Zhao Yan whispered repeatedly: "Jiu Jiu is a good person…"
Li Meiren didn't want to argue with him about this – what could a five-year-old child know about what makes a good person?
At the moment, she was more concerned about another matter.
Li Meiren placed both hands on Zhao Yan's shoulders and asked with a beaming smile: "Did your Father Emperor have him escort you back? Did you perform well in today's assessment? Did your Father Emperor praise you?"
Zhao Yan shook his head: "No, Father Emperor praised Crown Prince brother, Third Brother and Fourth Brother."
Li Meiren's smile stiffened momentarily, but immediately revived with renewed vigor: "It doesn't matter. The fact that your Father Emperor had someone escort you back is a good start."
She wanted to ask more, but Zhao Yan rubbed his eyes and complained of being tired.
Seeing him like this, Li Meiren had Ban Xia take him to rest first. When Chen Xiang returned, she questioned her in detail about what had happened in the Imperial Study.
Chen Xiang only said: "This servant only knows that His Majesty visited the Imperial Study, but doesn't know the content of the assessment. Later, the Seventh Prince started crying for some reason, and no matter how the people in the Imperial Study tried to comfort him, they couldn't stop him. Liu Hanlin had this servant go over to comfort him, and then classes continued until dismissal."
"Cried?" Li Meiren immediately grew tense: "Was someone bullying Xiao Qi?"
Chen Xiang shook her head: "This servant doesn't know. After dismissal, this servant asked the Seventh Prince, but he refused to say."
Li Meiren pressed her lips together: Xiao Qi was timid – unless he had suffered great injustice, he would absolutely never cry loudly in public.
Since Xiao Qi refused to say, she would just have to ask herself.
If someone had bullied Xiao Qi, she would definitely seek explanation from the Empress.
Thus, taking advantage of Zhao Yan's nap, Li Meiren went to the Imperial Garden and waited along the route the princes always took after class.
When the Sixth Prince passed by, she called out to stop him and inquired about what had happened in class that day.
Why did Xiao Qi cry? What exactly happened?
The Sixth Prince hemmed and hawed, unable to answer for a long time.
The Fifth Prince coming from behind loudly declared: "Xiao Qi fell asleep in class, and his handwriting was really ugly too. He cried because Father Emperor scolded him."
The Sixth Prince frowned, his small brow furrowed: "Fifth Brother, what nonsense are you saying?" Although he didn't know why Xiao Qi had cried, it definitely wasn't for the reason Fifth Brother said.
If Fifth Brother said this, Li Meiren would surely scold Xiao Qi when she returned.
The Fifth Prince pouted: "I'm not talking nonsense at all."
The two young children began arguing in their sedan chairs, creating a noisy commotion in the Imperial Garden.
Li Meiren looked grave: Xiao Qi's handwriting was indeed ugly – could he really have been reprimanded for this?
This child, why couldn't he just tell her about this?
If his handwriting is ugly, he just needs to practice more.
When she returned, Zhao Yan was already awake, sitting blankly at the table. Li Meiren didn't mention what had just happened, but simply reached out to stroke his hair and asked gently: "Did you apply medicine to your sprained wrist? Bring the medicine here, Mother will apply it for you."
Medicine? What medicine?
Zhao Yan stiffened, then scratched his head, and scratched it again.
Li Meiren looked puzzled: "The medicine? Did you lose it?"
Zhao Yan timidly nodded.
Li Meiren: "Where did you lose it?"
Zhao Yan hesitantly named a location: "The Imperial Garden?"
Li Meiren grew anxious: "That was bestowed upon you by your Father Emperor! Without medicine, when will your hand get better?" She stood up to go back to the Imperial Garden.
Zhao Yan urgently grabbed her: "Mother, it's alright. My hand doesn't hurt anymore, it's fine without medicine." There was no medicine in the Imperial Garden – he had given it all to Jiu Jiu.
Li Meiren looked skeptical. "Really?"
Just then, Chen Xiang brought over a cup of tea. Zhao Yan directly picked up the teacup to show her. "Mother, look, I'm fine." It actually hadn't hurt much to begin with, and after applying the medicine given by Father Emperor, it was almost completely healed.
Li Meiren sat down calmly and said in a light tone, "Since it doesn't hurt, you can start practicing calligraphy tonight."
Zhao Yan felt suffocated: "…"
He looked at Li Meiren, then at Chen Xiang, and finally at his own hand: Serves you right for being so quick to show off, serves you right.
His mother was purely setting him up!
Why hadn't he realized it sooner?
That night, Li Meiren placed three sheets of Xuan paper in front of him and said gently, "Since Xiao Qi's hand hurts, you can rest after finishing these three sheets."
Zhao Yan breathed a huge sigh of relief. As soon as Li Meiren left, he turned to Chen Xiang nearby and said, "Sister Chen Xiang, I'm hungry. Can you find me something to eat?"
Where could she find food at this hour?
Chen Xiang was hesitant, but thinking that the young prince would probably be writing for quite some time, she quickly went out anyway.
The door closed, and the sound of footsteps faded away.
Zhao Yan immediately pulled a whistle from his sleeve pocket, dashed to the window, and blew hard into the dark night sky.
