The Qing Palace Never Meets Spring

After entering the room, Zhang Rui saw the scene and secretly groaned. He should have gone out with the master. One of them was the princess consort, and the other was pregnant. He couldn't afford to offend either of them.

Moreover, he still didn't quite understand his wife's personality. Firstly, because he was with Yinxiang and didn't have much contact with her, and secondly, it seemed that his wife spent more time with the two princesses than with Yinxiang.

Seeing Zhang Rui with his head down, Qingwan found it amusing and said, "Zhang Rui, you should know about this by now."

Zhang Rui became even more respectful: "Reporting to Your Highness, this servant knows everything. This servant has also had someone take that girl. Your Highness, please just give the order."

After feigning thought, Qingwan said, "Guarjia's concubine is pregnant, and she is also her maid. It's not good to see blood, but this maid has committed a serious offense, and it's not good for her to appear in the palace in the future."

Here's what you'll do: go tell Ahajan that Guargia's concubine thinks the girl is of marriageable age and wants to let her leave the palace to marry someone, and that his family should come and pick her up tomorrow.

"Whoo."

“Oh, right,” Qingwan turned to look at Fuling, “didn’t you prepare some jewelry for that girl as a dowry? Pack it up and give it to Zhang Rui to give to that girl.”

Fuling looked at Qingwan with some confusion, as if she did not understand what Qingwan meant. After a long while, she said, "Yes, what you say is true. I do have some things to give to that girl. After all, she has been with me for so many years."

Fu Ling staggered to her feet and went to the dressing table. She opened the dressing box, pondered for a moment, and then picked out a few pieces of jewelry that were relatively valuable to her and handed them to Zhang Rui.

After Zhang Rui left, Qingwan said, "I thought we could get along peacefully for a while, but it seems the child has given you a lot of confidence."

Fu Ling smiled bitterly, "I didn't expect the Fujin to handle things this way, especially by directly pressuring me through Zhang Rui, leaving me no choice but to do this."

"Actually, you can just go all out and tell Zhang Rui directly that he is my confidant and won't hide anything from me."

Fuling laughed and said, "The wife has been in the household for less than a year and doesn't know the master well. This trick won't work on him."

Qingwan couldn't help but sneer: "It's useless to argue with me. Your status is still too low, whether it's you or your family."

If you could be like Lady Li from the Fourth Prince's household, able to have your family personally promoted by the prince, then I would have a higher opinion of you. What a pity..."

Fuling lowered her head, her expression unreadable: "Your Highness, there's no need to keep reminding me of my status. I know my status is lowly, and I dare not think otherwise. I only hope that this child will be a little prince, so that Your Highness will not be left without a son."

"Hmm," Qingwan said, resting her chin on her hand, suddenly feeling a little bored. "It seems you don't understand clearly enough. Whether the baby in your belly is a prince or a princess, the master will have other children."

Believe it or not, if I wanted, I could keep you stuck as a concubine forever, even though you're the mother of the eldest princess and the eldest prince.

Fuling noticed that Qingwan's expression remained respectful, but her words were unpleasant: "You don't need to scare me, Madam."

"This isn't intimidation, it's a threat. If you behave yourself and don't cause me any more trouble, I'll make you a concubine after you give birth. But if you cause me any more trouble, I'll make sure you can't even raise your child."

Fuling opened her mouth, but in the end she closed it angrily. Qingwan then got up with satisfaction and said, "I have another good news for you. We're going to have a new person join our courtyard."

As Fuling's face slowly paled, Qingwan stood up and looked down at her: "The reason I've been patient enough to talk to you about this today is so that you can understand that the person you're competing with has never been me."

"Look, people are coming to compete with you soon, and there might be even more in the future. If you want, you could probably never have a moment's rest for the rest of your life."

After leaving the room, Qingwan asked Muxiang to come closer to her and whispered a few words in her ear. Muxiang nodded before leaving.

