Chapter 74 Two or three days of relaxed days passed, and then...
After a few days of leisurely living, in the early morning after Cheng Qianyue had breakfast, Ruoyun suddenly asked if she should call the imperial physician to check her pulse. Cheng Qianyue had just finished her walk and sat down, and after thinking carefully, she said, "I haven't felt unwell lately, so there's no need."
Ruoyun reminded her with a smile, "Master, your period hasn't come yet."
Cheng Qianyue was startled, then belatedly realized. Oh right, her period hadn't come! She hadn't even noticed something so important. But then she thought about it, and realized she couldn't really blame herself; she'd been having such a good time these past few days that she hadn't thought much of it. Counting on her fingers, she sighed—her period was seven or eight days late this month. She unconsciously looked at her stomach, thinking, "No way, could I be pregnant again?"
However, guessing is useless; professional matters should be handled by professionals. Cheng Qianyue simply ordered someone to fetch the imperial physician. Then, after the imperial physician examined her pulse, her suspicions were confirmed, and he happily announced that she was indeed pregnant again.
Emmm, okay then.
Compared to her first pregnancy, Cheng Qianyue wasn't as nervous or worried this time. Of course, worrying was useless anyway. Since she was pregnant, she might as well give birth. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. She could always have an abortion anyway.
Cheng Qianyue held her belly and accepted it calmly.
Just then, the Third Prince came in from outside and ran towards her, seemingly about to pounce on her. Ruoyun quickly stopped him and said gently, "Oh dear Prince, please be careful. The master can't hug you like that."
The Third Prince frowned and asked, "What's wrong, Mother?"
Ruoyun beamed, "Master is pregnant! You're going to be a big brother!"
Upon hearing this, the Third Prince immediately perked up. As the youngest in the family, he had always been the one to call others "brother," never anyone to call him that. Now, hearing that he was going to be a big brother, he immediately looked up and asked, "Mother, am I going to be a big brother? Where is my little brother?" As he spoke, his eyes kept glancing around, as if Cheng Qianyue had hidden him away.
Cheng Qianyue waved to him, "Don't bother looking for it, it's in my belly. Besides, I don't know if it's your little brother or little sister."
The Third Prince walked to the kang (heated brick bed), and Lin Quan'an lifted him up to sit beside Cheng Qianyue. He couldn't quite grasp the idea that his younger brother or sister was in his mother's womb, so he stared intently at Cheng Qianyue's belly.
Cheng Qianyue laughed at his gaze, and stroked his little head, saying, "You were in my belly before you were even born."
The Third Prince said "Oh" and excitedly added, "Then Mother, please give birth to it quickly so I can play with it."
"Not yet," Cheng Qianyue said gently. "It won't be able to come out for another eight months."
Eight months is a long time. The Third Prince couldn't count, so he started counting on his fingers like Cheng Qianyue. Cheng Qianyue heard him muttering, "One day, two days, three days..." He kept going on and on until he had counted on all ten fingers, then he looked up and asked, "Is that all?"
Cheng Qianyue said, "No, it's more than twenty times ten days, more than two hundred and forty days."
Twenty-odd times, more than two hundred days? The Third Prince felt like he was going to faint. This number of days seemed like an extremely large amount; it was practically an astronomical figure for him.
Cheng Qianyue taught him to count with a smile on her face, intending to count from the beginning to one hundred.
The Third Prince kept counting, and when he reached the eighty-something, Yinreng came over from outside. He had just been attending court with the Emperor at Changchun Garden, and when he returned, he heard the good news. Without even changing his clothes, he came straight here.
He strode in, a smile on his face, and helped Cheng Qianyue to the bed to prevent her from kneeling down to pay her respects. Once she was on the couch, he couldn't help but gently place his hand on Cheng Qianyue's stomach, repeatedly saying, "Good, this is really wonderful."
He had been thinking that now that the Third Prince was grown up, perhaps he should give him a younger brother or sister, but before long, Cheng Qianyue became pregnant. Yinreng felt that this was fate, that the child had heard his wishes and was thus born.
Cheng Qianyue looked at him gently and said, "The imperial physician said I'm more than a month pregnant."
Yinreng nodded, his expression relaxed and expectant: "She will be born in a few more months." He looked at the Third Prince and said: "Third Prince, are you happy? You are going to be a big brother."
The Third Prince replied emphatically, "I'm happy, but Father, I can't wait."
Yinreng laughed heartily at his innocent words, "Then you should talk to your little brother and sister in your mother's belly more often, so that they can grow up quickly and come out to play with you soon."
“Okay,” the Third Prince agreed confidently.
In the following days, the Third Prince indeed spoke to the undeveloped "ball of flesh" in her belly, just as he had predicted. Cheng Qianyue secretly thought, "It's only been a few months. That embryo is just a bunch of cells. How could it understand human speech?" However, she didn't intend to discourage the Third Prince's desire to be a big brother. It was just that hearing the baby talk too much was a bit annoying, because the Third Prince kept repeating the same few phrases: "Can you hear me?" "I'm your big brother." "Can you come out quickly so I can take you out to play?"
Cheng Qianyue wanted to facepalm at his incessant chatter, which sounded like Tang Sanzang chanting sutras. So she devised a trick and said to the Third Prince in a serious tone that if he talked like this too much, the baby in his belly might get annoyed and might not want to come out. So she suggested that he organize his daily experiences and hear about them before coming out, so that the baby inside would hear that the outside world was very interesting and would want to come out.
The Third Prince suddenly realized. "So that's how it works!"
