Dan Qing yawned, and simply lay down on the kang behind the Grand Empress Dowager.
Sumalagu hurried over with a pillow and blanket, telling her to lie down properly and sleep.
Kangxi and the Grand Empress Dowager, assuming Dan Qing had fallen asleep, didn’t bother hiding anything, and Dan Qing, eyes closed, listening in, gradually began to sense something was off.
Word throughout the palace was that Imperial Noble Consort Tongiya would be made Empress once she gave birth, so why was Kangxi discussing whether, if she truly bore a prince, the child should be sent to the Grand Empress Dowager to be raised instead?
By palace custom, Imperial Noble Consort Tongiya was entitled to raise her own child, and if she were made Empress on top of that, she would become the legal mother of every prince and princess in the entire harem, never mind her own child, she would have the right to take in and raise anyone else’s children too.
And yet nothing in Kangxi’s tone suggested any intention of letting her raise her own child. He only said that if the Grand Empress Dowager didn’t wish to raise it, it could be sent to the Empress Dowager’s palace instead, to keep the Fifth Prince company.
“We’re thinking of having the Fourth Prince move to Nansansuo this year, and next year the Fifth Prince should join him there as well, that would leave Imperial Mother’s palace without any children at all, so it would only be right for the Imperial Noble Consort’s child to go there and show her filial devotion.”
Kangxi’s tone was entirely matter-of-fact as he settled the future of a child not even born yet.
But the Grand Empress Dowager shook her head. “I certainly won’t be raising it. Garu alone is already enough for me to manage, your Imperial Mother may be kind-hearted, but you shouldn’t keep dumping your troubles on her either.”
Kangxi didn’t press the matter further, only saying, “Never mind, there’s no rush, perhaps it really will turn out to be a little princess after all, in which case, she can raise it herself.”
Dan Qing recalled that day at Jingren Palace, the deep affection between Kangxi and Imperial Noble Consort Tongiya, and comparing it now to Kangxi’s indifferent tone today, she couldn’t help a shiver running through her.
They always said the imperial family had no room for true feeling, and now she truly understood it for herself.
Even a loving, devoted couple would scheme behind each other’s backs, a monarch this coldly calculating was truly something to fear.
“Garu, Garu, wake up,”
The Grand Empress Dowager patted Dan Qing. “It’s cold here, if you’re sleepy, go back and sleep properly, don’t catch a chill.”
Dan Qing pretended to have just been woken, pouting and rubbing her eyes as she sat up. Kangxi teased her, “Like a little kitten, falling asleep wherever you happen to be, you might never grow tall at this rate.”
Dan Qing ignored him, only snuggling closer to the Grand Empress Dowager, who stroked her hair soothingly, coaxing her to open her eyes properly.
Just as they were talking, Yinreng came back in from outside, a large box in his hands.
He set the box on the table and opened it in front of Dan Qing as if presenting a treasure. “Come look, the Imperial Household Department just got in a new batch of silk flowers. I intercepted them before they’d even been distributed, and brought the whole lot back for you to see.”
Kangxi frowned slightly and scolded him, “Have you no sense of propriety left at all? Did you go rob them?”
Yinreng looked at Kangxi somewhat at a loss, his slightly startled expression tugging at Kangxi’s own heart, and he softened his tone. “Never mind, you did it for your sister’s sake after all. But don’t go taking the whole batch like this next time, she can’t possibly use so many, and it’ll only give people something to laugh about.”
Yinreng agreed glumly, and Dan Qing, seizing the moment, let out a well-timed “Wow!” to draw Kangxi’s attention away.
“Han Ama, I want this peach one, and this apple one is pretty too!”
Dan Qing reached into the box and pulled out two silk flowers from the very top. “Huh, why are they all fruit shapes? There’s no flowers the consorts would like at all.”
The moment she said this, Kangxi noticed it too, the silk flowers in this box weren’t meant for the consorts of the harem at all, but had been specially made for the princesses, all in the cute little shapes young girls loved.
Only then did he realize he’d wronged Yinreng a moment ago, Yinreng hadn’t touched anything belonging to the harem at all, only taken back what had already been made for Dan Qing in the first place.
