Chapter 178
On the carriage to Suiyu Bridge, Xie Shuyu lowered his eyes to hide his emotions, wondering why His Majesty wanted to go to Yin Mansion with him.
His Majesty likes to leave the palace in disguise and stroll around the capital to watch the fun. All the officials in the capital are aware of this, and there have been imperial censors to advise him, but their Majesty has always been arbitrary and will not change his decision no matter how much the officials oppose or advise him. In ancient times, when the monarch is strong, the ministers are weak, and their Majesty happens to be a strong monarch.
The officials, who were helpless in this situation, could only privately warn their descendants not to be too arrogant and domineering outside, so as not to accidentally run into the emperor who was leaving the palace in disguise.
Fortunately, although His Majesty likes to go out of the palace for fun, he does not mind the fights among some young playboys. Instead, he praises them for their youthful recklessness and high-spirited spirit. That is why the young playboys in the capital even compete with each other in fighting.
When the carriage passed Chenghua Street, Emperor Yongzheng suddenly asked to turn around.
Xie Shuyu did not comment on Emperor Yongzheng's sudden change of the carriage's route.
Emperor Yongzheng looked at Xie Shuyu and asked, "Aren't you curious why we changed the route?"
"Your Majesty has his own ideas..."
Before Xie Shuyuhua could finish, he was interrupted by Emperor Yongzheng. He looked at Xie Shuyu with a smile and said, "I told you to call me Youqi when you are outside."
"I dare not address Your Majesty by name."
"Then call me Brother Huo."
Although Emperor Yongzheng is over forty years old, he looks like he is in his thirties. He is extremely handsome, with fair skin, deep eyes and narrow corners of his eyes. His long tenure in power has given him an aura that cannot be ignored in his every move. He has a strong sense of oppression and few people can talk and laugh freely in front of him.
It didn't seem awkward for him to be called Brother Huo by Xie Shuyu, who was more than 20 years younger than him.
Xie Shuyu readily called him Brother Huo, and followed Emperor Yongzheng's instructions to ask why the route was changed.
"Of course you have to bring a gift when you visit someone. I forgot about it in a hurry when I was leaving, so I thought I'd go to West Street and see. I remember there's a flower market there, but I don't know if there are any decent flowers this season."
Xie Shuyu was about to say that this was unnecessary, but when he saw the Emperor Yongzheng's interested look, he changed his words and said, "Brother Huo, you are very thoughtful."
When they arrived at Huashikou, Emperor Yongzheng and Xie Shuyu got off the carriage.
As the year draws to a close, the streets of Beijing are becoming increasingly prosperous, but the flower market, which is very lively in March and April every year, is a little depressed at this time.
Emperor Yongzheng and Xie Shuyu went in for a walk. There was really nothing interesting to see in the flower market during the winter months, so Emperor Yongzheng finally chose a potted plant that looked no different from a dead branch.
Emperor Yongzheng saw Xie Shuyu's doubts and smiled, "Don't be fooled by the fact that it looks like a pot of dead branches. The flowers will bloom beautifully."
He spoke with a hint of nostalgia in his eyes: "This flower is called Pengyu. It has purple flowers. When it blooms, it makes you feel full of vitality."
Xie Shuyu didn't know much about flowers. He just felt that this flower, which looked no different from a dead branch, seemed impossible to keep alive.
"Won't Huaizhi choose a pot as a gift?"
Xie Shuyu pulled out a milky white jade pendant with the word "peace" carved on it from his sleeve. "A few days ago, I came across a nice piece of jade. I polished it yesterday and am giving this as a gift."
Emperor Yongzheng glanced at the meticulously carved jade pendant and said with a smile, "This makes my gift seem a bit casual."
Just as Xie Shuyu was about to speak, Emperor Yongzheng raised his hand to interrupt him: "It was just a casual sigh, don't take it seriously. Besides, although the gift is small, the sentiment is important."
Emperor Yongzheng said this as he got on the carriage, and Xie Shuyu followed closely behind him.
The carriage moved forward, its wheels making noises as they rolled over the bluestone slabs. Outside the carriage came the cries of vendors and the laughter of barmaids chatting with customers while selling wine. Groups of children cheered as they chased after the vendors carrying straw targets with candied haws.
