Imperial Physician Huang bowed before rising to enter and take Bai Qingyan’s pulse.

The young eunuch handed the medicinal soup to Chun Tao.

“Your Majesty was originally not suitable for pregnancy and childbirth, and this time with twins, your body has been greatly depleted. You’ll need to slowly recuperate afterward – don’t be hasty!” Imperial Physician Huang spoke slowly to Bai Qingyan, “Your Majesty must remember not to overexert yourself, not to worry excessively…”

“Imperial Physician Huang, I see these two children are much smaller and thinner than other newborns. Is it because their bodies were weakened in the womb?” Bai Qingyan asked quietly, “When Xiao Wu and Xiao Liu were born before, Physician Hong could detect that it was twins through pulse examination. Why… when Physician Hong examined my pulse regularly, did he not detect the twins?”

Imperial Physician Huang took out the pulse records that Physician Hong had someone transfer to him from his medicine box.

“Your Majesty, my senior brother previously… examined Your Majesty’s pulse daily. Once or twice, he faintly detected from the pulse that Your Majesty was carrying twins, but seeing that Your Majesty’s belly wasn’t large, plus due to Your Majesty’s old injuries and cold ailments from years past, Your pulse was already different from ordinary people. This pulse pattern only appeared once or twice, so senior brother was very uncertain and thus didn’t speak of it, but senior brother recorded it all…” Imperial Physician Huang held Physician Hong’s recorded pulse examinations in his hands.

Bai Qingyan recalled how, when Physician Hong examined her pulse, sometimes he would take a very long time, frowning afterward with a hesitant expression. It seemed… Physician Hong might have faintly detected twins once or twice, but since both children’s constitutions were weak, and the daughter’s even weaker, he didn’t dare confirm it, afraid of giving her false hope.

Besides having someone bring the pulse records to Imperial Physician Huang, Physician Hong had also written a private letter to Imperial Physician Huang, telling him that although Bai Qingyan’s body had gradually recovered through battlefield training and daily practice without slacking, her body had been depleted for so many years and couldn’t be replenished all at once. Moreover, nourishing the body was an extremely slow process, and Bai Qingyan’s pregnancy was somewhat ill-timed. If carrying one child, perhaps she could still provide adequate nourishment, but if it were truly two, one would likely either be stillborn… or not survive long after birth.

So, Physician Hong instructed Imperial Physician Huang that if he encountered this type of pulse when examining Bai Qingyan, he was to say nothing and just continue with the normal gentle nourishing prescriptions. Otherwise, if the Bai family and Bai Qingyan thought she was carrying twins, it would be fine if only one was born, but if only one child survived, after hoping for so long, they might not be able to handle it psychologically.

Fortunately, this time, both twins were delivered safely. Though the little prince and little princess were weak, they both survived!

The little princess’s condition might be more troublesome, but Imperial Physician Huang wasn’t entirely without solutions.

Bai Qingyan saw Physician Hong’s handwriting on the pulse records, her gaze falling on the two children again as she nodded… feeling extremely guilty. If she had been more attentive to the children and noticed they didn’t move very frequently, she should have rested more instead of thinking the children were well-behaved. Perhaps… the two children’s constitutions would be better now.

“Your Majesty…” Wei Zhong hurried in, bowing respectfully before saying, “Yue Shi, the former guard of the son-in-law, says he comes on orders from Yan Kingdom’s Ninth Prince to request an audience.”

Hearing that Yue Shi had come, Bai Qingyan’s heart sank. Yue Shi had arrived so quickly.

She very much wanted to know the full story of this matter – whether there was a flaw somewhere in Yan Kingdom, or if it was the Yan Empress Dowager’s doing. Bai Qingyan had to get to the bottom of it.

“Bring him in!” She adjusted her sitting position.

Nanny Tong quickly rose to place a cushion behind Bai Qingyan, then heard Dong Shi say: “The two children are still sleeping. Have the wet nurses take them away first! Nanny Tong, you follow them. Starting today, you and Nanny Qin will take turns – you must guard the two children without leaving their side, especially Kangle…”

“Yes!” Nanny Tong responded.

Bai Qingyan kissed the two children again before letting the wet nurses carry them away.

These two children had always been so well-behaved. Previously when Bai Qingyan went to the Xiliang battlefield, they stayed quietly in her womb, and now after birth they remained so obedient.

Not long after the children were taken away, the travel-worn Yue Shi entered.

On his way here, Yue Shi had also seen the strange phenomena in the eastern sky and heard that Bai Qingyan had given premature birth; his heart skipped a beat.

His master had sent him riding hard precisely because he feared First Miss would worry, but unexpectedly First Miss still had an accident…

Childbirth for women was already like passing through the gates of hell, let alone premature birth.

Upon entering, Yue Shi could only vaguely see the outlines of the bed and figures behind the silk gauze curtains.

That Bai family soldier looked toward Yue Shi. Though knowing this Yue Shi was once their son-in-law’s guard, he had now become a running dog of Yan Kingdom’s Ninth Prince. The Bai family soldier wished he could devour Yue Shi alive.

“Yue Shi pays respects to First Miss!” Yue Shi respectfully kowtowed to Bai Qingyan, “Yue Shi comes on orders from Yan Kingdom’s Ninth Prince to deliver a letter to First Miss.”

As he spoke, Yue Shi took out a letter from his chest, respectfully raising it above his head.

Wei Zhong took the letter from Yue Shi’s hands, walked forward to the curtains, lifted the silk gauze curtains, and handed the letter to Chun Tao.

Chun Tao glanced at Yue Shi kneeling there with lowered head and submissive eyes, then quickly walked to Bai Qingyan’s side and handed her the letter.

She took the letter and opened it…

In the letter, Xiao Rongyan said that only he and Yan Kingdom’s Generals Zhu and Chu knew about the ambush plan he had made with A’Yu. After Bai Qingyu and Bai Jinse’s incident, Xiao Rongyan immediately captured and interrogated the two men under torture, only then learning that General Chu, worried that after taking Yunjing, Great Zhou’s next target would be Yan Kingdom, had betrayed Great Zhou’s army to Xiliang, hoping to make Xiliang and Great Zhou fight like two tigers while Yan Kingdom reaped the benefits.

When he had already led troops to set up ambush at Hebi, he received news from Wang Jiuzhou that Xiliang might already know about Great Zhou and Yan Kingdom’s alliance and their plan to lure Xiliang into an ambush. He ordered Yue Shi to ride alone on a detour to intercept Bai Qingyu, who was leading Xiliang forces into the ambush circle.

But Bai Qingyu wanted to turn the tables and was unwilling to miss this opportunity.

He said that since Xiliang had learned of Yan Kingdom and Great Zhou’s plan to lure them into an ambush, their purpose was probably not just to anger Great Zhou into recklessly attacking Yunjing, but more likely to destroy the alliance between Yan Kingdom and Great Zhou. Best of all would be to use this opportunity to make the Great Zhou attack Yan Kingdom in anger, giving Yunjing a chance to breathe.

He reformulated a plan, requiring Xiao Rongyan only to cooperate with him. Bai Qingyu planned to have himself and the Bai family army pretend to be captured alive by Xiliang and taken to Yunjing, then coordinate from inside and outside to take down Xiliang’s Yunjing.

They would use fireworks as signals. As soon as Bai Qingyu was ready, he would immediately set off fireworks, and Bai Qingyu would find a way to open Yunjing’s north and east city gates.

But to make Xiliang truly believe their strategy had succeeded, he had Yue Shi tell Xiao Rongyan to temporarily not inform their Bai family brothers and sisters.