AWB Chapter 367 Iron-Eating Beast, Black and White Dumpling, Oh my god... a national treasure!
Chapter 367 Iron-Eating Beast, Black and White Dumpling, Oh my god... a national treasure!
After sending away the little burden of Hongxu, Yinzhuo felt completely relieved. If it weren't for the terribly cold weather outside, he would have loved to call up his friends and go for a stroll. But as the saying goes, ideals are often far from reality. No sooner had he sent that brat Hongxu away than it started snowing outside…
"Father, you tell me, my luck is just too bad! I just escaped this misery and was thinking of taking my older brothers out for some fun. But look, it's snowing! Don't be fooled by the light snowfall; it melts as soon as it hits the ground. Then, when night falls and the weather gets cold, the water freezes. And the snow on the ice makes the roads impossible to walk on. Father, do you know how I've been these past few months? It's no exaggeration to say it's been a living hell! All I wanted was to go out and have some fun, why is it so difficult…"
Kangxi knew exactly how Yinzhuo had been living these past few months. Although it wasn't exactly a miserable existence, it was certainly much harder than his previous leisurely life. Kangxi glanced at Yinzhuo, who was leaning against him with his body slightly tilted to one side, raised his hand and patted his arm to signal him to sit up. Then he took the teapot from the table, poured a cup of tea, and pushed it towards him.
"Now that you know things aren't going well, why didn't you think of this earlier? Did I talk to you about Hongxu's education before? What did you say back then? 'Happy education,' haha. That little rascal Hongxu has been quite happy these past few years. And you? Do you still feel happy now?"
As the saying goes, the first child is raised by the book, the second by a pig. In his previous life, Yinzhuo was a single, overworked office worker. His limited parenting knowledge came entirely from watching videos on Douyin (TikTok). His thinking was simple: his son was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. As the most privileged prince of the Qing Dynasty, he was destined to never lack money or status. So why make his child start studying from kindergarten? Wouldn't it be better to let him play happily for a few years and have a wonderful childhood? After all, the hard times were yet to come once he started studying.
"Father, how can you be like this? My son is so upset, and instead of comforting me, you're mocking me! I admit my so-called 'happy parenting' has completely failed, but is it my fault? Nobody's born knowing how to be a father; everyone learns by trial and error. This is the first time I've ever been a father, so I should be trying to be nice to him, even though I've clearly gone too far. But thankfully, I've realized my mistake. Don't worry, I'll definitely discipline that kid from now on..."
As the saying goes, no one knows a son better than his father. Just as Yinzhi couldn't let go of Hongxu, Kangxi couldn't let go of Yinzhi either. To prevent Yinzhi from feeling stifled and sneaking out in the snow, Kangxi simply had Yinti, Yinreng, and Yinzhi all invited to Changchun Garden. Anyway, raising one sheep is the same as raising a whole flock, and his garden was very large, so he wasn't worried about not having a place for them to stay.
"Little Six, I heard from Father that you haven't been in a good mood these past few days. Come on, see what goodies your Third Brother brought you. I have to tell you, your bad mood just happened at the right time. If it had been ten or fifteen days earlier, I wouldn't have been able to think of anything to cheer you up. I remember you had someone paint a picture of an Iron-Eating Beast for Hongxu before. I suppose you really like it. But don't even think about getting an adult Iron-Eating Beast. Here, have a cub to play with..."
Iron-eating beast? Cub? Black and white dumpling... Oh my god... a national treasure! Yinzhuo was stunned for a long time before he came to his senses, holding the black and white dumpling that Yinzhi had stuffed into his arms. He raised his hand and gently touched the soft fur of the little thing in his arms, which was as soft as a coral fleece blanket. Then he reached out and pinched its little ears.
"Third brother, where did you get this iron-eating beast? Where is its mother? It's still so small, it can't survive without its mother."
Although Yinzhuo quite liked the little thing in his arms, he had never imagined in both his past and present lives that he would actually be able to hold this little guy in his arms and cherish him. Let's not talk about his past life, after all, the idea was too cruel. In this life, although he had status and position, the idea of wanting to own a panda still sounded crazy. But right now, he was caught off guard and hugged it.
"Oh, don't even mention it. It makes me so angry. A few days ago, a traveling troupe from out of town came to the capital, right? I heard they had a performance with iron-eating beasts, so I invited your fifth brother and I went to see something interesting. To be honest, those guys were really scoundrels. They tortured two perfectly good iron-eating beasts to the point of near death. I felt sorry for them and thought you liked them, so I decided to spend some money to buy the whole family of three. But they were so greedy, asking for a thousand taels right off the bat. I haggled for ages and finally paid eight hundred taels, including the cage. Now the two big ones are being kept in the Khan's Imperial Garden. I heard you were unhappy, so I cleaned up the little one and brought it here for you to play with."
Yinzhuo was initially worried that the little creature was brought back from Shu by his third brother without his permission. However, after hearing Yinzhi's words, he realized that the creature had actually been approved by his father. In fact, it made sense. This was Changchun Garden, and the Iron-Eating Beast was a ferocious beast. Even though the little thing in his arms was just a cub, it had obviously entered Changchun Garden without Kangxi's approval. But the problem facing Yinzhuo now was that he didn't know how to raise an Iron-Eating Beast.
"Third Brother, this little thing looks only two months old, right? It still needs to drink milk, doesn't it? You just brought it here like this, where am I supposed to get milk for it? The little guy is so cute, he can't starve to death here. I'll play with it for a while, and then you can find someone to take it back."
Yinzhuo did want to keep the little guy for a few days, but as he said, where was he going to get milk for the little thing to drink? And even if he could find milk, what kind of milk should he prepare? Cow's, sheep's, or human milk?
Fortunately, Yinzhuo didn't dwell on it too much. After all, the little guy and his family of three were being raised in his father's imperial garden, and he could go see them whenever he wanted. The only pity was that as the little guy grew bigger, he probably wouldn't be able to get so close to him anymore.
"Alright, since you're worried it'll go hungry, I'll send someone to take it back to the Imperial Garden after it plays for a while. Actually, these past two days, besides its mother's milk, the people at the Imperial Garden have also been giving it some black dog's milk. I think it's eating quite well. How about this, I'll have someone find you a black dog and send it over?"