I didn’t know if it was the buddha in Fuyuan Temple that worked or it was because of Qi Sheng’s almighty words, after we returned from Cui mountain, my period, which was usually punctuated as a clock, didn’t come.

Xie Yi remembered it more clearly than I did and every day she counted several times by her fingers. As it approached the middle of the seventh lunar month, she couldn’t hold it anymore and suggested with a trembling voice, “Your Majesty, let’s send for Doctor Song here to have a check on you. Maybe you are indeed bearing a little prince!”

With my permission, Xie Yi hastily turned to Fu’er, the most agile maid we had here, and sent her to imperial hospital for Doctor Song.

Before I could finish a slice of watermelon, Fu’er returned with Doctor Song, who was now short of breath, and trotted into the hall.

Xie Yi rested my wrist on the pulse pillow.

Everyone inside the room stared at Doctor Song anxiously, hoping he would deliver the good news.

Doctor Song petted his beard, lowered his head in thought, then he looked at me and asked calmly, “Your Majesty, please let me have another look on your other hand.”

Everyone was so nervous that they almost fell on the ground.

But I was still as cool as ever, casually put my other wrist on the pulse pillow.

Doctor Song attentively checked for another while, then he stood up and steadily got on his knees, “Your Majesty, congratulations, you are pregnant.”

Great, Xing Sheng Palace immediately went exhilarating, and within half a day, the whole harem learned about the news. The Empress only delivered a princess within a year, and now she was pregnant again. How the Emperor and the Empress loved each other and who said that the Empress wasn’t loved by the Emperor? If so, how could she be pregnant with her second child within three years?

Qi Sheng learned about the news and came to visit me. His eyes lingered on my belly for a while, then he leaned towards me and teased, “It is indeed an arable land.”

I tried to played modest, “The point is that it is plowed by strong cattle.”

Qi Sheng was choked by my words and he held my waist in his arms. He buried his head on my shoulder and laughed.

I looked at the maids standing at the corner and patted his shoulder with my fan. “Be careful of what you’re doing now.” I put on a serious look.

Qi Sheng held me in his arms for a while longer, then straightened up and let go of me. He helped me to the soft bed beside and sat down.

Since he was in a good mood, I thought for a while and sent all the maids out, then I inquired, “Since I am pregnant now, I’m afraid I can’t serve Your Majesty well at the moment. So let’s rearrange the sequence of which concubines to serve Your Majesty so everyone will have a basic idea and it won’t get messy.”

Qi Sheng didn’t say a word.

Judging from his behavior, I knew he was annoyed right now but I didn’t want to be the target of all the others, so I had to bite the bullet and send him somewhere else. Even if he didn’t want to go to the other concubines’, at least he should stay in Da Ming Palace with Jiang shi.

I carefully observed his facial expression and bit my tongue. I continued, “A wise man used to say, eyeing no evil, hearing no obscenity and muttering no arrogance, that is a correct way for fetal education. So…”

Qi Sheng cut my words short, “So do you think I’m evil or obscene?”

I was stiffened by his words, and hung my head, trying to muddle through.

Qi Sheng sneered, “I know what you are up to. But you have to know the limitation, in case you go too far and there’s no turnaround.”

After he fished his words, he stood up and left.

Ever since Qi Sheng grew more adept at being an Emperor, he barely left like this when he had a disagreement with me. Seeing him disappearing outside the hall with anger, I felt he was cuter this way and it made me feel more at ease.

As usual, when Qi Sheng got angry, he would leave me alone for several days. But this time, after he left, he sent me the Four Books and the Five Classics as well as piles of books on the art of the wars and history to me. In the meantime, he sent me an oral edict, asking me to read these books for the sake of our child, and it was better if I could recite them.

I flickered through the books on the art of the wars, and then had look on the books about history. Heck, I couldn’t even remember a single biography, how was I supposed to recite a history book? Qi Sheng, are you trying to torture me?

The inner-palace servant that delivered the books looked at me empathetically. He comforted me, “Your Majesty, don’t worry. His Majesty said that these books are meant for fetal education, so if Your Majesty don’t want to read it by yourself, you can ask someone else to read it for you. It is only meant for the sake of the little prince.”

I nodded confusedly. It would work as a sleeping pill if I read them by myself and it would turn to a requiem if someone else read them to me.

Then he pointed to the two old maids standing beside us with their heads kept low, and said, “His Majesty also sends Wu shi and Yang shi here. He said that they had served Your Majesty when you were pregnant with Princess Weiyuan, so Your Majesty would be more comfortable with them.”

I was already stunned by the piles of books and was still unsettling. I only nodded. Seeing these two familiar faces, I asked Xie Yi to take them to rest.

That night I went to Da Ming Palace and admitted my mistake to Qi Sheng, “Your Majesty, I know I’ve made a mistake.”

Qi Sheng looked up at me and asked, “You do?”

