Chapter 2, Fusu: Oh no, they're coming for me. ...
Emperor Zhao Zhen had just left Kunning Palace when he headed straight for the residence of the eldest princess, Rouyi Palace.
The eldest princess was the eldest daughter of Consort Miao, and although she had not yet been granted a title, everyone in the palace addressed her according to her birth order. The eldest princess's childhood name was "Miaowu," and she was a little over five years old this year. She was very intelligent and, at such a young age, already had a basic understanding of literature and could write essays.
The official weighed the stack of Xuan paper in his hand; three-quarters of it was covered with black charcoal marks.
He could recognize at a glance that who else in the palace could draw with charcoal instead of a brush, besides His Highness Prince Cheng's ingenious ideas? And he had specially found this charcoal for Su'er.
The official casually flipped through a few pages; the paintings covered a wide range of themes. More than half of them were accompanied by corresponding text. He also recognized the varying shades of childlike brushstrokes on the paper—it was his daughter Miaowu's handwriting.
"Heaven and earth were dark and yellow, the universe was vast and boundless."
"Zhao, Qian, Sun, Li; Zhou, Wu, Zheng, Wang."
"So that's what they've been busy with all this time." The official clearly used the picture book as material for his sister to teach his brother to read and write. He muttered to himself, a look of loving affection spreading across his eyes.
He flipped through a few more pages, and the last painting had no accompanying poem. The entire picture was uncolored, only outlined with charcoal pencil lines of varying thickness, sparse yet angular, resembling the shape of undulating mountains. Below the mountains, a clear stream meandered, with several blooming flowers and leaves reflected in the water.
The emperor blurted out a line of poetry that would make Fusu tremble.
"On the mountain grows the hibiscus, and in the marsh grows the lotus."
After saying that, he shook his head and laughed, "Miaowu hasn't even finished learning the Book of Songs himself, yet he's already so eager to teach Su'er?"
After viewing his children's calligraphy and paintings, he raised his hand high and waved it, causing the emperor's palanquin to move even faster. In less than a quarter of an hour, it arrived in front of the Rouyi Palace.
Just as the eunuch in front of the palace was about to announce the news, the emperor gestured to stop him. Across a long corridor, the group could hear two childish voices rising and falling in the distance.
"Wrong."
"..."
"Pass!"
"Oh no, I don't know how to do this question."
Miaowu and Su'er... what are they doing? The Emperor was full of questions.
He tiptoed into the small courtyard behind the palace, where he saw his two adorable children gesturing to each other with paper and pen. The siblings were engaged in a lively exchange, quite different from the artistic scene he had imagined, where one would write poetry and the other would paint, a harmonious and pleasant interaction.
"?"
The emperor's originally kind expression froze on his face for a moment.
"...Oh, it's Father."
Zhao Miaowu was the first to notice the uninvited guest who had arrived quietly. Her face flushed, she walked up to the official, bowed her head, and said, "Miaowu greets Father. Why do you walk so quietly, Father?"
When the emperor saw his daughter's adorable expression, half annoyed and half reproachful, he couldn't help but laugh and say, "If I hadn't come without asking, how could I have seen such a lively side of Miaowu?"
Miaowu lowered his head even further.
She was always obedient and quiet in front of the emperor, but today she was engrossed in playing games with her younger brother, which explained her unusually excited tone and expression, a departure from her usual persona. The young princess felt ashamed of having embarrassed herself in front of her father.
"Father hasn't asked yet. What are Miaowu and Su'er doing? Just now outside the palace, Father almost thought you two siblings were about to have a fight."
Desperate to salvage her image, Miaowu blurted out, "It's a game Su'er mentioned called 'Pictionary.' I have to look at Su'er's drawing and guess the poem he's thinking of. Only if I guess correctly can I win."
So that's how it is. The official thought to himself: So the poem on the paper in his hand wasn't taught to his younger brother by Miaowu, but rather copied down by her after she guessed it.
