Looking at her like this, there is no greater sorrow than being heartbroken.
Ye Jun lowered his eyes slightly, tucked the quilt in for her, and stood up.
"You should take a good rest. You are still young. Once you recover, you will have another child with the emperor. It takes a thousand years to sleep together. Even if the mother-son relationship is over, you should cherish the relationship with the emperor."
Qi Xiuyi lay on the couch, her eyelashes fluttering slightly.
After a long while, she said softly, "Thank you for your comfort, Madam. I will never give up on myself."
In fact, she really wanted to go with the child just now, but Ye Jun's words of comfort finally brought her heart back a little.
Qi Xiuyi is truly sincere to Ning Chen.
Hearing her say this, Ye Jun felt relieved.
The Qi family is also an important family in the court. They have to be comforted after the death of the seventh prince. If Qi Xiuyi is also gone, it will be even more difficult for Ning Chen to deal with it.
Ye Jun certainly hopes that Ning Chen belongs to her alone, but since she is in the harem, she should be more sober.
Otherwise, if she had been jealous and fussy all the time, she would have been angry to death long ago.
It was because Qi was too deeply in love that she devoted herself to Ning Chen and didn't care about anything else. She was unwilling to use any means to win favor, and only wanted the emperor's true heart.
But how could the emperor have so much sincerity
Or maybe, he had already given his true love to someone else, so how could he have a second share for Qi
After coming out of the inner hall, other concubines arrived and were all sent away by Ye Yun.
In other words, Concubine Hui stayed and said a few more words.
Ning Chen came last.
It’s not that he is not proactive, but he is thinking about praying for his two sons. Last night he stayed up late in Fengxian Hall to copy scriptures and pray.
When I heard the news of the seventh prince's death, I felt like a piece of my heart was missing and my whole body ached.
Although there had been concubines who had miscarriages in the past, those were not the first time the babies were born safely. The Seventh Prince was the first one who gave birth to a baby but was not able to raise it.
The pain of losing a child is even more touching.
"Your Majesty, do you want to go in and take a look? Qi Xiuyi has just laid down and she is crying her eyes out." Ye Jun said softly.
Ning Chen lowered his eyes, "No, there's no need to disturb her rest. Besides, Qi Xiuyi should be promoted to Shunrong."
"This is what I should do." Ye Jun nodded and gently held Ning Chen's hand.
Rarely cold.
My heart was beating fast and I was trembling a little. "Your Majesty, please go back and rest for a while. I will take care of the funeral of the Seventh Prince. I will definitely handle it properly."
"Let Concubine Hui and Concubine Rong go. You are weak, and there are so many things piled up. If you get sick from exhaustion, I will feel even worse." Ning Chen held her hand.
I also feel a little guilty.
Ye Yun was weak after giving birth, and Doctor Shen said it would take three to five years for her to recover. But since she returned to the palace, things kept coming one after another, leaving her no time to rest.
"That's good. Concubine Hui always does things steadily." Ye Jun nodded.
She did have a lot of things on her plate, so it would be nice to delegate some of them, but for the sake of the Qi family's reputation, Ye Jun would still do the most important part herself in the end.
When we returned to Zhaochun Palace, it was already dawn.
Ye Jun didn't want to continue sleeping, but he just felt cold.
After all, it's winter now, and it's very cold to take a trip like this in the rainy night.
Fortunately, Huiyue had prepared hot water and ginger soup in the morning. She served her two bowls of ginger soup, took off her shoes and socks, and soaked her feet in the hot water. Only then did she feel better.
"I really didn't expect this to happen. When I gave birth to Xun'er and Yuan'er, I almost died. When I gave birth to Jing'er, I was also frightened and gave birth prematurely. But fortunately, all three children are fine. Seeing Qi Xiuyi and the Seventh Prince today, I feel really sad."
Holding the hand warmer, Ye Jun leaned on the pillow, his eyes a little dazed.
