MM Racing Chapter 391 The Crown Prince's Study Habits Are Unlike the Emperor's
Chapter 391 The Crown Prince's Study Habits Are Unlike the Emperor's
Li Yuanke randomly selected a passage, which the Second Prince recited quite fluently. Li Yuanke then praised his teachers, making them very happy, and the Second Prince was also quite pleased.
The third prince memorized it better than the second prince. Consort Li was always eating chicken. The third prince himself was also quite ambitious, determined to become a more wise monarch than his father. Naturally, he could not learn from his father's ignorance.
Li Yuanke disliked the Third Prince, and his feelings were practically written all over his face. However, as the victor in the struggle for the throne, he knew better than anyone that he could not go to war in place of the Crown Prince.
The fourth prince arrived, his legs trembling, completely terrified. Already a poor student, facing his father, he forgot the few words he could remember. "Heaven...heaven...the world is dark and yellow...waaaah...universe...universe...the universe is desolate...sun...sun and moon...moon...moon...forgot...forgot..."
After several years of schooling, I still haven't learned all the characters.
"Hahahaha!" Xihe burst into laughter, her stomach aching from laughing. Clutching her stomach, she said, "Fourth Brother, you didn't contradict yourself at all! Hahaha, the world turned yellow, hahaha, why don't you say the world turned yellow? The universe was in its primordial chaos, you said it was in a state of utter chaos!"
Li Yuanke looked at the two lecturers, Yan Xuegu and Zhang Wencong, who knelt down silently, sweating profusely, unable to utter a single word.
If the princes don't study well, it's their fault.
Upon seeing this, Xihe ran over and lay down on Li Yuanke's knees, "Father, I can carry you, let me carry you!"
"Alright, Xihe will recite it first!" Li Yuanke said.
Xihe stood up straight, put her hands behind her back, and began to recite. She had only started school yesterday and had only learned the first part of the Thousand Character Classic, which consisted of twelve sentences. She recited it very well and even explained each and every word.
Xihe said to the fourth prince, "Fourth brother, you were eating when Master was teaching, and you were either eating or sleeping when he was teaching. You don't listen to Master."
Li Yuanke said to his two tutors, "You may rise, my dear ministers!"
Yan Xuegu and Zhang Wencong knew that Princess Xihe was speaking up for them. "Your Majesty, we thank you for your great kindness! Thank you, Princess!"
Li Yuanke waved his hand, telling the others to come over and recite as well. The Fifth Prince recited it properly, but his interests lay elsewhere. This child was well-raised by Consort Shu, and had a forthright personality. He loved swordsmanship and spear fighting, and longed to go to the battlefield. He wasn't particularly talented in academics.
Li Yuanke offered a few words of encouragement, and then it was the Sixth Prince's turn. Seeing this son made his teeth ache; he was just like that idiot Xu Wanyi, and his studies were even worse than the Fifth Prince's. He stammered and stuttered. After listening to him for a few words, Li Yuanke dismissed him.
The Third Prince whispered to the Sixth Prince, "Sixth Brother, you still need to study hard in the future. Don't come so late. Come earlier, memorize more, and you'll catch up day by day."
The voice was just loud enough for Li Yuanke to hear, so he asked, "Is the Sixth Prince always late?"
The third prince quickly interjected, "Father, please calm down. Sixth brother isn't late every day, just occasionally. When it's windy or rainy, the roads are difficult to travel, so it's inevitable that he'll be late a few times. When it's cold, he can't get up, so it's also inevitable that he'll be late."
They were just short of saying outright that the Sixth Prince couldn't endure hardship.
Li Yuanke glared fiercely at the Sixth Prince, "If you dare to be late again, I will not let you off lightly!"
The sixth prince was so frightened he almost wet himself, tears welling in his eyes, "Your subject obeys the decree!"
When it was the seventh prince's turn, Li Yuanke looked at his son, who bore a striking resemblance to Prime Minister Pei, in silence for a moment before saying, "Memorize it!"
The seventh prince was born on the 28th day of the fourth month of the eighth year of Yongxi. He was only six years old by the traditional Chinese age reckoning, but he was very composed. His words and actions were very disciplined. His gaze toward his father was distant yet filled with admiration, and he was very calm.
He is naturally very talented in reading, but his memorization is also mediocre, as if he doesn't care or is hiding his true abilities.
