Chapter 126 First Taste of Human Suffering: Leaving home happily, returning home weeping. This is Yi'an's daily life after having a new husband…
He goes out happily, and comes home crying. This is a typical day for Yi'an after he got a new husband.
The tutor hired for Yi'an was an old acquaintance of Yu Lang. He was one of the martial arts masters, Agudu, who was also present when Yu Lang accompanied the Crown Prince to the training ground and the Seventh Prince Yin You startled the horse.
Yinyou escaped unharmed that day, but every single one of the martial arts instructors at the drill ground was severely punished by Kangxi.
That's just how Emperor Kangxi is. He can scheme and plot against his own son however he wants, but if you outsiders dare to look down on him and don't take the Emperor seriously, then don't blame His Majesty for being ruthless.
Fortunately, Emperor Kangxi respected teachers and valued their teachings. Although Wu Anda's status was not as high as those of the Hanlin scholars in the Imperial Study, he was still the teacher who taught the princes. In addition, since Yin You did not really get into trouble, the matter was over after the punishment.
However, the two instructors who were specifically responsible for teaching Yin You horsemanship and archery, after a long time and once the matter had completely passed, came to Yu Lang's door with gifts to express their gratitude.
After all, if he hadn't rushed forward that day, who knows if Yinyou would have survived unharmed? If something had really happened to Yinyou that day, others might not know, but the two of them would definitely be dead.
From then on, the two of them never dared to be half-hearted on the training ground again, and Yin You's riding and archery skills were also taught by these two.
A few years ago, when the Seventh Prince left the palace to establish his own residence, these two men, as military advisors, were also personally requested by Yin You from Emperor Kangxi. They were brought out of the palace together to continue serving as advisors in the Seventh Prince's residence. At the same time, they were assigned to several military units by Emperor Kangxi as junior military units.
This was the first time a prince had ever taken the initiative to go to the emperor to bring Wu Anda out of the palace. At the time, everyone thought that the Seventh Prince would be reprimanded, since this behavior was blatantly trying to claim the emperor's people as his own.
To everyone's surprise, instead of being reprimanded, the two Wu Anda were rewarded with a lot of gold, silver, silk, and leather. Kangxi summoned them to the imperial court and gave them many instructions.
The gist of it is that the fact that they managed to get the Seventh Prince to come before the Emperor to ask for them must be because they've put a lot of effort into teaching him riding and archery over the years. After leaving the palace and following the Seventh Prince, they must never forget their original aspirations and continue to work hard.
With Yinyou leading the way and opening up the situation, the second person to go to the Qianqing Palace was the Fourth Prince. The Fourth Prince not only asked for two martial arts instructors, but also a tutor named Wen. That tutor was indeed surnamed Wen, and was skilled in arithmetic and practical application of knowledge.
Over the years, compared to those great Confucian scholars and Hanlin Academy members, Old Wen was particularly inconspicuous. It wasn't until the Fourth Prince found this man and took him with him everywhere that everyone realized that this Mr. Wen was a great talent for practical application of knowledge, and that keeping him in the study was indeed a waste of his talent.
The Ministry of Revenue's accounts were not in disarray, but they appeared to be true but were not entirely false. The accounts always looked perfect, but whenever money was needed, there was always a struggle to manage it.
At first, Yu Lang and Yin Zhen couldn't figure out the reason, and were essentially being toyed with by those old foxes in the Ministry of Revenue for a while.
It wasn't until Mr. Wen and his men found all the discrepancies in the accounts that Yu Lang, along with Akdun and a few others, visited the Minister of Revenue. Only then did the two of them find their way around the Ministry of Revenue a little easier.
Yu Lang always treated these teachers who came from the palace with respect. Even though they had come out of the palace, they had seen and experienced everything in the palace.
These people are not only skilled, but their perspectives on interpersonal relationships and matters are also far more insightful than those outside who are merely bookish and martial arts practitioners. Therefore, when it came time to hire a tutor for his little one, Yu Lang immediately thought of them.
Fourth Master originally intended to send Mr. Wen over, but Yu Lang refused. Firstly, a reform planned starting from the Ministry of Revenue was brewing, and a lot of data on land, grain, population, and taxes needed to be verified; it certainly wouldn't work without Mr. Wen.
Secondly, his relationship with the Fourth Prince couldn't be viewed solely in the present. If the Crown Prince were to successfully ascend the throne, would he, as the Crown Prince's confidant, and the Fourth Prince, the new emperor's younger brother, still maintain such a close relationship? Wouldn't that just invite trouble from the new emperor?
