CH 47

In earlier chapters I referred to the farmstead as a Zhuangzi, since’s that’s the usual translation in webnovels, but I decided that I should just use farmstead. Just know it’s something that the characters inherit from their family, that allocated them food and so they don’t have to buy food from outsiders since they have their own source, which leaves them with more money. Also, I posted this on the 31st of August, so this should also count as releasing it September 1st, right?  (๑>؂•̀๑) —Bambi

When Min Hui married in, she didn’t say anything about wanting to be the mansion’s housekeeper, so Yinyou didn’t say anything either, and thus, the mansion was still being managed by the steward. Fortunately, the mansion was newly build, and there were few people in the family with just a few farmsteads, even if the servants wanted to take a bite, they couldn’t embezzle that much.

“Master, this fish was brought by a village woman from the farmstead. The mansion’s cook  saw that it was fresh, so he made this Jumping Dragon1跃龙门 yuè lóngmén. “Jumping Dragon”. It’s a dish where a fish is fried till crispy in a curvy pose. You can watch the recipe on this YT video. dish for Master to try.” Fu Duo carefully served Yinyou’s meal.

Yinyou took two bites, and suddenly asked, “Has Fu Jin gone to pay her respects to E’niang these days2It’s customary for the daughter-in-law to greet her parents-in-law every morning, or at least, some previously agreed days, like once every five days. This is called being filial, and filial piety is China’s greatest virtue. The fact that Yinyou’s Fu Jin isn’t going to pay her respects to Yinyou’s mother is obviously, disrespectful, rude, and perhaps has the meaning of looking down on Yinyou and his mother.?”

The smile on Fu Duo’s face was a bit awkward. “It must be cold these few days, and Fu Jin is weak, so she hasn’t entered the palace yet.”

Hearing his words, Yinyou immediately lost his appetite. Let alone the feudal period, even in his previous life, it was the most basic thing for a husband and wife to be filial to each other’s parents. He could turn a blind eye if she didn’t want to manage the mansion, but Min Hui’s being unfilial to his E’niang was too much for him to bear.

Glancing at the sky outside the door, he sighed. The weather had indeed cooled down these days. 

He put down his chopsticks, “Since Fu Jin likes to eat in her room, I won’t ask her to eat together in the future. What she wants, as long as it isn’t against the rules, you can give. Fu Duo, you will help supervise the house affairs from now on. Fu Jin is young and inexperienced, so you don’t have to bother her with these trivial matters.”

“Aye,” although his Master’s words were thoughtful, Fu Duo understood that the Master didn’t intend to take care of this Fu Jin carefully, and neither wanted to give her the right of being the housekeeper. It seemed that the Master was really annoyed with this one. Master should just provide food and house for her, but will not love or pamper her. Alas, the Hada Nara family didn’t know how to raise a daughter.

After rinsing his mouth and hands, Yinyou was still in a bad mood. As a man who had lived two lifetimes, he could understand the capriciousness of teenage girls. He also disliked the feudal dynasty’s thinking of regarding women as tools. 

Yet, Min Hui had grown to her current age being pampered until she was married off to him. She was now his responsibility. 

He could be considerate to her while disliking Min Hui’s behavior. Since he found it difficult to beat and scold her, the best was to stay away from her. After all, out of sight, out of mind.

After sitting in the study for a while, he dug out a storybook. 

It turned out to be a story about a scholar and a bewitching temptress. He tossed the book aside in boredom, and thought of the Crown Princess in the Crown Prince’s mansion who was a famously good housekeeper. Then he thought of the virtuous fourth sister-in-law in the fourth brother’s mansion. He even thought of the well-known elegant fifth sister-in-law in the fifth brother’s mansion.

Many times, he changed position on the chair yet he still felt uncomfortable.

After thinking for a long time, Yinyou finally figured it out. Anyway, it was no one’s fault this feudal society didn’t allow free love. He should just think of this Fu Jin as  he was raising a idler, he didn’t have to toss and anguish so much because of a strange woman.

“Come here, change your Master’s clothes!” 

After leaving the study, Yinyou’s mood gradually improved.

