Chapter 13 Morning Sickness

No one can resist bunnies!!

What gave him the illusion that she was curious about what these people looked like?

But he was right. Apart from being curious about what these people looked like, she had no other reason to go see them.

More than twenty years later, she met a prince from the Dzungar Khanate, who was said to be a member of Galdan's clan. Anyone who could survive under the Kangxi Emperor must have some ability, and being a prince, he must have made contributions in this war, and probably also had a grudge against Galdan.

She wasn't interested in the details; she just wanted to see if he looked the same as he would decades later, and if not, what changes might have occurred.

"Whether it looks good or not, you'll only know after seeing it with your own eyes. Otherwise, how will you know if the Emperor is trying to trick me?" Chen Guanxue said, leaving Kangxi with no choice but to let her see it.

He had met those people, and none of them were attractive to her. Seeing that she insisted on seeing them, he agreed.

After leaving the tent, he instructed Liang Jiugong, "Have someone take them to bathe and change their clothes, and bring them back after they are ready."

If Chen Guanxue wanted to see it, she couldn't just let someone who was all dirty see it. Not only would it scare her, but the smell of the person would also make her uncomfortable.

Today, she showed signs of morning sickness while eating, and when she saw her favorite foods, she asked people to move them far away.

They had to bathe and change their clothes, and carefully treat their wounds. All of this took a lot of time, and by the time they were finally brought over, it was already dusk.

Chen Guanxue was helped to sit in a chair by Runxi. She saw several people kneeling on the ground and couldn't tell who she was meeting after more than twenty years.

After all, not everyone is like Emperor Kangxi, whose appearance remains unchanged for decades, and who can be recognized at a glance even twenty years ago.

Kangxi looked her up and down at the group of people, and when he saw that she had been looking at them for so long, his brows furrowed slightly.

It took Chen Guanxue a while to recognize the person from subtle movements. The person kneeling beside her pursed his lips repeatedly, clearly making a decision. After looking at him a few more times, she could also see that the shape of his eyes was somewhat familiar.

That must be the person; I wonder when he will surrender to Kangxi.

Just as she was wondering, she saw him suddenly raise his head and call out "Emperor" in Chinese.

If I remember correctly, his Chinese was quite good, because his mother had Han Chinese blood and taught him to speak Chinese. However, Chinese was much better twenty years later than it is now. Today, the emperor he is calling out to might be mistaken for "brother" if you don't hear him clearly.

The Mandarin spoken was somewhat amusing, and Chen Guanxue felt that what was to come was not something she could understand, so she raised her hand.

Runxi habitually reached out to help her up and led her into the tent.

She didn't know Mongolian or Manchu at first; it was only after Emperor Kangxi taught her for several years that she learned them. However, the current Emperor Kangxi doesn't know either. But she didn't want to hear these words, so she didn't plan to stay and listen to that person surrender.

After she left, Kangxi turned his attention to the other person, waved his hand and ordered his men to take the others away, and then ordered his men to take the person who had spoken into another tent.

He stayed with Chen Guanxue every night, but it was not appropriate to be in the battalion commander's tent during the day, so he used a nearby tent as his office.

After being led inside, the man switched to Mongolian and said somewhat urgently, "Galdan has always been very cruel. Many people in the Dzungars hoped that His Majesty would come."

How could Emperor Kangxi not know Galdan's brutality? Not only was he brutal, but he also exploited his own people. Many of his clansmen had long been unable to bear it, but they had no way to bring him down, so they had endured it.

This person has come knocking on our door; we could cooperate.

He wanted to keep this branch of the Mongols firmly in his grasp and didn't want others to disperse this power. If it were gradually devoured, it would only make other tribes stronger, which was not good.

After returning home, Chen Guanxue stopped paying attention to these people's affairs because she was starting to be tormented by the baby in her belly.

Ever since she started to hate the tastes she used to like, she knew that morning sickness and loss of appetite were just around the corner, but she didn't expect it to come so soon.

That evening, after smelling the sweet and sour pork ribs that were served, she turned her head to the side, covered her nose and mouth, and said with difficulty, "Take this dish away."

The servants quickly and efficiently carried the dishes away, but she still felt the smell hadn't dissipated, so she had someone fan her for a while before it was finally done.

Runxi picked up another piece of vegetarian food and put it in her bowl. It looked pretty good, so she put it in her mouth, chewed it a couple of times, and then spat it out.

There was nothing wrong with the dish; it even tasted the same as what she usually ate. But she just couldn't stand it in her mouth and couldn't swallow it.

She didn't eat much of the food that night, and finally had to drink a bowl of the white porridge that the imperial chef had cooked in advance to barely fill her up.

Kangxi did not come for dinner. Instead, he asked the man many questions and then made new plans for the upcoming battles before returning to his tent quite late.

He had assumed Chen Guanxue was asleep, but seeing the candlelight inside, he frowned and went in.

