Sanbao was Sixteenth Prince Yinyu, and Sibao was Seventeenth Prince Yinshi.
Who knew if they’d left their brains with their younger sister, Zhale Ganguo Leming—nicknamed Minbao—because every day, besides eating and drinking, they were all about fun.
At just a year and a half old, they could already race with Er Bao and had crawled into his bed more than once, leaving him no place to sleep.
Whenever they caused trouble, they’d put on identical, pitiful faces, looking so much like Fang He that no one could harden their heart against them.
Fang He entered the hall with the giggling consorts, calmly scooping up the lazy, dozing Minbao from the soft couch and placing her among the two little rascals trying to chase after their sister.
Minbao only gave a lazy glance with her phoenix-like eyes—so much like Kangxi’s—at them, and Sanbao and Sibao instantly behaved as though they’d seen their nemesis.
Jiujiu made a face at her two brothers in triumph.
If she hadn’t feared their dirty hands, she’d have tossed her little sister—cough, cough—over for a cuddle!
She puffed up her cheeks, giving her Imperial Mother a plaintive look.
See, Minbao is well-behaved; she doesn’t want brothers, only her little sister.
Fang He laughed, “Isn’t this the same you who used to hug your two brothers, calling them your sweethearts?”
Who knew why, but Jiujiu loved gardening, yet had a cleanliness obsession and hated the bugs in the dirt.
To train her and avoid a repeat of the incident where she made Consort Rong cry, Fang He wouldn’t allow servants or eunuchs to help her.
Each time Jiujiu visited her little garden, she’d get all worked up.
Er Bao also had a cleanliness obsession; he wanted to help but just couldn’t.
Only Sanbao and Sibao were unfazed by bugs.
Once, the twins followed their sister out and caught bugs for her.
Jiujiu promptly planted a big kiss on each of their cheeks.
Whenever there was gardening to be done, they were her sweethearts; when there wasn’t, she wanted nothing more than to get rid of them.
Consort Yi said with a smile to the Empress Dowager, “Every time I see the Imperial Noble Consort teaching the children, I can’t help but sigh. Why can’t I learn to do the same?”
“If only you’d seen—when Fifth Prince returned from Beimeng, he was so proud. He and Ninth Prince fought several times, and poor Yin got caught in the middle and kept running to hide by me.”
They say kids at seven or eight are hard to manage, but in the palace, these princes—even in their teens—could still make one’s heart ache.
Fifth Prince Yinqi was sixteen, Ninth Prince Yintang twelve, but when they fought, they were just like Sanbao and Sibao.
At least, after fighting, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Princes made up quickly.
Consort Yi still hadn’t seen Yinqi and Yintang speak to each other; Little Eleven had become the go-between, always looking for a place to hide, sometimes even sleeping through the day and sending everyone in the palace searching for him.
She was so mad she wanted to give them all a beating.
The Empress Dowager nodded with a smile, “I’m puzzled too. Clearly, Guoguo isn’t especially good at coaxing children, but they’re all so close to him…”
Always bullying her and the Emperor.
If one triplet cried, the other two would certainly follow.
Minbao was sometimes better, but when she cried, Sanbao and Sibao were sure to join in, raising a ruckus.
But they never misbehaved in front of Fang He.
Instead, as soon as she was gone, the gongs of Ruijing Pavilion and Chunhui Hall sounded over and over again.
Fang He proudly hugged Jiujiu, teasing, “This is probably what His Majesty meant—’a scoundrel raising little scoundrels who know how to read people’s faces.'”
She loved her children, but never spoiled them.
They had their own lives to live.
She was only responsible for guiding them for a while and being there when they needed her.
But she also needed to let them know they would one day have to walk their own path.
So from an early age, they had to bear the consequences of their actions; she treated everyone the same, never playing favorites… except maybe secretly doting on Jiujiu and Minbao a little more.
The Empress Dowager and Consort Yi both laughed at her words.
The others all joined in, their eyes filled with envy that quickly turned to melancholy.