Back into the bedroom, Fu Duo brought another eunuch to wait on Yinyou. Seeing that Yinyou looked better, he felt relieved. If something happened to the seventh prince, Consort Cheng would have to strip him from his skin. “Master, it’s early noon. If you want to go somewhere, I will ask someone to prepare a sedan chair for you.”

“No need.” Yinyou picked up a jade pendant and handed it to Fu Duo. “Master will go to the fourth brother’s house for a walk. It’s so close to us, where’s the need for a sedan chair?”

When Fu Duo heard this, he stopped worrying about the Master going out. If the Master went to other princes’ houses, he will still remember to pass a pre-greeting card so as to warn the host, but if he was going to the fourth brother’s house, frankly, it was just like going to the Master’s own house. When his Master swaggered right into the fourth Master’s mansion, the porter’s eyes will not stray away.

Helping the Master wear a fur vest, Fu Duo looked outside the door.

“Master, still, there’s snow outside, why don’t you ask someone to prepare a sedan chair for you. If Master gets sick, it will be this slave’s fault.”

Thinking of his Master’s injury, Fu Duo felt worried. If Master really slipped, he would not have a good ending.

“Don’t worry, I have a sense of proportion.” Yinyou took the leather hat handed over by the little eunuch and put it on. He pointed to the two eunuchs in the room with a smile. “You two will come with your Master, and Fu Duo will stay to look after the house.”

After an imperial prince was allocated his mansion, the courtyard where the princes stayed in the palace3Since the emperor has many children, often, when they have grown up and they’re ready to go to school, these children will all go to a courtyard where there are his other brothers. Yinyou should’ve gone to this place too, but he was sent to the South Three Halls by Kangxi earlier in the novel, which I take as a sign of favor. Other princes who have more favored mothers, or high-ranking noble mothers, will be allocated a specific place, like Yinyou. Some children will also be given to other concubines if their birth mother was too low on status, like what happened ot Yinzhen and Yinsi. would also send some eunuchs to the newly build prince’s mansion. These eunuchs had all served the imperial sons for many years, and they were more reliable than those slaves in the mansion who nobody knew where they came from. It was those eunuchs sent from the palace that Yinyou kept serving him closely and today too, they followed him out.

“Hiss, why is it so cold today?” Hugging a few books close to his chest, Xiao Luzi hurried across the bluestone road in the yard, stamped the snow on the floor under the eaves, and looked down carefully at the books in his arms. The books were not stained with snowflakes, so he walked into the courtyard with a peaceful mind. “Master, permission for this slave to enter.”

“Come in.” Yinzhen finished the last stroke, put down the brush, and looked up to see Xiao Luzi coming in with several books. Without caring that Xiao Luzi wasn’t saluting properly, Yinzhen’s gaze went straight to the books. “Are these the latest scripts4话本 Huàběn. Song and Yuan literary form based on vernacular folk stories. The stories can be “historical tales, often drawn from the history of the Three Kingdoms (220–265) or the Five Dynasties (907–960)”, some “specialized in Buddhist stories” and others talked about “stories of bandits, fantastic stories of ghosts and demons, love stories, and such.” Source.?”

“Answering back to Master, this slave noticed that many literati like to buy these stories to read, presumably the seventh Master will be interested.” 

Xiao Luzi read the names of the books out loud but Yinzhen didn’t have any impression after listening. He ordered him to put them all down. Yinyou ran to him every day or two, and sometimes spent the afternoon in his study reading some travelogs, or just lazing around. The common theme was that Yinyou couldn’t read any serious books.

As soon as the books were put down, a servant came to report that the seventh brother had arrived. Yinzhen looked at Xiao Luzi’s newly bought acquisition, and scolded with a smile. “This bastard, even when it snows, he never forgets to come to my place to eat and drink.” Yet the smile on his face couldn’t be hidden no matter what.

Xia Luzi received his reward and exited the study just in time to meet Yinyou who was walking over. Xia Luzi greeted him with a smile.

Yinyou stuffed some trinkets to him before asking casually, “How busy is the fourth brother?”

