Forty-ninth year of Kangxi, summer.
In the eyes of everyone, although Imperial Consort Zhen, Fang He, bore five children, only the Ninth Princess and the Fifteenth Prince stood out with any sense of presence.
The Ninth Princess, Fuer Guochun, took over her own mother’s work at the Women’s Academy.
Her teacher was once the female prime minister, Shangguan Wan’er, and with every passing year, her reputation at the Women’s Academy grew higher.
Her engagement to the top scholar of both civil and military examinations, Fan Lianghan, also made her extremely well-known among scholars all over the land.
Compared to the other eight princesses, she was the most recognized by the common people—so much so that she was even more famous than her low-profile brothers like the Seventh Prince and the Twelfth Prince.
After marriage, she didn’t stay in the Princess’s Manor to support her husband and teach her children.
Instead, she and Fan Lianghan, who took the post of Vice Minister of Works, left the capital together.
The couple traveled tirelessly through Zhuli, Henan, and Shandong, making great contributions to Great Qing by conducting land surveys and promoting improved rice strains.
They even became the very model of living Bodhisattvas, temporarily outshining the Fifteenth Prince in reputation.
As for Yin Hui, there was even less need to mention him.
As the uncrowned heir, Kangxi kept him close, personally teaching him hand by hand.
After Kangxi passed his fiftieth birthday, he directly handed over a portion of the less important memorials for Yin Hui to review.
Those in the court might not know how skilled the Eldest Prince is in martial arts, or how gifted the Third Prince is in literature, or how strict the Fourth Prince is… ahem, that last part they did know.
But everyone knew that their future emperor was a smiling tiger.
After seeing Yin Hui, time and again, dispose of corrupt officials and unscrupulous bureaucrats with a few laughs and without sentiment—while never making anyone feel his methods were ruthless—the boldest and cleverest among the officials dared to muddle through for His Majesty, but never for the Fifteenth Prince.
Perhaps because their older siblings overshadowed them, the Sixteenth Prince Yin Yu and Seventeenth Prince Yinshi, both aged seventeen, weren’t nearly as conspicuous.
From a young age, they didn’t like to show off in public.
As they grew older, they’d only get playful with their ama, mother, and siblings when no outsiders were around.
Once outsiders were present, the two brothers, as if of one mind, would barely say a word.
Sometimes, the Tenth Princess, Zhale Ganguo Leming, would even join her elder sister, showing off their horsemanship before the noble ladies, earning waves of praise.
People always said the Tenth Princess truly was a lover of horses, managing to master such riding skills at a young age.
But as for the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Princes, eight out of ten ministers couldn’t even describe what kind of personalities these two princes had.
Fang He herself had worriedly cautioned Yin Yu and Yinshi.
“You two clearly aren’t quiet by nature, so why keep so low-key in front of outsiders? You hardly say a word even at the New Year’s Eve palace banquet.”
“Neither your khan-ama nor your brothers need you to keep a low profile, and your mother wouldn’t treat you any differently either. There’s really no need to stifle yourselves outside.”
At the time, both Yin Yu and Yinshi were a bit baffled, but in front of their mother, they’d always speak their minds.
Born in the same birth, the two brothers did have a kind of tacit understanding, and they answered almost in unison—
“We’re not stifling ourselves!”
“If we don’t stay low-key, how can we enjoy the gossip!”
Fang He: “…”
With a face full of suspicion, she sent the two sons away, then quietly asked Cui Wei, “Surely those two don’t take after me, do they? I’ve never enjoyed sneaking around to watch the excitement like that.”
“It must be that Master Kang, who loves to eavesdrop, passed the gene on to his sons!”
Cui Wei silently looked at her mistress, who failed to uncover any grievance story about her sons to cheer herself up and was now nibbling on melon seeds with a regretful face, and smiled without a word.
To not make fun of her mistress’ lack of self-awareness was her greatest form of respect.
Still, Fang He worried that the two boys were being too considerate, fearing a crisis of fraternal strife, so they deliberately kept a low profile to avoid giving trouble to their brothers.
She specially had Kangxi send someone to keep an eye on them for a while.
Kangxi remembered that Zhao Chang had reported on the places the two boys had visited, and after hesitating for a moment, he couldn’t bear to shatter Fang He’s cluelessness, so he pretended not to know and had Zhao Chang take care of it.
What surprised Fang He, but not Kangxi, was that before Zhao Chang could even submit his intelligence, Yin Yu and Yinshi had already proven their abilities with their actions.
***
“Goodness, Mother! We’ve caught a huge piece of gossip!” Yin Yu, still looking both shaken and excited, ran in from outside.
The term “eating melon”—watching the drama—was one they’d learned from their mother.
It later proved to be much more precise than just “watching the excitement,” and the two of them loved using it.
Yinshi, following behind, thumped his chest with sparkling eyes, “Mother, we might have caused a big mess!”
Fang He: “Where did you get these outfits?”
Dressed in the eunuch robes of the Qianqing Palace, whatever trouble they’d stirred up, wouldn’t it get them sent straight to the Office Of Punishment and Investigation?
