The life swap begins with Consort Hua becoming Lady Qin.

Yonghuang lowered his head, seemingly reluctant to speak. Hualan rolled her eyes at him and said, "Reporting to Your Majesty, didn't Brother Bai ask Father for permission to stay in the garden for a while? Before we left, we all agreed that we could play during the day, but we couldn't neglect our studies. We would read for half an hour every morning and recite for half an hour before going to bed at night. After we returned, each of us would write two travelogues, each no less than five hundred words, recording where we went, what we saw, and what our thoughts were."

Hua Lan spoke quickly and clearly: "Aunt Hengti wrote it, I wrote it, and Bai Ge'er himself goes without saying, but Yonghuang kept slacking off along the way! At first, he said he had just started playing and would write after seeing more places and gaining more insights. Then he said he was too tired from playing every day and needed to rest for a couple of days. When it was almost time to return to the palace, he said it would be quieter there and he could write faster. Until yesterday, everyone else had handed in theirs, but he still owed a huge piece. Last night, he even secretly came to me, asking me to write it for him!"

Hua Lan was furious as she said this: "How could I dare? If I really wrote it for him, that cold-faced judge would find out and would nag me from today until next year! I didn't agree, so he went back and tore his hair out all night. He still hasn't written it this morning, and now he wants me to plead for him. How could I possibly have the face to do that!"

Zhu Ying's face flushed instantly, and she turned to look at her son: "I was wondering why there were more candles burning in your room yesterday than usual! When I asked what you were doing, you just said you were reading, and you wouldn't let Xiao Quanzi tell me."

Yonghuang was already feeling wronged, and his mother's words brought tears to his eyes again: "If I tell you, Mother, you'll just say I deserve it and tell me to learn more from my brother. But the teacher's lessons are already difficult enough, and now that I've gone out to play for a few days, I still have to write so many characters when I come back!"

Zhu Ying frowned in anger: "Then how come your older brother and sister can do it, but you can't?"

Upon hearing this, Yonghuang, in a fit of pique, plopped down on the ground and started throwing a tantrum: "I'm the youngest! Aunt Hengti and the older sisters are all big kids now; five hundred words are a piece of cake for them. I'm still just a kid!"

Zhu Ying retorted angrily, "What about your older brother? He's not much older than you, how come he can write?"

This sentence finally hit Yonghuang's biggest injustice.

He cried and kicked his legs, shouting, "Heaven and earth bear witness! It was you, Mother, who told me I wasn't allowed to compare myself to my older brother in everything! You said he was exceptionally gifted, that someone like him would only appear once every few centuries, and that if I tried to compare myself to him in everything, I'd only exhaust myself! You told me to eat and drink as I pleased, and to live happily every day, and to just listen to my brother when we were together. How can you now make me compare myself to him?! Why are you adults so fickle, saying one thing today and another tomorrow? How are we children supposed to live?!"

Zhu Ying: ...

The hall fell silent for a moment.

The next moment, even Lianxin couldn't help but turn her face away, and Ruixin even lowered her head and bit her lip. Hualan, who was originally in a fierce mood, also burst out laughing when she heard this.

Ruofu couldn't help but laugh even more, and the handkerchief in his hand fell onto his lap.

Zhu Ying could only rub her forehead and say, "I told you not to always compete with your brother, not that you shouldn't do your homework!"

Yonghuang sniffled and said, "My mother didn't explain it clearly back then..."

"You're just making excuses!" Zhu Ying realized what she meant.

Ruofu quickly smiled and tried to smooth things over: "Alright, alright, he's already crying like this. If you say another word, he'll drown our Changchun Palace."

She beckoned to Yonghuang: "Come here, let the Empress Dowager take a look."

Yonghuang felt like he had found a savior. He quickly got up from the ground and moved to Ruofu's side, sobbing.

Ruofu scrutinized his filthy appearance, quickly took a handkerchief to wipe his tears, and then disgustedly blew his nose before patting his head and saying, "Your mother wasn't wrong about one thing. There are some things you really shouldn't learn from your older brother. Sometimes he just forces himself to suffer, adding two books and three articles to his otherwise comfortable life. Yonghuang doesn't need to learn that."

Yonghuang's eyes lit up immediately.

Ruofu added, "Our Yonghuang is also very good. He is intelligent and quick-witted, and his grades are not bad either."

Yonghuang's eyes shone even brighter, and he felt that his Empress Mother was even more reasonable than his own mother. He then whimpered and snuggled into Ruofu's arms, cautiously probing, "Then...then can I stop writing?"

The loving expression on Ruof's face froze instantly.

She looked down at the expectant little one in her arms, her lips moved, and after a long while she finally spoke with great difficulty and tact: "This... if this was decided by your older brother himself..."

Ruofan paused for a moment, then sadly patted his head: "Empress Mother will probably have a hard time supporting you."

The light in Yonghuang's eyes went out completely.