Chapter 91 The Prank: Old Ten's Salty Fish Surprise
"Tenth Brother, Fourth Brother has lost so much weight." Watching the Fourth Prince's figure disappear behind Jinghe Gate, the Ninth Prince leaned close to Yin'e and whispered, his tone full of emotion.
The Ninth Prince and the Fourth Prince had never been close; they were incompatible by nature and could never get along.
However, the Ninth Prince was only instinctively a little intimidated when facing the Fourth Prince; he did not harbor any resentment towards the Fourth Prince, nor would he gloat when the Fourth Prince was sad. Seeing the Fourth Prince's extremely haggard appearance, the Ninth Prince also felt bad.
Letting out a long breath, Yin'e couldn't bring himself to say comforting words like "Consort Tongjia is a lucky person and will definitely be alright." He could only whisper, "I just hope that Fourth Brother won't be too sad and won't hurt himself."
In fact, one of the reasons why the Fourth Prince is in such a bad state is that Consort Tongjia told him about his true parentage.
The Fourth Prince knew perfectly well why Kangxi had suddenly arranged a marriage for him, and he also understood why, unlike the precedents set by the Grand Consort and the Crown Princess, he wanted to bring Fei Yanggu's daughter into the palace for upbringing.
The fourth prince was tormented by his adoptive mother's terminal illness, the sudden revelation of his secret lineage, the identity of his birth mother, and the attitude of Consort De.
Furthermore, since the Fourth Prince did not completely stop attending classes and still had to bear an excessively heavy workload from the Imperial Study every day, it is no wonder that he became so haggard and emaciated in just one month.
"Ninth Brother, let's go too." After gazing in the direction of Jinghe Gate for a while, Yin'e called out to the Ninth Prince and prepared to leave Qianqing Palace through Longfu Gate.
After court each day, Emperor Kangxi would review memorials and handle palace affairs in the Qianqing Palace. Ministers from previous dynasties would often come to the Qianqing Palace to see Emperor Kangxi and report on various matters to him.
The Qianqing Palace is not a place where they can play around as they please. It's best not to provoke Kangxi in this regard. It wouldn't be fun if he changed his mind and took them to the Imperial Study to be disciplined by their tutors.
The Ninth Prince stared blankly in the direction the Fourth Prince had come from, his head tilted to the side, seemingly lost in thought. Yin'e called out to him, but he did not answer for a long time.
Just as Yin'e was about to call out a second time, or lean over and tug at the Ninth Prince to remind him, as if waking from a dream, the Ninth Prince suddenly turned his head and said to Yin'e, "Tenth Brother, we are now in the Qianqing Palace."
He swallowed back the words he was about to say to the Ninth Prince, and looked at the Ninth Prince with a strange expression: "Yes, we are in the Qianqing Palace now."
Yin'e didn't know why the Ninth Prince was emphasizing this, and couldn't figure out what he was up to, so he asked again, "What's wrong?"
His long, thick, raven-black eyelashes fluttered like small fans. The Ninth Prince pointed in the direction the Fourth Prince had come from, his expression a mixture of excitement, curiosity, and dislike, and his tone was very conflicted: "The Imperial Study is over there."
Yin'e paused for a moment, then realized: "That's right, the Imperial Study is in the Qianqing Palace, near the Rijing Gate. Fifth Brother and Seventh Brother should be studying with their teachers in the Imperial Study right now."
This was Yin'e's first time visiting the Qianqing Palace. He was only thinking about finishing his business and leaving, forgetting that they could visit the Imperial Study before leaving the palace and meet the Fifth Prince and the Seventh Prince who were studying there.
The Imperial Study was filled with heavy workloads, so Yin'e, the Ninth Prince, and the Fifth and Seventh Princes, who had already entered the academy, did not have many opportunities to meet.
Aside from the occasional meeting at important banquets requiring the Emperor's attendance, the only other time they could get together was on their respective birthdays. Most of the time, if Yin'e and the Ninth Prince wanted to see the Fifth and Seventh Princes, they had to stroll from the Imperial Garden to the Fifth Palace in the East to find them.
"Shall we go?" Yin'e asked the Ninth Prince, pointing in the direction of the Imperial Study.
The Qianqing Palace, where Emperor Kangxi handled his daily affairs, was certainly not to be trifled with by others. However, the other palaces within the Qianqing Palace complex were not so important or so inviolable.
Yin'e felt that going to the Imperial Study was nothing to worry about. In three months, even if he and the Ninth Prince didn't want to study there, they would be forced to go.
Grinning, the Ninth Prince looked like he had a toothache. His delicate and handsome features were all scrunched up, and he hesitated for a long time before finally stammering, "Go...go?"
Yin'e didn't want to start studying in the Imperial Study too early, but he wasn't afraid of it. At this moment, curiosity outweighed his resistance and dislike, and since he could also take the opportunity to see the Fifth Prince and the Seventh Prince, he didn't mind taking a stroll around the Imperial Study.
The Ninth Prince had never been to the Imperial Study, so he naturally harbored curiosity about it.
However, after the Fifth Prince entered the academy, he repeatedly complained to them in private that the lessons in the Imperial Study were too heavy and the teachers were too strict.
So much so that even though the Ninth Prince, a poor student, hadn't entered the Imperial Study yet, he had already heard far too much about it. In the Ninth Prince's eyes, the Imperial Study was a terrifying den of demons.
"Which one?" Ninth Prince pointed to the palace in the very center and asked Yin'e in a low voice.
Yin'e and the Ninth Prince sneaked from the Qianqing Palace to the Imperial Study. If they weren't so short, they might have had to bend over to enhance their concealment for the sake of atmosphere... although they were followed by a bunch of people, so they were hardly concealed.