The whistle sound was short and clear, carrying far through the night mist.
The child's eyes sparkled as he leaned against the windowsill, eagerly looking outside.
The shadow guard stationed outside quickly reported to the Tianyou Emperor. Moments later, the Tianyou Emperor, dressed in black with his face covered by a black cloth, appeared outside the window of Jingfu Pavilion.
The child excitedly jumped twice and whispered, "Jiu Jiu…"
The Tianyou Emperor immediately asked, "Has the Seventh Prince decided what secret to tell this humble servant?" The child nodded, gesturing for him to lean closer.
Footsteps sounded from outside the bedroom—Chen Xiang had returned.
Zhao Yan grew nervous. The Tianyou Emperor shot a glance toward the shadows. A shadow guard leaped down from a tree, swiftly appeared behind Chen Xiang, knocked her out, and carried her away.
The noise outside the bedroom soon vanished.
Zhao Yan quickly asked, "Where did Sister Chen Xiang go?"
"She went back to her own room to sleep," the Tianyou Emperor replied with a hint of impatience. "Can the Seventh Prince now share the secret?"
Zhao Yan stood on his tiptoes, leaned close to his ear, and whispered, "Actually, after I fell into the water, I forgot a lot of things. I even forgot the books I've memorized."
That's it?
The Tianyou Emperor frowned. "Is that all?"
Zhao Yan: "That's all."
The Tianyou Emperor stared intently into the child's eyes. If not for the utterly naive foolishness reflected in them, he might have thought the child was teasing him.
Slightly disappointed, he turned to leave.
Zhao Yan grabbed him. "Jiu Jiu!"
The Tianyou Emperor patiently asked, "What is it? Speak." He still had many memorials left to review.
Zhao Yan relaxed, scurried over to the table, and sat down. In front of him were brushes, ink, paper, and an inkstone. The Tianyou Emperor climbed into the room after him.
The child's eyes shone brightly as he asked, "Jiu Jiu, do you know how to write?"
The Tianyou Emperor thought the child wanted him to teach calligraphy and was about to show off his skills. To his surprise, the child pushed a stack of Xuan paper toward him. "Then can Jiu Jiu help me finish writing these?"
He then raised his left hand and showed it to him, whining softly, "Please, please? My hand hurts so much. Jiu Jiu said you'd help with anything."
The Tianyou Emperor's eye twitched. "Your hand hurts, and your mother still made you practice this much?"
The child shook his head. "Mother only asked me to practice three sheets."
The Tianyou Emperor was puzzled. "Then what about these?" He pinched the thick stack of paper—there must have been thirty sheets.
Zhao Yan counted on his fingers for him. "Three sheets today, three tomorrow, three the day after…" He folded down his fingers one by one. "That'll last ten days." He had gone through great trouble to get these Xuan paper from Sixth Brother.
He had known all along that his mother wouldn't give up on making him practice calligraphy. He had originally planned to secretly ask Sister Chen Xiang to write some for him.
The Tianyou Emperor frowned. Was this how the brat was dealing with calligraphy practice?
If it were any other prince, he would have scolded him without fail.
He glanced at the child's wrist and eventually picked up the brush, dipping it in ink…
An emperor's word was law. Since he had promised to help with anything, he would write.
Just this once, and never again.
The Tianyou Emperor wrote a few characters with his left hand. The child grinding the ink beside him shook his head anxiously. "No, no, the characters need to be uglier!" The child pulled his own writing over and pointed very seriously at the dog-scratch-like characters. "Look, Jiu Jiu, they need to be this ugly!"
The Tianyou Emperor genuinely couldn't bring himself to write characters that hideous.
Even his foot-written characters would look better than these.
The next moment, the child's eyes lit up. "How about Jiu Jiu writes with his foot? If you use your foot, your characters will definitely be as ugly as mine!"
The Tianyou Emperor felt like throwing the brush.
The child looked pitiful, clasping his hands together pleadingly. "Please, please! If I don't finish, my mother definitely won't let me sleep, and I'll surely oversleep tomorrow morning…"
The Tianyou Emperor: If he overslept, he would be forced to reverse time.
Then the Dragon Vein would fluctuate again, and he'd have to dress and undress repeatedly…
The Tianyou Emperor: He had dug his own grave. Why had he given that little rascal the whistle?!
Writing with his foot was truly impossible. He switched to his left hand, gripping the brush in an awkward, unnatural posture as he began to write.
With the first stroke, the child jumped up again. "No, no, it needs to be even uglier."
Time reversed, and the Tianyou Emperor was forced to start over.
The writing wasn't ugly enough—start over.
Too neat—start over.
Too clean—start over.
Over and over again…
Though it was only thirty sheets of Xuan paper, the Tianyou Emperor ended up doing the equivalent of three hundred sheets.
After finishing the three hundred sheets of calligraphy in that extremely contorted posture, the Tianyou Emperor was sore all over, his back aching and fingers cramping. It was even more exhausting than reviewing memorials for three days straight.
He must have been kicked in the head by a donkey—first foolishly rewarding the little rascal with calligraphy practice, then sending word to Li Meiren!
He had dug himself into a deep pit.
The National Preceptor was right—this child was truly incompatible with him!