So after declining the Fourth Prince's offer, Yu Lang went to the Seventh Prince's residence and invited Wu Anda back. His intention was clear: he wanted Yi An to pursue a martial arts career, so it wasn't that he didn't want the Fourth Prince's offer; it was simply that the man's skills were fundamentally incompatible.
Yin You understood Yu Lang's meaning perfectly. Not only did he agree to lend Anda to Yu Lang, he also privately instructed Wu Anda, who had been sent to be a tutor, to teach him properly and not to hold back, so that people wouldn't think that Yu Lang had abandoned the Fourth Prince's tutor and was only putting on an act.
Following Yin You's instructions, Wu Anda Agudu showed no mercy to Yi An, and on the very first day, he trained Yi An to the point of exhaustion.
In fact, Yi'an already knew how to ride a horse, but he was still young. Every time he went out with his father, he would either ride a horse with his father or have someone pick the gentlest ponies from the stable for him to play with.
Now that it's in Agudu's hands, life isn't so comfortable anymore. Running, warming up, horse stance, mounting and dismounting, stretching—there can be no compromises.
Two pageboys, two years older than Yi'an, tried to step forward to smooth things over, but were frightened into silence by a glare from An Da.
In some ways, children are better at judging people than adults. The old man's physical strength and energy were waning, but a group of kids together dared to cause him trouble. Now, Agudu was as strong as a wall just standing there, so how could they dare to act recklessly?
Normally, Yi'an could have withstood Agudu's scolding. Children have boundless energy, and Yi'an was three times more energetic than anyone else, his energy comparable to that of Bige in later generations.
Agudu's teaching of Yi'an was exciting and enjoyable for both sides. As long as Agudu kept a proper balance, he could grit his teeth and endure whatever Agudu did to the kid.
Yi An's stubbornness was inherited from someone, no one knew. He kept getting on and off the horse, his legs were trembling, but as long as Agudu, the Anda, didn't agree, he would continue. He just had to stick to this.
The two of them, one big and one small, had been playing around on the estate outside the city for most of the day, and it was already dusk when they returned. As soon as they got off the carriage, they saw their mother standing at the door waiting for them. The boy, who was so tired that he could barely move, straightened his back in an instant.
He then smiled at Shen Wanqing without a care in the world, pretending that it was nothing, just a piece of cake: "Mother, Agu Anda said that I am strong and healthy, and he will pick out a good horse for me in a few days."
How could he possibly feel at ease letting his son, whom he himself had given birth to, go out with Agudu? Besides, today was only the first day, and given Yi'an's reputation for being difficult, Agudu had already warned him to give the boy a memorable first impression.
Shen Wanqing nodded repeatedly in front of Agudu, implying that as long as he kept a proper balance and didn't ruin the child's development, everything else was fine.
But when Agudu actually took Yi'an away, Shen Wanqing felt as if her heart had been taken away as well, and she couldn't concentrate on anything.
Seeing her like this, Qiuwen had no choice but to bring Sui Ning to her. Originally, she wanted to use the chubby Sui Ning to distract Shen Wanqing, but the chubby girl had never been one to move around much since birth. Once in Shen Wanqing's arms, she didn't move either if Shen Wanqing didn't move.
The little girl nestled quietly in her mother's arms, neither crying nor fussing. A short while later, Ningxiang went back into the room and found the mother and daughter asleep on the daybed, piled on top of each other like a human pyramid.
Sui Ning was even lying face down, with her buttocks sticking up and her head resting on Shen Wanqing's shoulder, drooling so much that it soaked Shen Wanqing's clothes.
We did nothing but wait for most of the day. Before seeing the child, I was worried that he would be too tough on Agudu and wouldn't be able to handle it. Now that I've seen him, I realize that this kid is really different from other kids. Even in this situation, he's still holding on.
"I agreed, but there are conditions. You can only choose a horse if you can draw a small bow with a draw weight of two units within three months."
"Don't worry, Anda. I'll practice drawing the bow after I finish eating. It's just a matter of strength. Three months should be enough."
One unit of strength equals one jin (a unit of weight), and some skilled adult men who are good at riding and archery can even draw a bow with a strength of fifteen jin. Akdun can do it, Shen Wenyuan can do it too, and Yulang occasionally uses it but not often, as he is more agile and usually uses swords and sabers more often.
The bows at home are mostly between 10 and 12 power; which one to use depends on whether Yulang wants to hunt large or small prey when he goes out hunting.
