Chapter 141

 

Just as Chen Jingzong loved the divine horse given to him by Hua Yang, Emperor Yuanyou in the palace also couldn’t resist the bay-red horse. He visited the stables every day and gave the horse a majestic name – Fire Qilin.

During the Mid-Autumn Festival, Hua Yang and Chen Jingzong came to the palace to celebrate the festival. Emperor Yuanyou even took his sister and brother-in-law to see his Fire Qilin.

“I heard that Prince Consort’s Snow Tower was named by my sister?” Emperor Yuanyou asked with a bit of teasing.

Hua Yang raised her eyebrows: “Why, doesn’t it sound good?”

Emperor Yuanyou: “It sounds good, but the horse is completely black and doesn’t quite match the Snow Tower.”

In fact, the black and white hair didn’t have much to do with it. The key was that Snow Tower was a kind of peony, and the black horse was a male. His sister must have thought it was pleasant to hear, and didn’t consider prince consort’s feeling at all.

Emperor Yuanyou guessed that if prince consort was allowed to name it himself, he would definitely change it to something more imposing.

He looked at Chen Jingzong sympathetically.

Chen Jingzong echoed: “The color is indeed not suitable, but Snow Tower matches the white hair on the horse’s forehead very well, and it’s quite artistic. Compare to what this minister came up with, it’s much more elegant.”

Emperor Yuanyou’s heart moved: “What did you came up with?”

Hua Yang looked contemptuous and walked away a few steps, as if she didn’t even want to listen.

Chen Jingzong looked at the back of the grand princess, smiled ashamedly, and replied in a low voice to the emperor: “This minister thinks the name ‘Blackie’ is very good. It sounds very friendly.”

Emperor Yuanyou:…

Although he had long known that prince consort did not like reading when he was a child and did not have the good literary talent of Chen Bozong and Chen Xiaozong, but “Blackie” was too… simple and unpretentious.

Because Emperor Yuanyou liked Fire Qilin, the horse trainers in the palace worked very hard to train it. After all, Fire Qilin was just a horse. He was well fed and cared for, and people brushed and tickled him every day. Occasionally, it received a few lashes followed by a sweet date, and by mid-Ninth Month, Fire Qilin obediently submitted to Emperor Yuanyou.

Emperor Yuanyou was also quite bold. He asked the horse trainer to lead the horse for two rounds, then seeing Fire Qilin was honest, he let the horse start running.

He was so happy that he was severely punished by Empress Dowager Qi who learned about this.

Emperor Yuanyou let the lecture enter his left ear and came out his right ear. Because he was in a good mood, he didn’t care too much about it.

The next day, when Chen Tingjian came to teach him, Emperor Yuanyou discussed with him that he wanted to go autumn hunting in the Xishan Mountains.

Chen Tingjian was quite surprised. After all, the first two emperors were very quiet and never took the initiative to organize any horse racing or hunting.

And Emperor Yuanyou was only fourteen years old. He was so young. If something went wrong during the autumn hunting, who would be responsible?

Emperor Yuanyou knew his concerns, smiled, walked around the desk, walked to Chen Tingjian, and raised his hand to compare their shoulders: “Sir, look, Zhen is only half a foot shorter than you. Among the civil official of the court, you stand out from the crowd. Most of them are as tall as Zhen, and there are no less than five people who are shorter than Zhen. How can you, Sir, always treat Zhen like a child at this age? ”

Chen Tingjian bowed and said, “This minister doesn’t dare.”

Emperor Yuanyou helped him up and said sincerely: “Sir, you always want Zhen to be a wise monarch. Zhen feel that a wise monarch should not only be kind to the people, but also have a strong military strategy. Sir want Zhen to enrich the country and strengthen the army, and Zhen also have this wish. But if Zhen always being coop up in the palace, without even the strength to bind a chicken, even cowering in fear when hunting in the suburbs of the capital, how will Zhen order the soldiers of the world in the future?”

Chen Tingjian lowered his eyes and said: “Your Majesty’s words are reasonable, but Your Majesty’s dragon body is related to the country, so this minister has to be cautious. This minister remembered that when Your Majesty was six years old, the late emperor once galloped in the palace, and Your Majesty admonished the late emperor to cherish his dragon body. But now Your Majesty insists on going on autumn hunting. The mountain road is steep and the arrow has no eye. It’s far more dangerous than riding a horse in the palace. As a courtier, how can this minister not try to admonish?”

Emperor Yuanyou made a serious face, stared at him for a while, returned to his seat, and said calmly: “Never mind. Sir, let’s start the lesson.”

Chen Tingjian nodded and began the lecture.