Li Yuanke could naturally see through his thoughts, nodded, and said, "That's right."
The Eighth Prince is still recovering from his injuries. The Ninth Prince is a little over half a year younger than the Seventh Prince and is far inferior to him. His birth mother is Xu Miaoying. Although he was raised in Consort Guo's palace, he was actually raised by his birth mother.
Neither mother nor son had much ambition. Xu Miaoying told him to play with the Crown Prince more, and he took that to heart. In less than a day, he became the Crown Prince's shadow.
The Ninth Prince couldn't recite it very well, so the Crown Prince ran over and said, "Father, your son can."
Li Yuanke laughed and asked, "You learned it?"
The Crown Prince shook his head. "Ninth Brother read it several times, and I've learned it."
He recited it fluently, without missing a single word. His teachers were amazed. "Great! The Crown Prince is not as good at studying as the Emperor. There is hope for the Great Zhou!"
Li Yuanke was both pleased and excited. Clearly, the Crown Prince's cleverness was just like his mother's.
In the past, when he and Shen Shixi were studying together, everyone would memorize their lessons, but Shen Shixi would lie down and sleep. Everyone else tried their best to memorize but couldn't, but she, who was dozing off, actually learned them.
Li Yuanke, with one arm around Dongjun and the other around Xihe, glanced at his cronies—who, in later terms, were like sons given away as a bonus with a phone plan—none of them pleasing to the eye.
"I have no other demands of you. Just study hard and don't embarrass me. That's all for today!"
But he didn't let the fourth prince off the hook. "Fourth prince, I'm giving you a month to catch up on all your previous studies. Also, lose all that weight within a month, or else, just you wait!"
The fourth prince was struck dumb. He watched as his father carried Dongjun in one arm and Xihe in the other and walked away. He wanted to shout and beg for mercy, but in the end, he could only extend a hand like Erkang's, and the word "Father" got stuck in his throat.
The Third Prince said, "Fourth Brother, you and Sixth Brother should focus on your studies from now on. Don't be like this. Now that Dongjun and Xihe are here to study, Father will definitely come more often. Do you think things will be the same as before?"
The fourth prince hated Dongjun and Xihe to the core. He ran to his sister, pleading, "If it weren't for them, why would Father punish me? Sister, please help me!"
He couldn't live like this anymore, how could he not be anxious?
The siblings went to Consort Du's place together. Upon hearing that out of all the princes, only the Fourth Prince couldn't recite his lessons, not a single word, Consort Du vomited blood on the spot, trembling with rage. "If Cheng'an were still alive, I wouldn't care if your father beat you to death!"
The fourth prince retorted angrily, "I knew you despise me! If it weren't for my maternal grandmother, how could my eldest brother have died? Why don't you scold your mother anymore? I still want to be the son of a virtuous mother!"
He was so angry that he turned to run away, but the eldest princess grabbed him, saying, "If you anger Mother to death, what will you do then!"
The mother and daughter then cooked a thick pot of chicken soup for the fourth prince, encouraging him to study hard and become the crown prince in the future.
The eldest princess said, "The food prepared by Father Emperor's Eastern Kitchen is the best. You can't eat it, but Dongjun and Xihe can, just because you are not the Crown Prince."
The fourth prince is considering becoming the crown prince, but it would be even better if he could still eat at the Eastern Kitchen even if he didn't become the crown prince.
Consort Du asked the eldest princess, "Will the Empress Dowager still allow you to go to the Cining Palace?"
The eldest princess was annoyed. She kicked at the dirt on the ground. "Anyway, there's no way I can marry Yang Tingyu. But, Mother, we don't have anyone to help us right now. Yang Tingyu said he's willing to help me deal with Dongjun and Xihe. We'll see what happens then!"
She added, "Look how much the Empress Dowager likes him!"
Consort Du then said, "Your imperial grandmother can't do much either."
Both mother and daughter were quite worried.
Consort Du reviewed the important officials in the court. Among the key ministers favored by the emperor, Nie Yunshen could be directly excluded. Cen Yin's son was older than the crown prince, and his daughter was younger than the crown prince, so they could not be relied upon.
Besides, the Emperor would never marry the eldest princess to Cen Yin, and Cen Yin could never be won over.
After much deliberation, she finally chose Qin Xingce, the son of Qin Zhenye, the commander of the Northern Imperial Guards. He was seventeen years old this year, exactly the same age as the princess.