Chapter 409 The Child
This medicine must be taken daily, but not during the days of menstruation. It was decided that Bi Sui would go to the Imperial Hospital to pick it up on the first day of each month, and then keep it with Lan Xin. Only then would two palace maids help the Empress to bathe and groom herself again.
Cold comes and heat goes, autumn harvests and winter stores.
Days passed by, and another Lunar New Year's Eve arrived.
After this year, it will be the spring of the second year of Yongning.
Many things happened this year, including quite a few wedding announcements from Qi Yuxuan's friends.
While traveling with Old Master Zheng and Princess Pingyin, Zheng Yanling met a chivalrous swordsman. The two of them, with heaven and earth as their matchmaker and Old Master Zheng and his wife as witnesses, became husband and wife.
However, the good times didn't last long. The chivalrous man died while helping someone in need, leaving Zheng Yanling, who was four months pregnant, to return to the capital to rest and prepare for childbirth.
Abortion is harmful to the body, let alone a fully formed child. The Zheng family also said that they could take care of Zheng Yanling and her child. She herself did not want to lose the child, but if she continued to stay in the Zheng family, even if her uncles and brothers had no objections, her aunts and sisters-in-law would gossip.
Therefore, Princess Pingyin personally returned to the capital and begged the Empress for a favor: that she could forgo her title of princess and instead bestow upon Zheng Yanling the title of county princess, ensuring her a comfortable life for the rest of her days.
Finally, the Grand Princess stepped forward and asked Zheng Yanling if she would be willing to take over Yuxiu Academy and become the headmistress of a girls' academy. Although she wouldn't become rich and powerful, she could still support herself and her son. Not to mention, the title of headmistress of a girls' academy would intimidate many people and prevent them from bullying the widow and her child.
Zheng Yanling agreed, but before she could bring the gifts to express her gratitude, she heard the news that the Grand Princess and Master Nie had left the capital overnight to travel and enjoy the scenery.
"I'm so angry! So this is the mess His Highness left me!" Zheng Yanling sat opposite Qi Yuxuan, took a bite of dried fruit, and became even more indignant.
She is now showing her pregnancy; her five-month-old belly stands out even more against her vibrant figure.
Qi Yuxuan couldn't help but look at it curiously several times.
“You wouldn’t believe it, those teachers sigh and lament in front of me all day long, but when they’re teaching, they’re all incredibly eloquent, saying things like women don’t need to study or understand principles, and should focus on how to maintain their health to get pregnant and give birth… Listen to that, listen to that! Is that what female teachers should be saying?!” Zheng Yanling said while eating, not missing a beat. “I always said that female schools shouldn’t have male teachers! After the New Year, I’ll fire them all and hire only female teachers!”
Qi Yuxuan sighed, "My mother thought the same way back then, but unfortunately there were very few female teachers who could teach, and even if there were, most of them were married and their husbands' families did not allow them to show their faces in public."
Zheng Yanling's eyes darted around as she looked at her friend, who had now become the Empress: "Your Majesty! Isn't this what we need?!"
"Huh?" Qi Yuxuan leaned back subconsciously.
"With your word, who in the capital would dare not value girls' education? Here's a plan..." Zheng Yanling was almost bursting with excitement as she spoke about it.
With the Empress taking the lead, the first step was to select learned and older female officials from the inner palace to serve as temporary tutors for the girls' school. This was because many of the female officials in the palace were also from families of officials, and they had studied the Six Arts of a Gentleman since childhood. After entering the palace, they continued to review and learn new things in the three subjects of rites, books, and mathematics. Even if they were not extremely learned, they were more than capable of teaching some thirteen- or fourteen-year-old girls.
In addition, an imperial edict was posted, with the Empress personally issuing a call to recruit talented individuals from all over the country. Those selected as tutors at Yuxiu Academy would be offered a series of generous benefits, bringing honor to their families and becoming specially appointed tutors who were the envy and respected of everyone on the list of tutors, standing on equal footing with the lecturers and doctors of the Imperial Academy.
After listening, Qi Yuxuan neither agreed nor refused.
This is no small matter; she needs to discuss it with Qi Jun before making a decision.
Putting that aside for now, Zheng Yanling noticed her gaze fixed on her stomach and suddenly smiled: "What? Envious?"
"No, that's not it..." Caught red-handed, Qi Yuxuan awkwardly looked away.
Zheng Yanling asked in bewilderment, "That's right, you and the Emperor have been married for a year now, why haven't you had any good news yet? Logically speaking, you two are young and vigorous, and you're the only one in the harem, shouldn't you have had a baby by now?"
She asked the question that everyone wanted to ask.
Throughout the year, from civil and military officials to ordinary villagers, everyone's eyes were on the Empress's belly.
The emperor has been on the throne for a year, and the emperor and empress have been inseparable for a year, yet there hasn't been a single thing happening between them?!
Although it is not uncommon for a new bride to not conceive for a year or two in an ordinary household, this is the royal family, a royal family where everything is about the imperial heir and there is a real throne to inherit! No child means the throne is unstable, which is a matter of great importance to the stability of the country!
Under the skeptical and pressured gazes of everyone, the Emperor and Empress had already sent away countless waves of relatives and ministers, consistently telling the public that "having offspring depends on fate and cannot be forced."
The emperor has given the Imperial Medical Academy a firm order to find out whether the problem lies with the two individuals' health or if there is something inappropriate in Chang Le Palace that is affecting their ability to have children.
This caused great distress to the Pei family, grandfather and grandson. On one hand, they had to secretly prepare contraceptive medicine for the Empress, and on the other hand, they had to report to the Emperor. They couldn't offend either side, and they always looked extremely anxious. The other imperial physicians felt the same way.
The Empress's health was in excellent condition, and it was only a matter of time before she conceived. However, since His Majesty had said so, they could only focus their attention on the utensils and food in Chang Le Palace, but their search was still fruitless.
So, Physician Wei came up with a plan: he would have the emperor eat more aphrodisiac and kidney-tonifying foods, and the empress eat more yin-nourishing and blood-tonifying foods. In the long run, regardless of whether there were any imperial offspring, at least the two masters would not have the leisure to think about other things.
This move is risky, but the chances of success are high.
So Qi Yuxuan recently started using the ointment that the Grand Princess had secretly given her a year ago. She couldn't go without it; the longer she waited, the more things could go wrong, and it was really hard to bear.
Hearing Zheng Yanling's words today, she realized that since it concerned the imperial heir, she could no longer postpone it indefinitely. Qi Jun had already approached the Imperial Hospital, and the contraceptive medicine probably wouldn't last much longer. It would be even more troublesome once the truth came out.
Fortunately, she's seventeen now, and her body is stronger than it was a year ago, so pregnancy and childbirth shouldn't be too fatal...
With that in mind, she decided not to take her medicine today.
Qi Yuxuan joked, "Who knows? Maybe I'm already pregnant, but it's too early in the pregnancy to know."
Evening came quickly.
Faced with the exceptionally enthusiastic Empress, Qi Jun enjoyed himself to the fullest, a rare treat for him.
When the two of them, drenched in sweat, embraced each other, the wife in his arms whispered:
"Xiuyuan, how many children do you want?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com