Endless Hatred (Three)

  Come on, give Ama a kiss——"

  Hongli now focuses on cultivating feelings with his son and daughter every day when he comes back. His son and daughter also give him face by dancing and shouting "yiya" twice when he approaches them, making him enjoy it endlessly. After kissing his eldest daughter and son, he picks up his youngest daughter and smiles: "The little guy has gained weight again, luckily I relied on you that time."

  His gaze swept over her full breasts.

  Yunzhu's postpartum confinement couldn't stop him from coming to the house every day to report in. He liked watching her read books and draw pictures for their son and daughter, making them laugh with joy, feeling warm and cozy like millions of ordinary families in this world, with a father, mother, and children.

  It didn't take long for him to discover that Yunzhu was breastfeeding their child. His face turned gloomy, and he felt a hint of jealousy in his heart: "Even if you love the children dearly, you can't disregard the rules. Those servants are also to blame for letting you do as you please. You're still recovering from childbirth, yet you're breastfeeding three children, draining your energy completely." He hadn't forgotten what Dr. Su had said about her needing to take good care of herself after giving birth to triplets, which had taken a toll on her body.

  In this era, people believed that human milk was the essence of the human body. Many concubines in the palace still drank human milk every day to nourish their bodies. Yunzhu knew he was worried about her and gently pulled his hand, saying: "I know you're worried about me, but Jing Yongqian and others were premature births after all, and they were weaker than other babies from birth. My body is good, and my milk is much better than Naiya's. I'm breastfeeding myself not for anything else, just to make their bodies healthier."

  He was still frowning.

  "Don't worry, my mother-in-law makes me a nourishing soup every day." She smiled and gently shook his hand. "Besides, after I recover from childbirth, I won't have so much free time to spend with them anyway. They're growing up and their appetites are getting bigger too...my milk is good but not enough for them to drink...at most three months, okay?" Negotiating the price could also get us two months' worth of food.

  "For two months, and after the confinement period is over, I'll have to let Nainai follow them from time to time to feed them, so as not to spoil their appetite." He gently stroked her cheek, pinched her nose, and glared at her with a compromising gaze, as if he didn't know what she was planning. No wonder these past few days when holding those three, he could always smell the faint scent of orchid fragrance mixed with the milk fragrance on their bodies.

  Thinking of this, his lust was stirred up, and his eyes glanced at her chest, which had become much fuller. He leaned in close to her ear and said in a low voice: "You still have to agree to one more condition..."

  Yunzhu shot him a glance, her pretty face flushing red.

  His eyes deepened, and the corners of his lips curved slightly, knowing that she too had thought of what happened later that day. He had pretended to "check the quality of her milk" and sucked on her breasts for a while, and the milk not only didn't have any unpleasant smell but also carried a faint fragrance similar to her body scent... The taste was indeed different from others. At that time, he thought that his wife was born with a phoenix fate, blessed by heaven, and had the ability to turn decay into magic, so maybe her milk could really make their triplets healthier and stronger, so he agreed to her.

  "Ah...” The little girl's small hand in his arm could barely wrap around his pinky, and Hong Li felt an infinite amount of affection well up inside him. He leaned down and kissed her small fist, now soft and delicate, no longer as weak as a newborn kitten. When she was awake, she was more and more lively and spirited, proving that following Yun Zhu's decision was the right choice.

  "Don't tease her for too long, the baby needs to sleep for at least ten hours a day." Yúnzhū took the little girl from him and put her on the bed next to her siblings, humming a gentle tune as she gently patted their small bodies until the triplets fell asleep before carefully covering them with the quilt.

  Hongli sat quietly on one side with a faint smile.

  Sometimes when the children woke up, Yúnzhū would ask him to read a book for them, just like when she was pregnant. Although he thought the little ones couldn't understand, looking at them blinking their eyes and kicking their legs or waving their hands while making "hmm" sounds, their reactions were almost the same as when they were in Yúnzhū's belly, and he found it interesting too.

  Sometimes she coaxes the child to sleep, and he looks at her like that, feeling happy about having such a wife and children, while envying his son and daughter for being able to have such a selfless and profound motherly love.

  Yunzhu got up and saw him sitting there, so she took an orange from the table and peeled it for him to eat. He took it from her hand, stripped off the skin and put it aside, then fed two slices to her mouth. Yunzhu bit down, fed back to him, watched him swallow, before saying: "Now I drink milk every day and breastfeed my child, so I shouldn't be eating this orange, it's easy to cause bloating, stomach pain, diarrhea and other symptoms."

  Hongli's face changed slightly, and she threw the remaining tangerine peel back onto the plate. "Come on..." Just as she was about to let the servant withdraw, she pressed down on him. "What's the big deal? This season's fruits are just apples and tangerines. I know not to eat them if I don't want to. Having them in the house makes it smell better than incense."

  "Thanks for your hard work." He sighed, holding her back to bed and kissing her cheek. If it weren't for her good complexion, he wouldn't agree with the saying "getting out of bed is beneficial for physical recovery". He just hoped she would rest well in bed... But now it seems that the tricks of palace intrigue can't be avoided even without leaving the house. Such things are really nothing to investigate, they're just normal fruit and examples from the palace... If something happens, it's also because those who eat and use them are greedy and lack knowledge.

  Yunzhu is still in confinement after childbirth, and the three children are premature. Outsiders don't know the details and think they must be weaker than ordinary babies. If they have a few more bouts of diarrhea, how can they survive? The children will die young, it's only a matter of time. Yunzhu might also suffer greatly from this.