“Well, Baocheng has a good eye, he picked out things that suit you,”
Kangxi felt a little sheepish, but still stubbornly kept up his fatherly authority. “Dan Qing, don’t keep them all to yourself either, pick out a few of the nicer ones to send to your elder sisters.”
Dan Qing agreed sweetly, then clung to the Grand Empress Dowager, picking out suitable silk flowers for each of the princesses. Kangxi glanced over at Yinreng, who was standing off to the side looking a little dejected, and felt a pang of guilt, so he said, “It’s been a while since We tested your studies, We happen to be free right now, so come along to Dan Qing’s side chamber and tell Us what you’ve been learning these past few days.”
Yinreng wasn’t afraid of being tested, and was quite pleased at the chance to spend time alone with Kangxi, so he followed along obediently.
Once father and son had left, the Grand Empress Dowager reached out and pinched Dan Qing’s cheek. “You clever little thing, you know how to look out for your brother, don’t you.”
Dan Qing blinked with pride. “Second brother’s good to me, so of course I should be good to him too. Old ancestress, no getting jealous now.”
The Grand Empress Dowager laughed and shook her head. “As if I’d be jealous over the two of you. Sumalagu, tell the imperial kitchen to make a few more sweet-and-sour dishes today, so our Fourth Princess doesn’t have anything to complain about and start teasing me again.”
Dan Qing’s favorite dishes were things like braised sweet-and-sour, and she knew this was the Grand Empress Dowager rewarding her deliberately, pleased by what she’d just done.
When she’d first arrived at Cining Palace, she’d thought the Grand Empress Dowager seemed rather distant toward Yinreng, not nearly as close as the rumors suggested, but over time, she’d come to understand that the Grand Empress Dowager simply chose not to show it outwardly, when in truth she cared the most about this great-grandson of hers.
Whenever Dan Qing was kind to Yinreng, she could always count on receiving some seemingly casual little reward from the Grand Empress Dowager in return, it had been this way before, and it was this way today as well.
There was probably some rather complicated history behind all this that Dan Qing couldn’t quite work out yet, but either way, she wanted to grow close to Yinreng regardless, so she simply went along with it, it cost her nothing extra.
…
On the evening of the eighteenth day of the sixth month of the twenty-second year of Kangxi, Imperial Noble Consort Tongiya, eight months pregnant, suddenly went into labor, and Jingren Palace erupted into a flurry of activity.
When the news reached Cining Palace, Dan Qing was curled up in Sumalagu’s lap, listening to her tell stories of horse races on the grasslands back in the day. Hearing the eunuch’s report, she immediately sat up straight.
Although she knew nothing at all about childbirth, she could tell even so that a premature birth was never a good sign.
The last time she’d seen Imperial Noble Consort Tongiya at Jingren Palace, she’d noticed her complexion wasn’t as rosy and healthy as that of the equally pregnant Noble Lady Guo or Consort Yi, she’d assumed at first it was simply because this was her first pregnancy, but now it seemed her condition must have already been unstable for some time.
“Wait another two hours, then send someone to check on things at Jingren Palace. Sumalagu, prepare some auspicious items to send along as well.”
The Grand Empress Dowager seemed to have anticipated this already, and showed no particular urgency.
Sure enough, two hours later, there was still no news from Jingren Palace of a safe delivery of a prince or princess. Sumalagu, growing uneasy, personally took the items and went herself.
Kangxi had already arrived early, sitting in the main hall of Jingren Palace, reading.
Seeing Sumalagu arrive, he only said, “We’re grateful for Imperial Grandmother’s concern. This is the Imperial Noble Consort’s first pregnancy, so it will likely take a few more hours yet, please ask Grandmother to rest easy and retire early. We’ll send word the moment there’s good news.”
Sumalagu personally went to the door of the birthing room to ask after things, and sure enough, just as Kangxi had said, Imperial Noble Consort Tongiya had only dilated three fingers so far, still a long way from actually giving birth.
“Tell the midwife to have the Imperial Noble Consort save her strength, she hasn’t even begun delivering yet, why does she keep crying out like this?”
Sumalagu frowned. “And don’t let so many people keep going in and out, it’ll only make the mistress more nervous for nothing. Send out anyone who isn’t actually needed, and only let her chief maid stay by her side, until it’s closer to time.”
