The emperor was overjoyed when he heard the news. He ran out of the Heren Hall in his robe. Ji Qing had been prepared. How could he let the emperor lose his dignity? He shouted, "Let's go to Kunning Palace!"
The eunuchs and guards ran to catch up with the emperor, adjusting their formations. The emperor was reminded and reluctantly slowed down. He turned around and shouted to Xu Junying who was lagging behind: "Why are you so slow? Can't you run without a horse?"
Xu Junying deliberately fell behind and caught the eunuch who came back to report the news. He asked him if he had seen the wife of Marquis Weiyuan. How was she? The eunuch said that the wife of Marquis Weiyuan was there. She had stayed in Kunning Palace with Mr. Zhang and Taoist Lingxuzi last night. But she looked very happy and energetic this morning.
Xu Junying played chess, talked, read books, and even fencing with the emperor in the Heren Hall last night. He did not sleep all night. Every other watch, a little eunuch came to report the news. Every time, he said that the baby was not born. He knew that the queen was in pain. Seeing the emperor anxious, he felt heavy in his heart. Half of him was worried about the emperor and his wife, and half was for Mei Niang. He was afraid that she could not stay up all night. She must be sad to stay by the queen's side and not sleep. Moreover, she stayed up all night with Zhang Jingyun and Lingxuzi. What kind of communication would they have in such a long night? The two old friends broke the unspoken rules between friends, showed goodwill to Mei Niang, secretly helped her, and worked together to hide what Mei Niang did outside from him. He could not let it go. He instinctively did not like Mei Niang to get too close to them again.
The emperor kept muttering: "Mother and child are safe! Mother and child are safe! Great, I knew it would be like this! I will reward Zhang Jingyun, Lingxuzi, and Qin Meiniang..."
Xu Junying said: "Your Majesty should address me as Madam Weiyuan Hou, or Xu Qinshi - my wife!"
The emperor laughed: "I am used to calling her by her maiden name! What? I helped you marry her, so can't I call her by her name?"
Xu Junying remained silent, and the emperor was too lazy to pay attention to him. He excitedly said to Ji Qing: "As for those ladies in the Buddhist temple, regardless of their rank, they will all be rewarded! Ask the imperial chef to prepare delicious food, invite them to have breakfast, and then they can leave the palace and go home!"
Ji Qing led his men to do the work. Xu Junying accompanied the emperor to Kunning Palace. They saw that the empress dowager was already there, holding the newly born eldest prince, smiling from ear to ear. The emperor and Xu Junying stood one after the other, staggered to greet the empress dowager. The empress dowager only nodded at them, which was considered a greeting. The emperor also happily came over, smiled and looked at his son, and was about to enter the inner bedroom to see the queen, but was stopped by the empress dowager:
"My dear, come and sit down. Hug my good grandson. Who does he look like? He looks like you! You looked like this when you were just born. Other children could only sleep, but you wouldn't. You would blink and pout. You were so adorable!"
The emperor held the little baby that the queen mother had put in his arms, beckoned Xu Junying over, gently touched the baby's right cheek with his finger, and said with a smile: "Look, this little kid knows how to look for food. When you touch him like this, he will turn his head and look for it everywhere!"
Xu Junying found it interesting and laughed, "The little prince is really smart. My Heng'er wouldn't be like this!"
The emperor laughed: "Heng'er is already that big, he will cry and shout when he is hungry, and he will grab food by himself. Only newborn babies are like this - I found out by accident when I was holding the two princesses in my arms."
Seeing two grown men holding a little baby and playing with them with great interest, the Queen Mother couldn't help laughing and scolded, "You two, the king and his subject, really haven't grown up yet!"
The emperor stroked his son's little face, put away his smile, and said to Xu Junying: "You sit with the Queen Mother, I will go in to see the Queen!"
After saying that, without asking the Queen Mother, she quickly walked inside with her son in her arms. The Queen Mother stretched out her hand and wanted to call the Emperor, but Xu Junying seemed to accidentally block her view, and helped her to sit down in the seat, smiling:
"The Emperor is so happy that he has a son! The Empress Dowager has always been worried about the Emperor's offspring. Now she can finally relax a little."
The Queen Mother sighed, "How can I rest easy? Now I have a grandson, and I want to see more of them. The Emperor now has two princesses and a prince, but the Sixth Prince Qi refuses to marry a princess... Sigh! I always have something to worry about, we are all enemies!"
"Don't worry, Queen Mother. When the time comes, His Royal Highness the Prince of Qi will naturally marry the princess!"
Xu Junying answered the empress dowager absentmindedly and looked quickly at the door of the inner bedroom. The emperor went in and the couple was talking. Mei Niang should have come out by now. Where were Zhang Jingyun and Lingxuzi? They might not be in there too, right
Just as she finished thinking, she saw Mei Niang leading the way out, followed by several maids and palace maids. The Queen Mother looked unhappy: "We have just cleaned up, but there is still a smell inside. The Emperor just doesn't like to listen!"
