Having said that, the top boss of the Qi Dynasty summoned him, and he was not busy saving people, so he had to stop what he was doing quickly. Besides, Xiaocao had a very good impression of Emperor Xuanren, so he followed Eunuch Hong into the palace as soon as possible.
After entering the palace, Eunuch Hong took Xiao Cao directly to the Empress Dowager's Anci Palace. There were quite a few people present, and the Empress Dowager was of course indispensable. Emperor Xuanren was not there, probably because he died of something. Otherwise, there would be no need to ask Eunuch Hong to find her. Princess Fukang was holding a baby in her arms. Young Master Fan was sitting crookedly beside her, looking bored. There were also two women kneeling on the ground, a middle-aged woman and a girl. Judging from their clothes, they were not from high-class families, but probably from a wealthy family. They were trembling with fear from head to toe.
Xiao Cao was confused but did not show it on his face. He greeted everyone one by one.
After saying no need to be polite, Princess Fukang waved to Xiaocao and said, "Come here, girl, take a look at this child."
Xiao Cao stepped forward and after taking a look, she seemed to understand something. This child had cleft lip and palate, just like Young Master Fan. However, unlike Young Master Fan who only had cleft lip, he also had cleft palate. Although it was not very serious, at the moment, it was almost at the monster level. The most basic thing was that it affected his eating. As time went on, the situation would only get worse.
Xiaocao asked for some water, washed her hands carefully, then carefully pinched the child's mouth open. While gently coaxing the child, she gently probed the situation inside the child's mouth, and it was pretty much as expected.
"How is it? Can it be cured?" Princess Fukang asked. As long as she was not blind, she could see that this child's condition was different from her son's. It would not be possible to restore him to normal appearance with simple repair and suturing.
"Yes, but it's more troublesome than the young master's case, because he is still young, and he may need a second repair in the future. The specific time depends on his condition when he grows up, but it is indeed within the controllable range. If the situation is good, it is not impossible to restore his normal appearance. But even in the worst case, the mouth and nose will look a little uglier, but the impact is not big."
Xiao Cao said as she touched the child's head.
"Is that so? That's great." Princess Fukang said softly, touching the child's face with a bit of pity and love, "This child is eight months old and is well taken care of. It shows that his mother is also a good mother."
Princess Fukang seemed to have some different feelings in her words, but this is normal, isn't it? However, she was able to withstand all the pressure and raise her son, and the child's mother was different.
"This child is Wuguo's cousin, the grandson of the eldest branch of the Fan family. However, there is no such person in the Fan family. After the child was born, they clearly heard crying, but the child was not taken out of the delivery room. Then they said that he was dead. After giving birth, her mother was covered in blood. She knelt on the ground and kowtowed to her mother-in-law and husband. Her head was broken and bleeding. It was probably because of Wuguo's precedent that the child's life was barely saved. She was quietly sent out of the Fan family and raised by servants. Only then did she live to this day."
Xiao Cao was silent for a moment, and couldn't help but ask, "How is his mother now?"
Princess Fukang looked at Xiaocao and smiled. "Girl, you should know that not everyone is as lucky as me. I just didn't die."
It's not just a matter of birth. If a prince is not favored, he will still be stepped on, let alone a princess. When she gave birth to the child, the battle for the throne was in full swing. An imperfect child would not only affect her, but also her mother and brother. Some people wanted to use her as a scapegoat to target her closest relatives. However, her brother chose to protect her instead of abandoning her, even though he knew it would bring trouble to himself and add obstacles to his path to becoming an emperor, he never hesitated.
It was because of this that, when Emperor Xuanren encountered an assassination attempt before he ascended the throne, Princess Fukang did not hesitate to protect him with her own body. It was said that it was because of her life-saving grace that Emperor Xuanren treated them and their son with special favor. However, this was not the whole reason.
