6. To celebrate the birth of a son

On the other side, the patient, with her sleepy eyes half-closed, had already gotten out of bed before her complaints could be voiced, gently cradling her son in her arms and rocking him: "He hasn't urinated, nor has he defecated; he is hungry..." He looked helplessly at his wife, whose face was full of grievance, and said, "He is hungry"

She cast a sidelong glance, worried that he might feel sad thinking of his deceased relatives, but he appeared calm; though he felt a sense of emotion, there was no resentment. She, feeling uneasy, advised him: "Since you possess such divine power, you should not take it off; what if..."

Sigh, I am scolding him, not praising him. He gently touched the soft hair of the baby and said with a smile, "Kid, remember that your mother suffered for you. When you grow up, you must be doubly filial to her.

He said this close to her cheek, his breath brushing against her face. She discerned his underlying meaning, her face flushed with embarrassment, and she playfully retorted, "You are talking nonsense again"

"Endure, endure," he said, patting his wife's back in a comforting manner. "Mother said that once the skin is broken and scabs over, it won't hurt anymore."

I was just joking, yet you took it seriously. It is merely a thought, and Shier is my son, the great-grandson of Crown Prince Wei. This sentiment has been passed down through our lineage for generations, and it is most fitting for Shier to wear it now—having a son to carry on the family line, my grandparents in heaven must surely feel comforted. " He paused, held his wife's hand, and sincerely said, "Pingjun, thank you.

Her choked response was: "The formalities have been observed." She embraced his emaciated body, "On the day I entered the palace ten years ago, my mother styled my hair..."

The two of them embraced each other, and Liu Fu played with a strand of her dark hair on her shoulder. After a long silence, he finally said, "It seems you have never undergone the coming-of-age ceremony."

The room fell silent for a while, yet Pingjun found herself unable to sleep. She poked her husband, who was softly snoring, with her finger. He was startled awake from his light slumber and jumped up: "What is it now? Does he need to urinate? Is he hungry?"

Liu Fu seemed not to have heard her words, merely muttering to himself: "You are stronger than I, you can endure... you have always been the strongest..."

The satisfied baby continued to sleep soundly, while the exhausted young couple lay in bed, looking at their son in the middle of the bed, sharing a helpless yet contented smile with each other

"So annoying, he is crying again..." She was awakened countless times by the baby's cries throughout the night, feeling both angry and helpless.

I know, I know," he coaxed in a low voice, "but he is hungry

The attendants discreetly retreated ten paces, standing at a distance to serve. Ruyi approached him, knelt before the couch, her long skirt trailing on the grass. She took his hand, her palm gently touching her own cheek: "Your Majesty does not like it when I am mischievous?"

A petal fell onto Liu Fu's hand, and he lifted it up, smiling with delight. He then embraced the branch with both hands and shook it vigorously. The petals floated down from the branches like rain and snow, covering his face and body.

Although she is well aware that all these scenes are merely an illusion of the eyes, she would rather believe that what she sees is real

Ping Jun hesitated and said, "Are you really giving it to him?" She hesitantly took it in her hand; the exquisite craftsmanship of the mirror was evident, yet the surface had become somewhat worn and aged due to the passage of time. "This was given to you by your grandparents..."

Xu Pingjun gave birth over the course of six hours, delivering a lively and healthy chubby son. Although she was exhausted and drenched in sweat, her mental state still appeared quite normal. In contrast, her husband fainted at the door and lay there for a full half hour before regaining consciousness

Having spent nearly ten years together, he has almost watched the woman before him grow up. He knows her every word and action, her temperament and preferences, like the back of his hand. He gently pries open her trembling fingers, placing a petal in her palm, then lifts her hand and kisses her fingers tenderly, "You have never been this kind of person, Ruyi"

What is it

Ping Jun's delicate body trembled with a convulsion, a hissing sound escaped her lips, and tears swirled in her eyes.

