Perhaps the Grand Empress Dowager felt that Dan Qing’s tendency to overthink things came from having been undervalued in the past, so from this day on, Dan Qing found that she suddenly had far more to say every day than before.
At mealtimes, she could no longer say she liked everything, she had to point out one dish she genuinely preferred, and yet not choose the same one every single day,
Every day she also had to decide for herself which clothes to wear, including what hairstyle to have done, which accessories to pair with it, and which shoes to put on, all of it was now for her to decide,
Whatever she was missing or running short of, He Miao would first come ask her about it, and only then, on Dan Qing’s word, would she go request it from the Grand Empress Dowager or Sumalagu.
In short, having originally thought that arriving at Cining Palace simply meant behaving herself and being a good, obedient child, Dan Qing suddenly found herself treated as though she were truly the mistress of this place, no longer able to passively accept whatever care others gave her, but required to voice her own requests herself.
At first it was a little difficult, because she felt too embarrassed to speak up.
She hadn’t been all that familiar with this world to begin with, and often carried a nagging sense of guilt over having taken someone else’s place, bearing things quietly was one thing, but to have her actually make demands as she pleased always felt a bit too shameless.
But the Grand Empress Dowager, having said she wouldn’t interfere, truly didn’t interfere, and if Dan Qing didn’t ask, she truly wasn’t given anything.
It wasn’t until the day when every dish on the table was something she didn’t like, her clothes were too big and didn’t fit, her shoes were too small and pinched her feet, and the accessories paired with them were so ugly that even Yinreng delicately asked whether she was deliberately throwing a tantrum, that Dan Qing finally couldn’t stand it any longer.
To hell with feeling embarrassed, to hell with the guilt, she had already come this far, so why should she make herself suffer needlessly?
The Grand Empress Dowager herself had said she could ask for whatever she wanted, why was she still being so awkward about it, putting on some kind of show for no one!
“I want fish, braised fish!”
Dan Qing kicked off the shoes pinching her feet and stood on the kang with her hands on her hips. “Go find me a pair of shoes that fit, if there aren’t any, then make some! And all these messy, mismatched accessories, put them all away, I don’t want to see them again!”
Yinreng was startled by this outburst and looked to the Grand Empress Dowager, at a loss, but the Grand Empress Dowager only smiled, her eyes crinkling, and said to Sumalagu, “See, I told you so, didn’t I? She could only hold out this long, not even one more day and she couldn’t keep up the act.”
Sumalagu steadied Dan Qing to keep her from falling, shaking her head with a laugh, “That’s only because you deliberately arranged it this way, this hardly counts.”
If the Grand Empress Dowager hadn’t specifically instructed it, even if Dan Qing hadn’t spoken up to make demands, the servants wouldn’t have dared to slack off on her care to this degree.
The Grand Empress Dowager said smugly, “Even if I hadn’t given the order, she wouldn’t have lasted two days. No going back on your word now, hand it over quickly!”
Sumalagu shook her head helplessly, handed Dan Qing off to Yinreng to support, then went out, and before long returned carrying a small box, which she opened and set before the Grand Empress Dowager.
Inside the box was crystal-clear candy, sent over earlier by Kangxi, Sumalagu, not wanting the Grand Empress Dowager to eat too much of it, had made a wager with her using Dan Qing as the test, and now it seemed the Grand Empress Dowager had won.
Dan Qing had never seen this kind of candy before, and wanted to try some, but hesitated over whether to ask for it.
The Grand Empress Dowager saw through her thoughts at a glance, and said deliberately, “From now on, if no one asks for any of my good things, no one gets any at all, no matter who it is.”
Yinreng, having caught on to what the two of them were doing, spoke up on his own to set an example for his little sister. “Old ancestress, give me a piece too, Han Ama’s always watching me, it’s been ages since I’ve had any candy.”
The Grand Empress Dowager personally picked up a piece and placed it in Yinreng’s palm, then looked toward Dan Qing along with him.