Those with children were all right; those without, no matter how well they taught, couldn’t create something out of nothing and could only wonder when such days would end…
Fang He noticed the look in these consorts’ eyes, and her gaze flickered slightly.
‘Very soon, they’d be able to choose their own lives and wouldn’t need to be so forlorn anymore. Just a little longer.’
While she was thinking this, Kangxi entered with the princes.
“Everyone’s here?” Kangxi smiled at the pitiful glances from Sanbao and Sibao, then sat quietly beside the Empress Dowager, putting distance between himself and them.
“I was thinking—it’s already so hot this early in summer. The Dragon Boat Festival should be celebrated in style, to drive away evil. Let’s have Yinzhi and the guards hold a dragon boat race at the rear lake to liven things up.”
After New Year’s Day, the ailing Imperial Consort Niohulu passed away.
Kangxi posthumously honored her as Imperial Noble Consort, with splendid funeral rites.
The palace was somber for quite some time.
Now that three months of mourning had passed, it was time to lift the gloom.
It wasn’t just about avoiding depression in the palace, but also inviting princes, nobles, and court officials to the palace—a good time to build bonds between the imperial family, nobles, and civil and military officials.
This time, Kangxi still had no intention of adding to the harem through the selection event.
With no more entanglements between the court and harem, such festivities were even more important.
Otherwise, the relationship between ruler and ministers might grow cold.
The Empress Dowager hesitated, glancing at Fang He—she herself had no objections.
But the Crown Prince had been under house arrest in Danning Residence for over a year now.
If this went unmentioned again during the Dragon Boat Festival, people would only speculate further.
Who knew if the trouble would be blamed on Fang He in the end?
Kangxi, as if knowing the Empress Dowager’s thoughts, smiled and said, “Yinreng hasn’t been out for a long time. He always loved to compete with Yinzhi. This time, let’s have them both race again, see if they’ve lost their skills.”
The consorts were all stunned.
Suo’etu had been confined to the Zongrenfu, and apart from Fubao, all the Hesheri had also been locked away.
Even the title of the Hesheri Fujin Tongjia had been revoked.
The news that the Crown Prince had tried to rebel, and even harm the Emperor, could no longer be suppressed.
The officials all knew.
But His Majesty had never spoken of abolishing the Crown Prince, and now he was bringing him out again…
Could it be he planned to gloss over everything and restore the Crown Prince’s former glory?
Would the Imperial Noble Consort be willing?
Everyone looked at Fang He, but she only smiled and supported Kangxi’s words.
“Your Majesty is right. Back at Gubeikou, I almost miscarried and scared the Crown Prince badly. He’s been recuperating for over a year, his health should be better now. He can’t stay idle forever.”
The others didn’t know, but Fang He—always at Shouxuan Chun Yong Hall or Chunhui Hall—was aware that Yinreng had submitted twelve memorials.
At first, he begged to be stripped of the Crown Prince title; in the past six months, he stopped asking for that, and instead wrote confession after confession about his lifelong obsessions and flaws, stating he was unfit to be heir.
Kangxi had long declared he would not kill any of his sons.
For the Crown Prince’s safety, he also wouldn’t publicly announce his crimes or abolish him, leaving him under lifelong confinement.
Maybe, when Kangxi found out Yinreng had really switched his medicine, he had truly wanted to do it.
But Fang He had provided him another option.
It was said there were many wondrous places overseas—even little islands like Japan had gold, silver, and copper mines to make the Qing court envious.
And further away, there were things as good as Golden Grain—well worth exploring.
But sending the navy abroad was difficult to control; supplies and weapons might only end up cultivating a new enemy.
But if his own son went, it didn’t matter—after all, he was of Aisin Gioro blood.
If he could open up new territory, Kangxi would only be pleased.
Fang He originally thought, after Kangxi deposed the Crown Prince, he’d be locked up for a few years to get used to the sea, then used—cough cough—as the “Abolished Crown Prince” to at least conquer restless Japan.
