The fifth prince couldn't help but speak: "Isn't Ninth Prince hysterical? Why is he talking nonsense in broad daylight?"
Ever since the Fourth Prince began to participate in politics two years ago, the Fifth Prince has been the oldest in the entire Shangshufang, and all the other princes basically follow him as their leader, so the Fifth Prince's words still carry considerable weight.
At least the Seventh Prince and the Eighth Prince could only watch from the sidelines and dared not say a word at all.
Ye Shuo was not afraid of him. After all, the other party could not really rush over and beat him up. Even if a fight really broke out, he would not be the one who suffered.
So Ye Shuo said, "Is this nonsense? How about making a bet with me, Fifth Brother?"
The Fifth Prince was confident that the situation he described would not happen. How could anyone envy such a shameful thing as being slapped on the hand? So he said, "Ninth Prince, you are young but you have a big mouth. Let's gamble, but don't regret it when the time comes."
The fifth prince did not feel embarrassed at all for his fourteen-year-old self to compete with a seven-year-old kid. He raised his chin and said, "Tell me, what are you betting on?"
As for this person, it would have been fine if I hadn’t known him before, but once there is a comparison, his mentality will easily become unbalanced.
Therefore, Ye Shuo was quite confident about this bet. He ignored the disapproving look of the Sixth Prince beside him, thought for a moment, and said, "Let's make three bets. If I win, you promise to do three things for me. Of course, I promise that you can do them all, and vice versa. How about it, do you want to bet?"
This promise is not so easy to accept, especially the three words "can do it", which cover such a broad range.
But now that so many people were watching, the Fifth Prince certainly couldn't go back on his word. Most importantly, he didn't believe he would lose, so he nodded immediately: "Okay, let's do it!"
He wanted to see what tricks the other party could play.
Because the Fifth Prince was waiting to laugh at him later, he did not continue to embarrass him at this time.
Seeing that Ye Shuo refused to listen, the Sixth Prince turned away angrily and ignored him.
Only the little grandson looked on anxiously, with a worried look on his face: "Ninth Uncle..."
"Don't worry." The poor child didn't know that he was about to face his fifth uncle's indiscriminate attack together. I hoped he could still laugh when the time came.
Thinking of this, Ye Shuo looked at Ye Xun with a little pity.
Why, why do I feel something is strange? The look in the Ninth Prince's eyes seems so familiar, as if I have seen it before...
The little prince was full of confusion and was tricked by Ye Shuo into returning to his seat.
Soon, another young tutor who taught the princes poetry and songs came into the study.
In addition to the Four Books and Five Classics, poetry and songs were also subjects of study for the princes, which made Ye Shuo sigh that the royal family's requirements for their offspring were really high.
While the Fifth Prince and the others were studying, Ye Shuo calmed down and began to observe from the side.
You should not have the intention to harm others, but you must be on guard against others. Although Ye Shuo has no intention of seizing the throne, he always has to prepare for everything in advance. Just because he doesn't attack others doesn't mean that others won't attack him. Taking precautions early will help him avoid being implicated and put in a passive position later.
Today is Ye Shuo's first time to come into close contact with several princes. He will naturally not miss such a rare opportunity.
After one or two classes, Ye Shuo actually discovered some remarkable things.
For example, from the fifth prince to the eighth prince, none of them was mediocre. No wonder my stepfather found it so hard to accept him when he saw him.
After all, as the only "stain", I am really an eyesore...
Ye Shuo couldn't help but touch his chin. The Sixth Prince was the first among them. Sure enough, the Sixth Prince's efforts were not in vain. Considering the time he spent on reading every day, it would be unfair for him not to take the first place.
Then there is the Fifth Prince. Although he doesn't look like a good person, he is very knowledgeable. In terms of talent, he is even slightly better than the Sixth Prince.
For the same poem, the Sixth Prince needed less than half an incense stick of time to memorize it, and two incense sticks of time to fully comprehend it and apply it. However, the Fifth Prince only needed 2/3 of the time of the Sixth Prince to memorize it, and it would take even less time if he could apply it flexibly.
