As soon as Yinzuo arrived in the capital, he had just returned home to wash up when he was summoned to the palace by an imperial edict. He didn't even have time to drink a sip of water.
Kangxi summoned him to his own bedroom, and he was wearing casual clothes. The first thing he said when he saw him was: "You have lost weight."
"Your Majesty, I respectfully wish you the best of health."
Kangxi did not embarrass him, but called him directly, saying: "When you were not here, no one cared about me when I had no appetite. Now that you are back, please accompany me for dinner."
"Thank you, Father Emperor, for the meal."
Yinzuo thought he was going to be scolded, so he was very tense and didn't relax at all.
"I heard from Li Xu that you particularly like to eat squirrel mandarin fish from a restaurant in Suzhou. I specially asked the imperial kitchen to prepare this dish for you. Although the shrimp is not the white shrimp from Taihu Lake, it is also the freshest. Try it and see if it suits your taste."
Yinzuo then noticed that the dishes in front of him were the famous dishes from Suzhou and Hangzhou. He didn't expect that after returning to the palace, not only was he not scolded, but the emperor was so kind to him. For a moment, the guilt and shame in his heart almost overwhelmed him.
He picked up his chopsticks and took a bite. No matter how good the food in the palace was, it still tasted slightly different from that in Suzhou and Hangzhou. But none of this mattered. What mattered was the emperor's love and indulgence for him.
“It tastes great, better than the local chefs in Suzhou and Hangzhou.”
Kangxi laughed and said, "You, you've been out having fun for a few months and you're not being honest anymore. The new chef hired by the imperial kitchen happens to be the junior fellow chef of the restaurant you often eat at. He himself admits that his cooking skills are not as good as his senior brother's."
“Father, I am speaking from my heart. The cooking skills of this pair of brothers are similar, and the ingredients used in the imperial court are more precious, so they can make up for the deficiency. In addition, this squirrel mandarin fish dish is innovative and slightly different from the traditional Suzhou method.
More importantly, this imperial meal embodies the emperor's love and care for me. To me, it tastes like home, so I think this one is better."
"Since you think your family is better, don't leave home just because you are greedy and stay away for months. If I hadn't asked Li Xu's people to protect you, I and your two mothers would probably have to send you off with our old age."
Yinzuo stood up and walked to the side of Kangxi, rolled up his hair, knelt down and kowtowed, speaking earnestly.
"No wonder I was able to escape danger in the end. It turned out that it was the Emperor who ordered people to protect me secretly. I am sorry for being unfilial and causing the Emperor to worry about me. I will never leave home without permission again. Home is the best place for me."
Yinzuo has been traveling around the mountains and rivers for the past few months, enjoying the natural world and fearing that his whereabouts would be discovered by the government. Apart from his love of eating, he has not done anything unusual. This was made very clear in Li Xu's report.
Kangxi just thought that he was just a teenager who had never been out and longed for freedom and wanted to enjoy the unrestrained pleasure. Who hasn't been young? When he was young, he also wanted to walk around by himself without being followed by so many people. So he didn't really blame the child for being impulsive.
"You, hurry up and get up. I don't even want to say anything to you. You've stayed outside for so long just to eat. I've also tasted the food in Suzhou and Hangzhou. It's just so-so. It's nowhere near as good as the food in the palace. If you complain that the food in your house is not good enough, I'll have the imperial kitchen prepare it and send it to you.
The Empress Dowager told me before that you are the most well-behaved and sensible among all the great-grandchildren. If she knew that you ran away in the middle of the night this time, she would definitely take back what she said immediately. "
Kangxi personally helped him up, and the father and son stood together and talked face to face for a long time.
"Your Majesty is right. I will never do that again. You don't know that the silver I brought with me was gone in less than half a month. I have been relying on selling stone carvings and paintings to make a living. Only then did I realize how happy it is to be with Your Majesty and Your Majesty. I wish I could stay with Your Majesty for the rest of my life."
"You do know how to plan. Do you want me to support you for the rest of your life?"
"Haha." Yinzuo smiled, and his meaning was obvious.
Seeing that the royal father and son were about to continue their conversation, Liang Jiugong immediately moved the Sixth Prince's chair and placed it next to the emperor to facilitate communication between the father and son.
"Father, please sit down. I have a lot to tell you. I have been away for a few months and have learned a lot. Some of the things I have seen are described in books, but there are also many things that have not been recorded in books."
"Oh, then I'd like to listen to it."
In between the conversations, Yinzuo would personally serve the emperor's meals from time to time. The meal was comfortable and the stories were interesting. Kangxi felt very happy. Listening to the extremely ordinary yet novel people and events described by Yinzuo, Kangxi was immersed in them.
The more Yinzuo spoke, the lower his voice became because he could hear his father's snoring. The people in the imperial court were all smart. When they saw the Sixth Prince coming out alone, they deliberately did not make any noise and immediately went in to serve him.
Liang Jiugong personally escorted him out of the hall, smiling like the Maitreya Buddha in the temple.
"Manager Liang, has the Emperor not been sleeping well recently?" In the past, the Emperor rarely fell asleep while talking like this.
"Since returning to Beijing from his southern tour, the emperor has become increasingly busy and often mad. Without you, Prince Beile, the emperor has no one to accompany him for meals, and he often sleeps uneasily at night. But even so, the emperor wants you to play outside for a while longer and is reluctant to urge you to return to Beijing."
