noffsinger Chapter 113: The world is declining, and people’s hearts are not as old as they used to be.
Chapter 113: The world is declining, and people’s hearts are not as old as they used to be.
When the three brothers returned to Yonghe Palace, Fourth Prince Consort Ulanara was chatting with Consort De. When she saw them come in, she hurriedly and awkwardly tried to get up to greet them, but Consort De pressed her back down.
"Sit still. The three of them aren't that precious. You're heavily pregnant, why are you getting up and sitting down? Don't they know they need you to greet them when they come in?"
As soon as Yinzhuo entered, he heard his mother's words. The three brothers first respectfully stepped forward to pay their respects to Consort De. Before Consort De could call them to get up, Yinzhuo quickly got up on his own.
"Sigh, people always seem to only feel pain downwards, not upwards. Fourth brother, look at Mother. She hasn't even held her grandson in her arms yet, and the three of us sons are already worthless to her. Once our little nephew is born next year, the three of us will probably be yesterday's flowers..."
Upon hearing Yinzhuo's words, Consort De knew that the rascal was putting on an act again, so she reached out and touched the Fourth Prince's belly, smiling as she spoke to Yinzhuo.
"Yinzhuo is right. Mother only loves the lower body and not the upper body. In the future, when Mother has a grandson, if I get anything good, you will definitely not get any. You can go cool off somewhere else."
Good heavens, look at what you're saying! Your grandson isn't even here yet, and you're already planning to throw your son over the wall.
"That won't do, Mother. Didn't you say before that I was your favorite? Fourth Brother, Fourteenth Brother, how can you be so calm? Don't you have any sense of crisis? We're about to fall out of favor."
Over the years, thanks to Yinzhuo's mediation, both Consort De and the Fourteenth Prince have treated Yinzhen much better than in history. Therefore, Yinzhen responded to Yinzhuo's teasing in a relaxed tone.
"It doesn't matter that we've fallen out of favor, isn't it my son who's about to take over? So, I haven't really fallen out of favor, it's you and Fourteenth Prince who are..."
Oh no, even a decent person like Fourth Brother has turned bad. It really proves the saying, "The world is going to the dogs, and people's hearts are no longer what they used to be."
With Yinzhuo and the Fourteenth Prince, two chatterboxes, around, the atmosphere in Yonghe Palace was truly lively. Although Yinzhen was not usually a talkative person, he became much more talkative than usual under the influence of the other two. Consort De didn't care how much the three of them made a fuss, only stepping in to suppress the two monkeys when Yinzhuo and the Fourteenth Prince went too far. When the food was ready in the kitchen and brought over, the mother and her children got up and walked towards the dining hall.
Yinzhuo and the others hadn't eaten much at the family banquet in Qianqing Palace, but now that they saw the steaming food, they were quite hungry. Since Consort De didn't have the rule of not talking while eating or sleeping, Yinzhuo picked up a piece of fish with his chopsticks, chewed it a few times, swallowed it, and then said to himself.
"May you have abundance every year."
Seeing his serious expression, everyone couldn't help but laugh. Of course, Yinzhuo knew what they were laughing at, but he didn't care at all. What's wrong with wishing for a good omen of abundance year after year? If he wanted to be a playboy, didn't he need money? Why hadn't he realized his dream yet? Wasn't it because he didn't have money?
Soon, the dumplings that Yinzhuo had been looking forward to were cooked and served. Yinzhuo was quite enthusiastic this time. He got up, took the plate from Chunxiang, picked up new chopsticks, and began to distribute the dumplings to everyone.
“Come on, Mother, one for me, Fourth Sister-in-law, one for me, Fourth Brother, one for me, Yinzhuo, one for me, Fourteenth, one for me, that’s one round. Now let’s start from Fourteenth’s side, Fourteenth, one for me…”
Seeing that the dumplings on the plate were being put onto Yinzhuo's plate one by one, Fourteen-year-old Shiyi immediately became unhappy and turned to complain to his mother with his plate in hand.
"Mother, aren't you going to do anything about Sixth Brother? I only got two dumplings from this plate, but look, Sixth Brother's plate is almost full..."
Both sides are her flesh and blood, and it hurts Consort De no matter which one she pinches. What can she do but try to coax the one who is easier to appease?
"Don't worry, Fourteen. The kitchen has made plenty of dumplings. There's enough for you to eat as many as you want. They're probably cooking new dumplings now, and they'll be brought over in a bit."
Did Fourteen want the dumplings from the kitchen? He wanted the plate of dumplings with gold cakes in his sixth brother's hand, but he turned his head and glanced at his sixth brother who had already picked up his chopsticks and was about to start eating. He knew that he couldn't take what was in his sixth brother's mouth, so he could only nod, pick up his chopsticks and eat the last two dumplings left on his plate.
What if some people were just making things out of thin air? Yinzhuo only gave everyone else two or three dumplings, keeping about ten for himself. He had already eaten half of them and hadn't found a single gold ingot. On the other hand, the Fourteenth Prince had only two dumplings, but he was eating gold ingots one after another. The situation immediately changed. The Fourteenth Prince, who had been unhappy just now, was now happy, while Yinzhuo, who had been smug, suddenly turned pale.
"Wow, I've gotten a gold coin too! Looks like I'm pretty lucky."
Well, now Yinzhuo frowned even more. So he really is a spendthrift, how come he gave away all those gold ingots to others?
After dinner, the mother and her sons moved to the flower hall to drink tea, chat, and stay up to welcome the New Year. Yinzhuo was clearly still recovering from the dumpling-sharing incident. He held his hands up to his eyes and examined them carefully before shaking his head helplessly.
"You know these hands of mine, they used to draw great bows and tame wild horses, but now..."
Yinzhen glanced at Yinzuo beside him, who was already rambling incoherently from the shock, smiled helplessly, took out the gold ingot he had eaten, placed it on the table, and pushed it towards Yinzuo.
"Alright, I know what your hands are like. Let alone drawing a large bow, even a person with more than four strengths would have trouble. Fourth brother will give you this gold ingot. Let's not compete with ourselves."
Haha, you talk like you're so great. We're about the same, I'm at four strength and you're at four and a half. Let's not make fun of each other.
On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Yinzhu got up very early and dressed himself up like a red envelope. First, he took Dexi to the Qianqing Palace to pay New Year's respects to Emperor Kangxi and received a large red envelope as a reward from his father. Then he went to pay New Year's respects to his mother. After that, he followed his mother to the Shou Kang Palace to pay New Year's respects to the old lady. The Shou Kang Palace was Yinzhu's main battlefield every New Year. Before he even arrived at the Shou Kang Palace, he was already on high alert.
"Grandma, Happy New Year! Your grandson wishes you good fortune when you look up, happiness when you look down, fulfillment when you look back, freedom from worries when you shake your head, auspicious light on your forehead, auspiciousness in your brows, and good luck on your nose. May the New Year start with great fortune and prosperity."
Yinzhuo's clever words immediately made the old lady beam with joy. She beckoned the nanny next to her to come over and take a purse that was much larger than the others from the tray she was carrying, and handed it to Yinzhuo.
"Good child, I have received your blessings. I also wish you a peaceful and prosperous new year."
Yinzhu thanked the old lady, then turned to look at the ladies sitting below her. He was thick-skinned and eloquent. Whether he met someone he knew or not, he had only one principle: praise them. After going around the circle, the tray in Dexi's hands behind him was full.