Dan Qing, her small face flushing, reached out her hand too, saying tentatively, “I want some candy too.”
Only then did the Grand Empress Dowager smile, placing a piece in her hand as well.
Dan Qing popped the candy she’d personally asked for into her mouth, and was surprised to find it wasn’t hard at all.
The candy wasn’t nearly as sweet as she’d imagined, clean and light, it broke easily at the first bite, requiring hardly any effort to chew, and was gone in no time.
Having had a taste before, and not yet satisfied, Dan Qing worked up the nerve to ask for more candy. This time the Grand Empress Dowager hesitated for a moment before handing her another piece, then quickly told Sumalagu to put the candy box away.
Yinreng slipped his own piece of candy into his little sister’s mouth, then leaned in and whispered in her ear, “It’s rare enough for the old ancestress to get to eat a few pieces of candy, she can’t really bear to give it up.”
Chewing on her candy, Dan Qing nodded, she understood. At her age, high blood sugar was a real risk, and the imperial physicians must have warned her against eating sweets.
“Second brother!”
Dan Qing swallowed the candy in her mouth, her eyes turning, and suddenly called out loudly.
Yinreng was startled, and instinctively opened his mouth. “Huh?”
And just like that, his mouth was filled with a sweet piece of candy.
In fact, Yinreng didn’t particularly like candy, he’d only said what he did earlier to make it easier for his sister to bring herself to ask for some, but now, he found the candy in his mouth tasted especially sweet.
His sister really was the best, she thought to share good things with him, unlike those wretched younger brothers of his, who only ever knew how to snatch things away from him.
The young Crown Prince, healed by a single piece of candy from his little sister, smiled with his eyes crinkled, holding his sister close and telling her about all the fine new things he’d recently gotten, saying that whatever she liked, he’d give it all to her.
Dan Qing didn’t hold back either, and boldly asked him for a wooden ship model that was said to come apart into pieces. Yinreng agreed at once with a nod, and had it sent over to Dan Qing first thing the next morning.
Ever since hearing Kangxi talk about the Fujian navy, Dan Qing had grown curious about what kind of ships the Great Qing could actually build these days.
Now, seeing this model, said to be made in imitation of one of the Fujian navy’s main warships, she found it far more finely detailed than she’d imagined.
“The Crown Prince said this ship is quite complicated, and he can’t say for certain he could put it back together himself either, so he says you should just leave it out for display, and by no means try taking it apart.”
The young eunuch who had brought the ship over made a point of instructing her.
This wooden ship was their Crown Prince’s own treasured possession, ever since he’d gotten it, he’d spent any free moment holding it and studying it, and no one had expected he’d actually be willing to give it away to the Fourth Princess.
No wonder the winds in the palace had shifted these days, this princess really had risen to prominence overnight, and from now on she’d better be treated with proper deference.
Hearing what the young eunuch’s words implied, Dan Qing understood that this wooden ship must be something Yinreng treasured dearly, and felt a pang of regret at once.
Yesterday, one thing had simply led to another in conversation, and not wanting to disappoint Yinreng’s good intentions, she’d assumed that whatever he mentioned was something he was willing to give her, so she’d picked out something that caught her interest and asked for it, if she’d known it was something he himself loved, she certainly wouldn’t have taken it from him.
But now that she’d already asked for it, sending it back would seem even more improper, so she had no choice but to keep it for now.
Dan Qing had He Miao clear off a corner of her writing desk especially to display the wooden ship, then leaned over the desk, staring at it intently.
With all her years of experience assembling building blocks, given enough time to study it carefully, she was sure she could take it apart and put it back together again.
So when Yinreng came to Cining Palace as usual to give Dan Qing her lesson, he found his little sister sprawled over the desk, staring at the wooden ship, fast asleep.
“Why didn’t you carry her to bed to sleep?”
Yinreng’s face immediately darkened. “It’s one thing for the Grand Empress Dowager to be teaching the princess a lesson, that doesn’t mean you’re allowed to neglect her! Next time I catch you being careless with the princess, I’ll have every last one of you dragged out and beaten!”
