Snow Color

Chapter 347 Fu Jin 54

"Well, Qiqige, I really didn't expect that Eighth Brother would become like this. In the past, Eighth Brother was very kind to me and Ninth Brother. Whenever someone bullied us, Eighth Brother would always stand up and help us." The Tenth Prince hugged Qiqige tightly, with his chin gently resting on her shoulder. At this moment, he was filled with a sense of loss, but this loss did not come from other aspects, but from the great change of Eighth Prince.

"Perhaps with the passage of time, the surrounding environment has changed him; or maybe he has always been like this, but he hid it too deeply in the past. You and Brother Jiu could not have predicted all this, but it's good like this now. We can live our own lives and stay away from those troubles, right?" Qiqige slowly put down the book in her hand and comforted gently.

"Well, Qiqige, am I really stupid? I couldn't even see the true face of the starling." Yin'e asked pitifully, trying to attract more attention from Qiqige.

"Yeah, it's a bit stupid, but it's just because I thought too much. Now that everything is over, just be happy." Qiqige replied with a smile.

"Yeah." Yin'e responded.

"Okay, it's almost time, let's go out." Qiqige looked at the time and found that it was almost time for dinner, so she suggested. Then, the two of them went to the hall together. As expected, the Ninth Prince and Qingning were already waiting there.

After everyone sat down and chatted for a while, Sana and the others had already prepared the dishes. At this time, waves of tempting aroma came to her nose, making Qiqige salivate. She had not tasted this dish for a long time.

"Qiqige, it's spicy, but really delicious!" Qingning took the first bite and was a little overwhelmed by the spiciness, so he quickly drank some tea. However, when the spiciness eased a little, the delicious taste that made people want to stop came to his mind again.

"As long as you like it." Qiqige responded with a smile.

"Tenth Prince, it seems that you live a life as comfortable as a god every day." The Ninth Prince also tasted it and said with admiration.

After that, everyone laughed and talked. When night fell, they stayed here for the night. In the early morning, the Ninth Prince and the Tenth Prince got up first and went to the court. Qiqige and Qingning got up later, packed their luggage leisurely, and took the children on the carriage back to the palace.

After returning to the palace, Qiqige first checked whether anything had happened in the past two days, and then ordered the servants to prepare another set of items made for Hongxuan and send it to Hongyang.

Soon, the two princes will have the moment to open their mansions. Qiqige is extremely busy, but fortunately, she and Qingning are jointly organizing the opening banquet, so the opening banquet is relatively simple. However, the greater challenge is that Qiqige needs to sort out various affairs in the mansion.

After the establishment of the mansion, everything was no longer as easy as in the palace. All expenses had to be borne by themselves. Instead of receiving their share from the Ministry of Internal Affairs as before, they had to pay it themselves. Fortunately, there were no other women in the mansion, so the expenses were relatively low.

After the Ninth Prince opened his residence, earth-shaking changes took place. First, there were more people, second, the expenses increased, and finally, the affairs were busy. Fortunately, the Ninth Prince did not give any status to other concubines. Only a few women who gave birth to his children were named "gege".

Since the last time the Tenth Prince and the Ninth Prince clarified the misunderstanding with the Eighth Prince, although the Eighth Prince had some small actions, they had already made their attitude clear to the people around them: they could leave, but after leaving, they could no longer act in their name. After all, they also had their own methods.

After the establishment of the mansion, the number of banquets attended by Ninth Lady and Qiqige increased significantly, and they could see Eighth Lady in most of these occasions. However, every time they met, Eighth Lady had a stern face towards them and showed no friendliness. But Ninth Lady and Qiqige were not subordinates of Eighth Lady, so after many setbacks, Eighth Lady's behavior became more restrained, but her eyes became more gloomy.

Qiqige thought to herself that if possible, letting the crown prince take the throne might be the best choice. Now that the fourth prince's eldest son Honghui has died, the remaining young princes are not particularly outstanding. She thought that if the status quo continues, it would be more appropriate for the crown prince to take the throne directly.