Cheng Qianyue tried hard to suppress her laughter and said to him, "You don't know this, do you? This is called bribery. If you want someone to listen to you, you have to tell them what the benefits are."
The Third Prince nodded as if he understood, and the next second he dashed out.
Cheng Qianyue breathed a sigh of relief, and a smile appeared on her lips. Oh my god, finally she didn't have to listen to his incessant nagging. She had been sitting for quite a while, and now she wanted to get up and walk around.
Ruoyun hurriedly came over to help her up and move around, smiling as she said, "This servant sees that the Third Prince really cares about you and the grandson in your belly."
Cheng Qianyue said, "It's good, but it's just the same few sentences over and over again. I'm so tired of hearing it. I don't know how he can be so patient and not get annoyed at all." This child really has a lot of energy and perseverance.
However, Cheng Qianyue eventually stopped finding it annoying because the energetic Third Prince tried many enticements. For example, he talked about how fun the garden was, mentioning the tiny grasshoppers and crickets in the grass and the red and yellow goldfish in the lake. He also said he picked flowers, how beautiful and fragrant they were, and that he saw tall, magnificent horses, how huge they were, and that he wanted to ride one when he grew up. Later, he even ran over with his favorite wooden carving, talking about how fun it was, and so on. In short, he never repeated himself every day.
To be honest, Cheng Qianyue listened with great interest. She admired the Third Prince's leadership qualities and gave herself a pat on the back. This way, the Third Prince's language skills were honed while the children's bond was strengthened. Hehe, what a clever mother she was!
As the days of pregnancy passed, she was soon over three months pregnant. Then Cheng Qianyue realized that this pregnancy was very different from her last one. The problem wasn't morning sickness or lack of exercise; it was mainly Cheng Qianyue's appetite. It wasn't that she ate little, but rather that she ate a lot, practically wanting to devour everything.
Having given birth once before, she knew from how smoothly she had given birth to the Third Prince that her methods of pregnancy care were correct. Therefore, this time during her pregnancy, she followed the same approach, eating small, frequent meals and moving around often, hoping to deliver the child smoothly this time as well.
But to her surprise, this method suddenly stopped working, and she often felt extremely hungry.
Cheng Qianyue now only eats until she's about 70% full at her three main meals a day, but she gets hungry again soon after eating, her stomach rumbling. Even if she has a couple of snacks or pastries as a treat, it won't last her more than an hour before she feels like her stomach is sticking to her back.
Cheng Qianyue was truly puzzled. She ate a total of six times a day, including three meals and snacks, but that still wasn't enough to satisfy her stomach. Where did all the food she ate go?! But she didn't dare to eat too much, so she could only ask someone to go to the kitchen to bring out milk tea or other starter drinks to try and fill herself up with water.
Then she threw up. She really threw up, not only the milk tea but also the steamed buns she had just eaten.
This terrified everyone serving her. Ruoyun hurriedly brought her water to rinse her mouth, her eyes brimming with tears, and asked, "Master, are you alright? How are you feeling?"
Cheng Qianyue felt much better after vomiting; she figured she had just drunk too much water and irritated her stomach. She breathed a sigh of relief and said, "I feel much better now."
The eunuch holding the spittoon quickly carried the filth out, and Caixia and the others opened the windows next to them to ventilate the room, so the smell gradually dissipated.
Ruoyun was still worried and said softly, "Let's call the imperial physician to take a look."
Cheng Qianyue also wanted to know what was going on lately, so she nodded. Ruoyun, having received confirmation, immediately gave Lin Quan'an a wink. Lin Quan'an's eyes were fixed on Cheng Qianyue, and seeing her nod, he quickly left without waiting for Ruoyun to say hello.
Before long, Lin Quan'an brought the imperial physician on duty in the West Garden. The physician in the garden was urged on so quickly that he had to catch his breath before he dared to come in. After taking the pulse, his brows furrowed.
Cheng Qianyue was startled by the imperial physician's focused expression, her heart pounding with a sense of nonchalance. After examining her right hand, the physician said he would examine her left, and knelt down in a different position. Cheng Qianyue pursed her lips and asked worriedly, "Is there a problem?"
The imperial physician tilted his head and hissed, then shook his head and leaned down to say, "Although I have been practicing medicine for more than ten years, I am really unsure about the pulse of Princess Cheng. I would like to ask the Crown Princess to invite Physician Liu from the Imperial Hospital of Changchun Garden. He has been practicing medicine for decades and is most skilled in women's and children's matters."
Cheng Qianyue's heart leaped into her throat upon hearing his words, fearing for her health and pregnancy. She hurriedly sent someone to Changchun Garden next door. Lin Quan'an was also startled by his words and quickly led his men away. When they arrived at the Imperial Hospital outside Changchun Garden, in addition to the specialist physician Liu, he also summoned two other physicians.
After the group of people examined Cheng Qianyue's pulse and inquired about her recent diet and daily life, they all smiled broadly. Among them, Physician Liu, the most senior, spoke up: "Your Majesty, along with many of my colleagues, examined the Crown Princess's pulse. Both of her pulses were slippery and strong. We believe that the Crown Princess is carrying twins, hence her hearty appetite. The Crown Princess must not abstain from food; she must eat more to ensure the healthy growth of the imperial grandchildren in her womb."
After Physician Liu finished speaking, everyone in the room relaxed. However, amidst the many joyful gazes, Cheng Qianyue's face slowly stiffened.
She thought, "I'm doomed!"
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Author's Note: Warning: The next few chapters will be a little angsty, cough cough.
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