In the fifth month of the twenty-second year of Kangxi, at Yikun Palace in the Forbidden City.
After the Dragon Boat Festival had passed, the weather had turned muggy and hot, and every corner of the palace had already begun preparing cooling tea, but since the two mistresses of Yikun Palace were both pregnant, they still had hot coarse rice tea prepared instead.
“Go and get me a bowl of that sweetened junket the Fourth Princess is having.”
Consort Yi, of the Gorolo clan, pushed away her coarse rice tea in disgust, staring enviously at the bowl held by the little girl sitting on the couch, her mouth watering.
Her chief maid Liu Ya hurried to stop her. “That won’t do! The Fourth Princess is having hawthorn junket. You can’t eat that.”
The little girl sitting on the couch stopped her spoon, blinked her fluffy big eyes at Consort Yi, and said softly, “Have them stew some bird’s nest with milk for Auntie instead, that’s tasty too.”
The little girl’s soft trailing voice made Consort Yi’s eyes curve into a smile despite herself, and the irritation in her chest faded away with it.
“Auntie doesn’t like milk. If Dan Qing likes it, why don’t I just give it all to you?” Consort Yi said with a smile.
Dan Qing nodded hard without any hesitation, sweetly accepting the offering from her own dear aunt.
There was no helping it, these days, even cow’s milk was a rare thing in the Forbidden City, and she really couldn’t stand the gamy smell of goat’s milk.
Dan Qing still didn’t know why she had ended up in this place, turned into Kangxi’s Fourth Princess, Aisin Gioro Garu, whose childhood name was the same as in her past life, Dan Qing.
Her birth mother was Consort Yi’s own older sister, Noble Lady Guo of the Gorolo clan. The palace people all called her Noble Lady Guo, and she lived in the rear hall of Yikun Palace. She was now seven months pregnant, further along than Consort Yi.
Perhaps it was because pregnancy had soured her temper, but Noble Lady Guo was always quite disdainful of Dan Qing, so Dan Qing preferred to spend her time with Consort Yi instead.
Consort Yi’s own son, the Fifth Prince, had been taken to be raised in the Empress Dowager’s palace as soon as he turned one year old, so she had originally wanted to dote on Dan Qing as if she were her own daughter. It was only that before Noble Lady Guo became pregnant, she had always kept them from growing close, so Consort Yi could only show her care through what she gave the girl.
Now that Dan Qing was willing to come over on her own, and Noble Lady Guo was single-mindedly focused on her pregnancy and paying no attention to her daughter, Consort Yi finally got her wish of raising a daughter. Never mind a single jar of milk, even the precious jewelry on her dressing table, she was willing to let Dan Qing pick through as she pleased.
Just as Consort Yi was pondering how to dress up Dan Qing, a burst of shouting came from outside.
Liu Ya went out at once to check, and before long came back to report, “Reporting to my mistress, it seems Noble Lady Guo just caught sight of the sour junket sent for the Fourth Princess, and she wants some too.”
Consort Yi frowned. “Didn’t I tell her it has hawthorn in it?”
Liu Ya replied, “I told her, but the little mistress said she’s queasy and wants something sour, and insisted on it, saying a little bit wouldn’t hurt.”
“A grown woman like her, less sensible than Dan Qing!”
Consort Yi snorted. “Don’t give it to her. Wanting something sour, who’s ever heard of morning sickness at seven months pregnant!”
There she goes again.
Dan Qing gnawed on a piece of hawthorn while grumbling inwardly. This was already the third time today.
This morning it was sour apricots she wanted, at lunch she insisted on a sour cabbage pot, and now this moment she’d set her sights on Dan Qing’s hawthorn junket.
This wasn’t Noble Lady Guo’s first pregnancy, how could she not know that everything she was craving was unsuitable for a pregnant woman?
It was precisely because she knew too well that she was deliberately making a fuss like this, wanting everyone to know she craved sour things, so this pregnancy must be a prince.
But sour for a boy, spicy for a girl was never a settled rule to begin with, and more importantly, the reigning Son of Heaven, her own father Emperor Kangxi, was hardly short of sons.
Not to mention the Crown Prince had long since been installed, there were also seven other princes already ranked by age, and the youngest, the Eighth Prince, was already three years old, and wasn’t his birth mother, Madam Wei, still just a lowly consort?
“A mother’s status rising with her son” was simply not how things worked in Kangxi’s harem, it would be closer to say “a son’s status rising with his mother.”
Otherwise, her Crown Prince brother wouldn’t hold such a uniquely honored position.
“Dan Qing, Dan Qing?”
