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Chapter 4: Melting snow
It was snowing heavily in the Forbidden City. Yinyou shrank in the wing and didn’t want to go out. Although there were eunuchs cleaning the snow every day in the palace, for three years old, the slippery ground was too much of a struggle, add to that the cold biting wind outside… Yinyou didn’t want to suffer that hardship.
There was no Empress in the harem, and the brothers didn’t have to get up early every day to greet her. In addition, his E-Niang felt distressed that Yinyou was young but lived alone in the South Three Halls, and didn’t want him to toss every day, so Yinyou hadn’t been out for two days.
Thinking that tomorrow night would be the New Year’s Eve Banquet, Yinyou didn’t know if Concubine Cheng had anything to say, so he had to ask his maid Yunzhu to dress him, and took Fu Duo to Yonghe Palace to greet her.
When he got to Yonghe Palace, Concubine Cheng was sewing a leather collar. Seeing the size, she should have sewn it for him. His heart warmed, and he stepped forward and bowed in greetings. After talking to Concubine Cheng for a while, he took the hand warmer from Concubine Cheng before leaving.
After leaving Yonghe Palace, there was already a layer of snow on the ground. Fu Duo opened the umbrella and said to Yinyou, “Brother Qi, this minion shall carry you”.
Yinyou pulled his collar up with one hand, “No need.”
A child over three years old, whether he was young or not, if he was still held by a eunuch when his behavior reached the ears of Huang Ama, who knows what this emperor through the ages [1] would think of him?
[1] 千古一帝 qiān gǔ yī dì. Li Zhi commented on Ying Zheng in ‘Collection of Books’: “The first emperor has been an emperor through the ages.” Guessing it’s something like, ‘the man among men’, ‘the best’ and so on.
Stepping on the snow with a creaking sound, Yinyou glanced around with bright eyes and walked very steadily step by step.
Meeting palace eunuchs along the way, and although their attitude towards Yinyou was not revering, it was respectful. Yinyou also took care of his due attitude: Do not make a fuss, but never lower your status. Walking through a withered lotus pond, he faintly heard the cry of a child.
Stopping, Yinyou looked at the rockery next to the lotus pond, “Fu Duo, go and have a look.” The children in this palace who dared to cry in such a place, except for the brothers, there were also princesses.
“The minion greets the eighth brother”, Fu Duo said after he went to investigate who the person behind the rockery was. Yinyou who was about to step forward immediately stopped. He naturally knew what happened to the eighth brother in history. Even if Yinsi [2] is still just a child at this moment, he didn’t want to get involved too much.
[2] 胤禩 Yinsi. Eight son of Kangxi’s. He was the strongest contender for Kangxi’s throne, but he failed miserably.
“E-Niang… E-Niang,” Yinsi’s cry was very small. As a less than a three-year-old child, he already knew that this kind of thing could not be known to more people. Yinyou glanced at the eunuch who hurried in the distance, sighed, and walked to the rockery.
There, he saw a child with a red face lying pitifully on the ground, crying, covered with a lot of snow. Upon seeing this, Yinyou handed out the hand warmer in his hand to Fu Duo on the side. He bent down and struggled to pick up Yinsi from the ground. He then patted the snow particles on his body. When he touched him, he found that Yinsi’s clothes were soaked through, and his hands were freezing cold.
Yinyou frowned, and when he heard the footsteps getting closer and closer, he covered Yinsi’s mouth, which was still calling “E-Niang”, and comforted, “Eighth brother, Hui E-Niang is in the palace, don’t cry, I will take you to Hui E-Niang. Let’s go.”
Yinsi’s moth was covered by Yinyou, and he could only sob, no longer asking about his mother, just looking at this strange boy with his big red eyes open, tears still dripping, his appearance very pitiful. Yinyou took out a handkerchief from his body and wiped Yinsi’s face, and stopped talking.
At this moment, a momo led a eunuch and palace girl over. Seeing that Yinyou was also present, she hurriedly bowed, “The minion greets the seventh brother. It turns out that the eighth brother was by the side of the seventh brother, the minion can rest assured.”
