On May 16th, before daybreak, a group of palace servants began to work in the Palace of Heavenly Purity.
In the bedroom, Kangxi woke up earlier than usual today and was looking at his beloved youngest son with a smile in his eyes.
Thinking about how the child who was so tiny when he was born has already turned one year old, he felt an indescribable sigh in his heart.
The little guy was still asleep, but perhaps he noticed his father's loving gaze, and suddenly woke up rubbing his eyes.
“Ama…”
After half opening his eyes and finding that his father was looking at him, the little guy, who was not yet fully awake, rolled over and lay in his arms, as if he wanted to sleep next to him for a while.
"You will be one year old today, why are you still so spoiled?" Kangxi said this while hugging him and even patted him on the shoulder.
Cheng An stayed in his arms for a while before finally coming to his senses. He raised his head and called out in a baby voice, "Ama."
"Yeah." Kangxi was in a very good mood today. Seeing that he didn't want to sleep anymore, he just picked him up and got up.
Afterwards, he personally dressed his youngest son before even changing his own clothes.
It was a red robe embroidered with gold patterns, and a small jacket of the same color on the outside. When worn on the delicate little guy, it made him look even fairer and more tender, and also looked very festive.
Kangxi helped him put on his clothes, took a step back and looked at him, he really looked great no matter how he looked at him.
"Your Majesty..." Someone handed Liang Jiugong his hat at the right time.
The small hat of the same color was inlaid with yellow gems. Kangxi took it and put it directly on his head.
After Cheng'an was given the hat, he subconsciously stretched out his little hand to touch it, then tilted his little head and smiled at Kangxi.
"My Cheng'an." Kangxi was moved by his innocent smile and felt like a father. He stretched out his hands and held him in his arms for a while before putting a small purse and a small jade pendant on his finger.
After everything was dressed, a little prince who looked as joyful as a fairy appeared.
Although today was the auspicious day for his youngest son's one-year-old birthday celebration, he still had to attend the morning court. After breakfast, Kangxi had someone take care of him and then went to court first.
All the civil and military officials in the court knew that today was the auspicious day for the 24th prince to celebrate his first birthday, so unless there was something extremely urgent, they were not prepared to speak.
As a result, today's morning court ended exceptionally early.
After the morning court ended, it was just the right time for Kangxi to go directly back to the Qianqing Palace. The rest of the royal family and ministers also went in groups of three or four.
"I wonder what Cheng'an will catch." Yin'e said with a smile.
Yinzhen heard this and continued, "I think a sword or a bow and arrow would be good."
"Cheng'an loves reading, so he might grab a copy of the Analects."
"Since he likes the jade pendant so much, he might grab it."
"Jade is a gentleman's item, so it's really good to grab a jade pendant."
Naturally, Yinzhi and his brothers also had to participate in the Zhouzhou ceremony, and they couldn't help but talk about it on the way.
Inside the Palace of Heavenly Purity, the venue had been prepared. The empresses and wives of various families were on one side, and soon the royal family members and ministers also arrived on the other side.
"Today's one-year-old ceremony is truly grand."
"Who says it's not?"
The two royal wives glanced at the people present and couldn't help but whisper to each other.
Not to mention them, even the concubines couldn't help but envy Concubine Chen when they saw the specifications of the ceremony, thinking that she had really given birth to a good son.
After the audience had arrived for a while, Kangxi came out personally holding the protagonist of the day.
After everyone saluted in unison, the Zhou-Zhua Ceremony was about to begin.
When Cheng'an saw so many brothers present, he immediately became excited. As soon as he was put on the ground, he shouted for his brothers and ran over.
“Brother, brother…”
After the New Year’s Eve palace banquet, it was the first time he saw so many brothers. He immediately ran around each of them and opened his arms for a hug.
When the brothers saw him running towards them with a smile, they were infected by his emotions and also smiled in varying degrees. However, this was a bit inappropriate, so they resisted the urge to hug him.
Even though they had heard before that this young prince was not only favored by the emperor but also had a very good relationship with the other princes, everyone who saw this scene with their own eyes was still a little surprised.
Cheng'an stretched out his hand and waited for a while, and saw that the brothers who used to rush to hug him were motionless today. After looking at them for a while with his head tilted, he took the initiative to rush over and hugged the legs of a random person.