She was lying on the edge of the bed, patting her chest, clearly in great pain.

"What's going on? Has the imperial physician been summoned?"

She looked up, her face paler than usual, her eyes filled with exhaustion.

Runxi, who was standing to the side, handed a teacup to Kangxi and said, "Your Majesty is suffering from morning sickness. Calling the imperial physician is useless. You vomited up all the white porridge you ate tonight."

She usually eats refined foods, and it's impossible for her to just drink plain porridge at night. I knew it was a sudden change in her appetite.

There was nothing that could be done but to ask the imperial chef to change the dishes tomorrow, showing her one by one what she could eat.

When experiencing morning sickness, it's not a matter of liking or disliking something, but rather about what you can eat and what you can eat without vomiting.

"Let's have the imperial physician come and take a look tomorrow. It started like this, and we don't know what it will be like next." It was at this moment that Kangxi suddenly regretted bringing her here.

However, this regret was only momentary, and he would not feel at ease leaving her in the capital.

Chen Guanxue had vomited enough. After rinsing her mouth with water, she lay down, looking like she was going to sleep, and didn't want to talk to him at all.

She was really tired. It wasn't that she hadn't slept before; she had fallen asleep but suddenly felt nauseous and woke up abruptly.

Kangxi tucked the blanket around her, wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes, and placed his hand on her stomach, gently touching it.

This child is quite a handful. He was perfectly fine for a while, but when he throws a tantrum, he's absolutely unforgiving.

After touching her for a while, Chen Guanxue changed her position, turning to her side as if she were sleeping, before he went to wash up.

When we got back, I held her in my arms, smelled the fragrance in her hair, and placed my hand on her protruding belly.

This belly, once it started to grow, grew bigger day by day, as if it had been suppressed from growing before, and now that it has been released from its constraints, it will grow to a size that satisfies it before it stops.

The vomiting started on the first day and was quite a hassle, but this was just the beginning.

She started vomiting again early the next morning. She didn't want to eat a single bite of breakfast. After several changes, she finally ate a small half bowl of food when she was extremely hungry.

The imperial physicians were brought in early in the morning to take her pulse. Seeing her hurried appearance, they were quite frightened even though they knew it was just morning sickness.

These imperial physicians had been examining her since she entered the palace, and they knew how much Kangxi valued her. They were always very nervous about even the smallest things, and they all became extremely tense after she started experiencing morning sickness.

Morning sickness is not only agonizing, but it can also cause pregnant women to lose weight during this period, and not eating is also bad for the baby in the womb.

The imperial physician entered carrying his medicine chest. Before the group even got close, Chen Guanxue frowned and covered her mouth and nose with a handkerchief.

Having spent a long time in the Imperial Hospital, one would naturally pick up the smell of medicine on their clothes. You wouldn't be able to smell their scent unless you got close, but today it was as if her sense of smell was several times better. As soon as they came in, she could feel the bitter smell of medicine wafting into her nose.

"Don't bother with the formalities, take my pulse and get out of here quickly."

This was the first time they had heard her speak with such disdain. Remembering what Emperor Kangxi had said—that everything should be based on her word—they disregarded the formalities and knelt down to begin the pulse diagnosis.

After taking one pulse, he quickly left the tent at her instruction. Only after all three imperial physicians had come out did Runxi follow.

"Is my master's condition somewhat serious?" Runxi noticed that the imperial physicians were all frowning after whispering among themselves, indicating that the situation was far from ordinary.

The imperial physicians exchanged glances, and the oldest one said, "It's not too serious, but if this continues for too long, Miss Chen and the baby in her womb may not be able to withstand it. We need to change what she eats every day."

The imperial physicians gave a long explanation, which was nothing more than eating small, frequent meals, and that each meal should ideally contain foods that had a nourishing effect, so that even if the food was vomited up, some of it would still be ingested and not completely useless.

After the imperial physician left, these words were sent to the imperial chefs, and Emperor Kangxi heard them.

"Go and see what the imperial chefs are lacking, and provide everything they need. Also, have someone ask what they want to eat, and send it to them." Kangxi heard these words while resting and specifically instructed someone to relay the message.

It's not that we can't provide enough food, but more importantly, it's something she can eat.

The message was relayed several times, and Chen Guanxue, drinking the slightly salty water, actually felt a urge to eat something.

"I think I smelled meat in the distance yesterday. Go and ask what it is. Have the imperial chef make it and send it up today."

Runxi, who had been by her side all along, had never smelled or seen it before, but after hearing her mention it, someone naturally went to ask, and soon found out that it was rabbit meat.

I didn't expect it to be rabbit meat. It wasn't something I didn't want to eat, so I nodded and asked someone to cook it the way they had done it yesterday.

When Kangxi came again, he saw her carrying a piece of roasted rabbit meat that smelled deliciously charred, with a plate full of chili peppers next to her.

[Author's Note]

I'll probably update at midnight from now on... I've found that 9 o'clock isn't quite right.