Looking at Yiqing, who was playing with a cloth doll in her arms, Empress Hesheri felt extremely reluctant to part with her. If the Ancestor had taken the child to Cining Palace to raise when she first entered the palace, she would have definitely agreed without hesitation.
However, the child had already been in her care for a month or two, and a deep bond had formed between them. Having to send the child to Cining Palace at this moment made Empress Hesheri feel a thousand times more reluctant. Yet the order had already come from Cining Palace, and the decision had been approved in Qianqing Palace as well—she had no choice but to comply.
Lost in these thoughts, Empress Hesheri suddenly let out a soft sigh.
Yiqing, who was busy playing with her doll, heard the sound. Her small hands paused mid-motion, and in the next moment, she tossed the doll aside and reached out toward Empress Hesheri.
Taken aback, Empress Hesheri leaned down slightly. She felt a tiny hand gently brush against her cheek, then stroke it softly, as if trying to soothe her.
Children—especially those too young to speak—usually have no sense of how strong their grip or touch is. Sometimes their touches can even be painful for adults. Empress Hesheri had rarely encountered a child as gentle and tender as Yiqing, whose touch felt exactly like a wordless act of comfort.
She blinked slowly, feeling as though something soft and warm had gently caressed the very depths of her heart.
“Yiqing, do you want to stay with your Imperial Mother too?” Empress Hesheri murmured to herself. “Then how about this—from now on, your Imperial Mother will come visit you at Cining Palace every day, all right? When you turn one year old, you’ll be able to come back to me, and after that, you’ll get to stay by my side every single day.”
Yiqing blinked her big eyes, not understanding a single word of what had been said.
Sensing the child’s innocent confusion, Empress Hesheri pressed a soft kiss to Yiqing’s forehead. She rarely expressed her feelings so openly, but the sorrow of knowing the child was about to be taken away from her had broken through her usual reserve.
Despite the deep reluctance weighing on her heart, Empress Hesheri could not refuse the orders from Cining Palace. She instructed the wet nurses and maids who attended to Yiqing to pack all the child’s belongings, and soon Yiqing and her caretakers were sent off to Cining Palace.
To Yiqing, this felt as though the sky had fallen down around her. Why did the people here speak so differently from her mother? Back in Kunning Palace, she could at least understand bits and pieces of what was said—but ever since moving here, it felt as though she had to learn an entirely new language from scratch.
This left Yiqing feeling utterly confused. Was it that she hadn’t really understood anything before, or were these people speaking some kind of dialect?
Even though it felt as though all her progress in learning language had suddenly been reset to zero, Yiqing remained determined and resolved to start all over again. After all, she had no choice—she could not spend her whole life acting like a fool who couldn’t understand what others were saying.
The Grand Empress Dowager had raised many children over the years. She had given birth to four children of her own and had brought all of them up personally. Later, she had also cared for several of her grandchildren, and now she looked forward to raising her great-granddaughter in much the same way.
Yet never before had she met a child as endearing and lovable as Yiqing. When the little girl fixed her bright, round eyes on you, she didn’t need to say a single word to make it seem as though she were acting like a spoiled child seeking affection. Whenever someone spoke to her, she would look straight at them and raise her hands from time to time, as if responding to their words.
“What a beautiful child,” the Empress Dowager said with a gentle smile. She was still quite young herself—having come to the imperial capital from Mongolia when she was just thirteen or fourteen years old, she had served as Empress for seven or eight years, and by her early twenties, her husband had passed away. Now, she was only in her early thirties.
Yiqing looked up at this woman in her thirties, wondering exactly what their relationship was. From what she could tell, the young woman who had cared for her over the past month or so must be her mother—but this woman certainly didn’t look old enough to be her mother’s mother.
“Aruna, do you like this child?” the Grand Empress Dowager asked with a smile as she watched the Empress Dowager holding the little girl in her arms.
She felt great tenderness toward this great-niece of hers from her maternal clan. In the past, the child’s paternal aunt had clashed with Fulin, which had eventually led to her being deposed as Empress. However, the Borjigit clan had since managed to restore their standing and influence in the imperial court.
