Chapter 147: Complaining about having three sons in a row, Prince Yong...
The birth of three sons at once prompted a row of three bows and arrows hung on the left side of the main gate of the Yongjun Prince's mansion. It was supposed to be a grand celebration, and everyone who heard the news poured in generous gifts, eager to come and offer their congratulations.
It's a pity that Yinzhen is about to go out with the emperor. Not to mention, the three newborn children are very weak, and Qi Buchen has suffered a great loss. This time, she will probably have to stay in confinement for two or three months.
Besides, the external situation is not good now. Prince Gong and Prince Yu have just passed away, so it is not appropriate to celebrate in a grand manner.
Without giving it much thought, Yinzhen cancelled the triplets' third birthday and full moon celebrations and only sent the good news to the palace.
When Qi Buchen woke up, it was already the early morning of the third day. She moved her hands and feet, and the pain made her whole brain clear.
"Awake?" The gentle voice sounded weary. "Are you hungry?"
Qi Buchen took a closer look and asked in surprise: "Why are you here?"
Yinzhen sat by the bed, holding a glass of water and offering it to her: "I'll be leaving in two hours. I won't be able to rest until I see you wake up."
What he didn't say was that if Fu Jin didn't wake up, he would have the doctor give her acupuncture to force her awake. Even if she hadn't had a difficult birth, her body wouldn't be able to endure being in a coma without food or water.
Qi Buchen drank the water from his hand and said weakly, "Have I slept for so long?" She remembered that she set off three days before the departure.
"Well, do you want more?" Although he was asking, Yinzhen had already poured another cup of warm water and fed it to her again.
Qi Buchen finished his drink again and shook his head to indicate that he didn't want any more. "How's the child? Where's Honghui? Isn't he crying?"
Yinzhen put down his cup and caressed her face lovingly. Fu Jin's appearance at the moment was by no means pretty, but he felt that there was no one in the world who loved him more than her. "Because they were born prematurely, the children are all weak. The fourth child is in much worse condition than the other two. But don't worry. Imperial Physician Fu has been watching over him constantly these past two days, so he's not in danger of dying."
"Honghui wanted to see you, but I stopped him. He should be asleep now."
When she got angry that day, she asked someone to take Honghui somewhere else to play. When Honghui came back, she had already fallen asleep. She was crying, of course, but the child was sensible and would listen if she talked to her nicely.
Although Yinzhen said that his life was not in danger, she still noticed Xiaosi's body when she was awake that day. He was much smaller than his two brothers. It was hard to say whether such a premature baby could be raised in this time when there were no incubators.
When Qi Buchen thought about the possibility of the child dying, his eyes turned red with sadness: "If you leave, what will happen to Xiao Si...?"
At this moment, she really didn't want Yinzhen to leave.
How could Yinzhen want to leave? His wife was lying in bed unable to move, and his child was hanging on to his last breath. How could he feel at ease to go out at this time?
But he couldn't be weak.
Yinzhen leaned over and placed a kiss on Fu Jin's pale lips. "Don't let your imagination run wild. It's okay. Xiao Si is fine. Nothing will happen to him. Don't worry. I've already asked the Emperor. During this period, Fu Yuanpan and Zheng Yuanpan of Xiao Fangmai will stay at the mansion. They won't leave until you and the child are almost grown."
Qi Buchen nodded aggrievedly: "Take Honghui with you. The child and I are in this situation and we can't take care of him. If we are negligent again, he won't be wronged."
Honghui was young and the conditions outside the Great Wall were difficult, so Yinzhen had not originally planned to take him with him. However, the situation was special at the time, so he had to settle for the next best option.
"Okay." Yinzhen rubbed her forehead, "Don't bother, okay?"
Baozhu happened to bring food, and Yinzhen wanted to feed him himself, but his cooking skills were really poor, and Qi Buchen was very hungry, so Baozhu finally came to feed him.
