Chapter 77

Chapter 77: Zhen Huan Chronicles, An Ling Rong

“Mama! No-ble Mo-ther!” “Mo-ther!” The two little ones lay in Noble Consort Hua’s arms and called out happily again.

The brother and sister were extremely familiar with Noble Consort Hua. After all, Noble Consort Hua truly treated them with sincerity. Little ones were sensitive and clever. Of course they knew she truly loved them.

Standing nearby, Song Zhi and Ling Zhi were just as excited. In their hearts, the dragon-phoenix twins were their own mistress’s children. To hear the little masters happily calling “Mother”… In that instant, they felt everything their mistress had done for the two children was worth it. Li Si Qi watched her own children being sweet and close with Noble Consort Hua, and she didn’t care at all.

As if no one else were there, she picked up the book beside her and started reading. Only when she occasionally heard the two little ones laugh happily did she lift her head to glance over. They played like that for most of the day. Only when they were tired… After they were carried off to rest, Noble Consort Hua still looked reluctant to part with them.

“How about… you take them back later?” Li Si Qi wanted to give the kids away again. “They learned to talk, so they’re more fun now. Your Highness can take them back and keep playing with them.”

“Hmph!” Noble Consort Hua was displeased and furious. “Is there a mother like you? All you do is think about stuffing the children into my hands. How could the dragon-phoenix twins have a mother like you?”

“What’s wrong with a mother like me?” Li Si Qi was in the wrong, yet spoke boldly. “Besides, they have a Noble Mother like you. What a great thing!”

“Heh heh!” Noble Consort Hua answered with two cold laughs.

Moving elegantly, she slowly put her nail guards back on. “Did you forget the Empress Dowager’s warning? She warned you not to send the dragon-phoenix twins to my Yi Kun Palace. Aren’t you afraid she’ll step in and deal with you again?”

“For now, she definitely won’t.” Li Si Qi smiled soundlessly. “By the way, the Empress should be five months along. They should be able to diagnose whether it’s a boy or a girl. I wonder if the Emperor and the Empress Dowager knew.”

“Boy or girl, so what?” Noble Consort Hua gave a cold laugh. “A poisonous woman like the Empress, who killed so many children, will definitely get retribution.”

“What, you want to make a move?” Li Si Qi knew the woman in front of her never harmed children, so she asked in a teasing tone, “If you want to do it, do it quickly. You can’t let her show off her belly to us.”

“I won’t touch her now.” Noble Consort Hua looked full of disdain. “At her age, who even knows if she can deliver?”

“That’s true.” Li Si Qi nodded in agreement. “Giving birth is like walking through the gates of the underworld. The Empress wasn’t young. It really was dangerous.”

“I firmly believe that poisonous woman won’t have a good end!” A fierce glint flashed in Noble Consort Hua’s eyes. “I want to watch her get her retribution.”

“Yes, someone like that will definitely get retribution.” Li Si Qi’s eyes shifted. “Noble Consort, I heard Noble Lady Wan and Noble Lady Hui had been burning incense at Bao Hua Hall lately, praying for the Bodhisattva to grant them a child!”

“Them?” Noble Consort Hua sneered. “If the Bodhisattva could really grant children, I’d be willing to burn incense and pray every day. Those two bitches – their ambition was bigger than the other. They want children, but they don’t even look at whether they have that kind of luck. I say they’re just too idle…”

The moment she mentioned the two women fighting her for favor… Noble Consort Hua started another long rant. After she was sent off, Xiao Hu Zi couldn’t help asking, “Master, what were you plotting again?”

“When do you think the Empress’s pregnancy should fall?” Li Si Qi asked instead of answering. “It was already five months. If there was nothing wrong, the child would be fully formed.”

“Master didn’t need to worry,” Xiao Hu Zi replied. “The Empress’s pregnancy wasn’t forming.”

“Wasn’t forming?” Li Si Qi froze. “You weren’t joking?”

“I really wasn’t joking.” Xiao Hu Zi said seriously. “The Empress got pregnant by force in the first place. When the Fourth Prince shoved her, the fetus was actually already badly injured. On top of that, the Empress took an inferior Pregnancy Pill. So the child in the Empress’s belly couldn’t take shape.”

“It couldn’t take shape and it was still alive?” Li Si Qi frowned. “What was the Empress carrying, then?”

“A lump of flesh and blood,” Xiao Hu Zi replied. “The Empress should have miscarried this child. But between the Pregnancy Pill’s effect and the medicine the imperial physicians prescribed, under that double protection, the pregnancy didn’t fall. It becoming like this now was also a coincidence.”

“If that was the case, when would this lump of flesh be delivered?” Li Si Qi’s expression shifted slightly. “No, Xiao Hu Zi – could the Empress feel fetal movement? When fetal movement starts, an Empress who already gave birth before wouldn’t not know. It was already five months. The Empress couldn’t have noticed nothing at all, right?”

“It moved.” Xiao Hu Zi nodded. “The Empress ate plenty of tonics. Don’t look at it as just a lump of flesh and blood – it could still absorb nutrients and grow. And the Empress had to eat too. When her stomach and intestines moved, it made that big lump tremble. It felt no different from fetal movement.”

“A problem this big, the imperial physicians didn’t know?” Li Si Qi was extremely curious. “With Imperial Physician Zhang’s medical skill, there was no way he didn’t know something was wrong with the fetus. Why didn’t he tell the Emperor?”

“Imperial Physician Zhang did notice something was off.” Xiao Hu Zi chuckled. “But he couldn’t find the reason. After all, he didn’t have X-ray vision. He couldn’t see what was inside the Empress’s belly. The imperial physicians did tell the Emperor, actually. It was just vague and unclear, not bluntly said. The Emperor thought it would be like Noble Consort Hua’s child – weak and sickly when born, but still able to live as long as nothing unexpected happened. So the Emperor didn’t take it to heart.”

“No wonder.” Li Si Qi nodded slightly, then asked, “You still haven’t told me when the Empress’s flesh-and-blood ball would be delivered.”

“Hard to say,” Xiao Hu Zi explained. “Because it wasn’t a fetus, it was hard to judge. It might be at seven or eight months, or it might be ten months, or even a full year. It mainly depended on whether the Empress’s body could endure it.”

“I don’t care if it’s ten months or a full year.” Li Si Qi suddenly looked unhappy. “But the Empress absolutely cannot deliver at seven or eight months. That would line up perfectly with my twins’ first birthday. How could she disgust our Little Six and Wen Ning’s first-birthday banquet? Either bring it down early, or delay it by one or two months.”

“Master, you weren’t going to use the Empress’s pregnancy to do something?” Xiao Hu Zi looked a little surprised. “Was it really just to let the Empress enjoy the pain of a miscarriage?” “What do you think?”

“I think we shouldn’t waste it.” “Who do you want to trap?”

“I’m not trapping anyone.” Xiao Hu Zi spoke with a laugh in his voice. “Whoever carelessly steps into the pit, whoever ends up unlucky. It’s their own choice. It has nothing to do with us.”

“Do whatever you want.” Li Si Qi let him do as he pleased. Anyway, Xiao Hu Zi wouldn’t cross the line. There was nothing to worry about.

Xiao Hu Zi sounded a bit excited. “Master just wait for the show.”

“Oh, right. I haven’t asked you yet.” Li Si Qi thought of something else. “Was Beauty Jiu sent to Guang Zhou?”

“Not yet.” Xiao Hu Zi explained. “He was too miserable. His body was almost collapsing, and he was recuperating now.”