Once she had an idea, Qiqige immediately put it into action. She sent people to give the prince some suggestions, which made the prince perform better. The relationship between him and Kangxi gradually eased, returning to the previous state or even better. She reminded the prince that his biggest competitor was not someone else, but his father. Moreover, judging from Kangxi's current physical condition, he could still reign for at least a dozen years. Therefore, the prince must adjust his mentality and know clearly what he should do.

Qiqige made a plan and arranged for people to go to sea. Needless to say, despite the Qing Dynasty's ban on sea travel, it was relatively easy to do so thanks to the status of the Tenth Lady.

Time flies, and several years have passed in the blink of an eye. At this time, the Tenth Prince and Qiqige already have three lovely children, two sons and a daughter. In these years, Qiqige became pregnant again and successfully gave birth to a pair of twins, a boy named Hongyan and a girl named Wuxiha.

Hongxuan has grown into a young man, and he has been studying in the palace with Hongyang from the Ninth Prince's residence since last year. However, Hongxuan is naughty by nature, and his character is more like the Tenth Prince. Qiqige also taught him martial arts, so no one can bully Hongxuan now, and instead they are afraid that he will bully others.

Qiqige reviewed the matters of this voyage. This voyage brought back a lot of items and a lot of news from the outside world. In fact, Qiqige already knew everything, but she handed these things over to the Tenth Prince to check, hoping that he would understand the situation personally. The Tenth Prince didn't care at first, just thinking it was an ordinary matter, but as he read deeper, his face gradually became solemn.

"Qiqige, is this true?" Yin'e asked seriously.

"This is the place where my men went in person. These are what they saw and recorded with their own eyes. They are absolutely true and reliable. Moreover, this is only part of it. There are many more situations that even they cannot find out." Qiqige said solemnly.

"Qiqige, this matter must be reported to Khan Ama immediately. The situation is very serious." Yin'e said seriously. He knew the importance of this matter. They had always believed that the countries overseas were inferior to themselves, but now it seemed that this was not the case. Moreover, he had also seen some other worrying news. It was clear that the ambitions of foreign countries were not small.

"Yeah." Qiqige nodded in agreement.

"I may not be back tonight, so you should go to bed early." After saying this, Yin E quickly changed his clothes, strode out of the room, and called the Ninth Prince to go with him.

The Ninth Prince learned that the Tenth Prince had an urgent matter to attend to, and although he did not know what it was, he believed that the Tenth Prince would not easily exaggerate, and it must be a very important matter. So, he followed Yin'e into the palace without hesitation.

Under the moonlight, two horses galloped past, raising a cloud of dust. Because it was late, there were few people on the street, so they soon arrived in front of the palace gate. After getting off the horse, the two entered the palace.

Yin'e walked quickly, telling Yin'er beside him in detail what happened. Yin'er walked quickly, listening carefully, and was shocked. He never thought that the matter was so complicated and involved overseas forces. Although the Qing Dynasty implemented a sea ban policy, there were still missionaries in the country, especially Nan Huairen and other people who were valued by the emperor. If this matter is true, it will bring great trouble to the court.

At this time, Kangxi was reading a book in the Qianqing Palace. Suddenly, Liang Jiugong came in and reported: "Your Majesty, the ninth prince and the tenth prince are outside. They said they have important matters to report." Liang Jiugong saw the serious faces of the two princes and knew that the matter was serious, so he hurried over to report.

"Ninth and Tenth sons, what are they doing here so late? Let them in." Kangxi asked in confusion. He thought to himself that these two sons had never been very interested in politics and rarely participated in other affairs. Now they were even more distant from the Eighth son and were busy with their own affairs all day. He had no idea that what happened next would shock him greatly. Although he had heard about the situation abroad, the actual situation was far more complicated than he imagined.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Liang Jiugong replied, then turned and left.

After a while, the Ninth and Tenth Princes stood outside the door waiting to be summoned. They were uneasy, not knowing how Kangxi would react. Finally, Liang Jiugong came out and said, "The Emperor wants you two princes to see him."

