"… The queen's baby is indeed not going to be saved. The baby is less than two months old, and the queen has been suffering from severe morning sickness recently. She also shows signs of excessive worry. In addition, it is winter, and perhaps the baby in her belly is not healthy enough, so it will naturally miscarry. Even if she is forced to stay in the womb, it will only endanger the queen." The female doctor lowered her eyes, "Judging from the pulse, the queen is still healthy, and she will be fine in a few months. The queen has just taken the medicine, Your Highness can come into the palace to take a look."
"knew."
The female doctor nodded, bowed to Li Taoqi again, turned and left.
Li Taoqi stood there, not knowing for a moment whether he should enter the hall or not. His brows were tightly furrowed, almost in a knot.
The eldest daughter was not in good health. She had asthma since birth. Every time it happened, she would flare up. She couldn't sleep all night. She looked thin and small, but when she wheezed, she was like a bellows. She took so many medicines from the Imperial Medical Bureau, but she was still the same. I didn't know if she could live past the age of five.
She was a little better tonight, Li Taoqi coaxed her to sleep, and went to the study after the hour of Xu. Ever since the Crown Princess became pregnant, he had been sleeping in the study, and he had been busy recently. Before he finished reading the memorials, news came from the bedroom that the Crown Princess had miscarried.
Li Taoqi was already in a state of anxiety, and with this incident, he felt that life was really difficult. He believed that he had never had time to go to Xuandu to have his fortune read, and he felt sorry for it before. But now he thought that it was fortunate that he did not go, otherwise he would not be able to live if the fortune reading showed that he would be unlucky in marriage and children.
After blowing in the cold wind for a while, Li Taoqi closed his eyes and turned to go into the bedroom.
There was no one in the palace in the bedroom. The bloodstained quilt had just been changed. A light incense was lit to suppress the blood. The Crown Princess was in her pajamas, curled up on the couch, her arms tightly wrapped around herself, shivering in the quilt. She was staring at the ground, and when she heard Li Zhuoqi's footsteps, her pupils shrank: "Don't come over! Don't come over..."
Li Tuoqi knew that she was in a nightmare, so he quickly walked to her side, put his arm around her shoulders, and patted her back: "It's me, it's me, Li Tuoqi."
Hearing her husband's voice, the Crown Princess calmed down a little, her eyelashes trembling: "... Your Highness, my child..."
“… No more.” Li Zhuoqi was not a man of steel. He felt heartbroken when he heard this. He coaxed the Crown Princess, “There will be more in the future. Take good care of them.”
As a mother, she knew best whether the child was there or not. The Crown Princess had no ability to put the child back, so she nodded. After leaning on Li Taoqi's shoulder for a while, she suddenly thought of something and grabbed him: "Your Highness, this pregnancy of mine must have been caused by someone else!"
Li Taoqi didn't know why she suddenly went crazy, but she was his wife after all, and she had just had a miscarriage. Her long hair was disheveled and her face was pale. She looked crazy and pitiful. He paused and said, "No, this is the East Palace, and you are the Crown Princess. Who dares to harm you? The female doctor said that this baby might not be healthy..."
"Seventh Prince!" The Crown Princess interrupted him, panting, "It must be him! I have dreamed of him many times, and I heard that he is tired of it..."
"Enough!" Li Taoqi blocked that word back, "This is in the palace, don't say anything you shouldn't say. Ah Shen and I are not close, but he wouldn't do such a thing, there's no need."
"Why not? Your Highness, we only have one child now, and it's a daughter. If... If I can't give birth to a boy..." The Crown Princess thought about it and it made more and more sense. At this time, she needed a place to put her resentment of losing her child. Li Qishen was the best person. "Then, wouldn't the Seventh Prince be able to compete for it?"
There were many emperors in this dynasty who were not the eldest sons of the family. However, facing the pale face of the Crown Princess, Li Taoqi could not say such words. He suppressed his anger and said, "Listen to me, A Shen is not liked by Aye, and his talent is not outstanding. Moreover, his mother is Tuyuhun. He has half Xianbei Murong blood. He can't rise to power. You don't have to worry. Just take good care of him."
"Then will Your Highness allow me to be harmed by others?" The Crown Princess stared at Li Taoqi. "Your Highness is a crown prince, but if you can't even protect your wife, what's the point? I have been married to Your Highness for four years, and now I have fallen to this point. Don't you have any pity at all?"
"Then what do you want from me? Even if he really harmed you, you can't produce evidence. Do you want me to rush into Qingsi Palace right now?" Li Taoqi was furious and stood up. "You have been married to me for four years. You might as well think about how you got into the Eastern Palace in the first place!"
He was usually gentle, but when he got angry, even the Crown Princess was afraid. She stared at Li Tuoqi, her eyelashes trembling rapidly, her lips quivering, unable to utter a word. The Crown Princess loved beauty, and usually wore red and green skirts, but now she was dressed in white, her face was pale, her lips were bloodless, and her hair was disheveled. She looked nothing like her usual graceful self.
Li Taoqi looked for a while, sighed, turned around and left.
"… Your Highness!" The Crown Princess was frightened. She got off the bed tremblingly and tried to grab Li Zhuoqi's sleeves. "What are you going to do, Your Highness?"
There were no palace servants around, and Li Zhuoqi couldn't just watch the Crown Princess fall to the ground, so he quickly turned around to support her and put her back on the couch. Looking at the trembling woman in his arms, he couldn't harden his heart and pulled the quilt to cover her: "Go to Qingsi Palace and put your mind at ease."
