Chapter 893: Joy at Prince Pingxi Residence

The midwife caught the child.

Newborn babies usually came out wrinkled and, truth be told, rather ugly.

This child could not be called plump and jade-smooth from birth—that would have been too exaggerated—but her skin was noticeably smoother than that of an ordinary newborn.

There was only one problem.

The child was already out and lying in the midwife’s arms, yet she had not cried.

In a panic, the midwife slapped her bottom.

Smack!

The child did not cry.

The midwife immediately gave her another slap.

Smack!

Still nothing.

All three midwives were so frightened they were nearly in tears. Could this be a stillborn child?

Fortunately, after being smacked twice on the backside, the baby finally opened her eyes and began looking curiously at the world around her.

She still did not cry.

But once they saw that the child was alive, all three midwives let out long breaths of relief.

Only then did one of them remember to check the child’s sex.

She gently spread the two short little legs, took a look, and immediately beamed.

“Congratulations, Madam! A daughter! You’ve been blessed with a daughter!”

“Take the child away to be washed. Clean this place up as well.”

“Yes.”

“Yes, Madam.”

Watching the baby being carried away for her bath, and remembering how the little thing had practically delivered herself earlier, Siniang looked down at the needle still held between her fingers and muttered three words under her breath:

“Little pain in the ass.”

The Princess herself had already fainted after the child came out.

Siniang did not feed her any more restorative pills. Too many had already been used during labor, and when the body was weak, over-tonifying could do more harm than good.

Instead, Siniang personally performed acupuncture, regulating the Princess’s blood qi and meridians. First stabilize the foundation; nourishment and recovery could come afterward.

Roughly two hours later, the Princess slowly woke.

“The child... my child... the child...”

She looked toward Siniang sitting beside her. At a moment like this, she no longer cared about maintaining the proper respect or fear toward her “Elder Sister.”

“Bring the child over.”

Madam Ke carried in the baby, freshly washed and wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid her beside the Princess.

The Princess turned her head and looked at her daughter.

The baby was not asleep.

She lay there with her eyes open, looking directly at her mother.

A moment later... the baby smiled.

That smile nearly melted the Princess’s heart.

Perhaps this was what true fulfillment in life felt like. At that instant, everything in the world seemed to become her.

The Princess raised her head and looked toward Siniang.

Siniang said, “It’s a girl.”

The Princess smiled.

“A girl is good. A girl is good. Let her live a safe and peaceful life.”

The atmosphere inside Prince Pingxi Residence had always been unusually harmonious.

The Prince himself had repeatedly said that he wanted a daughter, someone he could shower with as much love as possible.

As for the Princess, she had once imagined that her first child would be a son. It was not as though she had never dreamed of “the mother rising in status through her son.”

But after truly seeing this child’s smile... she found herself hoping the child really would be a girl.

That way, there would be far fewer troubles.

She could be happy.

She could live in peace.

No need to fight.

No need to compete.

Just grow up happily.

As her mother, that alone would leave her completely satisfied.

The baby smacked her lips.

She seemed to love smiling.

Siniang picked her up and gently touched one finger to the baby’s lips.

“Hic~”

The baby reached out and grabbed Siniang’s finger.

She was innocent.

Nearly killing her own mother during childbirth had not been her fault. If there was blame to assign, it belonged to the bloodline itself.

“He’s going to love this daughter very much,” Siniang said.

“Mm-hm. The Prince has always said he wanted a daughter.”

A faint smile appeared at the corner of Siniang’s lips. She handed the baby to Madam Ke.

“Go find a wet nurse.”

“Yes, Madam.”

Madam Ke carried the child away.

Siniang lowered her head and looked at the Princess.

“You can still have more.”

The Princess looked at her with tremendous grievance and complained softly:

“Elder Sister... it hurts.”

She had imagined before that giving birth would hurt.

She simply had not imagined it would hurt this much.

“The first time is strange. The second time you’ll know what to expect. In the end, it’s still up to you. Our household is enormous. A few more children would make it livelier. Besides, we already have plenty of property now, and there will certainly be even more in the future. We ought to have a few more children. One day, the problem may not be that there isn’t enough land to enfeoff. It may be that there is too much land and not enough people.”

The Princess smiled.

“Then I hope Elder Sister has a boy in her belly. That would be best.”

Prince Pingxi Residence needed a legitimate eldest son.

The soldiers and civilians of eastern Jin needed a young lord who could inherit their Prince by blood and whom they themselves could continue serving.

