After pondering over it for a while, Lv Li nodded and replied, "Indeed. But unlike Mrs. He, if it were me, I might not even have a place to let out my sorrow."
I was rather pleased with how quick she seemed to have understood what I meant, and I replied with a smiling face while subconsciously caressed my burgeoning belly, "So you see, it hasn"t been easy for Mrs. He."
While we were talking, Xie Yi reported from outside the palace, "Your Majesty, message from the Da Ming Palace. The Emperor will come over for dinner tonight."
I was rather distraught by this news, but Lv Li, on the other hand, was overjoyed. She took a glimpse at me, and then proceeded to console me with suppressed excitement, "Your Majesty, if you would allow me, might I suggest that you meet the Emperor halfway now that he has expressed his apology? On the off chance that you do antagonize the Emperor, no one will be able to help you."
The insinuation of her words was not hard to get. She was saying that I should know my place and accept the Emperor"s apology, for otherwise I might pay for my defiance and end up bringing about my own downfall."
I remained silent in my seat and turned around to Lv Li, "Do you like the idea of sucking up to someone who gives you cold shoulder?"
Caught off guard, Lv Li subconsciously shook her head.
Well, there you have it. Even a maid doesn"t fancy being given the cold shoulder. Why in h.e.l.l would the most powerful man in the world, who, with a simple crook of his finger, could easily attract millions of women, would be willing to come down here to risk being humiliated by me?
"The more you want, the humbler and more subservient you get. That"s just basic human nature. Don"t you get it? You silly girl."
Lv Li shook her head again, not having a clue of what I said.
I decided to resort to another way to make my point clear, and so I dabbled my finger into the tea and started drawing a simple maze on the table. There was only one entrance to the maze, yet it had several exits. Then I pointed at those exists and explained, "When walking in the maze, men are usually fairly nice towards you, but they aren"t necessary aiming to reach the exit called love. Some will take the exit of "Power", some are drawn to the exit of "Fame", and others are simply in this for fun. So you can"t simply wait by an exit and hope for the best, get it?"
I thought this would clarify things up, but it only made Lv Li more confused as she kept shaking her heads, "I still don"t understand."
I wanted to further explain it to her, lest she got bamboozled by men without realizing she was tricked in the future. But then, as I watched her befuddled face, I could not help but take a long sigh. I realized that however clever a woman could be, when it came to love, they could be so vulnerable to simple tricks made by men.
Well, no need to explain further. Instead of trying to enlighten her, she might be better off if I could just marry her to a wealthy, honest family.
September came, and the weather had become cooler by the day. The bulge on my belly had finally stopped growing and it was almost time for me to give birth. I had been fretting over this day, but now that it had finally approached, I was surprisingly less agitated.
The fact that this would be the first child for Qi Sheng and that I was the Empress, every faction in court had been closely monitoring my conditions. The palace was swarmed with people and I had more midwives than one would normally need here in the Xing Sheng Palace. Qi Sheng had already sent over two midwives to me, and they were soon followed by four more, two from the Grand Empress Dowager and two from the Zhang clan. Later, the Empress Dowager felt she would look bad if she didn"t send someone, so she also sent over two midwives.
A total of eight wives, enough to arrange two tables of mahjong.
I talked with Qi Sheng and complained about the excessive number of midwives in my palace. I argued that I only need two experienced midwives and that having more people here would probably do more harm than good as when a dispute rose, there would not be a final authority to mediate different opinions.
Qi Sheng thought for a while over my complaint and then replied, "Well, in that case, why don"t we have two royal physicians here who are specialized in delivery?"
I wanted to roll my eyes, but on second thought, I rein in my temper and instead asked with a solemn face, "Should we also have too more physicians who are specialized in medical care of infants?
Qi Sheng replied, "You are right. I almost forget about this." Then he turned around and instructed the guards to fetch the most experienced physician.
Well, well. Another table of mahjong.
By mid-September, Qi Sheng"s visit to my palace had become ever more frequent, from every three days to twice a day, and finally he decided to sleep in my palace.
Qi Sheng"s ardent attention excited both joy and anxiety from Lv Li. Sometimes, in a moment of delight, she would kept rambling about how the Emperor have been so caring about me and the unborn child, and sometimes, in a moment of anxiety, when there was no one around, she would kept nagging about how hard it was for them to bring in the help sent from home when the Emperor kept sleeping in my palace several nights in a row.
