"Of course it's not a corpse!" Chu Chu nestled in his arms, laughing. "I want to give her a human skeleton."
"...!"
Xiao Jin Yu stared wide-eyed at Chu Chu, who was thrilled with her brilliant idea.
"When I tell her stories about the Nine Great Arresters, she never understands the bone names I mention. If I give her a human skeleton to display in her room, she'll understand after looking at it more!"
A human skeleton, displayed in her room...
"Chu Chu..." Xiao Jin Yu hadn't said "no" to Chu Chu in two months. He pondered his words carefully, phrasing them so delicately they barely conveyed his original meaning. "Xiang'er is a young lady..."
"I know, her skin is even thinner than yours!" Chu Chu chuckled, covering her mouth. "Just mentioning Wu Jiang's name makes her blush... I'll definitely find her a nice female skeleton, otherwise she'd be too embarrassed to look at it!"
Xiao Jin Yu choked on her last words, caught between laughter and disbelief. "Chu Chu... aren't you afraid you'll scare her?"
Chu Chu blinked, looking utterly innocent. "What's scary about a bunch of bones?"
"Chu Chu... think again, give her something else... a pearl hairpin, rouge and powder, anything will do..."
"Hmm... that's right! She mentioned wanting to learn how to make soup, but no one dared teach her. I'll teach her how to make soup instead!"
"Good..." Although Xiao Jin Yu wasn't keen on her cooking at this time, it was far better than letting her give Xiao Xiang a skeleton. "Just be careful with your health."
"Alright!" Chu Chu stroked Xiao Jin Yu's still painfully thin frame, remembering how this man had cared for her so tenderly despite his own illness. Her heart ached with tenderness and warmth. "Wang Ye, what would you like to eat? I'll make it for you tomorrow."
"No need, just focus on eating well yourself..." Xiao Jin Yu gently kissed her forehead. "You can make it up to me after you've given birth."
Chu Chu went into labor in early October. The midwife had been summoned from the palace a month prior, and Ye Qian Qiu had repeatedly confirmed that Chu Chu's body could withstand childbirth. However, no one anticipated that when the time came for delivery, Prince An would refuse to leave his wife's side.
"Wang Ye," Chu Chu was already delirious with pain. The midwife was sweating nervously, too afraid to proceed. "Please rest outside... The delivery room is inauspicious..."
Xiao Jin Yu shot the midwife a sharp glare. "Is it me who's inauspicious, or my wife, or my child?"
"This servant didn't mean it that way, please calm your anger, Wang Ye..."
With one hand tightly gripped by Chu Chu and the other gently wiping sweat from her face, his movements and gaze were incredibly tender. Yet his words to the midwife were cold and hard as iron. "Either deliver the child here, or go outside and face execution. Choose."
"Yes, yes..."
The midwife had no choice but to pretend Xiao Jin Yu wasn't there. Being experienced, she managed to prevent Chu Chu from suffering too much despite her extreme tension.
Even so, hearing Chu Chu's continuous moans of pain, Xiao Jin Yu remained deeply anxious. Though his palms were sweating from nervousness, he continued to comfort Chu Chu in soft, gentle tones.Only after hearing a faint cry did Xiao Jin Yu's heart, which had nearly leapt from his throat, finally settle back down. Feeling Chu Chu's hand suddenly go limp, he grasped her weakened hand in return. Disregarding the presence of the midwife and the maidservants, he leaned down and gently kissed her pain-paled lips. "You've worked hard..."
Seeing Chu Chu's unwavering gaze fixed on the child in the midwife's arms, Xiao Jin Yu quickly motioned for the midwife to bring the baby over.
"Congratulations, Wang Ye, congratulations, Imperial Concubine," the midwife carefully placed the child beside Chu Chu. "It's a little prince!"
Xiao Jin Yu gently stroked Chu Chu's sweat-drenched forehead. "Thank you."
Chu Chu stared at the little one swaddled in blankets, who was squinting and crying incessantly, for a long while. "Wang Ye..."
"Hmm?"
"Why isn't he good-looking at all..."
Xiao Jin Yu, whose eyes had already reddened, found himself caught between tears and laughter at her remark. What kind of mother says her first words upon seeing her son are complaints about his appearance?
The midwife nearly burst out laughing at Chu Chu's comment. Seeing Xiao Jin Yu speechless, she couldn't help interjecting, "Imperial Concubine, all newborns look like this... In all my years of delivering babies in the palace, the little prince is one of the most beautiful children I've seen!"
Xiao Jin Yu patted her head, both exasperated and amused. "Did you hear that? You're not allowed to say our son is ugly..."
Chu Chu beamed with delight. "He does seem quite handsome..."
"What do you mean 'seem'... He is handsome."
"Mmm..."
☆ 109 The Manchu-Han Imperial Feast (I)
Since the birth of Xiao Jin Yu's son, the entire Prince An Manor had known no peace.
Not counting those who rushed to flatter and curry favor with Xiao Jin Yu under the pretext of the little prince's birth, the constant stream of illnesses—major and minor—that plagued the child alone left the new parents and the manor's hot-tempered physician thoroughly exhausted.
Xiao Jin Yu worried that he had passed his own ailments to his son, but Ye Qian Qiu insisted that none of Xiao Jin Yu's illnesses were congenital. The child's weak constitution and frequent sickness were likely because the pregnancy itself had been unstable—merely delivering a live baby was already quite an achievement. Besides, boys were naturally prone to illness in their early years.
Though Ye Qian Qiu spoke lightly, the child suffered greatly. Before he could even nurse properly, he was already undergoing acupuncture and taking medicine. No sooner would one illness subside than another would follow, restarting the cycle of needles and medications.
The child was remarkably quiet and well-behaved, rarely crying or fussing. During Ye Qian Qiu's acupuncture treatments, the little one would often blink his bright eyes, watching Ye Qian Qiu intently, and occasionally even smile at him—a sight that frequently made the physician, accustomed to life and death, hesitate to proceed.
The more obedient the child was, the more it pained Chu Chu. She refused to hand him over to wet nurses, keeping him close at all times. Xiao Jin Yu, for his part, grew increasingly anxious. Whenever the child fell ill, he would close the manor to visitors, handling only the most unavoidable matters in his study at the One Heart Garden.
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