“Si Ran, I haven’t seen you back at your place for two years. How are you doing?” I asked.
“This Palace is a prince. Even if I am not around, no one would dare to neglect his place,” he frowned, “but I’ll remind the Imperial Uncle again that the name of this prince is Feng Si Lian. It is Si Lian, not Si Ran.”
(t/n This Palace-a self-proclaimed title of the Lord of the House in ancient times.)
I pouted disapprovingly, “I’ll still call you Si Ran. Si Lian doesn’t sound good. I haven’t seen your rigid temper in the past two years, but I have learned ten percent from His Majesty.”
“You!” Si Ran gasped, getting angry.
“I’m calling this an answer based on facts,” I smiled but came to a halt when we noticed his mother’s maidservant. I straightened my face and said to the sullen Si Ran, “Don’t be angry. Your mother sent someone to get you. I’m envious. I don’t see my mother care about me as much as your mother cares about you.”
“Every mother would be the same, but not the Empress Dowager,” Si Ran sighed, like a teacher who’d been teaching for years. It was amusing that it made my stomach ache. Si Ran gave me a look before following the maidservant.
I had intended to follow Si Ran, who had just walked away, but I accidently caught sight of a lonely figure huddled up in a corner, as if abandoned by the world. He appeared depressed. I stopped and peered at the slender, little figure visible from the corner.
I exhaled a sigh. This was the first time I thought about making a kid happy. I chose a red apricot and went to the kitchen to rinse it. I went back to the back garden once it was all taken care of. The child remained in the corner. I approached him, handed him the apricot in front of his slightly shocked and cautious eyes, and pulled out a smile that I thought was harmless to humans and animals. “Eat this. I just washed it. It’s not dirty.”
He stared at me for a long time before tentatively reaching out his hand to grab the apricot, and as he slid the red fruit into his mouth, I remembered something crucial, “Wait, maybe the apricot is a little…uh… sour—”
I said it too late. Just look at his little wrinkled face.
He bit down hard on the fruit in his mouth. I expected him to spat it in front of myself, but he didn’t. He swallowed the apricot after chewing it. After swallowing, he retreated back to his own world ,becoming indifferent and silent once more.
I coughed twice trying to relieve myself of the discomfort and asked, “What’s your name?”
The child raised his eyes, opened his lips, and the word Feng Yin came out. I was stunned. His surname was Feng! A royal? Why haven’t I heard this name?
Out of courtesy, I told him mine, “My name is Feng Ziqing. You have the same surname as me, which is Feng. You must be a prince, then you should call me Imperial Uncle.”
“Imperial Uncle…Feng Ziqing…” Feng Yin opened his mouth and muttered.
I lightly touched his head with my paper fan, and said solemnly, “Imperial Nephew, remember that it should be Imperial Uncle. Don’t say it incorrectly.”
Feng Yin’s little hand touched his head where I touched it with my paper fan. He stared at me for a long time without blinking, and then called out with two words, “Imperial Uncle.”
I smiled, nodded and rubbed his soft looking black hair.
The melancholy mood surrounding Feng Yin seemed too conspicuous. Either it makes people afraid and disgusted, or it makes people sorrowful, or it makes people curious about where this really forlorn atmosphere originates from. I appear to fall into the latter category.
“Let’s go,” Without thinking, I grabbed Feng Yin and said with a smile, “Imperial Uncle will take you to see the treasures collected by my mother.”
“It hurts…” Feng Yin looked at the arm I was holding, and frowned.
“It hurts?”I wondered, following what he pointed out. I was astonished when I lifted the sleeves that covered his arms! What’s up with all these blue marks that seem like whip wounds?!
I frowned. “Your mother punished you?”
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He shook his head before saying anything.
“Someone bullied you?” I guessed, but this guess… was a bit unrealistic. Who would dare bully a dignified prince? Feng Yin was silent, and I gasped, “Who is so bold?” Maybe I could tell Si Ran’s mother, the Empress Dowager who is currently in charge of the harem.
