From that day on, Yinreng formally took up his post as Dan Qing’s “tutor,” making a special trip to Cining Palace every day after finishing his own lessons to teach her characters.
Dan Qing was still too young to hold a writing brush properly, so a small sand tray was made for her instead, and every day she used a little wooden stick to trace shapes on it, and it really did produce recognizable characters, though anything with slightly more complicated strokes would just smear together into a mess.
One day Yinreng wanted to teach Dan Qing to write her own name. The character Dan was easy enough, but the character Qing proved too much for her.
She could certainly write it, of course, but the sand shifted too easily, and with her weak little hands she wrote too slowly, by the time she reached the middle, the beginning had already faded, and by the time she got to the end, the middle had vanished again. By the time Yinreng turned back around, having finished answering a question from Kangxi, all that remained on the sand tray were faint, illegible traces, along with one thoroughly puffed-up, sulking little girl.
“This character has too many strokes, it’s only natural you can’t write it right away,”
Not understanding why Dan Qing was upset, Yinreng only coaxed her. “Take your time, Garu’s so clever, you’ll pick it up soon enough.”
Dan Qing stared at the sand tray, mulling it over for a moment, then suddenly her eyes lit up, and she pointed at the water basin. “He Miao, bring the water over, pour it into the sand!”
Yinreng laughed. “Even if you can’t write the character, there’s no need to take it out on the sand.”
But Kangxi rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “That’s actually a good idea. The Fourth Princess is clever indeed.”
Under Yinreng’s puzzled gaze, He Miao followed Dan Qing’s instructions, taking a small bowl and slowly sprinkling water evenly over the sand tray, and before long a patch of sand had grown damp.
Dan Qing then picked up her little stick again and slowly traced out the character Qing, then looked at Yinreng triumphantly.
Once the sand was wet, it no longer collapsed so easily, and even the most complicated characters could be left clearly visible on it.
“So that’s how it is, Garu really is clever!”
Yinreng went over too and traced a few characters in the wet sand with his own finger. “This is so much easier to use.”
Dan Qing looked at the astonished Yinreng with a touch of sympathy, thinking to herself that this little Crown Prince really had had no childhood to speak of.
This method was no different from the way children in the modern world scribbled freely on the ground after it rained, in her own time, just about anyone could have thought of it, but this Crown Prince, raised in luxury and comfort since birth, had probably never even set foot on wet ground after a rain, let alone drawn on it.
Whatever toys he’d scribbled on as a small child were probably priceless brushes and paper.
The thought brought Dan Qing’s excess of sympathy to an abrupt halt.
She’d overstepped herself, actually daring to feel sorry for this Crown Prince, who had been the most honored person alive from the moment he was born.
If even he needed pity, then no one in this world could be said to have good fortune.
Not realizing what his little daughter was privately musing over, Kangxi simply found the wet sand interesting, and had more water fetched to soak the entire tray, then took the wooden stick from Dan Qing’s hand and drew an irregular, slanted oval shape on it, with a small little tail extending out from the lower left corner.
“Can you tell what this is?”
Kangxi looked up and asked Yinreng.
Yinreng thought it over. “Taiwan?”
Kangxi nodded approvingly. “Correct. It seems you took the geography lessons we gave you to heart.”
Dan Qing craned her neck to look too, curious about why Kangxi would suddenly draw the island of Taiwan in the sand tray.
If she remembered correctly, one of the historical achievements attributed to Kangxi in her school textbooks had been related to Taiwan, but she couldn’t recall exactly when it had happened.
“Today We received a memorial from Shi Lang, urging Us to send troops to attack, but Yao Qisheng believes there’s still room to negotiate further with the Zheng clan, better to persuade them to surrender if at all possible,”
Kangxi continued. “Baocheng, whose reasoning do you think is sounder?”
Yinreng considered for a moment before answering, “I think they both have a point, it’s only that the civil officials and the military officers naturally see things from different positions.”
Kangxi shook his head. “Don’t go copying your tutors’ habit of giving such wishy-washy answers. If it were up to you to make the decision, would you also say both sides have a point? Speak your true mind, plainly.”
Yinreng bowed in apology, then said, “I think the Great Qing has already given the Zheng clan more than enough chances, there’s no need to wait any longer.”
With this, he had come down firmly on the side of war.
Kangxi then asked him about the current strength of the Fujian navy compared with the Taiwanese navy, and how good the Great Qing’s chances truly were. Yinreng hesitated for a long while but couldn’t come up with an answer.
