Chapter 109 Chapter 109 It’s all this little brat’s fault. …
Li Shuyao's conscience moved, and the little boy who was still sleepy and rubbing his eyes in bed got two extra meals without knowing it.
He was quite surprised when he sat down at the dining table. His round, dark grape-shaped eyes, which looked a bit sleepy and misty, suddenly widened. He uttered a soft "eh" with a little babyish sound floating up. His little belly suddenly popped out and he quickly sucked it back in.
He looked at the breakfast on the table, which was much more sumptuous than usual, and glanced at his mother secretly, feeling surprised, happy, suspicious and worried.
What happened to my mother today?
Haven't you been complaining about him getting heavier lately and not liking to hug him anymore?
Every time they wanted to get close to each other, he would first climb onto the couch with his butt sticking out and panting, then stand up, stretch out his arms and give his mother a light hug while they stood under the couch, touching cheeks and kissing her face. But after only five or six breaths, his mother would impatiently let him go, saying that it was time for intimacy and the mission was accomplished.
...So what exactly happened today?
It suddenly became so grand, could it be that something happened that he didn't know about?
Could it be that my mother is pregnant again?
No, although my mother has become a little plump recently, she didn't vomit and wasn't very sleepy, which means she was just like me, eating too much and getting fat.
Otherwise, is it... Mother is going to fall from grace? Is this her last meal before she falls from grace?
The kid was frightened by his own association. He nervously scratched the corner of his clothes with his short and fat fingers, and was hesitant to reach out to grab the small spoon with a cat head on the table.
Li Shuyao sat down next to him, completely unaware of the bumpy mental journey of the kid next to her.
She drank a few mouthfuls of chicken porridge first, and after it had relieved her hunger a little, she picked up her chopsticks to pick up some food.
She raised her eyes and noticed from the corner of her eye that her baby didn't move, and she didn't hear the crisp sound of babies eating with porcelain spoons. Only then did she realize that something was wrong with him.
"Why don't you eat?" She put the food into the bowl, didn't eat it, turned her head and asked the kid.
Little Yinzhen raised his head while pinching the corner of his clothes, "Mother..." He slowed down, feeling that he couldn't be too direct, so he changed the way he asked, "Mother, there are so many dishes today, it's so strange."
Li Shuyao was a little confused when she heard this, "Why is it strange?"
Little Yinzhen said, "Other mothers don't have so many dishes in the morning, and neither does Khan Ama..."
Li Shuyao was even more confused after hearing this. "What's wrong? Is there any problem?"
She was usually used to eating a big meal in the morning and a big one at noon, and would try to eat a light meal at night. She would stop eating when she was about 60% to 70% full, then walk around the courtyard of Changchun Palace twice to digest the food, and then go to bed quickly before she got hungry.
Compared with the five or six meals a day of the little one, it is already too little.
Moreover, when she ate, she always used the serving chopsticks to pick up the food and put it in a small bowl first, and then changed to her own chopsticks to eat. In this way, if there was any leftovers, she could ask Tian Jiarou and Yue Shu to help digest them.
There is no food waste at all.
So Li Shuyao didn't understand why her little kid was being so stubborn.
Little Yinzhen's fingers were still clutching the edge of his clothes, and he asked her seriously, "If people knew about this, would they say that Mother had overstepped the bounds?"
Li Shuyao exclaimed "Ah". She had not thought about it that far ahead, and was not sure whether she had really overstepped the line, so she immediately looked up at Nanny Yan with a puzzled look.
Nanny Yan immediately obeyed and replied, "The palace doesn't have such strict regulations on the breakfast specifications for the masters and ladies. The other ladies eat less breakfast, mostly so that they don't have to change clothes as often when paying their respects."
"Another thing is that the other ladies all bring their meals from the imperial kitchen. If they want to eat something else, they need to reward the eunuch in the imperial kitchen to cook it separately. Many ladies don't want to go through so much trouble so early in the morning, so they usually eat whatever the palace maids bring back from the imperial kitchen."
"But our Changchun Palace is different. We have our own small kitchen in Changchun Palace, so naturally, all our needs are directed to the Empress and the Young Prince."
In other words, they can eat whatever they want behind closed doors in Changchun Palace. Even if outsiders know about it, what can they criticize?
——The small kitchen belongs to Changchun Palace, and all expenses are paid from Changchun Palace's own account. The chef was found by the emperor from outside the palace. The ingredients were either contributed by the imperial kitchen and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, or awarded by Concubine Tong and the emperor. Some of the ingredients were purchased from outside the palace by the queen herself with her own money.
Even if she sometimes spent more than she deserved, the Emperor would always use his private treasury to subsidize the Empress.
Concubine Tong and the two Empress Dowagers didn't say anything, so why should those people outside have the right to point fingers?
She was not exaggerating. Her queen had given birth to an heir for the emperor. She usually followed the rules, never caused trouble, and rarely took the initiative to compete for favor. She got along well with most of the concubines in the harem. Not only was Jane in the emperor's favor, but she had even been praised by the Empress Dowager several times.
——The only shortcoming is that I am greedy and like to eat a lot...
No, that's not right, that's not a shortcoming.
At least not in Nanny Yan's opinion. After all, Concubine Ling not only keeps herself rosy and radiant, but even their little prince has never been sick since he was born and rarely coughs.
When other children were born, they were as dark and thin as wild monkeys in the mountains, but her little prince was fair and clean, with a lovely smile, just like a milky white glutinous rice dumpling; other children would always cry in the middle of the night because of various discomforts, but her little prince could sleep through the night since he was three months old; other children were prone to illness during the change of seasons, and the palace maids had to be extremely careful and meticulous in their care, but her little prince, not even a year old, dared to crawl in the snow, playing with it with his tiny hands, throwing it to the palace maids, smearing it on his face, and when he was tired, he would just bury himself in the snow and fall asleep...
