Chapter 126
Parents in the world can never be stronger than their children, not even emperors.
Emperor Jingxi eventually relented, but he felt that geese were too fierce and could easily hurt people, so he asked Qin Su to raise other animals instead.
Qin Su didn't know anything about these animals, so she looked to Ye Yan for help.
Emperor Jingxi also turned his face to Ye Yan, his eyes filled with the weight of "I place all my hopes on you".
Ye Yan felt immense pressure under the watchful eyes of the royal father and daughter. After a long pause, he finally said, "In my opinion, why not raise a few ducks?"
Qin Su thought for a moment, then frowned and said, "How could a duck, which is so small, possibly beat a goose?"
Emperor Jingxi, however, thought ducks were good. They were small, not overly aggressive, and more docile. So he spoke up for them, saying, "If one can't beat them, we can raise more. Ducks can win by sheer numbers."
Qin Su said unhappily, "Father won't allow me to raise more, so how can ducks win by sheer numbers?"
Emperor Jingxi paused for a moment, somewhat hesitant.
"Then I will think about it some more," Ye Yan said promptly.
After thinking for a moment, he suggested, "How about raising a big rooster?"
Just as Emperor Jingxi thought it was alright, Qin Su exclaimed excitedly, "A rooster? The kind that crows? I want it! I want it!"
She said to Emperor Jingxi, "Father! I want a big rooster! I want to take it with me on my patrols every day!"
Emperor Jingxi's lips twitched. The thought of Qin Su being followed by a rooster crowing wherever she went made him feel like he had a headache coming on.
He immediately abandoned his earlier thought that seemed alright and decisively said, "Ducks are better, let's raise ducks."
Qin Su said with a wronged expression, "But ducks are too weak and can't beat geese."
Emperor Jingxi said, "Then raise a few more. I agree to let you raise... ten, no more than that."
"Okay." Qin Su lowered her head, looking disappointed.
Emperor Jingxi dared not stay any longer, fearing that his daughter would plead with him and he would lower his standards, turning Zhaoning Palace into a second Imperial Animal Garden. He said he had something to do in the Imperial Study and left quickly.
The guards released the captured swan back into the lake, and the palace servants escorted Qin Su and Ye Yan back to tidy their appearance.
On the way back, Qin Su quietly leaned close to Ye Yan's ear and asked, "Is this what you told me? People always pursue the middle way. When you want to open the window, everyone disagrees, but if you say you want to tear down the roof, everyone will compromise."
Ye Yan also whispered, "Yes, Your Highness uses it very well."
Qin Su curled her lips and said smugly, "You cooperated well too. This is what you meant by 'tacit understanding,' right?"
Ye Yan smiled and nodded.
Qin Su was very happy. She stopped walking properly and started skipping around. She even complained that Ye Yan was walking too slowly and went to hold his hand and pull him along.
For a moment, the clear laughter of a little girl echoed throughout the winding corridor.
"I have ducks! Ten ducks!"
Ye Yan followed her, half walking and half running, through the vermilion pillars, past the budding flowers, and through the warm spring breeze, feeling as if he himself had become lighter.
He suddenly realized that there was no need to rush when Qin Su would grow up. After a person becomes an adult, there are many decades that belong to the "growing up" part, but a person is only a dozen or so years a child in their life.
The time when the world allows us to be innocent and naive is so short, and the happiness during this time is the purest and most profound. So before it slips away, don't miss it or waste it; cherish it.
Anyway, they're always together.
***
Qin Su's happiness was known to half of the palace.
In this solemn and deep palace, everyone is cautious and timid, and very few dare to laugh loudly. Qin Su first fought the swan, and then ran all the way back to Zhaoning Palace, making a huge commotion that attracted the attention of many palace staff.
The imperial harem was a place where news spread the fastest, and in less than a day, everyone in the palace knew that Princess Zhaoyang was going to raise ducks in preparation for the battle against the white geese.
It just so happened that a member of the family of a concubine entered the palace. The concubine told her family about this as an interesting story. When the woman returned to her residence and told them about it, the men in the household slapped their thighs and said, "Since Princess Zhaoyang raises ducks, the ducks must be of extraordinary quality. We should raise some in our household as well."
Everyone knows that His Majesty's favorite princess is Princess Zhaoyang. As the saying goes, what the superiors do, the inferiors will follow. Since His Majesty doesn't have any particular preferences, Princess Zhaoyang, who is favored by His Majesty, will also have the same preferences.
When ordinary people saw that officials and businessmen were raising ducks, they naturally thought ducks were good and followed suit.
Throughout the capital, duck raising became a craze, with every household, from high-ranking officials to ordinary people, owning ducks.
Sometimes, as you walk through a street or alley, you can hear the quacking of ducks coming from the houses on both sides.
Ye Yan even saw more than a dozen ducks in the mansion of the Assistant General of the State. He was as if he had seen a ghost and asked the servant who raised the ducks, "Who brought these back?"
The servant respectfully replied, "Young master, this was brought back by the General."
Ye Yan: ? ? ?
He grasped the key word: "Please?"
If you're just catching ducks, why do you need to invite someone?
The servant said, "Young master, you may not know this, but nowadays in the capital, ducks are called 'duck guests.' Since they are guests, it is natural to invite them in by bringing ducks with you."
Ye Yan: "..."
Looking at the servants' serious, even somewhat proud expressions, he wanted to ask, "Don't you all think this is outrageous?"
You won't know until you ask, and what you find out is quite surprising.
Ye Yan then realized that in just over half a month, dozens of famous works on "Ode to the Duck" had already been written in the capital, with scholars and literati vying to write about ducks.
It is said that even some tales of the strange and supernatural no longer write about the beautiful love between the fox spirit and the scholar, but instead write about the duck spirit.
Ye Yan found it both funny and absurd. At first, he thought it was too exaggerated, but then he thought about it again and realized that such things had happened in history before.
For example, during the Song Dynasty, people loved cats. Bringing a cat home was called "betrothal," and a betrothal gift was required.
Lu You, a well-known poet among modern people, wrote many poems about cats, including "I welcomed the little cat with a bag of salt, and it guards the ten thousand scrolls of books in my mountain study." This means that he hired a kitten with a bag of salt, and Lu You lamented that he was too poor to feed the cat any fish.
Huang Tingjian also wrote about raising cats, saying, "I heard that the cat has given birth to several kittens, so I bought fish and threaded willow branches to hire the cat." The "cicada" in this context is another name for a cat.
Thinking about it this way, it's not surprising that Da Yu fell in love with raising ducks. After all, when something becomes popular and becomes a trend, its meaning changes.
Moreover, raising ducks is low-cost and anyone can do it, making it easy to follow the trend, which leads to even more people raising them.
Sure enough, before long, the trend of raising ducks quickly spread from Beijing to other parts of the country.
Even Emperor Jingxi heard the news in the palace. He asked his subordinates and learned that nothing serious had happened, so he just laughed it off and did not interfere.
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