In the early part of the fourth year of the Qianlong Emperor's reign, Consort Jia, née Jin, gave birth to the sixth prince. When the child was one month old, the Qianlong Emperor named him Yongcheng and promoted Consort Jin to the rank of Jia Pin, making her a principal consort.
With a prince by her side and a promotion in rank as a result, Consort Jia was content and focused on raising her child.
After the Third Prince passed away, Empress Fucha was deeply grieving and could not extricate herself from her grief for a long time.
Although Hongli hoped that his principal wife could give birth to another son, he did not show it too obviously, not wanting to put pressure on Lady Fucha.
Niohuru, as the mother-in-law, made no attempt to hide her feelings and directly urged Fucha to try harder to have another grandson.
Faced with the pressure from her mother-in-law, Lady Fucha agreed with a bitter smile, her inner turmoil unknown to anyone.
At her age, she hasn't had any news of pregnancy for many years, so how could she possibly get pregnant now?
In fact, Empress Fucha is not very old. She is one year younger than Emperor Qianlong and is only twenty-seven years old this year. She is still very young and is in the prime of her life.
In ancient times, when people could get married at the age of thirteen or fourteen, Lady Fucha was indeed considered relatively old.
No matter how heartbroken she was, Lady Fucha could only compose herself, actively improve her health, and fight against the impossible.
The concubines in the harem became much more restless after the death of the Third Prince.
Yonglian's high regard for the throne is evident to all. All the concubines in the harem know that the Third Prince will surely inherit the throne in the future, even surpassing the First Prince born to Consort Hui.
Now it's not so certain. The Third Prince has passed away, so those of them who have sons could all be affected.
Even those without sons were yearning for a son. The Emperor was still young, and if they could conceive and give birth to a prince, it would still be possible.
Recently, the Xilin Gioro clan, who has recently gained some favor, is quite pleased with herself, feeling that her act of attaching herself to the Empress Dowager is extremely clever.
Not only did it help her escape the emperor's dislike, but it also successfully infiltrated the ranks of those who were favored.
After a year of sitting on the sidelines, the once arrogant and carefree Xilinjueluo has begun to become smarter.
She has now learned to be gentle and considerate, and coupled with her undeniable beauty, Hongli has been able to rest quite often.
Now that the Third Prince has passed away, Lady Xilinjueluo also feels that this is a good opportunity to get pregnant as soon as possible. With her family background, she may be able to compete for that position.
The concubines in the harem used all sorts of tricks to win the favor of Emperor Qianlong and to give birth to children as soon as possible so that they could have a future.
Emperor Hongli, a womanizer, found this rather annoying. While enjoying the service of beautiful women was certainly pleasant, he disliked the fact that these women all had ulterior motives.
Moreover, he now desires for the Empress to have a child. He is aware of the concubines' thoughts and, fearing that they might threaten the non-existent legitimate son, Hongli is unwilling to encourage their wishes.
Yunyi didn't join the competition for favor. Thanks to her status, she was the most favored concubine in the harem without having to compete.
While refraining from competition, Yunyi also taught her children not to become arrogant and to always maintain a humble and cautious attitude.
Yongjie, in particular, was the eldest son of Hongli, and was given a name by the late Emperor Yongzheng. His mother was the most powerful woman in the harem after Empress Fucha.
This identity is too dazzling to be flaunted; one should act discreetly at this time.
Fortunately, Yongjie is a smart child who understands Yunyi's good intentions. Moreover, he has always been smart but never overshadows his third brother. Now that his third brother is not around, he does not become arrogant and continues to maintain the status quo.
Although he was told to keep a low profile, Yongjie was still the most intelligent prince in the entire Imperial Study, far surpassing his younger brother Yonghuang.
Speaking of Yonghuang, he has probably been spoiled by Empress Nara over the years. After his mother passed away, he worked hard for a while, but now he is becoming more and more mischievous and playful.
Perhaps because he knew that Nara was not his biological mother, he did not respect Nara, and Nara, due to her age and other reasons, did not discipline Yonghuang much.
After Empress Fucha passed away, she originally arranged for her personal maid, Hongxiu, to take care of her son. However, Yang, the nanny by Empress Nara's side, felt that Hongxiu was too intelligent and found an excuse to transfer her away.
Without the help of the clever and resourceful Hongxiu, and with Yonghuang distrusting the Nara clan, he grew up unchecked and without any guidance, becoming increasingly distorted.
In the Imperial Study, the eldest prince Yongjie, the second prince Yonghuang, and the fourth prince Yongxuan were studying.
The other two are brothers, and they are all good at studying. There was also a legitimate son, Yonglian, who was born before. All three of them were better at studying than him.
Yonghuang became someone who was constantly lectured by his teacher, and under such circumstances, he grew increasingly averse to learning.
It was like a vicious cycle: he hated studying, his grades were bad, he was scolded by his teacher, and then he hated studying even more, his grades got worse and worse, and he was constantly lectured by his teacher.
Hongli blamed all of Yonghuang's lack of study on Nara, feeling that she had failed to properly educate her son.
When Lady Fucha left, Yonghuang was so well-behaved and hardworking. How come after raising him for several years, he's turned out like this?
Hongli, who never looked for the cause within himself, blamed Nara and became even less inclined to rest in her palace.
After being blamed, it was too late for Lady Nara to discipline Yonghuang, as his personality was already set and could not be changed.
With the contrast of the second son, it all the more apparent how outstanding it was that Lady Gao had given birth to two sons for her. However, with that thought in mind, Hongli would not choose Yunyi's eldest son, Yongjie, as long as there was still hope for the Empress.
Yunyi was also aware of this. If she wanted Yongjie to ascend to the throne, she could only eliminate Yonglian, Empress Fucha, and Yongcong, who would be born later, who were standing in her way.
However, Yunyi didn't need to take action, because the course of history told her that she only needed to wait patiently until the thirteenth year of Qianlong's reign to achieve her goal.
While Yunyi waited patiently, she was relieved about something interesting.
This world is formed from a novel story, and the female protagonist of this book is the future emperor's birth mother, Empress Xiaoyichun, née Wei.
Last year's general election and the preliminary election at the beginning of this year, just like at the beginning of the story, Wei Jia was not directly assigned to Changchun Palace where Empress Fucha was located, but came to Chengqian Palace where Yunyi was located.
Perhaps the story is really powerful, because in the book, Lady Gao did not live in Chengqian Palace. Yunyi transmigrated and changed to a different palace, and Lady Wei was even assigned to another palace.
When I first met Wei Jia, she was a third-class palace maid in the tea room of Yunyi Palace.
That day, the second-class palace maid who was originally on duty fell ill, so the head palace maid of the tea room arranged for Wei Wanru, a usually very clever third-class palace maid, to come and serve tea to Yunyi.
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