Consort Yi raised her voice to call out. “Off in a daze like that, what are you thinking about?”
Only then did Dan Qing pull her wandering soul back, not knowing that her dazed little expression was especially adorable.
Consort Yi was utterly delighted, saying repeatedly, “If only this pregnancy of mine could give me such an adorable little princess as Dan Qing.”
“My mistress, you mustn’t say that. His Majesty is still hoping you’ll give him another little prince.”
Liu Ya hurried to speak up in caution.
Consort Yi pursed her lips in displeasure, but since there were many palace maids in attendance, she couldn’t very well speak ill of Kangxi in front of everyone, so she simply kept teasing Dan Qing instead. “Dan Qing, do you want a little brother or a little sister?”
This question people had loved to use to trip up children since ancient times, Dan Qing had no trouble at all answering.
She deliberately pouted. “Auntie, you’re mean!”
Consort Yi was taken aback. “How am I mean?”
“You just said I was your favorite little princess,”
Dan Qing said with a wronged pout, “and it’s barely been any time before you already want to like some other little princess!”
Women of the inner palace, no matter how much they said they wanted a princess out loud, in their hearts they were still hoping for a son.
She understood that.
Consort Yi burst out laughing, pointing at Dan Qing and saying to Liu Ya, “Just look at her, still so tiny and already this domineering, I can’t even like another princess now?”
Liu Ya laughed too. “The Fourth Princess is clever, this is her way of getting close to you, my mistress.”
Consort Yi loved hearing that, her tone carrying a note of pride. “That’s right, this little thing is sharp as a whip, and she knows exactly who treats her best!”
As a little girl not yet five years old, Dan Qing could often pretend not to understand the implications in adults’ words, such as right now.
Consort Yi did treat her quite well, but not to the point of such closeness, she was saying this on purpose so that word would spread and anger Noble Lady Guo.
Although Noble Lady Guo somewhat disdained her, she was still her birth mother, and there were some things others could say that she herself could not.
“Dan Qing, ah, I see you can’t finish that hawthorn junket of yours either. Why don’t you take it back to your mother to try a bit, it would spare her the frustration of not getting any.”
Consort Yi’s eyes turned, and she suddenly said this.
Dan Qing’s heart gave a lurch.
She didn’t understand much about diet, but she’d just heard them say a pregnant woman shouldn’t eat hawthorn, so now Consort Yi was telling her to bring hawthorn junket to Noble Lady Guo, what was she trying to do?
Although eating a tiny bit probably wouldn’t cause any real problem, but what if it did?
If something really did happen to this pregnancy of Noble Lady Guo’s, then how would she ever face her own birth mother afterward?
Dan Qing didn’t want to go, but she knew she had to.
First, at her current age she shouldn’t understand any of this, second, if she went herself, she could also make sure Noble Lady Guo didn’t actually eat it, if it were someone else, something might really go wrong.
“All right, I’ll take it to Mother.”
Dan Qing put on an innocent, guileless look, hopped down from the couch, had a maid put her shoes on, and then personally carried that half bowl of hawthorn junket and ran toward the back.
After she left, Liu Ya said worriedly, “The Fourth Princess is so young, and the little mistress isn’t exactly sensible either, aren’t you afraid she’ll really eat it, my mistress?”
Consort Yi’s smile faded from her face. She leaned back against the soft pillows and yawned. “She’s not stupid, and the people serving her aren’t stupid either, nothing will happen. I’m just letting her know, if she doesn’t want a daughter, then I won’t be polite about taking her in.”
…
Dan Qing trotted the whole way, the bowl and spoon in her hands clinking and swaying without stop.
When she reached the doorway of the rear hall, she aimed herself right at the threshold and tripped over it, falling flat on her face with a smack. The bowl in her hands naturally flew out, and the hawthorn junket inside spilled all over the ground.
“Oh no, my Fourth Princess, how could you be so careless?”
A woman in her twenties came over and pulled Dan Qing up from the ground, it was Dan Qing’s wet nurse, Madam Sun.
Since Noble Lady Guo had become pregnant, carpets had been laid throughout the room, so Dan Qing’s fall didn’t hurt at all.
She dusted off her own clothes and said, “Liu Ya said Mother wanted some hawthorn junket, so I brought it for her, but I ran too fast and didn’t notice the threshold.”
She had, of course, tripped on purpose.
She didn’t believe Consort Yi would dare to have someone secretly make a separate bowl of hawthorn junket for Noble Lady Guo, as long as she spilled this bowl, there was no way Noble Lady Guo could get any.
