The Fourth Prince, Yinzhen, Yongzheng?!
Dan Qing perked up at once, no longer in the mood to nibble her preserved fruit, and sat up properly, waiting to inspect this future emperor for herself.
But once she saw a small child, looking about the same age as herself, being led in, she realized that this future emperor wasn’t much older than she was.
And he had even shorter legs than she did.
Having discovered to her surprise that Yinzhen didn’t even seem taller than her, Dan Qing skipped happily over and stood back to back with him to compare.
Yinzhen had no idea what this was about, and stood there blankly, looking rather dazed.
“Don’t bother, even if you are taller than him, he’s still your fourth brother,”
Kangxi, thoroughly amused, saw right through his daughter’s little scheme. “Go on, greet him properly. You’re not to bully him.”
Dan Qing turned around, hooking her arm through Yinzhen’s and poking her head out from behind him, sticking her tongue out at Kangxi. “No way. Old ancestress said whoever’s taller than me, I call brother, and whoever’s shorter, that’s a little brother.”
Kangxi scolded her with a laugh. “Don’t go dragging the old ancestress into this. We say he’s your brother, so he’s your brother, now go on and pay your respects.”
Dan Qing pouted and gave a little huff, but obediently bowed to Yinzhen anyway, chirping out a sweet “Fourth Brother.”
This was, after all, the single greatest future power behind Kangxi himself, she needed to hold on tight to this one.
Young Yinzhen couldn’t see through the flattery in his little sister’s eyes, and only thought this little girl’s smile was especially sweet, unlike everyone else, who might smile at him on the surface while secretly looking down on him underneath.
“Yinzhen, this is your fourth sister, a year younger than you, today’s her birthday,”
Imperial Noble Consort Tongiya said gently. “Why don’t you take your sister to the small storeroom and let her pick out a birthday gift?”
Yinzhen nodded and agreed, then held out his hand to Dan Qing, who happily grabbed hold of it, and the two of them walked out together.
Once they’d left, Kangxi finally spoke. “We notice Yinzhen seems to be growing rather slowly, he’s not even as tall as Dan Qing yet. Have the imperial physician come take a look at him tomorrow.”
“He’s already been seen. The physician said the Fourth Prince is in good health, and that he’ll grow taller once he’s a bit older,”
Imperial Noble Consort Tongiya settled back into Kangxi’s embrace, letting him stroke her round belly. “I was actually hoping to discuss something with Your Majesty. With my confinement drawing near, I’m afraid I won’t be able to look after Yinzhen properly, why not have him go back to Yonghe Palace to stay with Consort De for a while, and I’ll send for him again once I’m out of confinement?”
Although Yinzhen had been raised in Jingren Palace since he was small, his birth mother wasn’t Imperial Noble Consort Tongiya, but Consort De.
Back when Kangxi had first brought him over for Imperial Noble Consort Tongiya to raise, Consort De hadn’t yet been promoted, and was still only a Noble Lady.
By custom, only palace mistresses of Consort rank and above were entitled to raise their own children. When Consort De had first been promoted to Consort years ago, there had once been talk in the palace that the Fourth Prince would be sent back to Yonghe Palace, but who would have thought, even after she’d been promoted further to Consort of that rank, the Fourth Prince had still remained at Jingren Palace.
Later, people in the palace had said this was because Imperial Noble Consort Tongiya was unable to have children of her own, and that was why His Majesty had given her Yinzhen to raise as her own son. But now that Imperial Noble Consort Tongiya was nearing her own delivery, and with talk that giving birth would earn her the title of Empress, Yinzhen’s position had grown even more awkward.
The servants at Jingren Palace, believing he’d surely be sent away soon, couldn’t help but grow a little careless in attending him. Imperial Noble Consort Tongiya hadn’t left this unaddressed, but with her own pregnancy so unstable, prone to bleeding every few days and confined to bed rest, how could she possibly manage everything so carefully?
So she’d been thinking that perhaps letting Consort De, his birth mother, look after Yinzhen for a while might actually be best for him.
