Yihua was very excited today because Yinzhen said yesterday that he would take her and the children to visit the Yuanmingyuan.
This garden was bestowed by Emperor Kangxi when Yinzhen was granted the title of Prince Yong. It had been under renovation for several months according to Yinzhen's design. During his time off, the family could take a stroll there to relax and check if there was anything that didn't look good, and then make some further renovations.
Upon hearing that she could see the Yuanmingyuan, known as the "Garden of Gardens," Yihua barely slept for half the night. Yinzhen couldn't understand why his wife was so energetic, but he wasn't sleepy either, so he could just drag her along to exercise.
After dressing the little wolf, Yi Hua admired her masterpiece. She had personally sewed a doll-like outfit for the little wolf in the style of Grey Wolf. The hood was placed on its head, revealing a row of somewhat sharp teeth, and a fluffy tail was added to its bottom, swaying left and right as the little wolf ran, making it extremely cute.
Liu Liu and Da Gege both liked it very much and came to tug at the little wolf's tail.
Honghui thought for a moment and decided that he should draw this scene later as a coming-of-age gift for his younger brother, which would definitely be a pleasant surprise.
Yinzhen was somewhat helpless. His wife's little head always had ideas that made people laugh and cry. He grabbed the little wolf by the neck and led the whole family onto the carriage.
Honghui pulled at his younger brother's hood: "Father, I heard that Third Uncle also once owned a garden belonging to the Emperor. He treasured it very much and rarely let anyone in. Father, have you been there? Which is better, the Yuanmingyuan or our Yuanmingyuan?"
Hongyun shrank back a bit and sat next to his older sister, thinking to himself, "Here we go again. I don't know what's wrong with my older brother. He always seems to be trying to provoke Father. It's best if I don't get too close, or I'll just become an innocent bystander."
Yinzhen glanced at Honghui: "Are there any places our young master Honghui can't go?"
“It seems Father hasn’t been there either.” Honghui continued nonchalantly, “Hongqing said she wanted to invite our son and brothers to go for a day. Father, don’t worry, we’ll know once our son has been there.”
"You can fool around together, but don't ruin your third uncle's garden." Yinzhen felt that given Hongqing's personality, this invitation probably hadn't been approved by Prince Cheng.
When Yihua arrived at the Yuanmingyuan, she was dumbfounded. This place was only the same as the description in later records. Although it was much larger than the Yongqin Prince's Mansion, it was still far from matching the more than fifty scenic spots and more than six hundred halls and pavilions in the garden.
Upon further reflection, Yihua understood. It was the garden that Emperor Yongzheng, who had already ascended the throne, had renovated and rebuilt over many years before it finally took shape. The garden she saw now was only in its initial form.
Putting aside these distracting thoughts, Yihua followed Yinzhen through most of the garden, seeing the unique rockery garden, walking past all kinds of pavilions and towers, and finally sitting down to rest in the lakeside pavilion.
"Master, why are there no plaques here?" Yi Hua wanted to see how famous scenic spots like Zhengda Guangming and Tianran Huatu differed from the places she had visited in her previous life, but after walking for so long, she couldn't tell which courtyard was which.
Yinzhen gestured for the children to have some snacks: "After all, we're still in the groundbreaking stage. Today, I'm just showing you the actual scenery. We'll have the Ministry of Works send over a garden model later, and once that's finalized, we can let the children think of a name. How about that?"
Yi Hua felt that Yinzhen's idea sounded familiar. After thinking for a while, she realized that this was just the Yongqin Prince's Mansion version of Jia Baoyu nominating the Grand View Garden. It is said that art originates from life but is higher than life. Cao Xueqin was right.
"The lake flows around the entire garden, making it a great place to escape the summer heat. Once the garden is completed, Your Highness will bring us here. The view is much more expansive than from the Prince's Mansion." Yi Hua thought to herself, she was already tired of living in the Prince Yong's Mansion after all this time.
“Alright,” Yinzhen replied, as he had already intended to do so.
While everyone was distracted, the little wolf crouched in the corner of the pavilion, wanting to play in the water. Honghui stopped him by grabbing his hat, saying that the lake was unfathomably deep and that it would be no joke if someone fell in.
"Keep an eye on your prince, and under no circumstances let him get near the water," Honghui instructed the eunuch who was with the little wolf.
The pavilion was covered with curtains, and the family had lunch there.
The children all had the habit of taking a nap, just like Yihua. Honghui was often called to the Hall of Mental Cultivation to accompany the Emperor at noon, so noon was actually when he was most energetic. Hongyun was energetic as long as he wasn't under Yinzhen's watchful eye.
So the two brothers went off to play somewhere, and Yihua took the children to the room that had been prepared in advance for an afternoon nap.
When she woke up, she was startled by the mud figure in front of her.
"Honghui?" Yihua recognized him after a moment. "Where have you been?"
“My son and third brother went to plant lotus flowers. The area was full of mud. My third brother lost his footing, and we all slipped and fell. So we just scattered the seeds directly in the mud.” Honghui clearly found it amusing, and he said it with a relaxed and cheerful tone.
"How did you come up with the idea of doing this? Do you really like farming?" Don't think she couldn't see that none of these children liked working in the fields. If it weren't for their father, Yinzhen, setting an example by his own example, they wouldn't have persisted for so many years.
“Mother can see that it’s not that I dislike it, but I just feel it’s not very useful. I’ve put in so much effort to cultivate several acres of fertile land, and all I’ve harvested are a few seeds. Wouldn’t it be better and more efficient to spend that time identifying talented farmers and letting professionals do professional work?” Honghui took off his clothes and began to wash his face.
Yi Hua agreed with Hong Hui's idea. It was one thing for Yin Zhen to like it, but it was also possible that he was using it as a show. Every prince had a persona in front of the emperor: the eldest prince was brave, the crown prince was humble, Prince Cheng was fond of reading, and with Yin Zhen, he was down-to-earth and cautious.
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