After saying these words, Consort Ning looked around again before lowering her voice and continuing, "Consort Yu, there is something I wonder if you have noticed."

In addition to his thirty-five sons, Emperor Kangxi also had twenty biological daughters and one adopted daughter.

Of those thirty-five princes, fourteen died before the age of ten. As for the reasons for their deaths, that's too complicated for me to go into.

But the crucial point is that of those twenty biological daughters, ten died before the age of ten. Consort Yu, just think about it—that's terrifying! A whole half of them!

Consort Yu's face paled. She couldn't help but turn around and glance at the Fifth Princess, Flora. Her expression improved slightly afterward. She gripped Consort Ning's hand tightly and said in a low voice, "But Consort Ning, as far as I know, there must be a lot of palace intrigue involved."

Consort Ning nodded and continued in a low voice, "There are certainly reasons for the infighting in the palace, but after all, she is a princess, not a prince. You know that the status of princesses in this dynasty is far inferior to that of princes, so relatively speaking, there will be less infighting in the palace."

However, we won't discuss palace intrigues today.

My sister Yu Pin said that we are both very lucky. After the birth of the fifth princess, Flora, and the sixth princess, Tefogg, they were able to stay by our side.

This may be related to the fact that our emperor only had two daughters after so many years, so he dotes on them especially.

Of course, this is partly because our emperor had also been separated from his birth mother, which caused him to suffer a lot of hardship and frustration later on.

But in any case, we should both be grateful to the Emperor.

However, during the reign of Emperor Kangxi, a princess would be separated from her birth mother after birth and raised by a wet nurse, a governess, and a palace maid.

It's very difficult for us concubines in the harem to even see our own daughters.

Consort Yu frowned slightly, her face also looking pale. She couldn't help but lower her voice and say, "I also know about what you said about the princess having to leave her birth mother right after birth, Consort Ning."

Therefore, I have always been very grateful to the Emperor for allowing the Fifth Princess, Flora, to grow up by my side.

Consort Ning's furrowed brows relaxed slightly. She nodded and continued in a low voice, "Consort Yu, you and I both know that the wet nurses during the reign of Emperor Kangxi would never be foolish enough to mistreat a princess. That would be a capital offense."

However, I had heard two things before. The first thing was that during the reign of Emperor Kangxi, the little princess born to one of the concubines died when she was just two years old. Emperor Kangxi was furious and ordered a thorough investigation.

It turned out that the wet nurse who was raising the little princess had not taken good care of her. The little princess fell ill, and the wet nurse did not report it, which delayed the treatment and caused the little princess to die.

The second incident also occurred during the reign of Emperor Kangxi. This time, it involved the eleventh princess, who had lived to be over ten years old, but died because of her wet nurse. I did not find out what this wet nurse had done.

All that is known is that Emperor Kangxi issued an imperial edict at the time: "It is hereby decreed that the wet nurses and other attendants of the young princes, princesses, and concubines should be diligent and attentive, and not be negligent. If any person is careless or negligent, the case of the wet nurse of the eleventh princess will be used as an example, and the wet nurse's entire family will be sent to prison. The wet nurse's husband will be imprisoned in the Department of Penal Affairs. In the future, if anyone is not careful in serving, this case will be followed."

Less than a year after this imperial edict was issued, the eleventh princess passed away at the young age of thirteen.

Therefore, although Emperor Kangxi had ten princesses who lived past the age of ten, only the eighth princess lived to the age of marriage.

Unfortunately, both princesses lived past the age of ten and neither lived to the age of marriage.

So, besides some palace intrigues, some of the reasons for Consort Yu's situation were indeed due to the wet nurses not taking good care of the princess. After all, those two cases were discovered, and we don't know if there were any that weren't discovered.

Princesses are not as precious as princes, and sometimes wet nurses neglect their care. There are ways to make it appear as if the princess died of natural causes, so that others can't find out. After all, royal babies are too weak and can die easily.

Well, so I also carefully observed these wet nurses sent by the Imperial Household Department. I saw that they did not mistreat the Sixth Princess Taifeng and took good care of her. Moreover, seeing that the Sixth Princess Taifeng was almost two years old, I gradually felt at ease.

"If you hadn't come and told me about this today, I wouldn't have imagined it. Because we birth mothers are keeping a close eye on things, these wet nurses, while outwardly taking good care of the princess, are secretly plotting to alienate her from us."

At this moment, Consort Yu gritted her teeth and whispered, "But Consort Ning, in my opinion, those wet nurses not only want to alienate the princess from us, her birth mothers."

They also want to turn our princess into their puppet.

After all, princesses, unlike princes, cannot bring them as much benefit.

Consort Yu paused abruptly, looked around, and then leaned down to Consort Ning's ear and whispered, "Just like Lady Park, the wet nurse of Emperor Shunzhi."

Emperor Kangxi issued an edict to bestow the title of Lady Fengsheng upon Park, the wet nurse who had raised Emperor Shunzhi, with the same rank as a duke's wife.

For a wet nurse, this was naturally a case of "one person attaining enlightenment, and even their chickens and dogs ascending to heaven," and her descendants also benefited from it.

Even more special is Madam Sun, the wet nurse of Emperor Kangxi!

After Emperor Kangxi ascended the throne, he took great care of Lady Sun, bestowing upon her the title of First-Rank Lady and also providing special care for her family.

They provided tremendous support to the entire Cao family.

During the reign of Emperor Kangxi, the Sun family continued to prosper. He appointed Sun's husband as the supervisor of the Jiangning Textile Bureau, a position second only to the governors-general of the two provinces.

Starting with Cao Xi, three generations succeeded him as the Jiangnan Textile Commissioner for a total of 58 years, and he also oversaw important economic affairs such as salt inspection and copper handling.

It should be noted that all of this is thanks to the Sun family. When Cao Xi passed away, Emperor Kangxi personally went down to Jiangnan to comfort the Sun family.

When Emperor Kangxi visited Jiangnan for the third time, the daylilies in the palace were in full bloom.

Emperor Kangxi then wrote the three characters "Xuanrui Hall" and bestowed them upon the Sun family.

Consort Ning, just think about how great an honor and benefit this is!

Furthermore, even if the wet nurses of the other princes did not receive as much benefit as the wet nurses of Emperor Shunzhi and Emperor Kangxi, they still benefited greatly.