  He believed that his own mother would not go so far as to harm her own grandson, so who else could it be through the Imperial Household Department? Although he would rather this was just a coincidence, he couldn't bear the thought of a poisonous snake lurking in the shadows, waiting to strike at Chai Yunzhu and their children.

  "It's hard work, but I'm willing to do more for you and our children. Besides, they're not difficult to take care of, they'll only fuss a bit when they're hungry, need a diaper change, or have a bowel movement."

  He lightly nipped at her shoulder, smelling the faint scent of jasmine on her body. Her hair, tied up with a silk cloth, was also fragrance-free, looking as fresh and clean as his fingers did after a night's sleep. This didn't look like a woman who had just given birth, but rather someone who was normally fresh and elegant. "You clearly know I'm not referring to that."

  As the imperial son's consort, apart from managing household affairs and handling daily etiquette, she also had to guard against various schemes from outside and within the palace. It wasn't any easier than being in charge of external affairs herself.

  "It's alright, these things are understandable to both Su and Ling Jueo, it's just that I overlooked something, they will also notice. You don't have to worry, if there's really anything that can't be handled, I'll tell you."

  "Just remember that." He patted her body, which was only wearing a thin cotton robe, and said: "Even if it's not cold in the house, you should wear more robes. Now is winter, and you're sitting for the month after childbirth. What if you catch a chill?"

  "You said it's not cold in the house, why wear so much cumbersome clothing." Since sitting for a month, Yunzhu was used to his nagging and reluctantly changed the subject. "By the way, have you gone to see Da Gegie?"

  Hongli said casually: "I saw it yesterday and gave her a name called He'an."

  For triplets, because they are legitimate and the beloved woman gave birth to the crystal of love for him, he loves them from the moment Yunzhu conceived them. During Yunzhu's pregnancy, she pulled him along to do a lot of prenatal education, which added emotional investment. This is completely different from when Fu Linga gave birth to Yonghuan and Su Baorong had An'an, where he didn't participate much in the pregnancy and childbirth. After the children were born, watching them grow and change every day, playing with them, and looking at them, compared to not seeing them after they were born, their red and wrinkled skin, crying nonstop when they're not satisfied... The emotional balance naturally leans to one side.

  "Is everything all right? It's not bad, as parents, aren't we just hoping for the kids to grow up safely?" He had stayed at Jin's place last night, Yunzhu thought that this couldn't be Su's doing, and smiled at him, "I'm in no condition to go visit... but Su is a steady and meticulous person, should be able to take good care of the child."

  "He's gone twice, and Su gave Gao eye drops once. She was thinking that Gao had almost caused her to miscarry, and their eldest daughter was born a bit weak, so he took the opportunity to restrict Gao's movements, on one hand fulfilling her wish, and on the other not wanting Gao to cause any more trouble for Yunzhu; but yesterday, it clearly didn't make him happy."

  Yesterday, I went to Chengqian Palace to pay respects to E'niang. She meant that He'an and Hejing would hold a full moon banquet together. The smile at the corner of his mouth added a hint of coldness, and he couldn't help but suspect the intention behind E'niang's proposal. Was it Su Shi who wanted to borrow her daughter's name to be mentioned alongside the legitimate children, thereby elevating her own status? Or did E'niang want to promote her own people to the position of Ce Furen before Wu Lala pointed out the two Dryan Western Palaces, suppressing the Wu Lala family and choosing Su Shi?

  With these thoughts in mind, after hearing her gentle and soft requests to the eldest daughter's full moon banquet to be simple, fearing that her daughter's good fortune is not enough, and not daring to compare with Er Gege and Er A'ge, compared to what he heard in Chengqian Palace about Chen Xianming, he naturally suspected that she was intentionally saying the opposite to win his sympathy. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that her usual kindness and obedience were put on, and this woman was actually more cunning than others.

  If Su Shi wasn't deeply favored by Empress Dowager, why would she make such a suggestion? He wouldn't even believe that Su Shi had no private connections with the Chengqian Palace.

  Yunzhu was taken aback, although she felt a bit uncomfortable in her heart, but she didn't take these vain things to heart. "Well, the third washing ceremony has already been simplified for Da Gege, and I think it's not good to simplify the full moon banquet again. Moreover, it coincides with Yongxian's full moon, and neither the Emperor nor my mother-in-law's birthday is particularly emphasized... which doesn't call for a big celebration for this newborn child... and having to hold two separate banquets, I was already feeling uneasy, thinking it was too extravagant and wasteful. This idea is just right."

  "Yongyan and the others are legitimate children, which is incomparable to He and An. This also flatters the Su family too much!" Hongli was very dissatisfied, but his opposition was refuted by Xi Guifei's words: "They are all his children, and they are all her grandchildren, cannot be too thick or thin."

  "It's a pity, no matter how glorious she is, she's just a concubine after all. It's only because of the child that we can't let her be humiliated." Yunzhu stretched out her hand and playfully stroked his eyebrows, "Besides, I'm also afraid that the child will become too proud, it's good to have someone to share the burden with."

  She was calm. Hongli lost his smile, "You don't mind, that's good. But this Su still needs to be careful, isn't there a saying that goes like this, a dog that bites doesn't bark——"

  Yunzhu patted him, "Did you just say that?" and couldn't help but laugh too. After a while, he said: "Whether Ce Fu Jin is promoted or asked to seal the early or late, it's bound to happen. To say that there's not even half a thought in my heart is to deceive people, but I'm not a wooden person these years, and I don't know your feelings for me..."

  Hongli listened, her heart slightly aching, but more of what surged up was joy. She didn't negate his dedication just because she couldn't give him the only, pure love.