After Yinzhen, who was luckily chosen, looked down at him, he naturally could no longer remain indifferent.
"Go and do the one-year-old ceremony first." Yinzhen bent down and said to him, then turned him towards the red carpet and pushed him forward.
Cheng'an's eyes were full of his brothers just now, but now he noticed that there was a large red carpet in the middle of the open space, with many things placed on it.
"Cheng'an, come here." Seeing that the auspicious time was approaching, Kangxi waved while standing beside the red carpet.
Hearing his father's voice, Cheng'an didn't hesitate any more and raised his short legs to run over.
"Go catch one." After he came over, Kangxi picked him up and placed him in the middle of the red carpet.
Cheng An sat on the red carpet and looked at the things around him. His first reaction was to grab a jade pendant.
Without waiting for anyone to sing auspicious words, he quickly climbed up on the red carpet, picking up a series of things including "The Analects of Confucius", a jewel-encrusted dagger, a golden abacus, a small golden bow, a brush, etc.
Most of these things attracted him because of their colors, such as the golden abacus and the dagger inlaid with sparkling gems; some of them were things he had come into contact with in his daily life, so he just picked them up when he saw them, such as "The Analects of Confucius" and the writing brush.
At first he held it with his left and right hands, then he held it in his arms, and later he pulled it towards himself, looking extremely happy.
The people who were singing the auspicious words were stunned and reacted a little late. They just sang the meaning of each item using auspicious words.
"You are worthy of being my brother, you are so smart." Yin'e praised after seeing him catch so many things.
Yinzhi also smiled and said, "I knew he would definitely grab the jade pendant."
When Yinzhen saw that he had grabbed the Analects and the writing brush, he thought that he could teach him to read and write when he was older.
"I told you he can hold the bow. When he grows up a little, I will personally teach him how to ride and shoot," Yinzhen said.
Although Yinzhen didn't say anything, he took another look at the golden abacus in his arms.
Not far away, over there were the concubines.
A noble lady looked at what the little prince was holding and couldn't help but said to Lady Chen: "Sister, you are so lucky. The little prince actually grabbed a golden abacus."
Obviously, this person was jealous that Concubine Chen gave birth to such a favored little prince, so he deliberately ignored other things and pointed out only this one.
But before Concubine Chen could speak, Concubine Yi, who was not far away, glanced over and asked, "What happened to Jin Suanpan?"
Upon hearing this, the nobleman suddenly remembered that the Ninth Prince was said to have caught a golden abacus. His face turned pale and he immediately apologized.
Concubine Yi knew that her ninth son liked this younger brother very much, and that the fifth son would occasionally mention it when he came to see her. Naturally, she would not allow anyone to disrupt the other party's one-year-old ceremony. After making a note of the matter for the time being, she stopped the nobleman from making a fuss.
Defei, who had always been at odds with Concubine Yi, took the opportunity to make a few sarcastic remarks. On the one hand, she was concerned about Kangxi's favor for the younger prince. On the other hand, like Concubine Yi, she did not want to cause any trouble today for the sake of her two sons.
The concubines did not mention this, but Kangxi, seeing that his youngest son was not finished yet, wanted to take everything away and almost laughed out of anger.
He had clearly taught us to choose the one that was most pleasing to the eye, but the result was...
Seeing that he was still hugging things around him, Kangxi couldn't help it and bent down to pick him up.
However, as soon as he stretched out his hand, Cheng'an called out "Ama" and stuffed a brush into his hand.
Kangxi took it subconsciously, and couldn't help but wonder if he gave it to him because he saw him holding a brush too many times.
When the royal relatives and ministers nearby saw this scene, they all said auspicious words to congratulate Kangxi, making the atmosphere very lively for a while.
After Cheng'an gave the brush to his father, he quickly stood up and ran to his brothers with a few other things in his arms.
The little guy first handed a jade fan pendant to his third brother, and then, thinking that his fourth brother liked to read to him, he gave him "The Analects of Confucius".
Although his fifth brother Yinqi and seventh brother Yinyou did not look after him as often as his other brothers, he still gave each of them something.
After distributing the things, he ran back again and brought back a lot of things to continue distributing them to his eighth brother, ninth brother, tenth brother and others.