Yinyou let go of Yinsi, patted the clothes stained by snow when he squatted down just now, and smiled at the old momo, “The eighth brother was still clamoring to see Hui E-Niang just now. Fortunately, you are here, otherwise, I wouldn’t know what to do. Now that you have found the eighth brother, I will go back.”
Yinsi’s birth mother was not of high status so he was raised under Concubine Hui’s name. He was not as lucky as the fourth brother. Concubine Hui was pregnant with the eldest son. Naturally, it was impossible for her to treat Yinsi wholeheartedly as Concubine Tong Jia treated Yinzhen. In the palace, the servants were clear about who was high-level and who was low-level. Seeing that Concubine Hui didn’t care about the eighth brother, they were naturally not happy to take care of him. Otherwise, why would the eighth brother be alone here for so long before someone found him.
Although Yinyou sympathized with this child in his heart, he would not do anything beyond his power. He was one year older than Yinsi and not much taller than him. Standing in front of Yinsi, he really didn’t have much of an elder brother’s momentum. He glanced at Yinsi, who was burying his head and no longer crying, took the heater in Fu Duo’s hand and handed it to him, saying with a smile, “Eighth brother, seventh brother will leave first.”
“The minion respectfully sends the seventh brother.”
After Yinyou walked out of the rockery, he went in the direction of the South Three Halls without turning his head. As for this eighth brother, for him, it was nothing more than a peaceful encounter. Handing him a heater was nothing more than an elder’s love for children, and that's all.
Seeing that the master didn’t say a word, Fu Duo naturally didn’t dare to say much, but in his heart, he found it faintly strange. The master’s attitude towards the eighth brother seemed a little odd. Could it be that the two of them were too similar in age, so they were not too close?
Returning to the South Three Halls, Yinyou stepped his feet on the ground before entering, patting off a lot of snow on his shoes, so when he entered the house, he felt a lot warmer.
“Seventh brother, where have you been?” Yinzhen’s voice sounded behind him, Yinyou paused and turned to look. It was really Yinzhen wearing fox fur. He hugged him, “Brother, I haven’t seen you for a long time."”
Yinzhen was knocked back by Yinyou's action, but he still hugged Yinyou carefully and the unhappiness of waiting for a long time also disappeared. “I have been listening to Master Wuyizhai’s lectures recently. Today, Huang Ama told us to be free for a few days, no need to go to class.” The implication was that I will come to you when I don’t have to go to Wuyizhai.
How could Yinyou not know this, he just wanted to show a child’s dependence on his elder brother. After rubbing against Yinzhen’s tender cheeks, Yinyou let go of Yinzhen, and then spoke softly, looking well-behaved like a good baby [3], “I just went to greet E-Niang.”
[3] 乖 guāi - (of a child) obedient, well-behaved / clever / shrewd / alert / perverse / contrary to reason / irregular / abnormal. 宝宝 bǎobao - darling; baby
Yinzhen looked down at Yinyou’s already wet shoes, which must have been caused by the melting snow. He said to Fu Duo on one side, “What are you doing in a daze? Don’t you give your master another pair of shoes quickly?”
He pulled Yinyou aside and sat down on a stool. Seeing Fu Duo changing Yinyou’s shoes, he calmly said, “How do you, a dog slave [4], serve your master? If the seventh brother gets sick because of this, you shall be punished.”
[4] In history, eunuchs had a low status and were always called dog slaves. //  Dogs are the master’s housekeepers. They are supposed to perform their duties. It is a dog's responsibility. (Baidu).
Fu Duo knelt on the ground in fright and did not dare to speak.
“Brother, Fu Duo is a good servant, it’s me who didn’t allow him to carry me,” Yinyou pulled Yinzhen’s sleeve and said to Fu Duo, “Fu Duo, go and show the words in my room to fourth brother.”
“Aye, aye" Fu Duo breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that his master was protecting him, and hurriedly retreated. When he closed the door of the room, he heard his master say something to the fourth brother.
