HCB Chapter 112 Drink today, for tomorrow we may die.
Chapter 112 Drink today, for tomorrow we may die.
Once Kangxi made up his mind, Yinzhuo was going to the northern desert regardless of whether he wanted to or not. Yinzhuo wasn't stupid either; Kangxi had made it so clear that his trip to the northern desert was for gilding his resume. Since that was the case, he naturally had no reason to refuse.
Since it was an unchangeable fact, Yinzhuo stopped worrying about it. He had always been carefree and believed in living for the moment. As the saying goes, "Drink today, worry tomorrow." Anyway, that would be a matter for February next year. Right now, wasn't his money the most important thing?
"Father, you haven't said yet whether you'll give that silver to your son or not?"
Good heavens, after all this time, he still hasn't forgotten about this? Kangxi looked at his son, who was staring at him expectantly, and patted his forehead in an annoyed manner.
"You're so pathetic. Didn't you just say that we'd split the silver in half? Liang Jiugong, go get two hundred thousand taels of silver notes for your Sixth Prince, and put the other half into my private treasury."
Yinzhu was filled with regret. He held back for a long time, but finally couldn't help but slap himself for his loose tongue. "Serves you right for being so quick-tongued! It turns out that Father Khan never intended to withhold any money from me. I've practically sent 200,000 taels of silver to someone else's private treasury!"
Yinzhuo's slap was quite forceful, startling Kangxi with its loud crack. When Kangxi regained his senses, he quickly pulled Yinzhuo to his side and noticed, without even looking closely, that the corner of Yinzhuo's mouth was already red from the slap.
"You bastard, you're slapping yourself in the face! You hit him so hard! Liang Jiugong, go get some ointment and put some on him. Also, go get him that 200,000 taels of silver. Look at how pathetic he is. It's just a little money, why is he so ruthless to himself?"
Yinzhuo hadn't expected his slap to be so powerful. He sat there blankly as Kangxi applied medicine to his wounds. He only came to his senses after receiving the box containing the other half of the silver notes from Liang Jiugong.
"Father, did you really give this money to your son?"
Kangxi glanced at Yinzhuo, whose chin was still red, and snorted, turning his head away to ignore him. "You're already regretting it and slapping yourself in the face. I'm afraid if I don't give you this money, you'll go back and cause yourself some problems."
Seeing that Kangxi ignored him, Yinzhuo didn't care. He happily took out the silver notes from the box, counted them, then took out 100,000 taels, put them back in the box, and pushed them to Kangxi.
"Father, don't be so stingy! You have to understand your son. This is two hundred thousand taels of silver. I've never seen so many silver notes in my life. How can I not feel bad if you take so much away from me? Look, I've already given you half of it. Please don't hold it against me, okay?"
When Kangxi heard Yinzhuo's words, he merely glanced at the box that Yinzhuo was pushing towards him, ignoring his son who was smiling obsequiously to the side. He thought to himself, "I am rich enough to own the whole country, so I don't care about your mere 100,000 taels." When Yinzhuo saw Kangxi's reaction, he thought, "Well, the old man is quite arrogant. Is he really angry?"
“It seems Father is truly angry with his son. Fine, since Father doesn’t care about this little bit of money, then I’ll take it. I suppose Father probably doesn’t want to see me right now, so I won’t bother you anymore…”
Seeing that the boy was about to run away with the things, Kangxi was not going to let him get away with it so easily. He quickly gave Liang Jiugong a look, and Liang Jiugong, having received Kangxi's signal, hurriedly stepped forward to stop Yinzhuo.
"Sixth Prince, look at you..."
Seeing that Kangxi didn't speak, Yinzhuo completely ignored Liang Jiugong and walked past him, pretending to walk out. Kangxi knew from this situation that Liang Jiugong couldn't stop this brat.
"You worthless wretch, you may leave, but leave your things with me."
As soon as Kangxi spoke, Yinzhuo laughed. He stopped walking, turned around and walked back to Kangxi's side, put the box in his hand on the table in front of him, and sat down opposite him with a grin.
“Father, you really are something. If you want it, just tell your son. This is silver, 100,000 taels of silver. Anyone would want it.”
Seeing Yinzhuo acting innocent despite getting the benefit, Kangxi could no longer tolerate it. He looked around, grabbed a white jade back scratcher, and slapped it at Yinzhuo. Yinzhuo did not expect Kangxi to suddenly attack him and took the hit hard, which made him unable to sit up in pain.
"Father, I am your own son, how could you do this to me? Look, I'm all red from being beaten."
Yinzhuo, having lived a life of luxury for many years, had a very fair complexion. It was precisely because of his fair skin that the red mark on his arm appeared even more prominent. Kangxi had not held back at all in his anger at Yinzhuo, and the force of this blow was unimaginable. Even without looking at the red mark on his arm, just by looking at Yinzhuo's tearful eyes, one could tell that this blow must have hurt.
"Hey, why are you crying? I didn't even use much force, how did you get beaten like this? You're usually so clever, why didn't you dodge just now..."
This trip to the Qianqing Palace ended with Yinzhuo getting a glorious arm injury due to his own sharp tongue. However, it wasn't entirely without its benefits. In the end, he managed to get back the 400,000 taels of silver intact. Not only that, but after Emperor Kangxi injured his son in a fit of anger, he felt sorry for him. So, on New Year's Eve, Yinzhuo received a reward that was twice as much as that of the other princes, and even more.
"Yinzuo, your elder brother envies you..."
"Sixth Brother, even Second Brother is envious..."
"Sixth brother, third brother is envious..."
"Sixth brother, and fourth brother too..."
When Yinzhu saw this, he knew that his brothers were jealous again. Seeing that even his dear fourth brother had spoken up, he knew that if he let them continue to make trouble, he might not be able to keep what he had.
"Stop! Don't be envious of me. My brother earned this reward by trading his arm. Look at this wound on my brother's arm. It was made of white jade by Father using his back scratcher. It's been half a month and it's still not healed."
Seeing that Yinzhu was shameless and about to take off his clothes to show them his arms, Yinzhen quickly stepped forward and grabbed his hand that was unbuttoning his clothes.
"This is utterly ridiculous! What kind of behavior is this in public?"
When Yinzhuo saw Yinzhen come out to stop them, he breathed a sigh of relief. Despite his confident words, he was actually feeling guilty. After all, the injury on his arm had long since healed. If no one had stopped them, where would he have gotten a scar?
The family banquet at Qianqing Palace follows the same routine every year. Yinzhuo had been attending for so many years that he had long since grown tired of it. Finally, when the banquet ended, he hurriedly pulled his fourth brother, the fourteenth brother, and his brothers to say goodbye and rushed to Yonghe Palace.
"Fourth Brother, Fourteenth Brother, hurry up! Mother and Fourth Sister-in-law are waiting for us to come back for dumplings. I want to tell you something: when you're eating dumplings, you must be careful. This morning I gave Chunxiang and the others some gold ingots to put in the dumplings when they're making them. Whoever finds one is said to be blessed with good fortune and abundance for the coming year..."