Mei Niang walked up to the Queen Mother, bowed, and said, "I will go to the kitchen to see if the medicine soup is ready!"
The Queen Mother nodded nonchalantly: "Go!"
Mei Niang didn't even look at Xu Junying. She took two steps back, bowed to him with her head down, then turned and walked away.
In fact, she didn't have much of an opinion about Xu Junying. If he could let her leave the Xu Mansion as soon as possible, she even thought she could make friends with him. Yesterday, she was scolded by the Queen Mother in front of the maids and nannies. She knew that it was all caused by Old Lady Xu, who said that she had a bad background, was poorly educated, and was not respectful and filial to her elders. She hated the elders of the Xu Mansion more and more, and she didn't want to see Xu Junying anymore.
The emperor and the queen were holding hands and whispering to each other, admiring the fruit of their love, so she had to come out. She didn't want to face the queen mother or see Xu Junying. She would rather find an excuse to go to the small kitchen and watch Lingxuzi boil the medicine. Lingxuzi was very cautious and serious in using medicine in extraordinary times. He wrote a prescription and asked people to bring the medicine, then re-prepared the medicine and personally watched over the medicine pot to boil it. Zhang Jingyun said that in the prescriptions written by Lingxuzi, sometimes the fire and the burning firewood were also considered as a medicine.
She walked past the flower corridor, turned into the inner courtyard, passed by the small flower hall, and saw Zhang Jingyun sitting inside writing prescriptions through the carved window lattices. She didn't intend to go in and disturb him. When the queen gave birth to the dragon son, her whole body was soaked, as if she had just been fished out of the water. She was so exhausted that she could not speak, but her eyes were moving, indicating that she was still conscious. The mother was not allowed to take a bath. Her clothes were soaked with sweat many times last night. Each time, the palace maids just wiped her body with a dry towel and changed into dry clothes directly. They did the same this morning. It was a damp and stuffy weather in spring these days, when all kinds of bacteria are most likely to grow and spread. Mei Niang asked the queen softly if she wanted to wash her body with water. The queen closed her eyes and opened them again. Mei Niang took it as her consent and ran to tell Zhang Jingyun, asking him to prescribe a prescription, using honeysuckle or Panax notoginseng and other herbs with anti-inflammatory effects to boil water, and wash the queen's body. Zhang Jingyun said: You can boil the medicine and wipe the body, or you can use ginger water, but not today, you have to wait at least three days later. He will prescribe a prescription and keep it, and this medicine will be used to wipe the body during the confinement period.
In the small kitchen, Lingxuzi was sitting on a small stool, stirring the medicine in the pot slowly with a half-burned stick. He was concentrating and trying to count how many times he had to stir it. Seeing him like that, Meiniang became playful and tiptoed to his back. Just as she was about to shout, she heard a voice behind her:
"Don't be naughty, you..."
She was frightened, patted her chest and turned around. Seeing Zhang Jingyun standing at the door, she pointed at him and shouted:
"What are you kidding? You're scaring me to death!"
Zhang Jingyun also laughed: "Aren't you trying to scare people? You should be braver, why are you frightened instead!"
"Who says that scary people have to be brave? Why are you here if you're not writing prescriptions in the small flower hall?"
"I wanted to see what you were going to do."
"Haha! You can't have opened your third eye and see what people are thinking. Actually, I didn't mean to scare him when I came here. He was too serious and seemed to be counting. I couldn't help but mess it up so that I could make him count again!"
Lingxuzi stood up with a smile and pointed at her with the branch in his hand: "Who would have thought that while the mantis stalks the cicada, the oriole is unaware of the situation behind? You guessed it, I was counting, and I wanted to count to a hundred times. But I am not a cicada, which will stop chirping if scared, but I can continue to count - you can't scare me, I just heard your footsteps a long time ago, but I didn't look back!"
Mei Niang was surprised: "Is the sound of my walking so loud?"
Lingxuzi said: "The sound of footsteps and fluttering clothes are not very loud. I have been practicing my hearing since I was young, so I can hear them!"
"It's great that you have such good hearing. Can I practice it?"
Zhang Jingyun smiled at her and said, "I didn't mean to scare you just now. I just wanted to remind you that he knew you were coming and you couldn't scare him... You have to practice listening since childhood. Why are you practicing this?"
Mei Niang waved her hand indifferently: "Nothing, just for fun. If it's too difficult, I won't practice it. It won't be of much use for you to practice it, right?"
Lingxuzi said: "When practicing qigong, you should generally practice your hearing and eyesight, which will always be useful."
Mei Niang went to look through the cupboards: "Ah! There are so many fresh ingredients. Breakfast hasn't arrived yet, so I'll cook for you, okay?"
Lingxuzi smiled and said, "As the wife of the marquis, can you cook?"
Mei Niang boasted: "I am Cen Meimei. If I can't cook, why would I open a restaurant or inn? I won't cook anything complicated. I can just make a bowl of noodles for each person!"
Zhang Jingyun said, "Wait until your hand is healed before boiling it. It's not appropriate to touch raw water now!"
