Changsheng: Peak at the Beginning

Chapter 151: Legend of Zhen Huan 23

In less than two hours, Yi Xin gave birth to her first and only child in the world. Just as Lady Guaerjia wished, he was a fat and fair prince. Her crying pierced through the roof and reached the sky, scaring the emperor who was eating at the time, and he even dropped the food he had picked up with his chopsticks.

The emperor did not feel embarrassed at all about this impoliteness. Instead, he put down his chopsticks and shouted in surprise to Concubine Hua and Concubine Wan beside him: "Great, great, I finally have a prince!"

Hua Fei was fine, she was just overly jealous that Yi Xin actually gave birth to a prince. Then she thought of her own child that she had no chance to see, and the smile on her face seemed a little forced. The Emperor obviously also thought of Hua Fei's child, so he slightly restrained the smile on his face.

Concubine Qi quickly reminded the emperor, "Your Majesty, our Hongshi has made some progress in his studies recently and has grown taller..."

Only Concubine Wan remembered the rumors circulating in the palace during the reign of Emperor Shunzhi: Emperor Shunzhi loved Empress Xiaoxian very much and even called the fourth prince born by Empress Xiaoxian his "first son", which is exactly the same as the current emperor's behavior!

It was only at this time that Wanpin began to feel a sense of crisis about Yi Xin. She used to take it for granted that Yi Xin was just a tool used by Fucha to show her loyalty to the emperor. Moreover, before Yi Xin became pregnant, the emperor had favored Yi Xin for less than ten days in total.

Although the emperor often rewarded Yi Xin, Wanpin herself once saw Su Peisheng giving rewards to Yi Xin. She keenly discovered that the rewards the emperor gave to Yi Xin were slightly inferior to those given to her, so she firmly believed that the emperor had not forgotten Yi Xin, and it was entirely because of the Fucha family behind Yi Xin and the child in Yi Xin's belly.

But she ignored the fact that the emperor had few princes, and even none of them were outstanding. So when the midwife came out with a fat and healthy prince, the emperor was delighted and took the child directly from the midwife's arms. He also announced on the spot: "I will personally attend the full-month celebration of this child!"

Without waiting for others to say anything, Lady Guaerjia, who came out with the child, quickly declined: "The emperor is very busy, and our little prince is still a swaddled baby. How can we trouble the emperor to personally ask about his full moon?"

The prince in their family is the one with the highest status in the palace, so Yi Xin has never had a peaceful life. That's why Lady Guaerjia doesn't want the little prince to be the center of attention as soon as he's born. It would be best if the emperor treated Yi Xin the same way he did before and had a neutral impression of the little prince before he goes to school.

But the emperor figured it out within the time it took him to read these two sentences. His three previous princes were all weak since childhood, and the only one who could show something was Hongshi, who was already useless. He was not good at studying or martial arts and was truly mediocre.

The Fourth Prince and the Fifth Prince were both weak, especially the Fourth Prince, whose background was not good enough. Unless he was willing to find a foster mother with a good status and background for the Fourth Prince, or simply register the Fourth Prince under the name of the Queen, then the Fourth Prince could surpass the newly-arrived Sixth Prince in terms of etiquette.

As for the Fifth Prince, although his maternal family was from the Baoyi Banner, the Geng clan was a real Manchu. It was a pity that the Fifth Prince was more frail and sickly than the Fourth Prince since he was born, especially now that he has been spoiled by Concubine Yu.

The emperor smiled at Lady Guaerjia and said, "Madam, you worry too much. The Queen Mother and the Empress are both ill in bed and cannot attend my Sixth Prince's third-day bath and full-month celebration. If I don't keep an eye on him, wouldn't my Sixth Prince be too pitiful?"

Guaerjia didn't say anything else. After all, it would be really unfair to the little prince if the empress dowager and the queen couldn't be present in person for his third-day bath and full-month celebration.

The emperor held the Sixth Prince in his arms and waited for the imperial physicians to check his pulse. Both physicians said that the Sixth Prince was very healthy. If the emperor had not been worried about waking up the Sixth Prince, he would have laughed out loud.

After the Sixth Prince was brought back again, the concubines, led by Concubine Hua, congratulated the Emperor. Concubine Xia, who had just come to see the Emperor to see the child, happened to see the expressions of all the concubines. Now that it was time to flatter the Emperor, her congratulations to Yi Xin seemed particularly different.

Ever since the emperor realized that Concubine Xia only had a barely presentable face, he lost interest in her. In addition, Concubine Xia was very close to Yi Xin, so he simply never favored Concubine Xia again.

Now, with a sudden glance, he found that the impetuousness that had made him uncomfortable at the beginning had mostly dissipated, and her speech began to become more organized. He thought that Yi Xin could no longer be promoted, so he simply promoted Xia Changzai to a noble lady, which would also add some joy to the Yanx Palace.

"Mrs. Xia is very considerate to Concubine Jin. So, today, taking advantage of the Sixth Prince's good mood, I will promote you to be a noble lady and give you a title, Yue, which means joy."

Concubine Xia, no, the newly appointed Concubine Yue hurriedly expressed her gratitude, which made Concubine Hua's eyes hurt. However, even if she wanted to leave at this time, she had to see what the emperor meant first.

Concubine Qi, however, didn't care and directly sabotaged the emperor: "I think the emperor is just like this to Concubine Jin. No matter how much he likes the Sixth Prince, he still let Concubine Yue get this great promotion in vain."

The reason why the emperor disliked Concubine Qi was the same as the reason why he disliked the noble ladies: they both only had a face to look at and no other advantages to show off.

Besides, he knew that he had treated Concubine Jin badly, but he would not allow others to reveal this matter!

Concubine Hua was the first to reprimand Concubine Qi, saying, "The imperial decree for Concubine Jin's promotion to the position of consort has already been issued. If the emperor had not been concerned about Concubine Jin's pregnancy, the ceremony for her canonization would have already taken place. Concubine Qi, how confused are you that you actually questioned the emperor's will?!"

The emperor took the opportunity to punish Concubine Qi by confining her to her room for a month, so that the other concubines could watch the fun.

Mrs. Guaerjia entered the inner room and felt a little sad when she saw her daughter with a pale face. Even though she was holding the Sixth Prince in her arms, she couldn't help but want to cry.

It is true that the emperor valued the Sixth Prince, but he never asked a single question about his daughter. Even though the rewards he sent looked gorgeous, in fact most of them were for the Sixth Prince.

As a mother, even though she knew that Yi Xin would most likely not be favored after entering the palace, she still felt that the family had wronged Yi Xin after seeing the actual situation. And Yi Xin's future could only depend on this toothless baby who was still ignorant and wrapped in swaddling clothes!

Handing the baby to the wet nurse beside her, Mrs. Guaerjia whispered to Sang'er to go to the small kitchen and stew a bowl of bird's nest porridge for Yi Xin. Sang'er took the order and left. The midwife happened to have just finished checking the placenta and came to congratulate Mrs. Guaerjia.

"Madam is so happy, the Queen's placenta has all come out, not a single bit is missing!"

Mrs. Guaerjia looked at Yi Xin who had fallen asleep and quickly took out two red envelopes that she had prepared long ago from her sleeves and handed them to the two midwives. Inside each envelope was a silver note worth two hundred taels. Then Xizhu also gave each of them two hundred taels of silver in cash. This was a reward that she had agreed with Yi Xin early in the morning.

The midwives were extremely happy, as the emperor generously gave each of them three hundred taels of silver. They only went to the palace once, but in total they received nearly one thousand taels of silver!