After the queen returned to Changle Palace, her face was still full of joy.
Now that Concubine Su is pregnant, she has put her mind at ease, and feels relaxed and happy.
"Finally, a concubine in the harem is pregnant. The royal family will have an heir. I am so happy." The queen sighed.
The nanny beside the queen turned her eyes, lowered her head and whispered to the queen:
"Empress, if Concubine Su gave birth to a little prince, then why don't you take him in and raise him..."
The queen frowned and shook her head.
"Mammy, please don't say such things again. Although I haven't given birth to a child, I am also someone's daughter. I know that mother and child are connected by heart. How can I forcibly separate a mother and child because of my own selfish desires and cause them to be separated and heartbroken?"
"Besides, if the prince grows up and learns about this from others, will he resent me? How can I explain it to him?"
"I am the Empress. One of the Empress' duties is to continue the royal bloodline and give birth to a royal heir. Unfortunately, I have been unable to conceive in all these years. The Emperor and I are of the same age, and we are already past our optimal childbearing years. I can only place the hope of carrying offspring for the Emperor on the younger concubines."
"Madam, you know that since the Emperor ascended the throne, over the past decade or so, I have prayed before the Buddha many times, hoping that the Heaven would have mercy on me and grant the royal family a son. Now that the Heaven has finally blessed my prayers, how could I do something that would harm Heaven and jeopardize this blessing?"
The nanny lowered her eyes and nodded. She knew that the queen was always wise, and she also realized that what she had just said was inappropriate.
However, she was still worried about the Queen. She was afraid that the Queen would have no one to rely on in the future, and she was also afraid that the Queen's position would be lost if she had no children.
"Empress, if Concubine Su is restless and uses her son's status to covet your position as Empress, what will you do then?"
The Queen's eyes were far away, and she said softly:
"I don't think Concubine Su is an ambitious person. If she really gives birth to a prince and covets the position of empress... never mind, let's talk about the future later. My mother's family is also a prominent family, and my father and brothers are not unknown people. The emperor will not easily depose the empress."
"The most important thing now is to take good care of Concubine Su and let her give birth to the emperor's child safely."
The queen didn't want to worry about things that hadn't happened yet, nor did she want to regard Su Wanti as an imaginary enemy.
The emperor treated her very well, and Su Wanti was always docile and had never contradicted her by taking advantage of his favor, so she still wanted to be a virtuous and good queen.
"Mammy, go to the Imperial Kitchen and select a few trustworthy cooks. Send them to Yuxiu Palace to serve Concubine Su. Then select a few female doctors and have them go to Yuxiu Palace to take care of Concubine Su's daily diet."
"You will handle these two matters personally, and you must choose someone with a clean family background and good character."
"Also, the Emperor has bestowed Guanju Palace upon Concubine Su. Now that it's been renovated, we had originally planned to have Concubine Su move in soon. But I heard that it's taboo to move when a woman is pregnant. It's better to wait until Concubine Su safely gives birth to her son."
The queen made careful arrangements for Su Wanti, and she was looking forward to the birth of the first child after the emperor ascended the throne with great joy.
The atmosphere on the imperial concubine's side was not very good.
After leaving Yufu Palace, the imperial concubine returned to her palace full of doubts.
Chi Liangdi also came back with her.
Since the last Imperial Lake Banquet, Chi Liangdi has often visited the Imperial Concubine, and as time goes by, their relationship has become closer.
After returning to the palace, the imperial concubine said nothing, full of thoughts.
Chi Liangdi was very clever. She had noticed something was wrong with the Imperial Concubine long ago, so she cautiously asked:
"Is the Imperial Concubine thinking about Concubine Su's pregnancy?"
The imperial concubine raised her eyes, looked at her with her beautiful eyes, and said:
"Don't you find it strange? In the more than ten years since the Emperor ascended the throne, none of us concubines have been able to conceive a dragon fetus, yet she has been pregnant with a dragon fetus after only three months in the palace..."
"I didn't go to the royal temple to pray that day. You went with the Queen and the others. What did the abbot say at the time? Could she really be the chosen one?"
The imperial concubine still didn't believe that Su Wanti was really pregnant. She felt that there must be a conspiracy.
Hearing this, Chi Liangdi lowered her eyes and thought. She recalled going to the royal temple to pray for blessings, trying to find something unreasonable.
After a while, she suddenly had an idea and said:
"Your Highness, I have a bold guess, but I don't know whether I should say it or not."
The imperial concubine saw her eyes sparkling and her face full of mystery, and asked excitedly, "Did you discover something? Tell me!"
Chi Liangdi closed the door of the inner room, then moved closer to the imperial concubine, her eyes gleaming with a faint light, and said:
"Your Highness, I'm thinking that maybe the Kirin fortune stick that was supposed to bring a child was tampered with on the day we went to the temple to pray, and was deliberately shaken out by Concubine Su..."
"What the abbot said might have been arranged by the queen long ago."
"Those two imperial physicians were invited by the Queen's trusted nanny. Their words might have been arranged by the Queen."
Chi Liangdi's eyes became brighter and brighter, as if she had discovered a huge conspiracy.
"Perhaps, Concubine Su's pregnancy is fake, and she was also arranged by the Queen."
The imperial concubine felt her scalp tingling, and the air around her suddenly condensed.
She frowned and looked at Chi Liangdi with disbelief.
"That's a bold guess, but... it's not impossible. Keep going!"
Chi Liangdi continued:
"Given Concubine Su's reputation outside the palace, she shouldn't have been allowed to enter, but the Queen allowed her in anyway. After Concubine Su entered the palace, the Queen also took extra care of her..."
"The Queen has always wanted an heir, and Concubine Su was chosen by her to enter the palace. Perhaps the two of them worked together to create a fake pregnancy, and when the baby is born, they bring a baby boy into the palace. This would secure the status of the Queen and Concubine Su."
After hearing what Chi Liangdi said, the imperial concubine narrowed her beautiful eyes and asked:
"Besides taking a pulse, is there any other way to tell if a woman is pregnant?"
Chi Liangdi's eyes turned sharp and she whispered:
"I do have a folk method, but it's used by country women. The method is not very clean, and I'm afraid it will pollute your ears."
"No problem, tell me about it."
Chi Liangdi then approached the imperial concubine, half covering her lips with a handkerchief, and whispered:
"There's a saying in my hometown that if you use a woman's spring to water wheat seeds overnight, if the wheat seeds sprout, you're pregnant. If they don't, you're not."
The imperial concubine pursed her nose, with a look of disgust on her face.
"What kind of method is this? Do I have to steal her underground spring?"
Chi Liangdi also felt embarrassed.
"This is the only method I know. Concubine Su is being cared for meticulously and meticulously now. She's surrounded by close contacts, and we can't arrange for a doctor to come and check her pulse. We have no choice but to think of another way. This method is a folk remedy, but it's very effective."
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