He sat up and pulled out a silk thread from his collar. By the faint candlelight, Pingjun could see that it was the protective charm mirror from the Kingdom of Sindu that hung around his neck

"It hurts." His young wife pouted in dissatisfaction

He casually wiped it away for her: "I do like you."

She looked at him in despair: "I know."

After waking up, Liu Bingyi heard the teasing congratulations from others, feeling embarrassed and scratching his head. The maid brought out the swaddled baby, who had a wrinkled, rosy little face, one eye squinting and the other closed, with a small mouth vigorously sucking. The little infant in the swaddle looked so fragile and fresh, marking the first encounter between father and son

With a thud, Liu Bing fell to the ground like a pile of mush, his knees giving way under the force of his mother-in-law's slap

Then... her gaze was terrifyingly hollow, "Your Majesty intends to leave me all alone."

Ping Jun unfastened her clothing, and the illness had already taken the child into her arms, saying in a pleasing manner: "I will hold the child, you continue to sleep"

"But you do not like me this way." She fell into an infinite sorrow and tears began to flow.

He smiled gently as he took it off from around his neck and handed it to Pingjun, saying, "Please reweave a colorful silk cord to tie it up."

Hey, this kid... I've seen that he has no teeth in his mouth. Even like this, he can make your mother suffer so badly. You, you, you are really not behaving well. He seemed to be scolding his son, but his face was full of smiles. Although he looked quite tired, he could not hide the pride and joy of being a father.

He sat there quietly, gazing upward as if he were inhaling the fresh fragrance of the tender green leaves above.

"Your Majesty's complexion looks better today." Shangguan Ruyi stood at the railing, gazing into the distance, while Liu Fu was reclining in the sun, warm sunlight enveloping him, causing the originally pale and thin man to radiate vibrant vitality

When the long-awaited sound of a baby's cry finally replaced Ping Jun's lament, Madam Xu excitedly emerged from the room, her face beaming with joy. Seeing her son-in-law standing at the door in a daze, she laughed heartily and said, "Jun'er is indeed your lucky star, giving you a son as your firstborn!"

The baby suckles vigorously, ignoring the father's nagging, fully focused on striving for its own hunger and satiety

Liu Bingyi stared intently, suddenly shivering all over, and then once again, in an unimaginable state of distress, he embraced his son and wept bitterly, leaving the maid beside him so shocked that she could no longer utter a word

In three days, the child will be one month old, and we can finally move back home to live.

Ping Jun shot him a glance and said, "You want to praise your son, right? Next time, you can come and feed him."

He vaguely recalled that on the night they first met, she indeed seemed to be wearing adult clothing, with a heavy wig atop her head

Liu Fu was not annoyed: "It is rare to see you so mischievous..."

The queen expressed her approval, and the attending maidens dared not voice any dissent, thus they all echoed her sentiments. Ruyi smiled with satisfaction, yet there was a trace of irrepressible sorrow in the corners of her eyes. She quickly walked behind Liu Fu and casually picked a vibrant red peach blossom from the branch. In her haste, she stripped it down along with the leaves, causing the petals to scatter and fall.

The crying infant nestles against the mother's soft, swollen bosom, requiring little guidance, as it skillfully arches up, taking the nipple into its small mouth and vigorously sucking away.

The maid asked: "Does the young master want a hug?"

What he likes, she cannot provide; that is certainly beyond the means of any woman from the Yeting family.

She gritted her teeth and endured: "It has already scabbed over, and now the scab has broken again"

Ping Jun chuckled and said: "It is almost dawn, I can't sleep, so I came to ask you, have you decided on a name for your son?"

Are you hoping that my mother will bring you a son

Liu Fu allowed her to act out of the ordinary and coquettishly tease him, her tone was ethereal yet still sharp: "You are not that kind of person"

He took her hand and pressed it against his heart, letting out a long sigh: "There is something I originally intended to give to Shier when he turned one month old. Since he has already received a name, it would be better to give it to him now.

But it is merely limited to liking; she is not in his heart, and she knows it

Her crying suddenly grew louder, emitting a muffled roar of anger: "Does Your Majesty say such things to make me wish I were dead?"