A trace of disappointment showed on Kangxi’s face.
Yinreng’s face visibly reddened, and he lowered his head in shame, not daring to speak.
Dan Qing blinked, glancing between Yinreng and Kangxi, then spoke up to smooth things over. “Han Ama, is the navy a lion that lives in the water? Does it eat meat or fish?”
Yinreng: …?
Kangxi: snort.
Amused past the point of holding a straight face by his little daughter’s innocent, childish words, Kangxi swept Dan Qing up into his arms, laughing. “This girl of ours, always thinking about feeding something or other, a few days ago it was wanting to feed wolves, now it’s wanting to feed lions. What, on top of wanting to be Wolf King, do you want to be Lion King too?”
Dan Qing: …
No thanks, she had no wish to be Simba.
Wanting to spare Yinreng some face and not lecture him in front of others, Kangxi simply used the pretext of explaining things to Dan Qing to go over the situation in Taiwan again in broad strokes, so that Yinreng could listen once more as well.
Mindful that his little daughter’s small head couldn’t process too much information, he explained things even more plainly than before, comparing much of the military strength using the most straightforward numbers, which made things clearer for Yinreng too, who nodded along beside them.
Dan Qing had no real concept of what all these fleets and ships meant, but watching Kangxi rattle it all off as though reciting a well-worn list, his expression full of pride, she didn’t need to think hard to know exactly which way Kangxi had already made up his mind.
If he’d truly meant to win them over through negotiation, why would he have spent so much money and effort training such a large navy? With Kangxi knowing the state of the Taiwanese navy inside and out like this, no one would believe he had no intention of resorting to armed force.
“We’ve said all this, and you still haven’t given us any response, we truly can’t tell if you understood any of it or not,”
Once Kangxi had finished speaking, he tapped a finger against Dan Qing’s forehead. “Staring with those big eyes as if you know everything, you probably didn’t take in a single word of it, did you?”
Dan Qing opened her mouth to bite him, but once again Kangxi nimbly dodged out of the way. She bared her teeth and said, “I was listening the whole time!”
Kangxi teased her with a smile. “Then tell us, should we attack, or not?”
Dan Qing scratched her head, then glanced over at Yinreng.
Just as Yinreng was about to speak up to help his little sister out, Kangxi cut in first. “You’re not allowed to answer, let her answer for herself.”
Dan Qing gave a little huff, then, without any further hesitation, said, “Attack!”
Kangxi grew interested. “Oh? And why should we attack?”
Dan Qing waved her little hand. “Because Han Ama wants to attack, and second brother wants to attack too, so we should attack!”
Yinreng covered his mouth to hide his laughter, while Kangxi laughed outright.
“Ha ha, you clever little thing, you may not understand state affairs, but you sure understand us!”
He hooked his hands under Dan Qing’s arms and tossed her up into the air, then caught her steadily again just as she gave a startled yelp. “All right, our Fourth Princess says attack, so attack it is! We recall your birthday is coming up soon, We’ll conquer Taiwan and give it to you as a birthday gift!”
Dizzy from being tossed, Dan Qing quickly wrapped her arms around his neck to keep him from throwing her up again, but said all the same, “That sounds great, today’s the twenty-second, and my birthday is the twenty-seventh, only five more days!”
Kangxi: …
Yinreng: snort.
It was plain to see that no matter how confident he was, there was simply no way an order sent from Beijing could reach Fujian, have the Fujian navy mobilize, and conquer Taiwan, all within five days.
Kangxi had gotten a little too carried away in his excitement and made this promise of a birthday gift to his daughter, only to realize he was about to eat his own words almost immediately.
The scene grew rather awkward for a moment, until the Grand Empress Dowager, who had been sitting and listening quietly for some time, spoke up to rescue her unreliable grandson. “What your Han Ama means is that he’ll give the order to attack before your birthday, it will probably take a few months at most before it’s conquered.”
Not yet satisfied with the game, Dan Qing pressed on. “How many months is a few months?”
Kangxi, amused by her again, pinched the tip of her nose. “Dan Qing, guess how many months it’ll take, and let’s see how close you get.”
When it came to war, the shorter the better, of course, and Dan Qing, wanting to say something auspicious, held up one finger and said, “I guess one month, that would make it a perfect gift for my one-month-old ceremony!”
Kangxi laughed heartily. “We promised you a birthday gift, and now you’re thinking about something else entirely, we’ve never heard of anyone celebrating a one-month-old ceremony every single year!”