Of course, every time this happened, he would be picked up by the quick-eyed and quick-handed wet nurse, who would brush off the snow on his body, change his clothes, and send him back to the warm room to continue sleeping.
After waking up and having eaten and drunk enough, he would regain his energy and lie in his mother's arms, "punching and kicking" like a little top that could not be stopped at all.
Nanny Yan roughly guessed that it was probably because the little prince absorbed enough nutrients from his mother while in the womb, which was why he was so easy to raise.
So her mother is not greedy at all, she obviously replenishes herself with nutrition!
It would be better to eat more.
One little prince is not enough. If one day there are four, five, six, seven or eight more little princes and princesses in Changchun Palace, wouldn’t it be very lively?
Nanny Yan thought hopefully, her cheeks flushed slightly, and her eyes were filled with sparkling light.
On the other hand, Li Shuyao didn't know that so many thoughts were running through her mind while she was explaining.
After hearing what Nanny Yan said, she knew she had done nothing wrong. She raised her hand somewhat exaggeratedly to wipe her temples, which were not sweating at all, and then glared at the kid next to her angrily.
I kind of regret giving the kid an extra meal.
She gave him a snack out of good intentions, fearing that he would be hungry and thirsty, but he immediately asked her if she had overstepped the bounds.
This is overstepping the boundaries! This little brat, whose waistline is not even as high as hers when he stands on tiptoe, what rules does he know?
It was a waste of her heart that she felt truly guilty just now, and she almost didn't dare to drink the chicken porridge in her bowl.
It's all this little brat's fault.
Li Shuyao was simply angry for a moment.
In a place where no one was paying attention, Qianqian took back the "favor" of picking up food and adding porridge to the little kid.
He picked up the bowl and chopsticks and buried his head in eating quickly. After finishing, he didn't bother to care whether the little guy was full or not. He just reached out and pinched his chubby cheeks, narrowed his eyes, and said in a cold voice: "You are too fat. You are not allowed to eat so much in the future."
"Madam Yan, pass down the order that Yinzhen can only eat four meals a day from now on!"
——Before, there were six meals a day: breakfast, early and late snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner, and a snack before bed.
After that, the only snacks are morning, noon, evening and before bed, a total of four meals.
"Reduce the amount of food you eat by one-fifth."
——It is said to be one-fifth less, but in fact it is only half a bowl of porridge, or two pieces of milk steamed buns, or two eggs, and a chicken leg, which is about the same amount.
No matter how much a two-year-old eats, he or she can never eat as much as an adult.
After Li Shuyao finished speaking, she thought for a moment and felt that it was not enough, so she continued, "Arrange some physical training for him. The eldest prince and the crown prince have been learning archery recently. You can also get a bow, the kind for children, a heavier one. No arrows or targets are needed. Just have him raise it fifty times each time and that's it."
"Let's build some facilities in the yard..."
As she spoke, she stood up and walked out of the hall.
Nanny Yan first looked at little Yinzhen with sympathy, then hurriedly followed, memorizing Li Shuyao's instructions one by one, pondered for a few breaths, and walked towards the Ministry of Internal Affairs with a thoughtful look on her face.
*
Li Shuyao's request was actually very simple. She just wanted to imitate the children's playgrounds she had seen before. In the corner of the courtyard of Changchun Palace, she had people build some facilities similar to horizontal bars, round rollers, balance beams, and single-plank bridges.
The craftsmen from the Imperial Household Department brought firewood and tools and worked for two days with clanging sounds.
Before Li Shuyao had the chance to ask Yinzhen to go up and try it out, she heard the news that Prince Chun's wife had brought her little prince to live temporarily in the palace.
I heard from Qingyao that it was Prince Chun's wife who personally came to the ancestor to ask for help.
"When the current emperor was young, he was raised by our ancestors for a period of time. Perhaps he was blessed by our ancestors, so he even survived the smallpox epidemic... So Prince Chun's wife is desperate this time, hoping to let the young prince stay in the Cining Palace for a while, hoping that he will suddenly recover from his illness."
Li Shuyao listened: "..."
So, feudal superstition is not acceptable.
She sighed softly, not knowing what to say in response.
Qingyao reached out and poked her cheek and asked her, "What are you thinking about? Why aren't you talking?"
Li Shuyao pursed her lips, took her finger off and held it in her palm. She blinked and saw that no one was in the room. She leaned close to Qingyao's ear and whispered, "I suspect that the young prince of Prince Chun's family may not be sick at all."
Qingyao's eyes suddenly widened, but she still remembered to lower her voice and exclaimed in a low voice: "How did you know?"
Li Shuyao said, "I guessed."
"How did you guess?"
"That's what I guessed."
Qingyao was silent for a moment, then gently pulled her fingers out of her palm. "Whether you guessed right or wrong, don't guess again next time."
It's scary.
Li Shuyao nodded obediently and said, "Yeah, so I'm only telling you."
She leaned closer, her soft cheek resting on Qingyao's shoulder, and said with a sweet breath, "You can't raise a child like her. Children are not porcelain. How can they be broken by a bump or a collision..."
Before she could finish her words, Qingyao pinched her cheek unhappily.
"I know, I know, ancestor, please stop talking."
As attentive as she was, she also understood the underlying meaning of Li Shuyao's words. She then carefully considered the deeds of the little prince from Prince Chun's family since his birth, as well as the words of praise from other royal family wives for Prince Chun's wife...
Her heart skipped a beat, but she couldn't help but mutter to herself, asking Li Shuyao, "Prince Chun's wife raised him so carefully, but she still raised him wrongly?"
…
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