Xiao Luzi was also astute, knowing that the seventh Master was worried he would disturb the Master’s business, he cleverly said, “Master was very bored today, hearing that the seventh Master is here, it’s too late for Master to be happy.”

Hearing this, Yinyou didn’t worry anymore and walked into the study.

Xiao Luzu stood under the eaves, listening to the voice of the seventh Master in the study and occasionally the smiling voice of the fourth Master would also come up. After a while, the study gradually quieted down.

Presumably one was reading the storybook, and the other was practicing calligraphy. Xiao Luzi secretly laughed in his heart, this Seventh Master was really! Even when wanting to read a storybook, he needed to read it here. It also happened that his Master could stand the seventh Master coming to his house three to five days a week to eat and drink his fill. One was willing to fight and the other was willing to suffer5An idiom from chapter 46 of «Romance of Three Kingdoms». Yu Zhou hit Gai Huang in order to cheat the enemy, thus, the punishment is given by one and accepted by another. It’s mean both parties are willing., it could be considered they were a perfect match to each other.

Xiao Luzi rolled up his sleeves and stood guard in a shelter from the wind, just in case the two Masters inside had something to do, he would be able to wait on them in time. After standing for a while, he saw a eunuch walking over with a few plates of snacks and a pot of tea. Even without taking a careful look, he could tell that they were snacks in the southern style that the seventh Master liked, and the tea was the seventh Master’s favorite Green Snail Spring6碧螺春 Bì luó chūn. It is a renowned green tea for its delicate appearance, fruity taste, floral aroma. The name Green Snail Spring was given by Emperor Kangxi: «According to the Qing Dynasty chronicle Ye Shi Da Guan, the Kangxi Emperor visited Lake Tai in the 38th year of his rule. At that time, because of its rich aroma, local people called it Scary Fragrance. The Kangxi Emperor decided to give it a more elegant name, Green Snail Spring.» We’re still in the year 35th of Kangxi, as you can see, it appears the author has once more, forsaken official history. Source..

After delivering the snacks, the little eunuch walked to his side and announced. “Eunuch, the seventh Master said that it’s cold outside, you go back to the house to rest. If something happens, the Masters have the guards in the yard to attend to them.”

Xiao Luzi thanked him, turned around and walked towards his room. Whether the person who spoke was the seventh Master or his Master, it didn’t affect his walking speed at all. After all, the seventh Master had said this in front of his Master, and his Master hadn’t disagreed. Thus, he only needed to do what he was told.

In the blink of an eye, the New Year’s Eve banquet in the 35th year of Kangxi came. The eldest brother was brave on the battlefield, the Crown Prince supervised the country, and the fourth brother rewarded the army. However, since Yinzhen’s temperament was cold and aloof, it was the Crown Prince who stole the banquet’s limelight.

Yinyou received very little attention. Although Kangxi had been recently rewarding him at every turn, everyone in the harem thought that this was Kangxi’s compensation for his injured foot. The attention paid to him was obviously not as good as that of the rest of the princes and Yinyou was also very happy.

After the banquet was over, Yinyou and Min Hui went out of the Qianqing Palace, and unexpectedly met the eighth prince and eighth Fu Jin.

Looking at the eighth Fu Jin who was luxuriously dressed, Yinyou unconsciously remembered how unmannered this woman was more than a year ago. This time around, Gorolo shi didn’t greet him, and he too acted like he didn’t see it. After chatting with Yinsi casually, he was about to walk away from them, when eighth Fu Jin Jin suddenly spoke.

“Are you the one who scared my horse a year ago?” As soon as the words spilled out, the eighth Fu Jin Jin felt that something was wrong. After all, the seventh prince hadn’t said anything when her horse hurt him that day, but she’d gone and admitted it herself. This crime of harming the royal family was probably a bit troublesome to deal with.

Yinsi heard this, and followed along her words with a smile on his face, “Has Fu Jin met the seventh brother before?”

Eighth Fu Jin smiled naturally, “There was something wrong with my carriage last year, and we happened to met by chance.”

Hearing this, Yinyou thought to himself that although the eighth Fu Jin was headstrong, she was still smart.

