CH 54

Hi! Today we see Yinyou’s mentality regarding Yinzhen’s feelings. I had so many expectations, so it was lowkey dull for me, lol. Still, we see a bit of Kangxi’s liking towards Yinyou. Thank you for reading —Bambi

On New Year’s Eve, Yinyou and Jinsu went to Qianqing Palace to attend the New Year’s Eve banquet. The two chatted happily along the way, looking like a pair of good friends.

After getting out of the carriage, the two meet the fourth prince and the fourth Fu Jin. After the couple greeted Yinzhen and Shuya, Yinyou asked, “Sister-in-law, does Honghui still like the little toy I sent two days ago?”

Hearing his words, Shuya smiled merrily, “Seventh brother knows Honghui very well, indeed, he is holding tight onto those gadgets and won’t let go.”

With those novel gadgets these days, Honghui has become more and more cheerful. Shuya was secretly grateful to Yinyou. After all, a married woman’s future was her child. Her Lord was not a womanizer and he rarely rested in her courtyard. With his temperament, how could there be any heirs in the future? Knowing it would be difficult to have a second child, her love for Honghui was greater.

“If Honghui likes it it’s good.” Yinyou then said to Jinsu, who was standing beside him. “Jinsu, if you are bored at home alone you can go chat with the fourth sister-in-law in your spare time. Fourth sister-in-law has always been very considerate. If you like something and shamelessly ask her for it, she will certainly give it to you.”

After hearing this, Shuya smiled and turned to look at the cold-faced Yinzhen. “Master, did you hear that? The seventh brother not only has been thinking about the things in the house all day long, but he’s teaching the younger sibling to imitate him.” After saying that, she stepped forward, took Jinsu’s hand, and spoke with a gentle smile. “The seventh sibling is a beautiful and virtuous woman, don’t let the seventh brother teach you bad things.”

Shuya knew very well the power of Jinsu’s family. Seeing the person, one could tell she was a smart woman. In addition, the seventh prince had a close relationship with her Lord and being on good terms with Jinsu could only bring her benefits and no disadvantages.

“Alas, the fourth sister-in-law praised me for being good a few days ago, but now that she sees my wife, she despises me,” Yinyou complained with a smile.

Turning his head to look at Yinzhen, he realized that the other person’s eyes were fixed on him. He smiled and said, “Fourth brother, you have to help me, otherwise the next time I come to your house, I will definitely be kicked out by the fourth sister-in-law.”

“No one will kick you out of my house,” Yinzhen stretched out his hand to pat Yinyou’s shoulder, and turning to Shuya, he said, “The seventh brother and I will go to the wing first. You and the seventh sibling can go together.”

“Master, don’t worry.”

Shuya and Jinsu stood side by side, not paying any attention to Yinzhen’s coddling words to Yiyou.

The two brothers walked side by side in the direction of Qianqing Palace. The two young eunuchs behind them followed quietly.

Facing Yinzhen, Yiyou still felt a little uncomfortable. He didn’t know if Yinzhen had that kind of intention for him. Although he had heard about love between men in his previous life, there was no one like that around him. As for how he felt about this kind of thing, Yinyou didn’t care much. In his eyes, there was no difference between love between men and love between men and women. The only difference was that men lacked women’s upper body, and women missed men’s lower body parts.

He spent most of the night pondering on Yinzhen’s partiality towards him. He concluded that Yinzhen’s kindness had surpassed those of brotherhood. Not to mention half-brothers, even between brothers of the same mother, their relationship was probably not as good as theirs.

When he finally concluded that Yinzhen might have other thoughts about him, the first thing that came to his mind was not pain, entanglement, or nausea, but instead, he focused on the feasibility of the two of them being together. What if Kangxi discovered them? The thought came to mind that it would not be bad to stay together with Yinzhen for life. Next to Yinzhen, he was the most relaxed and carefree. Yinzhen’s presence reassured him and he could forget all about responsibilities and political intrigues, he only needed to care what good things the fourth brother had kept for him this time, were they delicious and fun? They certainly were.

Yinzhen gave him the best things, remembered what he liked and would take the trouble to go look for it, he even took care of his body’s health. Such care and pampering, except for one’s own parents, could only mean he loved him deeply, wasn’t it?