This idea had been turning over in her mind for some time, and she’d been waiting for Consort De to bring it up herself, but Consort De, more composed than anyone, had never once mentioned the Fourth Prince, and had even sent fewer things his way than before. Imperial Noble Consort Tongiya truly couldn’t wait any longer, and so she had to raise it with Kangxi herself.
Hearing this, Kangxi frowned and asked, “Has Yinzhen been misbehaving, giving you trouble?”
Imperial Noble Consort Tongiya shook her head. “How could that be? Yinzhen is the most sensible child there is. Your Majesty, it’s not that I don’t want to raise him, it’s only that my energy is truly limited, and I fear if I can’t look after him properly, he’ll suffer for it. Once I’m well again, I’ll bring him back at once, no one is more reluctant to part with him than I am.”
Kangxi’s brow relaxed, but he still shook his head. “You, always so anxious about others, and yet you forget Consort De is pregnant too? If you can’t manage to look after him properly, how could she manage any better? Rather than sending Yinzhen off to unfamiliar Yonghe Palace, better to keep him here with you, if any servants dare to be careless with him, you need only punish them severely.”
Imperial Noble Consort Tongiya naturally knew that Consort De was pregnant, but she was still less than five months along, by the time Consort De was due to give birth herself, Imperial Noble Consort Tongiya would already be long out of her own confinement and have Yinzhen back with her. This reasoning simply didn’t hold up.
But since Kangxi had spoken this way, it meant he wasn’t willing to allow it, and she didn’t dare press the matter any further.
…
Meanwhile, Yinzhen had taken Dan Qing to the small storeroom, and said to the eunuch guarding the door, “Mother told me to bring the Fourth Princess here to pick out a birthday gift. Open the storeroom door.”
The eunuch on duty glanced around, and seeing only these two children and a few small palace maids following them, didn’t take it seriously, saying with a broad grin, “Oh, my little ancestors, that storeroom is packed full of things everywhere, how could you two possibly go in there? If you accidentally knocked something over and it fell on you, this servant’s head would roll!”
Yinzhen frowned and repeated, “Mother told us to come pick something out.”
But the eunuch still refused to take out his keys, not treating Yinzhen seriously at all, still wearing the same smirking, ingratiating expression. “The mistress just wanted the prince to take the princess out for a little fun, how could she really mean for you to go into the storeroom? Why don’t we do this instead, tell this servant what you want, and I’ll go in and bring it out for you to look at.”
Yinzhen clenched his small fists tight, his face flushing red with anger, but not knowing how to properly vent it, he only clenched his jaw and stood his ground, refusing to back down.
Dan Qing had originally meant to play the sweet, obedient little darling, but she’d barely gotten to know Yinzhen and already here he was, being bullied by a eunuch, how could she possibly stand for that?
He was her brother, why should he be bullied like this!
“He Miao, hit him for me!”
Dan Qing pulled Yinzhen behind her, thrust out her chest, and pointed at the eunuch, shouting loudly, “Slap him across the mouth, teach him not to dare bully my fourth brother!”
He Miao was a palace maid brought up under Sumalagu at Cining Palace, how could she possibly be intimidated by some storeroom-keeper eunuch at Jingren Palace? The moment Dan Qing gave the order, she stepped forward without the slightest hesitation and slapped the eunuch square across the face.
The eunuch was stunned by the blow, staggering back a couple of steps with a hand over his mouth, muttering, “What is the Fourth Princess trying to do, this is Jingren Palace, even Noble Lady Guo wouldn’t dare come here and raise a hand against anyone!”
“I don’t know if my mother would dare, but I certainly dare!”
Dan Qing showed not the slightest fear, pointing at him and continuing, “He Miao, if he dares talk back again, hit him again, I’ll explain everything to the Imperial Noble Consort myself!”
She had schemed so hard for so long, worked her way into Cining Palace, clung tight to the coattails of the Grand Empress Dowager and Kangxi, all so that she could live well in this palace, free from being bullied.
If she couldn’t even manage to deal with a single storeroom-keeper eunuch today, then more and more people would dare to bully her in the future, and that would make life here impossible!
