In the third month after consummation, Gao Yuexing truly understood the essence of His Highness Xiang Wang’s character—”a sharp tongue but an honest body.”
To be more precise, he should now be addressed as His Highness the Crown Prince.
Gao Yuexing noticed her monthly cycle had been delayed.
It had been delayed for a full two months.
By the third month, as a physician herself, Gao Yuexing could clearly sense the changes in her body.
In the evening, Li Fuxiang turned his back to Gao Yuexing, propping himself up with both hands, puffing up like a pufferfish.
Gao Yuexing’s long, jet-black hair had all fallen loose, gathered in front of her chest. With nimble fingers, she twisted it into a knot, but as soon as she let go, it cascaded down like flowing water.
Li Fuxiang’s anger held no deterrent power over Gao Yuexing. She could easily dismiss him with one sentence: “You don’t want a child? Then don’t touch me!”
Li Fuxiang spun around and lunged at her. Gao Yuexing’s skills weren’t necessarily better than his, but she had the advantage of knowing her opponent. At the very moment he turned, Gao Yuexing stepped back and dodged, forcing Li Fuxiang to flail a few times before he managed to catch her, pressing her into a corner.
Gao Yuexing looked at him warily. “What are you trying to do?”
Li Fuxiang leaned against her shoulder, lowering his head near her ear, and whispered softly, “Ah Xing…”
He started again.
Ever since discovering that this trick always worked on Gao Yuexing without fail, Li Fuxiang had been tirelessly trying it out with great enthusiasm.
Gao Yuexing knocked on his head. “Get off me; you’re pressing on the child.”
As if confirming something, Li Fuxiang said, “Sure enough, now that you’re carrying a child, I can’t even touch you anymore.”
Hearing this, Gao Yuexing knew things were about to go south. Just as she was about to coax him, Li Fuxiang didn’t give her the chance. He directly grabbed his pillow and went to sleep in the study.
Li Fuxiang’s birth mother had died in childbirth.
Gao Yuexing understood his fear better than anyone else.
The lights in the study had long been extinguished. Gao Yuexing stood outside the window for a while before gently pushing the door open.
But after thoroughly searching inside and outside the study, Gao Yuexing found no sign of him.
She called for one of the guards outside to confirm. It was certain that Li Fuxiang had indeed entered this room.
Gao Yuexing thought of a possibility and went to push the bookshelf in the room.
Beneath the Eastern Palace, there was a hidden dungeon, and the entrance was located right here in the study.
When the emperor had ordered the renovation of the Eastern Palace, neither of the couple had taken it seriously. In the end, it was the emperor himself who personally oversaw its completion. Perhaps due to his own considerations and concerns, the dungeon had not been sealed off but instead was refurbished and cleaned, remaining intact as it was.
Gao Yuexing picked up a candlestick from the study and followed the steep stone steps down into the dungeon.
This was a place that had once brought her excruciatingly painful memories.
At the center of the dungeon was a cage made of refined steel. It was empty. Gao Yuexing swept the light from the candle around, but there was no sign of anyone. Her thoughts turned calculating, and she continued deeper into the dungeon.
The exit on the other end of the dungeon opened beneath the well of the former Xiaonan Pavilion, which was now part of the Haitang Embankment belonging to the Eastern Palace. The exit remained concealed underwater.
Gao Yuexing had to traverse a long, narrow passageway.
This was not a place an ordinary person would come looking for excitement.
In the silent underground corridor, Gao Yuexing finally heard the sound of flowing water. When she saw light ahead, she couldn’t help but quicken her pace.
The exit was hidden within a dragon’s head. Beneath the Haitang Embankment, there were nine carved stone dragon heads in total.
They were hiding inside one of them. With the waterfall outside serving as a curtain, it was a rare and secluded hiding spot.
The sound of Gao Yuexing’s footsteps splashing through the water had already alerted Li Fuxiang.
But he still lay there, deliberately turning his back to her, refusing to move.
Gao Yuexing lit the wall lamp, sat beside him, and patted his shoulder.
Li Fuxiang scooted an inch further inward.
He was casually lying on a large stone slab left from the renovations. The slab had only one flat surface, with the other half curved. The flat area barely allowed someone to lie down and required careful balance to manage it.
Every time Gao Yuexing poked him, he scooted further. After a few tries, he reached the edge of the stone. Gao Yuexing gave him an effortless push, and Li Fuxiang fell face-first but quickly flipped mid-air, landing nimbly on his feet.
Gao Yuexing quickly climbed onto the stone, taking the best spot for herself.
Li Fuxiang’s eyes widened in disbelief, and he looked ready to start a fight. “You pushed me just for him?!”