Although Emperor Yuanyou halted the thought of autumn hunting, his hands and legs were itchy. On the 20^th of Ninth Month, Emperor Yuanyou, who didn’t have to study, took a walk in the imperial garden and suddenly sent someone to tell Qi Jin and Chen Jingzong to enter the palace.

Among the military attaches in the capital, the older one, Emperor Yuanyou couldn’t talk to them. Among the younger ones, Emperor Yuanyou was of course the closest to his cousin and brother-in-law.

The grand princess mansion was closer, and Chen Jingzong arrived first.

Emperor Yuanyou looked at him and smiled: “Zhen heard that whenever Prince Consort has a day off, you will accompany Sister out of the city to go sightseeing. Zhen thought you were coming from outside the city.”

The young man, who could only be kept in the palace, was quite envious of his sister and brother-in-law’s freedom. When he was in a bad mood, that envy had a bit more jealousy taste.

He wouldn’t be arrogant in front of his sister, but there was no need to be polite to Chen Jingzong.

Chen Jingzong embarrassedly said: “This minister is stupid. This minister doesn’t know anything about music, chess, calligraphy and painting that Grand Princess likes. This minister can only devote the energy to accompany Grand Princess out for an outing to enjoy the autumn. It’s just that the weather is getting colder and Grand Princess doesn’t like to go out anymore. Today this minister can only accompany Grand Princess to wander around in the garden. When Your Majesty sent someone to summon, this minister was just being scolded by Grand Princess for saying something wrong, so this minister also wanted to thank Your Majesty for rescuing this minister.”

Emperor Yuanyou: “How did you offend Sister?”

Chen Jingzong lowered his head and explained: “This minister and Grand Princess was walking around the lotus pond. The lotus leaves in the pond had turned yellow and withered. Grand Prince recited a poem about lotus, which has a sentimental feeling for autumn. This minister wanted to cheer her up and told her that autumn was also very good. You can ask people to dig lotus roots to eat, not only did it taste good, it can also relieve constipation and diarrhea, strengthen the spleen and stimulate the appetite. Unexpectedly, instead of being happy, Grand Princess became angry.”

Emperor Yuanyou:…

When his sister was feeling romantic, prince consort only thought about eating and talked about laxatives and diarrhea. It’s no wonder that his sister became unhappy!

Emperor Yuanyou both disdained Chen Jingzong’s clumsy tongue and thought the incident was quite funny. He shook his head and complained to Chen Jingzong about Chen Tingjian before Qi Jin arrived.

Emperor Yuanyou wanted to see whether Chen Jingzong would help speak for his father, or follow his wishes and blame his father.

Chen Jingzong, who had always been standing respectfully opposite Emperor Yuanyou, raised his head at this moment and looked over with complicated eyes.

Emperor Yuanyou could see a bit of envy in this look.

Envy?

He was puzzled: “Why are you looking like that?”

Chen Jingzong smiled bitterly, lowered his eyes again, and said, “Your Majesty’s words just now reminded this minister of an old incident.”

Emperor Yuanyou: “What old incident?”

Chen Jingzong said: “It happened when this minister was young. This minister was only thirteen or fourteen years, and was still living with the old lady at our hometown in Lingzhou. At that time, this minister’s parents were in the capital, and the old lady was old, even if she wanted to control this minister she couldn’t. Second Uncle also has a dough temperament and didn’t dare to ask about this minister’s movements. Therefore, when in our hometown, this minister can do whatever he want. If anyone makes this minister angry, this minister will deliberately hide in the mountains to make them anxious, let see if they still dare to criticize.”

Emperor Yuanyou smiled, with a hint of sarcasm flashing in his eyes, guessing that Chen Jingzong was going to lecture him in a roundabout way.

Chen Jingzong continued: “Once, this minister went into the mountains alone. The mountains in our hometown are all short mountains, and there are no dangerous beasts. This minister also proud of his martial arts and not afraid of anything. Unexpectedly, when this minister went up the tree to dig out bird eggs, as soon as this minister got close to the bird’s nest, a black snake suddenly sprang out of its nest. If this minister encountered this on the ground, it’s nothing to be afraid of. However, this minister was unprepared at the time. When this minister was frightened, this minister let go of his hand and fell straight from a height of more than ten feet.”

Emperor Yuanyou asked politely: “Did you get hurt from the fall?”

Chen Jingzong shook his head: “There was a thick layer of fallen leaves under the tree. This minister was lucky enough to save his life, but this minister’s right leg was fractured and the arm was cut by a branch, which bled a lot.”

As he spoke, Chen Jingzong rolled up his cuffs, revealing an old wound on the inner side of his right arm that had long since healed, leaving only a thin gray mark.

Emperor Yuanyou originally thought that he had made up the story, but when he saw this scar, he realized that such a thing really happened.