Emperor Yongzheng watched the scene from behind the carriage curtain, squinting his eyes and saying, "I wonder what this candied haws tastes like, to have so many children eagerly chasing after it and cheering."
"Your Majesty, would you like to eat some? I will go buy some."
"No need." Emperor Yongzheng lowered the curtain, leaned against the wall of the carriage with his eyes slightly closed. In his silence, he looked unattainable and lonely.
When the carriage arrived at Suiyu Bridge, Xie Shuyu led Emperor Yongzheng and knocked on the door.
"Who is it?"
A soft and tender voice came from inside the door.
"Jiaojiao, it's me."
As Xie Shuyu finished speaking, he heard the rustling sound of a door opening from inside. After a while, the door was opened and Jiaojiao poked her head out. When she saw that it was really Xie Shuyu, she ran forward and hugged Xie Shuyu's legs, looking up and smiling, "Uncle Huaizhi."
"Yeah." Xie Shuyu bent down and touched Jiaojiao's head. When he was about to introduce Emperor Yongzheng next to him, Emperor Yongzheng had already squatted down and tentatively pinched Jiaojiao's chubby face.
Emperor Yongzheng thought he had controlled his strength well, but when he put his hand down, he saw that the part of Jiaojiao's face that he had pinched had turned red.
Jiaojiao covered the painful spot on her face and looked at Emperor Yongzheng in confusion, "Uncle, who are you? Jiaojiao doesn't know you."
Seeing that he didn't cry, Emperor Yongzheng said with satisfaction: "Me? I am Qin Mianmian's uncle. You can call me uncle like Mianmian does."
Xie Shuyu's eyebrows jumped when he heard what Emperor Yongzheng said, and he lowered his eyelids to hide the emotions in his eyes.
His Majesty's temper cannot be said to be good, it can even be called bad. His mood swings would at most make people avoid him on ordinary people, but such a character on Emperor Yongzheng, who is in charge of the life and death of the entire Dayong, can be called a disaster.
Although His Majesty sometimes behaved very accommodatingly, this accommodating attitude definitely did not include allowing a child who had only met him twice to follow Princess Yonghe's legitimate son in calling him uncle.
You must know that after calling him uncle, Jiaojiao can definitely walk around in public with the title of His Majesty's nephew. After all, it was His Majesty who asked him to call him uncle.
Moreover, Emperor Yongzheng had obviously investigated Jiaojiao, otherwise he would not know the relationship between Jiaojiao and Qin Mianmian. But if it is said that His Majesty treated Jiaojiao like this because of Qin Mianmian, that is absolutely impossible. You must know that His Majesty is very heartless. When Rong Fei made a mistake and made His Majesty unhappy, she was directly demoted to the cold palace. You must know that she was Rong Fei, one of the four concubines, and she was not just an ordinary beauty or talent.
Concubine Rong was injured when she gave birth to the fourth prince and was already weak. Not long after she was sent to the cold palace, she became seriously ill. His Majesty did not allow the imperial physician to be called in, so the fourth prince knelt outside the Chongde Hall in the heavy snow.
Because of the difficulty of his birth, the Fourth Prince was born weak and sickly. The whole court thought that His Majesty would not let the Fourth Prince kneel for too long. Unexpectedly, His Majesty sat in the Chongde Hall and watched the Fourth Prince kneel leisurely, and did not let go until the Fourth Prince fainted from kneeling.
That kneeling almost cost the Fourth Prince his life, and Concubine Rong stayed in the cold palace and died of illness without being able to wait for the imperial physician.
After Concubine Rong died, His Majesty ordered a grand funeral. Later, perhaps as compensation, His Majesty allowed the Fourth Prince to participate in court affairs in advance and also allowed the Fourth Prince to enter the Ministry of Revenue.
Emperor Yongzheng was cold-hearted and his moods were unstable. No one in the court, civil or military, could figure out his thoughts.
But after thinking about it carefully, Xie Shuyu couldn't think of anything about Jiaojiao and Yin Zheng that could arouse Emperor Yongzheng's interest and plans.
But Xie Shuyu's intuition told him that something was wrong. Unable to figure out what was going on, he could only suppress his suspicion for the time being.
Jiaojiao tilted her head and looked at the uncle in front of her. Although she didn't understand, she still called out obediently, "Uncle."