Gao Yuexing argued unreasonably, “I didn’t push you, I just lightly touched you… It’s getting dark, and it’s really cold. I didn’t ask you to come out here to sleep. Just come back with me, alright?”
Li Fuxiang: “I’m not going.”
Gao Yuexing nodded calmly. “You really won’t leave, huh? Fine, I won’t leave either. I’ll sleep here tonight. Who knows, maybe by tomorrow the child will be gone. Maybe my womb will be damaged, and I’ll never be able to have children again. You’d be thrilled, wouldn’t you?”
Li Fuxiang fell silent for a long while. If he was pretending before, this time, he was genuinely aggrieved. “That’s clearly not what I meant. Why are you using words to stab me?”
Gao Yuexing and Li Fuxiang stared at each other for a while.
Eventually, Gao Yuexing softened her tone. “The year-end is almost here. A few days ago, I went to the Lu residence to see Weixiao.”
After divorcing Prince Xin, Lu Weixiao had initially intended to retreat to a temple for quiet cultivation, but her elder brother from the Lu family absolutely refused to allow it. Her sister-in-law even directly barred the door to prevent her from leaving. The Lu family could afford to take care of their sister. Even if she were to grow old and die at home, they would never treat her like a worn-out sack and throw her away.
Gao Yuexing said, “I thought that after leaving Prince Xin, her health would gradually recover. But I was wrong. Her life has already reached its final, withering stage. She’s been bedridden for many days and hasn’t seen sunlight.”
Prince Xin’s fief had been assigned to Jiangnan, yet he had delayed his departure, lingering daily outside the gates of the Lu residence.
Gao Yuexing continued, “I don’t mean to sound harsh, but if this goes on, he might end up watching Weixiao being carried out with his own eyes.”
Li Fuxiang thought of the woman who had once been his sister-in-law but couldn’t recall her exact features. “Miss Lu seems about the same age as you.”
Gao Yuexing said, “Yes, she’s only two years older than me.”
Li Fuxiang said, “Was it Prince Xin who caused her to end up like this?”
Gao Yuexing replied, “Weixiao always hoped to have a child of her own…”
Li Fuxiang furrowed his brows. “How important can a child really be?”
Gao Yuexing’s fingers slowly traced the space between his brows, pausing at a single point, and said, “A child is the continuation of you and me. We nurture them with love, and they will carry our emotions, passing them down, generation after generation, forever into the future.”
Her fingers slid down from the space between Li Fuxiang’s brows to the bridge of his nose, then further down to the hollow of his neck. Li Fuxiang’s full attention was drawn to her fingers, and his breathing grew heavier. He closed his eyes and said, “Alright, I agree. Just stop teasing me.”
The news of the Crown Princess’s pregnancy soon reached the ears of the Emperor. Xu Xiude, brimming with joy, delivered the report, but surprisingly, the Emperor’s reaction was indifferent.
Xu Xiude quickly restrained his smile and cautiously asked, “Your Majesty, do you perhaps find something disagreeable?”
The Emperor sighed, rubbing his teeth, and confided to Xu Xiude, “Even Fu’s children are now having children. Time is something no one can hold onto.”
Xu Xiude let out a quiet sigh of relief and said, “Your Majesty, even if His Highness has a child, he is still your child. And the child of his child is even more so your grandchild, is it not?”
The Emperor, though slightly comforted on the surface, still couldn’t entirely shake the gloom in his heart.
This child of Gao Yuexing’s was conceived during an era of peace and prosperity. With nothing to worry about, her heart was at ease, and her body followed suit, feeling much lighter and more relaxed. Li Fuxiang spent increasingly more time in the Eastern Palace, with the number of attendants around them doubling. However, the only one allowed close was the mute maid, Yagu.
Li Fuxiang often stared in a daze at Gao Yuexing’s belly, watching as it gradually swelled before his eyes. Gao Yuexing’s discomfort became increasingly obvious, and she could no longer hide it.
Yagu meticulously adjusted Gao Yuexing’s diet and noticed that her pregnancy cravings had shifted—she seemed to have developed a strong preference for spicy foods.
Among the people, there was a saying: “Sour for a boy, spicy for a girl.”
Yagu was nearly certain but still harbored a small sliver of doubt.
Li Fuxiang had the imperial physicians check Gao Yuexing’s pulse morning and evening. With the only other imperial grandson already gone, no one dared to treat the child in the Crown Princess’s womb lightly. If it were a boy, he would be born as the Crown Prince’s legitimate eldest son and the Emperor’s eldest imperial grandson.
