Jin Wang Dotes on His Concubine

Chapter 139.1: Jin Wang Dotes on His Concubine Ch 139 Pt. 1

Translated by gingercat

Edited by gingercat

Unlike what was happening at Chengrui Pavilion, the scene at Fubi Pavilion was extremely lively.

Where there are men, there’d be no shortage of wine and when there’s wine, there’d be no shortage of singing, dancing and beauties. Since it was the Mid-Autumn Festival, there naturally needed to be poetry composition too.

In a good mood, Emperor Hongjing announced his intention to bestow a reward. The young children from noble and high-ranking officials’ families all rushed forward, eager to participate.

On the other side, Hui Wang, An Wang and the others were sitting together, drinking.

Encouraging each other to drink, again and again, it was as if they wouldn’t stop until they got each other completely drunk. Chatting and laughing, they appeared to have an excellent brotherly relationship with each other, at least on the surface.

“Brother, I remember that you used to be pretty good at poetry, why don’t you go try it?” Hui Wang nudged An Wang sitting next to him with his elbow.

An Wang’s face was rosy as he smiled. “Big brother is making fun of me. I’m already so old, what’s the fun in competing with these juniors? If elder brother wants that reward, why don’t you give it a try? I remember Imperial Tutor Hong praised you back then for your excellence in poetry.”

These words of his were clearly bringing up the past. No matter what, this wasn’t something favourable for Hui Wang, and the smile on his face immediately became stiff. But who was An Wang? He was someone who could break apart the other’s attack with only a few words. Then he immediately invited his younger brothers to drink some more without giving Hui Wang a chance for rebuttal. Recently, An Wang was acting more and more like the eldest brother, not putting Hui Wang in his eyes at all.

Otherwise, given Hui Wang’s personality, he wouldn’t go looking for trouble with An Wang in person. Unfortunately for him, An Wang’s methods were on a much higher level. It was also because Hui Wang had too much dark history, and An Wang was only three years younger than him. Among all the princes, these two had spent the longest fighting each other.

After being ridiculed out of nowhere, Hui Wang was furious but all he could do was grab his wine cup and drink.

Meanwhile, Jin Wang was surrounded by Yong Wang and Lu Wang urging him to drink. The reason being Lu Wang had said they didn’t drink enough at Jin Wang Manor last time. Originally, Yong Wang had been talking to Dai Wang but hearing these words, he immediately turned his head and urged Jin Wang to drink.

Qing Wang sitting next to him saw that the situation wasn’t too good. He interjected, “Fourth brother and sixth brother, it’s not nice to pick on one person when there’s two of you.” He then picked up the wine cup and said that he’d drink on behalf of Jin Wang.

With a smile on his face, Lu Wang spat out, “Enough, old seventh. Your drinking capacity isn’t anything worth bragging about. Today is about me and fifth brother. Last time at his manor, this cunning fellow tricked us. He promised to accompany us and have a good time together, yet in the end, he simply left after giving an excuse. Then he didn’t come back.”

“Yeah, old fifth, no matter what, it was you who was in the wrong. You were the host that day, yet you ended up abandoning us brothers. Simply not the behaviour of a real man. Come, come, come, fourth brother will toast you first. If you don’t give me and old sixth this face, are you planning to completely disregard our brotherly relationship?”

Jin Wang’s narrow eyes squinted slightly as he looked at Qing Wang.

Qing Wang refused to back off, with a smile in his eyes.

Jin Wang didn’t speak, he picked up the wine cup on the table and swallowed the wine in one gulp.

Lu Wang smiled and complimented Jin Wang’s good drinking capacity. “Fifth brother must be in a good mood today. After so many years, I have only seen eldest brother’s Zuo’er and fifth brother’s Chen Ge’er make Emperor Father look at them in a new light. This is a great honour for fifth brother.”

As he spoke, he poured more wine for Jin Wang. With his other hand, he raised his own wine cup and downed it in a single gulp.

