Zhao Yao originally planned to go to a secret base to train dogs and cats after returning to the palace, but he did not expect that he forgot to copy "The Analects of Confucius" as a penalty. There are only a few days left until the one-month period, and nothing is more important than copying the Analects of Confucius.
In the evening, Zhao Yao stayed in the eighth prince's room to have dinner. Before dinner, he had been copying the Analects of Confucius seriously. The Eighth Prince has also been helping him copy.
At this time, Zhao Yao was having dinner with the eighth prince.
The Eighth Prince specially asked the small kitchen to prepare a few of Zhao Yao's favorite dishes. Perhaps because he was tired from copying "The Analects of Confucius", or because he was hungry when he went out of the city to meet the king, Zhao Yao lowered his head and started eating hard.
Seeing that Zhao Yao was eating so deliciously, the eighth prince's appetite improved a lot and he ate one more bowl of rice than usual. The eighth prince's appetite has always been very small, and he only eats one bowl of rice every meal. His appetite is small because he was hungry when he was very young.
When he was a child, his mother and concubine were not favored and were not liked by Emperor Wu of Zhou Dynasty. People in the palace were accustomed to adding insult to injury, so they bullied the mother and son in every possible way, often denying them food. Even if you give them, most of them will be bad rice and bad food.
Although the Eighth Prince has been recuperating his intestines and stomach in the past few years, his stomach disease is too serious and he cannot fully recover from it. Fortunately, his stomach and intestines don't hurt as often as when he was a child, but he can't eat and drink as much as Zhao Yao.
Seeing that the Eighth Prince had eaten an extra bowl of rice tonight, Yu Hai was worried that he would have a stomachache in the middle of the night, so he quickly gave the Eighth Prince a pill.
The eighth prince did not refuse and drank the pills with the soup.
Zhao Yao looked at the Eighth Prince with great sympathy: "Bago, it's so pitiful that you can't eat more delicious food." Alas, Bago was really pitiful when he was a child.
"You can't eat too much. It will fill up your intestines and stomach, and you won't be able to eat delicious food in the future."
"Myna, I'm still young and still growing, so I have to eat more so that I can grow taller." Although he is greedy, he will never dare to fill his stomach again, otherwise his mother and concubine will punish him.
As soon as he finished speaking, he asked Yu Hai to serve him a bowl of rice.
After eating three bowls of rice, Zhao Yao was full and full. In fact, he can still eat, but if he eats any more, it will fill his stomach, and he dare not eat anymore.
Although Zhao Yao said that he was not full, the eighth prince was worried. After dinner, he took Zhao Yao to take a walk in the yard to eat.
As soon as I walked into the courtyard, I heard singing and laughter faintly coming from the distance. Zhao Yao stopped and looked curiously in the direction where the singing came from.
"Bag, what's wrong with Third Brother and the others? Why are they so interested and still drinking and having fun?"
"Don't worry about them." The Eighth Prince frowned slightly and said with a disgusted expression, "They have been like this these past few days."
Yu Hai, who was waiting by the side, interrupted: "Your Highness, the Third Prince and the others start drinking and having fun every day when they come back from school, and they don't end until the end of the day."
"Ah?" Zhao Yao looked surprised, "Third Brother and the others were not like this before." When he came to Xingde Palace before, he did not see Third Brother and the others having a banquet and having fun.
"It just started in the past few days."
"Is it because the second brother is back, so the third brother and the others are very happy?" For the third brother and the others, it is indeed a good thing for the second brother to return to Beijing. Because the second brother is back, the third brother and the others can easily cause trouble.
"Maybe." The Eighth Prince didn't know what he thought of, with a look of disgust on his face. "Tenth brother, stay away from Third Brother and the others from now on, and don't get close to them."
Zhao Yao didn't know why the eighth prince said that. He shrugged and said to the Eighth Prince: "Bago, even if I want to get close to Third Brother and the others, Third Brother and the others will not let me get close." Third Brother and Fifth Brother looked down upon his younger brother. "Besides, why should I get close to them? They are not good." Third Brother and the others relied on the fact that their maternal ancestors were from a famous family. They considered themselves nobler than him and Bage, and never took him and Bage seriously. I'm afraid that the third brother and the others will even look down on the second brother. After all, the second brother's maternal grandfather's family is not a wealthy family. The only family better than Third Brother and his maternal ancestors is the Xie family, the maternal ancestors of the Crown Prince and the Seventh Prince.
No matter how powerful the Wang family, Xun family, and Yuan family are, they are far inferior to the Xie family.
Hearing what Zhao Yao said, the eighth prince felt relieved.
"Third brother and the others are not good, so who do you think is better?"
Zhao Yao said without hesitation: "Of course you are the best, Bage."
