Chapter 60: The Tenth Brother's Grudge and Complaints
"Hearing is unreliable, seeing is believing."
"Chili peppers were once said to be poisonous, but people ate them without any problems." Kangxi paused slightly, and his gaze towards Yin'e gradually changed. The shock and anger in his eyes quietly dissipated, replaced by a hint of pride and satisfaction.
Emperor Kangxi didn't really care whether persimmons were poisonous or not. As long as no one accidentally ate them, persimmons wouldn't harm anyone.
Based on Yin'e's two sentences alone, Kangxi felt he should give Yin'e a chance to personally verify whether the persimmons were poisonous. Not for any other reason than that these words made Kangxi look at Yin'e in a new light, which pleased him.
With the strong support of the Ninth Prince, Yin'e successfully persuaded Emperor Kangxi with his words, temporarily saving the tomato tree.
However, if it is verified that tomatoes are different from bell peppers and are indeed poisonous, then this lone tomato tree in the Imperial Garden will still be cut down.
Even though Yin'e confirmed that the persimmons were poisonous and abandoned the idea of picking them, Kangxi was still afraid that his younger princes and princesses might develop an interest in persimmons like Yin'e, and be attracted by their beautiful appearance.
So, inexplicably, the four princes—the Crown Prince, the First Prince, the Third Prince, and the Fourth Prince—who had come to the Imperial Garden to enjoy the scenery and perhaps even compose some poems to suit the occasion, ended up, under Kangxi's orders, researching with Yin'e whether persimmons were poisonous and whether they were safe to eat.
Although turning sightseeing into an experiment was indeed a bit of a hassle, the four princes weren't unhappy about it—at least they didn't have to write poetry, saving them from a period of torture.
As for the Ninth Prince, who made a great contribution to protecting tomatoes, Yin'e did not abandon him after using him.
After getting down from Wang Mama's arms, Yin'e pulled up the Ninth Prince, who was sitting on the ground wailing, and whispered a few words in his ear.
Yin'e quickly coaxed the Ninth Prince, making him smile through his tears before they had even dried. The Ninth Prince happily took Yin'e's hand and ran with him to the tomato tree to test whether the tomatoes were poisonous or not, treating it as a fun game.
The Imperial Garden was not far from the Imperial Kitchen. At Yin'e's request, several palace servants quickly brought several live livestock and poultry from the Imperial Kitchen.
There was one chicken, one duck, one goose, and two fat, gray-furred rabbits—if it weren't so inconvenient, the palace servants could even bring a sheep.
Emperor Kangxi casually pointed to a young eunuch and said, "Go and pick two persimmons, chop them up, mix them into their feed, and feed them to them."
Yin'e pouted, his heart aching with worry.
There was only one tomato tree in the Imperial Garden, and even after it ripened, it only bore a few tomatoes. He picked two to feed the rabbits, chickens, and ducks. Even after it was proven that the tomatoes were non-toxic, how many of them would actually end up in his hands to make tomato and egg stir-fry?
It couldn't be proven that the tomatoes were non-toxic. The eunuch chosen to pick the tomatoes, though not particularly afraid, still pulled up his sleeves and covered his hands with his clothing before touching them.
The foreigners who brought the persimmons as tribute only said that the fruit was poisonous, but they didn't mention that the smell and leaves of the persimmons were also poisonous.
If persimmons were poisonous from head to toe, the gardeners of the Imperial Garden would not have been able to transplant them to the Imperial Garden, let alone diligently care for this imported product from overseas, allowing it to bear fruit and wither in the Imperial Garden for more than a decade.
After the tomatoes were chopped up and mixed into the feed, they were fed to the livestock and poultry that had been captured from the imperial kitchen. The six chickens, ducks and geese did not seem to mind. They clucked, quacked and squeaked as they ate the feed, clearly having a good appetite.
As for those two plump gray rabbits, judging from their robust and full bodies, you can tell they usually eat very well. They are not mistreated at all in the imperial kitchen, and it is hoped that they will eat more and grow even fatter.
The two rabbits weren't very hungry, but the palace servants persistently teased them with vegetable leaves drizzled with tomato juice, and they eventually smacked their lips and ate the tomato-juice-mixed leaves.
The chickens, ducks, geese, and rabbits were all fine after eating the tomatoes. In particular, the six poultry were very energetic, squawking loudly in their cages, turning the beautiful and elegant Imperial Garden into a slaughterhouse, completely ruining its charm.
After eating the tomatoes, the poultry and livestock did not die immediately, and they did not show any signs of illness for a while. This shows that even if tomatoes are poisonous, they are not the kind of deadly poison that kills instantly.
As for whether tomatoes are completely non-toxic and whether they can be eaten like bell peppers, this single experiment is not enough to draw a definitive conclusion.
Even if we don't have a few more animals taste the tomatoes, we should at least wait a few days to make sure that the poultry and livestock that ate the tomatoes are still alive and well and show no abnormalities before we can make a preliminary judgment that the tomatoes are non-toxic.
But these subsequent experiments had nothing to do with Yin'e, and it wasn't his turn to do the verification.
After Kangxi gave the order, the palace servants followed up on the matter. Yin'e only needed to wait for the tomatoes to be proven to be non-toxic.
He only hoped that after the palace servants finished their experiments and confirmed that the tomatoes were not poisonous, there would still be a few fruits left on this lone tomato tree in the Imperial Garden. If not a single one was left for him, Yin'e would definitely cry.
After being coaxed by Yin'e, the Ninth Prince quickly forgot about what had just happened.
He wasn't really sad and wanted to cry, but when he saw Yin'e crying, he started crying loudly too, even more so than Yin'e himself.