One could say that such an heir was a symbol of political stability.

The foundation of the state.

Siniang reached down and rubbed her own belly.

“I don’t care much about that. I was only worried you might brood over it.”

“How could this little sister be so insensible?”

“All right. Recover properly. For now, let the wet nurse feed her. Once your body has recovered, if you want to feed her yourself, then do it yourself. Our Residence doesn’t have all the ridiculous rules of an imperial palace. Whoever gives birth to the child raises the child herself.”

“I’ll follow Elder Sister’s arrangements.”

Siniang accepted a handkerchief from a nearby maid and gently wiped the sweat from the Princess’s forehead.

“Sleep a little longer.”

“Mm.”

Siniang rose and walked outside.

In the outer room, the wet nurse was feeding the baby.

The Sword Maid stood beside them, staring intently at the child.

Knock.

Siniang rapped the Sword Maid on the head with her knuckles.

The Sword Maid covered her head. Once she saw it was Siniang, she did not dare bristle. She could only pout in grievance.

“If you like children so much, go have one yourself.”

“I’m still little,” the Sword Maid said.

“Oh? So you’ve already thought about it, then.” Siniang teased her. “How old are you planning to grow first?”

“I... I don’t know.”

“All right. Help me back.”

Siniang held out one hand.

The Sword Maid hurried over and supported her.

Siniang truly was somewhat tired.

The delivery had encountered complications. The ending was good, but it had still consumed a great deal of her energy.

Pregnancy made a person tire easily.

Siniang had originally intended to return to her room and sleep again, but Xiao Yibo came hurrying from outside.

“Madam, the Prince’s party is already outside the city. His Highness is returning to the Residence.”

Siniang shook her head.

“He certainly knows how to pick his timing.”

And indeed he did.

Had Master truly made it back in time, there would have been no doubt whatsoever in the question of saving the mother or the child: save the mother.

But if Master had been standing beside them and needed to speak to that “little beast” with the same utterly decisive tone Siniang had used earlier, without the slightest hesitation... could a father truly have done it?

At the crucial moment, that kind of ruthlessness had been necessary.

Master probably would have found it difficult.

Even the slightest softness in his tone might have been enough for the child to refuse to come out obediently.

“I’m tired. You go receive the Prince.”

“Yes. This lowly one understands.”

Siniang had no interest in arranging some grand display to welcome the triumphant Prince home.

She was going to sleep.

Once back inside, she lay down.

The Sword Maid looked as though she wanted to leave.

“Oh? Missing those broad shoulders?” Siniang teased.

“No.”

“Don’t be in such a hurry to offer yourself up and lose your sense of proportion. You think he’s some wooden post, but in truth he’s sharper than anyone. A woman should still keep a little reserve when the time calls for it.”

“Yes. I understand.”

“Come. Massage my legs.”

“Okay.”

The Sword Maid crouched beside the bed and began massaging Siniang’s legs.

“After my Master’s wife began showing, her feet were obviously swollen, and she even developed rashes. How is your skin still this good? Aside from your belly, it looks like nothing else on your body has changed at all.”

“Want to learn?”

“Yes.”

When it came to a question like this, the Sword Maid was extremely honest.

“Have you been practicing your sword?”

“I have. Every day.”

“Then why haven’t you entered the grades?”

“Master won’t allow it. Back then I was too young and accidentally entered a grade, so Master directly pulled that portion of cultivation out of me. Ever since then, I’ve only practiced sword forms.”

Entering the grades too young, before the bones and body had fully developed, was like draining a pond to catch all the fish. It could severely restrict later growth.

That was the difference between a thousand-li horse and a true Bo Le capable of recognizing it.

Had the Sword Maid landed in some ordinary sword clan, they might have been desperate for her to enter the grades as early as possible so they could brag about their family prodigy.

The Sword Saint, by contrast, had dared to strip away her cultivation and force her to keep suppressing herself.

“When you eventually enter the grades, I’ll teach you a cultivation method. It regulates blood qi. It does almost nothing for fighting or increasing your grade, but it is very effective for preserving youth.”

Only Siniang would bother researching a cultivation method like that.

“Deal.”

The Sword Maid immediately became much more enthusiastic about massaging her legs.

“All right, all right. Massage a little longer, then go outside and wait for the Prince.”

“Mm. Understood.”

...

At that moment, a mass of cavalry had already charged into Fengxin City.

