Chapter 114 Chapter 114 “Dong Dong” is not missing. …
Aunt Liu, who was standing by the bed, smiled lovingly.
She raised her hand to hang up the curtain, when a female voice suddenly came from behind her: "Mammy..."
Matron Liu froze for a moment, but then reacted extremely quickly. She twisted her waist and raised her hand to quickly slip into the gap between the curtain and the bed. She let go, and the curtain fell again, covering her figure.
She pursed her lips, her expression slightly displeased. When she looked up at the little guy on the bed, her smile returned, "Brother, get up."
The little guy uttered a low "hmm" and nervously grabbed the quilt with his little fingers, "Is my forehead cold?"
Aunt Liu: "Fujin is preparing breakfast for the prince."
As she spoke, she reached into the quilt, as if trying to dig the little guy out of the quilt.
The palace maid standing at the door watching her every move narrowed her eyes slightly.
Then Madam Liu said again, "Aunt Wenfang, please close the door to prevent the draft from outside from blowing in. Also, bring all the toiletries to the bedside. The young prince's hands are a little cold, so it would be best to warm his clothes in the heater before giving them to him. Also, change his socks into white cotton ones, and bring a cup of warm water. The imperial physician said..."
She kept on chattering, ordering the palace servants around in circles. The palace maid standing at the door watching was blocked by the busy palace servants, and for a moment she could not see clearly what Liu Ma was doing behind the curtain. She only vaguely saw Liu Ma taking the little prince out of the quilt and checking his temperature.
Taking advantage of the crowd, Madam Liu quickly checked the little prince's temperature, then reached into her waist pouch and took out two tiny milk cakes, which she fed little by little into the mouth of the little guy on the bed. He finished them in just two or three bites.
The little guy felt a little regretful, but he also knew that he had to be good and not make any noise, otherwise Aunt Liu would ask him to go far away and he would never see Aunt Liu again.
After finishing the milk cake in a few bites, the little guy licked his lips and obediently drank a whole cup of warm water. Only then was he taken away by Madam Liu to change into warm clothes, wash his face and hands.
In another side hall, Prince Chun's wife had been waiting for a long time.
Seeing her An'er being brought in by Madam Liu, she frowned at first, and looked him up and down with scrutiny for a long while before she relaxed her smile, held the little guy in her arms, and asked softly, "Did An'er sleep well last night?"
The little guy nodded, "Yeah."
He couldn't help but think of the "dong dong" sound under his pillow, and wondered if the "dong dong" would disappear again after he finished his meal.
"Dong Dong" is prettier than its other friends. It is red and bright, and its voice is also nice.
If he disappeared this time, he would probably be a little sadder, maybe half a sun sadder...
Prince Chun's wife didn't know what the little guy was thinking.
He carefully lowered his head to check before ordering the dishes to be served.
She held little An'er in one hand and fed him a spoonful of bland porridge with the other, saying in a familiar voice, "Be good, An'er. The imperial physician said you're weak and shouldn't eat anything with strong flavors. Just drink some porridge. Mother has had some sugar put in it. Wait until you're better, then you can eat something delicious, okay?"
Little An'er had no objection and swallowed the porridge in one gulp.
Then he licked the corner of his mouth. Today's porridge was not as sweet as yesterday's. It must be because he put less sugar in it.
After he had taken about ten mouthfuls of porridge, Prince Chun's wife put down her spoon and instead picked up a small portion of vegetables with her chopsticks and fed them to him, "Eat some vegetables too."
After eating three mouthfuls of vegetables, he ate a small piece of omelet, which was about the size of his clenched fist.
Then Prince Chun's wife stopped.
With a somewhat worried look on her face, she rubbed the little guy's belly, which was not bulging, and her tone was filled with unrelieved sorrow, "Mother's An'er..."
Aunt Liu on the side twitched her eyes and looked away silently.
Xiao An'er seemed to have gotten used to it. Even though he was not full yet and was still a little envious of the food on the table, he said nothing and looked away with restraint.
He immediately raised his two thin arms with great effort, hugged his mother's neck, and comforted her in a baby voice: "An'er, be good, Eliang, don't cry, An'er will be fine..."
Aunt Liu: “…”
She sighed in her heart for the umpteenth time.
In her opinion, Prince Chun's wife was good in every way. She was strict in managing the household, gentle and humble, and extremely fair in treating her subordinates. However, she made a huge mistake in the matter of the young prince!
Nanny Liu is the third wet nurse for the young prince.
The two wet nurses before her, one was scolded by Prince Chun's wife for not taking good care of the little prince because he accidentally sneezed while drinking milk, and was banished from the prince's palace; the other one was caught by Prince Chun's wife when the little prince was taking a nap, so she suffered the same fate as the previous wet nurse.
Unfortunately, this wet nurse had a seriously ill eldest daughter and a younger son who was only about two months older than the little prince. She was very unwilling to lose her job in Prince Chun's mansion, so she begged for mercy in a louder voice and happened to wake up the little prince who was taking a nap.
The little prince, who had just turned one year old, woke up from the noisy crying and saw the wet nurse who had been taking care of him kneeling on the ground crying with tears streaming down her face, her hair and clothes all torn into a mess. He was so scared that he started crying too.
