Chapter 96 Chapter 96 At this moment, Li Shuyao suddenly...

Among the midwives who came to help Qingyao give birth, there were two familiar faces who had also helped Li Shuyao give birth before.

Therefore, Li Shuyao now reasonably suspects that maybe the two of them said something in front of the other midwives that caused them to have a distorted impression of themselves.

Li Shuyao moved her lips, wanting to explain.

But after the midwife in charge said that, she quickly turned around, gently took the ginseng slice out of Qingyao's mouth, carefully wrapped it in a handkerchief, and placed it on the small table beside the bed.

The other midwives were busy with their own things, and no one looked at Li Shuyao again.

Li Shuyao stood there in a daze for a while, meeting Qingyao's somewhat teasing gaze, and then her cheeks quickly became hot.

She finally figured out what the midwife meant by what she had just said.

What the midwife meant was, “There’s an idiot here!”

Why is she so stupid? It's obviously because she is too concerned!

But no one wanted to hear her explanation at this moment.

The midwives were busy around Qingyao for a while. After making the bed, they all left the bed and lowered the curtains on both sides little by little, leaving only two midwives waiting inside the curtains. The others began to make other preparations.

When he passed by Li Shuyao, he smiled carefully and coaxed her to sit on a chair beside him with gentle words as if he was coaxing a child.

He pressed another plate of snacks into her hands and said, "Empress Yi is fine now, but I don't know how long it will take for her to open her cervix. Empress Ling should eat while she waits."

Li Shuyao couldn't help but looked up and glared at her, saying, "I, I'm not in the mood to eat right now. I want to go inside and keep Qingyao company, even if it's just to talk..."

Before she could finish her words, she was interrupted by the midwife, "But Concubine Yi needs to rest well and accumulate strength now."

Li Shuyao: "..."

She clenched the porcelain plate in her hand, was silent for a moment, and nodded reluctantly, "Well, okay then."

Then he raised his voice to Qingyao behind the bed curtains, "Qingyao, don't be afraid. I'm here with you. If you're really bored, just listen to the sound of me eating. How about that?"

Qingyao suppressed the severe pain and paused for a moment.

Then he felt a little bit amused and helpless.

She took a deep breath, tried her best to be in the best condition, and shouted out with a trembling voice, "I know, eat quickly."

Only then did Li Shuyao pinch a piece of amber walnut kernel and put it into her mouth.

A pair of watery almond-shaped eyes kept moving back and forth on the crimson bed curtains. Although she tried to chew very hard on purpose, the food still tasted bland.

I don’t know how much time has passed.

As the amber walnut kernels on her plate were almost gone, she heard the voices of palace servants outside, all greeting in unison, "...Your Majesty, Your ...

The Emperor and the Imperial Concubine have arrived!

Li Shuyao's eyes suddenly lit up. She put the plate on the table, picked up her skirt and ran out.

The movement was so fast that Tian Jiarou and Yue Shu couldn't stop it at all.

The two of them only felt a flash before their eyes, as if something whizzed past.

When she was about to turn around and tell her queen, she suddenly realized that the person who just ran out seemed to be her queen?

Li Shuyao ran outside and quickly curtsied. Before the emperor could call her, she eagerly stepped forward and grabbed the man's bright yellow sleeve, pleading pitifully, "Your Majesty, I'm staying with Qingyao in here, and the longer I stay, the more scared I get. Could you please allow the imperial concubine to go in with me to guard?"

Before the emperor could answer, Concubine Tong quickly responded, "Yes, yes, I will accompany you in right away."

"Really? That's great!" Li Shuyao's charming little face quickly broke into a smile.

She felt that with Concubine Tong in charge, she would never make the same low-level mistakes as before, and the midwives would naturally have no excuse to laugh at her.

Li Shuyao happily took Concubine Tong's hand and left.

Only the emperor was left standing there.

The dark eyes that were always wise were now filled with astonishment and disbelief.

He couldn't believe that his favorite concubine would just pull his cousin away right in front of him...

And his cousin didn't show any resistance at all.

Concubine Ling, Concubine Yi, and his cousin... When did the relationship between the three of them become so close?

