Chapter 18: School
The King of Jin, however, seemed not to notice his sullen face, and continued to speak: “Is the rouge fragrant? Is the belly band beautiful? What kind of flowers are embroidered on it?”
After hearing the news, King Jin’s first reaction was disbelief.
But then the rumor became more and more intense, forcing King Jin to believe it. At the same time, he also developed a strong curiosity about this little nephew he had never met.
That kind of… curiosity as if meeting someone of the same kind.
Emperor Jingwen tried to hold back for a while, but he couldn’t help it anymore and called the guards: “Come here, drag the Prince of Jin out! He is not allowed to approach the palace gate for half a month!”
“…Royal brother, why has it come to this?” Prince Jin was shocked.
I knew that my brother was very concerned about his reputation, but I never thought that he would really be angry.
Prince Jin wanted to resist, but was caught by the guards who arrived.
“Your Highness, I’m sorry.” The guard’s words were much more polite than their actions.
Prince Jin was thrown out by the guards.The palace maid at the door looked at her nose and pretended not to see it.
After his feet landed on the ground, Prince Jin couldn’t help but touch his nose, but he was not angry.
Hey, this is really interesting.
If I get the chance in the future, I must meet this little nephew.
Having seen enough of the excitement, Prince Jin didn’t care about not being able to enter the palace for half a month. He hummed a little tune and left in a swagger.
This action almost angered Emperor Jingwen in the palace to death.
When the noise outside Chengming Hall gradually died down, Emperor Jingwen, with his chest rising and falling violently, glanced at Prince Su who was standing there without saying a word and said, “What about you? Did you come here today to see me make a fool of myself, too?”
Well…that’s what happened.
But seeing that his brother was really angry at the moment, Prince Jin slipped away early again, leaving no one who could handle the situation. Prince Su certainly couldn’t say this.
“Why do you say that, brother?”
Prince Su looked a little surprised. “I just saw that my brother has been worried about the spring flood recently, so I came to ask if my brother needs anything. I can send you anytime.”
He spoke so sincerely that if Emperor Jingwen had not accidentally caught a glimpse of interest in his eyes just now, he might have actually believed it.
“…In recent years, you have become more and more talkative.” He is no longer the taciturn person he used to be.
My younger brother has made an indelible contribution to all this.
It would be fine if it was just the Prince of Jin, but if the Prince of Su also became like that, Emperor Jingwen would feel a headache just thinking about it, so he warned him: “If you have nothing else to do in the future, don’t hang out with Old Sixteen.”
When he was a prince, Prince Jin was the sixteenth child, so Emperor Jingwen habitually called him “Old Sixteen”.
Upon hearing this, Prince Su did not argue and responded “yes” very obediently.
Emperor Jingwen felt relieved at this.
However, since Prince Su has arrived, there is no reason for Emperor Jingwen to let him go just like that.
Since he took the initiative to bring up the issue of spring floods, which Emperor Jingwen was worried about, ask to do it. Emperor Jingwen had already had this idea, so he simply gave the task to Prince Su.
The eldest prince is now in charge of the army, the second prince is weak, and as for the crown prince… he is still young and cannot take on such an important task for a while. Emperor Jingwen is not very confident in ordinary officials. After all considerations, Prince Su is the most suitable.
Prince Su did not refuse and accepted the order and expressed his gratitude on the spot.
“I’ll give you two days. Go back and make good preparations. You can set off tomorrow.” Time waits for no one. Emperor Jingwen was very decisive about the disaster.
Only……
Before leaving, Emperor Jingwen asked casually, “Are you two the only ones who know about the little prince’s affairs, or has the whole clan spread the news?”
It turns out that my royal brother still cares about it.
Prince Su cleared his throat and said seriously, “Don’t worry, my royal brother. Apart from the two of us, no one else dares to gossip about us.”
This is a euphemism, but even a deaf person can understand the meaning.
So, my royal brother, stop deceiving yourself.
“…”
“Get out of here right now, too.”
“Yes, I will take my leave.”
Because of the emperor’s attitude, no one in the harem dared to mention this matter. Ye Shuo couldn’t even leave Qiuwu Palace, so those rumors naturally couldn’t affect him.
So far, Ye Shuo is still that carefree and happy little loser who only needs to worry about eating and sleeping every day.
