Chapter 109 Daily Life of Raising Children (Part 1): It is a blessing for children to have a father like you.
Just before her water broke, Mi Yao was having Xiao Chuan push her on a swing. She felt wetness below and felt ashamed for a moment, thinking that pregnant women in their late stages of pregnancy had no dignity and couldn't even control their bladders, leaking urine while swinging.
After a moment, she looked at Xiao Chuan as if she had remembered something: "My water broke."
A simple statement caused the Emperor of Qi, whose lips were usually upturned, to purse his thin lips so tightly that the color of his lips was no longer visible. Even his usually calm and composed expression showed a hint of helplessness and panic.
Does it hurt?
When people panic, their behavior becomes hasty. When Xiao Chu heard that her water had broken, she immediately thought of childbirth, which means pain.
Before Mi Yao could answer, he reached out and picked her up, rushing towards the palace.
"I order Imperial Physician Jiang to rush to Ninghe Palace immediately, the Empress is about to give birth..."
While carrying Mi Yao and jogging, Xiao Chuan did not forget to instruct the palace servants, "Except for Imperial Physician Jiang, all the imperial physicians should go to Ninghe Palace to wait."
Compared to Xiao Chuan's nervousness, Mi Yao was as calm as if she wasn't the one about to give birth.
"Why make so many people wait? I'm only having one baby, not a whole litter. I need the imperial physicians to take turns."
"You still have the mind to joke around."
Xiao Chuan lowered his eyes and glared at Mi Yao.
Suddenly being glared at, and by Xiao Chua no less, Mi Yao was taken aback by the sight.
She could understand his nervousness, but to be so nervous that he didn't even give her a friendly look seemed like putting the cart before the horse. Something was definitely not right.
After placing Mi Yao on the couch in the palace, Xiao Chuan's tense breathing eased slightly. He first changed into clean clothes for himself, and then personally changed Mi Yao's clothes as well.
After changing her clothes, Xiao Chuan washed her hands and face. After finishing everything, Xiao Chuan noticed that Physician Jiang had not yet arrived, so she asked the palace servants to urge Physician Jiang again. Then she instructed the imperial kitchen to start cooking the soup noodles that Mi Yao liked.
Everything was done in an orderly manner; I don't know how many times I had rehearsed it in my mind.
Mi Yao leaned back on the couch, watching with amusement. After a while, seeing his brows furrow more and more as time passed, and his hands beginning to tremble slightly, she couldn't bear it and grabbed his hand: "I'm not in pain. The imperial physician gave us both a lesson before. You know that when your water breaks, it doesn't hurt, and you won't give birth so quickly."
"It doesn't hurt now, but it will hurt soon."
Xiao Chuan's gaze shifted to Mi Yao's stomach, and seeing her belly rise and fall with her breathing, he quickly looked away as if he had been burned, but the next moment he forced himself to look at her stomach again.
"If it starts to hurt, bite me or hit me, don't hold it in."
"I won't be polite to you, but if I use all my energy to torment you, how can I produce anything?"
Mi Yao tilted her head and teased.
She hadn't started experiencing contractions yet and was in a very relaxed state. In contrast, Xiao Chuan's forehead was already covered in large beads of sweat, and his voice was hoarse, making it difficult for him to speak.
"Then I'll take it out on you after you give birth."
"Alright, Your Majesty, I was just trying to scare you. Physician Jiang said that my pregnancy is going well and that childbirth will be very easy."
Fearing that Xiao Chuan might become so tense that he couldn't breathe and faint before she even started giving birth, Mi Yao took a handkerchief and gestured for Xiao Chuan to lower his head, comforting him while wiping his sweat.
The fact that Xiao Chuan was so nervous was definitely related to her.
After becoming pregnant, she communicated frequently with the imperial physicians and midwives to avoid any complications during childbirth, but even so, she still occasionally felt panicked.
They don't do C-sections here. Even if the baby's position is fine, what if her baby is born with a big head?
Her fear reached its peak after the baby began to take shape and move.
In this situation, she naturally vented her fear on Xiao Chuan, constantly telling him what would happen if something went wrong during her childbirth, or how so-and-so had died during childbirth. She even made arrangements for how he would raise their four children after her unfortunate passing.
After she released her fears without internal conflict, her mood became more relaxed day by day. Xiao Chuan, on the other hand, was almost driven crazy by her. If it weren't for the fact that having abortion at seven or eight months is more dangerous than childbirth, Xiao Chuan wouldn't have wanted this child at all.
"You tore up all my paintings, so I wouldn't dare do anything because of that."
Seeing that she couldn't stop wiping away the sweat, Mi Yao remembered that when she scared Xiao Chuan, she had a painter paint many portraits of her, saying that after she was gone, her children could see what she looked like.
That day, she got up very early and found eight painters to paint her portraits at the same time. After court, Xiao Chuan was so angry that his face turned red, and he tore up all the paintings while panting heavily.