This is not the end yet.

Upon hearing the news that Concubine Yi had suddenly launched an attack in the Yikun Palace, the other concubines quickly rushed over from their respective palaces.

Concubine Duan, Concubine Xi and Concubine Jing were closer and arrived almost at the same time as the emperor.

After entering, they didn't see Li Shuyao, and they immediately understood, "Excuse me, Your Majesty, is Concubine Ling guarding Concubine Yi in there?"

Duanpin said: "Lingpin has less experience in childbirth than me, so I'd better go in and take a look."

Jingpin and Xipin looked at each other and asked at the same time: "I want to go in and take a look too, just to gain some experience."

After hearing this, the emperor looked a little depressed.

But he did not stop it, just waved his hand silently, meaning that he agreed.

So Duanpin and the others turned around and left.

After a while, Concubine Hui and Concubine Rong also arrived.

The two of them had more experience than Concubine Duan. After coming in, they took a quick look and quickly understood what was going on. They immediately asked the emperor to let them go in and help take care of things.

The emperor seemed to be accustomed to such requests. He didn't even raise his head when he heard it, but waved his hand again with a slightly restrained expression.

Huipin and Rongpin supported each other and entered the delivery room.

Concubine An was the last one to arrive at the Yiku Palace. When she arrived, she just saw Su Malagu and several old maids from the Cining Palace disappear at the door of the delivery room. Her heart trembled instantly, thinking that something had happened to Concubine Yi.

So she hurriedly saluted the emperor, and then said in a trembling voice: "Your Majesty, I, I am a little worried about Concubine Yi..."

"Okay, I understand. You can go in." The expression on the emperor's face was particularly "pleasant".

Let’s go, let’s go, one or two of you.

What's the point of leaving him alone outside? Go and accompany Concubine Yi inside, oh no, go and accompany Concubine Ling.

As a grown man, how could he be jealous of Concubine Ling?

Haha, ridiculous.

Concubine An did not understand the hidden meaning of his words, nor did she notice that there was anything wrong with his expression.

Seeing that he agreed, she immediately turned around and ran into the delivery room, picking up the hem of her skirt.

The remaining noble ladies and maids were not of high enough rank, so they were persuaded to go back by the head nanny of the Yikun Palace, Nanny He, as soon as they reached the gate of the Yikun Palace.

Of course, these people do not include Noble Lady Bu and Noble Lady Nara.

Because they both had royal heirs to raise, they got the emperor's approval and were allowed in by Nanny He.

After entering, they saw the emperor and Eunuch Liang sitting alone at the door of the delivery room. Even though they were worried about Concubine Yi's condition, they did not dare to ask to enter the delivery room at this time. They had to stand on the emperor's left and right.

While listening attentively to the movements in the delivery room, she absentmindedly said a few words of blessing to comfort the emperor.

The emperor listened quietly and felt that his harem was very unfamiliar.

*

When Li Shuyao gave birth to her baby, she felt great pain and the birth happened very quickly.

All in all, from the time her pants were soaked with amniotic fluid to the time she gave birth to the baby smoothly, only two hours passed.

When it was Qingyao's turn, things were completely different.

The baby in her belly seems to be a very slow-paced baby.

Li Shuyao held Concubine Tong's hand and waited inside for more than an hour. Only when all the concubines and ladies in the harem arrived did Qingyao's cries from behind the bed curtain gradually begin to become uncontrollable and sharp and painful.

Li Shuyao quickly grabbed a midwife who was passing by and asked her, "Is Qingyao about to give birth?"

The midwife raised her hand to wipe the sweat from her forehead, her face full of joy: "It's almost there, it's almost there."

Li Shuyao never doubted the midwife's words. When she heard her say that, she quickly let go of her hand and let her continue with her work.

He looked at Concubine Tong with sparkling eyes, "Sister Concubine, she said it will be soon."

The concubine nodded, "I understand."

Li Shuyao then turned to Huipin and said, "Sister Huipin, she said it's almost time. Does that mean she's almost done giving birth?"

Huipin pondered for a moment and said, "This should mean that the birth is about to begin, right?"