Earlier, Xiaobao really did cause quite the commotion. Today, the princes, nobles, and officials with close relationships to Emperor Hongjing gathered together to celebrate. It was customary to offer well wishes to His Majesty, and Hui Wang, along with his heir, were the ones to lead the greetings. Zhao Zuo was far superior to his peers in terms of literary talent. Naturally, his congratulatory message was unconventional and extraordinary, attracting plenty of praise. Some old officials even praised him saying that if he were to take the imperial exam, he’d win the title of the top scholar.

This kind of occasion was the perfect opportunity to express oneself. Unfortunately, occasions like this only happen a few times a year. With so many congratulatory messages to be said, one couldn’t digress. The only reason Zhao Zuo could make such a profound impression was because he was the first to offer his greetings.

Had his turn been later, his greetings likely would’ve been lost in the sea of congratulatory messages.

Everyone understood this, but given the current atmosphere, no one was willing to fall behind. But with so many congratulatory messages that were nearly identical, it was easy to be unnoticed amongst the crowd.

When it was Jin Wang’s turn, aware of his taciturn nature, one couldn’t expect him to give a speech with flowery language. As expected, he only said a few simple greetings before withdrawing. Then it was Xiaobao’s turn, but no one took him seriously. After all, given his age, it was already good for him to articulate his words clearly.

However, Xiaobao shocked everyone. Not only did he articulate his words well when he came to give his congratulatory message, but he also used a lot of beautiful words. Actually, if one paid attention to what the people had said earlier, they’d realize that all Xiaobao did was take a few words here and a few words there then piece them together.

This scene couldn’t be easily ignored by others. If all they heard was only a sentence or two, it’d be easy to brush it aside. But who told the little guy to show off like that? After speaking for so long, everyone soon recognized what he had done

Such a young child, yet his thoughts were so organized. Not only could he easily remember what others had said, but he could even piece it all together and express it in a coherent manner. Calling him the reincarnation of Gan Luo wouldn’t be an exaggeration.

For a moment, the entire hall was shocked. Then countless people wagged their tongues, saying that a child prodigy had appeared in Jin Wang’s family.

Everyone liked a smart child, especially when this child belonged to his own family. Emperor Hongjing had a bright smile on his face as he beckoned at Xiaobao to approach him. Xiaobao quickly approached him.

“After only several days of not seeing you, you have become smarter and smarter.”

Emperor Hongjing didn’t even suspect that Jin Wang had especially taught the child for the sake of competing for favour. It was also because Xiaobao was smart. He knew that if he said anything that was too astonishing and unexpected, given his age, others would automatically suspect that someone had taught him to say it. Then his achievement would’ve been for naught.

So Xiaobao took the congratulatory messages from the people before him and pieced them together without adding anything new. What he wanted wasn’t to express something unique but to wash himself clean of any suspicion that someone had taught him for the sake of competing for favour.

“It seems that Zhen will need to carefully choose a good teacher for you. It’s the right time for you to be enlightened, so as not to waste your talent.”

“Imperial Grandfather, what is a teacher?”

“A teacher is someone who imparts knowledge to you and answers any questions you may have. “

“Then Imperial Grandfather, you should be Xiaobao’s master.” The child spoke these words as if it was a matter of course without any self-consciousness that the other party wasn’t simply his grandfather, but also the monarch of the country.

Emperor Hongjing was curious and asked, “Why do you want Imperial Grandfather to be your master?” His unspoken question was, ‘Did someone teach you to say that?’ But even if he didn’t say it out loud, those who should understand, understood. As a ruler, one was inherently suspicious. This was the sad reality for those in power. After only hearing praises and compliments, one couldn’t help but wonder how many of these words were true and how many were false, along with the motives of the people saying them.

Children were the only exception since children wouldn’t lie until they’ve learned to.

Of course, anomalies like Xiaobao were not included.