Yinyou promptly joined the conversation, “The horse of eighth sister-in-law was frightened that day, and it happened that the guards around me calmed it down. It turned out that the person in that carriage was actually the eighth sibling, look at us now, a family.”

The  eighth Fu Jin Jin heard Yinyou’s words go well, and answered a few words casually, and the matter was considered to be over.

“What are the seventh and eighth brother doing standing here? It’s so cold, why don’t you go back to the house to rest earlier?” Yinzhen walked in, glanced at the two of them, but didn’t look at the two Fu Jins. “Could it be that you are here to enjoy the winter night view?”

“Fourth brother.” Yinyou politely greeted him, and Min Hui behind him also greeted him honestly, it looked like she had grown a lot.

The eighth Fu Jin didn’t move but just followed Yinsi’s words and called ‘fourth brother’ then stood aside without making a sound.

“Fourth brother is joking. This younger brother happened to meet seventh brother, so we said a few words casually. This younger brother didn’t expect the fourth brother to come this way.” Yinsi then offered, “Since such is the case, how about us brothers going together?”

Yinzhen’s gaze swept across the eighth Fu Jin behind Yinsi with calm eyes, “Sure.”

The eunuch and maid helped the seventh Fu Jin and the eighth Fu Jin to walk in another direction, leaving the three brothers walking outside the palace in silence.

The snow on the palace road was swept clean. Yinyou looked at the ground, then at the sky, at the two quiet people around him, and finally, he yawned, “In this weather, it would be better to lie on the bed and sleep more.” Then he’ll be more comfortable. Instead, at this time period, there were quite a lot of New Year’s rules and not to mention sleeping in, afraid he slept less than usual.

The corners of Yinzhen’s mouth perked up slightly hearing his words. He was used to Yinyou’s lazy temperament, and internally, he wondered how such a lazy person was able to stay in the barracks for so long.

Listening to this, Yinsi glanced the lazy expression on Yinyou’s face, and commented, “If the seventh brother’s words are known to Huang Ama, Huang Ama will probably scold you for being a bastard7混小子. A youngster who’s muddled-headed, idle and just living life drifting along. (I translate this as a bastard, since this is how I’ve been translating it, but probably a more suited term would be… Salted fish? Every time someone calls Yinyou a bastard, this is what they mean.) again.”

Yinyou pursed his lips, looking not the least bit worried. “This bastard is also Huang Ama’s son, so even if Huang Ama scolds me, he should feel reluctant to say much.”

After hearing this, the smile on Yinsi’s face became complicated, and he didn’t say anything more.

Yinzhen, who was walking on Yinyou’s left, looked as usual as he attentively supported Yinyou, “Be careful of your steps, it’s snowing again.”

Looking at Yinzhen’s hand holding Yinyou’s arm, Yinsi smiled, with a trace of loss that even he didn’t understand in his eyes.

A few days later, the seventh prince was summoned by the emperor to play chess in Qianqing Palace. He played only a few matches since he always regretted his moves, and for this he was told off a lot by the emperor. Even when playing this badly, he still managed to eat a lot of fresh fruits from the Qianqing Palace which made the emperor scold him again, this time for being a bastard. Then the emperor said that in the future when the seventh brother came to the Qianqing Palace he was not allowed to eat any of the good fruit.

But that night, the seventh prince’s house still received some fruits rewarded by the emperor. This way, the seventh prince’s foodie reputation was successfully spread around and even the Empress Dowager joined in the fun, cracking a few jokes.

The translator has something to say: I think the last bit when Yinyou is called by Kangxi to the palace and bestowed favor (A.K.A, the fruits and how him being a foodie is a quirky trait and not him being lowly), really shows how much eyeliners the emperor has in the palace. I think this happened because the chat between Yinyou and Yinsi was heard by some spies and then relayed to Kangxi, which made Kangxi feel that Yinyou really saw him as his father, and not only the emperor. Also, I was re-reading some chapters and I noticed that in chapter 28, the emperor started suspecting Yinzhen’s feelings for Yinyou! I never noticed that. As Bee said, this novel is really suitable for re-reading a bunch of times cuz every time, you catch a different thing you didn’t notice before!