Chapter 215 When Everyone is Reborn: The Legend of Zhen Huan - The Prince's Mansion Chapter 10
[The final act of the grand drama – the brilliant grandson makes his dazzling entrance]
"After all that's been done, all we need to do is arrange the fourth son's identity so that the old man can get ahead of the game..."
After hearing Yinli's confession in the Qianqing Palace, Kangxi remained silent for a long time before ordering him to leave and forbidding the news from being leaked. He then secretly sent his guards to keep an eye on him.
He then led his men to Yuqing Palace to meet Crown Prince Yinreng.
Although he did not have this precognitive dream, through the princes' private actions, Kangxi was certain that the "Imperial Grandson" in his dream had already been born, but had been revealed to the public for some reason.
According to Seventeen's dream, this "Crown Prince" truly deserves the title of Emperor Star and is absolutely born with the talent of an emperor.
Given Kangxi's understanding of his sons, their actions of keeping it a secret and secretly finding their children could very well have been a form of "switching the dragon for the phoenix" or "using the emperor to command the world."
Compared to them, who could only search secretly due to limited conditions, Kangxi could at least ask Yinreng.
As the "Crown Prince," how could his father not even know that he had a child?
"What children? Don't I only have two sons, Hongxi and Hongjin?"
Yinreng lay on the bed, his face still somewhat pale, looking at Kangxi with a puzzled expression, clearly not understanding Kangxi's meaning.
"..." Kangxi looked at Yinreng's confused and ignorant eyes, and first felt a sense of relief, realizing that the Crown Prince was unaware of the situation. Then he felt a pang of frustration. If Yinreng hadn't been still recovering from the poisoning, he would have really wanted to drag him up and give him a beating.
Such a big child, my beloved grandson, and you don't even know if he exists? How could you be a crown prince?
No wonder you didn't have a precognitive dream; you've neglected your grandson so much that Heaven didn't give you a warning. No wonder in your first dream at seventeen it was about the Crown Prince, whom I raised myself; it's just that you, his father, don't care, is that it?
Wait, I wasn't implicated because of you, was I? "The son's debt is paid by the father," so I didn't have a precognitive dream?
Kangxi's gaze towards Yinreng grew increasingly dangerous. Under this gaze, Yinreng seemed to recall something, hesitated for a moment, and then said, "If... if I really had any offspring who were lost abroad, it would only have happened at the Summer Palace..."
"Um?"
Kangxi stared intently at him, and seeing that Yinreng's gaze was evasive, he urged him quickly, "What exactly happened? Speak!"
Having experienced the deposition and reinstatement of the crown prince, Kangxi no longer trusted him. Therefore, he took the crown prince with him wherever he went, including the trip to the Summer Palace, where Yinreng also accompanied the emperor.
"At that time, I got drunk and slept with a palace maid. Coincidentally, the Fourth Prince also slept with a palace maid while drunk, and it all happened in public. It was clear I was set up. I... I also felt resentful, so after I sobered up, I didn't send anyone to look for her..."
Kangxi suddenly realized that Yinreng was upset because of the incident involving the fourth prince. He mistakenly thought that he had also been tricked and left the palace maid at the manor. He did not pay attention to whether she was pregnant afterward.
This also matched the dream of the Seventeenth Prince. Yinreng was always arrogant, and he would definitely not care about the offspring born from such a person. However, after the incident of his poisoning, for the sake of his offspring, he would send people to take care of Yinreng's only children. He probably started to care about them after watching over them, which is why he later raised the imperial grandson.
Having connected everything, Kangxi didn't talk much with Yinreng, only telling him to rest well before hurriedly leaving and sending people to find the palace maid.
As for the matter of the "Imperial Grandson," Kangxi harbored ulterior motives but did not tell Yinreng.
When Emperor Kangxi, standing at the pinnacle of power, wanted to find someone, there was someone that no matter how hard the princes worked together, they couldn't match. Soon, the secret guards brought news of the palace maid.
