Striking while the iron was hot, Yao Huang wanted Prince Hui to take out his waist token right now and give it to Eunuch Cao, having Eunuch Cao make a trip to the weapons workshop. This was to prevent Prince Hui from suddenly changing his mind the next day after a night’s sleep.
Zhao Sui glanced at the sky, saying: “The weapons workshop should have already stopped work for rest, and tomorrow morning I still need to submit a memorial requesting Father Emperor’s permission.”
Yao Huang pretended confusion: “Still need to request permission? Last time when I wanted a new spear made, Steward Guo said I could just go to the weapons workshop and give instructions.”
Zhao Sui explained: “A spear is a small item—the weapons workshop has long been practiced at making them, so forging one on the spot isn’t troublesome. Chair wheel forging techniques are complex and will certainly take a long time. It’s best to inform Father Emperor to avoid delaying the weapons workshop’s official duties because of this.”
Hearing this, Yao Huang felt Prince Hui’s concerns also made sense. Even workers in a small shop would shirk responsibility when encountering trouble. The weapons workshop bore responsibility for forging all of Great Qi’s military equipment as well as the palace’s needs. If some official delayed their duties for other reasons and had a bright idea to push the blame onto Prince Hui for having them forge metal wheels, wouldn’t Prince Hui be made a scapegoat? Even if it could be investigated and cleared up, it would still ruin his mood and reputation in the meantime.
“Fortunately the Prince thought it through carefully—otherwise if something really happened, I would have implicated the Prince.”
Zhao Sui lowered his head, seeing a trace of fear in the Princess Consort’s bright eyes, but more of it was admiration.
The Princess Consort often looked at him with such eyes, as if what he knew was truly some astonishing talent.
“You were also thinking of me—what implication is there to speak of?”
Yao Huang smiled and pointed to the stone table in the courtyard: “Then let the Prince write the memorial now. May I watch? I haven’t seen a memorial yet.”
Zhao Sui indicated she should get down first, then had Qing Ai and Fei Quan fetch memorial paper and the four treasures of the study.
Autumn days were beginning to shorten. By the light of the setting sun, Zhao Sui wrote the memorial concisely and to the point.
Yao Huang looked at Prince Hui’s elegant handwriting and said softly: “The matter is what it is—I just fear Father Emperor will think you’re being too formal with him.”
Zhao Sui tactfully reminded the Princess Consort: “First sovereign and subject, then father and son—proper protocol must still be observed.”
At least Yao Huang was a teahouse regular and knew that in previous dynasties, some princes had been too discourteous with their emperor fathers, leading to suspicion, cold treatment, or even deposition and beheading.
But Prince Hui only wanted two wheels—that was a hundred and eight thousand li away from those cases, right?
The next day, in the palace.
After morning court and breakfast, Emperor Yongchang was reviewing memorials submitted by the Central Secretariat when Eunuch Wang arrived carrying several new memorials with both hands.
Besides princes of the first rank who could submit memorials directly to the Emperor, some officials who reported directly to the Emperor could also bypass the Central Secretariat.
Eunuch Wang respectfully placed the memorials to one side of the imperial desk.
Emperor Yongchang casually glanced at them—the first one was actually from his second son, Prince Hui, again.
Emperor Yongchang smiled. Since marrying his Princess Consort, his second son had become more talkative with him. Previously, he would only submit memorials on official business.
After all, this was the third time this year. Emperor Yongchang wasn’t as excited as when he first received Prince Hui’s memorial. He finished reviewing the memorials in hand first, then opened this third one. The writing was still brief: “Reporting to Father Emperor: Your son has obtained a design for improving wheelchairs. Due to limitations of civilian craftsmanship, I need to requisition the weapons workshop to develop metal chair wheels. During this period, your son is willing to personally bear all expenses for the metal materials consumed. I humbly request Father Emperor’s gracious approval.”
Emperor Yongchang stared at this memorial and fell into a long silence.
When the eldest son was young, he who wouldn’t budge unless Consort Xian pushed him, had at least asked for a kite once. The third and fourth sons, spoiled by their mother consort, dared ask for even more. Only the second son—starting from his third birthday, every time he asked if his son wanted anything, the little fellow would shake his head with an expression of complete contentment and lack of desire.
It was lack of desire, not the cowering of being scolded by the Noble Consort for wanting gifts and not daring to speak, nor the anxiety of fearing Father Emperor’s refusal.
