69novels Chapter 1202 - 1191: Wealthy Merchant
Chapter 1202 - 1191: Wealthy Merchant
Shi Xuan’s words were puzzling, why did she want Doctor Li to look at that pot of flowers? Could there be something strange about those flowers? Chen Gaoxuan and Li Dezhen’s expressions suddenly turned grim.
"I felt something was odd earlier, when I walked around this flower I smelled a medicinal scent, could the concubine’s miscarriage really be related to this? If there is truly something hidden, Prince, we cannot let the person with such malicious intent go." Shi Xuan said with a stern face.
"What you said makes sense." Chen Gaoxuan stepped closer, then brought his nose near the flowerpot and indeed smelled a medicinal scent, his brow furrowed deeply, "Doctor Li, come take a look."
"Yes." Doctor Li sighed inwardly, thinking he had really discovered some hidden secret in the mansion, and couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed, as the male fetus that the concubine had just lost was already well-formed.
But when he approached and smelled the scent again, he found that perhaps the truth was different from what he imagined, so he picked up a small portion of the soil to smell it carefully, and finally even tasted a bit of it.
"Why does this maid have such an expression? Did you do something wrong?" Princess Consort Shi Xuan suddenly turned on a maid with a panicked face.
The maid fell to her knees with a thud, repeatedly pleading for mercy: "Prince, Princess Consort, spare my life, the concubine’s miscarriage really has nothing to do with me."
"If it’s not you, then why are you afraid? What exactly do you know? Speak truthfully." Shi Xuan pressed relentlessly.
"I... I..."
Seeing her stammer, Chen Gaoxuan became impatient and growled: "Speak quickly, or you will be beaten to death right now."
"Prince, it really has nothing to do with me, and what’s spilled into the flowerpot isn’t an abortion pill." The little maid said tremblingly.
"Then what is it?"
"It’s a fetus-preserving medicine." Doctor Li spoke up at this time, "I ask you, did the concubine normally not drink the fetus-preserving medicine? Did she pour it into this flowerpot instead?"
"I don’t know, usually the concubine would send us out, I just coincidentally witnessed it once."
"Are you saying the concubine would send you out when drinking the fetus-preserving medicine, and then you happened to see the concubine pour it into this flowerpot once?" Shi Xuan said with a frown.
"Yes." The little maid answered in a low voice.
"This..." Shi Xuan’s mouth fell open, astonished, she asked Chen Gaoxuan, "Why would my sister do this? This is a fetus-preserving medicine, it’s for her and the baby’s good!"
Chen Gaoxuan’s face turned dark, thinking of the suffering Ye Lu had just endured inside, yet he couldn’t say much, only wearily said: "You should return first, the concubine won’t be able to manage the affairs of the house for a while, we’ll need you to take care of things in the future."
Shi Xuan only sighed softly, not exposing anything, but instead comforted: "The Prince and my sister will surely have more children in the future, there’s no need for the Prince to worry too much."
Li Dezhen was stunned, what does this mean? Is it saying her daughter deliberately didn’t take the fetus-preserving medicine, that her daughter didn’t take care of herself well? Is that why she miscarried?
Clearly her daughter suffered, how did the fault suddenly become her daughter’s?
Li Dezhen wanted to defend her daughter, but at this moment couldn’t find any reason to speak because everyone knew her daughter was physically cold, and the doctor clearly prescribed the fetus-preserving medicine, why didn’t her daughter drink it?
Could she be afraid someone was tampering with it? But the issue now is no one was tampering with it, it was her own overthinking that led to the loss of this fetus, Li Dezhen didn’t even dare to look at Prince Linsan’s expression.
Because she had long known from her daughter that her son-in-law valued this pregnancy very much, which was why she had felt so proud before, but as proud as she was before, she now felt as worried.
If, because of this, the son-in-law abandoned her daughter, what would she do?
No, definitely not!
Li Dezhen comforted herself, her son-in-law liked her daughter that much, and her daughter had given her son-in-law so many ideas, her son-in-law couldn’t do without her daughter, he would certainly choose to forgive.
And surely they will have more children in the future, the Prince’s wife had been married into the Prince Wang Mansion for three or four years with no children, surely she will not bear any in the future, why should she be anxious?
But even though she thought this way, Li Dezhen’s expression never relaxed, all she wished now was for her daughter to recover soon, lest the hard-won power fall back into the hands of the Princess Consort.
Meanwhile, Ye Qiu, who had successfully captured the three cities of Donghe, was not in a hurry to expand his territory, instead focused on developing. The people living in the territory governed by Prince Donghe were not leading good lives.
In order to develop the army, Prince Donghe forcibly conscripted men, regardless of the harvest, taxes had to be paid on time each year, and in recent years, in order to strengthen his power, taxes increased year by year, causing farmers to live in dire poverty, which was one of the reasons why Ye Qiu found it so easy to recruit soldiers previously.
Ye Qiu wasn’t just thinking of changing the world to bear the Ye name, he genuinely wished for the people to live and work in peace. The first thing he did upon seizing a city was abolish taxes for two years and encourage opening up wasteland, then he widely opened grain stores to distribute food to the poor.
Such things only the Ye Family could achieve, who seizes a city without taking the city’s grain stores for themselves? This was the most important strategic resource.
But Ye Qiu had no need for it, because the Ye Family was wealthy and had enough channels to obtain grain, they didn’t even need to suppress local merchants and landlords, thus after a series of policies were announced, Ye Qiu won an unprecedented amount of public support.
Many people even volunteered to enlist, because they saw hope in Ye Qiu.
With high morale, politicians who initially harbored suspicions about Ye Qiu also felt inclined to pledge allegiance, throwing themselves into work more actively, progressing more smoothly than expected, already forming the prototype of a small nation.
But with more people below, issues also increased, among them was one that particularly concerned Ye Qiu’s marriage matters, after all Ye Qiu was not young anymore, he hadn’t married an official wife, nor did he have any concubines, how could this be appropriate? Even if he conquered the world in the future, without offspring, who would he pass it on to?
Once this topic came up, others also agreed, even mentioning Prince Linsan, as Prince Linsan’s lack of offspring led to instability in military morale.
Ye Qiu was puzzled, how did these people see through Prince Linsan’s military instability? He thought Prince Linsan seemed to have everything under control.
After all, Prince Donghe didn’t dare to launch a large-scale attack on the Lishan Prefecture now, except for the King of Xichuan, Prince Linsan still had gunpowder in hand, what was there to fear?
But the issue of offspring was indeed a problem, but he couldn’t just randomly choose a woman to bear children, could he?
He wondered how Ye Lu was doing now, according to the received information, her pregnancy should be around six to seven months, could she successfully give birth under the Princess Consort’s schemes?
Ye Qiu was uncertain, that Princess Consort of Linsan was not simple, but neither was Ye Lu someone to trifle with, it was unclear who was more formidable.