Chapter Ninety-Six: A Fall from the Horse

The long-awaited full-moon banquet for the Ninth Prince’s triplets was finally over without a mishap. By the time Yan Yan returned to the Garden of Exquisite Dreams, she felt as though she had been worn to the bone. The three little ones, however, still had plenty of energy; they played a while longer with Cui’er and the wet nurse, and only then, one by one, bathed and went to sleep.

At that hour, the Ninth Prince had still not returned home. Yan Yan sent Wu Tong to check on him several times, and each time the report was the same: he was still at the Nine Flavors House, drinking with others. Yan Yan could only sigh helplessly. How was it that the men of the Qing dynasty were so much like men in modern times, still so fond of drinking contests?

So Yan Yan hurriedly instructed Wu Tong to lead the younger servants to wait at the entrance of the Nine Flavors House. If the Ninth Prince became drunk, they were not to care whether his face darkened or not; they were to help him straight into the carriage at once. Under no circumstances was he to insist on riding home.

What Yan Yan never imagined was that the moment she gave that instruction, a most peculiar scene appeared at the entrance of the Nine Flavors House. Dong E-shi had not yet returned home either, and was still chatting in a private room with the Eighth Princess Consort and the Tenth Princess Consort. When she heard that Yan Yan had sent someone to meet the Ninth Prince, she could not help but curl her lip.

The Eighth Princess Consort said with exasperation, “Ninth Sister-in-law, I’m speaking plainly, but just look at what you’ve let happen. That maid should have been beaten to death back when she was still at the estate. Now see how things stand. If this goes on, sooner or later she’ll climb right over your head.”

Dong E-shi sighed. “Why speak of sooner or later? She’s already above me now. Do you know how long it has been since our master went to the other courtyards in the back? Even when he comes to me, it is only in a perfunctory way. In our household now, who would dare offend the side consort who gave our master a son? Even the maids in the Garden of Exquisite Dreams strut through the manor as if they own it.”

The Eighth Princess Consort tapped the back of Dong E-shi’s hand. “You are too soft-hearted. At a time like this, you have to use your means. Isn’t that Yan girl an illegitimate daughter of the Wanyan family? With such a lowly birth, how could she possibly raise a son? Just bring the Eldest Young Master under your own name and raise him yourself.”

Dong E-shi sighed again. “Sister-in-law, do not speak of this anymore. I have already told our master, and it simply cannot be done.”

The Eighth Princess Consort fell silent for a moment. “It seems this Yan girl really does have some skill. We’ll have to think carefully about this.”

Under the influence of the Tenth Prince, the Tenth Princess Consort actually had a fairly good relationship with Yan Yan. In particular, Yan Yan had recently explained to her how to calculate safe days, for which she was deeply grateful. So while the Eighth Princess Consort and Dong E-shi were discussing these matters, the Tenth Princess Consort merely focused on the melon seeds before her, with no intention of joining in at all.

The Eighth Princess Consort was indeed clever, and immediately thought of having Dong E-shi seek help from the Imperial Consort, because surely the Ninth Prince could not ignore the words of his own mother. Dong E-shi, however, was not particularly impressed by the idea. She had already been resented by the Ninth Prince to no end over the matter of the concubine last time. But the Eighth Princess Consort quickly rejected that notion herself as well. “No, no, that won’t do either. Cousin probably would not like such a method.”

Then the Eighth Princess Consort’s eyes suddenly lit up. She said to Dong E-shi, “Ninth Sister-in-law, go and thoroughly investigate Yan’s daily life. If you find anything improper, do not make it public. Wait until Cousin is sent out of the capital by the Emperor, and then strike all at once. In any case, once Cousin returns and the woman is gone, even if he is angry, it will only last a few days.”

Dong E-shi looked at her, whether weighing the practicality of the idea or marveling at the Eighth Princess Consort’s cleverness, no one could tell. In any case, she said nothing.

At that moment, the Ninth Prince and the others finally decided to stop competing in drink and return to their own homes to find their own wives. Dong E-shi and the others hurried downstairs and climbed into their carriages. By then, the Ninth Prince had already encountered Wu Tong at the front, and Wu Tong was desperately clutching the reins, refusing to let him ride home on horseback.

The Tenth Prince stood nearby, smiling in an ambiguously amused way, and the Third Prince, already thoroughly drunk, said, “Didn’t the side consort say our Ninth Brother was tall, mighty, and formidable? Then why is she still so worried about something as small as riding a horse? Ninth Brother, hurry and get into the carriage. Be careful that when you get home, the side consort won’t let you into bed.”

The moment the Third Prince said that, how could the already drunk Ninth Prince possibly be willing to climb into Wu Tong’s carriage? He immediately shouted at Wu Tong, “Get lost! Since when has your master ever fallen off a horse?” Yet Wu Tong refused to let go no matter what, looking for all the world as though if the Ninth Prince wanted to ride, he would first have to step over his body. The others burst into laughter again. The Eighth Prince walked over, patted the Ninth Prince on the shoulder, swung himself elegantly onto his horse, and rode away with great panache.

The Tenth Prince laughed so loudly he made no attempt whatsoever to spare the neighbors, and followed closely behind the Eighth Prince. The Ninth Prince, still annoyed, pretended to kick at Wu Tong. “Why are you still howling? Hurry up and bring the carriage over!”

Wu Tong instantly fell silent, and the smile on his face became brighter than the moon itself. “Yes, your servant will go at once.”