The Crown Princess was stunned for a moment, then delighted: "Your Highness..."
Li Taoqi didn't want to listen anymore, so he tucked the quilt in for her and walked out of the hall.
**
Li Qishen stood at the door of the bedroom, watching the palace servants coming and going in the hall, his expression calm. He was sleeping, but because Li Taoqi came, he had to get up from the couch. He was too lazy to toss and turn, and the hall was heated by the floor heating anyway, so he simply wore his pajamas, a cloak on the outside, and his hair was loose, and the few strands that were originally braided into thin braids were also loose, winding and flowing in front of his shoulders.
The things found were placed on the table. Of course, there were no puppets or cloth figures that performed the art of warding off evil. Some snacks and preserved fruits were not suitable for consumption during pregnancy, but Li Qishen was not going to get pregnant, so of course she could eat whatever she wanted. The most dangerous thing was a box of safflower ointment, which was half used. When Li Qishen found it, he lifted the sleeves of his pajamas and revealed several bruises on his forearms.
Li Zhuoqi was embarrassed, and as the elder brother, he asked him, "How did you do it?"
"Fighting with a cat." Li Qishen put down his sleeves.
Li Zhuoqi couldn't believe that a fourteen-year-old could fight with a cat and even get bruises. He coughed and said, "Don't do these things next time. You're almost fifteen, you should be more stable."
The two brothers didn't speak to each other after that until the bedroom was searched from top to bottom, and there were only these few things on the table.
Li Taoqi didn't think Li Qishen would do such a thing. He just got carried away for a moment and just wanted to compete with the Crown Princess. After standing there for a while, he calmed down and said, "I'm sorry. I disturbed your rest. It's really the Crown Princess..."
"I understand. She just had a miscarriage and she's not close to me, so it's understandable that she suspects me." Li Qishen was quite tolerant and yawned slightly. "Anything else?"
Li Taoqi understood that this was to drive him away, and shook his head: "Sorry for disturbing you tonight. Don't use the ointment anymore, it doesn't seem to be getting better, I'll send someone to bring new medicine tomorrow."
Li Qishen understood that it was an apology, but due to his status as the crown prince, he made it sound like a reward. Anyway, he was bored, so he really didn't mind being scolded, and nodded: "Thank you, brother."
Li Zhuoqi turned and walked out, trying to leave this place in a hurry. After taking a few steps out of the palace gate, he suddenly heard Li Qishen calling him from behind. The gentle word "brother" reminded him of the child many years ago.
But Li Qishen is still a child now. Li Taoqi's heart softened, and then he felt ashamed because of what happened tonight, so he stopped and asked, "What's wrong?"
"Spend more time with the Crown Princess. She is your wife."
Hearing this, Li Taoqi felt even more ashamed and turned around: "A Shen, I..."
"Then she is your woman. Take care of your own woman, don't wait until one day you need help from others." Li Qishen didn't bother to care what Li Zhuoqi wanted to say. He never thought about pretending to be a brother. He finished talking to himself and turned back to the palace. "I'm going to sleep. Brother, go back early. You have to go to court tomorrow. It will be bad if you can't get up."
As the palace door closed, Li Taoqi suddenly felt funny.
Li Qishen was still Li Qishen. Even though he had the same father as Li Qishen but different mothers, there was no way he could have any blood relationship with him. Perhaps in Li Qishen's eyes, his brother was not as good as the black cat kept in the palace.
He stared at the closed door for a while, then closed his eyes. "I came to Qingsi Palace tonight, hoping to have a long talk with His Highness the Seventh Prince, but His Highness is still young, so we can't talk for long."
There were only a few palace servants around, most of whom were brought by Li Taoqi. They were all well-trained, and when they should act dumb and deaf, it was as if they were born without mouths or ears. They did not respond and pretended to be deaf and dumb.
But Li Taoqi knew that they had remembered everything, so he turned around and walked out.
As soon as the people outside the palace left, Li Qishen took off his cloak in the palace, and Chang Zu immediately stepped forward to take it, hesitantly asking: "Your Highness, this... are you really going to let it go?"
"What else?" Li Qishen walked to the couch and sat down. "He only brought the palace maids from the East Palace and didn't go to the Changsheng Palace. He probably didn't believe it in his heart, but he was just a soft-hearted person and was annoyed by the Crown Princess. Otherwise, he wouldn't have only searched the bedroom. No one else knew except these palace maids. If others really talked about it, they would just say that he was bored at night and came to my place in the middle of the night."
He patted the spread quilt and said, "He is the prince, so he can do whatever he wants. But he must have a bad sleep tonight, tossing and turning. When he goes back to see the Crown Princess, he will be very annoyed."
This is true, but Chang Zu just felt aggrieved. How could he go to the Brothers' Palace to make trouble just to appease his wife? He was depressed for a while and said, "Your Highness, this is not my fault. I just feel uncomfortable... It's really uncomfortable. This is too much."
"I have to hold it in even if I feel uncomfortable." Li Qishen smiled and lay down on the couch. "Tomorrow morning I want to eat sesame porridge and steamed cakes."
He ordered something to eat, nothing special, and Changzu responded. Suddenly, he felt something was wrong: "Your Highness, Xu Xueshi is still on leave, and the weather is cold. You really got up so early?"
"It's not up to me." Li Qishen wrapped himself in the quilt, "Just wait, I guess there will be some movement in the Changsheng Palace tomorrow."