The eighth prince is even more abnormal than these two. His comprehension is the highest among them. Although his memory is a bit poor and it takes him a longer time to memorize something, his ability to draw inferences about other situations is too strong. For the same subject, he can quickly express it on his own after reading it. The key is that what he wrote seems to be quite good. Although it is far from as good as the original work, it has begun to show its charm.
Only the seventh prince seemed ordinary among all the others, and his existence seemed to serve as a foil to the three above him.
etc.
If he remembered correctly, the Seventh Prince's mother was from Concubine Shu's palace, right?
Ye Shuo watched for a while and saw that when the young master asked them to create independently, the Seventh Prince first picked up the pen and wrote two sentences, then quickly erased them with the brush, changed a new piece of paper, and started writing again.
Ye Shuo had excellent eyesight. Although he could not see what the fifth prince wrote on the paper in front, he clearly saw the new revision of the seventh prince who was relatively closer to him. It was far inferior to the first two sentences. He immediately understood what happened.
It seems that sometimes a person looks like a supporting role, but is not necessarily a real supporting role. Instead, he is forced to be a supporting role.
Ye Shuo still remembers that the fifth prince threw stones and let the seventh prince take the blame. It seems that this kind of situation still happens from time to time in recent years.
There are three talented ones, plus one who is obviously talented but pretends to be untalented. These four people are in this situation, not to mention the eldest prince and the second prince whom he has never met.
Especially the eldest prince, who took charge of the army at the age of seventeen. Now, seven years have passed, and he has gradually begun to replace his grandfather's position in the army. The decline of the Duke of Zhenguo's Mansion is already a foregone conclusion, it is only a matter of time.
It seems that each of his eight royal brothers is a tough guy.
If such eight sons were placed in an ordinary family, even a wealthy family would be able to ask for it. With time, when the eight people grow up, their family will inevitably achieve a class leap, and the prosperity of the family is just around the corner.
But unfortunately, this is the royal family, and there is no bigger family business for them to work hard for. Without a goal to strive for, internal friction has become a high probability event.
It’s not so bad now that we have the prince at the top, and no one can resist. But it will be hard to say what will happen once the prince loses power.
Although the cheap father dotes on the crown prince, he cannot afford to abandon all his other sons for the crown prince. Moreover, there were many princes who ascended the throne without being the eldest son or the legitimate son in the Zhou Dynasty. For a legitimate son like Emperor Jingwen to ascend the throne is a special case. From this perspective, the situation is not good...
A glimpse of the whole picture reveals the whole thing. Ye Shuo's heart sank again and again as he watched the scene in front of him quietly.
He couldn't predict the outcome in detail, so Ye Shuo now just hoped that he would not be affected.
Just when Ye Shuo was thinking about something, Xing Yucheng next to him couldn't help but pushed his arm.
Ye Shuo turned his head to look over, and he looked a little lazy: "What's wrong?"
"Your Highness, are you really not going to consider writing a few sentences..." The other princes were about to hand in their papers!
It's true that the emperor is not anxious, but the eunuch is. Xing Yucheng was almost dying of anxiety watching from the side.
The Ninth Prince is so free and in the mood to enjoy the scenery over there, why can't he pick up his pen?
Upon hearing this, Ye Shuo's eyes suddenly became a little strange: "It seems that you didn't know about this prince beforehand."
"What?" Xing Yucheng was stunned.
Then he heard the Ninth Prince in front of him speak: "Your Highness is a well-known illiterate person in the palace. You didn't even ask me about it. I haven't even memorized the Thousand Character Classic yet. You asked me to write a poem. Isn't that embarrassing for me?"
What? ? ?
The Ninth Prince is already nine years old, but he still hasn't memorized the Thousand Character Classic? ?
Seeing the petrified look of the boy in front of him, Ye Shuo couldn't help but laugh: "By the way, my mother chose you because you must have something extraordinary. Tell me, what is it?"
Xing Yucheng answered subconsciously: "My father, the Minister of Works, was the top scholar in the 23rd year of Heshou."