"Yes, this is the first royal heir to die young. I heard from the people who stayed in the palace that when Qi Shunrong was pregnant, she liked sour food very much, especially sour jujube cake. At that time, Concubine Jingxian was in charge and she even assigned a chef who was good at cooking to serve her. There is a saying that sour boys and spicy girls have their origins." Luzhi said.
When mentioning Concubine Jingxian, Ye Jun frowned slightly, always feeling that she would not be so kind.
"So Qi Xiurong ate more of the sour jujube cakes made by the chef during her pregnancy?"
Lu Zhi shook her head, "Before the queen returned to the palace, the cook who served her originally lost his mother at home and left the palace. Later, someone else took over her service."
"What a coincidence." Ye Jun lowered his eyes and whispered.
Suddenly he looked up and said, "Huiyue, do you remember when I first returned to the palace, I went to visit Qi Shunrong. She was weak and bedridden to take care of her pregnancy."
"Yes, I think it's because of this reason. The Seventh Prince is probably born with defects." Huiyue sighed.
But Ye Jun’s focus was not on this.
He sat up and put the hand warmer aside.
"But after we returned to the palace, Qi Shunrong gradually recovered and was able to go out for a walk. If we compare it with the time Luzhi mentioned, it was exactly after the chef who originally made the sour jujube cake left the palace."
The faces of the maids changed, and after a glance of acquaintance, Nan Zhi tentatively spoke.
"Your Majesty, are you suspicious? Are you suspicious of the chef that Concubine Jingxian arranged?"
Ye Jun looked coldly, "I do have some suspicions, but it's been so long, I don't think there's any trace of him in the palace. Huiyue, send a letter to my mother and my grandparents outside the palace, asking them to find the cook, whether he's alive or dead."
Logically, Qi was in good health on a normal day, and she didn't know why she became unwell during pregnancy. Now, after hearing what Luzhi said, Ye Jun always felt that something was wrong.
The maids in Zhaochun Palace knew how cruel Concubine Jingxian was, so they did not dare to be vague and immediately took action.
At the same time, Ye Jun also ordered that this year's New Year's Eve banquet should not be grand.
The seventh prince has just passed away, so we also have to take him into consideration.
It was also because of this that everyone in the palace knew that the emperor was in a bad mood, and it was rare that he waited quietly until the New Year.
The palace banquet on New Year’s Eve was also held peacefully.
Although Ning Chen cleaned up the corrupt officials of the Chen family this year and revitalized the government, and Concubine Ming in the harem gave birth to twins, the Fourth Prince had just recovered from a fall, the Seventh Prince passed away, and Qi Shunrong was still ill. No one dared to show too much happiness for fear of offending the Emperor.
For this year's palace banquet, the empress dowager was brought back from the temporary palace, but she left after the first month of the year.
She no longer misses the palace.
It’s good this way. After living away from home for a long time, I seem to be more clear-headed.
It is March of the new year in a blink of an eye, and it is the time when all things come back to life.
The palace had shed the heaviness of the old year and regained some vitality.
The fourth prince started to study in the upper study this year and also moved to Ruyi Pavilion.
The second prince and the third prince have become much calmer after what happened last year, and now they both know how to conceal their thoughts.
The children in the palace are always mature beyond their years.
In April, after the sixth prince and the fourth princess' first birthday banquet was held with great fanfare, the palace finally became lively again.
The one-year-old ceremony of the Sixth Prince and the Fourth Princess was also quite interesting.
The Sixth Prince actually captured the Fourth Prince, and the Sixth Princess was even more surprising, as she crawled over and grabbed the bow and arrow prepared for her sixth brother.
Ye Jun held his forehead with his hand. None of these three children is serious.
While there were laughter and joy in Zhaochun Palace, Zhongcui Palace was very deserted.
Ever since she was stripped of her palace power last year, Ye Jun has deliberately held on to the power and not given it to Ning Chen without him saying anything. Now she is even inferior to Concubine Rong Shu and has no say in anything.
So during this time I have been thinking about how to regain some power.