"Hey!" Emperor Yongzheng responded, showing the flower pot in his hand to Jiaojiao, and said with a smile: "This is a meeting gift for you."
Jiaojiao stared at the pot of dead branches in front of her and blinked.
"Don't think it looks bad, wait until it blooms, it will be beautiful."
"Really?"
"real."
Jiaojiao took the flowerpot, holding it with great effort, and gave Emperor Yongzheng a soft smile: "Thank you, uncle."
"You're welcome."
Emperor Yongzheng picked up Jiaojiao a little awkwardly and walked inside. Jiaojiao, who was not very comfortable being held, automatically adjusted her position. While adjusting, she also taught Emperor Yongzheng how to hold her.
Emperor Yongzheng followed Jiaojiao's instructions and lowered his hand a little, reducing the pressure. Jiaojiao moved it left and right, and when she felt no discomfort, she patted Emperor Yongzheng's arm with her little paw and praised him seriously, "Uncle is awesome, so smart."
This was the first time he was praised like this, especially by a three-year-old child. This made Emperor Yongzheng feel very surprised. He accepted the compliment solemnly: "Really? I think so too."
Walking to the corridor, Xie Shuyu entered the house skillfully. When he came out with the red rabbit fur cloak that Jiaojiao had made some time ago, Jiaojiao was squatting in the corridor with her big round eyes open. She listened very seriously to Emperor Yongzheng talking about the techniques of growing flowers. While listening, she nodded her little head, looking very cute.
Emperor Yongzheng has so many sons and grandsons, but none of them is as cute as this one. Seeing this, he couldn't help but reach out and pinch Jiaojiao's face again.
This time he was much gentler, and no new red marks appeared on Jiaojiao's face after he pinched her.
Emperor Yongzheng rubbed his fingers with a feeling of satisfaction. Are all children's faces so easy to pinch? Smooth and soft.
Xie Shuyu put a cloak on Jiaojiao and hung the jade pendant he had carved himself on Jiaojiao's waist. Jiaojiao lowered her head and touched it, her eyes full of love. She reached out and hugged Xie Shuyu's legs, rubbing them coquettishly. Her childish voice sounded very soft and sticky: "Hello, Uncle Huaizhi, Jiaojiao likes it."
Xie Shuyu lowered his eyes and looked at him. The coldness between his eyebrows faded a little, and he almost seemed gentle in the cold early winter. He leaned over and placed the heater in his hand in Jiaojiao's arms, then reached out and picked him up.
Xie Shuyu also prepared hand warmers for Emperor Yongzheng and Shi'an. Originally, it was cold today, so he didn't plan to take Jiaojiao out and planned to stay in the house. However, Emperor Yongzheng said that there was a persimmon tree in the imperial farm that was late-ripening and had only ripened a few days ago. It was very sweet, so he wanted to pick some for Jiaojiao to eat. Xie Shuyu had no choice but to follow Emperor Yongzheng's wishes.
In front of His Majesty, it is best to do everything according to his wishes, otherwise there is no doubt that he will do something. After all, he is notoriously moody.
However, Emperor Yongzheng did not take Xie Shuyu's hand warmer. He stuffed the hand warmer into Xie Shuyu's arms, and then took Jiaojiao from his arms.
"Huaizhi looks weak, so I'll give you this hand warmer."
Seeing that Emperor Yongzheng seemed to be treating Jiaojiao as a large hand warmer, Xie Shuyu didn't know what to say for a moment.
In fact, Emperor Yongzheng looked weaker than Xie Shuyu. After all, this emperor had a record of vomiting blood from reviewing memorials.
Emperor Yongzheng was originally a concubine's son of Prince Yong'an. According to common sense, he had no chance of ascending the throne, but the rest of the princes and grandchildren were all tortured to death by the late emperor when he went mad in his later years. Only Huo Youqi survived the disaster that was kept secret by all civil and military officials, and became the only one who could ascend the throne.
Emperor Yongzheng was originally very strong and could be said to be invincible in the army. He was thrown into the army by Prince Yong'an at the age of eleven. He was the greatest helper in the late emperor's ability to expel foreign tribes and was the true god of war of Dayong.
