Chapter 60 Teething Biscuits The Third Prince's teeth are coming in, starting with his lower gums...
The third prince's teeth are coming in! First, two little white heads emerged from his lower gums, and a few days later, his upper front teeth gradually took shape. This was truly remarkable; his once bare, pink gums were finally no longer just bare stubs.
While the Third Prince was laughing, Cheng Qianyue cupped his little face in her hands and looked at it from left to right, lamenting that it was a pity there were no cameras in ancient times, otherwise she would definitely take a picture to commemorate the occasion.
However, the Third Prince seems to know he has two pairs of weapons, and he's been particularly "lively" these days, mainly by biting things. This has caused trouble for the wet nurses.
At first, Cheng Qianyue didn't notice it. She discovered it when she went to visit the Third Prince in the east wing one day. She only realized it when the wet nurse hissed while breastfeeding, and immediately asked, "Did the Third Prince bite you?"
The wet nurse who was bitten said it sheepishly. Cheng Qianyue called over the other three wet nurses to ask them about it. They learned that the other three had also been bitten in the past two days. However, the wet nurses quickly laughed and said that the Third Prince bit people because he was growing teeth. They said that he did this because his teeth were growing well.
Cheng Qianyue couldn't help but roll her eyes: Being good-looking doesn't mean you can bite people. She said that if the Third Prince bit her again, she would hit him a couple of times to teach him a lesson. Then the wet nurses knelt down—they didn't dare.
Well, Cheng Qianyue could understand the wet nurses' predicament. After all, this boy was of high status. Even though he was just a nursing infant, he was the youngest son whom the Crown Prince frequently inquired about, and the Emperor's own grandson. If the wet nurses didn't feed him well or take good care of him, they would be the first to suffer.
In addition, the Third Prince is still young, so he is being cared for by wet nurses and nannies. When the Third Prince grows up (she plans to wean the boy after his first birthday), she will at most keep one or two by his side, and the others will be replaced by eunuchs. So they are all keeping their own thoughts to themselves. They are too busy serving each other to leave any mistakes or incriminating evidence.
"Alright," Cheng Qianyue thought, "then I, as the mother, will do it myself!"
From then on, Cheng Qianyue made the wet nurse feed the Third Prince in front of her. If the Third Prince bit anyone, she would put his hand in her mouth and bite it too. She didn't need to use much force; just a little bit would make him cry loudly. She didn't care if he cried or not; she just wanted him to know the pain. Then, regardless of whether he understood or not, she would repeatedly tell him not to bite. Sure enough, after a few times, the Third Prince remembered that his little teeth shouldn't be touched while he was drinking milk.
Hey, look at this clever little bully who picks on the weak and fears the strong.
It's true that the Third Prince has stopped biting people, but his targets have shifted to other things. Whether it's pillows, blankets, or toys, nothing escapes his clutches. And as he learned to crawl, even more things suffered. If someone hadn't been watching, he would have chewed the legs of the kang table and stools to shreds.
Cheng Qianyue sighed helplessly: "Son, are you some kind of reincarnated beaver? If we don't keep an eye on him, he'll destroy everything in this house." Cheng Qianyue rubbed her forehead, trying to find him something edible, durable, and good for chewing.
When it comes to teeth grinding, nothing beats a hard biscuit.
Cheng Qianyue immediately came up with a solution and instructed the kitchen to work on making cookies, specifying that they should be hard and made of flour. The kitchen staff proved to be very capable; although she had been vague in her description, the cookies, perfect for chewing, were delivered within a few days.
They were called biscuits, but they looked like silver ingots, flat and thin strips, each about the length of a thumb and the width of a fingernail. Both sides of the biscuits were also imprinted with various patterns; it was said that the kitchen staff had specially made molds for baking them. Because they were for the young prince, they dared not add anything indiscriminately, using only milk to make the dough, without adding any sugar or salt. At most, they would brush a little lard inside the mold to make it easier to unmold.
I must say, this stuff smells pretty good. As soon as you open the food box, a rich milky aroma fills the air. If it were a little sweeter and crispier, it would be like cookies.
The Third Prince warmly welcomed this treat, popping it into his mouth as soon as he got his hands on it. He sat there chewing and grinding it with his still-growing teeth, soon his saliva had soaked the biscuit. But just one piece was enough to give him a peaceful morning.
It has to be said that this child is really active when he's in motion, but he can also be really quiet when he's still.
Cheng Qianyue looked at the Third Prince, who was obediently munching on a biscuit, and thought to herself, "He truly is worthy of being her and Yinreng's child. Oh my god, look how much he enjoys eating."
As Cheng Qianyue watched him, she couldn't resist grabbing a biscuit and eating it; it was so deliciously crunchy and milky. Afterwards, she ordered the kitchen to make more biscuits, not only for the Third Prince's teething needs, but also for her own enjoyment. Of course, the food for her was much stronger in flavor than what children would eat. The kitchen made both sweet and savory flavors; the sweet ones contained sugar and honey, while the savory ones had salted egg yolks. These didn't contain much ghee and were all baked, unlike lotus flower pastries which were deep-fried, making them both healthy and delicious.
So, for a while in the west courtyard, the Third Prince obediently munched on his sugar-free and salt-free biscuits, while Cheng Qianyue ate her specially prepared snacks. When Yinreng arrived, he saw the mother and daughter sitting together on the kang (heated brick bed) eating non-stop.
"What is this for eating?" he asked.