As long as an imperfect child is born, in addition to the mother herself, her family will naturally be affected. The husband's family may hide it from others, but most likely not from her family. First, they will tell her family clearly the reason why their daughter is neglected. Second, of course, they will use it to gain benefits, just like the Fan family took advantage of Fan Wuguo's incident to suck Princess Fukang's blood. Even if she was pampered in the past, all the love and care may become nothing when encountering such a thing. She is already despised and hated by her husband's family, and without the support of her family, one can imagine what her fate will be. If she doesn't die immediately, she will be struggling to survive.
Therefore, Princess Fukang was indeed very lucky to have a brother like Emperor Xuanren, who did not despise his disabled nephew, nor did he think it was a sin for his sister to give birth to an imperfect child.
Xiao Cao was silent. At the same time, she almost knew the key person in this matter. It must be said that her favorability towards Emperor Xuanren increased a lot. "The cleft lip and palate is due to the Fan family, right?"
Although Xiaocao does not want to get involved in other people's affairs, the blame for the appearance of an imperfect child lies with the biological mother. Even if it is really caused by some reasons of their own, they are considered to be extremely sinful and are punished by God. It is so sad that ignorance brings real sin, especially for those truly innocent women.
It would be fine if you didn’t know, but since you know, how could you pretend to be deaf and dumb
Princess Fukang nodded. "Looking back several decades, there are five confirmed cases, including Wuguo and this child. The other three were killed right after birth. We, the mothers, have no blood relationship at all. In addition, we accidentally found one case, a daughter of the Fan family who was married off. She was Wuguo's cousin, but we didn't know about it before. Because of this, the Fan family was blackmailed a lot behind the scenes. After all, I, a princess, gave birth to a child with defects, and a girl from the Fan family gave birth to a child with the same defects. If it were to be exposed, the Fan family would still dare to blame me for everything, which would be a bit unreasonable."
Princess Fukang spoke in a light tone, but the matter itself was so ironic.
"So, it turns out that there is something wrong with the bloodline of the Fan family, right?"
Xiaocao nodded. To be honest, it was so obvious that there was no way to find an excuse to exonerate the Fan family.
At this moment, Xiaocao was at least glad that the source was not in the royal family, otherwise, the matter would have been suppressed. After all, the royal bloodline actually had defects, and if something went wrong, it might even cause the country to be shaken. Now, the source was in the Fan family, not to mention Princess Fukang, even Emperor Xuanren and the Queen Mother would not let it go.
Xiaocao thought it was a good idea to expose the matter. Perhaps she could take the opportunity to educate the world, so that everything would not be blamed on the woman. She had been pregnant for ten months and risked half her life to give birth to the child, but now she had to face a tragic situation that was worse than death.
However, in this case, the girls of the Fan family would be implicated. After all, knowing that they might give birth to incomplete children, other wealthy families would definitely reject the girls of the Fan family, except for those families that have designs on the Fan family. Then, the marriage prospects of the girls of the Fan family would be downgraded by more than one level. If she meets someone with ambitious ambitions again, who knows how angry he would be.
"So, it's not my fault that I have flaws, right?"
This is obvious, is there any need to ask? Although Xiaocao was confused, he still nodded.
"It's not my fault..." Princess Fukang looked down at the child in her arms and whispered, then suddenly looked up at the Queen Mother, "Mother, do you have anything to say?"
Xiaocao realized belatedly that the Queen Mother seemed to be too quiet today. Apart from telling her not to be polite at the beginning, she didn't say a word afterwards. It seemed a little abnormal.
At this moment, looking at Princess Fukang with a complicated expression, "Fukang..."
"Mother, I am not a nuisance. I have done nothing wrong."
The empress dowager's expression changed again, "Fukang, it was mother's fault back then. It was mother's fault, and you are right to be angry with her. But now..." The empress dowager sighed, and it was unclear whether she couldn't continue or didn't know what to say.
Princess Fukang retracted her gaze, "For more than ten years, I have always believed that I was really sinful and had implicated you and my brother. I also know that you were not really cruel to me at the beginning, but if my brother could not ascend the throne, we would have lost our lives together. So, I understand what you did, but I still feel very uncomfortable. But now, the thing that has been weighing on my heart for more than ten years is just a joke..."