As soon as Fang He saw their outfits, she remembered how she once wore a palace maid’s dress outside the Lady’s Temple herself, and could no longer seriously consider who the boys resembled.
No… was there not even one who took after Master Kang?
Why were they all so much like her!
She’d end up hurting herself as much as others by making fun of them.
After stewing over it, Fang He quickly ordered Cui Wei to bring out the melon seed dish, her face lit up with excitement like a melon-eating critter.
“Was it that you saw your third sister-in-law teaching Yinzhi a lesson again, or your fourth sister-in-law chasing Yinzhen out?”
After she asked, Fang He paused.
How could she ever have suspected her sons were low-key out of thoughtfulness?
They’d already demonstrated a strong “gossip-eating” gene long ago!
Yin Yu didn’t notice the complex ebb and flow of his mother’s emotions.
He specially asked Cui Wei to go stand guard at the Zhaoren Hall, then leaned in close to Fang He, speaking in a conspiratorial whisper.
“Mother, we discovered that some merchants have been giving bribes to Ministry of Revenue officials. The account books are still with the merchants, and they’ve been doing this for several years. What’s more, a high-ranking official actually asked that merchant surnamed Jin for bribes!”
Fang He was startled, “Where did you hear something like this?”
The Ministry of Revenue guarded the state treasury—the imperial purse.
If there was a corruption case, that would be a major scandal, not something to joke about.
With the two of them dressed as eunuchs, people would still avoid talking in front of them—no one would gossip recklessly in their presence.
And as for the palace gardens…
No one would be so stupid as to discuss such a head-losing matter right under the Emperor’s nose, right?
Yinshi explained vividly, “We left the palace, planning to go welcome Ninth Sister and Ninth Brother-in-law, but they weren’t back yet. Then we overheard a secret discussion at the Tianya Inn.”
Yin Yu cooperatively took off the eunuch robe, revealing the uniform of a Tianya Inn waiter underneath.
Yinshi added, “That merchant must’ve had too much to drink, saying he’d soon head out of the city to deliver the bribe to a high official. We followed, and sure enough—”
“They were using a carriage reserved for first-rank officials.”
All the civil and military officials had regulations for their carriages.
Only first- and second-rank officials could use black canopies, and first-rank ones could have four more carved dragon corners on the eaves.
Growing up in the palace, the brothers wouldn’t mistake such a carriage.
Yin Yu cooperatively pulled aside the waiter uniform to reveal yet another layer of ordinary commoner’s short clothes beneath.
Fang He: “…..”
‘No wonder both boys were drenched in sweat.’
In the heat of summer, weren’t they worried about getting heatstroke?
Yinshi hadn’t finished, “We even painted our faces and hands black. The man must not have noticed us as he walked right by. With just one sniff from our noses… goodness, hibiscus-gardenia scent!”
During the Tang dynasty, noble ladies were fond of perfume blending.
This scent was an incense made by the Princess of Chengyuan, blending hibiscus, rose, and gardenia flowers, gifted to Fang He.
Fang He found it pleasant and had the Princess of Chengyuan make more, gifting it to the wives and Fuqin of first-rank officials and royal relatives just during the recent Dragon Boat Festival.
For the noble families, using this fragrance was a matter of pride.
None of them were short on money—no one would ever sell the perfume.
Fang He was almost certain—the boys really had caught some major gossip.
She was thoroughly puzzled: “Then why didn’t you hurry and tell your khan-ama? Why come fool around here with me?”
Yin Yu shrugged it off and replied, “Someone else will report to Father. No need for us. My brother and I don’t want to go to court, we’d rather not get drafted by Father.”
Yinshi, lest Fang He didn’t understand, explained, “Father had the shadow guards keep an eye on us, but we have sharp noses and are used to disguises. We could tell at a glance who was following us was a shadow guard.”
Yin Yu: “Mother, please don’t tell Father, or the shadow guards will be punished, and that would be embarrassing.”
Yinshi: “It’s not that the shadow guards are incompetent, it’s just that we’re too sharp. Mother gave birth to us this clever, after all!”
Fang He supported her forehead with her hand, listening as the two brothers explained everything like a crosstalk routine, not leaving her any room to ask further questions.
She truly didn’t know what to say.
She hadn’t meant for her children to be so clever, but since they were… she might as well let them be, and not meddle.
She just issued one warning: “From now on, you are not allowed to put yourselves at risk. Otherwise, I’ll have your father assign you court duties, so you’ll never have time for gossip again!”
“You didn’t consider—if this was discovered, with lives at stake, someone might get desperate. What if the shadow guards couldn’t save you?”
Yin Yu and Yinshi exchanged a look and agreed easily, ‘Mother only meant well.’
If they couldn’t sneakily eat melon, then openly eating melon wouldn’t be bad either.
***
On the twenty-fourth day of the seventh month, Yin Hui quietly prompted Zhifu Duyushi Yuntu to submit a memorial, impeaching Ministry of Revenue officials for collusion and corruption in the purchase of grass beans, a scandal going on for nearly a decade.