Yinsi took the seal he handed over with a smile, touched his head and thanked him softly.
"I want this." Before he could make a move, Yinzhen took the initiative to point to the golden abacus that he was holding tightly in his arms.
Cheng An quite liked this golden abacus, but seeing that Ninth Brother wanted it, he still handed it over: "Brother, give it to me."
Seeing how generous he was, Yinzhen smiled and took it and said, "Don't worry, Brother Nine didn't want it for nothing. I'll give you a better one later."
"Then I want this dagger." Seeing that he could still choose by himself, Yin'e also took the initiative to stretch out his hand.
According to their original positions, it would have been the turn of the twelfth prince Yinlu and the thirteenth prince Yinxiang, but Yinzhen stepped forward and took the small golden bow from his arms.
Now that the golden abacus had been given away, Cheng'an no longer felt sorry for the jeweled dagger and the small golden bow. After all, his brothers had given him many gifts every day.
Of course, for his one-year-old birthday ceremony today, the brothers had prepared a lot of things for him, and the gifts were already placed in the side hall next door.
After sending off the twelfth and thirteenth brothers, there were also the fifteenth prince Yinyu, the sixteenth prince Yinlu, the seventeenth prince Yinli, and the twentieth prince Yinyi.
Cheng'an had seen the following princes less often, but at least he had seen them, so he had not forgotten them.
But in fact, he had three older brothers: the 21st prince Yinxi, the 22nd prince Yinhu, and the 23rd prince Yinqi.
The first two of these three princes are only six years old, and the last one is only four years old. The former will soon enter the Shangshufang, while the latter is still too early to start school.
They were still young, and Cheng'an was even younger, so they didn't have the opportunity to meet each other on weekdays.
"Brother Cheng'an..." Seeing that his brothers all had a share, Yinxi couldn't help but call him.
When Cheng'an found out that he had three older brothers, he happily ran over and got some things for them to choose from.
After the three younger brothers each chose one, they all looked at their younger brother and laughed.
Although he had never heard of such a ceremony, Kangxi still felt very pleased to see this scene of brothers being friendly and respectful to each other.
Everyone saw the princes smiling, even Prince Yong, who was known as the cold-faced king, had a faint smile on his face. The emperor was obviously in a good mood as well, so he was naturally not stupid enough to question the little princes' behavior. Instead, he praised them.
After the Zhuazhou ceremony, there is a Zhuazhou banquet, with concubines and wives together, and royal family members and ministers together.
At the table of princes and their wives, because of their own masters, whenever the wives mentioned the little prince Cheng'an, they all spoke in praise of him.
In fact, their praise was not entirely out of love for the boy, but really no one would dislike such a delicate-looking little prince who seemed smart, lively and spiritual.
Especially the Eighth Lady, she only regretted that she didn't have a child like this.
When the Fourth Lady thought of her master's love for the little prince, she was reminded of her own son. She couldn't help but sigh in her heart: If my Honghui were still alive...
Compared to this side, it's more lively over there with the brothers.
After sitting with his father for a while, Cheng'an quickly ran downstairs to find his brothers.
Yin'e had been keeping an eye on him, and was about to pick him up when the person got closer, but he didn't expect that Yinzhen got there first.
"Fourteen, you..."
As the saying goes, the quick hand gets the reward, the slow hand gets the loss. After Yinzhen threw him a smug look, he put Cheng'an on his lap and made him sit down.
Yinxiang saw him holding his brother over and asked the little guy who was smiling at him, "What does Cheng'an want to eat?"
"Don't ask him, he wants to eat everything, but the emperor won't let him." Perhaps because he was in a good mood with his brother, Yinzhen rarely spoke nice words to him.
These two princes, who were almost the same age and should have been able to get along well with each other, started to dislike each other since some time ago, especially Yinzhen, who would always look at Yinxiang with disgust whenever he saw him.
Yinxiang was a little surprised at his attitude, but he didn't show it on his face. Instead, he asked very naturally, "What can he eat?"
Yinzhen was holding the little guy in his arms and it was inconvenient for him to move, so he directed: "He seems to be able to eat fish meat, you pick up some fish meat first."
Upon hearing this, Yinxiang personally picked up a piece of boneless meat from the fish belly.