Li Shuyao said "Oh" and then she remembered what question she had asked.

She continued to stare blankly at Rongpin, "Since it's about to start, it should be over soon, right?"

Rongpin shook her head, clutching her handkerchief, looking rather worried. "I don't know either. It all depends on Yipin's stamina and whether she can give birth to the baby smoothly."

At this time, Duanpin was sitting next to her. She seemed to be recalling some past events, and her pretty cheeks suddenly turned scary pale.

She even stopped breathing.

Just at this moment, Li Shuyao turned around to talk to her, and then she noticed her abnormality. She hurriedly patted the back of Rongpin's hand and signaled her to look at Duanpin's expression first.

The way she clapped her hands was quite obvious, and immediately several people gave her confused looks at the same time.

Then he followed Li Shuyao's gaze and noticed that something was wrong with Concubine Duan.

Concubine Jing cried out softly, "Ouch!" and walked towards Concubine Duan with Concubine Xi.

I don’t know what she said to Concubine Duan, but she slowly recovered her breathing and a faint color appeared on her face again.

Then Jingpin and Xipin helped Duanpin go outside to rest.

After the few people left, Li Shuyao looked at Rongpin with some confusion.

Rongpin coughed lightly with an unnatural expression, leaned closer, and whispered in her ear: "She must be thinking of her first child."

"Danpin was inexperienced at the time and pushed recklessly during childbirth, leading to exhaustion at the end. The little princess was trapped inside her for a while, and when she came out, she had some bruises on her body and was a little weak. She died within half a year."

"This has always been a hurdle in Concubine Duan's heart. You must remember this: never use such things to provoke her in the future."

After hearing this, Li Shuyao was stunned, and for some reason a plot from the original book came to her mind.

It was only then that she understood that the conversation the heroine had arranged for someone to have in the rockery in the imperial garden was meant to provoke Concubine Duan to lose her mind and attack her like crazy...

Isn’t she afraid that Concubine Duan will really get her into trouble?

Li Shuyao thought about it again and remembered more details about the plot of "Duanpin's death".

——The heroine deliberately chose the time when the palace guards were about to patrol near the imperial garden. Then, under the pretext of going to the Imperial Household Department to move flowers, she brought a few strong eunuchs with her, and even brought Tian Jiarou, who was good at pharmacology, with her.

Because Tian Jiarou suffered from bullying by other palace servants in her early years, she always carried a set of silver needles with her when she went out. She was also very familiar with the acupuncture points around the human body and knew exactly where to insert the silver needles to make a person lose all their strength immediately.

Thinking back to this, Li Shuyao gradually discovered some clues in the book.

It seems that most of the famous palace fighting scenes that the heroine of the original book experienced when she first entered the palace were instigated by her herself.

It's like she knew very well that Concubine Tong didn't like her, but she still took advantage of the time when Concubine Tong was accompanying the emperor to visit the imperial garden to deliberately knock over the glass jade in the hands of a palace maid. Then, when the emperor came over to check, she was very scheming and sat sideways on the ground, pretending to unintentionally reveal her most pitiful and fragile side, in order to seduce the emperor away from Concubine Tong.

In order to instigate Huipin and the eldest prince to fight with the crown prince, she deliberately said many things in front of Huipin, saying that the eldest prince was not as good as His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

He also used the troupe to choreograph several operas, intentionally or unintentionally hinting to Concubine Rong that the reason she lost so many children in the past was probably because of her own lack of moral character, which led to such an end. Unfortunately, those children paid off her debt with their lives.

…

When I read the book, because I was reading from the heroine's perspective, I understood her ambition to get to the top from the very beginning. So watching her use her own advantages, her smart mind, and her unparalleled wisdom to step on others and climb up little by little... It was really cool!

But now it’s different.

She traveled into the books and became friends with the people who were marked as "cannon fodder" or "villains" in these books. They developed relationships and connections with each other. They became familiar with each other's personalities and played, laughed, and made trouble together.

When I recalled the plot of the book again, I only felt the original author's full malice towards historical figures.

No wonder, after Uya disappeared, the entire harem suddenly became something she didn't recognize at all.