After her belly grew larger, Gao Yuexing became less fond of seeing people. The Emperor would occasionally wander over to the gates of the Eastern Palace and take the opportunity to visit her briefly. If he happened to come when Li Fuxiang was not around, he would talk to her about the late Empress Chongying.
That was Li Fuxiang’s mother, Zheng Yungou.
“Yungou was twenty years old when she met me,” the Emperor reminisced. “She had already passed the prime age for marriage. It seems she didn’t care much for love or romance. In truth, although she felt something for me, it wasn’t deep enough to leave a lasting mark.”
The Emperor went on to recount a little-known past. “That slight, uncertain feeling she had for me disappeared entirely after I forcibly brought her back to the palace. She stayed by my side, but only regarded me as the Emperor. All she wanted was a child, which was the only reason she tolerated my presence in her life.”
Gao Yuexing wasn’t particularly trying to comfort him but felt the logic didn’t quite add up. “If Mother didn’t like you, given her personality, why would she willingly stay in the palace and endure years of grievance?”
The Emperor didn’t respond to her question and instead continued speaking to himself. “Yungou wanted a child. I thought that perhaps, if the child were born, it would bring her joy. But I never imagined that the child would become her death sentence. She only had time to look at him once before she lost her life.”
Gao Yuexing couldn’t help but feel that both father and son carried significant shadows regarding children.
However, the Emperor didn’t seem to harbor any resentment toward children because of it.
By now, Gao Yuexing was seven months pregnant, a time of great risk. She was constantly on edge and careful about everything. Stroking the life growing inside her, she said softly, “We’ll be fine. I’ll safely bring him into this world and hold his hand as we grow together.”
When Li Fuxiang returned to the palace, the Emperor had already left.
Gao Yuexing was sitting in the courtyard enjoying the cool air. She had a craving for lychees but exercised restraint, only eating a few from a full plate.
Li Fuxiang saw her with her eyes closed, seemingly asleep. He softened his footsteps, bent down quietly, and poked her belly twice.
Without opening her eyes, Gao Yuexing spoke: “He’ll remember you.”
Still bent over, Li Fuxiang shifted his armor to his other arm and replied, “He won’t be able to beat me.”
Gao Yuexing said, “You better hold your temper and endure it. Given our situation, we’re not exactly destined to enjoy much familial bliss. By the time he’s sixteen or seventeen, if it’s a girl, she’ll marry out; if it’s a boy, he’ll leave the palace and establish his own household. Most likely, even if you want to see him, you won’t be able to often. Do you think being lonely is just a joke?”
Li Fuxiang removed his armor piece by piece, knowing he was dirty. He didn’t cling to Gao Yuexing before bathing, leaving a mess of scattered gear for the palace maids to clean up. As he walked toward the hot spring in the back courtyard, he said, “As long as I have you, I’m not lonely.”
Gao Yuexing lazily got up and followed behind him. “But you don’t have friends, and you don’t have brothers.”
Li Fuxiang said, “Then I don’t have them. It’s not like I miss them.”
Gao Yuexing sighed. “You’re truly suited to ascend the throne.”
For someone like him, the sacrifices that power demanded didn’t seem to weigh on him much. To him, it was merely an extra ornament, an embellishment to his life.
Perhaps the old Emperor felt there was nothing left to rein him in, so he placed Gao Yuexing by his side, hoping that his life could at least resemble that of a human being.
Li Fuxiang had been training troops at the drill grounds earlier in the day. He didn’t dare immerse himself directly in hot water, so he first soaked in ice water outside for a while before easing into the warm pool. Gao Yuexing reclined on the chaise lounge by the pool’s edge, chatting with him idly.
“Yagu said this child of mine might be a girl.”
“Then so be it, it’s all the same.”
“How can a son and a daughter be the same?”
“Just the difference between male and female, that’s all.”
“…Forget it, I really don’t want to argue with you.”
After a few exchanges with him, Gao Yuexing felt annoyed, deciding it was better not to let herself get worked up. However, her heart and mind were entirely consumed by thoughts of this child. Without discussing the child, she truly didn’t know what else to talk about.
“If it’s a boy, I hope he’ll be like you. If it’s a girl, then maybe she’ll be as clever and adorable as you.”
“He won’t be like me.”
“Why not?”
“Because I won’t let him.” Li Fuxiang finished cleaning himself, pulled on a robe to cover himself, and stood before Gao Yuexing with a proud expression. “Does he have to be like me? Can’t he just be himself? If he dares to be like me, I’ll lock him up for ten years to reform him properly.”
Furious, Gao Yuexing grabbed a ceramic cup and hurled it at his head without holding back.
What an utter scoundrel, this man!