The Ninth Prince shook his head in helpless irritation, and Dong E-shi, watching him from not far away, found the gloom in her eyes deepening even further.

The Ninth Prince returned home in the carriage, brooding all the way, feeling that he had truly made a fool of himself. So after sending Dong E-shi off with a few curt words, he went straight to the study.

Who would have thought that upon entering the study, he would see Yan Yan exhaustedly lying on the outer room’s octagonal table, apparently asleep. The rage that had filled the Ninth Prince instantly vanished. Looking at the sober soup and a few delicate, easily digestible dishes placed before Yan Yan, he could not help but smile with rare tenderness.

“You’re sleepy, so why are you still not in bed? What are you doing here?”

Of course, the Ninth Prince did not throw his arms around Yan Yan and weep in gratitude. Instead, he scolded her in a somewhat harsh tone. Outside in the corridor, Wang Quan’er and Wu Tong both curled their lips. This Ninth Prince was truly pretending not to see what was obvious to everyone; who could fail to hear the concern hidden in his tone?

Yan Yan also slowly opened her eyes. Seeing that he had returned, she immediately stepped forward to help him remove his outer robe, then washed his hands and face before smiling and saying, “Quickly drink the sober-up soup, my lord. You’ll feel better that way.”

The Ninth Prince shot her a displeased glance, but still drained the bowl in one gulp. Naturally, he also did not let Yan Yan off the hook for making him ride in a carriage, and he lectured her at length, until Wang Quan’er and Wu Tong outside nearly split their sides laughing.

Yan Yan took his nagging with remarkable calm, only telling him that it was always wiser to guard against the unlikely than to regret the inevitable. Perhaps Yan Yan truly was blessed, or perhaps the Ninth Prince was simply fortunate. The next morning at court, he understood just how fortunate it was to have a wise wife or concubine at home.

Disaster may strike without warning, and fortune and misfortune can turn in an instant.

There was no more fitting way to describe the morning court session of the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month in the forty-fifth year of Kangxi.

Early that morning, the Third Prince sent word asking to be excused, saying that he had accidentally fallen from his horse the previous night and that his lower leg hurt so badly he could not stand. He also happened to send away the Ministry of Rites’ two orthopedic physicians.

Who could have guessed that merely a quarter of an hour later, the First Prince would also send in a request for leave, saying that his horse had been startled the night before and that there was a small problem with his arm. He then took away the last orthopedic imperial physician still left at the Imperial Medical Academy.

Within the next hour, the Fourth Prince, Eighth Prince, and Tenth Prince all sent in leave requests as well. Their injuries were bizarre in all sorts of ways, but they were basically all related to horses. Kangxi was furious. He already knew of the quarrel that had taken place at the entrance to the Nine Flavors House the previous night, and now he erupted in the main hall, cursing them out in a storm of wrath.

In the end, with one sweep of his brush, he fined the seven or eight princes led by the First Prince five thousand taels of silver each. The Ninth Prince, standing in his place and hearing Kangxi’s punishment, was grinning so widely that the corners of his mouth nearly reached his ears. He secretly resolved that once court ended, he would definitely go to the Palace of Heavenly Purity and plead poverty. Kangxi had suddenly gained so much silver anyway; giving him a little would not matter, would it?

Before he had even finished thinking it, he heard Kangxi call him out. Before he could say a word, Kangxi gave him a severe scolding as well, and in the end fined him five thousand taels too.

Why? Naturally because the Ninth Prince had not fallen from his horse, and had still not submitted the memorial concerning the martial palace examination. One had to know that over the past few days, the Roman Catholic pope’s envoy Doro had been causing quite a stir, arguing his case day after day in the Court of Colonial Affairs and giving all the officials there a dreadful headache.

The Ninth Prince knelt in the main hall and endured Kangxi’s thunderous cursing for the better part of half an hour, and thought that he would have been better off falling from his horse. At least then he would not be standing there taking a scolding; he would only have to pay silver.

But after being scolded, the Ninth Prince also understood that his memorial about the martial palace examination had to be taken seriously. Otherwise, next time Kangxi would not simply fine him silver.

So after court ended, the Ninth Prince did not go looking for Kangxi to complain of poverty. Instead, he took Mu Jingyuan with him to study the money-making plan Yan Yan had written for him some days earlier.

The Ninth Prince felt that Yan Yan’s plan had actually been written very well. It was just that every line was thick with the smell of money, and unless it were reorganized from top to bottom, it simply could not be put into practice. Although he had some objections to Yan Yan’s single-minded obsession with making money, he still handed the marketing plan for the next quarter of the Nine Flavors Food Shop to Yan Yan for preparation, hoping to help Kangxi’s private treasury climb to even greater heights.

But the Ninth Prince never imagined that after he had spent so much effort purifying Yan Yan’s money-soaked plan, he would still be looked down upon by Kangxi, who said he was merely a merchant and could never amount to much. That, the Ninth Prince could not accept.

He was a merchant. So what?

And if he had become a merchant, whose fault was that? Was it not Kangxi’s?

So the Ninth Prince braced his neck and went head-to-head with Kangxi, saying that if he was not allowed to be a merchant, that was fine—then all the capital would have to be invested by Kangxi himself. Kangxi, too, was exceedingly domineering about it. Wasn’t it just silver to invest? Who was afraid of whom?

And so Kangxi promptly and decisively ordered the Ninth Prince to settle the accounts right then and there in the Palace of Heavenly Purity.