Looking at the silent Feng Yin, I sighed, “Forget it. You don’t have to say it if you don’t want to.”
I cautiously lifted up Feng Yin, who didn’t respond much, because of his arm, and my heart was startled. He was incredibly light! Instead of seeking Si Ran, we headed straight to the location where my mother kept her treasures.
Feng Yin was about six or seven years old and I reckon I’m five or six years older than him. He was not as naughty and noisy as Feng Yi, nor was he like the other princes who talked, laughed and played with their peers. No matter what you do, he’ll remain quiet, cold and cautious. Was he afraid of being bullied?
Mother’s treasures were really precious. Everything here was very valuable, not like ordinary things, but I feel that my mother who collects these things was unbearable.
I noticed Feng Yin’s ink eyes flicker twice when he saw the items in the room. He felt very envious, but such a look should not be seen on a prince. Feng Yin pretended to examine these items casually before coming to a halt on a little but exceptionally exquisite Step (Buyao), and the gaze that was so intent on obtaining this thing astonished me.
(t/n Buyao is a kind of jewelry (usually hairpins, headdress) for Han women in ancient China. Its production is mostly made of gold flexed into dragon and phoenix and other shapes, and it is decorated with pearls and jade)
I frowned, surprised and there was contempt in my words. “Do you like this Step ?” This is something that girls wear! Although Feng Yin looks like a little girl…
After I finished speaking, he turned his black pupils towards me and stared at me. His slightly narrowed eyes flashed with an emotion I couldn’t understand. After a little while, he raised his eyes and remarked softly. “If mother concubine wears this, she will look beautiful.”
It turned out to be for his mother. He should’ve said earlier, my heart almost trembled with fright.
I took the Step without any scruples and smiled as I handed it to Feng Yin, “Since you like it, then I’ll give it to you.”
Anyway, Mother has countless headdresses. It wouldn’t make a difference if I take one or two.
Feng Yin received the Step and was so moved that he couldn’t even say his thanks.
I finally saw the cold and indifferent prince smile after all this time. This effort was not wasted in vain. Feng Yin smiled sweetly, albeit a little shyly.
Not much later, I overheard the maid from the outside window announce that the princes were all going back to the palace, but Feng Yin was still here. I was nervous, so I rushed out of the room, clutching Feng Yin in my arms. Because I was in a hurry, I accidentally knocked down a few bottles of porcelain while running. My heart cried when I heard the shattering noises behind my ears – it was all over!
After seeing Feng Yin off, the door of the main hall was opened wide, and my angry mother was sitting at the main seat. Under the cold eyes of others, I consciously went to take the family law and knelt on the ground, holding it above my head. My heart was dissatisfied but I was nonetheless resigned. “This child knows his mistakes, please punish me mother,” paused, “I hope mother’s anger will subside.”
The maid took the family law that I held high above my head at the signal of my mother, and walked behind me. A great number of strikes were dealt upon me. I bit my lips in pain, and endured the whipping behind my back. I couldn’t stop complaining, but I didn’t have the slightest regret.
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Aren’t you going overboard. For what? Isn’t it just a few broken jars?
In the end, I was knocked unconscious by my ruthless mother, and I don’t know when I was placed in the bed.
Once I twisted my body, I felt a burning pain and a complaint immediately sounded from the top of my head, “Don’t move! “
Translator’s Note
Family law refers to a norm that regulates the personal and property relations of family members or members of the family . However, from the perspective of the normative level, that is, the comprehensive sense of morality, religion, law, customs, art, etc., family law, as a norm of family autonomy, has the same origin as the law. Both originate from primitive social customs and norms, and it was not until the emergence of “everyone”, that is, the state, that the two began to gradually separate and develop independently. In the course of the development of human society, the form of family has gone through a process of continuous evolution. Strictly speaking, the family in the current sense is very different from the family before the founding of New China, or it is more accurate to call the family in history as a family. It is undeniable that small families existed in ancient China, but such small families were attached to clans or families.