Cheng Qianyue stood up to greet him, then told the wet nurse to clean up the Third Prince. He'd been grinding his teeth like a hamster, so there were bound to be crumbs of biscuits all over him. But the Third Prince wouldn't cooperate, thinking the wet nurse was trying to take his things, and started yelling and crawling into the bed.
Yinreng dismissed the wet nurse and reached out to scoop the Third Prince into his arms, the crumbs of the biscuits falling all over him. Cheng Qianyue reached out and shook his clothes, saying, "The child is teething and likes to chew on things, so I asked the kitchen to make some teething biscuits for him."
Yinreng smiled when he saw the stacks of rectangular pieces on the plate on the table, and asked the Third Prince in a low voice, "Is it delicious?"
"Father!" The Third Prince said this word with particular crispness now, but after saying it, he lowered his head again and went back to eating his biscuits.
Cheng Qianyue pushed the plates on the table toward Yinreng: "The plate with yellow and white is specially made for the Third Prince. The other two plates are for me to eat myself, one sweet and one savory."
Yinreng casually picked one up and put it in his mouth. After finishing it, he said, "Crunchy, crunchy."
Cheng Qianyue replied with a smile, "It's made of flour and baked in an oven, so of course it's hard. But being hard makes it easier to chew."
Yinreng hummed in agreement and began talking to the Third Prince. In no time, he had almost finished the plate of salted duck egg flavored biscuits. Cheng Qianyue said, "If I had known you liked them, I would have had the kitchen send you some."
Yinreng put the Third Prince aside and replied, "It tastes good. Have them serve another plate tonight."
After a while, the father and son got tired of playing, so Cheng Qianyue had the wet nurse take the Third Prince away. Yinreng then took off his robe, which was covered in biscuit crumbs, and said in a deep voice, "The weather is getting hotter every day. I reckon it won't be long before His Majesty goes to Changchun Garden."
That's great! If the Emperor goes to Changchun Garden, they'll definitely go with him. She hasn't been to the West Garden for over a year and misses it terribly. Cheng Qianyue immediately smiled, remembering the lotus pods and goldfish in the garden.
Seeing her cheerful expression, Yinreng's mood improved considerably. "June 16th is the Third Prince's first birthday. I'm thinking of holding a first birthday banquet for him then."
Cheng Qianyue nodded and said, "That's fine. You weren't there when he was 100 days old, and we didn't have a banquet. Let's have a proper celebration for his first birthday."
Yinreng nodded at her and asked, "Is there anyone you'd like to invite?"
"Huh? Can she do it?" Cheng Qianyue was taken aback. Then she thought about it again, and realized she had no connections with any of the princes' wives or concubines, so who could she invite?
Seeing that she hadn't quite grasped the idea, Yinreng chuckled and said, "I mean, why don't you take this opportunity to see your family?"
!!
Cheng Qianyue jumped up, flustered and stammering, "Really? Is it really okay?" She hadn't seen her family for a very long time; it had been more than two years.
Yinreng said, "The garden is not as strict as the Forbidden City. It is our own place. You can see people as you wish."
Cheng Qianyue was overjoyed and extremely grateful to him. She ran over to him and massaged his waist and legs, saying as she did so, "You're so good to me, sir."
Yinreng particularly enjoyed this, pointing to his shoulder and saying, "Give me a massage. My shoulders are really sore and stiff from sitting and reading and writing memorials all the time lately."
Without saying a word, Cheng Qianyue went up to massage his shoulders, knowing he was under pressure, so she stood on tiptoe and pressed hard. Yinreng squinted and said in a deep voice, "For the Third Prince's first birthday banquet, the Third Prince, the Fourth Prince, and other princes will be invited, as well as some other princes and ministers. The men will have their banquet outside, and the women they bring will be received by the Crown Princess and you."
Cheng Qianyue felt a little timid upon hearing this. Did a first birthday celebration really have to be this big? Then she thought, since it was going to be so grand, she definitely couldn't be the one to host it; the Crown Princess would probably take over. She suddenly realized that this was Yinreng's plan, and that's why he was using this family gathering as compensation. After all, the Third Prince was her son, but she wasn't allowed to host his first birthday celebration, and he thought she might feel wronged.
Emmm......
But with such a large event, she really didn't want her family to come. Her family didn't have any notable figures; the only one with any real ability was her great-grandfather, but he died during the Manchu conquest of China, holding only the rank of a sixth-grade cavalry captain under a lieutenant colonel. Then, by her grandfather's and father's generation, they were just ordinary Manchu bannermen.
As for the younger generation, only her brother, Cheng Yexing, held a position, but he was just a lowly soldier in the patrol battalion. It was only before she entered the palace for the imperial concubine selection that her parents used their connections from the older generation to get her in through the back door of the Zuo Ling (a military rank).
Thinking about it, why call them over? The front yard is full of kings and generals, and the back yard is lined with noblewomen. How will her family cope if a few commoners are thrown in? She doesn't want her parents and brother to be looked down upon.
Cheng Qianyue said softly, "Since we are going to host a banquet for the princes, officials and their families, we would like to ask the Crown Princess to take care of it. I will definitely thank the Crown Princess for her kindness at that time."
When Yinreng heard her say that, he patted her hand.
“However,” Cheng Qianyue changed the subject, “Although I really want to see my family, they have no official rank or status. I’m afraid they would be terrified if they saw princes and ministers, so I think I’ll pass. Maybe I should call them another day.”
Yinreng didn't dwell on such a trivial matter and casually said, "Alright, let's do it your way."
However, when he was having dinner that evening, he thought that the Third Prince was growing up, and he couldn't let his maternal family's status be too low. He just didn't know if the Cheng family had anyone who could take on the responsibility.
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