In fact, none of this should have fallen to Sumalagu to say. By rights, matters inside the birthing room should have been arranged by whoever from the consort’s own family had come to attend the birth, but Imperial Noble Consort Tongiya’s sudden premature labor meant that her own birth mother, Lady Hešeri, hadn’t yet had time to enter the palace, which was why things had descended into such chaos.
After a while, inside the birthing room, Imperial Noble Consort Tongiya, enduring the pain, said, “My thanks to Grandmother Su. Please report to the Grand Empress Dowager that this concubine is well, and will surely deliver a safe heir for His Majesty.”
Sumalagu offered a few more words of comfort before returning to Cining Palace.
Dan Qing hadn’t gone to sleep yet, still waiting for news, and when she learned that Imperial Noble Consort Tongiya still hadn’t begun delivering, she couldn’t help but sigh—
Being a woman really wasn’t easy!
Even in the modern era, with medicine so advanced, childbirth still carried real risk, how much more so in the Qing dynasty?
Yinreng’s own birth mother, the benevolent and filial Empress, had died from postpartum hemorrhage. If even an Empress of the realm could meet such a fate, how much more so for anyone else.
“Princess, having a baby doesn’t happen so quickly, you should sleep now. Who knows, maybe by the time you wake up tomorrow, Jingren Palace still won’t have delivered yet.”
He Miao’s words, meant only to coax Dan Qing to sleep, turned out to be an eerily accurate prediction.
The next morning, when the sky had grown fully light, Imperial Noble Consort Tongiya’s child still hadn’t arrived.
The night before, after Dan Qing had fallen asleep, Kangxi had had someone send Yinzhen to Cining Palace, so when Dan Qing went to pay her morning respects to the Grand Empress Dowager, she found him sitting listlessly in the hall.
“The Imperial Noble Consort’s delivery is proving difficult, and your Han Ama has no time to spare for anything else, so he’s had the Fourth Prince come stay at Cining Palace for a few days. He’ll be staying in the little side room next to yours for now,”
The Grand Empress Dowager said to Dan Qing. “He’s also learning his characters these days, so the two of you can keep each other company.”
Fortunately, since both Yinzhen and Dan Qing were still small, there was no harm in them living so close together.
Dan Qing didn’t mind at all, and after breakfast, she pulled Yinzhen along to see his new quarters, and noticing how listless he looked, had a palace maid bring hot water for him to soak his feet, then tucked him into bed, telling him to get some sleep first.
But Yinzhen couldn’t sleep at all, his mind was full of Imperial Noble Consort Tongiya’s cries of pain, and he felt utterly terrified inside.
“Fourth sister, my mother will be all right, won’t she?”
Yinzhen truly had no one else he could talk to, and could only turn to Dan Qing.
Dan Qing nodded with great certainty. “Don’t worry, fourth brother, the Imperial Noble Consort will definitely be fine.”
After all, historically, Imperial Noble Consort Tongiya certainly hadn’t died in childbirth, so even if this delivery proved dangerous, nothing truly fatal would happen this time.
Dan Qing’s tone was so certain that it actually put Yinzhen somewhat at ease, and the anxious knot in his chest loosened a little.
Having not slept at all the night before, he really was exhausted, and before long after closing his eyes, he drifted off to sleep.
Dan Qing had no wish to sleep any more herself, and quietly tiptoed over to her desk to continue drawing her ship parts.
She could now more or less control the dip pen, and combined with the ruler Kangxi had given her, she could manage to draw straight-edged pieces, though anything with curves still gave her trouble.
She drew very slowly, this single mast alone had already taken her two days, but the result was extremely detailed, matching the real object beside it almost exactly to scale.
“Fourth sister, why are you drawing this?”
Yinzhen, having woken up, came over to find Dan Qing, asking curiously.
Dan Qing showed him the wooden ship and explained, “I want to take it apart, but I’m afraid I won’t be able to put it back together, so I’m planning to draw out all the pieces to make a set of plans, that way I’ll be able to take it apart and reassemble it however I like in the future.”
Yinzhen didn’t quite understand. “Then why draw it this big and this detailed? If you just want plans, you’d only need to sketch the general shape well enough to tell what it is, that should be enough.”
Dan Qing: …?
That was actually a really good question.