Chapter 135 Chat
In the blink of an eye, Kangxi had been away from the Forbidden City for half a month.
As for the concubines in the harem, life was still the same even without Kangxi. However, the princes who studied in the upper study room were not used to the days without Kangxi's frequent inspections of the upper study room and checking their homework.
Especially since the eldest prince Yinzhi went to join the army, and the crown prince Yinreng was busy with the affairs of regent and had no time to come to class, the teacher went to the Qianqing Palace to give him private lessons.
Now that these two most diametrically opposed people have left, the upper study can be described as harmonious, even a little boring.
In the upper study room, the master who was going to teach today had not arrived yet, so the brothers gathered in twos and threes. Even the eighty, ninety, eleventh, twelveth and thirteenth brothers who were taught by different masters came over without knowing when.
The third prince Yinzhi lay on the table and looked back at Yinzhen and Yinsi who were sitting behind him.
He set his sights on Yinsi, who paid no attention to him. He came here to look for his fourth brother, but was pestered by Yinlu and Yin who came with him.
Yinzhi shifted his gaze to Yinzhen.
Yinzhen was reading a book with his head down. When he noticed the gaze, he raised his head and looked at Yinzhi: "Third brother, what's the matter?"
Yinzhen's question started Yinzhi talking.
He no longer lay on his desk, but stood up and turned around.
"Fourth brother, they say that fathers and sons fight together in battle. When do you think we can follow Khan Ama into battle like my eldest brother?"
Yinzhi, Yinzhi and Yinreng were not much different in age, but one of them followed Kangxi into the battlefield to kill the enemy, while the other served as regent in the previous dynasty. However, he could only study in the upper study room with a group of younger brothers. Yinzhi did not feel very good about this.
Yinzhen looked at his third brother who was full of longing, and said, "Third brother, when we grow up to be the same age as our eldest brother, if the war in Junggar has not been settled by then, Khan Ama will naturally arrange for us to go to the battlefield."
"By the time we grow up to be as old as our eldest brother, Galdan will have died hundreds of times. Will it be our turn?"
The more Yinzhi thought about it, the more hopeless he felt.
Seeing Yinzhi's dejected face, Yinzhen awkwardly tried to comfort him: "Even if we can't fight in the battlefield, we can still help Khan Ama after we enter the court."
It didn't matter. Besides, he actually preferred to work for Khan Ama rather than fight in the battlefield, Yinzhen added silently in his heart.
It can be seen that the results of his special training in horse riding and archery were not ideal.
Yinzhi showed an envious look when he heard this. He sighed, "Fourth brother, it's easy for you to say that. You are now raised by Concubine Jin's side. Even if Khan Ama doesn't want to use you for a long time, Concubine Jin can ask Khan Ama for you. But it's different for me, your brother. My mother hasn't seen Khan Ama for a long time."
Yinzhi felt a headache when he thought of his mother who was fasting and chanting Buddhist scriptures in the palace all day long.
Suddenly, Yinzhi seemed to be interested and no longer insisted on going into battle to kill the enemy. Instead, he asked enthusiastically, "Fourth brother, is Concubine Jin good to you and eighth brother?"
Before Yinzhen spoke, Yinsi beside him temporarily focused his attention, "Third brother, aunt treats fourth brother and me very well, very well! Third brother, it's useless for you to be envious!"
Yinzhi got excited, "Hey, you little bastard, I'm asking your fourth brother, why are you in such a hurry? Why, are you in a hurry to prove that you don't stutter anymore?"
"Don't talk about mynah bird!" The fat boy Yin stood up for Yinsi and pushed Yinzhi, but unfortunately he failed to move him.
Yinzhi rubbed his arm with a grin, "You little boy, you are small, but you are very strong."
When he looked up again, Yinzhen was staring at him with a dark face, and even Yin'er was standing next to Yinsi with an unfriendly look towards him.
Yinzhi waved his hands repeatedly, "Okay, okay, you guys are all in the same group." Yinzhi patted his mouth, "Third brother said something wrong, can you apologize to Xiaoba?"
"Humph." Yin returned to Yinsi and boasted to him: "Eighth brother, don't be sad. I will teach Third Brother a lesson for you."
Yinzhen also said to Yinzhi seriously: "Third brother, please don't joke about this anymore. Eighth brother is not a stutterer."
Yinsi was stunned at first, but was protected by both his younger brother and older brother. He felt warm at heart and no longer cared about Yinzhi's gaffe just now.
Yinzhi looked at the people who were against him and felt isolated and helpless. He immediately turned around to find external help for himself.
