In the forty-seventh year of Kangxi’s reign, before the throne in the Forbidden City had even grown warm, Emperor Kangxi suddenly clutched the back of his head and blurted out to his sons kneeling before him, “Wait, I think… I’m alive again?”
At once, the kneeling Crown Prince Yinzhen, the Eighth Prince Yinsi, the Fourth Prince Yinzhen… and even the Fourteenth Prince Yinti, who had only just entered court, all froze. Their eyes were full of the same shock: “You came back too?”
In their previous life, the nine princes had fought for the throne in a storm of bloodshed. In the end, the Fourth Prince Yinzhen ascended the throne, brothers turned against one another, and their final years were bleak. Even Kangxi himself had died without peace.
Reborn into a new life, Kangxi looked at the sons who had once fought each other to the death and suddenly felt exhausted. Why fight for the throne? Wasn’t it better to be alive?
Especially when he met the Eighth Prince Yinsi’s gaze, which seemed to say, “Father is about to set me up again,” and the Crown Prince Yinzhen’s wounded expression, as if to say, “This time, I really don’t want to rebel.” Kangxi cleared his throat and broke the silence first. “Well… Yinsi, I said you were forming a clique last time, but I hadn’t investigated properly. I owe you an apology. And Yinzhen, I used to scold you all the time. I was just bad-tempered, so don’t take it to heart.”
The Eighth Prince: ??? Did Father drink fake liquor today?
The Crown Prince: ??? Should I say, “Father is wise”?
The other princes: This isn’t how the script goes!
And so, what should have been a bloody struggle for the throne went completely off the rails.
Kangxi was busy “making up for his apologies” to his sons, praising the Eighth Prince for being popular one day and giving the Crown Prince snacks the next. The Eighth Prince adapted to his father’s “kindness” while secretly starting to study people’s livelihoods. The Crown Prince gave up resisting and devoted himself to studying painting and calligraphy
Brothers working together can cut off gold
Good-looking, good-looking, good-looking