activa-t Chapter 401 Father, you're getting old, you have to accept it.
Chapter 401 Father, you're getting old, you have to accept it.
As mentioned before, nothing that happened in Changchun Garden could escape Kangxi's notice. Naturally, his subordinates reported the destruction of the peony garden immediately. Just as Yinzhuo had guessed, Kangxi didn't take it to heart at all. It was just a few peonies; he could simply have them replanted later.
As soon as Yinzhuo and Yintang brought the little fellow Hongzhang into Qingxi Study, Kangxi knew their purpose. He waved his hand to exempt the three of them from formalities, pointed to the chairs in the flower hall, indicating that they should find a place to sit down, and then turned his attention back to the memorials he was holding.
Just now, when we were at the entrance of Qingxi Study, Yinzuo had someone put him down from the reclining chair that they were carrying. He had been helped by Yintang all the way here, and although his legs didn't feel tired, his injured ankle was still a little uncomfortable.
He was always very relaxed around Emperor Kangxi, and since there were no outsiders in the room, he simply got up, took the support of the furnishings in the flower hall, and slowly moved to the bed where his father was sitting. Then, he took off his shoes, flicked his socks, and sat down directly on the bed.
“Father, why are you so stubborn? Haven’t I told you before that you’re getting old and need to balance work and rest? Look at the thickness of these reviewed memorials, you must have been sitting here for quite a while, right? Perfect timing, Xiao Jiu has brought the child over to apologize to you. Why don’t we take a break?”
Although Yinzhuo was verbally asking for Kangxi's opinion, his actions were quite forceful. He not only reached out and snatched the memorial from Kangxi's hand, but he even reached out and took off the glasses that Kangxi was wearing on his nose.
Kangxi was clearly used to Yinzhuo's blatant overstepping of authority. He wasn't angry when Yinzhuo took off his glasses and took away his memorials; he simply poked Yinzhuo's forehead a few times, and that was it.
"Yin Tang, your son is indeed a bit mischievous. Considering he is still young, let's just let this matter go. Take him back and discipline him properly, and absolutely do not let him develop a bad temper..."
When Yinzhen arrived, he thought this would be a tough hurdle to overcome. Unexpectedly, his father, just as his sixth brother had said, had no intention of holding a grudge against Hongzhang. With that, Yinzhen finally felt completely relieved.
"Your son thanks you, Father. Rest assured, your son will discipline this boy strictly in the future and will definitely correct his bad temper."
Despite his young age, Hongzhang is incredibly clever. As soon as he heard Kangxi's words, he knew that he had landed safely today. After hearing his father's guarantee, he immediately went over, knelt down, and echoed his father's assurance.
"Hamafa, this was all my fault. I promise you that I will listen to your teachings from now on and never do such a thing again..."
Despite his tendency to nitpick and find fault with his sons, Emperor Kangxi was much more amiable towards his grandsons. After hearing Hongzhang's words, he smiled and nodded to him, then gestured for the two kneeling men to rise.
"Alright, this isn't a big deal. It's still raining outside, so Yinzhen, you shouldn't kneel here anymore. Quickly take the child and go back..."
Emperor Kangxi still had a large number of memorials to review, so he didn't have time to keep Yinzhen and his son chatting. After a few words, he sent the father and son away. Yinzhen rested his chin on his hand and watched Yinzhen leave with the child without moving. He just stood there in a daze for a while before picking up a memorial that Emperor Kangxi had finished reviewing from the table and reading it.
"Father, how do you think these people can keep rambling on like this for decades? Even the smallest things require a lot of rambling before they'll actually talk about them. But their flattery skills are quite good. Look, there's still a year until your 600,000th birthday, and they're already thinking about how to organize your birthday banquet."
Yinzhuo was always a man of discretion, and the memorials he read were naturally those unimportant greetings. He wasn't interested in those ornate and elaborate articles. What he found interesting were Kangxi's replies to these people. For example, the reply Kangxi gave him in his hand could be translated into plain language as: "Just do your job well and worry less about other things."
Yinzhuo hadn't been sleeping well these past few days because of the injury to his ankle. After reading through those long-winded and bizarre greetings for a while, he actually felt a bit sleepy. He was never one to suffer in silence, so since he was sleepy, he decided to go to sleep.
“Father, you go ahead with your work. Your son is feeling really sleepy right now. I'm going to lie down and take a nap. Sitting for too long isn't good. Don't forget to get up and move around a bit later. As people get older, they have to accept it…”
"Getting old means having to accept it?" Only Yinzhi could say such a thing. If it were any other son, Kangxi would have personally used a ruler to make him feel whether his arms and legs were old or not. Yinzhi was indeed sleepy at the moment. After speaking, he didn't pay attention to his father's reaction. He leaned back, grabbed a pillow next to him to put under his head, closed his eyes, and went straight to sleep.
Although Emperor Kangxi was unwilling to admit his age, he couldn't help but listen to his son. Even without Yinzhuo supervising him, he would get up every half hour to stroll around the flower hall, have a cup of tea or some snacks, and then return to his couch to continue working.
Yinzhu slept well. When he woke up, it was already dark outside, and the rain was still drizzling. Yinzhu's legs were weak and he was too lazy to go back and forth, so he simply asked Dexi to go back to Shufengxuan to inform Yinreng that he would be staying at Qingxi Study tonight.
Emperor Kangxi's favoritism towards Yinzhuo was obvious to all. Whether it was the Qianqing Palace or the side hall of Qingxi Study, they were always reserved for Yinzhuo. Kangxi naturally had no objection to him living there. He raised his hand and beckoned Wan Quan, who was standing to the side, to take some people to tidy up the side hall first. After that, he lowered his head and continued to work on the memorials on the kang table.
Because Emperor Kangxi still had a pile of memorials to review, the father and son did not go to the dining hall when it was time for dinner. Instead, they had someone tidy up the memorials on the kang table and left the food there.
"Ah, although it's starting to get warmer at this time of year, it's still too difficult to eat leafy greens. Here, Father, try this. I didn't make much leek and egg stir-fry today, it's a pity. The portion was too small, I hadn't had enough before it was gone."
Let alone in the Qing Dynasty hundreds of years ago, even when Yinzhu was a child in his previous life, it was not easy to eat vegetables that were easy to store, such as radishes, cabbage, and potatoes, in winter. Kangxi was right when he said that Yinzhu was lazy. He was just like the cold-weather bird. When it got cold in winter and there were no vegetables to eat, he would think of vegetable greenhouses.