I became the tyrant's only belief.

Chapter 115 It's Not All Unreasonable
At night, in the Palace of Tranquil Longevity.

Envoy Wu took back his hand from feeling Xiao Jingfan's pulse and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty is in good health and in the prime of life. As long as you visit the harem more often, the matter of an heir will come naturally. There is no need to worry too much about it."

Xiao Jingfan put the bodhi beads back on his wrist and looked up at him. "I have a doubt about something,"

Envoy Wu immediately put on an attitude of listening attentively.

Xiao Jingfan said, "I heard from Mr. Xie that a rural doctor once said that the health of a son is more important than that of a daughter. Is this true?"

Sir Xie, how dare you chat about such trivial matters with His Majesty?
Envoy Wu felt strange. He frowned and thought for a moment before saying, "Your Majesty, I think this statement is too arbitrary."

Xiao Jingfan nodded and signaled him with his eyes to continue.

Wu Yuanshi said: "After a woman has been pregnant for ten months, whether the offspring is healthy or not is related to many factors. In addition to the man's own essence, there are also factors such as the mother's health, whether the diet is appropriate, and whether the mother is in a good mood. It cannot be generalized, and it also depends on..."

"I'm not discussing medicine with you." Seeing that he was about to give a long speech, Xiao Jingfan raised his hand to interrupt him and emphasized, "I just want to know whether what this country doctor said makes sense?"

Envoy Wu: “…”

He would start scolding anyone who was not the emperor.

Practicing medicine is not a joke. One small move can affect the entire body. How can such a arbitrary statement be made?

Seeing that he was frowning and not speaking, Xiao Jingfan said, "It is reasonable if you are right, and it is unreasonable if you are not right. Just say it boldly, and I will forgive you."

Envoy Wu: “…”

He dares!
Although he wants to retire, he doesn't want to retire dead.

He was serious about his medical skills, and after careful consideration for a moment, he said, "To reply to your majesty, this is not entirely unreasonable."

Xiao Jingfan raised his eyes to look at him, "Tell me in detail."

"Your Majesty, do you know that four years ago, Duan Sicheng of the Honglu Temple divorced his wife because she was forty years old and had not given birth to a child for him?"

Xiao Jingfan shook his head. He was so busy with state affairs that he had no time to care about his subjects' family affairs.
Wu Yuanshi said: "Before divorcing his wife, Lord Duan had asked Doctor Li to treat his wife Wu for two years, but unfortunately there was no good news, so Lord Duan had no choice but to divorce her."

Helpless? Xiao Jingfan sneered. If he was really helpless, he would not choose to divorce his wife.

The wife has no children, and if he really wants to expand the family, he can take two concubines. Wouldn't it be the best of both worlds if he can register the children born by the concubines under the name of the wife?

A woman who is nearly 40 years old and has no children, what good place can she go after being divorced? This Duan man clearly doesn't care about Wu's life or death, and has no regard for the friendship between husband and wife.

Wu Yuanshi waited for a while, and seeing that Xiao Jingfan had no intention of continuing except for the disdainful sneer just now, he continued: "After Wu was divorced, her eldest brother took her back home. This eldest brother is a kind and righteous man. Considering that Wu was alone and helpless, after asking Wu, he specially spent a lot of money to ask a matchmaker to find a husband for Wu. He is a hunter in his thirties."

Xiao Jingfan was a little surprised, "Can you still get married when you're already forty?"

Wu Yuanshi thought to himself that there were still women in their fifties and sixties who remarried among the people. She was only forty years old. As long as both of us were willing, why couldn't she remarry?
He said, "It has only been half a year since Wu got married when she got the good news. She gave birth to a boy after ten months of pregnancy. Now the child is two years old. But Lord Duan asked the matchmaker to carefully select a girl who is easy to bear children. After four years of marriage, there is still no good news."

Xiao Jingfan understood, "You mean, it's not that Wu can't have children, but that Duan Qing has difficulty in having children?"

Envoy Wu nodded: "Your Majesty is wise."

Xiao Jingfan was puzzled: "When Doctor Li treated Mrs. Wu, didn't he check Duan Qing's pulse?"

