The Tyrant's Beloved Empress

67

Xiao Zhige's eyes turned cold thinking about how back in Yejing, the Crown Prince had repeatedly made advances towards An Chang Qing. It was lucky that he could safeguard An Chang Qing in his territory and keep the Crown Prince from having any chance in getting a hold of his Achilles' heel. And with the current chaos in Yejing, secretly transporting two people from the city outskirts shouldn't be too difficult.

An Chang Qing also agreed that during this period of unrest, two women living in the outskirts was too dangerous even with guards. Although the living standard in Yanzhou wasn't as good as Yejing, it was still safer to keep them far away from the eye of the storm.

Since An Chang Qing had no objection, Xiao Zhige immediately sent someone to make the arrangements for Lady Yu and An Xian Yu to be escorted out of Yejing to Yanzhou.

After they had discussed the matter at hand, Xiao Zhige put the letter away. He freed his hand to hold An Chang Qing's waist to support him while they slowly walked. "Anfu said you didn't have much appetite this morning. Is it the kitchen's cooking that's not to your liking or you're having some discomfort?"

These few days, Xiao Zhige seemed to have come to terms that he was about to become a father and treated An Chang Qing like he was fragile like porcelain. As long as they were in the mansion, he had to keep An Chang Qing within sight for concern that he would be knocked over by this and that. At night, he dared not move his limbs and would stay still as a log, only getting up at times to put the blanket back on for An Chang Qing for fear that he would get cold.

And just last night, An Chang Qing happened to wake up in a daze and found Xiao Zhige staring at him. If they hadn't slept together for so long, An Chang Qing would've been quite disturbed by his behavior.

Seeing how nervous he had gotten, An Chang Qing smiled helplessly and tried to reassure him, "There's nothing wrong with my appetite. I just couldn't finish the whole bowl of porridge."

Xiao Zhige frowned, "But before, you were eating two bowls of porridge accompanied by several side dishes. This morning, you only had half a bowl of porridge."

It was true that An Chang Qing had been having a big appetite in recent days. In the morning, he could eat two bowls of porridge together with two or three side dishes. For lunch, he would gobble up at least two main dishes with vegetables and soup, sometimes even an additional serving of ba bao fan (eight treasure rice). As if that wasn't enough, he could still stuff himself with snacks and pastries before dinner.

Advertisements

In the beginning, Xiao Zhige was worried that his voracious appetite would cause distress to his stomach. But after Hu Shifei explained that it was natural to have an increased appetite during pregnancy, he was in turn worried that An Chang Qing was not eating enough whenever he could not finish his food.

An Chang Qing was about to have a headache. He grabbed Xiao Zhige's hand on his waist, placed it over his belly, and told him to have a touch, "My stomach is not even showing, isn't Wangye's concern a little too premature?"

Xiao Zhige frowned while gently touching An Chang Qing's abdomen, "But Hu Shifei said to be extra careful during the first few months."

An Chang Qing corrected him, "What Dr. Hu said is to be careful during the first three months because the fetus is still unstable." And they had already passed this critical period by the time they discovered that An Chang Qing was pregnant. In any case, Hu Shifei had been taking his pulse regularly and said that his pulse was strong and his body was healthy. It was still early to detect the fetus's progress but seeing that An Chang Qing was in good health, the baby should also be in good condition.

Clearly Xiao Zhige only heard half of it and since then, he only wished for An Chang Qing to stay in one place and do nothing. It's just that during this time, there were many things waiting for An Chang Qing to do and he couldn't stay idle.

The newcomers had been resettled outside the city and had also begun the construction work to develop this area. From the start, a judicial system had been meticulously drawn up but during the execution process, there were bound to be some issues. And since it was An Chang Qing who drafted the bills, the senior officials had naturally come to him whenever they couldn't make a decision. An Chang Qing was very passionate and would visit the magistrate's office to discuss with them and often, he would travel out to the city outskirts to check on the citizens and boost their morale.

When Xiao Zhige returned to the manor and found out that An Chang Qing had left, his expression couldn't be any more grim.

Because they could not let the public know that An Chang Qing was pregnant and he couldn't keep An Chang Qing locked up in the manor all the time, Xiao Zhige could only point his dagger-like glare at the old men that came knocking on their door. But much to his dismay, these weathered officials were ignorant in reading the mood. Or rather, even if they could tell, they would still feign ignorance. They were now highly reliant on An Chang Qing and would need to consult his opinion on everything. As for the Northern Warlord? Well, they thought he was a little useless now that there's no more war.

Just as the two were talking, a report came from the front gate announcing that the foreman of the crafting workshop had requested to meet An Chang Qing.

The crafting workshop that was recently established was also one of An Chang Qing's proposals. It worked in conjunction with the ordnance department of the military. While the ordnance department developed and distributed weaponry for the military, the crafting workshop gathered talented craftsmen to develop tools and equipment that benefited the people. This decision stemmed from An Chang Qing witnessing the people having a laborious time using the ox cart to transport water for irrigation due to the high terrain. He had then remembered during the years he spent wandering the earth as a ghost, he had once floated outside Yejing and witnessed a type of irrigation system which did not require any manpower, instead it used a large wheel and hydraulic power to irrigate the field.

Xiao Zhige listened to his proposal and also felt that this would be immensely beneficial to Yanzhou. He gave An Chang Qing his full support and from then onwards, the crafting workshop was established. They had also gathered seasoned artisans of different fields to work there.

An Chang Qing was particularly interested in the water wheel. After recruiting the craftsmen, he relayed his thoughts to them and had them construct a prototype as soon as possible. Luckily, the craftsmen were inventive enough and had created the first version of the water wheel after only a few meetings with An Chang Qing. The foreman had come today to invite An Chang Qing to the crating workshop to see the water wheel.

Once he heard that the water wheel was completed, in his excitement, An Chang Qing couldn't be bothered about Xiao Zhige and left to follow the foreman.

Xiao Zhige, who had been left behind, pulled a black face and objected, "Wangfei is not well today and will stay in the manor. He will go see it after he's feeling better."

The foreman heard this and looked at An Chang Qing with hesitance, not daring to take another step.

An Chang Qing knew Xiao Zhige was about to preach to him again. He had hoped to get away with it but was unsuccessful in the end. At this point, his only option was to coax the man. He turned and gave Xiao Zhige a sweet smile, "I'm perfectly fine, there's no discomfort anywhere."

After speaking, he even took a few brisk steps to show him. It wasn't that An Chang Qing was being careless, it was just that his belly was still flat. Other than his improved appetite, he really did not have any discomfort. On the contrary, he felt that he had more energy than before. He believed he was about to grow mold if he continued to be cooped up in the manor all day.

Xiao Zhige, on the other hand, almost had a heart attack when he took those big fleeting steps. He did not want to argue with An Chang Qing in front of outsiders so after thinking it through, he calmed himself and said, "I'll come along with Wangfei."

1. 闻弦歌而知雅意(wén xiángē ér zhī yǎyi)- An excerpt from Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The direct translation is when one hears a beautiful performance, they can understand its elegance. Meaning, the Empress and Crown Prince were able to figure out many things just based on the few hints that Xiao Zhige had revealed on purpose.