But Kangxi also gave Fang He another way of thinking.
Rather than confining the Crown Prince, let him stay in Yuqing Palace as heir.
First, it would draw out those with evil intent; second, it could allow Yinreng to connect with his brothers and foster brotherly affection.
No matter what happened to Yinreng outside in the future, at least the brothers might help each other.
Fang He thought about it and realized it made sense.
She and the Crown Prince would never reconcile; after all, he’d wanted her dead, and sparing Yinreng was her limit.
But as the winner, she’d rather her son had one more ally than another enemy.
If one day foreign powers tried to batter open Qing’s gates with cannons, maybe Yinreng’s descendants could help.
So, husband and wife each took the other’s advice, reaching tacit agreement amidst the swaying bed curtains.
But to outsiders, especially Consort Yi and the Empress Dowager, this was all shocking.
Fang He wasn’t such a generous person—otherwise, why had she fought the Uya clan so bitterly in the past?
Did the Emperor know she’d drunk Mind-Confusing Medicine, and had he given plenty to the Imperial Noble Consort too?
For some reason, whether they’d eaten much or not, everyone present felt a little overstuffed.
Back at Chunhui Hall, Fang He first soothed the three freshly-bathed little ones to sleep.
Returning to the main hall, she saw Kangxi still fiddling with sheep intestines, and couldn’t help twitching the corner of her mouth.
Other old couples had long lost their passion—why were they the opposite?
She hugged Kangxi from behind, humming, “Today at Ruijing Pavilion, I gave Your Majesty such face; shouldn’t you return the favor?”
Kangxi pulled her around into his arms, smiling as he pointed at the umbrella cover softening in the herbal solution.
“Aren’t I just about to return your favor with a lotus?”
Fang He: “…….”
‘In broad daylight, must he always flirt?’
She turned to face Kangxi, eyebrows raised in challenge.
“You just want to repay kindness with enmity, don’t you? Today’s supposed to be a rest day!”
She poked Kangxi’s chest, “You can’t keep being so reckless; you need to rest sometimes! Even an ox doesn’t plow the field like this!”
Kangxi: “……”
‘Who’s the reckless one here?’
Half-lowering his eyes, he stared at Fang He and asked, “Go on, what are you scheming now?”
Fang He grinned and replied, “Earlier, Yine snuck over to thank me, saying I didn’t send his mother to Wu Long Pavilion, letting her stay in the palace so he could see her one last time. He promised to remember my kindness, and even gave something to Er Bao.”
“That reminded me—the Wu Long Pavilion’s been vacant a long time, hasn’t it? If it stays unused, won’t it gather too much bad luck?”
Kangxi’s brow jumped.
After all the practice Fang He had given his nerves, he immediately tensed up, certain this troublemaker was planning some world-shaking mischief again.
He lowered his head at once, trying to stop Fang He’s words.
“There are so many empty palace quarters. We can just renovate them as needed. No need to send anyone there to make it lively—certainly not to their deaths—”
His words trailed off as he caught Fang He’s increasingly brilliant smile, and he realized sometimes, mutual understanding was not such a good thing.
Kangxi’s lips hovered a hair’s breadth from Fang He’s, and in his exasperation, he bit down.
“Are you trying to clear out my harem? What will you do with all those empty palaces—move your little Fang in?”
Fang He gave a soft grunt of protest, grumbling, ‘It’s Little Yuan…no, Little Yuan!’
He uses the Little Umbrella made by others, why not feel disgusted?
She arched an eyebrow, “Let the consorts go into retirement; those who want to leave can ‘die of illness’ without affecting Your Majesty’s reputation.”
“Those who don’t want to leave can take some time outside the palace; it’s better than keeping them here to stew and bring me trouble.”
“In short, either you grant me this favor, or I’ll find my own way…”
The vein in Kangxi’s forehead finally popped; he silenced Fang He with a kiss.
Letting her do as she pleased, Jingcheng would no longer be able to contain her!