dognovel Chapter 110 The key to being a good person is to be flexible and adaptable.
Chapter 110 The key to being a good person is to be flexible and adaptable.
Walking into the city? That won't do. Wouldn't the Sixth Prince lose face in front of his brothers? No, it's not just about losing face in front of his brothers. His father wants him to lose face in front of all the officials, the accompanying army, and the people of the capital.
"Father, I know I was wrong. I was just joking. You are my father, and I'm the best friend in the world. My whole body is stiff from standing all morning. If I go into the city, you may never see me again."
Ah, one must be able to bend and stretch in life. In order to avoid walking into the city, Yinzhuo was really going all out. He didn't care about losing face in public and grabbed Kangxi's arm and shook it vigorously. Obviously, this trick of his really worked on Kangxi. Kangxi was completely shaken off.
"Alright, if you keep shaking me, I'll fall apart. Since you know you're wrong, I'll forgive you this time. Let's go, it's about time, let's go into the city."
After returning from outside the palace, Yinzhuo was unable to go back to rest. He first went with Kangxi and the other princes to Shou Kang Palace to pay his respects to the Empress Dowager, and then attended the victory celebration banquet held in Qianqing Palace. Only after the banquet ended was he able to escape. Before leaving, he saw Yinreng being taken to the Imperial Study by Liang Jiugong, and he couldn't help but feel deep sympathy for him. The year of regency was not something that could be explained in a few words. By the time he finished talking with Kangxi, it would be the middle of the night.
"Dexi, hurry up and prepare water. I'm exhausted and my whole body aches all day. Don't wake me up first thing tomorrow morning. I want to sleep until I naturally wake up."
My goodness, do you have some kind of misunderstanding about your own schedule? Except for this morning, every single day these days you sleep until you naturally wake up.
As expected, Yinzhuo kept his word and slept until almost noon the next day. When he woke up, he looked out the window at the gloomy sky and immediately lost the desire to get out of bed. He leaned back, pulled the blanket over his head, and decided to go back to sleep.
"Hey, I have nothing to do anyway, why get up? The sky is gloomy, perfect for sleeping."
Hearing the commotion inside, Dexi, who was about to push the door open, withdrew his hand upon hearing this. Sigh, his master must be a reincarnation of the God of Sleep. All year round, rain, wind, snow, cloudy, sunny, whatever the weather, he can always say that sleeping is the perfect thing to do.
The weather wasn't great for the next few days, with either overcast skies or light snow falling every day. To prevent his master from being idle and sleeping all day, Dexi simply found the tent that Yinzuo had prepared a few years ago. After clearing the snow from the yard, he set up the tent, laid out a thick blanket inside, and set up a charcoal brazier, table, chairs, and tea set, thus giving his master something to do.
"If you hadn't found it, I would have forgotten that there was such a tent. It's just a bit of a pity that my eldest brother, third brother, and fourth brother have all moved out of the palace. Otherwise, we could have invited them over for a hot pot meal in this kind of weather."
Yinzhuo's emotions always came and went quickly. He was just feeling nostalgic and sentimental, but when he entered the tent and saw the small red clay stove, he put his previous sadness aside. He then turned to Dexi and asked him to prepare fruit, white sugar, and bamboo skewers, and started making candied hawthorns.
"These hawthorns and oranges made into candied hawthorns are sweet and sour. Dexi, have someone send some to Shou Kang Palace later. I went to pay my respects to Grandmother the other day, and she seemed to have a poor appetite. These hawthorns can help with digestion, so she can eat a little. These apples and chestnuts will be sent to the Eighth and Ninth Princes later. The Eighth Prince loves apples, and the Ninth Prince loves chestnuts. As for the Tenth Prince, send him a little of each. He's not picky but he can eat a lot. Send a little less to the Twelfth, Thirteenth, and Fourteenth Princes, so as not to break their wobbly teeth again..."
Dexi looked at the plates of candied hawthorns laid out in the yard and thought that he should send more to each place later so that everyone could help them share the burden. Otherwise, with so few candied hawthorns, they would be eating them for ages.
In the afternoon, Yinzhu really indulged in making candied hawthorns. By evening, after glancing at the snowflakes still falling outside the tent, Yinzhu asked Dexi to send someone to the kitchen to prepare a pot. He then led his men out of his small courtyard and wandered around the three residences for half a day. When he returned, a string of people followed behind him.
You have to admit that Dexi really knows his master. Although Yinzhu didn't say what he went to do, Dexi had already guessed. He not only had the tents rearranged, but also had hot pot ingredients prepared for multiple people. By the time Yinzhu returned with his men, the hot pot was almost ready to boil.
"My lord, everything is ready. Please go in and check if anything is missing. If so, I will have someone go to the kitchen to get it."
Yinzhu didn't even need to go in to check; he knew that with Dexi's meticulousness, nothing would be missing. So he waved his hand at Dexi and said...
"I trust you to handle things. It's so cold today, you don't need to stay here. Leave someone here and go find a warm place to rest."
After Dexi left, only Yinzuo and his brothers remained in the tent. Yinzhen and the others had moved out a few years ago, and Yinreng had been busy following Kangxi these past few days. So today, only the fifth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth were free. But even so, Yinzuo felt it was quite lively.
“That’s more like it, that’s the taste, that’s what hot pot should be like. Back in the northern deserts, what we ate was at most boiled meat in plain water. Sixth brother, you have no idea how miserable we were back then…”
Yinzhuo wanted to say, "I know! I not only know how miserable you all are, but I also know that you guys are so inhumane that you robbed Third Brother of his jar of chili sauce. Third Brother wrote to me to complain, which made my already meager chili sauce stock even worse."
"If you like to eat, Fifth Brother, I'll bring you some of this hot pot broth when you leave. You can also bring some chili peppers if you want. This year, I specially opened up a large plot of land in Enze Garden to grow chili peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, and the harvest was quite good. We have plenty of these things now."
Soon, Yinzhuo regretted saying those words, because even a landlord's family couldn't withstand such a lot of people taking things away. Watching his carefully prepared hot pot broth being looted by everyone, he now truly empathized with his third brother's feelings at that time!
"Fifth Brother, have some decency! Taking the stuff is one thing, but can't you at least leave me this pot? Seventh Brother, I wasn't talking about you, was I? What are you doing holding my chili sauce jar? Ninth and Tenth Brothers, learn from Eighth Brother, look how reserved he is! He only took two pieces of hot pot base. Look at you two, it's like a locust plague! Twelfth Brother, you usually seem so honest, how come you're just like your Tenth Brother, trying to take my whole kitchen? Put that salt box down! Thirteenth and Fourteenth Brothers, don't make me beat you up! This is a kitchen. Even though nothing in it is poisonous, you can't just put anything in your mouth..."