Chapter 187: Boundless Longevity

He was glancing at the food on the table—date cakes, ring pastries, assorted fruit—when he hadn't even finished saying "The spread is just average…" before Zhao Bao retorted, "Who let you come eat in this setting? This all has special meaning, okay!"

A round of music paused, the Old Grand Commandant led by raising his cup, all officials followed suit, praying for the Emperor's boundless longevity.

Da Wang picked up his cup, gave it a sniff—"Not bad," he said—but Zhao Bao had swapped it for water; Da Wang took a sip and set it down, "You're trying to fool a kid! It's definitely raw water—who bothers to boil it? I, the Prince, won't drink it!"

Then another dance maiden came up to perform a birthday dance; after the second round of drinks, they finally switched to what Da Wang liked to watch, and began a variety show.

Pole climbing, rope jumping, upside-down somersaults—bored half the day, Da Wang clapped wildly and cheered, earning several annoyed glances from his father.

This guy is neither restrained nor knowledgeable.

Besides, there were zaju and various performances; anyway, it kept getting livelier, and after five rounds, the presentation of gifts began.

Starting with the feudal lords, they presented their gifts.

At the front were several sons whom Emperor Ningde had enfeoffed as kings; others were carried by crowds of people, but mixed in was one who effortlessly led a golden tall-headed horse draped in red silk. I don't know who spent the most, but Da Wang's entry was the most eye-catching, making even those from the steppes glance over repeatedly.

Da Wang lifted his chin, declaring, "This is far more precious than any Jade Mountain or Blessed Tower, okay!"

Look at those Kucha people, their necks stretched out long.

Prince Yu presented a carved white jade Longevity Mountain, so tall it was nearly as high as a person; Da Wang watched and felt sorry for the silver spent.

Prince Guangling had a master craftsman come out of retirement to forge for his father a fairy mountain jade pavilion using mother-of-pearl, gold, silver, pearls and other precious materials; it was exquisitely beautiful, and Da Wang thought playing house with it would surely be… a lot of fun.

When it was his turn, he boasted even more—claiming he had mobilized the full strength of Youzhou to find a precious horse deep in the steppes for his father, that the horse had a gentle temperament and strong abilities, as if it were tailor-made for the Emperor, and even its color was extraordinarily noble.

This blind-box horse certainly looked good; Emperor Ningde looked, nodded in satisfaction, and said, "Not bad, Prince You."

Although he didn't much care for horses, the horse's appearance was truly unprecedented in his experience; as a steward's mount it was fine, and he nodded in satisfaction.

His father's heart was biased to the extreme; even his praise was stingy.

Prince Yu glanced at Emperor Ningde's expression, then turned to eye the golden tall-headed horse a few times, smiling as he said to Da Wang, "Everyone in Everlasting Peace knows you have a good horse, Third Brother—turns out this golden one is the gift for our father; I had thought it was the chestnut one, I had thought it was the chestnut one, and I wonder why that one seems more divine to me!"

Da Wang wanted to roll his eyes at him right then; this eldest brother is really nasty.

"What are you talking about, big brother? I've ridden that red horse for years—how can it compare to this brand-new golden treasure horse? It comes from a desert oasis, has great endurance and speed, and most importantly a gentle temperament and rare breed—this is the sort of horse fit for our father. That red one is just an ordinary breed, tall but nothing special—how could it be worthy of the Emperor!? Clearly, big brother doesn't know how to judge horses; there are as many chestnut horses as you want, but this one offered to our father is one-of-a-kind—if a second ever appears in Great Jin, I'll eat the whole beast raw to show you!"

Emperor Ningde: …Can you be any more disgusting?

Bai Li Heng: …There must be some catnip! In his entourage, the third brother's herd of his 180,000-tael silver-white wild horses already has several!

Prince Yu clearly didn't believe it, saying, "Oh? Big brother also likes that red horse—can you get him a second one, Third Brother?"

Da Wang patted his chest, saying no problem—"No problem, big brother, contact me later!"—"The price will scare you to death!"

After he said that, several wealthy nobles downstairs began to get eager, planning to look for Prince You later to talk. "How many could match this treasure horse's appearance? Which man could resist wanting one?"

After Da Wang finished presenting his gift, it was the turn of the fourth through seventh brothers, then the palace women.

Actually, those gifts weren't particularly novel—at most just a bit more precious than usual—and Da Wang, who was used to fine things, wasn't very interested. When idle, he eagerly observed the eldest brother for a while, then the Xianbei people for a while. As his gaze swept over the opposing envoy group, a bruised-eyed fellow glared at him fiercely.

Da Wang wanted to say, "Who are you? Why are you glaring at me, the Prince? That's terribly rude!"

Only after looking at his clothes did he realize—hey, isn't that a Wusun prince?

Da Wang stopped gawking at the spectacle and instead focused on glaring back! "Look at your ugly face—you're hardly human anymore—what are you looking at? If you've got the guts, hit me back!"

These past few days, Da Wang has been the talk of Everlasting Peace—after all, he's the only one who's taken on two envoy groups' feudal lords in a single day.

Many people are watching him, looking at how he and the Wusun folks stare each other down.

Some, like the Old Grand Commandant, think this kid, however young, wears his feelings on his face; he's actually loyal and righteous, still standing up for his half-sister; others think, "How does this guy have so much drama? You can be carefree and light‑hearted in any situation, right?"

Emperor Ningde, following the gaze of the palace attendants, easily saw what Da Wang was up to and immediately turned his eyes away.

The deadbeat who had the Wusun prince beaten up like that made him unwilling to look that way, feeling ill‑omened; just thinking about the forced marriage made him want to avoid it even more, so after the third brother had the Wusun prince's descendant beaten to that state, he half‑heartedly let the third brother reflect behind closed doors for a day. Such punishment likely means nothing to his three sons, since there's only one unambitious layabout in the whole palace. While the Princes of Jiangxia and An, upon arriving in the capital, went about making connections with great clans and high officials, his foolish son just loafed around town as a spoiled rich kid.

Emperor Ningde felt that looking at his three sons hurt his eyes, so he quickly turned his attention to the musicians in the hall.

Da Wang didn't mind being disliked at all; he stuffed a nice‑looking ring pastry down the throat of the Wusun prince, who looked like a bear.

But—"What kind of snack is this? …It almost choked the Prince to death!"

Zhao Bao: ……

Beside him, the precocious Bai Li Hu exclaimed, "Big trouble, big trouble! This guy is a major threat to the Prince's heart!"

Get lost—he's nowhere near good enough!