But since that disaster, Emperor Yongzheng's health has completely collapsed. It seems that there is something wrong with his lungs, stomach, and liver. Even so, he can single-handedly suppress the civil and military officials in the court, making them dare not have any rash thoughts.
The experiences in his youth made Emperor Yongzheng suspicious by nature, causing him to distrust anyone. He had to review all memorials, no matter how big or small, personally, and often reviewed them until midnight. Three years ago, he vomited blood and fainted for three days while reviewing memorials. Since then, Emperor Yongzheng has become much more unrestrained.
So whether viewed from the inside or the outside, Emperor Yongzheng is the one who looks weaker, so the excuse Emperor Yongzheng used to snatch Jiaojiao is simply nonsense.
Emperor Yongzheng walked out holding Jiaojiao. Along the way, he was either pinching Jiaojiao's little hands or her little face, as if he had never seen a child before. He was full of curiosity about the child. After discovering the dimples on the back of Jiaojiao's hands, he poked them one by one.
In other words, Jiaojiao would obediently stretch out her hand and let him poke her, but if it were any other child, they would have cried in front of him.
When we arrived at Huangzhuang, light snow was falling from the sky. When we passed the plum garden, the plum blossoms blooming in the snow attracted Jiaojiao's attention.
Emperor Yongzheng noticed his gaze and felt sorry for him because of his longing look, so he carried him to the plum garden. When he came out, he was holding a branch of plum blossom in his hand, intending to take it back and put it in a vase for Jiaojiao.
Not long after walking, the group arrived at the place where persimmons were planted. Looking around, all they could see were bare branches. Only one tree still had red persimmons hanging on it, and it was covered with dense snow, which created a unique artistic conception.
Emperor Yongzheng carried Jiaojiao under the tree and pointed at the bright red persimmons on the branches and said, "This is a persimmon."
Jiaojiao looked up and let out a small "Oh".
Emperor Yongzheng was amused by his "oh" for no reason and lifted him up high to let him pick persimmons.
Jiaojiao held a persimmon that was as big as his two small hands, gritted his teeth and pulled back hard, and the persimmon fell off the branch.
Unfortunately, Jiaojiao failed to hold the persimmon, and it fell from her hand, hit the ground and was broken.
Jiaojiao looked down at the persimmons on the ground, like an ordinary child who accidentally broke a bowl. Her two little hands were twisted together in confusion, and she uttered meaningless responses like "Ah oh——".
Jiaojiao was stunned for a moment, and after coming to his senses, he lowered his head and hurriedly took something out of his pocket. After a while, he took out two copper coins and stuffed them into Emperor Yongzheng's hand: "Here, give me money, and I won't beat you, Jiaojiao."
Holding the bright and clear Emperor Yongzheng, I couldn't help laughing out loud. This kid is so funny!
"It's okay." Xie Shuyu looked up at Jiaojiao and saw a hint of fear in his eyes. He said again, "It's okay. I won't blame you."
Emperor Yongzheng took the two copper coins and said with a smile, "Since you bought it with money, I won't blame you."
After knowing that he would not be beaten, Jiaojiao finally felt relieved and was much more careful when picking persimmons again. The look of him pursing his lips and looking determined made people who didn't know him think he was going to do something big.
Jiaojiao held the persimmon in her two little hands, pursed her lips and pulled back hard.
A persimmon fell from the branch. This time, Jiaojiao held it tightly and didn't let it fall to the ground. He handed the persimmon to Xie Shuyu, clapped his hands and said, "This time, it didn't fall to the ground."
"Yeah." Xie Shuyu took the persimmon and praised it generously, "Excellent."
Jiaojiao curved her eyebrows and turned around to continue picking persimmons.
After picking enough persimmons for the group, Emperor Yongzheng put Jiaojiao down and took two persimmons from Xie Shuyu, handing one to Jiaojiao and eating the other himself.
Emperor Yongzheng didn't care much for it. He wiped it casually with a handkerchief and took a bite. The sweet juice burst out of his mouth, but he didn't feel the joy of eating what he wanted. Instead, there was a look of boredom between his brows.
Jiaojiao imitated his actions and wiped the persimmon in her hand with a handkerchief, then handed the clean persimmon to Shi'an. She took the unwiped persimmon from his hand and wiped it with the handkerchief. After folding the handkerchief carefully and putting it in her pocket, she held the persimmon and took a bite.
