HBWnovel Chapter 23 Tong Jia - Forgetting Worries (1)
Chapter 23 Tong Jia - Forgetting Worries (1)
"In this life, the host is Tong Guogang's second legitimate daughter!" Duobao dutifully explained her current identity to Wangyou.
“Tong Guogang, I remember that he had three sons and one daughter in history. His daughter married Prince An, Marhun, and became his second wife. So, if you think about it, she should have a little bit of a relationship with the later Eighth Prince’s wife!” Wangyou said, roughly organizing her thoughts.
"The host remembers correctly, but this daughter was also born to the Jue Luo clan. However, she should be the youngest daughter of the Tong Jia clan. Her exact birth date is not recorded in history!"
"I reckon it's a late-blooming daughter, otherwise the Tong family wouldn't only have Tong Guowei's daughter entering the palace!" Wangyou calculated, somewhat worried. "My current status seems to make me only ten years younger than Tong Guowei's eldest daughter. With some maneuvering, I should be able to avoid entering the palace!"
“Host, I think it’s unlikely. Although you don’t want to enter the palace, ordinary people can’t protect your face!” Duobao said honestly. Even he, a mechanical creation, was tempted by it, let alone ordinary people.
"I am now the eldest daughter of the Jue Luo clan. I have two older brothers: one is my full brother Orondai, and the other is my half-brother Fahai. I should also have a younger brother, but it seems he hasn't been born yet!"
"Host, Orondai openly formed a faction against the later Eighth Prince Yinzhi in his later years, which Yongzheng disliked very much. However, your second brother Fahai was quite good, a rare Manchu scholar who passed the imperial examination, and he had a good ending!"
"Olundai is still young, isn't he? The child is still young, so he needs to be beaten more!" Wangyou's thought laid the foundation for Orondai's tragic life later in life.
As for Fahai, Wangyou never thought of trying to please him. Everyone has their own circumstances in life, but for her future peaceful life, her older and younger brothers need to be properly educated.
……
The fifteenth year of the Kangxi Emperor's reign, at the residence of Tong Guogang!
"Sister, I was wrong. I will never run out to play again. I will go to study right now. I will definitely pass the preliminary examination this year!" Orondai ran towards the study amidst wailing.
Five-year-old Wangyou carried a ruler and entered the study to closely supervise her older brother's reading, and of course, she also kept an eye on his martial arts practice.
Orondai glared resentfully at his younger sister. She was incredibly beautiful when she was born, but she had a photographic memory. When she was three, she started learning from him, but before he could even remember which characters they were, she had already memorized "Forget-Me-Not." This left him, as her older brother, feeling extremely frustrated.
In the past two years, under his sister's devilish influence, he has become very outstanding, far surpassing that kid Fahai. But compared to his sister, he is just trash. And now, he is being pressured by his sister to write policy essays again!
Orondai sighed, looking at his younger sister's pretty face. He really had to work hard. His sister was so beautiful, who knew which rich kid would end up with her? He had to stand up for her.
……
"Madam, the eldest princess has brought the eldest prince to the study again!" Hongye, the head maid of the Jueluo clan, came in to report.
"This girl, only she can keep that brat Orondai in check!"
"Our eldest prince, under the guidance of the eldest princess, is much better than the second prince!" said the wet nurse of the Jue Luo clan with a smile.
"Yes, once this one in my belly is born, I believe that with his sister's guidance, he will definitely be outstanding!"
Wangyou was unaware that she had suddenly found herself in a predicament, with another pot on her head, as she was currently commenting on Orondai's policy essay!
"Brother, you're too much of a theorist when it comes to people's livelihood issues. At first glance, it seems alright, but upon closer inspection, it's all just empty talk. Brother, I'm going for a walk outside!"
"You want to go out and play!"
"It's so boring staying at home every day. I want to go out and explore more while I'm still young, otherwise it won't be as fun when I grow up!" Wangyou said with some worry.
“Okay, then let’s go tell Mother!” After being tormented by his sister, Orondai was overjoyed to hear that he could go out.
Instead of going to the most bustling streets of Beijing, the two went to the most chaotic slums, where Orondai felt his worldview being reshaped.
He saw impoverished people starving and naked in the dead of winter, where even a single penny could trigger a frenzy of buying. He saw a child who, because his family was too poor to afford medical treatment, died in his mother's arms, while the mother was left heartbroken and speechless.
He also learned about the market prices from Wangyou, including the price of a peck of rice and a pound of charcoal.
“Sister, I never knew before that the ten taels of silver I casually tossed out could provide an ordinary family with enough to eat and wear for a year!” Orondai’s mood was somewhat heavy.
"Brother, the more you know about these things, the less likely you are to be scammed in the future. And don't spend money so recklessly in the future!"
"Little sister, don't worry, I won't spend money recklessly from now on. I'll save it all for your dowry!"
"What nonsense are you talking about? I'm only five years old, and you're already thinking about marrying me off? You think that if I get married, no one will force you to study and practice martial arts!" Wangyou grabbed her brother's ear and said angrily.
"No, no, sister, be gentle, it hurts!" Orondai cried out in pain. "I was just thinking of saving money for you to spend. After this trip, I've learned one thing: you absolutely can't do without money!"
“You’re right!” Wangyou offered Orondai’s ear. “Brother, let me blow on it for you, it won’t hurt anymore!”
"Hehe, it doesn't hurt anymore!" Orondai chuckled foolishly.
The brother and sister strolled around for a while longer before taking a horse-drawn carriage home. It was the dead of winter, and it was really cold outside!
"My dear minister, these are your eldest son and eldest daughter!" Emperor Kangxi said with a smile after watching the two children interact.
"Your Majesty, they are my two children. Please excuse my poor manners!"
"That's great!" Kangxi said with some envy. He was twenty-three years old and had very few children. Now his cousin had entered the palace, but she was in poor health.
Time flies, and it's already the sixteenth year of the Kangxi Emperor's reign!
"What? You mean a woman named Wuya from my cousin's palace climbed into the emperor's bed and got pregnant? And my cousin just had to suffer in silence and is even planning to adopt that bondservant's son!" Wangyou was drinking tea and listening to gossip when she heard this explosive news from her maid.
"That's indeed the news coming from the palace!"
Wangyou twitched her lips. This was Consort De in history, the birth mother of Emperor Yongzheng.
"My cousin is really good-natured. If I had known that my maid had climbed into my bed without my permission, I would have dragged her out the next morning and beaten her to death. How dare she humiliate my daughter, a member of the Tongjia clan, like this!" Wangyou said angrily.
No one knows how Uya climbed into Kangxi's bed in history, but it is true that in this world, there are indeed those who climb into bed without permission and are treacherous servants. It is simply incomprehensible that Tongjia Wanning accepted this.
"Father, Mother, does my cousin really have to be a sucker and raise a servant's son?" Wangyou asked curiously at the dinner table.
"What nonsense are you talking about? This is a great favor from His Majesty. He might even be able to help your cousin take care of a child!" Tong Guogang said with a smile.
“Father, can’t you and Second Uncle really see it? Neither the Emperor nor the Empress Dowager would allow the Tongjia clan to produce another Empress, let alone allow a daughter of the Tongjia clan to give birth to a prince. Relatives of the empress are always guarded against!” Wangyou was truly helpless.
"Besides, the Emperor and my cousin are only cousins. Their children wouldn't be healthy. Father, you can check if you don't believe me. How many children born to cousins after marriage have survived, or how many of those who survived are healthy?" Wangyou added fuel to the fire.