When Yin'e and the Ninth Prince arrived at the Imperial Study, they discovered that although the Imperial Study was not large, it was not so shabby as to have only one or two rooms. Finding the Fifth and Seventh Princes immediately would not be an easy task.
The door to the Imperial Study faces north and contains five rooms.
Currently, there are five princes studying in the Imperial Study: the Third Prince, the Fourth Prince, the Fifth Prince, the Seventh Prince, and the Eighth Prince. They are all being taught by the same tutor in the largest room of the Imperial Study, with different tutors assigned to them according to their learning progress.
For example, the Third Prince and the Fourth Prince were in one group, and the Seventh Prince and the Eighth Prince were in another. The Fifth Prince, however, was in a separate group, and his learning progress was the slowest. After more than a year in the Imperial Study, he had only completed the basics of Manchu and Chinese, and had not even finished learning the Four Books and Five Classics.
Besides these five princes, the Crown Prince is also studying in the Imperial Study. However, the Crown Prince is not with the five princes, but receives private instruction from his tutors in a side hall of the Imperial Study.
In the twenty-fifth year of the Kangxi Emperor's reign, he carefully selected several learned ministers from among the Han Chinese officials to serve as tutors to the Crown Prince, guiding him in studying classical Chinese texts after he left the palace to begin his formal education.
Back then, Emperor Kangxi selected three tutors for the Crown Prince: Dahata, Tang Bin, and Geng Jie, to teach the Crown Prince at Wuyizhai in Changchun Garden.
However, the Crown Prince had already been studying diligently under Emperor Kangxi's tutelage for several years before he left the palace to study. The three tutors that Kangxi assigned to the Crown Prince could not teach him much that he had not yet learned. The Crown Prince's formal studies only lasted for a little over a year before he returned to the palace to continue his studies.
This time, however, Kangxi arranged for the Crown Prince to study in the Imperial Study, allowing him to study alone in a side hall of the Imperial Study, becoming neighbors with the other princes, unlike before when the Crown Prince and the other princes were completely isolated from each other, and they didn't even study together.
“Let’s go take a look.” Yin’e also lowered his voice to answer the Ninth Prince, “Seventh Brother said they were studying in the middle room of the Imperial Study, it should be that room.”
When it comes to pushing their children to excel, few parents can rival Emperor Kangxi. After all, few parents would force their children to read articles aloud 120 times repeatedly in order to memorize them deeply.
In the bright, central hall of the five study rooms of the Imperial Study, the Third Prince sat by the window, swaying his head as he recited a classic text.
Through repeated readings, the Third Prince memorized the entire article and grasped its true meaning.
The Third Prince was reciting the poem smoothly when, out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly noticed two heads popping up from outside the window beside him.
Startled, the Third Prince, who had been focusing almost entirely on reciting his lessons, subconsciously turned his head to look out the window.
As the Third Prince turned his head, two pale faces with their eyes slanted upwards and tongues sticking out appeared outside the window, directly entering his field of vision, barging into his eyes in an unreasonable and domineering manner.
"ah!!!"
Turning his head, the Third Prince was caught off guard by the sight before him. He was so startled that he screamed out in fright.
The sudden screams of panic and fear silenced the bright and spacious schoolroom. The teachers and princes inside couldn't help but cast puzzled and disapproving glances at the source of the sound—the Third Prince.
The Third Prince's heart pounded like a drum; he was truly startled. Anyone would be frightened if two ghostly faces suddenly appeared outside the window while they were engrossed in their studies.
"Hahaha..." Outside the window, the Ninth Prince stopped making faces and burst into laughter after the Third Prince screamed in fright. He laughed heartily and happily, his eyes and brows full of schadenfreude and the triumph of a successful prank.
Panting heavily, the Third Prince seemed to be awakened and looked out the window following the Ninth Prince's childish, clear, yet unrestrained and arrogant laughter.
Upon seeing Yin'e and the Ninth Prince clinging to the window, the Third Prince immediately understood the origin of the ghostly face that had startled him. His emotions instantly shifted from panic to anger, and he became so angry that his face turned ashen and his lips trembled.
"You...you...you all—" The Third Prince was so angry that his hand trembled as he pointed at Yin'e and the Ninth Prince, who had caused trouble outside the window but hadn't run away immediately, but instead stayed to watch him make a fool of himself and laugh at him. He couldn't even utter a complete sentence.
Seeing the Third Prince so enraged by them, Yin'e and the Ninth Prince exchanged a knowing glance, then gave each other a high five in front of the Third Prince, shouting in unison, "Yay! Third Brother was scared by us, hahaha..."
Previously, Yin'e and the Ninth Prince had found their way to the vicinity of this largest school with all its doors and windows open. Upon arriving, they discovered that the person sitting by the window was the Third Prince. On a whim, they decided to play a trick on the Third Prince.
Yin'e and the Ninth Prince were still young and short and stocky. As long as they bent over slightly and did not exceed the height of the window, people inside could not see them.
The two of them sneaked to the window next to the Third Prince, and when the Third Prince turned his head to look at them, they both made faces to scare him.
And Yin'e and the Ninth Prince succeeded, which really startled the Third Prince, who had just been concentrating on his studies and whose mind was completely occupied. It made him shout out in the Imperial Study, embarrassing him and causing him to lose face.
Leaning against the window frame, the Ninth Prince, no longer making faces, grinned triumphantly at the Third Prince. With his handsome features and fair complexion, the Ninth Prince's smile was incredibly charming, but to the Third Prince, it resembled a devil's smile.
At this moment, Yin'e chuckled and delivered the final blow to the Third Prince: "Third Brother, are you surprised or not?"
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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 2023-03-29 23:53:07 and 2023-03-30 16:12:13!
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