The two took a deep breath, straightened their clothes, and walked into the palace.

"Your son greets Khan Ama. May Khan Ama be blessed with good health." The two men saluted respectfully.

"Get up. What important matter has brought you two to me at this time?" Kangxi looked at the two people below with a hint of majesty in his tone.

"Thank you, Khan Ama." The two men stood up. The ninth prince Yin'e stepped forward and presented a booklet. "Khan Ama, I have something important to report. Here is the booklet. You will understand after you look at it."

Liang Jiugong took the booklet respectfully and handed it to the emperor carefully. After Kangxi received the booklet, he gently opened it, and his originally calm expression gradually became solemn. As time went by, this solemn feeling became more and more obvious, as if a heavy burden was pressing on his heart.

Finally, Kangxi closed the booklet, his eyes sharp and firm, exuding an inviolable majesty. He slowly said: "Yin'e, is this true?" His voice was low and powerful, revealing his inner seriousness and earnestness.

Yin'e quickly knelt down and replied: "My Lord Khan, this is absolutely true. It was recorded in detail by someone around my wife when they went out to sea. This person is outside the door now and can be summoned at any time so that my Lord Khan can ask you in person." Yin'e was well aware of the importance and seriousness of the matter, so he brought the relevant personnel in advance in case of emergency.

Kangxi nodded slightly, and after thinking for a moment, he said, "Liang Jiugong, go and call the princes before the 14th." He knew that this matter was very important and needed capable people to handle it. And these princes were the most suitable candidates to help him solve this problem.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Liang Jiugong knew the situation was very important. He secretly wondered what had happened that made the emperor so eager to summon the princes and the crown prince. He didn't dare to ask more, and hurried out to arrange for someone to summon the princes, including the crown prince.

That night, several princes were summoned to the palace. They knew the matter was urgent, so they hurried over at top speed. The first one to arrive was naturally the crown prince who lived nearby.

Kangxi sat on the dragon throne with a solemn expression. Without saying a word, he handed the booklet in his hand to the prince. The prince took the booklet, opened it, and was immediately surprised and frowned. He was very puzzled, and a bad premonition surged in his heart. He continued to read it, and the more he read, the angrier he became, and at the same time, the more worried he became. "Khan Ama, this..." The prince hesitated, but he didn't know where to start. This matter was too big, and he couldn't accept it for a while.

"Wait for them, you can take a look together and discuss how to deal with it." Kangxi actually gave them a chance and also observed their reactions. He wanted to see how these sons would behave when faced with such a big event.

Time passed by, and the other princes arrived one after another. Even the Seventh Prince, who rarely participated in other things, was called. Everyone gathered together, and the atmosphere was tense and depressing.

The other princes were all very confused. What was the important matter? Emperor Kangxi asked the tenth prince to explain it to everyone.

"Yes, Khan Ama." Yin'e answered respectfully.

Several princes were still confused and didn't know what the Tenth Prince was going to say.

"This is what happened. Today..." Yin'e spoke in detail for a long time, roughly explaining what happened.

The prince had basically understood the situation. He picked up the booklet, looked at it carefully, then handed it to Kangxi, and then passed it to several other princes for circulation.

"Khan Ama, this is really abominable!" The eldest prince was filled with righteous indignation and felt deeply disgusted with what the foreigners thought and what they did.

"Well, I called you here to hear if you have any good ideas and how you plan to deal with it." Kangxi said. He knew in his heart that these actions were indeed abominable, but it was more important to find a way to solve the problem. Otherwise, it would bring huge losses to the Qing Dynasty.

"Khan Ama, the most important thing now is that we need to know how harmful this longevity cream is before we can proceed to the next step. I suggest that we experiment on death row prisoners first, and observe their reactions and physical changes after inhaling it, so as to understand its harmfulness. At the same time, during this period, we can send personnel to conduct secret investigations to find out where these longevity creams are sold and where they enter the market from. In this way, we will be able to obtain more information about the longevity cream and provide a strong basis for subsequent decision-making." The prince replied after careful consideration.