Shen Wanqing can also draw a bow, but she can barely manage five strengths at most. For many years, every time she went out of the city, she followed behind Daijia, and mostly just used a bow with three or four strengths to pretend to draw.
Yi'an is only seven years old this year, but Agudu has already made him practice Erli's small bow. He still remembers that Shen Hongshi had boasted at the dinner table that his grandson Yi'an was a martial arts prodigy who had inherited the good physique of his old Shen family.
At the time, Shen Wanqing thought that Shen Hongshi, as the maternal grandfather, only thought his own son was the best. His mentality was like that if it were his own dog, he would think that the barking of the Shen family's dog was louder than that of the neighbor's dog.
Now it seems that it wasn't just bragging. But this means that the kid really can't be taught and raised in the usual way. If this kind of child is raised well, the whole family might be able to continue to be rich for two more generations. But if he's not raised well, then the whole family could lose their heads if they're not careful.
So Shen Wanqing only glanced in Agudu's direction, and Agudu understood that this Madam Shen wasn't the type to spoil her child excessively. That made things much easier; he had been worried that Madam Shen would be too soft-hearted to part with her son.
"That won't do. You have to study after you eat. There are still three pages of calligraphy practice to do today. If you don't finish all this homework, you won't be able to sleep tonight."
"ah?"
Upon hearing this, Yi'an, a small boy, was stunned. He was already in this state! In this state!! Why did he still need to study? Other people's martial arts instructors only taught riding and archery, so why was everything different for him?
The soul-searching questions had no answers. The child felt that this matter was particularly unreasonable, but couldn't quite put his finger on what was unreasonable. Finally, he was so angry that he cried.
She cried so pitifully while holding Shen Wanqing, all the way from the gate of the mansion back to the East Courtyard. When she entered the house and saw Sui Ning, she hugged her younger sister and cried again.
The crying startled Sui Ning, who was being held by her wet nurse and whimpering, looking for her mother. She forgot to howl a couple of times to keep her brother company and just stared at him with wide, round eyes. As she watched, she even started to laugh.
Looking at the two children, one crying and the other laughing, Shen Wanqing suddenly had the idea of going out and hiding for a while.
But it was just a thought. Not long after Yi'an returned, Lord Yu also came back from his shift. The family of three, along with Sui Ning, who had just finished breastfeeding and was brought to sit in the audience, finished their dinner peacefully and quietly. Then, Yi'an was personally taken to the front yard to study by his father.
Despite his tears, he still had to study and copy calligraphy. Moreover, because of this combination of martial arts practice in the morning and studying in the afternoon, Yi'an still couldn't draw Erli's small bow after three months.
Even if you're so angry you spend the whole day at the shooting range, you just can't draw the bow. If you can't draw the bow, you can't choose your favorite horse.
This time, however, Yi'an didn't cry loudly. He followed Agudu back from the shooting range dejectedly and continued to study and practice calligraphy diligently.
However, from this day forward, reading and practicing calligraphy became something that Yi An could do without and procrastinate on. He had to finish his homework quickly so that he could squeeze out time to practice kung fu and archery.
For the first time, Yi An felt the crushing force of fate upon her, as well as her own limitations and powerlessness. Although such sentiments might seem childish to adults, Shen Wanqing knew that was enough.
Children are children, after all. You can't expect them to grasp any profound truths or do anything extraordinary. As long as they understand that life involves many things that are unavoidable, things they have to do even if they don't want to, and that there are many things and opportunities they can't have even if they want them, that's enough.
Yu Lang, however, felt a little soft-hearted seeing his son being taught this way. After holding back for several days, he couldn't help but ask Shen Wanqing quietly at night, "Could we give our son a horse on his birthday?"
"No, you can give him anything for his birthday except a horse. When he's strong enough to draw a bow with two strengths, then he can have a horse."
Shen Wanqing knew that Yulang was a spoiled child, or rather, he wasn't raised like Yi'an when he was young. When had Grandpa Yu ever been so aggrieved over a horse?
"I know, I know what Grandma is thinking, but I've grown up well and haven't gone astray."
"That's because your ancestors burned incense and you didn't turn out badly. Your son is different from you. Anyway, it's settled. If you're going to be soft-hearted, then the accountant won't pay your monthly salary next month."
? !
Upon hearing Shen Wanqing's words, Yu Lang dared not respond further. What could he do when she threatened him with his monthly salary? The shrewd and calculating Lord Yu, honed in the Ministry of Revenue, was truly adept at self-preservation! Son! Your future and your horse are now entirely up to you! Your father is truly powerless to help you!
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