a gentle and elegant style, or a dignified and graceful look. In any case, her delicate and frail appearance was completely overshadowed by Xiaoqing.
Jialuo genuinely felt that she absolutely had to learn Xiaoqing's makeup skills so she could transform herself beautifully in various ways!
Which young girl doesn't love to look pretty?
She idolizes people with amazing makeup skills. Back in the day, she saw some incredibly talented people on Douyin (TikTok) who, despite being middle-aged women, could make themselves look exactly like Leslie Cheung, Liu Yifei, and other famous celebrities.
I wanted to learn right then and there, so I bought a lot of cosmetics and tried applying them like those in makeup tutorial videos...
Xiaoqing knew that the princess liked it, so she practically wanted to put her hands on the princess's body. As long as other maids weren't competing with her for her position, the princess couldn't possibly spend an hour (two hours) every day putting on makeup; it would be too tiring.
Consort Wuya of Fucha was most concerned about what happened to Jialuo during the palace selection. She took Jialuo to her boudoir and asked, "Jialuo, tell your mother what happened."
The Fucha family naturally had their own secrets regarding palace affairs, but they still wanted to talk to their daughter.
When the topic of the talent show came up, Jialuo clenched her little pink fists angrily and complained about Yan Gege, saying she had to be punished properly.
The original owner died because of her, and she wants to avenge the original owner!
Uya knew the position of Crown Princess was very tempting. Her own daughter was so stupid and clumsy that she almost failed in the first round of the battle. According to the Emperor's current 'arrangement,' she would go to Yuqing Palace in the future...
I used to think the Emperor looked down on my innocent daughter, but now...
She took Jialuo's hand, her expression serious and earnest. "Jialuo, tomorrow morning, after learning the rules from the nanny, learn how to manage the household with your mother."
Yes, there's a conspiracy in the inner quarters. She has her backyard under her tight control. When there's time, I'll take her back to her parents' home. Her family, the Uya clan, is not as innocent and harmless as the Fucha family.
The reason why Qingming is harmless now is because of her skillful methods.
For the next two months, Jialuo felt like she was living in hell. She was dragged out of bed at the crack of dawn. The nanny was indeed strict and strict. Her habit of staying up until 3 a.m. was broken.
With her health, daily meals, learning palace rules and etiquette, managing the household, and other such matters at her disposal, Jialuo had no time to think about anything else.
Guarjia's life was much more tumultuous than Chen Jialuo's. The Guarjia clan was full of hope for her, thinking she could become the Crown Princess. They believed that none of the four other candidates were as competitive as the Guarjia.
But no one expected that Wanyan's shrewd move would turn their Guwalgiya from Crown Princess to Fourth Prince's Consort.
They are all members of the royal family, but... how can a prince's wife be compared to the future mother of the nation?
"Qingshuang, what's going on? How could you be fooled by such a petty trick of Wanyan?" Shi Bingwen's wife, Lady Jueluo, was the great-granddaughter of Prince Li Lie, Daishan. Her father, Chang'adai, had his title reduced to Doro Huaimin Beile after so many generations.
Therefore, Lady Jue Luo always wanted to restore her glory. Knowing that her daughter could become the Crown Princess one day, she strictly required her to be dignified, shrewd, and good at managing the household, and so on. Lady Jue Luo asked nannies to teach her all the things a head mistress should know.
But who knew that their own daughter would be so disappointing?
"Mother, the matter has already been settled. There's no point in arguing anymore." Former Crown Princess Guarjia Qingshuang showed no regret whatsoever about not being able to become the Crown Princess, remaining calm and composed.
"Mother, how have you always taught me? Calm down, composed, and don't let impulsiveness and anger cloud your judgment." At this moment, Princess Guarjia was even teaching her mother how to behave.
"You, you, how can you not be worried at all? Do you know what you've missed? If you had been more careful, how could the Fucha family have gotten such an advantage?" Jue Luo felt that her daughter was completely ignorant and didn't know how to bring honor to the family.
Princess Guarjia: What do you know? When the Fourth Prince Yinzhen ascends the throne, you'll see how wise my decision was.
"So, what is Mother planning to do? Is she going to break off the engagement with the Fourth Prince?" Princess Guarjia pursed her lips, feeling that her mother was extremely foolish. It was exhausting to talk to such a person, and she couldn't even explain her reasons.
Her good mood was ruined by the sarcastic looks from her half-sisters and the disappointed glances from her cousins and uncles. She felt a sense of superiority and smugness, thinking that she had been reborn and that only she knew the future. She was the real winner in life.
Hearing her daughter's question, Jue Luo's expression changed slightly. "What nonsense are you talking about? It's an imperial decree of marriage; do you want to kill everyone?"