Mei Niang looked at her hands and smiled bitterly: "I let you see that when the queen gave birth to the prince, I also felt the pain."
Lingxuzi said, "I saw it, too. It's nothing to worry about. I'll go back and get you a bottle of ointment. Apply it for two days and it will return to its original state. So, what are you doing here? Just to find something to eat?"
"No, the Emperor is here. If I'm not with the Empress, I have to stand with the Queen Mother. I can't stand it, so I might as well come to you!"
Lingxuzi smiled and shook his head: "Isn't Junying following the emperor? He is here, what are you afraid of?"
Mei Niang said: "He and I..."
The shadow at the door flashed, and Xu Junying walked in, smiling and said, "How are you and me? I was just one step late, and I couldn't catch up with you. You ran really fast, and you didn't say you were coming to the inner courtyard, so I couldn't find you no matter how hard I looked!"
The three people in the small kitchen were stunned for a moment. Mei Niang pointed at him and said, "Does Weiyuan Hou walk without making any sound? Lingxuzi, why can't you hear it?"
Lingxuzi was a little embarrassed: "I... was just joking with you guys and didn't listen carefully. Junying came... so fast!"
After Mei Niang came in, Zhang Jingyun followed her in, talking and laughing. Mei Niang opened and closed the cupboards, scooped water with a spoon, and made all kinds of noises. While talking to him, he also had to watch the fire, so he really didn't listen to the noise outside. But he also understood that Xu Junying didn't come too quickly, but had come a long time ago. He was very good at light skills, so if he didn't want the people in the room to notice, it would be easy to do.
Zhang Jingyun nodded and greeted Xu Junying. He was in the same situation as Lingxuzi. He did not notice when Xu Junying arrived, but he intentionally stood in a favorable position. Anyone coming in from the main courtyard in front would be seen by him if they took the right road. However, he did not know from which direction Xu Junying came. He should have stood by the window on the left for a while, and then suddenly entered the room.
Zhang Jingyun was very calm, without any sense of embarrassment. He felt that it was normal to stand with Mei Niang at this moment. The three of them were ordered to guard Kunning Palace. Mei Niang was still the wife of Weiyuan Marquis, but based on his understanding of Mei Niang, she would not be that soon.
She was like his mother, but stronger and braver than her. She refused to share a husband with anyone else, so she resolutely gave up and tried every possible way, relying on her own intelligence and wisdom, to make preparations for leaving the mansion step by step.
Xu Junying talked with Zhang Jingyun and Lingxuzi for a few words. He was actually in a very bad mood at the moment. He had been worried all night. He finally saw Mei Niang. She took her leave from the Queen Mother and walked past him without even raising her eyelids. His heart felt like it had fallen into an ice cellar. The Queen Mother said in a sarcastic tone that the wife of Weiyuan Marquis was indeed as your grandmother said, lacking in education, and comforted him: "You don't have to wait too long. After informing the Emperor, he will issue an imperial decree tomorrow or the day after tomorrow to allow you to marry your cousin Zhuang!"
The Queen Mother said something exactly the same as his grandmother's, saying how things would be better after marrying cousin Zhuang, and that he could have more concubines, more children, and so on. He couldn't stand Mei Niang's attitude anymore, so he didn't bother to cover for the Emperor. He stopped accompanying the Queen Mother and found an excuse to run out. He knew where the small kitchen was, and as soon as he turned into the inner courtyard, he saw Zhang Jingyun following Mei Niang. The two of them entered the small kitchen one after the other. At that moment, his heart, liver, and lungs melted together, and he leaped to the left window of the small kitchen in a few leaps. He saw Lingxuzi and breathed a sigh of relief - as long as they were not alone with a man and a woman, it didn't matter.
He did not rush in directly, for fear of causing greater resentment from Mei Niang. After listening to the Queen Mother's words, he could more or less guess why Mei Niang treated him like that. At home, she had no scruples in criticizing his grandmother in front of him and made it clear that she did not like her. When she arrived at the palace, the Queen Mother might have said something to her on behalf of her grandmother, causing her resentment and annoyance. She could not afford to offend the Queen Mother, and she had long since stopped giving him face.
Mei Niang, Zhang Jingyun and Lingxuzi talked about everything, chatting and laughing at ease. He leaned against the wall, feeling extremely sad. The Queen Mother was alone in the main courtyard palace, so the Emperor and the Queen would definitely be disturbed. The Emperor rarely disobeyed the Queen Mother's wishes in trivial matters. He could not stay in Kunning Palace for long today. As imperial physicians, Lingxuzi and Zhang Jingyun could come and go freely in the palace, and had the privilege of not welcoming or seeing off the emperor. But he could not do that. If the Emperor left, he had to leave. Just when he was undecided about whether to leave or stay, or whether to go into the small kitchen to meet them, Mei Niang felt something was wrong about what she wanted to say. He walked in without thinking and interrupted the rest of her words. No matter what it was, it must be right not to let them hear it. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets at Qidian. Your support is my greatest motivation.) (To be continued)