Meanwhile, Yiqing was struggling with all her might to roll over so she could see who was sleeping beside her.
Rolling over wasn’t something she could do successfully every time. This time, after straining herself until she was breathless and exhausted, she still hadn’t managed to turn her body.
She paused to catch her breath, then tried again. This time, it worked perfectly. In one smooth motion, she rolled over—and finally saw exactly what was lying beside her.
Oh my goodness—
It was a person!
A tiny little baby lay next to her, fast asleep. His face was flushed and crinkled, looking not just unappealing but even rather ugly.
After Yiqing had stared at him for a while, his eyes suddenly flew open, and he let out a deafening wail.
“Waaah—”
Being so close to him, Yiqing felt as though her eardrums were about to burst.
Wet nurses hurried over immediately to see what was wrong. These two little ones were both highly favored: one was a princess newly welcomed into the imperial family, beloved by both the Emperor and Empress, and cherished even by the Empress Dowager herself. The other was currently the only prince in the entire palace—neither of them could be treated with anything less than the utmost care and respect.
The nurses picked up Baoqing and rocked him gently, trying to soothe him. It took quite a while before the child finally stopped crying, though he still sniffled and trembled from time to time.
When Yiqing heard that the little boy had finally quieted down, she let out a sigh of relief. She had never thought much of her own crying fits, but hearing another child cry from an outsider’s perspective was truly unbearable.
Just as Yiqing had done several months earlier, Baoqing spent his days doing nothing but eating and sleeping. But babies get hungry quickly—he needed to be fed every hour or so, and every time he went to sleep, his wet nurses had to spend ages rocking and comforting him before he would settle down.
After sharing a room with the little boy for just two days, Yiqing found that she could hardly bear it any longer. Fortunately, the Empress Dowager soon realized that keeping the two infants together was impractical, and she arranged for a separate living space and moved Baoqing there.
Though they no longer shared the same room, the Empress Dowager still liked to have the two children play together during the day. Watching the little ones interact always gave her a warm, comforting feeling.
But Yiqing didn’t find it comforting in the least—she just found it noisy and bothersome. She knew that all babies behaved this way, yet the high-pitched sound of Baoqing’s cries still grated on her nerves.
Three months passed quickly, and Yiqing began learning how to crawl.
As soon as the Empress Dowager saw Yiqing crawling around on the ground, she ordered carpets to be laid throughout Yiqing’s chambers and the areas where the two children often played, so that Yiqing could move about freely and safely.
One day, Yiqing was happily crawling across the floor. She still couldn’t walk, but crawling was good enough—at least it allowed her to move from place to place under her own power. And crawling was actually quite fun; it gave her a simple, uncomplicated sense of joy and freedom.
Empress Hesheri had come to Cining Palace that day to spend time talking with the Grand Empress Dowager and the Empress Dowager. She sat playing a game of go with the Grand Empress Dowager while chatting casually about daily matters with the Empress Dowager.
Yiqing crawled over to the threshold of the room and tried to figure out how to climb over it and crawl outside. Spring had arrived, and from time to time, she could see blooming flowers through the windows—but no one had yet taken her outside to see them up close.
But the threshold was far too high for a small child, and Yiqing simply didn’t have the strength to pull herself up and over it. Soon, a wet nurse picked her up gently and placed her back in the center of the main hall. Yiqing let out a deep, world-weary sigh. When would she finally learn to walk and gain true freedom of movement?
Seeing the little girl sigh, the Empress Dowager was amused and said, “Come and look, everyone—our little Yiqing even knows how to sigh like an adult!”
Her words drew the attention of Empress Hesheri and the Grand Empress Dowager. Yiqing continued crawling quietly, but turned her body around so that her backside was facing all these respected elders. What was so interesting about her sighing that they had to make fun of her like this?
Her reaction only made the Empress Dowager laugh even harder. She pointed at Yiqing and laughed until she could barely catch her breath.
Hearing this laughter, Yiqing felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment and annoyance. What was so funny about her simply turning around?
“What is going on here?” a voice called out. “I could hear your laughter from all the way down the hall, Imperial Mother.”