Prince Pingxi himself rode at the front, with a group of eastern Jin generals following behind him.

Even though he had been desperate to return home, Zheng Fan had not dared repeat the recklessness of his previous return, when he had raced back with only light cavalry.

The fact that Prince Pingxi’s Princess Consort was close to giving birth was no secret.

What if someone arranged another ambush along the road?

The world was vast.

There were too many strange existences and unimaginable methods.

Only with elite cavalry surrounding him did the Prince feel secure.

If something went wrong now and he managed to play himself to death again, the child would be born while her father died on the road home.

What kind of damned joke would that be?

But once he entered the city, the Prince immediately spurred his Pixiu into a gallop.

The Pixiu sensed its master’s urgency and raced toward the gates of Prince Pingxi Residence.

Xiao Yibo and the others were already waiting outside.

The Brocade-Clad Guards and the Residence servants all knelt.

“Welcome home in triumph, Your Highness!”

The Prince dismounted from his Pixiu.

He did not spare a glance for the kneeling people.

He walked straight into the Residence.

The generals who had followed him into the city burst into laughter behind him.

They had already received the news outside the city: the Princess Consort had safely given birth to a young Commandery Princess.

Most of the generals present had children of their own.

Some had more than one or two.

As men who had been through it themselves, they could understand their Prince losing his composure over something like this.

Once Xiao Yibo rose, he ordered the men below to receive and settle the generals, while he himself hurried toward the rear household to attend the Prince.

The Prince had not even removed his armor.

When he reached the inner residence and came to the fork between the main courtyard and the Princess’s courtyard, however, his steps unconsciously slowed.

At that moment, the Sword Maid came out.

“Sister Feng said Your Highness should go see the Princess first. She’ll sleep a little longer.”

The Prince nodded.

He turned toward the Princess’s small courtyard.

The Sword Maid returned to Siniang’s room and reported what had happened.

Then she smiled.

“Elder Sister, the Prince truly treats you extraordinarily well. I clearly saw his steps slow down just now.”

His other wife had only just given birth, yet even after rushing home, he had still thought of visiting his principal wife first.

That favor.

That treatment.

Siniang lay on her side, one hand supporting her cheek.

“Didn’t I also send you outside to wait and tell him not to come see me first? If I hadn’t had someone waiting there, how much trouble would that put him in? Even if he did come in and see me first, he probably would have felt uneasy in his heart.”

The Sword Maid frowned slightly.

Her feelings toward Zheng Fan had always been complicated.

In front of him, she rarely used honorifics.

That was perhaps the last bit of stubbornness she preserved for her dead Master.

So she asked directly:

“Elder Sister, when a husband and wife live together, do they still need to calculate things like this?”

“If you make a pot of soup, simply throwing every good ingredient into the pot does not guarantee the soup will taste good. That’s called a random stew. Sometimes, even if all you have is cabbage and tofu, if you prepare them properly, the soup can still taste wonderfully fresh. The way husband and wife live together is like making soup. This isn’t calculation. It’s tending the relationship.”

“Oh.”

The Sword Maid nodded.

In truth, she still did not quite understand.

But the women of the inner residence, even the Sword Maid, all carried a certain instinctive admiration toward Siniang.

In this age, Siniang was unquestionably a kind of ideal and standard.

“You’ll understand when you’re older.”

...

“Congratulations on Your Highness’s triumphant return!”

“Congratulations on Your Highness’s triumphant return!”

Every maid and servant in Xiong Liqing’s courtyard knelt to welcome the Prince.

The Prince entered the room.

The wet nurse came forward carrying the young Commandery Princess.

The Prince reached out and gently pushed the wet nurse aside.

He did not even look at his swaddled daughter.

Instead, he walked directly to the Princess’s bedside, took her hand, and looked at her.

His voice softened.

“You’ve suffered.”

Xiong Liqing looked at her husband.

She leaned her head lightly against his chest.

At a moment like this, she truly needed that support from her own man.

“My husband has only just returned from a distant campaign. You’re the one who has truly suffered.”

“I came back too late. I wasn’t here to stay beside you.”

The wet nurse stood nearby holding the young Commandery Princess, unsure whether to come closer or retreat.

She looked completely superfluous.

The Princess glanced toward her.

“Husband, look at our daughter.”

Only then did the Prince seem to remember:

Oh.

Right.

He had a daughter now.

But immediately afterward, he waved one hand.