Dan Qing lifted her little chin proudly. “But I’m Han Ama’s Fourth Princess, why can’t I have a one-month-old ceremony?”
Kangxi, thoroughly charmed, said, “Yes, yes, yes, as long as our Fourth Princess is happy, she can celebrate as many birthdays a year as she likes!”
Although he’d said this to Dan Qing only in jest, Kangxi did take the one-month deadline to heart, and without further delay, took his leave of the Grand Empress Dowager and returned to Qianqing Palace to handle the matter.
Yinreng didn’t leave, staying close beside the Grand Empress Dowager, his expression not looking too good.
He was, of course, still dwelling on being unable to answer Kangxi’s question earlier, feeling he’d let his Han Ama down.
The Grand Empress Dowager had him sit and drink some tea, then asked him, “Baocheng, do you know what mistake you made just now?”
Yinreng nodded. “I wasn’t diligent enough. I knew perfectly well that Han Ama has been preoccupied with the matter of Taiwan these past few days, and yet I didn’t even understand the state of the navy, and disappointed Han Ama for it.”
But the Grand Empress Dowager only shook her head with a smile, and suddenly turned to Dan Qing instead. “Garu, tell me, why was your Han Ama displeased just now?”
Dan Qing froze for a moment, was this really a question meant for a small, ignorant little princess like herself?
“Don’t play dumb with me,”
The Grand Empress Dowager pinched Dan Qing’s nose the way Kangxi liked to do. “If you really didn’t understand any of it, why did you make up that business about a lion to smooth things over for your brother?”
Dan Qing had lived in Cining Palace for some time now, and the Grand Empress Dowager had gradually come to understand this great-granddaughter of hers better, growing more and more convinced that this child was no ordinary case.
On the surface she seemed all childlike innocence, but in truth she was far steadier than other children her age, very good at reading the room, never speaking carelessly, and certainly never interrupting Kangxi’s efforts to educate the Crown Prince without good reason.
Other princesses her age might genuinely have misheard “navy” as “lion,” but not Dan Qing, because two days earlier, when Kangxi had come to discuss the matter of Taiwan, Dan Qing had been right there listening in with her ears pricked up. If she’d had a question, she would have asked it then, why would she wait until now to bring it up?
So this girl had clearly understood exactly what was going on, and had noticed Kangxi’s displeasure, and had deliberately made up something nonsensical to smooth things over for the Crown Prince.
Dan Qing looked up at the Grand Empress Dowager’s eyes, which seemed capable of seeing straight through a person, and knew there was no covering it up today, so she could only say,
“I was just guessing. It’s probably because second brother said we should attack, but couldn’t say why we could win.”
Yinreng was the heir Kangxi had settled on, the future decision-maker for the whole of the Great Qing’s future, it was easy enough for him to make a decision, but he couldn’t be allowed to make one carelessly.
If Yinreng didn’t know the relative strength of both sides, then he shouldn’t have said they should attack in the first place, rather than reaching that conclusion first and only afterward admitting he didn’t understand the details.
Yinreng was still young, and Kangxi wouldn’t refuse to let him not know something, but he certainly wouldn’t be pleased if he pretended to know when he didn’t.
Dan Qing’s words sent Yinreng into a deep, lowered-head silence, while the Grand Empress Dowager reached out and stroked her hair, a touch of wistfulness creeping into her eyes.
Sumalagu had said before that this girl reminded her of herself, at first she’d taken it as nothing more than flattery meant to please her, but now she found the words rang quite true after all.
When she herself had been young, she too had been this perceptive, able to see through the essence of things with ease, even see straight through people’s hearts.
This had once been a gift she took pride in, but it had also been the root of much of her suffering.
For a woman to muddle through life in ignorance was pitiable enough, but to be too perceptive, and yet powerless to change anything, that was truly enough to make one wish for death!
“Garu, ah, don’t think so much from now on,”
The Grand Empress Dowager drew Dan Qing into her arms. “Just be an obedient, carefree little princess, won’t you? Let the men worry over all these troublesome matters, you just need to live your days happily.”
Whatever you do, don’t end up like me, a whole life spent so wearily, all of it in service to making a fine trousseau for someone else [1]making a fine trousseau for someone else (wei ta ren zuo jia yi shang, 為別人做嫁衣) Idiom, toiling and sacrificing so someone else reaps the benefit jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3277567_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3277567_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.
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