"Sure enough." That's right. He was wondering why his mother chose him to be her study partner when he had no relationship with him. It turned out that he was the son of the former top scholar.
"So I guess you are quite knowledgeable, right?"
"It's okay." After saying these two words cautiously, Xing Yucheng suddenly felt that something was wrong, but at this time, it was too late.
The next moment, the Ninth Prince in front of him said, "That's perfect. You will be responsible for my homework from now on."
"Your Highness, this won't do..."
"Five taels of silver for one assignment, and I'll take responsibility for anything that happens. Do you want to do it?" Ye Shuo had learned before that the monthly salary of the six ministers was 60 taels of silver, and five taels of silver was equivalent to 1/12 of the salary of a minister of the Ministry of Works.
Since my stepfather ascended the throne, he has been vigorously cleaning up the historical problems left over by the previous emperor, especially the area of corruption. Because the national treasury was almost squandered by the previous emperor's pleasure-seeking in the later period, my stepfather is in urgent need of recovery.
After a few years, the court was purged and everyone lived cautiously, fearing that their property would be confiscated and used to fill the national treasury. His grandfather contributed the most among them. After all, his grandfather had soldiers under his command, and anyone who dared to resist would be killed.
It’s not that his grandfather was so honest, but that he had been fighting for years and had seized countless gold, silver and treasures from the enemy, so he had no shortage of them and had no reason to be greedy, so he was able to stay out of it.
It may be because of this reason that my stepfather still has some affection for my grandfather.
Of course, these were all told to him by his mother. Although Ye Shuo didn't know how rich his grandfather's family was, judging from the extravagance of his mother's daily life, the amount was probably huge. He also spent hundreds or even thousands of taels of money every month casually.
"Five taels each time, ten times that's fifty taels, you can save fifty or sixty taels in a month, right?"
Fifty or sixty taels...equivalent to his father’s monthly salary.
You have to know that their family's current expenses are only around thirty taels per month.
When Xing Yucheng thought about how his mother would be particularly worried when counting the accounts every month, he couldn't help swallowing and couldn't say no.
He admitted that he was shamefully moved.
"But, but if this is the case, it will be discovered sooner or later..." Although Xing Yucheng was tempted, he was not stupid.
Ye Shuo raised his eyebrows and shook his finger: "No, no, if you started writing for me halfway, you would definitely be discovered soon, but if you started writing for me from the beginning, then it doesn't matter."
"Of course, you can't use the handwriting on your right hand. After all, many people know what your right handwriting looks like. How about this, I will spend another thirty taels to buy your left handwriting. From today on, you start practicing your left handwriting, how about it?" Ye Shuo was a businessman in his previous life, and he was well aware of the principle of exploiting cheap labor.
But at least he still had a bottom line, which was to give his tutor money to buy his left-handed handwriting, rather than asking his tutor to spend money to buy the qualification to write homework for him.
Xing Yucheng was silent for a long time, but finally couldn't resist the temptation and nodded with difficulty.
Soon, when the purse containing thirty taels of silver fell into his hands, Xing Yucheng completely lost his mind.
Seeing this, Xiao Luzi on the side couldn't help but feel a little envious.
As if seeing what Xiao Luzi was thinking, Ye Shuo couldn't help but encourage him: "See? Having knowledge can make money so quickly. If you want to do the same, why not take this opportunity and start learning."
yes!
Why didn’t I think of this great opportunity, I could also learn secretly!
"Is it really okay, Your Highness..." Xiao Luzi was still a little nervous. After all, if someone found out that he was just a little eunuch learning to write, he would lose his head.
Ye Shuo didn't care about this. He hoped that all his subordinates would be successful, so he nodded affirmatively: "Yes, Your Highness approves."
Xiaoluzi was ecstatic.
When he came out of the study in the afternoon and took the carriage home, Xing Yucheng gradually realized that he had done nothing all day but followed the Ninth Prince in breaking the law.
Also, for the sake of these thirty taels of silver, I boarded the Ninth Prince’s pirate ship and could never get off again…
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