Fifth brother? No, that's not appropriate. This is Xiaojiu's biological brother, he will definitely stand on Xiaojiu's side, then Xiaoyi is not appropriate either.
Seventh brother?
Oh, yes, yes, it’s the seventh brother.
"Seventh brother, come here quickly." Yinzhi waved to Yinyou.
When Yinyou heard Yinzhi calling him, he immediately put down what he was doing and walked to Yinzhi. If you look closely, you will find that his walking posture seems unnatural, with his shoulders slumped.
Seeing that he had a helper, Yinzhi immediately became motivated again.
Yinzhen looked at his childish brother in silence.
Suddenly, he seemed to have discovered something and his expression softened.
Yinzhi stared in amazement at Yinzhen's change of expression, thinking that his fourth brother's expression-changing speed was almost catching up with Khan Ama's.
The same is true for Khan Ama.
One second he was stern and cold to him because he couldn't recite the book, but the next second he became gentle and kind because of the appearance of Crown Prince Yinreng. It was as if Yinreng was the good son of Khan Ama, and Yinzhi was worthless.
It is clear that when it comes to riding and shooting, he is able to compete with his elder brother; not to mention his talent and learning, he also pleases the Khan.
Is it because he is neither the eldest son nor the legitimate son?
Yinzhi shook off the aggrieved thoughts in his heart and looked in the direction Yinzhen was looking. He wanted to see what had caused his expressionless fourth brother to soften.
Following the point of his sight, he was stunned.
That was the thirteenth brother who was raised by Concubine De.
He looked at Yinzhen with a complicated expression. He had also heard about the Thirteenth Brother. In fact, the Thirteenth Brother's current situation was closely related to the Fourth Brother.
My fourth brother is really lucky.
It is obvious that neither of them is her biological mother, but one has a powerful family and the other is now the most favored concubine in the harem.
Whether or not the palace could keep a secret from one person depended entirely on Khan Ama's intention. The concubines in the palace and the older princes knew the dispute between Queen Tongjia and Concubine De very well, but Khan Ama forbade them to mention it, so no one dared to gossip about it in front of Fourth Brother.
After Queen Tongjia passed away, his mother told him that Concubine De had failed to get her fourth brother back, and now she had become even more stubborn.
This was hard for the thirteenth brother who was raised by her. Thinking of it this way, the thirteenth brother suffered for the fourth brother.
He was thrown into the study room at a young age just to get a comment in front of Khan Ama that he was very smart. Compared with the fact that Queen Tongjia used the reason that her fourth brother was too young to enter school until he was 6 years old, the difference is more than a little bit.
Yinzhi also felt a little pity for his younger brother. Yinzhen on the other side had already spoken softly: "Thirteenth brother, come to the fourth brother."
Yinxiang is the youngest child in the entire Shangshufang and the youngest son of Khan Ama. He is just old enough to enter the Shangshufang.
Speaking of which, Khan Ama has not had any children for many years.
Yinxiang came with several other princes, but he was not familiar with the other brothers. When he arrived, he just stayed quietly aside and watched his brothers make noise.
Perhaps it was because the envious look in his eyes was too obvious that Yinzhen noticed him.
When Yinxiang heard his fourth brother calling him, his eyes lit up with surprise and he walked up to Yinzhen without hesitation.
"Fourth brother, you called me?"
Yinzhen took out a handkerchief and wiped the ink on his face, asking casually, "What were you looking at just now? Why didn't you play with your brothers?"
Yinzhen glanced at the Eleventh and Twelve who were huddled together on the other side. The "brothers" he referred to were naturally these two. After all, they were the only ones who could be considered to be of the same age as Yinxiang.
Yinxiang blushed. He couldn't say that his brother thought he was too young and didn't want to play with him, right?
He shook his head and said insincerely, "I don't play."
Yinzhen did not expose him, but instead asked if he was used to staying in the study.
Yinxiang felt warm in his heart. This was the first time that his brother cared about him. Fourth brother was so nice.
"Replying to Fourth Brother, I'm used to it." As if he felt that this sentence was not convincing, he added: "I like going to the study room very much."
Yinzhen wanted to say something, but he noticed the late teacher walking towards the classroom.
Yinzhen could only temporarily suppress his unfinished words and reminded Yinsi beside him: "Xiao Ba, the master is here, you should go back quickly."
Yinzhen looked outside and saw that his master was almost at the door. He hurriedly called out to everyone to go back quickly.
Seeing Yinxiang still looking at him eagerly, Yinzhen could not help but tell Yinlu: "Take the thirteenth brother back with you."
Yinsi naturally listened to his fourth brother's words and immediately took Yinsi's hand and walked out.