The emperor, as if struck by a sudden thought, deepened his smile and looked at the short, bean-like figure behind the princess who had been trying to remain silent from the beginning: "Su'er, this game is quite interesting. Did you come up with it?"
Oh no, it's coming for me.
Fusu secretly thought that something was wrong.
His chubby face wrinkled, and his whole face was full of regret: I should have known better than to tease human cubs. I still got caught. Damn it.
This scene felt strangely familiar. The official was like a homeroom teacher making a surprise inspection during self-study in school, and I was the student caught red-handed.
The difference is that the homeroom teacher is focused on catching students for petty theft and other misdeeds. What he needs to hide and explain is why he, at only three years old and having only recently started learning to read, can play so well with a five-year-old girl.
Just then, the oblivious Miaowu added insult to injury: "Father, you don't know, Su'er is really amazing. There were a few lines of poetry that even I didn't know, and I only guessed them after asking Huaiji."
Fusu: "..."
His vision went black, and all he wanted to do was pinch his philtrum hard. Zhao Miaowu's words had completely cut off his escape route.
"oh?"
The official's interest deepened: "Which line of poetry is it? Does Miaowu still remember?"
Miaowu looked up and thought for a while before shaking her head in distress and saying, "I've forgotten. I only remember Huaiji saying that they all come from the poems in the Book of Songs, specifically the 'Airs of the States' section."
The Book of Songs? The Book of Songs? Isn't that it?
The official turned to the last page of the album in his hand: "On the mountain grows the hibiscus, in the marsh grows the lotus?"
No wonder this page of profound insight wasn't inscribed; even she couldn't answer it. So the question is, how did Su'er know this sentence?
Fusu closed his eyes; the situation had taken the turn of the last thing he wanted to see.
"Father didn't know that Su'er was so intelligent. At such a young age, he can even know a little about the Three Hundred Poems."
It wasn't just a little knowledge; it was intimately familiar with the origin of Fusu's name.
But the emperor was unaware of these inside details. He only knew that his youngest son had just begun to learn to read and write, barely escaping the realm of illiteracy. Therefore, naturally biased and biased towards his son, he readily drew his conclusion—
"Su'er, it was your father's oversight. I never knew that our Zhao family had produced a child prodigy!"
The emperor, beaming with pride, scooped his little son, who was as round as a glutinous rice ball, into his arms and gently pinched Fusu's round, white ears: "Why are you still secretly reading books without telling your father and mother, only telling your sister?"
Fusu spoke in a muffled voice, attempting a final struggle: "I didn't learn it, I just saw it by chance..."
"Su'er, you're lying!"
The young Princess Miaowu didn't understand why her younger brother would lie about this. But she was a little angry: if Su'er's casual glance revealed something she was unfamiliar with, wouldn't that make her, as the older sister, seem incompetent?
She suddenly raised her voice: "Where did you see that? I specifically asked around to find out."
"..."
Would anyone believe me if I said it was a dream at this time?
Fusu looked up listlessly, only to see the middle-aged man holding him with a knowing smile that said, "I'll just watch you pretend." He let out a low wail and, taking advantage of his small size, buried himself in the official's wide sleeves like an ostrich, refusing to get up.
The Emperor assumed his son had been caught secretly studying and felt embarrassed. After all, before he became Crown Prince, his son had also secretly studied by candlelight at night, hoping to show off his skills to his father and Consort Liu.
The emperor thought he understood his son's feelings very well.
However, a three-year-old can recite the Book of Poetry... The emperor selectively forgot that the poem "There is a Fusu Tree on the Mountain" is only one-three-hundredth of the Book of Poetry, and only imagined the scene of the ministers being shocked when he told them about it.
This dynasty has a long-standing tradition of idolizing child prodigies. Yan Shu, who rose to the position of Privy Councilor, amazed everyone by giving a speech in court at the age of twelve.
Who would have thought that the God of Literature would be reincarnated into the Zhao family?