"Thank you for the information, Chief Steward Liang. If the Emperor has a poor appetite or is in a bad mood, please send someone to find me."
"Oh! I was waiting for you to say this, Lord Beile! I won't keep you any longer. The Empress Dowager, the Empress, and the Virtuous Consort are waiting for you."
Yinzuo smiled, took the sedan chair and headed towards Ciren Palace. When he entered, he happened to hear the Queen Mother mention Qionghua's marriage.
"You are finally back. I was thinking of asking you to help your sister find out what your brother-in-law is like in the mansion, whether he loves people, and whether he has a concubine. Your fourth brother would never do such a thing. He always has a cold face, so it's not appropriate. The fourteenth brother is too young. After thinking it over, I think you have to do it."
"Yes, Mama, don't worry, I'll take care of it."
Before Yinzuo left, he privately asked his sister if she had any questions or things she wanted to know about her brother-in-law.
"The Emperor has been very kind to me. Princesses of all generations have been married off to grasslands thousands of miles away. Besides, Shun Anyan is the nephew of the Emperor's mother and was personally raised by Duke Tong. I believe he will be good. Ma is worried that I will be wronged. You just need to go and see him. Don't do anything else, otherwise the Emperor will be unhappy."
"But he is the one who will spend his life with you, Qionghua. Don't you want to think about it more?"
Qionghua hugged his arm and shook her head with a smile.
"Sixth brother, tell me about the interesting things that happened to you in Jiangnan these past few months."
"Okay, Jiangnan is a place completely different from the capital..."
The brother and sister sat in the corridor. Qionghua leaned on Yinzuo's shoulder, snuggling up to him like she did when she was a child, and listened quietly to her brother talking about his experiences.
"Sixth brother, sometimes I really envy you. I hope you will always be like this."
Yinzuo didn't quite understand this sentence, but he noticed that Qionghua was smiling with tears in her eyes, as if she was very happy, but also seemed unhappy.
"Qionghua, if you don't want to get married, I can ask the Emperor for you."
Qionghua shook her head again and said softly, "This is already my best choice. I should be content. Sixth brother, go and pay your respects to the Empress Dowager and Mother. I will not continue to monopolize you."
When Yinzuo left, he couldn't help but look back. This sister whom he had watched grow up little by little, now had grown up and no longer told him many things. He didn't even know what he could do for her.
When the sedan chair stopped at the gate of Chengqian Palace, Yinzuo came to his senses, gathered himself together, and stepped in.
But he found that both mothers were there, which was really beyond Yinzuo's expectations.
"Your son pays his respects to the Empress Dowager. Pays his respects to the Empress Dowager."
After not seeing each other for a long time, Yinzuo performed a complete set of ceremonies.
"The ground is cold, get up quickly and come over to talk." The Queen's attitude towards Yinzuo today was exceptionally gentle.
Both of them were mothers, so naturally they were concerned about Yinzuo's well-being. Yinzuo couldn't bear to tell them about the dangers he had encountered, so he could only tell them some interesting things.
When they had almost finished talking, the Queen brought up the reason why Yinzuo ran away.
"This child has never wanted to get married. That day in Hangzhou, I was a little impatient. I didn't expect that I would force him to run away secretly in the middle of the night. It's my fault, Concubine De. I asked you to come here today because I thought Yinzuo would come back late and I was afraid that I wouldn't have enough time to go to your place. Secondly, I also wanted to explain this matter to you clearly.
"I have also considered this. Yinzuo is a kind-hearted child. The previous marriage was indeed unexpected. Everyone in the capital said that he was destined to be unlucky in marriage. Yinzuo told me privately that he would rather believe it. In this case, I do not want to force him anymore. What do you think, Concubine De?"
Concubine De sighed and said, "This matter is of course not your fault, Queen. Since the child doesn't want to, then just let him be. If there is a destiny, it won't hurt to do it later."
"That's right. Just let His Majesty worry about this matter. It is His Majesty who makes the decision on granting marriage." The Queen joked with a smile.
After spending the entire afternoon talking with his two mothers, Yinzuo was not allowed to leave until the palace gates were locked.
Now that he was back in Beijing, it was inevitable that during the court session, Yinzuo yawned, hiding behind his brother. The ministers in front of him were arguing endlessly, no less than the vendors who had a conflict in the vegetable market and were swearing in the streets.
After standing there for more than an hour, as soon as he heard the words "dismissal of court", Yinzuo turned around and walked away, walking quickly towards Longchong Gate. He was in a hurry to take care of the flower garden in Cining Palace.
The princes who chased after him didn't have time to stop him or say hello to him.
Everyone felt uncomfortable looking at Sixth Brother's back as if he was trying to avoid them.
"Eighth brother, Ninth brother, tell me, did Sixth brother hear everyone talking about him that night? If I had known earlier, I should have stood up and stopped them." The Tenth Brother said in an annoyed tone.
The ninth brother, Yinzhen, put his hand on his shoulder and advised him, "We are all drunk, so it is inevitable that the words may be a little harsh. Don't blame yourself, tenth brother. Besides, we didn't say anything bad about the sixth brother."
As for the others, their expressions were more or less unnatural. After all, they were all chosen by heaven and were the emperor's sons, but only Yinzuo was praised. Those people even discussed their backgrounds behind their backs. Who wouldn't be angry? He was drunk again and didn't control his words, so he took out all his anger on Yinzuo.
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