noffsinger Chapter 334 Action is worse than heartbeat
Chapter 334 Action is worse than heartbeat
Chapter 334 Actions speak louder than words
Emperor Kangxi ruled the world and possessed the wealth of the four seas. He had seen all sorts of fine things in his life. The seal and jade pendant carved by Yinzhuo would probably never have had the chance to be presented to Emperor Kangxi if they hadn't been made by Yinzhuo.
What does "love me, love my dog" mean? Just look at how much Emperor Kangxi cherished the seal and jade pendant. It's no exaggeration to say that even if you put the works of the nation's top sculptors in front of him now, he would still say without hesitation that the seal and jade pendant carved by his son looked better.
"Liang Jiugong, bring me the inkpad and paper."
With Liang Jiugong's keen eye, Kangxi didn't even need to give any special instructions. As soon as Yinzhuo came in with the box, he had someone bring over the inkpad and paper. Sure enough, as soon as Kangxi finished speaking, he had already placed the things he needed on the table.
The paper was laid out, the inkpad was opened, and Kangxi picked up the seal in his hand, dipped it in the inkpad, and gently pressed it onto the paper. After lifting it, six small seal characters were left on the paper: "Number One Father Under Heaven." It must be said that Yinzhuo's flattery was really good. Putting everything else aside, these six characters at least created a strong atmosphere of fatherly love and filial piety.
"When you said you'd carve a seal for me from that jade ruyi, I thought you were just bragging. I didn't expect your newly acquired skills to be so good. Not only is the jade pendant carved quite well, but the seal is also very well carved. I thought you would choose relatively simple scripts like clerical script or regular script for the seal, but I never imagined you would choose the most difficult seal script..."
Yinzhuo was already incredibly proud of himself for being able to complete these two works independently with his clever little brain. If Kangxi hadn't praised him, things would have been fine, but once he did, things took off like a rocket.
"Right? My son also thinks these two pieces of my carving are pretty good. Father, you don't know, when my son saw his third brother carving seals, his movements were so smooth and effortless, he thought it wouldn't be difficult. But when he actually tried it himself, he realized that what you learn from books is never enough. Look at my hands, they're covered in cuts and small cuts, in short, they're all covered in injuries..."
Although Yinzhu had previously learned carving from Yinzhi for a couple of days, it was all theoretical; in short, he had the eye but not the hand. This was the first time he had actually held a carving knife, so it would be strange if he didn't have a few cuts on his hands. But so what? Would it stop him from taking these minor injuries to his father to claim credit? Judging from his appearance, it was clearly not a problem at all.
Although the wounds on Yinzhuo's hands looked numerous, upon closer inspection they were merely superficial injuries. Dexi had treated them immediately after they were injured. But did the severity of the wounds really matter? Kangxi's focus was clearly on his beloved son's hand injury.
"What are those servants around you doing? They didn't even bother to treat the master's injured hand. And you, I'm not in a hurry for the jade pendant or the seal. If the hand is injured, just let it heal before carving it. What if it leaves a scar later? Liang Jiugong, go to Physician Wang and get some scar-removing ointment for Dexi, who serves by his side. Don't forget to remind him to apply the ointment to his master on time..."
While Emperor Kangxi and Yinzhi enjoyed a harmonious and loving relationship, the 13th and 14th princes in Fujian were living a miserable life. Although they were princes, Emperor Kangxi had specifically instructed Wu Ying, the admiral of the Fujian navy, not to give them any special treatment. So, as soon as they arrived, they were put into military camps under assumed names, and were now called Azhen and Axiang, having completely lost their original names.
"Thirteenth Brother, how about we write to Sixth Brother and ask him to send us some chili sauce? I'm so tired of this bland food in the barracks. Look at me, I've lost weight again. If this keeps up, I'm afraid I'll die here."
Although Thirteen and Fourteen had prepared themselves for hardship from the moment they received the imperial decree to come here, they really didn't expect it to be this tough. They could gradually adapt to the climate and environment, but they just couldn't overcome the food. They had only been here for two months, and they had both visibly lost a lot of weight.
“I think it’s feasible. I remember when we left, Sixth Brother was arranging for people to plant tomatoes and peppers in his little vegetable garden, right? It’s probably snowing in Beijing by now, so the peppers and tomatoes have probably been harvested long ago. Doesn’t Sixth Brother always say that action speaks louder than words? When we get back, we can borrow some paper and pen to write a letter to Sixth Brother. If we send it out now, it should arrive before the New Year.”
At this moment, Yinzhuo had no idea that his two younger brothers, who were thousands of miles away, were eyeing his chili peppers. They were busy inviting friends to his waterside pavilion to enjoy the first snow of the 46th year of Kangxi's reign with him.
"Father, look, the ground is all white now! Can we go outside and build a snowman now?"
Yinzhuo lay on a recliner in the waterside pavilion, covered with a blanket, with his eyes closed, seemingly ignoring his son's calls. Hongxu called Yinzhuo a few times but saw that he was not moving, so he thought his father was asleep. He then obediently got off the chair next to Yinzhuo, ran to the window, and put his little face close to the floor-to-ceiling glass to watch the snowflakes fluttering outside.
"Wow, it's my eldest uncle, second uncle, fourth uncle, ninth uncle, and Brother Hongxi is here..."
Although Yinti, Yinreng, and the others were wrapped up very tightly, Hongxu could still tell their identities from their movements. As soon as the little guy saw that someone had come, he no longer cared about looking at the snow and ran towards the entrance of the waterside pavilion with his short legs.
As soon as Yinzhen and his companions reached the entrance of the waterside pavilion, before they could even reach out, the door was opened from the inside, and then a slightly excited, childlike voice rang out.
"Uncle, Second Uncle, Fourth Uncle, Ninth Uncle, Brother Hongxi, I just saw you by the window."
Dexi had already caught up with the little guy with his cloak when Hongxu ran towards the door. He rushed over and managed to put the cloak on the little guy just before he opened the waterside pavilion door. When he saw Yinti and the others standing at the door, he hurriedly stepped forward to present the gift.
"This servant greets the Crown Prince, the Prince Zhi, the Fourth Prince, the Ninth Prince, and the Young Prince."
Yinreng first waved for Dexi to get up, then took off his cloak and changed his shoes by the door before picking up Hongxu, who was looking up at them with a smile, and walked into the waterside pavilion.
"Oh, our Crown Prince is quite fast today. Alright, with such heavy snow outside, let's not stand here at the door. Sigh... it's much more comfortable inside."