The Eighth Prince's wife was somewhat foolish, but she could still understand that Consort De was giving her a warning. Consort Hui, on the other hand, was using this as an excuse to embarrass her and Consort Liang, and to get revenge on her husband for stealing her elder brother's girlfriend, causing her elder brother to be imprisoned by the Emperor!
But she understood, which is why her expression was unpleasant.
She glanced at her fourth sister-in-law and fourth wife, hoping that, considering how much she cared for her, they could say a word for her and offer her a way out, so that she and Consort Liang could save face.
The Fourth Prince's wife pretended not to receive the look from the Eighth Prince's wife, and instead turned to her back, very virtuously instructing Jiaming, "After you go in, follow me."
Jiaming nodded seriously and said, "I understand."
The Eighth Prince's wife was furious! She glared fiercely at the Fourth Prince's wife.
Jiaming was certain that she was holding a grudge against her own wife.
However, she glanced at her own wife and thought to herself: If I were the wife, I wouldn't care! Let her complain if she wants; the wife wouldn't need the Eighth Wife to do anything for her.
As they went in to pay their respects to the Empress Dowager, they all wore smiles, as if nothing had happened.
But pretending it never happened doesn't mean it never actually happened.
Before leaving the palace, the Eighth Prince, Yinzhi, learned about it from his mother, Consort Liang. Of course, the Eighth Prince did not have the opportunity to meet with Consort Liang in secret; instead, Consort Liang found a trusted confidante to relay her words to the Eighth Prince without missing a single one.
As a result, the Eighth Prince's wife was scolded by the Eighth Prince, and then, with a flick of her sleeve, she went to Lady Wang's place.
When the Eighth Prince's wife found out, she regarded Lady Wang as a thorn in her side.
As for Lady Wang, she went to the trouble of adding fuel to the fire by saying many bad things about the Eighth Prince's wife to the Eighth Prince.
Not only did he fail to add fuel to the fire, but he also ended up losing more than he gained and was severely reprimanded by Master Ba.
Then, the Eighth Prince left, and she fell out of favor for a while.
In a short time, both the wife and concubine fell out of favor, while the concubine Mao, who was not particularly favored in the household, gained favor.
After learning the news from Xiao Hezi, Jiaming praised him, saying, "You did a good job."
Xiao Hezi smiled modestly and said, "It's not that I did a good job, but that Wang Shi is really easy to fool. She actually believed such a bad idea of taking advantage of someone else. The other things I prepared were never used."
Jiaming chuckled and said, "It's better that we don't need her. It's even better that she's not very bright. People like that are easier to deal with."
Xiao Hezi nodded in agreement: "That's right."
Of course, that happened later.
Jiaming followed behind the Fujin, bowing to the Empress Dowager, the concubines in the harem, the primary wives of the princes, and exchanging greetings with the secondary wives of the princes.
After all that fuss, she stood there blankly behind the princess, like a wooden stake.
After standing there like wooden stakes for a while, listening to the back-and-forth of sharp words, the group, led by the Empress Dowager, headed to the palace where the New Year's Eve banquet would be held.
Shortly after they arrived there, Emperor Kangxi came.
After Jiaming bowed and greeted the Fujin, he returned to the Fujin's side.
The Fujin (principal wife) spoke with her sisters-in-law and then told her that she didn't need to stay by her side, and went to the gathering place of the other concubines.
And so, the primary consorts and the secondary consorts gathered together, chatting and laughing.
Just then, a burst of laughter suddenly came from the princes' side. Moreover, it wasn't just the princes and nobles laughing; it was the grandsons of the emperor, and even the emperor himself.
For a moment, everyone wondered what they were laughing about.
Because they were quite far away, they didn't hear what the emperor said; otherwise, they would have covered their mouths and laughed too.
It turned out that Emperor Kangxi had his princes each bring their children to him so that he could get to know them.
After all, there are more and more imperial grandsons, and there are many he hasn't met yet. He wants to take advantage of the New Year's Eve reunion to meet them.
When the Fourth Prince led his sons to pay their respects to Emperor Kangxi, everything was fine at first.
When Kangxi told them to stand up, he looked at Hongjing, who resembled the fourth prince in his childhood (seven parts resembling him) and Hongxuan in his current form (seven parts resembling him), and exclaimed with great delight, "The youngest one here is your fourth prince's little prince who sells vegetables!"
Pfft!
The princes and grandsons of the emperor all laughed!
Of course, some laughter is normal, while others is not.
For example: Pfft!
These are princes or grandsons of the emperor drinking tea, and they're bursting with laughter!
For example: cough, cough cough, cough cough cough...
He was eating something and choked because he was laughing.
Hongjing, the person involved, froze with an awkward smile.
The father of the person involved, the Fourth Prince, turned pale and thought to himself: Father, it's been a while since this happened, can you please stop bringing it up?
Kangxi watched the Fourth Prince's change of expression with great amusement and indicated that of course it wouldn't work.
Such a great opportunity to see the fourth brother change his expression and have fun, of course we should seize it again.
Hongxuan was quite familiar with his grandfather's wicked sense of humor, and immediately glanced at his father with some sympathy, then felt sorry for his younger brother.
Father suffered injustice at the hands of the Emperor, and he certainly wouldn't let the culprit, his own fifth brother Hongjing, get away with it.
Tsk, the original punishment wasn't over yet; it was only paused because people stopped living in the Old Summer Palace. A new punishment is coming.
Tsk, I hope Father won't implicate Mother this time.
As expected, Kangxi did not allow the Fourth Prince and his sons to sit down, but instead had Yinqi and his princes come up to pay their respects. Instead, he continued to speak to them.
"He looks about seven-tenths like you when you were a child, Fourth Prince." The first half of the sentence was nothing special, but the second half, as Kangxi looked at Hongxuan, said meaningfully, "However, this child is indeed worthy of being born of the same mother as your Fourth Prince, Hongxuan, hehe!"
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