Days passed, and soon it was time for the Sixth Prince to start school.
The Sixth Prince is a little over six years old this year. According to his age in lunar calendar, he is already eight years old.
This age is considered to be very old in the Shangshufang, where the average age is six and children have to go to school. But the imperial concubine is the imperial concubine after all, and it is not difficult to squeeze the Sixth Prince in.
[T/L = Shangshufang means the Prince’s schooling.]
The master still had some concerns at first. As far as he knew, the Sixth Prince had been left unsupervised before he entered Qiuwu Palace. It was difficult for him to even learn to read and write, let alone learn calligraphy.
However, due to the Imperial Concubine’s favor, the Master had no choice but to bite the bullet and ask the Sixth Prince a few questions.
Then the master was pleasantly surprised to find that although the Sixth Prince’s answers were a little halting, he basically answered them all, and was not much inferior to the other princes in the study.
The master was relieved immediately.
However, because the Sixth Prince learned to read too late, and his foundation was not solid, the Young Tutor wanted to teach him alone. However, he was rejected by the Sixth Prince as soon as he finished speaking.
“Thank you for your kindness, Master, but I want to try it myself.” The Sixth Prince did not want to be special among his brothers, nor did he want to show weakness in front of others. Letting the Master teach him alone would only make the Sixth Prince feel embarrassed.
So he decided to work harder and try to catch up with other people’s learning progress as soon as possible.
The master was startled when he heard this, and then nodded with satisfaction.
Concubine Rong standing by felt that the Sixth Prince was doing well.
Although the Sixth Prince was not her biological son, he was raised in her palace after all. If the Sixth Prince was much inferior to her, she would not be happy.
Because the Sixth Prince never mentioned it, Concubine Rong had no idea that in the past one or two months, the Sixth Prince had gotten up from his bed in the middle of the night several times to go to the study, either to review new words he had learned before or to study new content on his own.
Sometimes, if a person doesn’t speak, not only his adoptive parents, but even his biological parents don’t know what he is thinking.
Coincidentally, the Sixth Prince was the one who was unwilling to speak out easily.
Concubine Rong was not a very careful person and never paid attention to it.
Because he was afraid of the dark, the lights in the side hall where the Sixth Prince lived were almost never turned off at night.
But unfortunately, he never wanted to keep anyone in his room. It was such a contradiction. Two days later, when Ye Shuo woke up in the morning and saw that the ink on the ink stone in the side hall had not yet dried, he knew what had happened recently.
Ye Shuo couldn’t help but sigh in his heart. The Sixth Prince is still young and doesn’t know that only the body is the capital of revolution.
Ye Shuo died of illness in his previous life, so he was deeply touched by this sentence.
No matter how much money or power you have, if you can’t live that long, it will all be in vain.
The Sixth Prince was already at the top of the pyramid when he was born. He didn’t need to work hard to survive, but his living conditions might be relatively worse.
But even so, there is no need to rush!
But only Ye Shuo can see these, the Sixth Prince, who is involved in the game, cannot see them.
The Sixth Prince was born into a poor family, and working hard in the upper study was one of his few opportunities to turn things around. In this situation, he would not listen even if others advised him.
The Sixth Prince was still feeling happy at this moment for having answered the Master’s question, and he secretly decided in his heart that he would work harder in the future.
Seeing this, Ye Shuo couldn’t help but worry about his health.
You should know that the princes of the Zhou Dynasty had to report to the study at 5:00 a.m., plus the time of getting up, washing, eating breakfast and the time spent on the road, which means he had to get up before 5:00 a.m.
It’s three or four in the morning!
It would be fine if it was just puberty for teenagers, but how could a child of a few years old possibly bear this?
School ends at 3 p.m. The whole learning process takes more than ten hours. And you still have to do homework when he gets home in the evening. Just thinking about it makes him feel overwhelmed.
No wonder the infant mortality rate was so high in ancient times. If you force the growth of something by forcing it like this, it would be strange if the seedlings could grow well.
However, this kind of thing is ultimately poison to one person and honey to another.
Just when Ye Shuo was desperately thinking about how he could avoid this torture three years later, the Sixth Prince set out happily with his study partner early the next morning, just before the hour of Yin.