Upon hearing the word "eat", Cheng'an, who had just eaten half a bowl of wontons from Kangxi, immediately opened his mouth and waited for food: "Ah..."
On the other side, the fifteenth prince Yinyu saw his appearance and couldn't help laughing. He held the untouched fish soup in front of him and asked, "Fourteenth brother, can he drink fish soup?"
"The fish soup should be drinkable, try feeding it a sip." Yinzhen said.
So Cheng'an had just eaten the fish meat fed by his thirteenth brother on his left, and immediately his fifteenth brother on his right fed him a mouthful of soup, which was so delicious that his eyes curved.
"Don't feed so much at once, feed little by little." Yinzhen, who felt that he did not feed Fifteen as well as himself, advised.
Yinyu nodded when he heard this, and then fed him half a spoonful at a time.
Yin'e, who was several seats away, had been paying attention to them. He couldn't help but say, "Look at how greasy Cheng'an's face has become after you've fed him. Why don't you send him over to me?"
"Where's the oil?" Yinzhen retorted while quickly taking a handkerchief to wipe his face.
Kangxi, who was sitting at the top of the table, saw his youngest son sitting in the arms of the Fourteenth Prince, with his two older brothers feeding him, and thought that he really knew how to enjoy himself.
Although Cheng'an was able to eat more after he turned one year old, seeing that they were feeding him with dishes on the table, Kangxi still ordered people to send down the meals specially prepared for him by the imperial kitchen.
Yinzhen couldn't bear to see his brother's face covered with grease after being fed so much, so when Liang Jiugong came down with the tray, he reached out to take it, then turned around and called Cheng'an to come over for the meal.
He had the meal sent by the Emperor, so Yinzhen naturally couldn't stop him and could only let him go.
When Cheng'an was running towards Yinzhen, Yin'e took the opportunity to turn around and hug him halfway.
Cheng An, who was suddenly hugged, immediately laughed, put his arms around him, and rubbed his face affectionately.
When Yin'e let him go contentedly, Yin'er next to him laughed out loud.
Yin'e was a little confused at first, but when he raised his hand and felt a handful of oil on his face, he still didn't understand.
Of course he wouldn't think it was Cheng'an's fault. The little guy just liked to be close to his brother. What could be wrong with that?
"Yinzhen, look at what you have done!" Yin'e turned his oily face towards Yinzhen and spoke to him through Yinlu and Yinxiang.
Yinzhen said he would not take the blame: "I didn't feed him, what does it have to do with me?"
After he finished speaking, Yinxiang and Yinyou, who didn't know how to feed their children, looked up at the sky at the same time and refused to look at Yin'e.
At the same time, Cheng'an was already sitting in the arms of his fourth brother, looking at his third brother on the left, then at his fifth brother on the right, with the smile on his face never fading.
Yinzhen did not rush to feed him, but first asked someone to bring a wet towel to wipe his face clean.
Many children don’t like washing their faces, but Cheng’an is definitely not one of them. When he saw the handkerchief in his fourth brother’s hand, he raised his little face obediently.
"He is so well behaved." Fifth Prince Yinqi couldn't help but praise.
He had been raised by the Empress Dowager since he was a child. The Empress Dowager's health had been getting worse in the past two years, so he spent his free time fulfilling his filial duties and did not have much time to visit his younger brother.
Now looking at his younger brother, he liked him more and more.
After wiping its face, the little guy turned back into a milky bun, looking white and cute, making people want to take a bite.
After Yinzhen put down the handkerchief with satisfaction, he picked up the egg custard in front of him and started feeding her.
This egg custard is different from the one Chengan ate at first. It is topped with a layer of minced meat and shrimp, which looks very tempting.
"I want shrimps." Cheng'an pointed with his little hand after seeing the shrimps in the bowl.
Not to mention, he is not very fast at learning other words, but he can learn food-related words very quickly, such as rourou, gaogao, tangtang, etc.
It was also for this reason that Yin'e's act of secretly feeding him candy last time was finally exposed. Fortunately, Kangxi only scolded him a few words this time and did not punish him by making him copy books again.
