Becoming Kangxi's Guardian Spirit

Blurb One:

The first crown prince of the Qing dynasty did not survive smallpox. He died.

Kangxi held his son's clothes and grieved for half a month. When he had finally managed to pull himself together, he looked around and realized that strange things were happening around him.

When he was hungry or thirsty, someone fed him. When he was cold, someone draped a robe over his shoulders. Someone turned the pages for him as he reviewed memorials, and when the treasury ran out of silver, someone even secretly slipped banknotes into his pocket.

Kangxi, who had never received this kind of care in his life, was stunned. It felt as if the fatherly love he had lacked since childhood had been quietly filling the void.

He wondered if one of his ancestors had somehow manifested themselves.

*

Yinsi died, but he was still alive.

Not only that, he had become his imperial father's guardian spirit.

What did it mean to be a guardian spirit?

Four-year-old Yinreng thought it meant making sure his imperial father ate well, drank well, slept well, and stayed happy every day.

So when Kangxi was hungry, he brought him snacks; when Kangxi was thirsty, he poured him tea. When his clueless brothers made Kangxi angry, he would secretly trip them up and send them tumbling onto their bottoms.

The little crown prince was so devoted that he wanted to do everything for his imperial father. All he wanted was to hear his father call him "Baocheng" one more time.

But who knew what had gone wrong? His imperial father not only refused to admit he was his son, he had even started calling him "Ancestor"!

Yinreng was stunned. What was he supposed to do now?

*

Kangxi never imagined he would see Yinreng again.

He thought it was just a hallucination brought on by his own dazed state. It was only when the little crown prince, dressed in apricot-yellow robes, floated up to him and obediently called him "Ama" that Kangxi believed his Baocheng was truly still alive.

Theme: A loving father and a filial son.