Wu Yuanshi shook his head: "Lord Duan insisted that his wife was ill and refused to let Doctor Li take her pulse."

This reminded Xiao Jingfan of what Chu Liuzheng had said, such as that men would never admit that... cough! It is not advisable to hide one's illness and avoid seeing a doctor. He looked at Wu Yuanshi suspiciously: "How do you know so clearly?"

He even knows when she remarried and how old her child is. Could this guy have something going on with Wu?

Obviously, under the influence of his inner voice, His Majesty the Emperor's thinking has unconsciously begun to deviate.

Envoy Wu was completely unaware that his Majesty's thoughts had wandered off to the horizon, and answered with a serious face, "Your Majesty, I once ran into Lord Duan who was completely drunk in a restaurant. He held me and cried for two hours. What I just said was what Lord Duan said when he was drunk."

That's it?

Xiao Jingfan felt inexplicably disappointed.

I don’t know if he saw Xiao Jingfan’s disappointment, but Minister Wu told another story, also using his colleagues as examples.

"Your Majesty, do you still remember Mr. Huang, the former Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue?"

"Huang?" Xiao Jingfan thought for a moment, "Are you talking about Huang Gonghe, who was late for court meetings eight times and was demoted to the position of chief clerk in the Imperial Household Department at the beginning of the year?"

"That's right." Wu Yuanshi nodded. "Mr. Huang and his wife have been childless for many years. They have also asked the imperial physician to help with treatment, but to no avail."

Xiao Jingfan raised his eyebrows: "Is he also a person who is afraid of seeing a doctor?"

"No." Wu Yuanshi shook his head. "Mr. Huang accompanied his wife to drink medicine and treated her for more than three years without any effect, so he gave up. But less than three months after Mr. Huang was transferred, the Huang Mansion spread the good news that Mrs. Huang was pregnant."

Xiao Jingfan was puzzled: "Why is this happening? Have they found a secret recipe for having a baby?"

Wu Yuanshi glanced at him and said, "It's not a secret recipe for having a child. It's just that the post of Chief Clerk of the Imperial Household Department is much less stressful than that of Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue. Mr. Huang can finish his shift and go home on time, instead of staying up all night like he did in the Ministry of Revenue."

"Your Majesty, you know that not sleeping after midnight can seriously damage your energy, and no amount of medicine can help. After being demoted to the Imperial Household Department, Mr. Huang has been able to eat well and sleep well, and his energy is full. Madam Huang is also healthy, so she will naturally have the child."

Xiao Jingfan: "..."

So the couple was able to have a child thanks to their demotion?
Envoy Wu asked again, "Your Majesty, do you know that many years ago, the Minister of Revenue Wen and his wife prayed for a child?"

Xiao Jingfan nodded: "I have heard something."

This incident caused quite a big stir back then. In order to have another son, Madam Wen Xu even invited a shaman into the mansion and asked Concubine Yun to take her mother's surname, saying that this way she could have another boy.

After the late emperor learned about this, he summoned Minister Wen, who was only a minister at the time, to the Yangxin Palace and criticized him severely.

After reading the books of sages for many years, he still believed in these weird and supernatural things. If it weren't for Shangshu Wen's good attitude in admitting his mistakes, and the fact that the late emperor had always been lenient to his subjects, Shangshu Wen would have been demoted to some remote corner long ago. How could he have become the Shangshu?

From then on, the Wen family calmed down and no more jokes were made about the issue of seeking a child.

At that time, the late emperor specially gave Minister Wen a month's vacation so that he could stay at home and spend time with his wife. Only when the family is at peace can everyone be happy.

"That year, when Master Wen had only been on duty for two months, good news spread from his mansion. Eight months later, Madam Wen successfully gave birth to a boy."

Envoy Wu's tone was full of sighing and nostalgia.

Only during the reign of the previous emperor would he be so generous as to allow his subjects to go home and rest for a month or two, and still pay them their monthly salary. But for the current emperor, it would be good enough if he could report to work on time.

There were a lot of officials in the six ministries who stayed up late at night. When it was busy, some of them even asked their families to send bedding for them to sleep in the government office.