The glazed tiles of the Forbidden City shone amber in the autumn sun. The bronze bells on the eaves tinkled in the draft, but they couldn't drown out the clamor coming from the Imperial Hospital. When two burly eunuchs, carrying Concubine Liu, entered the consultation room, the nanmu medicine cabinet, filled with the aroma of medicine, shook three times. The red-gold hairpin on Concubine Liu's head was lopsided, and the hem of her brocade robe was stained with a piece of grass. Worst of all, the moon-white silk sash around her waist hung loose, and cotton wool dribbled down its folds. This startled Imperial Physician Li, who was weighing the medicine, so much so that his hand trembled, and the cinnabar on the scales spilled onto the medical book.

"Quick! Check the noble lady's pulse!" Doctor Li's snow-white goatee trembled, and just as his fingertips touched the noble lady Liu's wrist, he jumped back as if he had been electrocuted. Where her wide sleeves slipped down, half of a fake green-scaled snake was slipping out along the cuffs. The eyes on the snake's head, inlaid with obsidian, shone coldly in the light and shadow. The mechanism on its tail caused the scales to rise and fall slightly, and it looked even more creepy than a real snake.

"Snake--!" The new young doctor screamed and jumped back, hitting his butt on the third shelf of the medicine cabinet. The celadon jar containing ginseng and deer antlers fell to the ground with a crash. The hundred-year-old wild ginseng rolled to the feet of Concubine Liu and was crushed into pieces by her unconsciously.

Concubine Liu's face was already as pale as gold paper. She pointed in the direction of the door and screamed, the pearl tassels on her bun flying all over her face: "It's Chen Weiwan! She used this monster to scare me!" Before she finished speaking, the cotton pad around her waist completely slipped to the ground, hitting the blue bricks with a dull "bang", revealing a new cotton ball stuffed inside. One of the balls was even wrapped with a dark green cloth strip shaped like a snake's tail, which was obviously stuffed in in a hurry.

Doctor Li picked up the fake snake, pinched the cotton ball with his fingertips, and suddenly laughed with his head tilted back, his beard twisted into a knot: "Brilliant! What a 'snake hidden in a golden house'! No, it's 'snake hidden in a brocade robe'!" He shook the fake snake's tail, and a mechanism caused the snake's head to suddenly spit out red tongues, which scared the eunuch who was decocting medicine next to him so much that he put the medicine pot on his head.

When the news reached the Imperial Garden, Shen Weiwan was panting, leaning against a Taihu stone. Her five-month-old belly stretched her moon-white silk skirt like a plump glutinous rice dumpling. After hearing Chuntao's report, she covered her mouth in astonishment, a sly glint escaping from between her fingers. "How could Concubine Liu have a fake snake in her belly?" She turned and blinked at Chuntao, her long eyelashes casting fan-shaped shadows in the sunlight. "I saw her playing with a Persian cat in the Imperial Garden a few days ago. She had the sewing room make a moving, soft-skinned snake as a plaything. Did she send it to the wrong place?"

Chuntao immediately leaned forward to respond, her face full of innocence: "Didn't the young lady ask me to deliver the snake to 'Snowball' in the Cining Palace? Perhaps a servant from the small kitchen took it the wrong way and accidentally ended up in Concubine Liu's dressing box?" As the two were talking, the bright yellow procession had already passed around the Nine-Curve Bridge. The emperor heard the noise through the carved screen, and his fingers under his dragon robe trembled with laughter.

"Wan'er," the emperor lifted the curtain of the sedan chair and looked at Shen Weiwan's round pregnant belly. Thinking of Concubine Liu's "fake pregnancy farce", he finally couldn't hold back his laughter, and the jade belt buckle swayed with it. "Your gift is so unique that it went directly into her belly?"

As Chen Weiwan bowed, she secretly pinched Xiao Yu's arm. Xiao Yu was wearing a dark blue uniform, and she had left a crescent mark on the cuff. "Father, you're joking," she said, blinking her innocent eyes. The glass hairpin in her hair shone with a faint light. "Perhaps Concubine Liu likes this thing and keeps it close to her." She suddenly exclaimed, stroking her belly and taking a half step back. "Oh! Could it be that Concubine Liu thinks pregnant women should keep snakes? I'm going to..."

"No, no!" The emperor waved his hands repeatedly in fear, his whisk almost hitting the eunuch's face. "Don't learn her evil ways!"

Xiao Yu sighed helplessly, tidied up Chen Weiwan's wind-blown hair, and wiped her sweaty forehead with his fingertips: "Okay, Weiwei, stop teasing father." Before he finished speaking, Doctor Li hurried over with a gold-painted tray. There was a cotton ball on the tray with a few fake snake scales on it.

"Your Majesty!" Doctor Li panted, with medicine residue hanging on his beard, "In addition to the fake cotton snake, Concubine Liu also had half a piece of moldy osmanthus cake in her stomach!" The corners of the pastries on the tray were black, obviously defective products thrown away by the imperial kitchen.

Shen Weiwan took a closer look, clapped her hands and laughed so hard that she fell backwards, her pregnant belly swaying: "Ah! Isn't this the snack that the imperial kitchen threw away three days ago? Why did Concubine Liu hide it in her belly? Did she want to save it for when she was hungry?"

Upon hearing this, Concubine Liu, who was being carried over by the nanny, was so angry that she trembled all over and almost tore her brocade handkerchief: "Chen Weiwan! You are slandering me! You are the one who framed me!"

"I framed you?" Shen Weiwan pretended to be wronged, stroking her real pregnant belly, where a little life was gently kicking. "My five-month-old belly was personally diagnosed by Doctor Li as a pregnancy pulse. Unlike some people..." She paused, fingering the cotton balls on the tray, "There are cotton balls and rotten snacks hidden in my belly, and there is also a fake snake, and I am not afraid of being woken up in the middle of the night."

The surrounding eunuchs and maids were stifling laughter until their shoulders shook. One new young eunuch burst out laughing, only to be glared at by the chief eunuch, who immediately made him retreat behind the rockery. The emperor looked at the "loot" on the tray and slapped the armrest with great delight: "Excellent! Excellent Concubine Liu! Someone, drag her to the laundry department and have her wash the diapers for the newborn prince. She'll learn the true meaning of 'a pregnant woman's duty'!"

"No!" Concubine Liu screamed and struggled, her hair completely undone, and her golden hairpin fell to the ground with a crisp sound. "I was tricked by Chen Weiwan! She used a fake snake to scare me, causing my fake pregnancy to be exposed..."

"Oh?" Chen Weiwan raised an eyebrow, her fingertips circling the brocade belt around her waist, "Then tell me, how did my fake snake get into your stomach? Did you just think it was fun and put it in there on purpose?"

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