The palace maids and eunuchs in and around the room immediately dropped to their knees. Dan Qing, hazily hearing voices talking, rubbed her eyes and sat up on her own.
“Second brother, what’s wrong?”
Dan Qing looked at Yinreng in confusion.
By the time Yinreng turned back to her, his face had already settled back into a smile, and he said gently, “Nothing’s wrong, I was just worried you’d catch a chill sleeping here.”
As he spoke, he came over and felt her forehead, and finding it wasn’t warm, finally set his mind at ease.
“Do you like the wooden ship?”
Seeing Dan Qing had put his gift in the most prominent spot, Yinreng felt quite pleased.
Dan Qing nodded hard, saying loudly, “I love it!”
Yinreng’s eyes curved into a smile. “As long as you like it. From now on, whatever you want, just tell your brother, and your brother will go find it for you.”
He had been the most honored child under heaven since birth, wanting for nothing, and had given away countless fine things over the years without a second thought, even the most precious of items, he’d never thought much of.
But he had no patience for people who took his things and still weren’t pleased with them, saying all sorts of things about how a gift from the Crown Prince must be carefully preserved, only to have it locked away in some storeroom, wasting his good intentions entirely, nothing like Dan Qing, who, if she liked something, would display it and actually use it, which pleased him all the more.
“Second brother,”
Dan Qing tugged at Yinreng’s sleeve, “could you get me a set of paper and pens? The sand tray is useful enough, but whatever I write disappears afterward, I want something that will stay.”
Yinreng hesitated. “But Han Ama said we should wait until you turn six next year before letting you hold a writing brush.”
A child’s hands were small and weak, and starting to practice writing too early wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
Yinreng himself had begun his education early, but even he hadn’t picked up a brush until he was five or six, and Dan Qing was a girl, with even softer hands, so it wouldn’t hurt for her to wait a couple more years.
“I don’t want a writing brush, I want the kind Mother uses to draw her eyebrows, hard and thin,”
Not knowing whether pencils existed in this era, Dan Qing could only describe it in terms of an eyebrow pencil. “That’s the kind I could use.”
Yinreng naturally didn’t have anything like an eyebrow pencil on hand, so once he returned to Qianqing Palace, he went to ask Kangxi for one. Kangxi at first assumed some reckless palace maid was trying to seduce the Crown Prince, but once Yinreng explained that it was Dan Qing who wanted it for drawing, he nodded and agreed.
The next day, when Kangxi came with Yinreng to pay their respects at Cining Palace, he brought along the thing Dan Qing had asked for—
Not the pencil she’d wanted, and certainly not a woman’s eyebrow pencil, but a metal-nibbed dip pen fitted with a beautiful feather!
Dan Qing was utterly astonished, but on second thought, it didn’t seem so strange that such a thing would exist in the Great Qing after all.
After all, she herself had seen a golden-haired, blue-eyed foreigner speaking with the Grand Empress Dowager only a few days earlier.
“This is a Western trinket, dip it in ink and you can write with it,”
Kangxi explained. “We’ve also had some fine, smooth paper prepared for you, which won’t let the ink bleed, draw with it however you like.”
In fact, he didn’t think much of this kind of pen, feeling that the characters it produced were too small, that it lacked flexibility in the stroke, and was too difficult to draw out a proper flourish with, too rigid, not enough spirit, so after receiving it, he’d simply tossed it aside and hardly used it since.
It was only after hearing Yinreng mention yesterday that Dan Qing wanted something a bit harder to draw with that he’d remembered this pen, thinking it would suit his daughter perfectly for drawing, and besides, it couldn’t hold much ink anyway, sparing her the trouble of smearing herself head to toe the way she might with a writing brush.
This unexpected gift delighted Dan Qing to no end. After lunch, she didn’t even go for her midday nap, instead having He Miao grind her some ink, eager to start drawing at once.