Now, the second son had finally spoken up, asking him to have the palace craftsmen help forge chair wheels, and even saying he would bear the costs himself!
If he didn’t know his second son’s nature, Emperor Yongchang would think this son was deliberately mocking him for being stingy and miserly as an emperor father!
Emperor Yongchang tossed down the memorial and paced around the study with his hands behind his back.
As he paced, Emperor Yongchang thought of the large rosewood wheelchair his second son had sat in before. Who made that? Probably people from his second son’s household found civilian craftsmen to make it themselves, right? And that wooden plank his second son brought along when entering the palace to bridge over thresholds…
Emperor Yongchang could no longer pace. He sat down dejectedly in a nearby chair.
He wasn’t stingy, and he truly felt heartache over his second son’s legs. But besides heartache, what else had he given his second son?
At Prince Hui’s residence.
Yao Huang had risen early. Although the Prince said that for this kind of memorial, Emperor Yongchang would at most write the character “approved” before sending it back and wouldn’t transmit an oral decree like last time, Yao Huang still looked forward to it.
Zhao Sui didn’t wait with the Princess Consort. Since she found those two three-wheeled wheelchairs with push-rims bloated, while Zhao Sui was very satisfied and still finding them novel, he wanted to try them more.
Considering that after the Princess Consort received Father Emperor’s endorsed memorial she would come to the bamboo courtyard to find him, Zhao Sui only pushed slowly, maintaining a level of effort and duration that wouldn’t make his body sweat.
After circling the back garden once, Zhao Sui looked at the sky, guessing that Father Emperor was busy with government affairs today and perhaps hadn’t yet seen his memorial.
Zhao Sui switched back to that rosewood wheelchair and had Qing Ai push him to Ming’an Hall—he wanted to persuade the Princess Consort to do something else.
After arriving at the back garden of Ming’an Hall, Zhao Sui discovered the Princess Consort was playing with Jinbao. She had set up a horizontal bar about half a foot high in the middle of the courtyard and crouched on one side trying to coax Jinbao on the other side to jump over. Jinbao couldn’t understand, so the Princess Consort actually lifted her skirts and jumped back and forth to personally demonstrate. After jumping, when she discovered Jinbao still didn’t know how and was about to scold Jinbao, she finally noticed him stopped in the corner of the covered walkway.
Qing Ai stood behind the wheelchair. Familiar with the Princess Consort’s temperament and having discovered the Prince’s indulgence toward her, it had been a long time since he’d felt this heart-pounding nervousness. But watching the Princess Consort’s light leaping feet and noticing the Prince’s gaze practically glued to the Princess Consort’s embroidered shoes and ankles, Qing Ai’s heart felt as if it had two drumsticks beating against each other.
Yao Huang only looked at her Prince, then glanced at the sun’s position and explained: “The memorial hasn’t been sent back yet—perhaps Father Emperor is rather busy today.”
Zhao Sui replied: “No rush.”
Yao Huang pushed him to a spot where sunlight could reach and continued training Jinbao. Among ordinary commoners, great generals and top scholars could emerge—Yao Huang hoped Jinbao could also grow into an imposing and majestic hunting dog.
Just talking didn’t work. Yao Huang had A’Ji go to the kitchen to fetch a plate of sliced sauced meat. She had A’Ji stand on one side with Jinbao—if Jinbao knocked down the horizontal bar, he got no sauced meat, but A’Ji who jumped high over it got some. Because the sauced meat smelled so fragrant, Yao Huang also ate a slice herself, then stretched out her arm to stuff a piece into Prince Hui’s mouth.
Jinbao whined with longing, his barks continuous.
Zhao Sui: “…”
After being tantalized several times, Jinbao finally understood he needed to jump over. Yao Huang happily gave him some sauced meat to eat, then smiled proudly at Prince Hui.
Just then, several figures suddenly walked over from the other end of the covered walkway. Leading them was Emperor Yongchang in everyday robes. Eunuch Wang walked behind with his back slightly bent, while Qing Ai and Eunuch Cao were at the rear with tense expressions.
Both Prince Hui and his wife were stunned. Jinbao, who was eating meat, saw strangers and started barking. Yao Huang quickly grabbed him and covered his muzzle, then said with pleasant surprise to Emperor Yongchang: “Father Emperor, how did you come here?”
Emperor Yongchang exempted his son, daughter-in-law, and the young maid beside them from ceremony, smiling: “After finishing reviewing memorials, I saw the brilliant autumn sun outside and simply came out to move my muscles and bones. This is the dog you’re raising?”
