The Princely Heir laughed heartily, "Occasionally doing it is fine, but if you really made me do it every day, I’d have to run away!"
Chen Ji said with a sigh, "I always feel that Prince Jing is quite different from other officials and nobility, it’s like he..."
Princess Bai Li thought for a moment and said, "Mother said that father suffered hardships from a young age, so naturally, he’s different from other vassal princes."
"Oh?"
"I’ve heard from mother that not long after father was born, he and his birth mother were sent away to Yueci Temple outside the capital."
Chen Ji was stunned, "Normally within the inner palace, even if a mother offended and was expelled from the palace, they would only leave the mother behind, not drive out both mother and child."
Princess Bai Li explained, "The previous emperor had seventy-nine sons, and the struggle for heirship was extremely fierce. I’m not clear on the specifics, but I do know that many princes and their birth mothers were driven out of the inner palace and subsequently died outside the palace. Father’s birth mother also died under mysterious circumstances in Yueci Temple the second year after being sent there. At that time, father was just over a year old. It was said that thanks to the secret care of a Chief Eunuch from the Inner Court government office, he narrowly survived."
"Later father grew up in a government office of the Ritual Supervision outside the capital, working daily with little eunuchs, chopping wood, burning charcoal, washing clothes, until he was eight years old when the current Empress Dowager brought him back to live with His Majesty. Father is three years older than His Majesty, and the two lived together in the palace for six years as close as brothers."
"Later, when His Majesty ascended the throne at eleven, father was sent out to establish his vassalage at fourteen. The young Vassal Prince allied with the Chen Family, Hu Family, and Qi Family from the northern gentry. It took him six years, secretly coordinating with Imperial Censors and other upright civil servants to eliminate the external relatives and assist His Majesty in personal governance... Of course, all these I heard from mother, so they might not be entirely accurate."
"From a young age, father had us do many things on our own. I heard that Prince Fu was fed and clothed by others since childhood; we didn’t have any of that. Occasionally when father had free time, we even had to join him in the countryside estates to cut wood and burn charcoal."
Chen Ji silently listened for a moment, feeling that this brief story seemed to hold many important messages. The Liu Family mentioned by the Commandery Princess was the external family, but why did Prince Jing, who had cleaned out the external relatives in his youth, later marry a girl from the Liu Family and make her his Consort Jing?
Was it a political compromise, or was there another intention?
...
...
At night, the moon shone brightly and the stars were sparse.
Chen Ji had intended to stay in the kiln factory, but since there wasn’t even a place to sleep there, he had no choice but to return to the mansion.
The ox cart swayed slowly on the way back to the city, with everyone on the cart looking weary and nearly unable to keep their eyes open. After a day’s work, everyone’s backs ached, and their hands had blisters.
It was unclear whose stomach made the first noise, but soon everyone’s stomach started rumbling.
The group looked at each other and then burst into laughter, "Who knows if there’s any noodle stall still open in the city?"
"Definitely not by now!"
Liang Mao’er said, "When we get back to the Medical Hall, I’ll roll out some noodles for everyone. Will garlic sauce noodles be okay?"
"Anything is fine, I’m so hungry I could eat an ox!"
"I could eat two oxen!"
Liang Mao’er said shyly, "I could eat three."
"I don’t think Big Brother Mao’er is joking."
"Ha ha ha ha."
Upon arriving at the front of Taiping Medical Hall.
With a creak, the Princely Heir quietly pushed open the gate and led the group hunched over toward the back courtyard, "Keep it down, don’t wake Doctor Yao. If we wake him at this hour, I’m afraid his venom-tongue will make us cry."
"Oh? Is that so?"
The group was shocked, and they looked up into the darkness of the Medical Hall’s main hall, only to see Old Yao lying in a bamboo chair, cradling a little black cat in his arms.
He slowly got up and asked lazily, "Princely Heir, why don’t you explain to this old man how exactly my mouth got ’venom-tongued’?"
The Princely Heir’s smile was uglier than crying, "You must have heard wrong, it was Liu Quxing who said it!"
Old Yao didn’t argue with him, but turned and walked toward the back courtyard, "There’s rolled-out noodles on the kitchen counter. If you want to eat, cook them yourself."
The Princely Heir swallowed, "Doctor Yao, you’re a true bodhisattva!"
Moments later, a group of strays squatted in a row in the backyard, each holding a large bowl of noodles and slurping fiercely, shoveling them into their mouths non-stop.
The Princely Heir looked up, only to see Doctor Yao standing beside the bare apricot tree, looking at them with disdain.
The cat in Doctor Yao’s arms also looked at them with disdain.
The Princely Heir hesitantly said, "Doctor Yao, it seems like it’s looking down on us?"
Doctor Yao scoffed, "With the way you’re eating, I allow it to look down on you."
The Princely Heir: "..."
Chen Ji: "..."
Doctor Yao pitifully looked at them, "In the morning, eight people went out, and this evening, eight dogs have come back. Those who know understand that you went out to craft a new toy, but those who don’t know might think the Demon Mirror revealed your true forms."
He hugged Wu Yun and turned back to his room, "I’m going to sleep. After you finish eating, remember to clean up the kitchen."
After the Princely Heir finished eating, he slumped on the ground and lamented, "Chen Ji, can we take a day off?"
Princess Bai Li hurriedly said, "No, he made a military pledge with father, and if he doesn’t complete it, father really will send him to Lingnan."
The Princely Heir fell silent, then muttered under his breath, "You seem even more eager than he is."
At the moment, Princess Bai Li stood in front of the apricot tree in the courtyard, seemingly lost in thought.
Chen Ji, holding his bowl and plate, looked up and curiously asked, "What’s the matter?"
Princess Bai Li suddenly said, "The apricot tree has lost all its leaves, it’s not pretty... Wait here for me."
With that, she climbed the ladder and scaled the wall into the Prince Mansion. In a little while, she came back with a piece of red cloth in tow.
Princess Bai Li cut the red cloth into long, thin strips and wrote on them words like ’peace’, ’joy’, ’smooth sailing’, ’carefree’, and tied them to the tree branches.