Chenxiang looked at Qingwan with disbelief and said, "I have never seen the way you were just now, Madam."

Qingwan sighed; she wasn't actually good at verbal arguments.

Then he chuckled and teased Chenxiang, "We don't know what kind of person we'll get yet, let's practice first."

Chenxiang looked like he had learned something.

After Qingwan returned to her room, she leaned against the kang (a heated brick bed) in a daze until Chenxiang told her that Yinxiang had returned.

She had Chenxiang help her tidy up, then went out to greet Yinxiang. As soon as Yinxiang arrived, she smiled and bent down, saying, "Congratulations, Your Highness."

Fuling's pregnancy had been told to him long ago, and upon hearing Qingwan's words, he couldn't help but soften his expression and smile. He only had one daughter so far, and he had finally waited for his second child.

Before Yinxiang could speak, Muxiang and her entourage hurriedly entered.

Qingwan looked at Muxiang and the others who followed Yinxiang into the room and said, "Why are you only arriving now?"

Yinxiang followed Qingwan's gaze and turned to look, only to find that it was Muxiang with a young imperial physician.

Qingwan then explained, "I was worried, but I wasn't familiar with the Imperial Hospital, so I went to find my eighth sister to find a trustworthy imperial physician to take a look."

Yinxiang simply nodded. The young imperial physician greeted Yinxiang after Muxiang had paid her respects, but his tone sounded familiar as he said, "Greetings to the Thirteenth Prince, greetings to the Thirteenth Princess."

Yinxiang smiled when he saw him like this: "Little Physician He, I didn't expect it to be you."

The imperial physician seemed quite helpless about being called "Little Physician He," and sighed in front of Yinxiang, but still congratulated him, saying, "Congratulations, Thirteenth Prince."

Upon hearing this, Yinxiang simply smiled and waved his hand.

Qingwan seemed to be deep in thought. But then again, it was normal for Yinxiang to be acquainted with the imperial physician whom Yi'an knew well.

Then he said, "Sir, why don't we let this lady, um, Physician He, go and see Lady Guarjia first? We can talk later."

Yinxiang nodded, and Muxiang stepped forward to lead the way.

As soon as Yinxiang entered the room, Fuling called out "Master." Before she could say anything else, Qingwan followed her into the room. Behind her was a man wearing an official hat, who turned out to be the imperial physician upon closer inspection.

She knew Qingwan's meaning; it was simply to dissuade her from using the child as a pretext to cause trouble in recent days and to distance herself from the situation. She wanted to refuse, but neither Yinxiang nor Qingwan was looking at her. Before she could find a chance to speak, Physician He approached her.

Physician He had met Yinxiang for some reason, but this was the first time he had taken the pulse of one of Yinxiang's female relatives. He did not know Fuling's identity, and seeing that no one was going to introduce her, he could only vaguely address her and say, "Please extend your hand."

After about fifteen minutes, Physician He finally got up, and spoke at a volume that Fu Ling could hear clearly:

"The pulse of the Lesser Yin is strong and smooth. It feels round and slippery under the fingers, like pearls rolling on a plate. This is definitely a pregnancy pulse. It's almost the third month, and the pregnancy is stable."

Just take good care of yourself on a regular basis. The mother shouldn't overthink things, otherwise it will be bad for the fetus.

"Hmm," Doctor He added at the end, "The mother is also in good health, so she doesn't need to take the pregnancy-stabilizing medicine for now. If you're really worried, I can prescribe two doses."

"That's good." Qingwan spoke first, "Some things happened today, and I was worried it would affect her."

Seeing Yinxiang turn to look at her, Qingwan smiled and said, "It's nothing serious. It's just that someone from the Guarjia clan caused some trouble. I still need to ask Eunuch Zhang Rui for help. Please do me a favor, Your Highness."

Yinxiang nodded, not saying much about the matter, and said to Physician He, "Let's talk, I have something to ask you."

Physician He said, "I will follow the Thirteenth Prince's arrangements."