Mid-Autumn

"Didn't you notice your sister threw her punches more slowly than you?"

"Ang'er isn't stupid. Ang'er knew."

"Then why did you let your sister flick your forehead?"

"It made her happy! Besides, she looked fierce every time, but she held back when she flicked Ang'er's forehead."

"So you played along and pretended it hurt, did you? Turns out I'm the only bad person here."

The little crown prince looked cheerfully at his sister.

Zhao Huiluan grinned and reached out to tap her brother between the brows.

The Yongzhao Emperor shook his head and entered Tianquan Palace. The two children followed him in, one behind the other, playing and bickering.

The Yongzhao Emperor changed into casual robes and came out to find the siblings still playing on the couch. He could hardly imagine that such a magnificent essay had come from Zhao Huiluan's hand.

She plainly still looked like a child who had yet to grow up.

Yet after Rong An left, he had also summoned the Imperial College chancellor. Even the chancellor said Princess Zhenning greatly resembled the empress and was a talent worth cultivating.

"Jianjian, after Mid-Autumn, you won't return to the Imperial College."

Zhao Huiluan stopped playing with her brother and asked in puzzlement, "Why?"

"Do you remember the three conditions you agreed to with me?"

Zhao Huiluan pouted, reluctant to bring that up.

The Yongzhao Emperor stroked her head and said earnestly, "You rarely returned to the palace while you were at the Imperial College. You have no idea how Ang'er and I have missed you these past months!"

The Yongzhao Emperor looked at the little crown prince, who nodded vigorously and sincerely.

Zhao Huiluan stammered, "I... I missed you and my brother very much too, Father."

"Do you think I don't know where you went with the Zhang Family boy and the Wen Family boy during your last break? Are places frequented by all nine streams and three schools the sort of places a golden branch and jade leaf like you should visit?"

"Father, what sort of place is the nine streams and three schools? Sister, where did you go? Can you take me with you next time?"

Father and daughter both gave the little crown prince an odd look, but neither paid him any attention.

Chapter 38: Mid-Autumn

The Yongzhao Emperor continued scolding his daughter.

"And there's more. You're a princess of Great Yin, yet before you've even married, you went and acted as a matchmaker for the Wen Family boy. What would people think if word got out? It seems to me you didn't go to the Imperial College to study hard. You went there to make mischief!"

Zhao Huiluan pursed her lips and retorted, "But Wen Qingyu is my classmate. When a classmate is in trouble, how could I stand by with folded arms? You don't know how grateful Grand Secretary Wen was to me!"

The Yongzhao Emperor, of course, would have none of it and made his decision outright.

"That's enough. Listen to me. There's no need to return to the Imperial College. After Mid-Autumn, I'll issue an edict to the college ordering all the female students to return home."

"No, you can't! Father, you mustn't let all the female students suffer because of me alone! They were fortunate enough to study there because of me in the first place, and now their studies would be cut short because of my mistakes. It doesn't matter what others say about me, but what if they say you issue one order in the morning and reverse it by evening? Wouldn't that..."

Zhao Huiluan lowered her head and said no more.

The Yongzhao Emperor fell silent for a moment, then relented. "Very well, I'll do as you say and let them stay. As for you, I'll tell Minister Rong to remove your name from the rolls."

Zhao Huiluan jerked her head up, shaking it like a rattle-drum.

The Yongzhao Emperor thought Zhao Huiluan was still intent on returning to the Imperial College, and his brows immediately drew together in displeasure.

But Zhao Huiluan pleaded ingratiatingly, "Father, being removed from the rolls sounds awful! I haven't broken any of the Imperial College's rules, so how can you remove me?"

"What would you have me do, then?"

Zhao Huiluan thought it over and said, "Let me leave the Imperial College under a different pretext."

"What pretext do you have in mind?"

"I heard that the Imperial College has an established practice of sending students out for practical experience. As it happens, the vice chancellor said a group of students would be sent out after Mid-Autumn. Why not let me leave the Imperial College in the name of gaining practical experience?"

The Yongzhao Emperor looked at the smile that suddenly bloomed on his daughter's face and wondered aloud, "Do you want to use practical experience as a pretext, or do you really want to go and gain experience?"

"Father, you're so wise!"

Zhao Huiluan immediately gave the Yongzhao Emperor a thumbs-up.

"These past months at the Imperial College, I haven't eaten or slept well, and Vice Chancellor Rong was always making me copy books as punishment. I'm exhausted! I want to go out and have some fun, clear my head."

Going out to clear her head in the name of "practical experience" was better than staying at the Imperial College to study.

"Have you already decided where you want to go?"

The admiration for the Yongzhao Emperor on Zhao Huiluan's face grew even stronger.

"Earlier, Director Tao of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau came to teach at the Imperial College. I heard from my classmates that an extraordinary young general has appeared in Annan. They say he's the very general's star Director Tao foretold seven years ago."

The Yongzhao Emperor understood. "You want to go to Annan?"

"No! No!" The little crown prince, who had been listening silently all along, panicked at this and hurriedly interrupted.

"Sister, the fighting in Annan hasn't ended, and there's miasma everywhere. It isn't safe. You can't go there!"

He turned and begged the Yongzhao Emperor, "Father, will you choose somewhere else for Sister? Somewhere safer, all right?"

Zhao Huiluan reached out and poked her brother's round cheek, displeased that he was holding her back.

The Yongzhao Emperor glared at her in feigned anger. "You're so grown up, yet you don't have as much sense as your brother. Is Annan somewhere you can go?"

Zhao Huiluan muttered resentfully, "Then you surely wouldn't feel at ease letting me go anywhere alone for practical experience, would you? Never mind Annan, you wouldn't even feel at ease with me going to Jiangnan."

Her words woke the dreamer.

The Yongzhao Emperor suddenly remembered that Wen Hong had asked him for a favor some days earlier, hoping to send his grandson to Jiangnan for practical experience.

Wen Yan had not originally been qualified to go, but the emperor had agreed, considering Wen Hong's years of meritorious service and hard work, his advanced age, his lack of sons, and the fact that his only descendant was Wen Yan, an unpromising grandson.

"I do recall someone. That Wen Family boy, Wen Yan. He's going to Jiangnan to gain experience."

The Yongzhao Emperor reflected that Wen Yan was Wen Hong's treasured grandson, and Wen Hong would surely make all the arrangements for him. By granting Wen Yan an exception and allowing him to gain practical experience, the emperor had tacitly permitted Wen Yan to register with the Ministry of Personnel under that pretext and subsequently become an official.

That being so, Wen Yan's trip would presumably be easy and safe. If Jianjian went with him, there surely would be no danger.