Qing Dynasty: The Imperial Concubine is Pregnant Again

By the time Mulan's hunting party returned to the capital, it was already November of the forty-fifth year.

Tong Nuanyan's pregnancy is already more than seven months old, and her belly is bulging. She has had the experience of having two previous multiple pregnancies, so she knows it very well.

This is most likely a multiple birth, so the people taking care of them have to be even more careful.

Since returning from hunting, Yinzhen has become more and more fond of Tong Nuanyan. Perhaps it was because they had not seen each other for several months that the friendship in their hearts had taken root and sprouted.

Even though Tong Nuanyan is pregnant and cannot accompany her, he still comes to Piaoxueyuan every day to have meals and sleeps with her in his arms.

The favor of Concubine De became less and less noticeable, but because there were two adult princes, all expenses remained unchanged.

The Fourteenth Prince's relationship with Yinzhen had originally improved a lot because of Hongzhao and the new toys that Tong Nuanyan had given him before, but now that Concubine De had fallen out of favor, Yinzhen, as the eldest son, had not visited her even once.

The disgust in Fourteenth Prince's heart gradually turned into resentment.

After several months of accompanying the emperor, Concubine Wang became more and more favored. She spent most of the month with Kangxi, even the fifteenth prince who had been kidnapped.

Also because of Kangxi's pity, he gradually stood out among the many princes, making many ministers who were originally on the sidelines become more hesitant.

The capital city remained peaceful for several months...

In February of the 46th year of Emperor Kangxi's reign, Prince Yong's concubine gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl. Rumors began to spread in the court that Prince Yong Yinzhen might be destined to succeed the throne.

Only with the blessing of God can one give birth to twins of the auspicious symbol of dragon and phoenix many times.

In response to this, Yinzhen, who was already cold and stern, became even more gloomy. At a night banquet in the palace one day, after getting drunk, he expressed his willingness to be a wise minister and that he was "the most idle person in the world" and so on.

This also made the prince's party, who had originally intended to deal with Prince Yong, give up the idea and concentrate on dealing with Prince Zhi, who was becoming more and more powerful.

Now that Prince Yong's wife is ill and recuperating, all affairs in the palace are handled by the concubine Tong Nuanyan. Therefore, she is also the one who organizes the full-month banquet for the twins.

In March of the forty-sixth year, the concubines' sons and daughters of Prince Yong held a full-moon banquet, welcoming many royal relatives and nobles, including the Crown Prince, Prince Zhi, Prince Cheng, the fifth beile, the seventh beile and eighty-nine-three people, as well as the thirteenth and fourteenth princes and their families.

Tong Nuanyan did not go out to greet the guests, but entertained the ladies who came with the female relatives.

The seats for the female guests were behind the male guests, separated by several screens embroidered with flowers, birds, fish and insects, which looked very festive.

The group was divided into two rows with a long table in the middle. The dishes had not been served yet. Although Tong Nuanyan was a concubine, she was the host of the banquet and should have sat in the main seat. However, she understood the rules and gave the main seat to the Crown Princess.

The Fifth Lady, Hetanala, successfully conceived a son two years ago thanks to the method of calculating the ovulation period given by Tong Nuanyan, and she admired Tong Nuanyan very much.

"Sister-in-law, let me offer you a drink. Sister-in-law, you just came out of confinement, so you don't need to drink alcohol. Just drink tea."

The Fifth Lady had always been carefree, but after giving birth to a legitimate son, she became more restrained and more thoughtful.

Tong Nuanyan smiled at her, picked up a glass of wine, and drank it down in one gulp: "Fifth brother's wife, you are too polite. I will drink this glass of wine."

Next came the Seventh Lady, Hada Nara. After not seeing her for a long time, her originally beautiful face looked much more haggard. The daughter she gave birth to in the thirty-ninth year died in the forty-first year, which was a great blow to her. Even though she gave birth to another daughter in the fortieth year, she had lost her energy and spirit.