The sweet juice spread from her mouth, so sweet that Jiaojiao narrowed her eyes and looked up at Emperor Yongzheng in surprise: "Delicious."
Is it tasty?
Seeing his curved eyebrows and eyes shining as if stars had fallen into them, Emperor Yongzheng looked down at the persimmon in his hand, tried to take another bite, and found that it was indeed more delicious than the first bite.
This persimmon is strange. The taste of the first bite is completely different from the second bite.
Emperor Yongzheng squatted down thinking about it, and stretched out his hand to poke Jiaojiao's cheeks which were bulging from eating persimmons. However, he did not control the strength when he poked, and the persimmon in Jiaojiao's mouth slipped out immediately after he poked her.
Jiaojiao tilted her fair little face upwards, looking at Emperor Yongzheng with confused and bewildered eyes.
Emperor Yongzheng did not take it as an offense, and poked Jiaojiao's face again with his eyes narrowed.
Jiaojiao ran towards Xie Shuyu with the persimmon in her arms. After just two steps, she was lifted up by Emperor Yongzheng by her clothes.
When leaving the Persimmon Courtyard, Jiaojiao asked Emperor Yongzheng for permission to pick a persimmon to take home.
In fact, Emperor Yongzheng was planning to send Jiaojiao a basket of treats, but when he saw Jiaojiao's greedy look, he changed his mind.
After getting the consent, Jiaojiao was lifted up again. He carefully selected the reddest and largest one, took it off with great effort, and then carefully put it into the pocket in front of his belly.
Shizi pushed up her pockets, and from a distance, Jiaojiao looked like she had a big belly. Xie Shuyu couldn't help but curl up the corners of her mouth.
Fine snow fluttered down from the sky. In the corridor, Emperor Yongzheng was covered with a cashmere blanket, leaning against the railing, enjoying the snow and making tea. Jiaojiao was leaning in Xie Shuyu's arms and reading a book with Uncle Huaizhi. Youyou, who was standing in the corridor, would occasionally look over, as if it could understand.
Shian was roasting the oranges that Xie Shuyu brought and tried to give the peels to Youyou, but was knocked over by Youyou.
Emperor Yongzheng fixed his gaze on Youyou and sighed that this deer was as white as the snow.
Before the hour of You, Yin Zheng, who had left the academy early, came back.
Jiaojiao was overjoyed to see her father. She climbed up from Xie Shuyu's arms, rushed forward and hugged Yin Zheng's legs, "Dad."
There was obvious joy in her crisp little voice.
"Yeah." Yin Zheng responded in a low voice, shook off the snow on his body, squatted down and handed the rattle in his hand to Jiaojiao.
Jiaojiao shook it curiously, and then a "dong dong, dong dong" sound was heard. When Jiaojiao heard this sound, a picture flashed through her mind.
In the picture, a skinny child, barely able to walk, sits at a doorway, stuffing grass from the ground with hunger. Not far away, a chubby child holds a colorful rattle, shaking it intermittently with annoyance, muttering, "Daddy, this thing grandma gave me is so childish and boring, I don't want it." The child stuffing grass with his mouth tilts his head, his eyes, made larger by his skinny appearance, fixed on the colorful rattle, which makes a "dong dong, dong dong" sound.
When the chubby kid saw him staring at his rattle, he quickly hid the rattle behind him, squatted down, picked up a stone and threw it at the child.
The stone hit the child's forehead and drew blood, but the child seemed not to feel the pain, his eyes still fixed on the rattle that was exposed behind the fat boy when he turned around and ran away out of fear of the blood.
Jiaojiao was stunned for a moment, shook her little head to get rid of this strange scene from her mind, and shook the rattle in her hand. The "dong dong, dong dong" sound made Jiaojiao squint her eyes, and an unstoppable smile appeared on her little face.
He turned around and ran to show Xie Shuyu the rattle in his hand, his eyes sparkling as he said, "Uncle Huaizhi, Dad bought this for Jiaojiao."
Xie Shuyu, who was very familiar with this scene, said readily, "Yeah, it's really beautiful."
After showing it to Xie Shuyu, he showed it to Shi'an and even Emperor Yongzheng: "Uncle, show it, and Dad will buy it for you."
