82 Chapter 82

◎Update◎

The next day, Li Cheng went to the battlefield. Huiyin could not see him off as she usually did at the palace. She just put away his breastplate for him in the morning and helped him put on his armor with ease.

"You must always understand that you should not pursue a desperate enemy. You are the emperor now. No matter how many people want to pull you down from this position, they will only continue to provoke you to attack." Huiyin still warned as usual.

Li Cheng smiled and nodded: "You and I are always so far apart, I don't know when we will meet again. We used to be together every day for a while, I even knew your clothing size, but now I have forgotten it."

Huiyin poked his head and said, "Why are you talking about this? My size changes all the time and I have to look at the records on paper myself."

"I leave everything about the palace and the children to you." Li Cheng held Huiyin's hand and strode away as usual.

After he left, Huiyin was sad for half an hour and made a new list for Qin An to send things to Princess Wei. Qin An took a look and saw that it said that as a reward to Princess Wei, she should give three boxes of persimmon cakes, four boxes of longans, twenty catties of lotus root powder, five catties of cinnamon powder, five catties of dates, eight catties of dried lychees, three catties of dried bananas and two hu of Xizhou lactose.

There were also concubines of Yin's rank, but they were one-third or two less.

Qin An did not dare to say anything, thinking that the empress seemed to attach great importance to etiquette. Although Concubine Yin gave birth to Prince Yuzhang, she was only a concubine after all, and it was not easy for her to surpass the principal wife.

In addition to the people in the palace, there are also people outside the palace, Guo Zhao's wife Jiang Bibo, who is nominally her godsister, Guo Zhao's son is now studying in the palace with Jing'er. Yu Wendang is Li Cheng's trusted confidant, so he should be rewarded more, and her family's various places are all for people to see one by one.

Even Xie's second wife, Mrs. Cao, got some.

Of course, the reactions were not the same everywhere. Xin was very happy to receive these. Pei Shuo happened to be at home, so she couldn't help but say, "The Queen is always considerate of us, even giving us these. I will also give some to Sister Dong. She is pregnant, so it's good for her to eat more of these."

Of course, Pei Shuo couldn't protect Dong in Xin's place. He didn't need to learn how to do this. He just knew what to say. He just said, "Why do you care about her? She has a body and she has her own food. You can just use these."

"General, don't say that." After hearing Pei Shuo's words, Xin felt sweeter than eating honey.

Pei Shuo said, "There are many former subordinates in the palace now. You should help take care of the Empress whenever you enter the palace. Although I am in the Imperial Guards to protect the capital, I cannot take care of the harem."

Xin nodded: "Don't worry, I will definitely do it."

After all, Xin was a good person and pushed him to see Dong. Anyway, Dong was pregnant and couldn't serve a man. Pei Shuo made a few excuses and went to Dong's place. Since she got pregnant, Dong's mood was much better and she had hope.

When she saw Pei Shuo, she walked up to him like a little bird: "Husband."

"Hurry up and sit down, hurry up and sit down. You are already pregnant, but you are still so careless." Pei Shuo held her and sat down, and asked, "How are you today? Are you still suffering from morning sickness?"

Aunt Dong said quickly, "It's getting better now, don't worry."

She didn't want to worry Pei Shuo, so she added, "Grandma has someone who knows how to pickle green plums. I feel much better after eating them. This is all thanks to Grandma."

Pei Shuo knew that Dong was actually such a gentle person by nature. She was afraid that he would worry, so she would silently endure it even if she was wronged. He would not be overly partial to her, otherwise there would be conflicts between his wives and concubines in the backyard, which would be even more disadvantageous for Dong.

But as long as he came over often, no one dared to do anything to her.

"That's good. With Lord Jian in the capital, everything is in order. But once the emperor leaves, many evil spirits will emerge. I have to be away all day and can only find time to come and see you. If you have any problems, let my attendant come to find me." Pei Shuo smiled.

Aunt Dong nodded: "Don't worry, I haven't been out much these days, it's okay."

After having the child, Aunt Dong became even more devoted to Pei Shuo. Knowing his aspirations, she took out ten boxes of pearls and asked him to give them to the Empress.

"No need. Your Majesty doesn't need these. You can keep them. There is still a long time to go." Pei Shuo knew Aunt Dong's kindness, but he had used her money in Xuzhou before. Now that he had been appointed as the governor, there was no need for him to do so.

Aunt Dong smiled sweetly: "Then I'll take a box and give it to Sister Xian to make a crown."

Pei Shuo said: "Don't worry, you can take it out when the child has a happy event in the future."

Seeing that the man was doing everything for her and was now successful, Aunt Dong had nothing to be unhappy about.

Another person who was equally pleasing was Jiang Bibo. After she married Guo Zhao, she successfully gave birth to a daughter. Now Guo Zhao was fighting outside, and she was managing the family business in Beijing. When she saw the reward from the palace, she asked someone to view it first.

After opening the box and seeing all those things, he could not help but say to Nanny Lin: "The Queen has been so considerate to me every year. Everything I have now is given by the Queen. Many generals came from Xuzhou and wanted to marry the nobles in Beijing, but I have the Queen to protect me, so I don't have to worry."

Nanny Lin said, "Yes, the emperor thinks highly of our family and has conferred the title of Earl on us. This is no ordinary favor. I heard that Xie Qian of the Xie family felt that it was not good to abandon the Qian family and wanted to marry another royal family girl. However, the emperor is going to lead the army in person now, so it is difficult for Xie Da to do so."