No wonder the princes couldn't find him; no one could have imagined that a palace maid would be so audacious as to stage such a "misattribution" drama.
The truth is simple: the Eighth Prince and the Ninth Prince plotted against Prince Yong, coercing an ordinary-looking palace maid to climb into his bed while he was drunk.
Therefore, the two princes devised a plan to transfer the guards near Prince Yong's residence. Coincidentally, the crown prince also got drunk that night and passed by, where he favored a young palace maid who was keeping watch for Li Jingui.
Li Jingui's attempt to climb into the prince's bed was not entirely successful, as the prince was too drunk to do so. Li Jingui felt uneasy when she realized that she had not done what the "nobleman" had asked her to do. Just then, she encountered a young palace maid who did not recognize the prince and mistakenly thought that she had been "violated" by the guards while drunk.
After discussing it, the two came up with a scheme to "substitute one thing for another." The two were sisters within five degrees of kinship and looked somewhat alike. In addition, the person who orchestrated this scheme didn't care about the appearance of a mere palace maid, so the two of them succeeded.
The palace maid who was supposed to be out for some fresh air, Li Caiyue, became Li Jingui, and Li Jingui became Li Caiyue.
And by sheer coincidence, Li Caiyue became pregnant. For the sake of the child in her womb, she had to continue using the name "Li Jingui" and was taken to the Yuanmingyuan Garden to rest and prepare for childbirth. She gave birth to a son not long ago.
The real Li Jingui, who was keeping this secret, was so troubled that she stayed at the Summer Palace and soon died under the name "Li Caiyue".
Kangxi hadn't expected this. He couldn't help but wonder if the fact that he ultimately passed the throne to the fourth prince in the seventeenth prince's second dream was also due to this child.
Does the phrase "the cuckoo usurps the magpie's nest" mentioned by Zen Master Jiyuan mean that the fourth prince took the place of the crown prince's father? Because this child benefited from the position, he was ultimately killed by the concubines in the harem.
Thinking that no one from Prince Yong's mansion had taken the mother and son back from the Old Summer Palace, clearly leaving them to fend for themselves, Kangxi couldn't help but clench his fists. It must be just like that.
He ascended the throne because of his beloved grandson, yet he still managed to kill him. Kangxi didn't believe that the fourth prince was completely manipulated by women; perhaps he deliberately indulged them.
After all, given Kangxi's understanding of himself, if he discovered a talented emperor when he was nearing the end of his life, he would surely leave a will for the sake of the Qing Dynasty, and the will would likely be given to the loyal ministers who remained.
Given the ruthless methods of the fourth prince in the seventeenth dream, it's likely that the information was leaked, leading him to destroy the ministers and the imperial edict. This led to the claim that he "obtained the throne illegitimately."
"Since he's not the fourth son anyway, let's set things right and go get the child back."
"yes."
"Remember, the mother and child who died unexpectedly in the Yuanmingyuan were Li Caiyue and her child who entered the palace. They were the Crown Prince's children."
Soon, everyone in the court and the country knew that the Emperor had brought back the Crown Prince's heir from the Summer Palace. The little prince was newly born, fair-skinned and adorable, while the Crown Prince was ill, so the little prince was raised by the Emperor.
Ignoring the astonished looks of others, Kangxi picked up the child and looked at the infant in the swaddling clothes. He was deeply saddened. He probably knew why he had personally raised this little grandson of the emperor. It was because the child looked three parts like his eldest son Chenghu, who had died young. And the open, watery eyes that looked at him were even more similar.
"Let's name this child Hongyan, meaning peace and tranquility throughout the land."
[Yinreng reveals: The reason why the fourth prince was favored in his childhood was not only because his adoptive mother was Consort Tongjia, but also because he looked somewhat like my deceased elder brother Chenghu. Especially his phoenix eyes, which inherited the Aisin Gioro clan, were remarkably similar. This resemblance would dispel the old man's last doubts about the future.]
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