Chapter 327 What a Glory

Time flies. It has been nearly three months since Xiyan and Manluo returned to Nanzhao.

Now, Xiyan is six months pregnant, and Manluo is more than five months pregnant.

At this moment, Xiyan was sitting beside Jiang Jingyue's couch, gently massaging her mother's limbs.

For the past three months, Xiyan had hardly ever left Jiang Jingyue's bedroom during the day except returning to her own Qionghua Palace to rest at night.

In addition to personally serving her mother meals, taking medicine, and washing her body, she also gave her massages to relax her muscles and promote blood circulation, so as to prevent her limbs from becoming stiff and atrophied due to long-term bed rest.

Most of the time, she would sit beside her mother's bed and tell her mother in detail what had happened to her over the years.

Over the past few months, Jiang Jingyue's pale face gradually turned red, and when he occasionally heard Xiyan's voice, his fingertips would tremble unconsciously.

When Xie Zhen learned about this, his eyes turned red in the court. He knew that his beloved wife, who had been sleeping for many years, was about to wake up.

When she has nothing to do, Xiyan will gently stroke her bulging belly.

The little life in my belly has grown a little bigger, and even the loose long skirt can no longer hide it.

As the months went by, the fetus in her belly began to wriggle restlessly. First, it gently swung its tail like a small fish, and then, a round little bulge appeared, which made her skirt tremble slightly.

She is now six months pregnant, and the baby's movements are getting louder and louder. It jumps around in her belly and punches her from time to time.

Every time, Xiyan would cover the bulge with a smile, and the fetus in her belly seemed to feel the love from its mother, and would kick vigorously again, as if responding to her touch.

Xiyan felt deeply the wonder of creation, and she murmured softly:

"Baby, are you a boy or a girl? Why are you so active? Whose temperament did you inherit from?"

Through her thin skin, she could feel the rhythm of life resonating with her own breathing, and an unprecedented softness suddenly filled her heart.

Once upon a time, she thought that this child was a shackle, an unbreakable evil bond with Xiao Nanyan, but when he announced his existence with fetal movements again and again in her belly, she was shocked to realize that this blood connection had long surpassed love and hate.

This child is already connected to her by blood.

Compared with her deep maternal love, Manluo didn't care at all.

Although she has been pregnant for more than five months, she is still carefree all day long, only knowing how to eat, drink and have fun, and has long forgotten about taking care of the fetus.

Xie Zhan was so nice to Manluo that he found all kinds of ways to take her to taste all the flavors of Nanzhao, from the fragrant bamboo tube rice on the street to the secret rose candy cake at the end of the street. They walked through the streets and alleys and enjoyed the food to their heart's content.

Manluo herself also found it strange. She didn't like sweet food before, but after having this child, her taste suddenly changed and she especially liked sweet food.

Thanks to Xie Zhan's careful "feeding", her figure became more and more plump, her originally slender waist was filled with soft flesh, and her breasts became bigger and bigger.

It looks like her belly is about the same size as Xiyan's.

Manluo joked: "Xiyan, if we are lucky, maybe our children can be born on the same day."

Xiyan, however, made two "Pooh" sounds. If that were the case, wouldn't it be difficult for her child to be born full-term?

…

When the Mid-Autumn Festival osmanthus fragrance permeated the walls of Nanzhao Palace, the city of Jiangdu was decorated like the Moon Palace with silver-scale paper flowers flying all over the sky.

The annual moon worship ceremony has arrived as scheduled.

Throughout the dynasties of Southern Zhao, there was a ceremony to worship the moon on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

On this day, an altar will be set up at Wangtiantai, the tallest building in Jiangdu, to enshrine a wooden sculpture of the Moon God and offerings of grains.

The priests recited the "Prayer for the Moon", declaring that "the moon god blesses the country and the people are at peace", and distributed the moon-wine to all officials, symbolizing that the king's power is granted by God and the country is prosperous.

On this day, all the people watch the ceremony. The emperor will lead the royal children to throw "Moon Goddess's Blessed Rice" to the audience. People will scramble to grab it in order to pray for good weather and a good harvest in the coming year.

Emperor Xie Zhen of Nanzhao attached great importance to this year's moon worship ceremony.

Because his beloved daughter who had been lost for many years had returned to the court, and he was eager to let his daughter go to the high observation tower, be the center of attention, and enjoy infinite glory.

But Xi Yan, when the palace maids carried colorful clothes into the bedroom, she was stroking her six-month pregnant belly, looking at the bulging figure in the bronze mirror with a frown -

The princess's identity as a pregnant princess before marriage was exposed in front of everyone in the Wangtian Tower, which was embarrassing.

Also, since the day she escaped from Feiyun Temple, Xiyan always felt that there was a hand in the dark that was driving everyone's destiny. This ominous premonition had long been like a thorn in her side.

She didn't want to expose herself to the sun all the time, simply because she was afraid of losing her hard-earned stable life.

She was not greedy for wealth and fame, nor did she want to be the center of attention. She only hoped that her mother would wake up soon, and she also hoped that the fetus in her belly would be born safely.

But her father, Emperor Xie Zhen, didn't care:

"Tian'er, you have been wandering outside for fifteen years. Now that you have returned to the palace, I will let all of Nanzhao know how honored my Princess Zhaoning is."

She knew that her father wanted to compensate her as much as possible for everything she had lost, and she couldn't bear to refuse his kindness, so she finally allowed the palace maid to pin the phoenix hairpin with red gold and kingfisher feathers into her hair.

Xiyan prayed silently in her heart:

I only hope that everything goes well with the Moon Festival Ceremony...