When the eunuch chopped up tomatoes and fed them to the chickens, ducks, geese, and rabbits, the Ninth Prince and Yin'e watched with great interest, neither of them noticing the four princes following Kangxi.
The experiment has now temporarily come to an end, and the Ninth Prince has finally noticed his older brothers.
He glanced at Kangxi's four older brothers, skipping over the Crown Prince, the First Prince, and the Fourth Prince, and fixed his gaze on the Third Prince. Pointing at him, he frowned and asked Yin'e, "Why does he look a little annoying?"
The Ninth Prince and the Third Prince, who had already entered the Imperial Study, didn't have many opportunities to interact. After their argument, they hadn't seen each other for a long time, and the Ninth Prince no longer remembered the Third Prince.
It's not fair to blame the Ninth Prince for being forgetful.
With so many fun games and so many things to do every day, and since he didn't see the Third Prince often and the two didn't have any more conflicts, the Ninth Prince naturally forgot about his past conflicts with the Third Prince after so long.
But perhaps he was incompatible with the Third Prince, or perhaps their past conflicts still left a shadow in the Ninth Prince's vengeful heart.
When the Ninth Prince saw the Third Prince again, even though he didn't recognize him and didn't remember the unpleasantness they had had, he still subconsciously felt that the Third Prince was annoying and found everything about him disagreeable.
Blinking his bright, dark almond-shaped eyes, Yin'e tilted his head innocently and said, "Ninth Brother, have you forgotten? He said we were blocking the way, called us little radishes, and wouldn't let us go to Cining Palace to find Granny Wukuma's third brother!"
Yin'e puffed out his cheeks, his fair, soft little face turning into a round dumpling, looking incredibly cute, like a little lucky baby.
His expression was innocent and naive, his face completely pure and innocent, but what he said was not the truth at all. Taking advantage of the private occasion with Kangxi present, Yin'e directly complained to Kangxi, the head of the family who was raising children like chickens.
As soon as Yin'e finished speaking, Kangxi, the Crown Prince, and the First Prince all turned their surprised gazes toward the Third Prince.
They looked shocked and incredulous, their gazes towards the Third Prince carrying a hint of surprise and disdain, as if to say, "So this is what kind of person you are!"
One of the victims, the Ninth Prince, looked somewhat bewildered: Had such a thing really happened?
But soon, the Ninth Prince suddenly realized, and his eyes gradually became firm: there must be something, the Tenth Brother would not lie to him!
With his cheeks puffed out like Yin'e's, the Ninth Prince's gaze toward the Third Prince grew increasingly hostile.
He glared at the Third Prince with a fierce expression, as if to say, "So it was you! You actually did those things to us!" His eyes were filled with hatred, and he looked like he wanted to pounce on the Third Prince and bite him.
Unexpectedly, Yin'e suddenly made a accusation. Under the strange looks of Kangxi and the others, the Third Prince's refined and elegant face turned red, and his voice suddenly rose eight octaves: "You are lying, you are all telling lies, you are slandering me!"
The Third Prince was a petty and vengeful person, but he was also extremely selfish, only remembering his own grudges and not those of others.
Just like now, all he remembered was Yin'e cursing him outside the West Third Palace, and all he remembered was Yin'e and the Ninth Prince playing tricks on him at the Fourth Prince's birthday banquet, even pinning the blame on him, forcing him to apologize to his two younger brothers, who were much younger than him, under the orders of Consort Tong.
The Third Prince completely forgot that he was the one who provoked Yin'e and the Ninth Prince outside the West Third Palace in the first place. He was the one who started it all, and it was he who bullied Yin'e and the Ninth Prince first, which is why they retaliated in anger.
Yin'e ignored the Third Prince's vehement denials and sophistry, which refused to acknowledge that he had bullied his younger brother. It wasn't that he was too lazy to deal with the Third Prince, nor that he didn't intend to confront him on the spot and clarify the truth.
However, the eyewitness from that time is also present now. There is no need for him to confront the Third Prince. All that is needed is for the eyewitness to stand up and say a fair word.
Turning to look at the Fourth Prince, Yin'e smiled brightly at him with his fair and delicate face, his eyes full of expectation, and said with a friendly and trusting expression, "Fourth Brother was there at the time, Fourth Brother can be my and Ninth Brother's witness!"
With an adorable look on his face, Yin'e eagerly awaited the Fourth Prince's righteous words, hoping he would directly crush the Third Prince in front of Emperor Kangxi.
The Fourth Prince did not disappoint Yin'e. He did not help Yin'e and the Ninth Prince out of favoritism, but because he was upright by nature and did not like to lie or distort the facts.
After a moment of silence, the Fourth Prince glanced at the Third Prince, whose face was full of grievance and indignation, and nodded, saying, "The Tenth Brother is right. The Third Brother did treat the Ninth and Tenth Brothers that way, and I was indeed there at the time."
The Third Prince's face turned bright red. He opened his mouth wide and made a few "ah" sounds, stammering for a long time, but he didn't know how to defend himself or where to begin to defend himself—he really didn't remember what happened last October.
However, the Third Prince did not suspect that the Fourth Prince was lying and slandering him. The two brothers lived together in the West Third Palace and were classmates in the Imperial Study for more than a year. They knew each other's character and personality very well.
The Third Prince knew that the Fourth Prince was upright and intolerant of any wrongdoing, and that he would never conspire with the Ninth and Tenth Princes to frame him.
The Third Prince simply couldn't understand how the Tenth Prince could have such a good memory, even though he himself didn't remember it. He was still holding a grudge after so long, which was simply unscientific!
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Author's Note: Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 17:37:24 on March 12, 2023 and 11:24:21 on March 13, 2023!
Thank you to the little angel who watered the nutrient solution: Mint Cool 1 bottle;
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
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