[T/L = Yin hour is time between 3 and 5 A.M.]
Ye Shuo looked up and saw that it was still dark outside, but the stars and the moon were shining like searchlights.
“…”
After a long silence, Ye Shuo turned over in the quilt without hesitation and continued to sleep.
It’s a nightmare!
Ye Shuo slept until noon, when he woke up, it was already dawn.
After getting enough sleep, he felt completely different.
After breakfast and some time to digest, Ye Shuo started playing in the yard as usual.
If you want to be healthy, it is not enough to just sleep, you also need to exercise.
In ancient times, there were no specific medicines or inspection equipment, and a cold could take a person’s life. Shouldn’t he be careful?
People who have died once will not really see through life and death, and may even be more afraid of death.
His movement was so exhausting that all the palace maids and eunuchs in the yard collapsed.
At first, it was Concubine Rong. She couldn’t run after just two trips with him. No one knew where a one-year-old child had so much energy, it seemed as if there was endless energy.
Ye Shuo also clearly felt that his physical strength seemed to be particularly abundant, not like a child at all.
After a little thought, he suddenly realized.
Could it be that he inherited his physique from his grandfather?
Those who can go to the battlefield are not ordinary people. I heard from his mother that my grandfather can still eat six bowls of rice in one meal, and wielding a long sword weighing dozens of kilograms is like a piece of cake.
That would be great if that were true.
As we all know, emperors generally have short lives. Before, Ye Shuo was afraid that he had inherited the short-lived gene from his step-father. Now it seems that the probability of inheriting the long-lived gene from his grandfather should be greater.
After having lunch and taking a short nap, Ye Shuo continued his activities.
At around four o’clock in the afternoon, just when he was sweating all over, the Sixth Prince finally returned from the study.
Perhaps because of the high intensity of his study, there was obvious fatigue on his face.
Seeing this, Ye Shuo habitually called out, “Sixth Brother!”
Ever since the “Zhou-Zhua” event, seeing that everyone’s attention had been diverted, Ye Shuo’s pronunciation naturally became much clearer.
Seeing that it was him, the Sixth Prince couldn’t help but smile.
If it were usual, the Sixth Prince would definitely play with him for a while, but today…
The Sixth Prince reached out and touched his little brother’s head: “Sixth Brother has something to do today. I will accompany you when Sixth Brother is done with it. Is that okay?”
The so-called serious business is nothing more than the book that the young master assigned to everyone to memorize today.
“No, no…” Ye Shuo waved his hands, trying to rescue him.
“Sixth brother, accompany…accompany…”
In order to let the child rest for a while, Ye Shuo shamelessly acted cute.
As expected, the Sixth Prince did not take his words seriously at all. After giving his partner a look, he went back to his room, opened the book, and started to recite.
The tutor stepped forward in time and said, “Little prince, may I play with you?”
Ye Shuo: “…”
Forget it, I’m afraid your small body can’t handle it.
Ye Shuo glanced at the other person and decided not to harm this less than ten-year-old study partner.
Ye Shuo shook his head and went to the corner to play in the mud.
Well…recently he found that kneading mud is quite interesting…
The sound of the Sixth Prince reading aloud could be heard. At first, Ye Shuo thought it was quite pleasant to listen to, but later on, he gradually found it boring.
It happened that Concubine Rong took a nap, and the kitchen delivered hot, steaming snacks in time. Smelling the aroma in the air, Ye Shuo did not hesitate, threw the small branch he picked up, and then stomped on the mud pit.
When Nanny Jing came to call him, Ye Shuo stood up and followed her with mud all over his body.
Nanny Jing vaguely saw that there seemed to be something in the mud pit, but she thought it was just something the little prince had drawn randomly and didn’t take it seriously.
If she had come earlier, she would have seen that the mud pit was filled with small words.
These small characters were exactly what the Sixth Prince was reciting now.
Just now Ye Shuo felt bored and unconsciously followed along writing and drawing.
Unfortunately, Nanny Jing arrived too late and didn’t see it.
Seeing the little prince in such a mess, Nanny Jing held his hand and helplessly blamed him, “If the queen sees this later, she will be angry again.”
Ye Shuo chuckled and was not worried.
In the side hall, the sound of the Sixth Prince endorsing his lesson continued.