It's like something that was accumulated in my heart suddenly disappeared. Half of it felt empty as if it had nowhere to put its weight on, and the other half seemed to have another kind of depression that made it extremely uncomfortable. I don't know how to get rid of this feeling.
This obviously involves the private affairs of Princess Fukang and the Queen Mother. Xiaocao is like a wooden stake.
On the contrary, Master Fan next to him actually knew the reason why his mother and grandmother were not so close. It was his grandmother who told him personally. Master Fan actually could not quite understand his mother's thoughts. In his opinion, it was really not a big deal, but it had been remembered for more than ten years. In his opinion, it was purely idleness.
Fan Wuguo threw the half-peeled nut back and said, "Mom, if you really have nothing to do, just peel nuts for the Fan family. You are in the right now and you are a princess, so you can do whatever you want. It is sometimes very refreshing and a good way to kill time to bully others. I believe that as long as you don't kill everyone in the Fan family and burn down the Fan family, there will be no problem. Grandmother, don't you agree?"
The empress dowager nodded in agreement. She was furious and wanted to confiscate the Fan family. However, this was ultimately a private matter. If it escalated to the level of confiscating the family and exterminating the clan, that would be ridiculous. The empress dowager would not lose her mind. Now, as her grandson said, it would be good to leave it to her daughter to vent. No matter how upset she was, she could vent it more. Her daughter had been holding it in her heart for more than ten years and was unhappy because she was competing with her.
Princess Fukang looked at Fan Wuguo with a helpless look, and nodded at him, "You. But, Wuguo, what you said might be a good idea." We were going to settle accounts with the Fan family, weren't we? "You two, get up, and follow me out of the palace to the Fan family later. I think you have been particularly worried about your master's condition for the past six months. From now on, you don't have to live secretly outside with the child. Not to mention that the child can be cured, even if he can't, he can stay in the Fan family with a clear conscience. If anyone bullies the child, I will take care of him."
Because they were worried that the Fan family would go back on their word after making a promise, the two servants left the Fan family and secretly moved to several places. But yesterday, someone suddenly came to their house. They thought it was someone from the Fan family and were terrified. Fortunately, the young master had been well taken care of, but they were still worried. Today, they were brought to the palace and finally learned the whole story. They suddenly realized that the young master's disability was not caused by them, right
This realization made them unable to recover for a long time, and now, it told them that the young master still had the possibility of becoming a normal person? Princess Fukang also said that she would protect him? Was this a dream
The two did not respond, and Princess Fukang did not say anything. She asked Xiaocao to sit down and said, "The emperor may have something else to ask you, so wait a moment." Xiaocao was indeed summoned to the palace by Emperor Xuanren. She had already helped a lot, and there was no need for her to get involved. Even if it was about the Fan family, she had thought of an excuse. Those children with defects in the Fan family all had the blood of the Fan family. Even if they were guilty of a serious crime, they were still the Fan family.
After Xiaocao sat down, he felt quite at ease.
It might take some time for Princess Fukang to get along with the Queen Mother, but the atmosphere is now relaxed.
The Empress Dowager was a wise woman. She could probably guess what Emperor Xuanren wanted to ask Xiaocao. The child had a defect, not just cleft lip and palate. Although most children with problems were "gone" at birth, they did exist. If the cause was known, could this situation be reduced
As for these, Xiaocao naturally knows everything and will tell you everything. As for problems like deformities, most of them are actually caused by external factors. As long as you pay attention, deformities will be rare. Especially now, the food we eat is natural, and there are no messy chemical drugs, so the situation will naturally be even rarer. And the proportion caused by genetics is even smaller. However, Xiaocao still thought of another point, that is, inbreeding, and wondered if it is appropriate to bring this up now
"Xuan girl, do you have any doubts?"
In fact, this may be a good opportunity. After all, inbreeding is essentially a genetic issue.
Xiaocao was thinking about how to organize the language so that people could understand it.