The breath of spring, that is the beginning of life

She trembled even more violently, finally unable to hold back as she collapsed onto his knee, sobbing and convulsing.

He took her hand and traced each stroke in her palm, saying, "The elder's intention is for us to branch out and multiply, the more the better..."

"It is not like this, it is not like this." He kept murmuring as if soothing a child, his pale cheeks radiating a gentle glow. "Ruyi, you know..." He leaned down and whispered in her ear, "I have always lived a life worse than death."

She has finally stopped crying. Indeed, he understands her better than she understands herself. Having lived in the Weiyang Palace for nearly ten years, she has long cultivated a calm and restrained disposition. The mischief of a young girl does not suit her, even though she is only fifteen years old

However, she understood, wrapping her arms around him and holding him tighter. He was very thin, with hardly any flesh on his body, and his sharp, protruding bones caused her entire body to ache, but the most painful part was her heart

Thus, he became numb. From the moment the midwife he had invited entered the delivery room, the initial chaos and his nervousness, as he paced anxiously around the room, had now completely frozen in response to the piercing cries that echoed around him

He nodded excitedly, then hurriedly took the swaddled infant from the other person's hands. The little one was very soft and light, and he held him in his arms, nervously afraid to exert too much strength. His son moved his little head, opened his small mouth, revealing his toothless gums, and yawned at his father like a little kitten, blinking his eyes slowly before gradually closing them

The mirror of the Kingdom of Sin can ward off evil and dispel malevolence. In those years, I was able to avoid the calamity of death, survive in this world, and ultimately marry and have children. Who can say that it was not the merit of this precious mirror?

The illness has eased: "I almost forgot, a few days ago, a letter arrived from the State of Lu, stating that your great-grandmother knows you will soon give birth. She mentioned that if it is a boy, the name should be 'Shi', and if it is a girl, the name should be 'Zhen'."

"Do not be like this, Ruyi." He continued to pat her shoulder as usual, his voice hoarse yet retaining its customary gentleness, "You are a good queen, and you will also be a good empress in the future"

Liu Fu's illness has persisted until now, and the court physicians have been rendered helpless. Consequently, an edict was issued to summon renowned doctors from across the realm. The prescriptions provided by these physicians have all been compiled and backed up by Du Yannian. Liu Fu consumes the medicinal soup as if it were water and takes the pills as if they were meals. Despite this for over two months, as the ice and snow melted, spring blossomed, and temperatures rose, his condition did not improve with the seasonal changes as it had in previous years; instead, he fell into a state of unconsciousness for a time.

The son-in-law showed no reaction, his eyes glazed over. She couldn't help but suppress a smile and gave him a light slap: "Did you hear? It's a son, you have a son now..."

Liu Shen, Liu Zhen... what characters, how to write? What does it mean?

Liu Bingyi's two instances of losing composure after having a child have been rendered into an excellent source of humor, which Zhang Pengzu occasionally brings up to mock him. After Xu Pingjun gave birth, she experienced a temporary shortage of milk. With a sixteen-year-old mother and an eighteen-year-old father, the young couple was completely clueless about how to care for a child, often finding themselves in a flurry of confusion and sleepless nights.

She lay on her side, reaching out to gently stroke the sleeping baby's chubby cheeks, murmuring his newly given name: "Shi ... ... Liu Shi. Shi'er ... ... "

He chuckled foolishly, "The great kindness and virtue of my mother has been engraved in my heart; I will surely express my gratitude and repay it in the future"

"I am sorry..." he uttered a statement that was utterly nonsensical and bewildering

Ping Jun's scream was enough to lift the beams of the entire thatched cottage. He had always known her character; she was a hardworking individual, and she would not scream so piercingly unless the pain was truly unbearable.

We have been married for ten years..." His voice, which had been steady, finally showed a hint of tremor. She looked at him with tear-filled eyes, but he did not continue speaking, allowing his colorless lips to move in front of her without uttering another word.