“Yes, that’s right. So Mother, there’s no point in discussing this. We should think about how to be a good Fourth Prince’s wife.” She thought that since the Fourth Prince was still young, he wouldn’t be in such a hurry to give birth to a son born to a concubine like His Highness the Crown Prince.
Unfortunately, with the Fourth Prince in the palace, it's quite troublesome for me to send any tokens to him to express my feelings.
Jue Luo was still having a headache. She thought she had finally gotten her revenge, but now the second branch of the family was going to start chattering again.
The thought of being ridiculed by the second wife again made Jue Luo's face look anything but pleasant.
Princess Guarjia finally said she was tired and wanted to rest, so she kicked Lady Jue Luo out of the room.
When Yinzhen ascended the throne, he only had three sons. I remember his concubine's name was... Concubine Li, and she was some kind of prefect? There were two others...
Apart from the Fourth Prince's wife, she had little contact with the other concubines, as the affairs of the harem and Yuqing Palace already kept her very busy.
No problem, let's investigate slowly and start by taking control of the people around her family.
"The prince must be born from her womb," Chunlan said, "go and fetch a doctor."
Take good care of your health, and ideally, after marrying into the Fourth Prince's household, have a son in one go, unlike when you were in Yuqing Palace, where it took seven years to have a legitimate daughter.
"Baocheng, Baocheng, what's wrong with you?" The Empress Dowager was terrified when she saw how much weight Crown Prince Yinreng had lost, and she immediately ordered someone to summon the imperial physician.
She hadn't been feeling well for the past two months, and Bao Cheng had been unwell for almost half a month as well, but the Empress Dowager didn't know it was so serious. Could it be that she had contracted some kind of serious illness?
The Empress Dowager cared for the Crown Prince more than any of the other princes because he was the heir apparent, and also because when Emperor Xuan Ye suppressed the Three Feudatories, Bao Cheng spent a long time in the Cining Palace, where they developed a bond.
The Emperor forbade the Mongol concubines in the harem from having children. Not to mention bloodlines, there were very few concubines from Mongolia. No matter how she planned for the Khorchin, she could not ultimately go against Emperor Kangxi's wishes.
It would be good to have a closer relationship with the Crown Prince, so that when he ascends the throne, he will have some influence over the Khorchin.
She's too old to do anything more for Khorchin...
"Mother Wuku, I'm fine. I just probably didn't rest well for a while, but I'm much better now." Yinreng was quite capable; he could now ignore the unspoken thoughts he heard.
However, he couldn't hear the thoughts of his father, mother, and grandmother, and he wasn't unaware of the reason why.
"Your father is too serious and too strict. You should take good care of yourself and not always..." The doctor kindly advised Yinreng. The imperial physician said it was too much for him, but not to this extent. No, he must rest for a while longer.
It would be terrible if he ended up like the crown prince of the Ming Dynasty.
First Prince Yinti (who hasn't seen the Crown Prince recently): The Crown Prince is using the self-inflicted injury trick again to make Father Emperor pity him. Humph, what a delicate sissy!
That afternoon, during a horseback archery lesson, he accidentally fell off his horse. Upon hearing this, Emperor Kangxi rushed over, genuinely worried that something serious had happened to his eldest son; otherwise, why would he have hastily summoned several imperial physicians?
Then, when she saw the bandage on her eldest son's forehead, she was almost scared to death. She thought that he had broken his head and might have become even more stupid.
"Imperial Physician, how is the First Prince?" Kangxi was afraid the imperial physician would say that the prince had been injured and become mentally impaired. However, the imperial physician hesitated and seemed to have difficulty expressing himself.
Before the eldest prince, Yinti, could discuss keeping the matter a secret from his father, the emperor, he hurriedly tried to signal to the imperial physician, but the physician wasn't paying any attention to him at all.
Kangxi's heart was pounding with anxiety, his breathing became slightly lighter, and then he heard the imperial physician say, "Your Majesty, the eldest prince is fine, he just fell and hit his back, and there's a bruise..."
Kangxi remained silent for two seconds, his gaze lingering on the bandage on Yinti's forehead. Under his cold gaze, the imperial physician moved his lips but did not know how to answer. With Kangxi's intelligence, how could he not know that Yinti was playing a trick on him?
He abandoned state affairs to come and show concern, only to find it was all a deception. Enraged, Kangxi grabbed Liang Jiugong's whisk and gave Yinti a severe beating.
"Oh, Your Majesty, Father, your son, your son, it wasn't on purpose!!" Yinti jumped up and down, unable to bring himself to act coquettishly.
Finally, he was forced down by the guards and given twenty lashes. He lay on the bed, on the verge of tears: "That wretched bastard Yinreng ruined him! He just wanted to get me beaten. Father Emperor is so biased!"
(End of this chapter)
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