Yao Huang replied: “Yes, we brought him back from Lingshan. Your daughter-in-law named him Jinbao.”
Emperor Yongchang: “…That’s a good name—it sounds auspicious and festive just hearing it.”
Yao Huang had A’Ji take Jinbao away and pushed Prince Hui closer to the covered walkway.
Emperor Yongchang chatted about everyday matters with the young couple and asked about the new wheelchair. Learning from his son that both wheelchair improvements were supervised by his daughter-in-law urging Master Deng to make them, Emperor Yongchang looked at his daughter-in-law with increasingly affectionate eyes. So what if she came from a centurion’s household? So what if she wasn’t dignified enough in protocol and etiquette? His daughter-in-law devoted herself wholeheartedly to his son in everything—in his eyes, there was nothing to fault.
The group moved to the front courtyard. Only then did Yao Huang discover three officials who had accompanied Emperor Yongchang were also standing in the courtyard.
“This official, Ji Zhun, Minister of the Weapons Workshop, pays respects to the Prince and Princess Consort.”
“These officials, Zhou Wei and Ding Sixiao, Supervisory Officials of the Weapons Workshop, pay respects to the Prince and Princess Consort.”
Yao Huang: “…”
Zhao Sui told the three to dispense with ceremony and looked at his Father Emperor with mixed feelings: “It’s only a wheelchair—Father Emperor…”
Emperor Yongchang gripped his son’s shoulder, smiling: “It’s only a wheelchair—Sui’er need not be formal with Father Emperor. Come, tell Father and them about your method for improving the wheelchair so they can hear it clearly and relay the instructions when they return.”
Zhao Sui could only have Qing Ai and Fei Quan go to the bamboo courtyard to fetch Master Deng’s box of blueprints, and also bring over one four-wheeled new wheelchair and one three-wheeled new wheelchair.
The blueprints might be difficult to understand, but with the two wheelchairs placed before them, Emperor Yongchang and the three gentlemen from the weapons workshop all understood how the improved metal chair wheels should be made.
Emperor Yongchang even personally tested the two wheelchairs. At over fifty years old and increasingly neglecting martial practice—at most running horses and drawing bows a few times during autumn hunts—Emperor Yongchang’s arm strength was only somewhat stronger than Yao Huang’s. He could push the three-wheeled rattan chair about ten-some steps.
“This laborious—the metal wheels must be forged.”
Truly understanding the difficulty of his son’s mobility, Emperor Yongchang gave strict orders to the weapons workshop. How could blueprints alone suffice? He also commanded the three men to bring Master Deng to the weapons workshop to forge the new chair wheels together with them, and to use the shortest time to create the most durable, easy-to-push, and aesthetically beautiful metal large wheels.
Zhao Sui, fearing the weapons workshop would devote all their attention to the wheelchair, could only remind them not to delay official business.
Minister of the Weapons Workshop Ji Zhun said: “Please rest assured, Your Majesty and Prince—this official will definitely arrange things properly so neither matter is delayed.”
The three officials took their leave. Emperor Yongchang, not wanting his son and daughter-in-law to feel constrained by his presence, also prepared to return to the palace. Only before leaving did he take Prince Hui’s memorial from his breast and toss it onto his son’s lap as if in a temper.
Zhao Sui, not understanding, could only pick up the memorial and watch Father Emperor board his carriage.
After the imperial carriage turned out of the alley, Yao Huang pushed Prince Hui back to the first courtyard of the prince’s residence and urged curiously: “Prince, quickly look—Father Emperor’s display of temper must be related to your memorial.”
Hearing this, Eunuch Cao, Steward Guo, Qing Ai, and the others still outside the main gate immediately all withdrew to both sides of the residence walls.
Zhao Sui looked back, then opened the memorial.
In the blank space of the memorial was an additional line of vermillion imperial endorsement written with vigorous, dynamic strokes: “I’m your father—I can still afford to support you!”
Zhao Sui: “…”
After reading it, Yao Huang doubled over with laughter behind Prince Hui.
In the imperial carriage that had already traveled far, Emperor Yongchang sat alone, imagining his second son’s bewildered expression upon seeing the endorsement. Emperor Yongchang first smiled, but as he smiled, he closed his eyes and heaved a long sigh.
His son had long since grown up and no longer needed Father Emperor’s care. What he could give were only some material things, nothing more.