The child's fate was decided, and Wan was soon promoted to the rank of Xiuyi.
After all, only the Nine Concubines can raise children.
At the same time, Concubine Shu, who had married the third princess, was very happy.
In her opinion, this was the emperor's trust in her.
She even vaguely wondered if she would have a chance since the palace was now without a master and she was the highest-ranking concubine.
The emperor himself is a concubine's son, so he doesn't necessarily have to have a legitimate son. When she becomes the queen, whoever comes to the throne in the future will be the empress dowager.
Wouldn't it be better if she could support a young concubine and have her give birth to a prince
Of course, only Concubine Shu would fantasize about such a thing.
The other concubines who had some brains could see that if the Emperor intended to have Concubine Shu enter the Imperial Palace, she should have been conferred the title of Imperial Concubine by now.
At the very least, she should be a virtuous concubine, and it is impossible not to raise her position.
So the emperor simply wanted her to raise the child.
In late October, he finally set out for the palace.
This time he came back late to accommodate Wan Xiuyi. After all, her miscarriage was harmful to her health and she needed to recuperate after the baby was born.
After returning to the palace, they hurried to prepare for the New Year.
Ning Chen gave an oral order that from now on the palace affairs would be jointly managed by Concubine Shu, Concubine Jingde and Concubine Hui.
Shufei was in charge of the monthly salary of the palace concubines and the royal heirs, Defei was in charge of all affairs of the servants in the palace, and Hui Zhaorong was in charge of food and shopping.
Things that enter the mouth are the most dangerous. Now that Hui Zhaorong is in charge, Ye Jun can feel much more at ease.
Of course, I also vaguely guessed whether it was Ning Chen's deliberate favoritism.
But this time she was not asked to take charge of the affairs. After all, managing the affairs of the harem is a long-term job, not just a once-in-a-while thing.
Yi Shunyuan's position is similar to hers, and they both have sons. If they want to intervene in the affairs of the harem, they must do it together. But obviously there doesn't need to be so many people to take care of it, otherwise it will be too chaotic. It's better for both of them not to get involved.
But even if he didn't get involved, Ye Jun was still slightly better, after all, Hui Zhaorong and Ye Jun were of the same kind.
There was turmoil in the harem this year, so the New Year celebrations were not very lively and passed in a flash.
However, promotions at the end of the year still take place as usual.
Hui Zhaorong was promoted to Zhaoyuan, Ye Yun was promoted to Zhaorong, Yi Shunyuan was promoted to Shunyi, Cui Wanrong was promoted to Meiren, and Meiren Qi and Meiren Huo were both promoted to Jieyu.
Chen Jieyushi, who had never been promoted by the Empress Dowager for thousands of years, was still not promoted this time, but was given a title, Qian.
The word "qian" means respect, and also means modesty and humility.
The emperor's meaning was very clear, but the empress dowager was not very happy. However, she could only endure it for the moment.
Ning Chen's wings are becoming more and more powerful, and now he has the final say.
The rest of the people didn't move.
This led to a very embarrassing situation. Li Wanrong, the daughter of Jingzhao Yin, who entered the palace with Qi and others, was not promoted this time.
There were four people from the second batch who entered the palace with good family backgrounds, but now she was the only one left behind. She felt humiliated and embarrassed for a moment.
After the new year, the palace became unusually peaceful.
There was no need to pay respects to the Queen anymore, and the concubines had fewer opportunities to meet and quarrel.
But there are one or two funny things every now and then.
For example, a few days ago, Concubine Shu made Zhang Wanrong kneel in the Imperial Garden as punishment, and a few days later, Zhang Wanrong's share of the allowance was inexplicably reduced by half.
Everyone knew the truth, but no one spoke up for Zhang.
This woman, who betrayed Concubine Shu and defected to the Queen, has long been despised by everyone. Now that the Queen is dead, it would be strange if Concubine Shu did not humiliate her.
Now that the queen was gone, Ning Chen no longer had to follow the rules and go to the inner palace to rest on the first and fifteenth days of every month. As a result, Ye Jun became the person who slept with him the most in the harem.
The number of days she spent in the emperor's bed was only equaled by the number of days that all the other concubines put together.
However, even though she was the most favored concubine in the harem, Qin Wanrong, who could only serve the emperor in the bed once every one or two months, announced at the end of July that she was one and a half months pregnant.
For a moment, the harem looked at her sideways.
It has been almost a year since the last time someone in the harem became pregnant, and that was Mrs. Wan.
The first thing Qin Wanrong did after she became pregnant was to ask the emperor to let her move to Concubine Jingde's Zhongcui Palace.
Ever since she rescued the second prince from drowning the year before last, Qin has been close to Concubine Jingde. This is something everyone in the harem knows.
Ning Chen agreed.
After all, Concubine Jingde has never made any mistakes in public over the years and has always been a good person.
I feel at ease leaving Qin Wanrong's baby in her care.
In the afternoon, Ning Chen came to Zhaochunxuan.
Because of what happened in the garden last year, I did not go to escape the summer heat this year and remained in the palace.
When I came, I saw Ye Jun drying her hair.
The fourth prince was sitting on a bamboo bed, rolling around with rice cakes. When he saw him coming, he got off the bed and ran over.
"father!"
This child never calls him father. Ye Jun never taught him that.
As for children, they will learn it naturally as they grow up.
But Ye Jun also had other thoughts.
Calling him "daddy" sounds very intimate and seems pure and sincere. If he is restrained in everything at such a young age, wouldn't it alienate the relationship between father and son
In fact, Ye Jun's little trick was very effective. Ning Chen really liked his youngest son's liveliness and intimacy.
When we went to other places, the children were all well-behaved. Although they looked lively, they were always a bit restrained, unlike the Fourth Prince, who was natural and generous.
Ning Chen smiled and picked up his son, "What is Jing'er doing?"
"Play with building blocks." The fourth prince smiled brightly, pointed at the things on the bamboo bed, and added at the end, "With rice cakes."
At this moment, Nian Gao heard the little master calling him and barked twice in response.
"Okay, go play." Ning Chen touched the Fourth Prince's little head and put him on the bamboo bed.
He turned around and sat down next to Ye Jun.
"Why did you wash your hair now?"
"I played with Jing'er for a while and was sweating, so I just took a shower." Ye Jun smiled lightly and acted helpless, "As expected, only rice cakes can withstand his torment."
Ning Chen was speechless.
She is the only one in the harem who lets the children play with dogs every day.
However, he had said this before, but was inexplicably persuaded by Ye Jun, so he was too lazy to say it again now.
But he suddenly remembered something and said with emotion, "I gave you this dog when Yi Shunyi was pregnant with the third prince. So the dog is five years old now."
"Yes, it is a middle-aged dog." Ye Jun glanced at Nian Gao, "If the dog is well raised, it will be no problem to raise it for more than ten years. Look at it, it is very energetic, and it can accompany Jing'er to grow up."
But we must part ways one day.
By then, both she and Jing'er will definitely be sad for a while.
That's the sad part about having a pet.
But Ning Chen didn't come here to discuss how long a dog's lifespan is. He moved his eyes to Ye Jun's belly and coughed lightly.
"Jing'er has grown up, he is already two years old, you can give me another child."
Ye Jun's mouth suddenly froze and his face turned slightly red.
He pretended to be calm and said, "It all depends on God's will. When the time comes, it will come naturally."
He cursed inwardly, thinking that Ning Chen was becoming more and more shameless. He would never have said these words in front of the servants before.
The servants in the room were naturally happy to see their master being favored, and they all lowered their heads and tried to hold back their laughter.