Chapter 115 It's Not All Unreasonable
At night, the Yangxin Palace.
Envoy Wu withdrew his hand from feeling Xiao Jingfan's pulse and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty is in good health and in the prime of life. As long as you visit the harem more often, the matter of an heir will naturally come into being. There is no need to worry too much about it."
Xiao Jingfan put the bodhi beads back on his wrist and looked up at him, "I have a doubt about something."
Envoy Wu immediately put on an attitude of listening attentively.
Xiao Jingfan said, "I heard from Mr. Xie that a rural doctor once said that the health of a son is more important than that of a daughter. Is this true?"
How dare Lord Xie chat with His Majesty about such trivial matters?
Envoy Wu felt puzzled. He frowned and pondered for a moment before saying, "Your Majesty, I think this statement is too arbitrary."
Xiao Jingfan nodded and signaled him to continue with his words with his eyes.
Wu Yuanshi said, "A woman's pregnancy lasts ten months. Whether the child is healthy or not depends on many factors. Besides the man's own essence and energy, there are also factors such as the mother's health, whether her diet is appropriate, and whether she is in a good mood. It cannot be simply stated. It also depends on..."
"I'm not discussing medicine with you." Seeing that he was about to speak at length, Xiao Jingfan raised his hand to interrupt him and emphasized, "I just want to know whether what this country doctor said makes sense."
Wu Yuanshi: "..."
He would have started scolding anyone who was not the emperor.
Practicing medicine is not a joke. One small move can affect the entire body. How can such an arbitrary statement be made?
Seeing him frowning and not saying anything, Xiao Jingfan said, "Which is right? Which is wrong? Which is wrong? Just say it boldly, and I will forgive you."
Wu Yuanshi: "..."
He dares!
Although he wants to retire, he doesn't want to retire dead.
He was serious about his medical skills and considered carefully for a moment before saying, "To reply to your Majesty, this is not entirely unreasonable."
Xiao Jingfan raised his eyes to look at him, "Tell me in detail."
"Your Majesty, are you aware that four years ago, Duan Sicheng of the Honglu Temple divorced his wife because she was forty years old and had not borne him a child?"
Xiao Jingfan shook his head. He was too busy with state affairs to care about his subjects' family affairs.
Wu Yuanshi said, "Before divorcing his wife, Lord Duan had asked Imperial Physician Li to treat his wife, Wu, for two years, but unfortunately, there was no good news, so Lord Duan had no choice but to divorce her."
Helpless? Xiao Jingfan sneered. If he was really helpless, he wouldn't choose to divorce his wife.
The wife has no children. If he really wants to expand the family, he can take two concubines. Wouldn't it be the best of both worlds if he registers the children born by the concubines under the name of the wife?
A woman in her forties, childless, what good could she do after being divorced? This Duan man clearly didn't care about Wu's life or death, and had no regard for marital affection at all.
Court Envoy Wu waited a moment, and seeing that Xiao Jingfan had no intention of continuing beyond his dismissive sneer, he continued, "After Wu was divorced, her eldest brother took her home. This eldest brother was a kind and righteous man. Considering Wu's helplessness, he consulted her and then paid a large sum of money to have a matchmaker find her a husband. He was a hunter in his thirties."
Xiao Jingfan was a little surprised, "You can still get married at the age of 40?"
Wu Yuanshi thought to himself that there were still women in their fifties and sixties who remarried among the people. She was only forty years old. As long as both of them were willing, why couldn't she remarry?
He said, "Only six months after Wu's marriage, she announced the happy news. She gave birth to a boy after ten months of pregnancy, and the child is now two years old. But Lord Duan asked the matchmaker to carefully select a girl who was easy to bear children for him. After four years of marriage, there is still no happy news."
Xiao Jingfan understood, "You mean, it's not that Wu Shi can't have children, but that Duan Qing has difficulty having children?"
Wu Yuanshi nodded: "Your Majesty is wise."
Xiao Jingfan was puzzled: "When Imperial Physician Li was treating Mrs. Wu, didn't he take Duan Qing's pulse?"