“I’m not looking at her. I heard she made your labor difficult. Not looking. Not looking.”

The Princess bit her lip.

Her eyes curved into crescents from smiling.

With her intelligence, she knew perfectly well her man was merely saying those words to comfort her.

But at a moment like this... she loved hearing them.

Still, she said:

“Husband, look at your daughter.”

“Ai. Fine.”

With enormous reluctance, the Prince beckoned the wet nurse over.

The wet nurse practically sagged with relief and carried the baby forward.

Zheng Fan reached out and accepted her.

The child in his arms felt incredibly soft.

Incredibly light.

He could barely feel any weight at all.

Yet he instinctively tensed both arms, terrified that if he relaxed even slightly, she might slip from his grasp.

A flood of anxious, possessive concern instantly filled his entire being.

“She looks a lot like you,” Zheng Fan said.

“Doesn’t she look like you?” Xiong Liqing asked curiously. “Her eyebrows are almost exactly the same as yours.”

“She looks like me. She looks like me.”

Zheng Fan nodded immediately.

At that moment... his daughter opened her eyes.

She looked at Zheng Fan holding her.

Then smiled.

“Heh-heh.”

The Prince smiled too.

The Princess lying nearby saw her man grinning like a complete idiot and could only press her lips together to keep herself from laughing aloud.

“My daughter. This is my daughter.”

The Prince played with the little girl in his arms.

Every tiny movement of her face seemed, in his eyes, like a miracle and gift from the Creator.

And besides... his daughter loved to smile.

...

Inside the great hall of Prince Pingxi Residence, the generals who had returned with the Prince were gathered together in cheerful conversation.

Prince Pingxi Residence now had a young Commandery Princess.

She was a girl, true.

But first, the true principal wife of the Residence still had a large belly and would be giving birth before long.

Second, adopting sons was extremely common in the present age. In the worst case, they could adopt a boy and later marry the young Commandery Princess to him, raising him directly as successor.

Naturally, that would never be as legitimate or as secure as having a biological son.

But if there was one child, there would be a second.

There would certainly be more later.

Nobody was anxious.

The generals of the eastern Jin faction had previously feared only one thing: that their Prince might end up like Prince Jingnan, his descendants controlled—or worse, with no descendants at all.

Now they could finally cast that fear aside.

A man with a biological child and a man without one were fundamentally different in both bearing and outlook.

“His Highness arrives!”

Every general stood.

The Prince walked inside carrying his daughter.

These generals had followed him into the city precisely for this occasion. Whether in affection or propriety, they ought to meet the child.

More importantly... every child was the treasure of her parents’ hearts.

And once you had a treasure, how could you resist showing it off?

“What an obedient little thing.”

“Beautiful already. She doesn’t even need to grow up before you can tell she’ll be a beauty.”

“Hahaha! She looks exactly like Your Highness.”

The generals crowded around the young Commandery Princess and praised her without pause.

“Hahahaha.”

The Prince simply kept nodding and laughing.

At a moment like this, there was no need for modesty or restraint.

He would be as happy as he wanted.

Then Ding Hao, who had once been the Prince’s first martial arts instructor and was now a Garrison Commander in his own right, laughed and teased:

“This news ought to be proclaimed in every direction. Let all the young men of Xia hurry up and start preparing their betrothal gifts! Hahahaha!”

There was nothing wrong with Ding Hao’s words.

A daughter would eventually marry.

But the Prince’s way of thinking was different from that of this age.

Before meeting his daughter, he had been normal enough.

The instant he held her... he turned into a complete daughter slave.

He had barely held her in his arms for any time at all.

And now you were already talking about marrying her off?

You dare?

Fine.

Let some stinking brat come to propose marriage.

He comes today.

Tomorrow, this father will lead iron cavalry to exterminate his entire clan!

The Prince declared:

“This Prince’s little princess will stay beside this Prince forever.”

My little princess.

The little princess of our family.

To Zheng Fan, those were simply affectionate words for his daughter.

But in the present age... the phrase carried a completely different political meaning.

The daughter of a Prince was a Commandery Princess.

Only the daughter of the Son of Heaven was a Princess.

Zheng Fan was too delighted to notice what he had just said.

The generals around him, however, fell silent all at once.

They looked at one another.

Then... every man stepped back.

Dropped to one knee.

And shouted in unison:

“We pay our respects to Her Highness the Princess! May Your Highness live a thousand years!”

[End of Chapter 893]