He Miao obediently slapped the eunuch again as instructed, demanding to know whether he still dared show disrespect to a princess. Dan Qing watched coldly from the side, while Yinzhen, growing a little frightened, whispered, “Fourth sister, why don’t we just let it go? Mother isn’t feeling well, if this gets blown up any bigger, she’ll only have more to worry about.”
But Dan Qing said outright, “Fourth brother, if you keep swallowing your grievances and settling for less like this, the Imperial Noble Consort should worry about you all the more! If you don’t want her to fret, you should show some spirit, so she knows you won’t be bullied by anyone, that’s the only way to truly put her at ease!”
Yinzhen froze, then suddenly heard Kangxi’s voice ring out loudly. “Well said, that’s Our own princess speaking!”
It turned out Kangxi, having heard the commotion from inside and worried his daughter might be causing trouble, had come out to check.
The instant Dan Qing caught sight of Kangxi, she immediately dropped every trace of her sharp edge, gave herself a secret pinch, and dashed straight into his arms, her eyes reddening.
“Han Ama, he bullied me—”
The little apple-cheeked girl pursed her lips, her eyes red but tearless, looking especially pitiful. “If fourth brother hadn’t protected me, I’m sure he would have bullied me terribly—”
If there was ever a textbook example of twisting cause and effect, or a wrongdoer accusing the victim first, this scene right here was it.
Dan Qing simply figured that Yinzhen was surely someone who cared a great deal about face, if she stated plainly that he’d been bullied by a doorkeeper eunuch right there in Jingren Palace, it wouldn’t just be humiliating for him, it would also put Imperial Noble Consort Tongiya at fault, since after all, how could a prince raised under her own roof be bullied by her own servants?
But she was different, she was only a Noble Lady’s daughter, and even though she currently lived at Cining Palace, there was no formal decree stating she’d been given to the Grand Empress Dowager. For her to be bullied by some palace eunuch was, frankly, nothing out of the ordinary.
She wasn’t afraid of losing face, she meant to file this skewed complaint on purpose. Besides, that eunuch had already dragged her own mother into it earlier, so it wasn’t as if she were wronging him unfairly.
Kangxi hadn’t heard the whole exchange, but he had a fairly good idea of what had happened.
That eunuch surely hadn’t been targeting Dan Qing directly, nine times out of ten, Yinzhen had been the one wronged, and his daughter had simply stood up fiercely on his behalf.
But even if his daughter had lodged this skewed complaint, so what? She was only standing up for her own brother, how could that possibly be a fault?
Kangxi had always been the type to fiercely protect his own, and seeing Dan Qing acting this protective now only made him feel she took after him, there was no way he could possibly blame her for it. He pointed straight at the eunuch and said, “Give him twenty strokes of the board, and send him off to labor in the Office of the Weaving and Dyeing bond servants.”
The eunuch’s legs trembled with fright, but in front of Kangxi he didn’t even dare beg for mercy, terrified that one wrong sound out of him might cost him his very life.
Watching him being dragged away, Dan Qing felt a twinge of discomfort in her heart.
It wasn’t that some misguided compassion was overtaking her, it was simply that she truly hadn’t yet gotten used to scenes like this.
Still, she didn’t regret it, because she knew that if she let this eunuch off lightly today, no one would ever take Yinzhen or herself seriously again in the future.
Kill the chicken to warn the monkey [1]kill the chicken to warn the monkey (sha ji jing hou, 殺雞儆猴) Idiom, punishing one person publicly to intimidate everyone else into line jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3277572_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3277572_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, that was exactly what this was.
Today, Kangxi had punished a eunuch at Jingren Palace for their sake, and from now on, anyone else who felt tempted to show them disrespect would first have to think twice.
“Little one, were you scared?”
Kangxi lifted Dan Qing up, holding her high.
Dan Qing shook her head. “Not scared!”
Kangxi smiled. “Then learn to be like your Han Ama from now on, carry yourself with a princess’s proper dignity, and don’t be afraid of anyone. Your Han Ama will always be there to back you up.”
It was rare for his daughter to take after him so much, he couldn’t have her raised into some meek little kitten that anyone could push around.
A princess wasn’t a prince, why should she have to be so reasonable about everything?
As long as she was happy, that was all that mattered!
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