To ensure that I would deliver a male heir, the Zhang clan had been busy preparing several pregnant women with approximately the same due date to be sneaked in to the palace. It would have done already had it not been for the fact that Qi Sheng kept sleeping in my palace. To sneak someone in without alarming him was simply too difficult a task.
On the night of the 23th of September, just when I was about to ask Lv Li to fetch some snacks for me before I went to bed, I felt a sudden fit of acute spasm in my belly. After the initial wave of panic attack had receded, I came back to myself and finally realized that I was about to give birth!
Qi Sheng had been staying here for several nights. However, he left today upon receiving an urgent military report coming from Yun Xi and he called an emergency meeting with several senior officials and sent words that he wouldn"t come back tonight. Who would have thought that I would be giving birth today of all days!
Lv Li"s face went ashen upon learning this sudden event. She tried to appear calm and whispered to me, "Your Majesty, could we sneak the kid in while the Emperor is away? We have only the midwife sent by Zhang clan in the delivery room. Whatever the gender of your baby, we can just claim that you give birth to twin babies!"
What the heck? I am in such a critical moment and you still have time for this plot? Are you taking them for fools? Not once have those midwives said that I am with a twin and all of sudden two babies pop out? What would people think about it?
Even if it is because those midwives are unprofessional, you have to think about the feasibility of this plan. Usually with twins, the babies are usually quite small. I can"t very well hand them two perfectly average-sized babies and claim them to be twins!
Are you taking Qi Sheng for a fool? He has seen the size of my belly. He won"t believe it!
I quickly shook my head, "Forget it. There are eight midwives here, and you only kept those sent from the Zhang clan? It"s as if you want people to think there is something fishy going on!"
Lv Li looked at me with goggled eyes and asked, "What should we do then?"
I thought for a while and replied, "We just have to roll the dice. Go get people in here and help me get to the delivery room first."
Lv Li nodded in agreement, took a deep breath to work up some emotions and then started yelling out loud as if she was panicking, "Help! Get someone in here! Her Majesty is about to give birth!"
This rather high-pitched yelling immediately sent the whole palace into a state of chaos.
The midwives and the maids had been running around and I was surrounded by several midwives who kept babbling something I had not the slightest clue of. Xie Yi and the other maids had been given various instructions, and for a moment they didn"t know which instruction they were supposed to follow.
Screw you! Now I finally know what it means when people say that "having several people working on a task often gets you nowhere." After the pain mitigated, I shouted to the surrounding midwives, "Shout up! All of you!"
Those midwives obviously were not used to serving a bad-tempered pregnant woman before and so when they heard me shouting, they immediately shut up.
For centuries, giving birth had been a very dangerous thing that couldn"t be taken lightly with, and I couldn"t have anyone putting me in danger at such crucial moment.
I turned around to find Lv Li who had been staying by my side the whole time. Although she still looked somewhat panicked, there was a trace of calmness in her eyes. I secretly squeezed her palm and calmly instructed, "Get me three of the most experienced midwives and send the rest of them outside."
Lv Li understood the intended meaning behind my order and gave me a few nods. Then, she turned around to look at those midwives, and as if randomly, she pointed at three of the midwives and said, "You three, stay. The rest of you, get out!"
Those midwives who were not picked felt great relief and they looked at each other and hurriedly retired.
Silence fell over the palace once again and I instructed Lv Li to help me up. After glancing over those three midwives that remained in the palace, I commanded with a cold voice, "Raise your heads."
The three were shocked by my words and they all raised their heads to look at me.
I fixed my gaze on them and threatened, "I will cut to the chase. If I successfully give birth to this baby, I will make sure you will have fame and fortune for the rest of your lives. But if anything should happen to me, then there will be vengeance brought against you. Don"t ever think that someone will help you. He might be able to protect you for now, but he can"t protect you forever. He might be able to protect you, but he can"t guarantee the safety of your family!"
Upon hearing my threat, the three of them flopped to their knees and kept kowtowing, "Mercy! Your Majesty!"
The three of them had been kowtowing so hard that I began to worry if they would pa.s.s out. So, I gestured to Lv Li, signaling her to appease those three.