I nodded honestly, “I do.”

Then he asked, “What mistake have you made?”

I knew I had to be genuine so I answered, “Everything I’ve done is a mistake.”

However, Qi Sheng sneered at my answer, picking up a document beside and starting to read it.

This was not what I expected. I thought for a while and changed my words, “I’ve made a mistake as I’ve already had a large tree behind me that I can cling to, but I still want to build myself a shelter with a few firewood.”

Qi Sheng finally smiled. He put the document aside and stood up, “Let’s go.”

I was left in a daze, “Where to?”

He took my hand and walked outside. He slightly dropped his head to look at me with a bit of despise, then he answered shortly, “To your palace!”

I didn’t understand at that moment. It was okay that you wanted to come to my palace, but why would you look at me with despise? But the moment Qi Sheng threw a history book in front of me, I knew what it was all about.

He had already changed into his casual clothes, lazily leaning against the soft bed over the window and conceitedly commanded, “Read me a paragraph.”

His faint smile betrayed what he was thinking now. I didn’t have to guess to know he was definitely reminded of the time when I was reading the biography of Zhang shi’s grandfather.

He was trying to make fun of me again.

I flipped through the history book without a single punctuation mark and replied calmly, “I think it is better to learn some needlework than read this. Maybe it is another girl.”

Qi Sheng raised his brows and smiled, taking the book away from me. He smiled, “Good, then please embroider a sachet for me and it will be good for cultivating your moral character.

Looking at his smiling eyes, I started to realize this was what he wanted me to do.

I tried to ask Xie Yi to embroider a sachet for me in private so I could give it to Qi Sheng.

Xie Yi refused, saying she wasn’t good at it. I felt it was just alright, as if she made me an exquisite one, Qi Sheng wouldn’t believe it even if I convinced myself!

I pushed her so hard that she told me in tearful eyes, “Your Majesty, His Majesty wasn’t asking for a sachet, what he wanted was the true heart of Your Majesty. If His Majesty knows I embroidered the sachet, he will vent his anger on me and kill me!”

She cried so helplessly that I pitied her. I definitely couldn’t cost her life for this so I had to give up the attempt.

However, it was better to read the history book word by word than embroider flowery patterns by myself.

I was under so much pressure that something went wrong with my stomach. Sometimes I felt nausea and sometimes I would throw up if the dish was not to my taste.

Once Qi Sheng was sitting next to me and his face went pale. He patted on my back and in the meanwhile anxiously sent the servant for the doctor.

I garbled, took the chance to weakly grab him by his sleeve and asked, “Your Majesty, can you promise me one thing?”

In front of all the servants, Qi Sheng and I pretended to be a happily-married couple. He tightly gripped my hands, and said in an angry tone, “Say whatever you want. When have I ever declined you request?”

I wanted to roll my eyes but managed to contain my impulse. I said, “Can you spare me of embroidering the sachet?”

He froze for a second and nodded as he found it dumbfounding.

Doctor Song quickly arrived, and before he left, he left a few notes: Her Majesty is suffering from pregnancy sickness, so it is better not to take any medicine if she could manage. There is no need for Your Majesty to worry. Everything will be alright after a few months.

Qi Sheng was deeply relieved. He turned around and calmly instructed Xie Yi to prepare me some food.

I was confused. Why was I suffering pregnancy sickness? I had such a good appetite and was in perfect health when I was pregnant with Wei’er.

Later I told Lv Li about it. Lv Li carefully looked around and then winked and made signs to me, “When Your Majesty was pregnant with your first child, didn’t you… What? Hum? Hum?”

I was in a trance for a while then I understood what she meant. When I was pregnant with my first one, we were busy faking it, and there was no time to pay any attention to pregnancy sickness.

Lv Li had passed the unstable period at the start of the pregnancy, and Zhao wang finally allowed her to go outside and the first thing she did was to visit me in the palace.

I hadn’t met her for days, so Lv Li had to shed a few tears. She sighed, “Your Majesty has gone all sorts of ordeal and I wish this time you will have a little prince.”

I kept thinking about the joke made by that monk and it made me anxious every time we talked about whether it was a girl or a boy, so I didn’t reply to Lv Li. I turned around and instructed Xie Yi, “Please go to Da Ming Palace and ask His Majesty whether he’s busy and if he will swing by for lunch. If not, we’ll have Lv Li stay for lunch.”

Qi Sheng didn’t get along well with Lv Li, which was a fact clear to everyone in Xing Sheng Palace. Xie Yi didn’t overthink it and nodded, turning around to leave.

I stopped her again and urged, “Be smart, don’t tell His Majesty that Lv Li’s here.”

Xie Yi trotted away.

I looked around, and asked Lv Li in a low voice, “I want you to figure out why Concubine Huang and the others still aren’t pregnant. It has been half a year or so, how come none of them are pregnant?”