Yinzhen took out a few opals from his purse and put them on the table, “Seventh brother, this is for you.”
Yinyou looked at Yinzhen’s serious face, and then looked at the few opals in front of him. Suddenly, he felt that there was something like a kitten’s paw scratching around somewhere in his conscience. He was taken aback for a moment and then smiled, “Brother, you gave me a lot. Keep these for you to play with.”
“It's okay, I don't like these, I'll give them to you,” Yinyou glanced at the opal several times, before grabbing the opal on the table and stuffing them into Yinyou's hand. “If you like anything in the future, tell brother. If it’s possible, I’ll give it to you.”
Yinyou blushed and held the hot opals. After a long time, he put the opals in his purse, showing a big smile, “Thank you brother, I like them very much.”
After the two played for a while, Fu Duo took a few pages of Yinyou’s handwriting and came in. Yinzhen held them and took a look. Although it was still terrible, it could be recognized at a glance. He touched Yinyou’s head like a little adult, “It’s good to grow up.”
Yinyou cooperated to make a look of joy, but he was ashamed in his heart. He was really not good at writing with brushes, but Kangxi seemed to value his sons’ calligraphy and painting very much. The eighth brother seemed to have been scolded by Kangxi because of his bad calligraphy. Thinking of this, Yinyou shook. In the future, he will still practice calligraphy and painting a lot.
Thinking of Yinzhen, who was only six years old and could write correctly with a brush, Yinyou felt that he was worthy of being emperor. As for himself, he already knew so many things at the age of six. In his previous life, when he was six years old, he was still playing with mud and bullying girls.
At noon, Yinzhen stayed in the South Three Halls and had a meal with Yinyou. Then he accompanied Yinyou to practice calligraphy for an hour. Only then did he take the little eunuch beside him to leave.
Yinzhen held the heater in his hand and walked out of the South Three Halls for a distance before whispering, “Did you say that the seventh brother met the eighth brother today?”
The little eunuch glanced around, saw no one, lowered his voice, and said, “Yes.”
Yinzhen looked down at the hand warmer covered with patterns, “What was his attitude towards eight brother?”
The little eunuch thought for a while, “The minion was a little far away, and couldn’t hear what they are saying. But looking at the appearance of the seventh brother, he seemed quite unfamiliar with the eighth brother.”
Yinzhen remembered Tong Jia’s words. A brother who treats him as enthusiastically as other brothers, he has no need to be mindful of these people, naturally unworthy. But if this person only treats him especially, then it means that this person might be seeing you as one of their own, or really relying on yourself.
Yinzhen remembered that when Yinyou met Yinreng outside Yonghe Palace that day, Yinyou’s attitude towards the Crown Prince was also unfamiliar and polite, but later he seemed to be attached to him very much, looking very sticky.
In this way, Yinyou was really dependent on him.
Thinking of this, Yinzhen felt that the hand warmer that Yinyou stuffed him in his hand was extremely warm. He lowered his eyelids, “Master knows. In the future, you will spend more time in the palace, don’t let the minions below bully him. Go.”
The little eunuch opened his eyes slightly, then lowered his brows and said, “The minion remembers it.”
A snowflake fell on the heater, quickly melted, and disappeared.
***
▲ Footnotes
[1] 千古一帝 qiān gǔ yī dì. Li Zhi commented on Ying Zheng in ‘Collection of Books’: “The first emperor has been an emperor through the ages.” Guessing it’s something like, ‘the man among men’, ‘the best’ and so on.
[2] 胤禩 Yinsi. Eight son of Kangxi’s. He was the strongest contender for Kangxi’s throne, but he failed miserably.
[3] 乖 guāi - (of a child) obedient, well-behaved / clever / shrewd / alert / perverse / contrary to reason / irregular / abnormal. 宝宝 bǎobao - darling; baby
[4] In history, eunuchs had a low status and were always called dog slaves. //  Dogs are the master’s housekeepers. They are supposed to perform their duties. It is a dog's responsibility. (Baidu).