Aside from tearing up the newly painted portraits, he also destroyed all her portraits, both in the palace and among the common people, so that she wouldn't be able to rest easy.
This incident caused rumors of discord between the emperor and empress, and that she was to be banished to the cold palace.
"Don't bother trying to coax me, save your energy for later."
Xiao Chuan took a handkerchief and wiped his sweat, his eyes fixed on Mi Yao without looking away. "I have already asked Physician Jiang to prepare a decoction to completely prevent me from having another child. We only want this one pregnancy, so that neither of us will have to suffer this pain again."
"That's such a pity. Usually, the first pregnancy is difficult, but the second pregnancy is smooth."
Mi Yao originally planned to have only one child, but after hearing Xiao Chuan's certainty, she couldn't help but disagree.
However, her rebuttal didn't last long. When the contractions started, she gritted her teeth and took back her words: "I'm never having another child again. If I have another child, I'm a dog!"
She's just having too much of a good life and has nothing better to do than suffer this pain.
She was willing to endure the pain once, but even if the pain of giving birth to a second child was twice as bad, she was unwilling to suffer again.
Mi Yao didn't want Xiao Chuan to see her giving birth, and seeing that he was still there, and with the pain getting worse, she said directly, "Get out of here!"
After she finished yelling, the room was silent for a long time.
Physician Jiang was alright, but the midwife couldn't help but cautiously observe Xiao Chuan's expression.
Even the most honored person in the world, the emperor, remained tense after hearing the empress's reprimand. He even seemed to sway precariously because of the tremor in the empress's voice.
Xiao Chuan obediently retreated outside the door. When they saw him come out, Xiao Shan and the others wanted to go up and ask about their mother's condition, but when they saw Xiao Chuan's expression, none of them dared to speak.
They had never seen their usually imposing father so absent-minded, his clothes soaked with sweat, his eyes fixed on the door.
At this moment, they understood even more clearly that the most important person to Xiao Chuan in this world was Mi Yao, and no one could interfere in their marriage.
Mi Yao's pain came and went quickly. Just as she thought another wave of pain was about to begin, the baby's cry rang out. Mi Yao stared blankly at the canopy above her. After a moment, she turned her head and saw Xiao Chuan's bloodshot eyes, and realized that she had already given birth.
"You cried?"
For hygiene reasons in the delivery room, Xiao Chuan's face and head were covered with brocade cloth, which made the moisture in his eyes stand out even more.
Mi Yao's face was flushed, and her eyes were misty. She blinked hard, trying to see Xiao Chu's face more clearly.
"I didn't cry."
Xiao Chuan gently wiped away the tears from Mi Yao's eyes with his rough fingers. Unable to suppress the trembling in his heart, he leaned down and kissed her dry, pale lips.
*
In April, Empress Yu of the Great Qi gave birth to a princess, who was given the title of Anle.
*
Mi Yao was overjoyed to give birth to a daughter, who was fair-skinned and had big, bright eyes from birth.
Once the novelty wore off, she lost interest in spending all her time with the little dumpling.
The idea of being controlled by maternal instincts and personally taking care of the child simply doesn't apply to her.
She loves her child, but she still gets annoyed when the child cries, and she still finds the smell of the child's poop stinky.
In comparison, Xiao Shan and the others were much more patient with their long-awaited younger sister.
One day, Mi Yao saw Xiao Shan and Xiao Liang changing Xiao Fu's diaper. She caught a glimpse of the soiled diaper out of the corner of her eye and subconsciously pulled Xiao Chuan away quickly. After a few steps, she realized that what she was doing was not quite right.
When her eyes met Xiao Chuan's, Mi Yao felt a little guilty: "Should we go back?"
"Go back for what?"
Xiao Chuan pulled Mi Yao into his arms. "Don't go and join in the fun. Because of Fu'er's birth, there's been a lot of noise in the court. Let them grow up together as siblings and put an end to the foolish thoughts of those with ulterior motives. If we go and take their work away from them, it's not that we're saving them trouble, but that we're harming them."
They went to extremes, even saying things that would damage the sibling relationship in order to distract her from focusing on the child.
Seeing Xiao Chuan's serious expression, Mi Yao couldn't help but laugh out loud: "It's a blessing for the children to have a father like you."
Xiao Chuan pretended not to hear her teasing, kissed her heavily on the cheek, and walked away with her in his arms: "Having a mother like you is a blessing they have accumulated over many lifetimes."
If they hadn't been so lucky, Mi Yao would have belonged to him completely, and he shouldn't have given her any attention to anyone else.
This has forced him to now compete with them for favor and be jealous.
Fortunately, Mi Yao liked him more, so he was the one who could win the competition.
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I'm speechless. I just clicked "publish," thinking that since everything was marked as finished, this chapter would automatically become a bonus chapter. Who knew it would be a bonus chapter TAT? And I can't change it now. Leave a comment on this chapter and I'll send you red envelopes [hugs][hugs]
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