He became really curious: “With a broken right leg, wouldn’t it be possible for you to walk?”

Chen Jingzong: “Yes, this minister could barely walk a few steps but the pain was unbearable. This minister could only lie on the ground and watch the sky get darker.”

Emperor Yuanyou imagined himself being alone in that situation, surrounded by dark mountains and wild ridges, with snakes, rats and beasts roaming around, and the hairs all over his body stood up.

Chen Jingzong: “I brought some dry food with me, and lay in the mountains for a day and a night. Then the people in the town came to find me and carried me down the mountain. After I recovered from my injuries, I still liked to go to the mountains. No one can’t control me. But does Your Majesty know what I was thinking the most when I lay in the mountains for the night enduring the pain of my broken bones?”

Perhaps because they were talking about the past when they were young, and Emperor Yuanyou was very close to him, Chen Jingzong unknowingly forgot to be polite and no longer called himself ‘this minister’.

Emperor Yuanyou didn’t pay attention to such small details at all, and asked: “What are you thinking the most?”

Chen Jingzong smiled: “Almost the whole night, I was scolding my old man. If he hadn’t scolded me at every turn, I wouldn’t have run back to my hometown in a fit of anger. If I didn’t go back to my hometown, I wouldn’t go into the mountains. If I didn’t go into the mountains, I wouldn’t have fallen from the tree. If I were still in the capital, even if I were sick, my mother would be there to take care of me. I even thought that even if I died in the mountains, the old man would probably not shed a single tear. Anyway, he has many sons, and they are all more promising than me.”

Although he was smiling, Emperor Yuan You seemed to see the young Chen Jingzong lying alone in the mountains. He saw him enduring pain while being angry at his father, saw him being angry while feeling sad his father treated his brothers better, and then sadly shedding tears.

Immediately afterwards, Emperor Yuanyou suddenly understood why Chen Jingzong was envious that he was admonished by Chen Tingjian.

At least when he wanted to take risks, Chen Tingjian would stop him. When Chen Jingzong took risks in his hometown, his parents were not around.

Children would be fed up after being restrained and disciplined by their elders all the time. But if something happened, the first thing they thought was their elders, hoping they could come to help in time, and hope they could stay by their side with a gentle voice.

Emperor Yuanyou even remembered that when he was sick when he was a child, Chen Tingjian personally fed him medicine. He was the crown prince after all, Chen Tingjian had both a stern and gentle side towards him, but what Chen Jingzong felt from his own father was only strictness and harshness, right?

With mixed feelings in his heart, Emperor Yuanyou glared at Chen Jingzong hatefully: “Don’t think Zhen don’t know that you’re trying to say good things for your father.”

Chen Jingzong: “Your Majesty misunderstood. This minister doesn’t care about him. This minister just afraid that if Your Majesty insists on the autumn hunting and got injured, the Grand Princess will definitely burst into tears, and this minister will also feel distressed and worried.”

Emperor Yuanyou: “You’ve only been injured once after going into the mountains so many times. Why do you think something will happen to Zhen if we go there just once?”

Chen Jingzong: “It’s not a matter of getting hurt or not. It’s about the concern of those around you. Can Your Majesty bear to have them all worry? If this minister also had a mother like Empress Dowager who devoted herself to him, and a sister who was as gentle and caring as the Grand Princess, this minister can’t bear to make them worry. It’s a pity that this minister’s life is hard, there are no sister above, only two brothers who always suppress this minister.”

Emperor Yuanyou:…

After such a comparison, he was indeed living a much more comfortable life than Chen Jingzong!

Chen Jingzong: “Your Majesty wants to have autumn hunting. In fact, the Imperial Garden is vast enough for you to display your skills. Just say those sparrows, they may be small but they fly very fast. Only hitting them would truly showcase your archery prowess.”

Emperor Yuanyou looked at the treetops and found a fat sparrow squatting on a branch.

He only heard the majesty of shooting wolves and foxes, but he never heard of any heroes who were famous for shooting sparrows.

Chen Jingzong: “You try it first.”

Emperor Yuanyou ordered a young eunuch to bring a bow and arrow, and then find another sparrow. With a “swish” sound, the arrow flew out and the sparrow also flew away.

Chen Jingzong then shot an arrow. The arrow was firmly inserted into the sparrow’s neck before it fell down.

Emperor Yuanyou:…

Chen Jingzong patted him on the shoulder: “Your Majesty doesn’t have to feel discouraged. This minister spent seven to eight years crawling and rolling in the mountains to develop this good skill of hitting target with precision.”

Emperor Yuanyou:…

You’re really not humble at all!

When Qi Jin finally entered the palace, what he saw was Chen Jingzong leading Emperor Yuanyou to shoot sparrows!

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