She was so frightened that she even wondered if she had entered the wrong book.

Li Shuyao raised her hand and patted her chest with lingering fear.

It’s great that Uya is offline!

She really likes the current atmosphere in the harem and doesn't want it to be like the original book, where everyone hates each other and fights with each other like black-eyed chickens.

When Rongpin and others saw her patting her chest, they mistakenly thought that she was thankful that she did not make the same mistake as Duanpin when she gave birth to her first child.

Rongpin smiled and clapped her hands twice. Without saying anything more, she turned her head and paid attention to Yipin's progress again.

Li Shuyao came back to her senses and realized that she was still at Qingyao's childbirth. She immediately forgot all the plot scenes in the original book and the lucky feeling in her heart.

He followed Concubine Tong and the others nervously.

After waiting for about another quarter of an hour, or about half an hour, I heard the midwife's voice becoming increasingly excited from behind the bed curtains.

Just like what she heard when she was dizzy before, "It's started, it's started, Concubine Yi, push harder!"

After shouting "Push harder," "Push harder" for a while, it turned into "I can see the end," "I can see the end"...

Has the brain been born?

Li Shuyao held the handkerchief tightly in her hand, and she didn't even feel the pain when the nail on her little finger was split.

The heartbeat sounded like a war drum, beating quickly and loudly in my ears.

She was so nervous that she couldn't even hear the movements of the people around her. She just stared at the crimson bed curtain not far away without blinking. She didn't even realize when she bit her lips and made them bleed.

...How much longer will it take?

Li Shuyao felt that she had never felt so uncomfortable when she gave birth to a baby.

It felt as if ten thousand cockroaches were crawling all over my body.

Ugh, this metaphor is so disgusting!

Or change...

“It’s coming out, it’s coming out soon!”

The bed curtains not far away suddenly rolled violently like waves.

A midwife came out holding a pale baby in her hands. She held the baby's legs in her hands, raised them high, and quickly lowered her other hand with a "pop" sound.

"Wow--" The newly born cub made a loud power-on sound.

"It's born, it's born, great! Concubine Yi has finally given birth!"

"It seems that mother and child are safe. Quick, send someone out to tell the emperor the good news."

"You said before that it was a little prince or a little princess. How could I have forgotten?"

"Little brother, didn't Doctor Xu tell you?"

The voices of Huipin, Rongpin and others seemed to come from far away.

It's hazy and unreal.

Li Shuyao's brain was like a rusty machine. It took her several minutes to realize that Qingyao had given birth.

Li Shuyao and Concubine Tong stood there for a long time before they came to their senses one after another. They rushed to Qingyao's bed in tacit understanding and carefully reached out to open the bed curtain a small gap.

On the bed, several midwives were cleaning the blood off Qingyao's body.

When he saw the bed curtain being lifted, he immediately frowned and looked up to scold, but as soon as his eyes met the faces of Concubine Tong and Li Shuyao, the scolding on the tip of his tongue was swallowed back into his stomach.

He could only urge quickly, "The two ladies, please come in and talk for a while. Don't let the cold air outside seep in."

Li Shuyao and Concubine Tong quickly agreed like two primary school students, lowered the bed curtains, took a few steps closer, and used their bodies to shield Qingyao from the cold air outside the bed.

Qingyao was in a half-asleep and half-awake state at this time, and she didn't even seem to notice when Li Shuyao and Concubine Tong came over.

Li Shuyao's nostrils were filled with the unpleasant smell of blood. She frowned and looked at Qingyao's lower body with a little heartache, then restrained herself and retracted her gaze. She stretched out her hand to shake Qingyao, but halfway through, she remembered that Qingyao had just given birth to a baby and should have a good rest at this time.

So he pinched his fingertips and withdrew his hand with a lost expression.

She and Concubine Tong stood by the bed and looked at Qingyao for a long time, watching her slowly close her eyes and her breathing gradually become steady and regular, knowing that she had fallen asleep. The bloodstains under her body were wiped clean bit by bit by several midwives, and she was replaced with a new mattress and new pants, and covered with a quilt.

The two of them then turned around and walked out from behind the bed curtain.

