Chapter 56 - Princesses (3) (1/2)

After pondering over it for a while, Lv Li nodded and replied, “Indeed. But unlike Mrs. He, if it were me, I might not even have a place to let out my sorrow.”

I was rather pleased with how quick she seemed to have understood what I meant, and I replied with a smiling face while subconsciously caressed my burgeoning belly, “So you see, it hasn’t been easy for Mrs. He.”

While we were talking, Xie Yi reported from outside the palace, “Your Majesty, message from the Da Ming Palace. The Emperor will come over for dinner tonight.”

I was rather distraught by this news, but Lv Li, on the other hand, was overjoyed. She took a glimpse at me, and then proceeded to console me with suppressed excitement, “Your Majesty, if you would allow me, might I suggest that you meet the Emperor halfway now that he has expressed his apology? On the off chance that you do antagonize the Emperor, no one will be able to help you.”

The insinuation of her words was not hard to get. She was saying that I should know my place and accept the Emperor’s apology, for otherwise I might pay for my defiance and end up bringing about my own downfall.”

I remained silent in my seat and turned around to Lv Li, “Do you like the idea of sucking up to someone who gives you cold shoulder?”

Caught off guard, Lv Li subconsciously shook her head.

Well, there you have it. Even a maid doesn’t fancy being given the cold shoulder. Why in hell would the most powerful man in the world, who, with a simple crook of his finger, could easily attract millions of women, would be willing to come down here to risk being humiliated by me?

“The more you want, the humbler and more subservient you get. That’s just basic human nature. Don’t you get it? You silly girl.”

Lv Li shook her head again, not having a clue of what I said.

I decided to resort to another way to make my point clear, and so I dabbled my finger into the tea and started drawing a simple maze on the table. There was only one entrance to the maze, yet it had several exits. Then I pointed at those exists and explained, “When walking in the maze, men are usually fairly nice towards you, but they aren’t necessary aiming to reach the exit called love. Some will take the exit of “Power”, some are drawn to the exit of “Fame”, and others are simply in this for fun. So you can’t simply wait by an exit and hope for the best, get it?”

I thought this would clarify things up, but it only made Lv Li more confused as she kept shaking her heads, “I still don’t understand.”

I wanted to further explain it to her, lest she got bamboozled by men without realizing she was tricked in the future. But then, as I watched her befuddled face, I could not help but take a long sigh. I realized that however clever a woman could be, when it came to love, they could be so vulnerable to simple tricks made by men.

Well, no need to explain further. Instead of trying to enlighten her, she might be better off if I could just marry her to a wealthy, honest family.

September came, and the weather had become cooler by the day. The bulge on my belly had finally stopped growing and it was almost time for me to give birth. I had been fretting over this day, but now that it had finally approached, I was surprisingly less agitated.

The fact that this would be the first child for Qi Sheng and that I was the Empress, every faction in court had been closely monitoring my conditions. The palace was swarmed with people and I had more midwives than one would normally need here in the Xing Sheng Palace. Qi Sheng had already sent over two midwives to me, and they were soon followed by four more, two from the Grand Empress Dowager and two from the Zhang clan. Later, the Empress Dowager felt she would look bad if she didn’t send someone, so she also sent over two midwives.

A total of eight wives, enough to arrange two tables of mahjong.

I talked with Qi Sheng and complained about the excessive number of midwives in my palace. I argued that I only need two experienced midwives and that having more people here would probably do more harm than good as when a dispute rose, there would not be a final authority to mediate different opinions.

Qi Sheng thought for a while over my complaint and then replied, “Well, in that case, why don’t we have two royal physicians here who are specialized in delivery?”

I wanted to roll my eyes, but on second thought, I rein in my temper and instead asked with a solemn face, “Should we also have too more physicians who are specialized in medical care of infants?

Qi Sheng replied, “You are right. I almost forget about this.” Then he turned around and instructed the guards to fetch the most experienced physician.

Well, well. Another table of mahjong.

By mid-September, Qi Sheng’s visit to my palace had become ever more frequent, from every three days to twice a day, and finally he decided to sleep in my palace.

Qi Sheng’s ardent attention excited both joy and anxiety from Lv Li. Sometimes, in a moment of delight, she would kept rambling about how the Emperor have been so caring about me and the unborn child, and sometimes, in a moment of anxiety, when there was no one around, she would kept nagging about how hard it was for them to bring in the help sent from home when the Emperor kept sleeping in my palace several nights in a row.