20demayo Chapter 374
Chapter 374
chapter 374
on the twelfth day of the fourth month, the court was bustling with activity as all the officials and their families gathered in the palace to celebrate the first birthday of the sixth prince.
for the young ladies who had been candidates for the imperial harem just the day before, their mood upon entering the palace today was entirely different.
to put it simply, it felt like surviving a disaster!
jiang xinyue’s gaze swept across the room, noticing that the sharp eyes of the noblewomen, which had previously been fixed either on the emperor or herself, were now uniformly directed at the busy palace maids.
they watched with clenched teeth, shaking their heads as if relieved.
it seemed that from this day forward, the mention of entering the palace for the selection of imperial consorts would send these noble ladies running in the opposite direction.
the sixth prince’s name had already been exceptionally recorded in the imperial jade register. now, under the direction of the ministry of internal affairs, the formal announcement was made to the ancestral temple.
in the shen family genealogy, beneath the emperor’s name, alongside his other sons, a new name appeared: shen mingye.
the characters “ye” and “ye” shared the same pronunciation, and the ministers, finally catching on, realized that the emperor had intended for the sixth prince to become the crown prince from the moment he named him.
how old was the sixth prince then?
he must have been just a newborn!
it was clear that even back then, the noble consort and the third prince had already been excluded from the succession. no wonder the noble consort had eventually gone mad, resorting to faking her own death to attempt an assassination.
as the banquet reached its midpoint, the emperor signaled to wang dequan to prepare to read the edicts appointing the crown prince and the empress.
“your majesty! noble consort! the sixth prince... the sixth prince...”
nanny xiang, in a state of unprecedented panic, rushed out of taihe hall and collapsed near jiang xinyue’s seat. “the sixth prince has suddenly broken out in rashes and is having difficulty breathing!”
jiang xinyue immediately rose from her seat and, without a word, ran toward the inner chambers.
the emperor quickly stood up but, suppressing his anger, sat back down. it was evident that someone was deliberately trying to sabotage the appointments of jiang xinyue and the little prince.
his fingers gripped the dragon-head armrests so tightly it seemed he might crush them.
nanny xiang had told her to eliminate all potential risks, so she had given up not just peanuts but all nuts entirely.
“that’s strange...”
yan the imperial physician stroked his beard. “the sixth prince’s severe reaction suggests that he must have ingested something.”
the prince’s once fair and adorable face was now swollen, his large eyes reduced to slits, and his entire head seemed to have grown larger.
tormented by the itching, the little prince struggled and cried incessantly, causing maids like magpie and frostfall to weep as well.
if they could, they would willingly bear this suffering in his place.
heavenly bodhisattva, please protect the sixth prince and let him recover quickly!
they would even give up years of their own lives for his sake.
most critically, the prince, already struggling to breathe, cried even harder, worsening his condition.
if this vicious cycle wasn’t broken, the prince’s life would be in grave danger.
jiang xinyue had always considered herself strong and unyielding, but seeing her son in such pain brought silent tears to her eyes.
suppressing her heartache, she laid the prince on the bed, applied herbal ointment to his body, and gently held him, placing his head against her chest so he could hear her heartbeat. “my precious baby, everything will be alright. you must be strong. mommy is here, mommy will always be here. don’t be afraid. be brave and fight this. i swear, this will never happen again. my darling, don’t be scared, okay?”
her soothing voice seemed to cast a spell, and the prince, nestled against her chest, gradually calmed down. his nearly swollen-shut eyes gazed intently at jiang xinyue’s face. “mo... mo... mommy... hurts!”
the sixth prince had spoken his first words!
overcome with both joy and sorrow, jiang xinyue kissed his cheek. “mommy will blow on it, and the pain will go away. little tuan tuan, sleep now. when you wake up, the pain will be gone.”
if mommy said so, it must be true. the prince drifted into a drowsy sleep.
yan the imperial physician let out a sigh of relief. “it’s good that he’s stopped crying. i will perform acupuncture every hour and change the medicine every two hours. once the swelling subsides, he should be out of danger.”
“no!”
jiang xinyue’s eyes flashed with fury. “this is far from over. this is a grave matter!”