After all, the Lunar New Year was approaching, and the imperial court usually "closed its books" and stopped working on the 26th day of the twelfth lunar month, so preparations had to be made in advance. Therefore, the prince was indeed busy.
Seeing this, Hongjing pressed on, saying, "Besides, if Father blames me, I'll take the blame."
The man quickly flattered, "Not at all, Your Highness is probably praising the prince's filial piety!"
"Enough with the nonsense." Hongjing looked at the man and decisively said, "It's good that you don't object. In that case, do as I say!"
The man had no choice but to follow Hongjing's instructions and bring over the tools.
Hongjing didn't tell the servants to pick the fruit immediately, but instead had them follow him with baskets.
He then walked towards the vegetable patch, bent down, and picked some vegetables.
The servants dared not let him pick them, and hurriedly said, "Brother, we servants can do this."
Hongjing shook his head and said in a childish voice, "I'll do it myself, you don't need to interfere."
After saying that, Hongjing continued to pick the vegetables.
After picking about one basket of each kind, I picked another basket separately and put some of each kind of vegetable in it.
Then, they walked out of the vegetable garden.
As he walked out, he instructed, “Take these baskets,” pointing to the clearly categorized ones, “to Father, so that Father and my brothers can all taste the vegetables they grew.”
Then, pointing to the basket he had filled with many kinds of vegetables, he said, "Take this basket to my mother."
Upon hearing this, the servant immediately obeyed the order and turned around to instruct others to pack up several baskets of vegetables so that they could be easily taken back to the Prince's mansion.
After the servant left with the baskets of vegetables, Hongjing turned around and instructed, "You, pick all the remaining harvestable vegetables and put them in the baskets one by one."
The servants were puzzled. Hadn't they just picked vegetables and sent them to the Prince's mansion? Why were they picking more?
But they always obeyed orders. Even though the person giving the orders was the young Fifth Prince, no one looked down on him or ignored his commands. Instead, they picked the items as instructed.
Jiaming there
She looked at the basket of vegetables in front of her, somewhat puzzled: "Hongjing asked you to deliver these vegetables?"
"Yes!" the servant replied respectfully, bowing his head.
"Is it the batch that Grandpa planted?" Although Jiaming asked, she already had a good idea. After all, in the Yuanmingyuan Garden, the only places with vegetables, besides the kitchen, were the ones that Grandpa planted.
Sure enough, the servant nodded.
Jiaming: "Didn't Master say he was waiting for news from him? Why didn't you stop him from picking the vegetables?"
“The servants are incompetent and cannot stop him. Moreover, the prince said that he is very busy before the end of the year and is afraid that he will not be able to come. So, he did it in his place.”
Jiaming was just saying it casually; she didn't think it was a big deal. She figured the vegetables were already picked, so be it!
Then she continued to listen to the servant's reply, such as that the vegetables were all picked by Hongjing himself, including those sent to the prince and those for her.
...
Unlike Jiaming, Hongtao, who was listening to the conversation, praised Hongjing to Jiaming after the servant left.
"Fifth Prince is so thoughtful. Knowing that the Prince is busy, he picked them for him and even personally picked them and delivered them to the Prince."
Everyone likes to hear nice words, and Jiaming is no exception.
But she still held back for a moment and said, "Well, she is quite filial."
Hongtao smiled and continued, "Yes, Fifth Prince is also very filial to you. That's why he picked some vegetables and brought you a basket of them."
Jiaming's smile widened, and she stopped being modest. She simply instructed, "Have someone send this basket of vegetables to the small kitchen. I'll use these vegetables to cook later."
Hongtao nodded, then went out to find someone to come in and have them take the basket of vegetables out.
Prince Yong's Mansion
In the study, when the Fourth Master heard the servants report this matter and saw the several baskets of vegetables that Hongjing had brought, he was indeed not angry.
On the contrary, she felt very comforted. Her Fifth Prince was so thoughtful. He knew she was busy, so he helped her accept the gifts and even sent them to her to try.
Su Peisheng, who was standing nearby, said with great shrewdness, "Fifth Prince is truly filial to you, Your Majesty!"
This flattery hit the nail on the head, and the Fourth Master's eyes were full of smiles; he was in a great mood.
The Fourth Prince rewarded the servants who delivered vegetables from the Yuanmingyuan Garden, and then instructed Su Peisheng: "Go and bring me the white jade unicorn paperweight from the storeroom, and have someone deliver it to the Fifth Prince."
"Yes, sir!" Su Peisheng immediately accepted the order and was about to leave.
"Wait!" Fourth Master called out to him.
Su Peisheng: "Sir, is there anything else you need?"
Fourth Master waved his hand and then ordered, "By the way, have a few princes come over for a meal later and let them try the vegetables they planted some time ago."
During the meal, several princes arrived together.
However, looking at the dishes, there are all kinds of vegetarian dishes. Only a few dishes are not purely vegetarian, but they are still a combination of meat and vegetables. Overall, it looks like a table of vegetarian dishes that couldn't be more vegetarian.
Hongshi was taken aback, then pursed his lips. "Just a few plates of vegetables, what's so delicious about them?"
Hongxuan was also taken aback, but quickly recovered and began to ponder.
Soon, he remembered that Little Li had told him earlier that people from the Old Summer Palace had come and brought back a truckload of things.
Thinking back to his days at the Old Summer Palace, a flash of inspiration struck him, and he immediately understood the significance of this simple meal.
Honghui was also stunned, and then puzzled. Why was the food so simple when his father invited them to dine?
The servants certainly wouldn't dare to do anything carelessly, so it could only be that Father gave the order.
After a while, the Fourth Master arrived. He asked his sons to sit down and said, "The vegetables grown in Yuanmingyuan are ready to be harvested. Just now, your Fifth Brother brought over several baskets of green vegetables, which he picked himself, saying that we should all taste the vegetables we grew ourselves."
Hongshi muttered to himself that Hongjing was a sycophant, trying to curry favor with his father with this! Then he thought to himself, "It's just vegetables, isn't it? They all taste the same, what's so special about them?"
However, even when eating by myself, I kept reaching for my chopsticks.
Perhaps it's just the psychological effect of thinking that vegetables grown by oneself taste better?
Hongshi denied it; he only admitted that he was hungry.
However, Hongxuan and Honghui both acknowledged this idea in their hearts, as did the Fourth Prince.
Yuanmingyuan
Jiaming prepared the dishes and served them on the table. Hongjing then sat upright, waiting to dine.
Perhaps it's because after putting in the effort, you feel that the vegetables you grow are just the tastiest.
The little guy was no exception. He already thought his mother was a great cook, and now he felt that the food he sent tasted even better.
The little mouth chewed and chewed, until the little belly was bulging and full.
After finishing his meal, the little guy said, "Mommy, I'm going to play," and jumped off the chair, trying to slip away.
Jiaming felt something was wrong. Usually, after the little one had lunch, he would take a nap to digest his food. Why did he suddenly say he wanted to go play?
He stopped the little guy and asked in confusion, "Aren't you going to take a nap? Where are you going to play?" As he asked, his eyes lingered on the little guy's face.
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