Like a child who received love for the first time, he held the love in his hands and excitedly showed it to everyone around him.
Emperor Yongzheng made a "tsk" sound, not knowing what was so exciting about a rattle. Was it necessary to laugh so hard that one's teeth were showing?
He spread his hands and said, "Let me play with it."
Jiaojiao was stunned for a moment, looked at the rattle in her hand, then looked at Emperor Yongzheng's hand spread out in front of her, and her brows furrowed unconsciously.
Emperor Yongzheng, who had originally just said this casually, suddenly found it interesting when he saw him like this, and said with a smile: "Just now, someone smashed a persimmon on me, ate one of my persimmons, and took another one away."
He smashed the persimmons, ate the persimmons, and took one away. Jiaojiao looked down at the persimmons in his pocket, as if he was saying Jiaojiao!
Looking at the persimmons in her pocket, Jiaojiao hesitated for a moment, then reluctantly placed the rattle in Emperor Yongzheng's hand: "Uncle, be gentle."
Emperor Yongzheng nodded to indicate that he had heard it.
Yin Zheng, who was walking into the house, heard Jiaojiao calling this person and stopped and looked over.
Emperor Yongzheng, noticing his gaze, turned and sized up the man before him, explaining casually, "I'm Qin Mianmian's uncle. Mianmian and Jiaojiao get along well, so I thought it would be easier to have Jiaojiao follow Mianmian in calling me uncle."
It was also thanks to the fact that Yin Zheng had only been in the capital for a short time and he was not the type of person who liked to pry into other people's affairs, so he didn't know who Qin Mianmian's uncle was.
Upon hearing this, Yin Zheng said nothing, retracted his gaze and walked into the house. Jiaojiao also ran over to help her father carry the book box.
Emperor Yongzheng shook the rattle in his hand from time to time, but he didn't think it was fun, so he put the rattle aside in boredom, took the oranges that were roasting on the stove, peeled them and ate them.
When Yin Zheng came out of the house, he was holding a persimmon in his hand. Emperor Yongzheng looked at the persimmon in his hand, then looked at Jiaojiao who was following him closely, and clicked his tongue. He originally thought that the persimmon was left by the child for him to eat, but he didn't expect that it was brought back for his father. It was very nice to his father.
From that day on, Emperor Yongzheng would come to play with Jiaojiao from time to time. No one knew where he, as an emperor, found so much time.
Emperor Yongzheng would come with Xie Shuyu most of the time, but occasionally he would come alone, although Xie Shuyu was often already there when he arrived.
Many times when he came here, he would run into Liu Xingzhi who also came to see Jiaojiao. When he heard that he was Qin Mianmian's uncle, Liu Xingzhi guessed his identity.
Like Xie Shuyu, he was very surprised by the purpose of Emperor Yongzheng's coming here.
Every time he came, Emperor Yongzheng would get itchy hands and take it to play with it when he saw Jiaojiao playing with the broken rattle. It wasn't that he liked playing with the rattle, but he just thought Jiaojiao's expression when she was reluctant to give it to him but had to give it to him was very interesting.
Just like this, after a few days, Emperor Yongzheng had an accident. He failed to control the strength and broke the drum of Jiaojiao's rattle.
When vendors made rattles, they could not afford to use good materials such as snake skin and sheepskin, and rattles made of such materials were unaffordable to ordinary people except the rich, so the drum heads of rattles were mostly made of oil paper.
Although Emperor Yongzheng was not in good health, with his strength gained from years of martial arts training, it was easy for him to break the drumhead of a rattle, but he really didn't intend to break the rattle.
Even a blind man could see how much Jiaojiao liked this rattle these days. How idle must he be to think of breaking the rattle on purpose?
Jiaojiao stared blankly at the broken rattle in Emperor Yongzheng's hand, while Xie Shuyu and Liu Xingzhi looked at each other in bewilderment.
Emperor Yongzheng, who thought Jiaojiao was about to cry, felt panicky for a moment. He quickly stuffed the rattle into Jiaojiao's arms and said, "Don't cry, don't cry. I will compensate you, ten, a hundred."
He was so anxious that he blurted out the name "I".
Jiaojiao looked down at the rattle in her arms, sniffed, and shook her head: "No, no need to compensate, uncle won't compensate."