Of course, after being discovered, Yin'e wanted to quibble and even came up with a good idea, which was to say that the "Tangtang" in Cheng'an's mouth was actually Yin'er's "禟". However, after thinking about it, he finally did not dare to do so. After all, his royal father was not easy to fool.
The shrimps on the steamed egg were cut into small pieces, and Yinzhen scooped them up and fed them to him along with a little egg custard.
He didn't have much experience in feeding children, but he was serious and careful, so overall he fed the baby well, at least he didn't get any blood all over Cheng'an's face.
In the past, no one would eat seriously at such banquets, but perhaps because they saw Cheng'an enjoying everything he ate, the brothers at the table also ate a lot.
The royal relatives and ministers who were secretly paying attention to this could not help but be amazed, thinking that the princes were too good to young Prince Yinmi.
However, some people later felt that the princes must be putting on a show for the emperor. After all, expressing affection for such a young prince would not pose a threat to themselves and could show brotherly love and respect, so why not do it.
After the one-year-old celebration was over, everyone present was about to leave. Cheng An naturally felt reluctant to leave his brothers, but there was nothing he could do.
But he soon remembered that he had his second brother, so he ran to Xian'an Palace holding a jade ring.
Xian'an Palace.
Yinreng naturally knew what day it was. He sat in the courtyard and looked at the blue sky above his head. Although he didn't show it on his face, he felt a little uncomfortable in his heart.
"elder brother!"
Just as he was about to go back to his room to drink, he suddenly heard a childish voice coming from outside, and the next second the door was opened.
Even though he knew that the one-year-old ceremony should have ended long ago, he had to admit that Yinreng was still a little happy when he saw him today.
Seeing the little guy running in with a smile on his face, he stood up, took two steps to greet him, and then held him in his arms.
"Brother, give it to me." After Cheng'an was picked up by him, he spread his little hands towards him.
Yinreng looked at the jade ring in his hand with some confusion, but he still held him with one hand and took it with the other.
"This is the ring that the little prince got during the one-year-old ceremony." Liu Cai explained from behind. As for the fact that the little prince got a lot of things and gave the same to each prince, he didn't say anything more.
After receiving the ring, Yinreng's depression was relieved. He did not ask why he got the ring, but put it on his thumb and asked, "How is it?"
"Okay." Cheng An praised in a baby voice.
Upon hearing this, the smile on Yinreng's face became more obvious. After carrying him into the house and sitting down, he asked someone to bring the things he had prepared.
Those were several brocade boxes, filled with gifts that Yinreng had prepared for him.
"Open it and take a look." Yinreng put him on the Luohan bed, and the brocade boxes were lined up in front of him.
A lean camel is bigger than a horse. As a prince who was once favored by Kangxi, Yinreng had no shortage of good things even though he was imprisoned in the Xian'an Palace.
Cheng An looked at his brother and then at the box in front of him, and curiously reached out to open the first one.
I heard that he liked jade pendants very much. The first box of Yinreng contained several jade pendants, the quality of which was no worse than the ones Kangxi gave him before.
Cheng An grabbed a few jade pendants and played with them for a while before opening the second box, which contained a ghost-made ball.
The Guigong Ball, named after the supernatural workmanship, is carved from ivory. The hollow sphere contains several layers of hollow spheres, and the patterns carved on each layer are very delicate.
"Wow..." Cheng An found that with a slight movement, the balls in his hand started to rotate at the same time, which he found very interesting.
There were also good things in the other boxes. After playing with them one by one, Cheng An happily stood up and threw himself into his brother's arms: "Hello, brother."
Yinreng touched his head, and then took him to play with the things on the Luohan bed.
Cheng'an got up early today. He was too excited about the Zhuazhou Ceremony and had expended a lot of energy. As he was playing, he soon fell asleep leaning on his brother.
This time, Yinreng did not send him back directly, but hugged the little guy with a milky scent and took a nap on the Luohan bed.
Since entering Xian'an Palace, Yinreng often had trouble sleeping and would dream of himself being deposed from time to time. At this moment, hugging the little guy with the smell of milk, he finally had a good sleep.
After waking up, Yinreng quietly admired the innocent and peaceful sleeping face of the little guy beside him for a while, and then ordered someone to take the still sleeping little guy back.
In fact, he wanted to just leave the person here, but unfortunately he was not the prince who could do whatever he wanted.
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