"Your Majesty..." The midwife's voice trembled involuntarily, her eyes filled with unconcealed panic. Upon seeing this, Hongli had a bad feeling and immediately stepped forward.

"What's wrong?"

The midwife was too frightened to utter a sound. She pointed to the child's hand, and Hongli looked closely and discovered that the child's left hand was different from that of ordinary people!

Lying in the tent, exhausted to the point of near collapse, Su Yushan vaguely heard their voices, mumbled and indistinct, as if they were hiding something. Yushan immediately sensed something was wrong and, despite the pain, forced herself to sit up and asked...

"What's wrong with the child? What happened?"

Yu Shan had just given birth and was greatly weakened. Hongli didn't want her to worry about this, so he didn't tell the truth and jokingly changed the subject:

"It's nothing serious, just a birthmark on the child's arm."

If it were just a birthmark, the midwife wouldn't have reacted so strangely. Yu Shan didn't believe him and insisted that the midwife bring the baby over.

Hongli, however, refused, saying, "You should rest first, and we'll talk about it after you've woken up."

"How can I sleep when you're all so evasive?" Even though she was exhausted, Su Yushan couldn't fall asleep just thinking about their expressions. She had to see for herself to feel at ease.

She insisted on seeing the child, and her anxiety caused her to cough violently. Hongli dared not provoke her further, so he could only take the child away.

The moment she took the child, Su Yushan's hands trembled involuntarily. Her heart was in her throat. She nervously examined the child's features again and again, but found nothing unusual. She looked at the toes, which were also normal. It wasn't until her gaze fell on the child's left hand that she realized something was wrong!

The child does have five fingers, but apart from the thumb, the base of the other four fingers is connected by a thin membrane, so that the four fingers cannot be separated and are tightly connected together!

Su Yushan's heart sank. This was her own flesh and blood, and she would naturally not dislike the child, but she was afraid that the child would be ridiculed by others.

Previously, Yongzhang was missing a toe, but toes are generally not shown to outsiders, so Yongzhang's defect was never discovered by others. The boy was optimistic by nature, and this matter did not have any impact on him.

But her daughter's hands are exposed and easily seen by others. She is afraid that when her daughter grows up, she will find that her hands are different from others and will feel extremely inferior.

After enduring ten months of hardship, she finally gave birth to her child, only to be met with this unusual situation. The joy that had just welled up in Yu Shan's heart was instantly extinguished, and she held her child, silently shedding tears.

Hongli hugged the mother and daughter with heartache, "Don't worry, it's not a big defect. At least the child's limbs are all intact and there are no defects. It's just that they are webbed. The left hand is not used often, but it doesn't affect anything."

Seeing their strange expressions, Su Yushan thought her daughter had some serious disability, like missing an ear or a hand. Her heart was pounding, fearing it was something she couldn't bear.

Compared to what she had imagined, her daughter's condition seemed to be slightly better at the moment.

Still worried, she had the child taken out for the imperial physician to examine, to see if there were any other problems.

The imperial physician examined the child carefully for a long time and concluded that everything was normal and no other problems were found at the moment.

Now that things have come to this, Yu Shan has no choice but to accept it. As long as her child is healthy and doesn't suffer, she will be content.

Hongli became suspicious, worried that the child's deformity might have been caused by someone tampering with her, and ordered the imperial physician to examine Yushan's pulse.

After examining the princess's pulse, the imperial physician reported truthfully, "Your Majesty, the Empress is weak and frail due to the depletion of her vital energy during childbirth. Apart from this, the Empress has no other abnormalities. The little princess's condition is mostly due to fate and should not be caused by human intervention. If someone had administered medicine, the situation would certainly be much more serious than it is now."

Since that was the case, Hongli did not pursue the matter further. He ordered everyone in the palace not to spread the word, and anyone who dared to say a word about it would be killed without mercy!

Despite his order, Yu Shan was still somewhat worried. After all, fingers are always exposed. When the child was small, she could hide him in the palace, and others might not have a chance to see him. But once the child could walk and grew up, he would definitely have to go out, and then people would see him!

Hongli advised her not to overthink it, saying, "Keep it a secret for as long as possible. At least don't let the Empress Dowager know. If she finds out, she will definitely say that you gave birth to a freak and use this as an opportunity to cause you trouble."

In order to prevent her daughter from becoming the subject of gossip, Yu-shan had no choice but to try to keep it a secret for the time being.

Rong Yu and Yong Zhang both went to visit their sister. Yong Zhang was overjoyed. He had been waiting for so many years and finally had his own sister. How could he not be happy?

But when he saw his sister's fingers, he was surprised. His mother was resting at the time, so he quietly asked his father, "Father, what happened to my sister's hand?"

Emperor Hongli solemnly warned Rong Yu and Yongzhang not to tell anyone about this matter.

The siblings, being old enough to understand, nodded solemnly to show they understood.

During Su Yushan's postpartum period, the Empress Dowager visited the child. Fortunately, it was a cold winter day, and the child was wearing cotton clothes and wrapped in a quilt, so the Empress Dowager did not notice anything wrong.

Su Yushan secretly rejoiced, hoping that the Empress Dowager would visit the child less often. Whenever the Empress Dowager came to hold the child, Yushan would be terrified, fearing that the Empress Dowager would discover something was wrong and cause trouble again.

Hongli gave a strict order, so the palace servants kept their mouths shut and none of them dared to speak out of turn, and the matter was temporarily kept quiet.

To Yu Shan's relief, apart from the abnormality in her fingers, her youngest daughter had no other problems and was in relatively good health. Apart from the occasional cold and fever, she hadn't been seriously ill in the past year, which made things relatively worry-free.

Another year has passed, with plants withering and flourishing. In the first month of the eleventh year of Qianlong's reign, the little princess was one year and two months old and was learning to walk. The princess's residence in Tieshizi Hutong outside the palace had been completed after two years of construction. This year, Rongyu had turned sixteen, and it was time for her to get married.

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