Wu Yuanshi shook his head. "Master Duan insisted that his wife was ill and refused to allow Doctor Li to examine her pulse."
This reminded Xiao Jingfan of Chu Liuzheng's inner thoughts, such as how men wouldn't admit to that... cough! It's not advisable to hide one's illness and avoid medical treatment.
He looked at Wu Yuanshi suspiciously: "How do you know so much?"
He even knows when she remarried and how old her child is. Could this guy have something going on with Wu?
Obviously, under the influence of his inner voice, His Majesty the Emperor's thinking has unconsciously begun to deviate.
Envoy Wu was completely unaware that his Majesty's thoughts had wandered off to the horizon. He replied with a serious expression, "Your Majesty, I once ran into Lord Duan in a restaurant. He was completely drunk. He held me and cried for two hours. Everything I said just now was said by Lord Duan while he was drunk."
That’s it?
Xiao Jingfan was inexplicably disappointed.
Perhaps he noticed Xiao Jingfan's disappointment, but Dean Wu told another story, also using his colleagues as examples.
"Your Majesty, do you still remember Mr. Huang, the former Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue?"
"Huang?" Xiao Jingfan thought for a moment. "Are you talking about Huang Gonghe, who was demoted to the position of Chief Clerk at the Imperial Household Department at the beginning of the year for being late for court meetings eight times?"
"That's right." Court Envoy Wu nodded. "Lord Huang and his wife have also been childless for many years. They have sought the help of the imperial physician, but to no avail."
Xiao Jingfan raised his eyebrows: "Is he also someone who avoids seeing a doctor?"
"No," Wu Yuanshi shook his head. "Master Huang accompanied his wife in taking medicine and treating her with no results for over three years, so he gave up. But less than three months after Master Huang's transfer, the Huang Mansion announced the happy news that his wife was pregnant."
Xiao Jingfan was puzzled: "Why is this? Have they found a secret recipe for having children?"
Wu Yuanshi glanced up at him and said, "It's not a secret recipe for having a child. It's just that the position of Chief Clerk of the Imperial Household Department is much less stressful than that of Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue. Master Huang can finish his shift and go home on time, instead of staying up all night like he did at the Ministry of Revenue."
"Your Majesty, you know that not sleeping after midnight is extremely detrimental to one's vital energy, and no amount of medicine can reverse this. After being demoted to the Imperial Household Department, Lord Huang has been able to eat well and sleep well, and his vital energy has returned. Madam Huang is also in good health, so the child will naturally come."
Xiao Jingfan: "..."
So the couple's ability to have a child is thanks to their demotion?
Wu Yuanshi continued, "Your Majesty, do you know that many years ago, the Minister of Revenue, Mr. Wen, and his wife prayed for a child?"
Xiao Jingfan nodded: "I have heard something."
This incident caused quite a big stir back then. In order to have another son, Madam Xu invited even a shaman into her house and asked Concubine Yun to take her mother's surname, saying that this way she could have another boy.
After the late emperor learned about this, he summoned Minister Wen, who was only a minister at the time, to the Yangxin Palace and criticized him severely.
After reading the books of sages for many years, he still believed in these weird and supernatural things. If it weren't for Minister Wen's good attitude in admitting his mistakes, and if the late emperor had not always been lenient to his subjects, Minister Wen would have been demoted to some remote corner long ago, and how could he have managed to get the position of Minister?
From then on, the Wen family became quiet and there were no more jokes about the desire to have a child.
At that time, the late emperor specially gave Minister Wen a month's vacation so that he could stay at home and spend time with his wife, so that the family could be peaceful and everyone could enjoy the happiness.
"That year, just two months after Lord Wen returned to his post, good news spread from his residence. Eight months later, Madam Wen gave birth to a boy."
Wu Yuanshi's tone was full of sighing and nostalgia.
Only during the reign of the previous emperor would he be so generous as to let his subjects go home to rest for a month or two and still pay them their monthly salary. But for the current emperor, it would be good enough if he could report to work on time.
There were a lot of officials in the six ministries who stayed up late. When they were busy, some of them even asked their families to send bedding for them to sleep in the yamen.
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