Yinzhen hurriedly followed and walked on the other side of his hand, but Yin saw that his seat had been taken away by someone and was shouting and screaming.
"Myna! This is my seat, why are you holding someone else's hand?"
"This is not someone else, this is our younger brother." Yinsi glanced at Yin and signaled him to be careful with his words.
"Besides, this is what Fourth Brother asked us to bring back."
Hearing the name of "fourth brother", Yin shut up obediently. He had been naughty like his eighth and ninth brothers since he was a child, and he had no idea how many messes Yinzhen had cleaned up for him. He was extremely afraid of Yinzhen, thinking that Khan Ama was first and the fourth brother could only be second.
Even the eldest brother and the second brother, the crown prince, were not as scary as the fourth brother. Of course, this was also due to the fact that Yinzhi and Yinreng did not often hang out with them.
Yin stopped complaining and immediately followed Yin'er obediently. His chubby body looked very aggrieved.
Yinzhen glanced at the obedient Yin and said mockingly, "Now when Tenth Brother hears Fourth Brother's name, it's like a mouse hearing a cat's cry."
"Ninth brother, what nonsense are you talking about? I was just giving in to my younger brother, not because I was afraid of fourth brother." Yin said weakly.
Yinzhen gave a knowing smile and did not continue to sabotage.
Yinxiang's hand was held by Yinsi, and he felt a little envious as he listened to the conversation between his brothers.
I wish he had a brother as close to me as this.
Everyone returned to their respective classrooms. The instructor came in and apologized to the few people before starting the class.
There was no explanation as to why it was postponed today.
…
After the class, they naturally returned to West Fifth Institute. Of course, if they wanted to visit their mothers, they could go.
Yinzhen waited by the path, waiting for Yinsi. Khan Ama was not in the palace, and they agreed to go back to Yongshou Palace every day to have meals with Yuying.
Yinsi was pestered by Yin before he even left the house.
"Eighth Brother, please let me go back with you. I haven't visited Empress Jin for a long time. Empress Jin might miss me. Don't you think so, Ninth Brother?"
Although Yinzhen was not as rogue as Yin, he also followed Yinsi closely and expressed his desire to go with him.
"Tenth brother! You followed me back to Yongshou Palace yesterday. What nonsense are you talking about here?"
Yinsi tried to pull his sleeve out of Yin's hand, but Yin held it tightly.
The two of them pulled and tugged at each other until they slowed down.
Yinzhen waited for Yinsi to come out before Yinxiang. Yinxiang came up to Yinzhen and said hello: "Fourth brother, I'm going back first."
Yinzhen nodded, "Take care, Thirteenth Brother."
He also instructed the eunuch who followed Yinxiang: "Take good care of the Thirteenth Prince."
The young eunuch naturally agreed with a humble attitude.
Yinzhen waited for a while before the three brothers gathered together again.
"Are your ninth and tenth brothers coming along as well?" Yinzhen asked Yinsi.
Yinsi nodded helplessly, which showed that he had lost the confrontation just now.
Yinzhen saw Yinsi nodded, so he naturally had no objection, so he turned around and told Su Peisheng beside him: "Go to Yongshou Palace first and tell them that there are a few more people having dinner today."
Su Peisheng agreed and trotted away.
The four of them walked slowly towards Yongshou Palace.
…
Yinxiang returned to Yonghe Palace with a heavy heart, and Concubine De was sitting in the palace sipping tea.
Seeing him coming back, she raised her head and asked, "Are you back? Did you talk to your fourth brother today?"
Defei's temperament has changed drastically now. The gentleness between her eyebrows and eyes has disappeared, and has been replaced by depression.
Yinxiang stammered and was unable to speak.
De Fei put the cup on the table and said, "If you said it, it's said. If you didn't say it, it's not said. Why can't you answer it?"
"Reply to mother, I said...I said it."
After getting the answer she wanted, Concubine De's tone improved a lot, "Then why didn't you invite your fourth brother to Yonghe Palace?"
Ever since she failed to meet Yinzhen as she wished in Chengqian Palace, the Emperor and the Yongshou Palace had been guarding against her like a thief, not allowing her any chance to be alone with Yinzhen for a while.
This was why she resorted to this desperate measure and let Yinxiang get close to Yinzhen.
"Mother... Fourth brother and Eighth brother were in a hurry to return to Yongshou Palace, so I didn't have the chance to invite Fourth brother..."
Yinxiang was not lying, after all, they did want to return to Yongshou Palace.
It would have been better if she hadn't said it. Once she said it, Concubine De's expression changed.
She glared at Yinxiang and said, "Alright, you go down first. Let's do it tomorrow."
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