"How is Seventh Brother's wife doing lately? Those who serve her should not let Fu Jin drink the wine."

The Seventh Lady coughed twice when she wanted to speak, then drank a sip of tea with the help of the maid beside her, smiling: "Little Fourth Sister-in-law is so thoughtful. I shouldn't have come here originally, but I came here to take advantage of the joy of the twins."

The Eighth Lady, who had no children and was jealous of the concubine, was anxious, but had a bit of a mean look on her face. When she heard what the Seventh Lady said, she echoed:

"Sister Seven is absolutely right. I wonder if Sister Four can let us see the twins?"

Tong Nuanyan, who was sitting next to the Crown Princess, responded with a smile and gave Qiuyu and Yunxin beside her a look.

The two wet nurses behind her came forward, each holding a swaddling cloth, and showed them to the ladies one by one.

"The one in the green swaddling clothes must be Xiaoba, born to Xiaosi's wife. He is so handsome."

After seeing this, the Fifth Lady began to praise Tong Nuanyan and praised her in a variety of ways, making the sisters-in-law around her laugh.

"That's right. I heard that the Emperor gave names to the twins this time. The younger brother is named Hongsheng, and the younger princess was given the title of Princess Shuning during her third birthday. Her nickname is Jingxuan! Only my fourth brother and his wife have this blessing. We can't catch up even if we flatter them."

After the death of her son in the 40th year of Emperor Kangxi's reign, the Third Concubine Dong E became dissatisfied with everyone. She could not get the face of Concubine Rong, and could not hold her head up among her sisters-in-law.

When she had just given birth to her legitimate son, Prince Cheng and Concubine Rong were so kind to her. However, the son died young, and she was bullied and humiliated in the past few years because she could not give birth to a child.

The Eighth Lady looked at the two children with fondness in her heart, but she felt uncomfortable after hearing what the Third Lady said. She frowned and said nothing.

But Tong Nuanyan couldn't pretend not to hear, she raised a glass of wine and said to the Third Lady: "Third sister-in-law is right, the emperor likes twins, it is also God's blessing to the Qing Dynasty, so he has repeatedly sent down the rain to let me give birth to twins."

Finally, she glanced at the unpleasant-looking Third Lady, sneered in her heart, and continued, "If Third Sister-in-law wants the Emperor to look at her differently, she can give birth to twins, a boy and a girl. I'm sure the Emperor will be even happier."

Perhaps because of what Tong Nuanyan said, nothing happened after the banquet and the full moon ceremony ended smoothly.

Later, Kangxi even sent people to give rewards. One of the pairs of gold bracelets was selected by Kangxi himself from his private storehouse and given to Hongmin and Jingxuan respectively.

As the number of children in Prince Yong's Mansion increased, the women in the mansion who still had no children became impatient again. Even Geng Jia, who had lived in the mansion for several years without any competition, became anxious.

She began to cook soup frequently with her bare hands and brought the soup to the front yard personally time and time again. When Qiuyu reported to her master, she saw Tong Nuanyan's indifferent expression and had an idea in her mind.

Tong Nuanyan no longer cares about being pampered or not. She already has eight children of her own. As for Yinzhen, who asked her to give birth to a child, she thinks he is dispensable.

But although she thought so, she couldn't really do that to Yinzhen.

At night, Yinzhen walked into Piaoxue Courtyard with a restless feeling. As soon as he came in, he stared at Tong Nuanyan, and his heat became even stronger.

He has been drinking all kinds of nourishing soups that Geng Jia sent him recently, which has made him full of energy every day. Now that Yanyan has finished her confinement, he finally has somewhere to go.

Reaching out his hand to wave away everyone, Yinzhen took Tong Nuanyan into his arms. With the beauty in his arms, the strong man's body made Tong Nuanyan tremble with the heat.

All night long, she panted non-stop...