When Yinyou woke up the next day after thinking of this issue all night, he had come to terms with himself. If Yinzhen truly felt that way for him, he would just let nature take its course, he would not refuse it. But if Yinzhen didn’t feel that way, just take it as him being too sentimental. Yinzhen would continue being the most important brother in his life. Such sincerity, even if it was not love, was still worthy of his cherishment.

Seeing that Yinyou didn’t speak much along the way, Yinzhen glanced at his face and seeing that there was nothing unusual, he took the initiative to chat with him. “You have been very busy these past two days. I haven’t seen you come to my house.” Even Honghui’s toys were brought by the servants.

“It’s been really cold these past two days; I don’t want to go out.” Yinyou explained with a frown, “It’s too hard to move.”

Seeing the seriousness on his face, Yinzhen laughed at him. “You’re being lazy again, I see. If Huang Ama listens, you will get scolded again.”

“Huang Ama is right in scolding his son.” To be honest, Yinyou was not afraid of Kangxi’s nagging. Kangxi’s reprimand did not affect his standing as a prince since he couldn’t get the throne. And most of the scolding was done with a smile, even his rewards did not get lesser because of getting scolded. Yinyou could tell that Kangxi wasn’t really angry at him. As the saying goes, «Without expectations, there’s no disappointment». This was the truth.

“Is it snowing?” Yinyou touched his nose, feeling there was something cool on it. When he wiped it with his hand, he could still feel the icy touch of the snowflake. He looked up at the dark sky, “The auspicious snow heralds a good harvest, next year there will be a good reaping.”

Seeing Yinyou looking up at the sky and exposing his white neck, Yinzhen reached out and pressed the fox fur hat on his head, “Don’t keep looking, it will be uncomfortable when the snow falls in your eyes.”

Yinyou turned to look at Yinzhen. He could still see a faint, almost imperceptible smile at the corner of his mouth. Yinyou tilted his head playfully, “Fourth brother, you are becoming more and more like my E’niang.”

Sure enough, only those who put him in their hearts would care about such small details. Thinking of this, Yinyou grinned merrily, “But even if the fourth brother looks like an old woman, I won’t dislike you.”

“Are you saying that I look like an old woman, or are you saying that Cheng E’niang is an old woman?” Yinzhen flicked Yinyou’s head, and before he could finish the rest of his words, he heard someone else’s voice coming from behind him.

“The fourth brother and the seventh brother are really close. This older brother feels very envious just seeing it.” The third prince Yinzhi stood behind with two young eunuchs and a polite smile on his face.

When he saw Yinzhen and Yinyou had stopped joking around, he stepped forward and said pretentiously, “I heard that the seventh brother likes to be a guest at the fourth brother’s house?”

“Greetings to the third brother,” Yinyou said. “The fourth brother’s mansion is close to my mine, and he’s my elder brother. It’s natural for a younger brother to go to his elder brother’s house to eat and drink.”

In recent days, the third elder brother has become more and more arrogant. Was it because he was promoted to a Prince of the Second Rank?

After hearing this, Yinzhi smirked and dropped the subject. “Let’s go in together, it’s almost time.”

“Third brother, please go first.” With an expressionless face, Yinzhen took a step aside. Yinzhi didn’t refuse and directly walked ahead of them, his steps brisk and high-spirited.

Yinyou turned his head and looked at Yinzhen: his face remained calm as if he didn’t mind Yinzhi’s arrogance.

After the banquet started, as usual, the Crown Prince led the princes to pay their respects to Kangxi. Only after the ministers left did the feast begin;  only the members of the imperial clan were allowed to eat in Yangxin Hall1Hall of Mental Cultivation. Yangxin Hall was just an ordinary side hall next to the Qianqing Palace, which was the emperor’s audience hall. But the bed-chamber of the Yongzheng emperor and the next eight emperors located here, thus Yangxin Hall had become the most important place in the Forbidden City. It is no exaggeration to say that the Yangxin Hall was the center of national politics and power during the Qing dynasty. During Kangxi’s reign the side hall was mostly used as a workshop, wherein artisan objects like clocks were designed and manufactured. Source 1, 2..