After filling his stomach, Qi Buchen began to feel sleepy. "Go back and have a rest. We'll be leaving soon. You'll be tired on the road."
Yinzhen tidied up her hair and said, "It's okay. I'll stay with you for a while."
"No need to accompany me, you..." Qi Buchen fell asleep before he could finish his words.
This extremely tired look made Yinzhen feel even more distressed. He held Qi Buchen's face with one hand and said in a low voice: "From now on... I won't have any more children."
When I opened my eyes again, it was bright outside. Lan Hui was standing by my bed. I found that the first thing she did after waking up was to give me water.
After moistening his throat, Qi Buchen finally asked, "Have the prince and the prince left?"
"Yes." Lan Hui instructed the others to serve the meal while busying herself wiping her face. "She's been gone for three or four hours."
"Where are the brothers?"
"The wet nurses have just taken their medicine and are feeding the brothers."
Qi Buchen nodded, and with the help of her strength, she half-leaned up and asked someone to feed her.
Lan Hui continued to report, "Today is the third day of the three princes' ceremonies. We had originally told the public that we wouldn't be celebrating. But not long after the prince left, Eunuch Chen from the Qianqing Palace arrived. The emperor left a decree, naming the three princes. The second prince is named Hongyu, the third prince is named Hongyun, and the fourth prince is named Hongshi. Later, the empress dowager and the concubines from the other palaces sent gifts. Other palaces also heard the news and sent generous gifts. Eunuch Lin and Nanny Cheng were the ones who received them all."
"Keep a record of everything and give more gifts when you return the favor." This is a common occurrence and there's nothing much to say.
Lan Hui continued, "Yesterday, the Tenth Prince had a daughter. The prince has already prepared the gifts and ordered Eunuch Lin to deliver them on a chosen day."
Shisan also accompanied the emperor this time. He didn't have a person in charge in his backyard, so there was no need for Qi Buchen to go in person to congratulate him.
After finishing these serious matters, Qi Buchen asked for the children to be brought over. He held them in his arms one by one. They were obviously much smaller than Honghui when he was just born. Hongshi was especially light, and he didn't feel heavy even when he held him.
"Go ask Doctor Fu. I want to feed Xiao Si myself. Does he need to take medicine too?" Qi Buchen had fed Hong Hui before, but there were other wet nurses at the time. She didn't deliberately induce milk production, so she stopped feeding him when she ran out of milk. But Xiao Si's condition wasn't good this time, and she'd heard breast milk could boost immunity, so she thought she'd give it a try. Any slight improvement would be great.
Lan Hui came back quickly: "The imperial physician said that if you want to feed the baby yourself, it's fine, but since you just gave birth, the dosage of some medicines needs to be adjusted, and the effect may be weaker."
Qi Buchen made up his mind: "Then I will go with Nanny. Nanny will drink the medicine, and I won't."
Children eat small amounts but frequently, so it's no problem for Qi Buchen and the wet nurse to take turns feeding him. Perhaps because he hadn't taken the medicine, Hongshi ate significantly more and was more active when she was feeding him.
After feeding him like this for a day or two, Doctor Zheng took his pulse again and found that the Fourth Prince's recovery was better than the other two.
After Qi Buchen knew about it, although Hongshi was still the main one, Hongyu and Hongyun could still get some food from time to time. Like Hongshi, they obviously liked the food fed by Qi Buchen more.
Qi Buchen was of course very happy that the child was close to her. Conversely, she became more anxious when the child was sick.
Although the three children enjoyed almost the best care at the time, and Qi Buchen also made many preparations and adjustments based on modern childcare knowledge, their congenital deficiencies resulted in the children still suffering from minor illnesses.
Such a young child? He couldn't even tell what was wrong with his body. He would cry whenever something happened, and Qi Buchen would sometimes cry too.
