Chapter 72 The Aftermath of Consort Hui
Walking on the palace path paved with bluestone slabs, Baoqing awkwardly touched the tip of his nose and apologized to the Crown Prince, "I've dragged you into this."
If he hadn't angered his father to the point of fainting, the Crown Prince probably wouldn't have been kicked out.
The crown prince glanced at him, his expression enigmatic: "No, it is I who have implicated you."
The Emperor is furious; my elder brother's days ahead are probably numbered.
And then there's Lady Mingzhu, who was mentioned innocently...
The Crown Prince silently mourned for Mingzhu for a few seconds in advance. No matter how much power he had in the court, after his elder brother's words, he would all turn to ashes.
Lady Mingzhu can only go home and eat by herself.
Upon reaching the entrance of Qianqing Palace, the two brothers parted ways. The Crown Prince returned to Yuqing Palace to discuss the next steps, while Baoqing... Baoqing chose to seek help from outside the palace.
It was that familiar call again, "Mother—"
Hearing the drawn-out tone, the palace maid's hand, which was applying hair dye, trembled, and she silently stepped aside under Lingzhi's watchful gaze.
The concubines in the palace had no shortage of beauty regimens, nor of various medicinal supplements or dietary supplements. However, time always treats everyone fairly. No matter how well they take care of themselves, wrinkles on their faces and gray hair on their heads are inevitable.
When she had fewer gray hairs, it was fine; Ganoderma lucidum and Poria cocos would be quietly twisted off while combing her hair, so she wouldn't notice.
Now that there's more hair, I can't do it like that anymore. Mixing black and white hair doesn't look good, so Yunyun decided to dye all her hair black again with tallow tree leaves.
This is also the method that most concubines would choose to use.
The process is a bit troublesome, requiring layer by layer of the juice obtained by boiling crushed Chinese tallow tree leaves in water, and then drying it in the sun to fix the color, which takes a lot of time.
However, Yunyun has no shortage of free time.
She was enjoying herself with her eyes half-closed, and even when she heard Baoqing's voice, she remained seated calmly, telling him to do as he pleased: "You're not allowed to speak."
She didn't want to hear anything Baoqing didn't want to hear.
Baoqing waited patiently for his mother to finish applying the hair dye, and then followed her to sit in the sun on the veranda before quietly explaining his purpose: "Your son has gotten into trouble."
Yun Jun, as usual, covered her eyes with two slices of cucumber to deceive herself, and snorted coldly: "When haven't you caused trouble this year? Tell me, what's it this time?"
She's not exaggerating, Baoqing really is a very energetic person.
When she was a child, there was always a minor trouble every three days and a major trouble every five days in the Imperial Study. She and the Emperor sighed countless times because of this.
After handling the task, he became more composed and rarely made mistakes. However, his mouth never stopped whenever he was in front of her. He could easily utter hurtful words. Yun Jun even suspected that Bao Qing had used up all his emotional intelligence on this.
Both she and the emperor were victims, but she hadn't done anything outrageous in recent years; the emperor had suffered more harm.
Yunyun guessed that this time it must be because Baoqing had angered the Emperor and came to her for help.
Baoqing whispered, "Mother, I'm only telling you about this."
Yunyun removed the two slices of cucumber that were covering her eyes and glanced at him.
Oh, you're making it sound mysterious now.
Alright, as his mother, I'll grant him this little wish.
With a wave of his hand, the two palace maids who were serving him, along with Fuling, all withdrew, and the corridor instantly became empty. Unless someone could turn invisible, no third person could hear what was said next.
Yun Jun said lazily, "Now you can tell me, right?"
Baoqing then somewhat embarrassedly recounted the series of events that occurred after he went to the Qianqing Palace, including how he had angered his father to the point of fainting, and how his father had ultimately told him to get out.
Yunyun: ?
Yunyun: !
She sat up straight instantly and looked at Baoqing with amazement for a while.
This child's ability to hit the nail on the head is growing; he says whatever the emperor cares about. It's hard to say that this isn't a unique talent.
Baoqing's ability to peek had greatly improved today. Seeing that his mother's face showed no anger, Baoqing secretly breathed a sigh of relief, but couldn't help asking, "Mother, are you not angry with your son?"
After all, he had angered his father so much that he fainted. This would be considered extremely unfilial by any prince, and would earn him a beating with a feather duster.
Yun Jun's feelings at this moment were hard to describe.
The Emperor fainted from anger at Bao Qing; the mother and son are probably doomed.
However, I wasn't the one who was so angry at Baoqing that I almost fainted; why am I feeling a little smug?
Maintaining a half-smile, Yun Jun countered, "Why should I blame you? Do you think your father will forget about this just because I blame you? Or do you realize you were wrong and are now regretting it?"
Baoqing truly recounted his conversations with Emperor Kangxi in a vivid and lifelike manner.
Yunyun even thought, rather inappropriately, that if Baoqing were demoted to a commoner, it wouldn't be bad for him to become a storyteller; she thought he had quite a talent for it.
Baoqing was pleased to receive his mother's support. "Your subject agrees with me. Father Emperor is getting old, which is why he is prone to fainting from anger. When I get back, I will collect some health-preserving prescriptions for Father Emperor so that he can take good care of his health and not get angry easily."
Baoqing figured it out on her own without Baoqing even needing to say a few words.
Your fatherly affection for your imperial father didn't even last until you left the palace filled with guilt.
Yun Jun was speechless.
Although the Emperor's senile behavior in recent years has strained the father-son relationship, Baoqing, as the direct culprit who caused the Emperor to faint from anger, should at least have some self-awareness, right? You're not even willing to feel uneasy for a little longer.
Oh well, she doesn't really care anyway.
Yun Jun, equally carefree, sighed and tossed two innocent slices of cucumber to Bao Qing: "Go back to the manor and wait. I'll try to ask him what the Emperor will do to you."
Although Emperor Kangxi had become more lenient with his sons in recent years, he had one advantage: as long as the concubines did not cross the line, he would not demote them.
Just look at the imperial harem and you'll know; once a concubine is promoted, she never goes down. At most, she just becomes less favored and is neglected.
Yun Jun didn't really take this matter too seriously.
-
However, Kangxi is not currently focusing his attention on Baoqing.
The Crown Prince's request to depose himself shocked him greatly, so much so that he disregarded his body, which had just recovered from a coma, and left the palace that very evening to go to Jingling to pay homage to Empress Renxiao, the Crown Prince's birth mother.
Liang Jiugong knew that the emperor had a custom of offering sacrifices to Empress Renxiao alone, so he simply stood guard outside the palace gate.
Emperor Kangxi stood in silence before the memorial tablet of Empress Renxiao, and then began to mutter to himself.
Remembering his expectations for his eldest son during the Rebellion of the Three Feudatories, his high hopes for the crown prince when he established him as crown prince, remembering every little thing the crown prince had done for him from childhood to adulthood, remembering how good he was to the crown prince, whose clothes and socks were better than his own, he worked hard to raise the crown prince and did his best to give him the best.
How did it come to the point where he requested to retire?
Kangxi asked Liang Jiugong to bring in a pot of sake, and then began to wipe the memorial tablet of Empress Renxiao with his sleeve embroidered with dragon patterns while drinking the sake.
Finally, we rested at Jingling.
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