Yinyou sat down in his seat and listened to Kangxi’s New Year’s speech. Suddenly he remembered what happened more than ten years ago. At that time, a few shaky characters he wrote were still circulating the table. This greatly pleased the imperial concubines in the palace. The Grand Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang2The mother of the Sunzhi Emperor and Kangxi’s paternal grandmother, she played a pivotal role in politics, since she supported Kangxi to take the throne when he was 15 and get rid of the regents. She was highly respected for her political wisdom and insight. Her Wikipedia page: here. was still alive at that time. Now, the body of that legendary woman may have turned into bones, and he has gone from a modern person to an imperial prince.

The Crown Prince’s gift to Kangxi was the political proposal he had been working on for the past two months which made the emperor overjoyed. The eldest prince gifted the emperor a rare, peerless treasure and for this, Kangxi spoke one word: “good”, and rewarded him without any other reaction. Yinzhen’s gift was the ten thousand Buddhist characters copied by his own hand and since Kangxi liked this very much, he rewarded him with various things.

When it was Yinyou’s turn, he presented his silk painting3Silk painting was common during the Qing Dynasty (1644–1912) in China. The Qing Dynasty was known for its patronage of the arts, and various forms of painting, including silk painting, flourished during this period. Silk was a valued material for artistic expression due to its smooth texture and ability to hold vibrant colours. that he had done himself and then spoke righteously under Kangxi’s slightly twitching expression.

“All that exists in the world is under the possession of Huang Ama. The Crown Prince gave a policy, the third brother presented his Spring Rain painting, the fourth brother gifted you Ten Thousand Buddhist Characters, the fifth brother shared his poems, and the eldest brother’s offering was secured through his diligent efforts. Erchen is incompetent. Erchen’s talent is no better than the Crown Prince brother, he’s also no better at painting than the third brother, not as good at calligraphy as the fourth brother, and not as good at poetry as the fifth brother. Erchen drew this silk and satin painting just asking Huang Ama not to dislike it.”

Kangxi carefully unrolled the silk cloth and saw a short, big-headed man in a dragon robe, the man was drawn to look like a child. Next to him was a chubby kid, who was reaching out to hand a piece of fruit to the man in the dragon robe. There were a few short little children next to them.

“This person in the dragon robe… is Zhen?”

“Back to Huang Ama, yes.”

“Is the little fat guy next Zhen you?”

“Huang Ama, it’s exactly as you say.”

The emperor tried his best to protect his son’s face on such an occasion by not laughing out loud. The corner of his mouth twitched a few times, and after a pause, he said calmly, “The things painted by the seventh prince… are naive and quite childish. Li Dequan,  be sure to include in his reward that painting in the Qianqing Palace, the one drawn by the famous artist.”

Zhen gifted you this painting to let you know what a painting is. In the future, don’t embarrass yourself by painting such things again.

Although he thought so in his heart, Kangxi ordered Li Dequan to carefully store Yinyou’s silk painting. Ahem, it was indeed ugly, but it was still very interesting. He would be sure to store it safely, lest someone else sees it and this child loses face.

“Seventh brother, what did you paint?” Afterwards, Yinxiang approached Yinyou and asked. “A few days ago, I asked Huang Ama for that peony painting, but Huang Ama was reluctant to give it to me. I didn’t expect that it would fall into seventh brother’s hands.” 

Thirteenth’s tone showed his unwillingness.

Yinyou smiled wryly, “Maybe Huang Ama wants to improve my painting skills?”

“You… what did you give?” Hearing Yinyou’s words, even Yinzhen on the side couldn’t help but ask.

“Cough, it’s just like the paintings that I usually draw for the thirteenth brother.” Yinyou felt that he was very good at pretending to be stupid, otherwise, how could Yinzhen’s expression turn so colourful?

After being made speechless by Yinyou, Yinzhen said, “Seventh brother.”

“Yes?” Yinyou replied with a smile.

“Next time you want to send a gift, you can ask me for advice first. Although your fourth brother is busy on weekdays, he still has time for you.”

Yinyou, “….”

This year’s New Year’s Eve was still as lively as in previous years. Sitting side by side, Yinyou and Yinzhen were the same as ten years ago.

When the fireworks exploded, Yinzhen turned his head and looked at the young man beside him who was staring blankly at the sky. With a smile on his face, he shifted towards him and got closer.