But it's good to be able to cry. Like Hongshi at this moment, he had such a high fever that he couldn't even cry. Qi Buchen only felt angina pain, as if he could have a heart attack and suffocate at any time.
"Open the windows! Ventilate! It's August now, and you're trying to suffocate someone by keeping the windows so tightly shut!"
"I said no, yet you wrapped him up so thickly! It's so hot, are you trying to kill him?"
"Where's the warm water?! Don't stop! Keep it at this temperature!"
As Hongshi's high fever did not subside, Qi Buchen became more and more irritable. He scolded everyone who was taking care of the children. Even the wet nurse would have been replaced long ago if he hadn't considered that they had been taking medicine for a long time.
The imperial physician was busy preparing medicine, so Qi Buchen could only use the clumsy method of wiping Hongshi with warm water to cool him down physically.
"Good Hongshi, don't scare mother. Let's get rid of the fever quickly. Mother will give you delicious food and take you out to play, okay?"
"You haven't met your eldest brother yet. He has a lot of fun things to do there. I'll take you there when he comes back, okay?"
Qi Buchen's nagging seemed a bit neurotic. Baozhu and the others were extremely worried and couldn't help but pray that the Fourth Prince would get better soon. If something really happened to the Fourth Prince, the princess... the princess might not be able to bear the blow.
Perhaps some god heard the prayers of everyone in the mansion. Before the death limit set by the imperial physician, Hongshi's fever miraculously subsided. Qi Buchen fainted due to his relaxed mind.
"The princess should have been concentrating on recuperating. Now she's working so hard. Sigh..."
All of this was written in a letter by Lin Changqing, who was guarding the house, and sent to Yinzhen who was far away in the frontier.
Although the child was fine in the end, Yinzhen still felt like he was seriously ill and exhausted after reading the letter.
If not, if not... Yinzhen tightly grasped the letter. If it were not for this critical moment, he would have returned to Beijing regardless of everything.
He looked towards the capital and said to himself, it's my fault for not being kind to you.
"Father!" Honghui jumped in happily, "I heard that Mother wrote a letter! What did Mother write? Let me see it quickly!"
Yinzhen forced a smile and responded to his son: "Let me show you, can you read?"
Honghui's mouth drooped, and he looked unhappy. He protested, "I already know quite a few words!"
"Oh." Yinzhen dismissed him, "Father has something to do, go out and play."
"I don't want to, I want to read the letter!" Honghui shouted. Seeing his father's impatience, he felt aggrieved. "I miss my mother, I want my mother! Wow! Father is a bad guy! I don't want to go with him, I want to go back to find my mother!"
The shouting gave Yinzhen a headache. If Honghui were older, he would have just slapped him, but Honghui was only four years old. Before leaving, Fu Jin repeatedly told him to take good care of Honghui. He could only hold his temper and pick him up: "Didn't I tell you, your mother is sick now. Even if you go back, you won't be able to see her."
Honghui didn't care about him and continued to cry at the top of his lungs: "I want my mother! Mother!"
Yinzhen rubbed his brows and said, "Okay, let me read the letter to you, okay?"
He composed a letter on the spur of the moment and read it to Honghui, which finally appeased him. He then let the servants take him out to play, and he had time to sit down and write a letter to his wife and children who were far away in the capital.
By the time Qi Buchen received the letter, it was already September and she was still in confinement after giving birth.
After reading Yinzhen's letter, Qi Buchen knew clearly that he must have an important reason for not coming back, and even this reason could not be written in the letter, but she still couldn't help but complain.
After fainting last time, her body, which had recovered a little, collapsed again. Now, Nanny Cheng has separated the children from her and never tells her about the children, for fear that the two sides will drag each other down and eventually lose the children.
She knew this was for her own good, but although she understood it mentally, it was hard for her not to feel angry. However, the servants kept in touch with each other, so it was useless for her to lose her temper.
Now the letter that Yinzhen sent back only contained words of comfort. How could it satisfy her?
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