The wet nurse rushed to Hongzhou's side and quickly shook the red charcoal fragments that had fallen on him. However, Hongzhou still burst into a loud cry.

"You little brat, do you want to die?!" Zhou, the wet nurse, shouted angrily as she picked up Hongzhou.

"Aunt Zhou, I didn't mean to. Please forgive me this time," Yunxi said hurriedly, taking the burnt charcoal basin of carrots she had been carrying.

“If you did it on purpose, you probably won’t survive. Not only will you not survive, but we will all suffer because of you.” The wet nurse Zhou glared at her fiercely, then began to check if Hongzhou’s skin under his clothes was burned. Although it had burned completely, seeing that the brocade clothes were immediately burned with holes, the wet nurse Zhou knew that the Seventh Prince had been burned.

"Oh dear, they've all developed red blisters. Yunxi, you're going to kill us all this time!" Granny Zhou said angrily. The other maids also went over to take a look, and each of them began to worry that they would be implicated.

“If you ask me, Madam Zhou, we should go and tell the concubine. Otherwise, if she finds out, she’ll think we’ve mistreated the Seventh Prince,” said another maid, Yunshan.

“Yes, that’s not right. We should all be punished because of her mistake,” said the maid, Green Water.

"Yunxi, do you understand now? It's your own fault for not being careful. The Seventh Prince was just recovering, and you burned him again." The wet nurse Zhou didn't want to cover for her anymore.

"I really didn't mean it. If you tell the concubine like that, I'll be punished," Yunxi said, her face full of tears.

"What are you talking about!" Cui Niang had just helped Lan Qin to the door of Hong Zhou's room when she heard the girls arguing inside.

When Zhou, the wet nurse, saw that Cui Niang and Lan Qin had just entered, she quickly carried Hong Zhou to them and curtsied, saying, "Consort, this servant is guilty. I was too slow just now and burned the young master."

Upon hearing this, Lanqin quickly looked at Hongzhou, who was sobbing. She noticed several holes in his clothes, clearly burned by charcoal.

"How could you be so careless! The Seventh Prince is still so young, this is unacceptable!" Cui Niang scolded anxiously.

Lanqin lifted the opening of the hole and saw two red, blistered spots on Hongzhou's lower abdomen.

"How could you have gotten such hot red charcoal on the Seventh Prince?" Lanqin asked with concern. No wonder she heard a child crying in the room when she came over.

"Yunxi was just about to change the pot of ancient pot, but when she took it from me, she lost her balance and spilled some of the burning red charcoal, which landed on the Seventh Prince," said Granny Zhou.

"Yunxi, how could you do this!" Cui Niang said angrily.

Lanqin glanced at the girl kneeling on the ground a few times, and said to Zhou the wet nurse, "Go and apply some medicine to Hongzhou first. He should be left open, otherwise his clothes will rub against it and hurt."

Everyone hurriedly fetched medicine for Hongzhou and undressed him, afraid of being scolded by Cui Niang for making a mistake.

Yunxi remained kneeling on the ground, and no one paid her any attention.

After treating Hongzhou's wounds, Lanqin called Yunxi over.

"What do you think should be done with you?" Cui Niang said for Lan Qin when she didn't speak.

"Please, Consort, I didn't mean it. It was truly careless. I promise I won't do it again," Yunxi pleaded, kneeling.

"Yunxi, go out and get thirty strokes of the cane! Then kick her out and report to the head nanny." Lanqin thought for a moment, then stopped scolding her and ignored her after saying this.

Yunxi was led out crying. When Cui Niang saw that Lanqin was finally starting to punish the maids, she said, "This time, the mistress did the right thing. These maids are clumsy and need to be punished!"

"Yes, if we hadn't given them a warning, they wouldn't have known how meticulous we were. How come Hongzhou is such a worry?" Lanqin thought to herself, her voice filled with concern.

"My lady, please don't overthink it. It's just a matter of a maid not being careful enough. Just send her away and replace her with a better one," Cui Niang said quickly, knowing what Lan Qin was thinking.

“I’m not changing it. I’ll have to adapt to whatever I get,” Lanqin said.

Yunxi was given thirty lashes and carried out. Afterwards, Lanqin instructed Cui Niang to bring her medicine and told her to find someone to look after Yunxi until she recovered before going to the head nanny's place.

This was the first time Lanqin had ever hit someone with a board. She wanted to let those who served Hongzhou know that if they didn't serve him well, Yunxi would be an example of what would happen next.

Sure enough, after Yunxi was attacked, there were no more human-caused mistakes on Hongzhou's side for quite some time.

Time flew by and it was already January. The 49th year of Kangxi's reign had passed, and the 50th year of Kangxi's reign had arrived. Lanqin and Nianshi prepared for the New Year together. Sometimes, Lanqin would deliberately delegate tasks to Nianshi. Sure enough, with things to do, Nianshi didn't have much time to dwell on jealousy and resentment. For a time, the inner quarters were peaceful and quiet.

However, Lady Wuya was ultimately restless. She would try to seduce the Fourth Prince from time to time, and she always had a variety of ways to do so. The Fourth Prince's attitude towards her was neither too close nor too distant; he was neither overly enthusiastic nor too cold towards her.

When reporting the year's medicinal herb usage to Lanqin at the pharmacy in the manor, he specifically mentioned that a lady in the inner quarters had a great need for a certain medicine, requesting it almost several times a month.

Lanqin took a look and saw that it was actually Chinese medicine such as Angelica sinensis and Astragalus membranaceus. Seeing that it was not very expensive, she said to the steward, "If Madam Wuya likes to eat it, then give it to her."

When the steward heard Lanqin say this, he whispered, "Consort, these medicines are for promoting pregnancy."

Lanqin roughly understood what the steward meant. She knew he was trying to curry favor with her, but if someone wanted to drink this kind of beverage, could she really stop them?

"Just keep supporting her as before, it's not like she's anything very expensive," Lanqin said, waving her hand.

After the steward left, Cui Niang said to Lan Qin, "Master, I think we shouldn't have let her drink like that. If Wuya really is pregnant with the master's child, it will only strengthen her position in the master's heart."

Lanqin felt uncomfortable when Wuya was mentioned. Seeing Cui Niang's words, she said lazily, "If I don't give it to her, she'll just have someone buy it from outside. What if she uses this to badmouth me to the Fourth Master? It's better not to let her have any leverage over me."

"Why don't we push this matter onto Consort Nian? She doesn't want to see that one gain favor either," said Cui Niang.

“We don’t need to go. That person just now didn’t get a reward from me, so he’ll probably go to the Yue family’s place,” Lanqin said.

"Hmm. Master, these opportunists. Ever since Madam Nian took over the household, many of those who used to fawn over the South Courtyard have now all gone to the East Courtyard," said Cui Niang.