Jiaojiao carefully touched the drum surface, looked up at Emperor Yongzheng, stood up and patted his leg comfortingly: "Jiaojiao is going to put the rattle back."
As she spoke, Jiaojiao walked into the house. Emperor Yongzheng, Xie Shuyu, Liu Xingzhi and Shi'an looked at each other for a while, then quietly followed Jiaojiao and secretly looked inside from behind the window.
Jiaojiao in the room stood in front of the bed with his back to them. He lowered his head as if looking at the rattle in his hand. After a while, he raised his little hand to wipe the corners of his eyes.
Emperor Yongzheng watched this scene, and his dead conscience was rarely awakened, and he felt a little uncomfortable.
At the hour of You, when Yin Zheng came back from the academy, Jiaojiao, who had been quiet all day, rushed up to him and hugged his legs. Yin Zheng, noticing that he was in a bad mood, picked him up. Before he could even ask what was wrong, Jiaojiao had already buried her little face in his arms, and her warm tears silently soaked the front of his shirt.
Yin Zheng frowned slightly and glanced at the three guilty people.
Inexplicably, Xie Shuyu and Liu Xingzhi exchanged glances, feeling guilty. Something wasn't right. What were they feeling guilty about?
"What's wrong?"
Yin Zheng gently held the back of Jiaojiao's head with his big hand and asked in a slow voice.
"The rattle is broken."
"Dad, give it to Jiaojiao. The rattle is broken."
Jiaojiao sniffed, looked up at Yin Zheng, and spoke intermittently, with big tears rolling down his red eyes.
Yin Zheng, who couldn't bear to see Jiaojiao cry, felt a pang of pain in his nose. He wiped the tears from the corners of Jiaojiao's eyes with his fingertips and said in a hoarse voice, "Dad, buy me a new one!"
"No, I won't buy it." Jiaojiao sobbed.
"Then Dad will fix it, okay?"
Jiaojiao sniffed, looked at Yin Zheng with red eyes and said, "Okay, Dad will give it to me, I will repair it."
"Well, give it to Xiu, don't cry anymore."
"Okay, Jiaojiao, don't cry." Jiaojiao said, forcing a smile to her father.
Xie Shuyu and Liu Xingzhi, who were standing by, looked at Emperor Yongzheng with a hint of condemnation in their eyes.
Emperor Yongzheng looked up at the sky. The weather was nice today, and there were even stars!
After that day, Emperor Yongzheng did not come for two days. When he came again, he brought a bunch of rattles, some made of jade, some made of gold, some made of silver, and even some made of various precious woods.
When he arrived, Jiaojiao was playing with bamboo dragonflies with Xie Shuyu and Liu Xingzhi. Seeing so many exquisite rattles he brought, Jiaojiao exclaimed "Wow!" in support.
As the year was drawing to a close, Songyang Academy gave students a holiday for the ceremony, allowing Yin Zheng to come back and accompany Jiaojiao. However, Emperor Yongzheng, Xie Shuyu, and Liu Xingzhi were all too busy to see Jiaojiao for quite some time.
On the 26th day of the twelfth lunar month, Emperor Yongzheng took some time out from the palace. For some reason, he just wanted to see Jiaojiao. He always felt that he felt more relaxed every time he was with him.
Jiaojiao was very happy about his arrival, and pulled his trouser leg to take him to see the snowman he, his father and Shi'an had built together. Emperor Yongzheng looked at the snowman in front of him with a harsh look, and finally commented that if it was built by him, it would definitely look better.
Emperor Yongzheng, who was playing with Jiaojiao's little fleshy hand in the corridor, paused and looked at the pot of Pengyu that he had given to Jiaojiao.
This pot of dead Pengyu he had specially chosen to give to Jiaojiao... actually sprouted in this winter?!
No one knew the situation of that pot of Pengyu better than he did. It was a plant that was practically dead beyond death. How could a dead plant sprout again after careful care? It was even more impossible for it to sprout in winter...
Unless... He glanced at Jiaojiao in his arms, with intense thoughts churning in his eyes, but the next moment they turned into a deeper darkness, unless... someone gave it new life.
And what kind of person is this who can give new life to dead plants?
Eight thousand words, two and a half chapters. Can I just add another four thousand words tonight?
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