I went to the outer room and planned to take a look at the baby Qingyao gave birth to.

After the baby's butt was patted and the first sound of power on was heard, the midwife took the baby aside to deal with the umbilical cord.

Concubine An and Concubine Hui were still waiting there, and the sound of heavy footsteps could be heard from outside the house from time to time.

Li Shuyao heard the voice and suddenly remembered something. She asked, "Have the sisters sent anyone out to deliver a letter to the emperor?"

Huipin nodded, pinching her handkerchief and saying, "Yes, I sent it. I sent someone out to deliver the message right after the baby was born."

Li Shuyao tilted her head and asked again, "Then... aren't you planning to go out and personally announce the good news to the Emperor?"

This time, it was Rongpin who absentmindedly flicked her handkerchief. Still looking in the direction the baby was being carried away, she softly replied, "We've waited all this time, so a little while longer isn't a big deal. It's more important to see the little prince born by Yipin first. Hey, here he comes."

When she called out, Concubine Hui and Concubine An hurriedly followed her to the midwife.

Several people surrounded the baby tightly.

Li Shuyao stood outside the crowd, so anxious that she wanted to jump up and down.

She circled around them twice but couldn't find a gap big enough for her to fit in. She tried to get closer, but before she could put her hands on Rongpin and Huipin's shoulders, they pushed her away without even turning their heads. "Lingpin, go play by yourself for a while. Be obedient."

Play?

What are you playing!

Who is Qingyao's best friend?

Qingyao had given birth to a baby with great difficulty, but before she could even take a look at it, they snatched it away and hid it like a treasure, leaving no space for it. Is this reasonable?

ah?

Like words?

Li Shuyao puffed her cheeks in dissatisfaction and turned her head to complain to Concubine Tong, but she glanced at her lightly and said, "You dance here. I'll go out and see the emperor first."

After saying that, he walked away, shaking his handkerchief.

It seemed as if he was really not curious about the baby Qingyao gave birth to.

And...it also made her attempt to squeeze through the crack seem particularly childish...

Li Shuyao looked at Concubine Tong's back, then looked at the bad guys on the other side who surrounded the baby and didn't want her to see it. She pursed her lips and thought for about two seconds, then snorted loudly at their backs.

If they don't show it to her, the worst that can happen is that she goes out and complains to the emperor!

Just go.

She quickly caught up with Concubine Tong, and with unusually brisk steps, she ran to the emperor two steps faster than Concubine Tong, grabbed his sleeve and began to act coquettishly: "Your Majesty, please look at Concubine Hui, Concubine An, and Concubine Rong. They, they surrounded the little prince born by Qingyao and won't let me see him!"

Concubine Tong, who walked out two steps behind her, was speechless after hearing this: "..."

She said, "What do you mean by not showing it to you? It's just that Huipin and the others were too excited and forgot about you for a moment. Is it worth it for you to run to the emperor to complain?"

As soon as Concubine Tong finished speaking, she heard several messy footsteps at the door of the delivery room.

It was Concubine Hui who came out holding the newly born little prince from Yiku Palace.

Her face was filled with joy, as if she had given birth to a child herself. She walked straight past Li Shuyao, approached the emperor, and handed him the swaddling clothes. "Your Majesty, look, the little prince's nose and eyebrows are so much like yours."

Concubine Rong and Concubine An also came over quickly.

Together with Concubine Duan and Concubine Bu who had been waiting outside the house earlier, they once again pushed Li Shuyao away from the emperor and to the outermost edge of the crowd.

Li Shuyao's hand was still holding the sleeve, but the bright yellow cloth in her palm had disappeared long ago.

And this time, she was the only one left behind.

——I don’t know how Concubine Tong did it, but when Concubine Hui passed by her with the swaddling clothes, she was the first to walk to the other side of the emperor and stand shoulder to shoulder with him, and then she was surrounded by several other concubines present in the middle.

It’s fine if I saw Qingyao’s baby before her.

They...how come they look like a happy family standing together?

And what about her?

Haha, it’s just a small cabbage that no one cares about.

At this moment, Li Shuyao suddenly missed her little baby very much.