The official suddenly felt a slight itch in his palm.
A large, calloused hand stroked Fusu's smooth, black hair a few times. Unable to resist, it stroked it a few more times, finally calming the Emperor's smugness slightly.
No, it wasn't smooth at all.
Fusu felt the touch on his head and instinctively trembled like a startled sparrow. He peeked out from the gap and saw that the Emperor, for some unknown reason, had a mysterious smile on his fair and amiable face, and his carefully maintained mustache twitched.
"..."
Fusu's beady eyes: I really can't guess what this person is thinking. (In a monotone tone)
He scrambled out of Emperor Renzong's arms, his fair and delicate face hardening as he earnestly asked, "Your Majesty, will you tell anyone?"
Emperor Renzong was surprised: "What? Su'er doesn't want others to know?"
"Yes, I don't want to."
The emperor didn't directly say whether it was good or bad: "Why? What is Su'er thinking?"
Of course, it's because I don't want to be treated like a child prodigy and then be naturally recommended to the position of crown prince. Then one day you'll find out that I'm not what you expected and come looking for trouble again—just like in my ridiculous first life.
Empress Cao was right; becoming the crown prince was a future arranged for Zhao Su by the Emperor. Fusu's precocious intelligence only accelerated this process, making his crowning as crown prince come sooner, more popular, and more legitimate.
But Fusu did not want this future.
That's easy to understand, isn't it? In his first life, he lived like a joke; in his second life, he realized he was a joke. If the path of time travel were endless, then in his third life, he wanted to give himself a break.
If Zhao Su's first life was the end of Fusu's life, then he wanted to end the cycle of jokes here.
Fusu made a gesture, indicating that the Emperor should move closer to him. The latter understood and leaned in to hear what was going on.
"Because I..." didn't want to be the crown prince.
These were Fusu's honest thoughts, but he couldn't immediately imagine the consequences of speaking them. Would his father treat him harshly and coldly like he had in his previous life? Or would he be directly reprimanded for being unambitious and useless?
Emperor Renzong listened intently, taking even the words of a three-year-old child with utmost seriousness, showing no disrespect whatsoever. The turban on his forehead swayed gently, seemingly oblivious to the earth-shattering words escaping the throat of the child in his arms.
Fusu pursed her lips slightly: "I'm afraid that if others find out, I'll have to carry this and that on my back again, which is very annoying."
"puff……"
Emperor Renzong briefly lost his composure, but quickly regained his composure.
After a while, he couldn't help but burst into laughter: "Hahahahahahahahahahaha!"
"Your Majesty!" Fusu was getting anxious. He realized that besides being soft-hearted, he had made a fatal mistake.
He forgot to order the officials to keep it a secret!
"Very well," Emperor Renzong said as if he could read minds, "I promise you. I can guarantee that I won't tell anyone else. Your empress will also keep it a secret for you."
Fusu secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
A moment later, he saw that Emperor Renzong also moved closer to him, speaking in a low voice to the little dumpling in his arms at the same distance as when the two of them had been whispering.
"I thought Su'er was no longer willing to confide in me, ever since the conferment of titles at your birthday banquet... Was it because the banquet was so crowded and noisy that it frightened you, Su'er?"
Fusu suddenly raised his head.
He only dared to confirm his fate as the designated crown prince at his birthday banquet, and he was depressed and hesitant for quite some time afterward. He didn't even know how to face the person he should be calling "father."
I thought I had been discreet enough.
So it turns out it was discovered all along?
The feelings of a three-year-old child are unpredictable, sometimes sunny and sometimes rainy, and few adults would take them seriously. Besides, beneath Fusu's childlike exterior lies an adult who has lived two lives. To subtly distance himself from someone without being noticed would be incredibly easy for him.
So, logically speaking, he concealed it very well, so why was it that the officials were able to detect it? Author's Note:
----------------------
Silly child, of course the Emperor cares about you.
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