When the Eighth Prince heard this, a smile appeared on his face, and he stretched out his hand to gently pinch Zhao Yao's face, "I don't hurt you in vain."
"It's okay, fourth brother." Zhao Yao added.
When the Eighth Prince heard this, the curve in the corner of his mouth disappeared immediately. He had always disliked the pretentious fourth prince, and didn't understand the benefit of such a prude. However, Zhao Yao liked the fourth prince, so it was hard for him to say anything.
"Who else is better?"
Zhao Yao clapped his fingers and said, "Concubine Mother, Concubine Two, Concubine Three, Sister Five, Mr. Xiao, and Tong Xi and Tong Le." After saying that, he saw Yu Hai and said, "There is also Yu Hai .”
Yu Hai didn't expect that he was a good person in Zhao Yao's eyes, which made him very flattered. He hurriedly expressed gratitude: "Thank you, Your Highness, for the compliment."
"Whoever treats me well is a good person."
"I thought you hated Mr. Xiao, but I didn't expect that you thought Mr. Xiao was a good person." The eighth prince said in surprise.
Mr. Xiao is one of the Eighth Prince's teachers. He mainly taught Zhao Yao and others the Book of Documents. He has an old-fashioned temperament and is very serious in his teachings to the princes. No matter who made a mistake in class, he would severely criticize and even slap his palms, showing no fear of the superior princes.
Although Zhao Yao was the stupidest among the princes in studying, Mr. Xiao did not dislike him as a student because of this. On the contrary, Mr. Xiao was very patient with him. If there is anything he doesn't understand, Mr. Xiao will keep teaching him until he understands.
Mr. Xiao also often encouraged Zhao Yao and advised him not to feel inferior because of his stupidity. In Zhao Yao's heart, Mr. Xiao is a very good teacher.
"Mr. Xiao is a good person. He doesn't dislike me for being stupid at all." In the entire palace, the only person who doesn't dislike him for being stupid is Mr. Xiao, except for the concubine and the Eighth Brother. As for the other gentlemen, although they concealed it very well, he could tell that they disliked him.
"Really?" Although Mr. Xiao did not dislike Zhao Yao's stupidity, he did not like the eighth prince. The Eighth Prince felt that Mr. Xiao looked down on his origins just like everyone else.
Hearing that the eighth prince's tone was a little cold, Zhao Yao then remembered that Mr. Xiao didn't like the eighth prince. He quickly changed the subject and talked about something else.
The Eighth Prince followed his words and did not say anything more about Mr. Xiao.
The two of them walked in the yard for more than half an hour before returning to the study to continue copying "The Analects of Confucius".
At four o'clock in the morning, Zhao Yao left Xingde Palace with Tongxi. On the way back to Kunde Hall, I heard someone crying.
The road back to Kunde Hall was a little remote, and it was late at night. Suddenly I heard crying, and I felt my scalp numb.
"Your Highness, are people crying or ghosts crying?"
Zhao Yao saw Tong Xi's frightened look and teased him: "Are you afraid of ghosts?"
"I'm afraid... Your Highness, let's leave quickly."
"There are no ghosts in this world." Zhao Yao said, walking towards the direction where the crying came from.
"Your Highness..." Tong Xi was extremely scared, but had to follow Zhao Yao.
Zhao Yao followed the crying and found a crying eunuch in a corner.
The eunuch turned his back to Zhao Yao and the others, hugged his legs with his hands, huddled up into a ball, and cried so sadly that he didn't even hear the footsteps of Zhao Yao and the others.
"Why are you crying?" Zhao Yao asked.
The eunuch was crying when he suddenly heard someone speaking and almost screamed in fright. When he saw that the person coming was Zhao Yao, he saluted to Zhao Yao in a panic: "I have met His Highness the Tenth Prince."
By the moonlight, Zhao Yao discovered that the eunuch in front of him was very handsome.
"Why are you hiding here crying alone? Are you being bullied?"
The eunuch quickly lowered his head and said in fear: "No, no, this slave has not been bullied."
As soon as he lowered his head, Zhao Yao saw the red marks on his neck, some were big and some were small. It didn't look like it was being targeted by mosquitoes or pinched by hands.
"What's your name, and which palace are you from?"
The eunuch knelt on the ground and said nothing.
Tongxi thought about it: "Your Highness, he is the eunuch beside the third prince."
"The people around Third Brother?"
"He was originally a eunuch beside the fifth prince, and was later given to the third prince by the fifth prince." Tongxi introduced, "I heard that he was good at painting, so the third prince specially asked the fifth prince for him."
"You are from Third Brother, why are you here?"
"Slave, slave..." The eunuch shivered and stammered, unable to speak a complete sentence.
Seeing the eunuch kneeling on the ground, his body was shaking violently. Zhao Yao was stunned for a moment, then thought of something, and asked, "Are you afraid of Third Brother?"
