The game they played was very simple: rolling dice and guessing the numbers.
There were many pastimes among the Qing Dynasty royal family and nobles. However, even if the children entered the palace to attend the New Year's banquet, they would inevitably play these games. Therefore, Yinzhen directly led them to practice first.
That way I won't have to play with those cousins and lose everything.
The brothers used to play like this too. The fourteenth brother always liked to cheat, and he had bad luck with throwing, so he was always last in the game.
This time, the one who resembles the fourteenth prince is Fei Yang'a.
However, Fei Yanga had good gambling manners. Even after losing all his gold and silver coins, he was neither angry nor unhappy. Instead, he watched his brother win money with great interest.
When Feng Shenge won money, he cheered and even helped his brother get more money. When Feng Shenge lost, he comforted him, saying that his brother was just exceptionally talented and had only made a mistake.
This left Changning and Yinzhen both amused and exasperated.
He really is a brother-obsessed guy!
Hutuli also seemed quite interested. She wasn't that competitive; she just wanted to have some fun, since she wasn't short of money anyway.
Feng Sheng'e had the same attitude towards gambling. He would just play around and not take it seriously. He wasn't excited when he won money, and he would just laugh it off when he lost money.
Changning thought to himself, "Isn't this what they call 'not being elated by external gains, nor saddened by personal losses'?"
Yinzhen was quite satisfied with Feng Sheng'e's attitude. Today, he was not only taking them out to play, but also to teach them some principles.
Feng Sheng'e has been studying in the palace for two or three months now, and he has made considerable progress.
He used to be clever and composed, but he always had a natural naiveté. That was the mindset that Changning taught him. He hadn't experienced so much darkness, so he always had a sense of innocence in his interactions with others.
But after two or three months in the palace, he looks different from before. How to put it, he has more of the air of a prince raised in the palace.
Yinzhen patted Fengsheng's forehead and asked him in a low voice, "Fengsheng, don't you like to play?"
Feng Sheng'e thought for a moment before replying, "It's not that I don't like it, it's just that I prefer being with my father and mother to playing dice."
What a good son! These words warmed their hearts and made them feel very comforted.
Yinzhen breathed a sigh of relief, but still asked, "Fengsheng'e is very filial. But can you tell your father why you find playing dice boring?"
"My son felt that it was pointless to put his luck into such ephemeral things. He would rather spend that time reading a book or writing a piece of calligraphy."
Yinzhen nodded, not at all surprised that Feng Sheng'e could come up with such a reasoning, because he had thought the same way when he was a child.
However, he still wanted to warn Feng Sheng'e: "When your father was young, he had the same idea as you."
Upon hearing this, Feng Sheng'e immediately looked up, his eyes sparkling as he gazed at Yinzhen with a sense of pride that said, "So I'm just like my father."
Yinzhen smiled. After all, he was just a child, and he still had a lot of affection for him.
"But now, I've learned a lesson. Everything in excess is bad. You shouldn't be too engrossed in socializing and having fun, and you certainly shouldn't let yourself become obsessed with things. I'm sure you understand that too. But I also want to tell you that if you push yourself too hard, you can easily go to the other extreme."
Yinzhen's eyes were deep, churning with inexplicable emotions: "As a member of the royal family, there is so much for you to learn: the Four Books and Five Classics, Confucian classics, Manchu and Mongolian languages. All of these will take a toll on your efforts, and you must learn to manage them appropriately."
"Moreover, we need to learn to control our entertainment, not avoid it altogether. Only by getting to know it and understanding it can we better manage it. Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will win every battle."
Changning was stunned by these remarks. She had thought that Yinzhen would definitely admonish his son not to be playful at such a young age, but instead, he told him to balance work and rest. It seems that the educational philosophy of the ancients was quite advanced.
Yinzhen continued, "In this world, things are neither good nor bad. You should see if you can profit from them. Do you think playing dice is just a waste of time? Is money the only thing you can gain?"
Feng Sheng'e seemed thoughtful this time, then shook his head: "No, when guessing numbers, you also have to observe other people's expressions and guess what they are thinking. I think that's a skill in itself."
Yinzhen nodded in satisfaction, thinking, "This child is teachable."
Hutuli wasn't interested in this dice-themed discussion. Her unlucky younger brother, Hongchen, grabbed her hair, making her furious and flailing her arms.
"Hongchen! Why do you keep pulling my hair!"
Her response was Hongchen's toothless grin: "Ah! Ah! Ah!"
Hongchen was born fair and chubby, with a milky fragrance, and looked like a little angel, but Hutu knew that he was a little devil.
However, Hutu was not going to tolerate him. The elder sister's authority was inviolable. She grabbed Hongchen's hair again, following the principle of "an eye for an eye."
So, after Yinzhen finished disciplining his son, he turned around and saw that little Hongchen and Hutuli were pulling each other's hair and fighting.
Hongmin sat to one side, watching with amusement.
There's a sense of watching the spectacle.
Changning felt that her son seemed a bit cunning.
Hutuli's subordinates were quite sensible; after all, he was his own brother, and his retaliation was merely for revenge and to vent his anger.
Yinzhen quickly picked up Hongchen and checked if Hutuli's scalp was injured. He knew that this kid was very strong, and he didn't know what stage he was in now. He wanted to grab anything that could move, especially things like hair and thread.
On several occasions, Hongchen grabbed Yinzhen's braid and pulled out a bald patch of his hair. Changning even joked that he was going to become bald. Although he didn't know what "bald" meant, it didn't sound like a nice term.
Yinzhen thought that this kid probably spent a lot of time with Tuantuan and the other kittens, and even their habits were starting to resemble his.
Will this work?
However, with Tuantuan and the other cats watching over the children, they felt much more at ease.
Yinzhen observed several times that Hongmin and Hongchen slept in the side rooms of Qingzhi Courtyard every day, and also spent the most time with Tuantuan.
Besides being affectionate with her husband Yuanyuan, Tuantuan would often lie at the foot of Hongmin and Hongchen's bed, displaying a protective posture.
If anyone sneaks in, she'll be the first to hear it, her little ears will immediately perk up, and she'll be very alert.
What a wonderful cat!
It would be even better if we could have another dog.
Yinzhen had always been fond of dogs, but he was also worried that if he kept dogs in Qingzhi Courtyard, the cats and dogs might not get along, and it would be a mess and not worth it, so he kept putting it off.
That's enough, this family of cats, Tuantuan and Yuanyuan, is enough. They can protect their owner, and they are brave and clever. They are really good.
The family played for quite a long time, until Fei Yangadu yawned, and then they dispersed.
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