"The more so, I have no parents and my support is the Empress. The Empress has always returned the things I sent to her on a daily basis, so this is not easy to deal with." Thinking of this, she discussed it with her nanny. They planned to use the Empress's reputation as alms in the city to help the Empress accumulate fame.

Jiang Bibo did what he said, but Cao was thinking about something else.

Because Li Cheng ascended the throne, the Cao, Jiang and Hu families were all selected as imperial merchants. Now the Xie family also has an official position. Although the second son of the Xie family is a little dandy, the Xie family has also become a new noble because of Xie Qian.

She is different from Jiang Bibo. She is not worried that Xie Er will divorce her. After all, the Cao family is now an imperial merchant.

But she was able to enter the palace with her sister-in-law, which was the grace of the Empress Dowager. She planned to send a generous gift to the Empress Dowager on her birthday, and if she was going to worship, she had to worship the real Buddha.

As for Xie Jiuyi and his wife, some people said they were dead, and some said they had disappeared. Now that she had no enemies, she felt happy. She was living a good life now, and she didn't hate them as much as before.

What made her even happier was that after eating the dates given by the Empress, she was diagnosed with pregnancy the next day, which was another piece of good news.

Since ancient times, when some people are happy, others are sad.

It is also said that as the Duke's family, the Zheng family received a lot of rewards. This time, Ji had someone send the rewards directly to Cui Yuehuan. Now that she is the mistress of the family, everything will be divided up by her.

Cui Yuehuan first sent one portion to Madam Xu and Mrs. Ji, and then after thinking about it, she also packed some to send to Deyin. Unexpectedly, Deyin came all the way to express her gratitude.

"You are too polite, ma'am." Cui Yuehuan asked her to sit down.

Deyin smiled and said, "It's hard for you to still think of me. During the time I was back, my sister-in-law took very good care of me."

"What are you talking about, ma'am? This is what I should do." Cui Yuehuan smiled and asked someone to serve the tea.

She felt very sympathetic towards this aunt, but sympathy was sympathy, and everyone could only take care of their own affairs. Mrs. Xu heard that the private property was very rich, and she would give it all to this aunt when the time comes. She would not have to worry about remarrying, at least her natal family would provide a safety net.

Deyin unconsciously tried to curry favor with Cui Yuehuan. After all, she would need help from her parents in the future, so she had to be careful with her words. Cui Yuehuan was not very polite to her either.

"In fact, these are all the grace of the Queen Mother. I am just helping her share a little."

When Deyin heard people mention Huiyin, her eyes dimmed unconsciously, "Yes, we should thank the Empress."

Cui Yuehuan didn't know about the undercurrents between them. She only knew that they were from different mothers and thought that their relationship was similar to that between her and Mrs. Zhang. Although it might not have been very good when they were in the family, they were sisters and a family after all.

Therefore, Cui Yuehuan smiled and said, "With the Empress here, everything is fine in our family."

When she mentioned Huiyin to Deyin, Deyin also proposed to go see Madam Xu. Cui Yuehuan was still not satisfied, and waited until she left before she took up the list Huiyin had given her and eliminated them one by one. She had to check these people thoroughly. This was the first time the empress had told her to do this, and if she didn't do it well, her sister-in-law would definitely blame them in the future.

But it is said that Deyin arrived at Madam Xu's place, and Madam Xu waved at her and asked, "Where are you from?"

"It came from my brother's wife. It's rare that she gave me something, so I went to thank her." Deyin said with a smile.

Madam Xu curled her lips and said, "It's not a good thing. I think the dates are not as good as the ones we eat at home, and the lotus root powder is not as good as my own. Forget about her. We will have nothing to do with her in the future. She even took your dowry for granted. How can she be a good person? The doctor will be here soon. He came to check your health."

The grandfather and grandson were speechless for a while, and soon the doctor came. Through the curtain, the old doctor felt the patient's pulse with a handkerchief. He began to frown the first time he felt the patient.

Mrs. Xu was old, and had reached an age where she didn't need to be cautious. She couldn't help but ask, "Doctor Shen, is there something wrong?"

"Excuse me for being frank, but your daughter has a very cold body and even often drinks raw, cold and cool foods. May I ask if she often has irregular and delayed menstruation?" Doctor Shen asked.

Madam Xu nodded: "Yes, she has been married for several years but has no children and her life is not going smoothly. I wonder what is going on?"

Doctor Shen said: "It's probably because you ate a lot of cold food. It's even difficult for you to get pregnant."

Deyin, who was sitting behind the curtain, was somewhat incredulous and very anxious: "Doctor, I always drink tonic soup and top-grade pregnancy medicine, how could I drink something cold? In winter, I don't even drink warm water, I only drink boiling water, because I'm afraid of catching a cold."

"What tonic soup did you drink? Do you remember the recipe?" Doctor Shen asked.

Deyin recalled that she and Li Heng had a good relationship at first. After every lovemaking, Li Heng would have someone prepare a bowl of pregnancy-preserving medicine, saying it was specially made in the palace and that it was unique to her. Later, Yunzhi became the prince's concubine and was said to have never drunk it. She still believed that the prince had loved her.

"I, I don't know what kind of tonic soup that is."

Doctor Shen sighed and said, "If you start to take care of yourself now, you may recover in three to five years. Otherwise, your blood will dry up and you may never be able to have children again."

Deyin almost fell to the ground. She had never expected that her condition would be so serious. It was obvious that when she was still a girl, she had plenty of energy and blood, and her health was better than Huiyin's.

It was the prince, it was Li Heng, and there was something wrong with the medicine he gave.

【Author’s words】

On the first day of November, I wish everyone peace, safety, happiness and joy this month.

I will update this first today, and will try to update three more tomorrow.