So the wet nurse was dragged away and beaten half to death by four or five tall and strong eunuchs on the pretext that she had offended the little prince. She is still bedridden and unable to walk.
As for her two children... after losing their jobs at Prince Chun's mansion, they had no money to buy medicine, and her eldest daughter died of illness in less than a month. Her youngest son was adopted by an aunt in the family who had been childless for many years, and they barely managed to live a life without worries about food and clothing.
Madam Liu was originally the least prominent of the four wet nurses who served the young prince. After the first wet nurse was banished from the palace, Prince Chun's wife asked her family to send a second wet nurse. However, seeing how indifferent the outside wet nurse was to her son, Prince Chun's wife turned her attention to the other wet nurses sent from the palace, and it was only then that Madam Liu was promoted.
After all, Nanny Liu was an old lady who had been assigned by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to take care of the little prince since he was born. She knew very well that the little prince actually had no illness at all.
He just inherited Prince Chun's weak constitution, so he might be difficult to raise when he was just born, always suffering from various ailments. But as time passed, with the help of various warming and nourishing medicines, plus his own vitality, the older he got, the easier it was to keep him alive.
But it cannot be the way Prince Chun's wife raised her.
——If he had a slight cough, he would stop eating normally. For three to five days in a row, he would only be given some bland porridge and a few mouthfuls of vegetables every day, saying that it was to cleanse his stomach.
The little prince was not allowed to get out of bed and walk around. He had to lie in bed for more than ten hours out of the twelve hours a day to recuperate.
The windows in the room were never opened all year round, and the curtains in front of the bed were always three or four layers thick. When the little prince slept, the quilt covering him was so thick that it could make an adult breathless. At the same time, the wife even sent many people to take turns watching him, not allowing the little prince to let his hands and feet show outside the quilt when he slept.
The wife of Prince Chun would not allow the little prince to play with the toys that other children had, using the excuse that they were not conducive to his recovery.
When the little prince was younger, he didn't understand so much. He would cry if he was not full, make a fuss if he was suffocated by the quilt, and roll around on the bed and act like a spoiled child if he saw his favorite toy being taken away by the concubine without mercy.
However, every time this happened, innocent palace maids would be ruthlessly accused of "failure to take good care of the family" by Prince Chun's wife, and would be dragged away one by one, beaten to death, or sold.
Because in the eyes of Prince Chun's wife, her An'er was always the most obedient. If he cried and acted willfully, it was most likely because of the instigation of the people around him. If she didn't beat or kill him, did she have to watch An'er learn bad things?
Over time, even someone as ignorant as the little prince realized the problem.
Only if he is well behaved, the people around him will not disappear, his mother will not cry all the time, there will not be anyone locked up in the woodshed in the northeast corner of the mansion, the chains will not make a sound, and the sticks will not turn red.
*
After a simple breakfast, the little guy was carried back to the dim and depressing room by Madam Liu.
He lay back on the bed with a pout.
After lying down for a while, he seemed to remember something, and his little finger quietly reached under the pillow. After groping for a while, he touched a round and smooth object. His eyes suddenly lit up, and "dong dong" it disappeared.
Aunt Liu, who was guarding the bed, saw his movements and coughed lightly, "Aunt Wenfang, please go and see if the young prince's medicine is ready. I'm a little worried."
Wenfang at the door didn't want to go, but... that was the little prince's medicine. Although they were living in the palace now, it was always better to be cautious.
So he nodded and said, "I'll go take a look and be back soon."
Madam Liu retracted her gaze and moved closer to the little guy, "What are you looking at, brother?"
The little guy first gave her a smile with curved eyebrows, and then whispered back: "It's 'dong dong'."
What was that "dong dong" sound? Nanny Liu was stunned for a moment, then reached into the pillow and felt around. She quickly remembered something, "Is this the rattle that Concubine Ling sent?"
The little guy wondered, "What is a rattle?"
Nanny Liu took out the thing from under the pillow, twisted it with her fingertips, and the balls on the left and right of the rattle hit the drum surface, making a crisp thudding sound.
The little guy's eyes suddenly became brighter.
After a moment, he hesitated again, "Mammy, is it possible that Dongdong is missing too?"
Nanny Liu shook her head, stuffed the rattle back into his hands, and said in a firm tone, "Just play with it, brother. Dong Dong won't disappear."
After all, it was a toy awarded by Concubine Ling, and it was played by the Seventh Prince in the palace before. Since it was given to her little prince, the concubine must have heard the rumor that "the Seventh Prince is a blessed man". In order to let the little prince be blessed by the Seventh Prince, the concubine would not send someone to take the rattle away and throw it away.
Thinking of this, a smile unconsciously appeared on Liu Ma's face.
She lay in front of the bed and played with the rattle with the little brother for a long time.
After a while, Wenfang brought the medicine. The little guy drank it all in one gulp with great generosity, and then went back to the quilt to play with his "new good friend".
Just as Nanny Liu said, when Wenfang saw the rattle in the little prince's hand, she did not show an unhappy expression as before.
She took the medicine bowl away with her usual attitude.
The little guy played on the bed for another half hour before falling asleep with a sweet smile.
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