“I knew she’d send over her leftovers to fob me off,”
Noble Lady Guo came out from inside, her belly protruding, her face full of mockery. “See that? This is what comes of giving birth to a princess. Now I can’t even ask for something to eat! If I’d given birth to the Fifth Prince back then, then—”
Dan Qing couldn’t help but speak up. “Mother, could you please not talk nonsense?”
Even if she had given birth to a prince, so what?
Even someone as favored as Consort Yi still had to force a smile and hand her son over to the Empress Dowager, kowtowing in thanks.
Given who her mother was, how could she possibly hold on to a little prince!
“I’m talking nonsense?”
Noble Lady Guo’s eyes went round with anger. “You really think that woman up front meant it when she coaxed you with a few words about wanting a princess? Only you would believe that!”
Dan Qing didn’t know what Consort Yi was really thinking, but she knew that Noble Lady Guo genuinely despised her for being a princess.
The mindset of valuing sons over daughters was common even in the era she’d come from, let alone in a feudal society where men were esteemed and women debased, so it wasn’t really Noble Lady Guo’s fault for thinking this way.
“Mother, I’m already here, there’s no use in you thinking any more on it,”
Dan Qing tried to comfort Noble Lady Guo. “You’d do better to calm your mind and focus on carrying the pregnancy well, and have a healthy child. Whether it’s a boy or a girl, it’s still imperial blood, and it will surely be filial to you in the future.”
“Don’t talk nonsense, what I’m carrying is definitely a prince!”
Noble Lady Guo was not comforted at all, and grew even angrier. “You’re a princess yourself, so you’re hoping I have another princess, just so a little prince won’t outshine you, is that it? Who told you to say this, was it Consort Yi?”
Dan Qing said patiently, “No one taught me anything, I’m just speaking the truth. Mother, once a princess is formally invested in the future, she also receives a stipend. I may not have any other abilities, but you are my birth mother, and I definitely won’t leave you unattended.”
They say raising a son secures your old age, but if a daughter can also support you, then what difference is there between a son and a daughter?
Either way, her mother would be living in the palace, she could simply give her more support later on.
Who would have thought that upon hearing this, Noble Lady Guo only sneered. “You’ll support me? When you grow up you’ll be sent off to the grasslands to feed the wolves, will you still have the means to support me then?”
Why would a princess of hers have to go feed wolves on the grasslands?
For a moment Dan Qing couldn’t react, her face full of disbelief.
Noble Lady Guo walked up in front of Dan Qing, reached out and lifted her chin, examining her face.
Not yet five years old, the little girl was at her softest, most adorable age, a pair of fluffy big eyes blinking away, a small delicate nose, a fine little mouth, paired with plump little cheeks, so tender it seemed you could squeeze water out of them.
Today Dan Qing was wearing clothes Consort Yi had made for her, of extremely soft moon satin, with a hair ornament made of rabbit-fur pom-poms on her head, making her look like a little dumpling fresh out of the steamer.
“You don’t look like me at all,”
Noble Lady Guo said with a note of disdain, “you actually look somewhat like her instead. If it weren’t for the fact that you and the Fifth Prince weren’t born on the same day, I would suspect she’d had the children swapped.”
Displeased, Dan Qing raised her hand to swat at Noble Lady Guo’s hand. Noble Lady Guo flung her hand away in pain, and it happened to fling Dan Qing right along with it.
The little girl, short of hand and short of leg, was flung straight onto the floor. Although the carpet meant it didn’t hurt, her eyes still reddened with grievance.
Dan Qing didn’t want to react this way either, but perhaps because she didn’t originally belong to this body, some reactions were simply beyond her control.
Such as crying easily, the way a normal child would.
“Mother, if you bully me again, I’m going to go tell Han Ama on you!”
A little princess this small had only this to threaten her mother with.
Noble Lady Guo sat back down without concern and waved a hand. “Go ahead. If you’ve got the nerve, go find your Han Ama and see if he even pays you any mind. Oh, right, while you’re at it, ask him yourself whether he’s really going to send you off to the grasslands to feed wolves in the future.”
A rush of grievance surged straight to her head, and Dan Qing shouted, unable to hold it back, “Fine, I’ll ask!”
With that, she turned right around and ran straight outside.
Madam Sun said with some worry, “My mistress, how could you let the Fourth Princess run off to find His Majesty like this? I’m afraid it will only anger His Majesty.”
Noble Lady Guo scoffed. “Do you really think she has that kind of nerve, to go find the Emperor? You forget how long it’s been since His Majesty even came to see her! Just wait, she’ll come slinking back on her own before long.”