When Wei Caiwei came to Prince Yu’s mansion to take Li Jiubao’s pulse, she saw many kites floating in the inner garden, with a group of beauties laughing and playing. Each one’s appearance was no less stunning than Li Jiubao’s. It seemed the prince’s mansion had taken in a new batch of concubines for procreation. Now that Prince Yu had become the de facto heir apparent, both the Ministry of Revenue and the Imperial Clan Court were eager to curry favor with him. Unlike when Yan Shifan withheld salary and rice allowances, Prince Yu’s mansion was wealthy and powerful, able to support many beauties. The princess consort no longer needed to pawn jewelry to maintain appearances.

Prince Yu was like a diligent old ox, constantly plowing and sowing in various fields. Not knowing which field would bloom and bear fruit, he tried to plow as many as possible. Now one son and one daughter were far from enough – if they died young, he would have no heirs. Therefore, the more children the better.

By rights, Prince Yu, as the nation’s de facto heir apparent, should have been learning to handle government affairs, as all previous crown princes had done. But the older and sicker Emperor Jiajing became, the more suspicious he grew, guarding against his only son. He wouldn’t even see him, and Prince Yu dared not interfere in politics. He spent his days idle, reading during the day and diligently plowing at night.

Li Jiubao’s second child, a daughter, took only half a day from labor to birth. The delivery went smoothly and mother and daughter were safe, but the pregnancy process was extremely difficult. She suffered from morning sickness and chickenpox, leaving her body severely weakened.

Wei Caiwei told Li Jiubao to take good care of her health and preferably not get pregnant again for two years. Yet Li Jiubao ended up with two children in three years.

Though she detected the joyful pulse, Wei Caiwei was not happy and gently reminded her, “Side Consort, taking care of your health is most important. You still have a pair of children, and the road ahead is long.”

The implication was: you must live well. If you die, you’ll truly just be bearing children for others.

Li Jiubao lowered her head like a child who had done wrong, mumbling, “I haven’t forgotten Dr. Wei’s instructions. I tried not to approach His Highness, but he insisted on coming to me… I couldn’t refuse His Highness.”

Prince Yu felt Li Jiubao was the best field, with promising growth, so he frequently came to plow. Although Li Jiubao had been promoted to side consort and borne a pair of children, in Prince Yu’s eyes, she was no different from other women in the mansion – just a breeding tool, a useful tool.

What other purpose did a breeding tool have besides producing children?

If Li Jiubao had a difficult labor, Prince Yu would definitely sacrifice the mother to save the child without hesitation.

Moreover, no one would think Prince Yu was wrong to do so.

Wei Caiwei was helpless about this. Since she was already pregnant, she could only instruct her to take care of her health and not touch anything from outside. After the Guanyin incident, Prince Yu’s mansion no longer allowed Li Wei to enter and visit Li Jiubao.

After seeing off Wei Caiwei, the wet nurse brought in Second Sister, who had just woken up. The little girl was white, plump, and sturdy. Seeing her mother, she opened her arms for a hug.

Second Sister also had her hair cut by Wei Caiwei. The pair of children had not yet received imperial names or titles, being raised quietly in the mansion.

Li Jiubao hugged her daughter and kissed her. The soft, fragrant bundle in her arms was lovable, but she still hardened her heart and returned her to the wet nurse. “Take her to play in the garden. I have matters to attend to.”

Li Jiubao heard her daughter’s babbling voice fade at the doorway, then went to the study and opened the half-read book on the desk, occasionally picking up her brush to take notes. Her handwriting had improved tremendously since first entering the mansion.

How long could beauty last? Despite everyone’s envy, Li Jiubao had a deep sense of crisis. She was unwilling to be merely a bedroom tool. While other concubines learned to play instruments, sing, dance, and massage with various gentle skills, Li Jiubao never stopped reading and practicing calligraphy.

She didn’t know what use learning these things had, but it was better than doing nothing and living in a daze like a pampered pet.

Coming from a bricklayer family in the slums, Li Jiubao’s household only owned one book – an almanac. Her childhood neighbor Chen Jingji taught her to recognize all the characters in the almanac so she could keep accounts, understand contracts, and not be deceived as an illiterate person.

Given a book of sages’ teachings, she couldn’t understand most characters, let alone their meanings. In her six years at the mansion, Li Jiubao bore children one after another while slowly studying books. With guidance from famous teachers, she could now at least understand the meaning of government decrees in the Court Gazette.

“Side Consort Li, Master Zhang has sent new calligraphy copybooks.” A maid carried a stack of copybooks.

“Bring them quickly.” Li Jiubao’s face lit up with a smile. These were more precious than clothes and jewelry bestowed by Prince Yu and the princess consort. Master Zhang was named Zhang Juzheng, from Jingzhou, Hubei. A distinguished jinshi degree holder, he was a supervisor at the Imperial Academy with many students, and also a lecturer at Prince Yu’s mansion.

Li Jiubao was of humble birth, practically semi-illiterate. She worked hard to improve herself and respected learned people. During her self-study period, she benefited greatly from Zhang Juzheng’s guidance and made rapid progress.

Therefore, when the little prince was only three years old, Li Jiubao recommended Zhang Juzheng to Prince Yu to tutor the child. Zhang Juzheng devoted his utmost effort to the little prince, even personally drawing pictures and creating illustrated books for educational entertainment.

The little prince was only four years old this year but already recognized several thousand characters and could read by himself.

Li Jiubao extremely valued her eldest son’s education. She took the copybook and personally delivered it to the little prince’s study to supervise his calligraphy practice, only to find the study empty with just the attending eunuch cleaning the brushes the little prince had used.

“Where is Sanlang?” Li Jiubao’s face turned cold. At this hour, her son should be reading by the window after his afternoon nap.

The eunuch quickly replied, “The princess consort just took him to fly kites.”

In the back garden of Prince Yu’s mansion, she could hear her son’s laughter from afar – he was having great fun.

The little prince was too small to fly kites himself. The butterflies, centipedes, beauties, and fish kites fluttering in the sky were all flown by maids and eunuchs, decorating the azure sky in brilliant colors, very lively.

There was a lawn in the garden, green grass like a piece of jade, with various colored flags and holes. The princess consort handed the little prince a stick with a curved bottom, teaching him to play chuiwan.

The rules of chuiwan were very similar to later golf – hitting egg-sized round balls into holes in the lawn, repeatedly striking, hence called “chui” (hitting).

The princess consort placed a chuiwan at the little prince’s feet, pointing to the nearest hole marked with a red flag. “Use this stick to hit the ball into the hole and you win.”

The princess consort instructed while lightly swinging the stick in her hand.

Four-year-old children all love to play. The little prince imitated the princess consort’s swing and got a hole-in-one.

“It went in! Princess Consort, I hit it in!” The little prince cheered, holding up his stick.

The princess consort had another ball placed down, pointing to a slightly farther hole with a red flag. “Try this one.”

The little prince excitedly swung again. This time he used too much force and the direction was wrong. The small ball brushed past the red flag, whooshing up a slope, then rolling down until it stopped before an eggplant-colored water-wave patterned gold-brocade horse-face skirt.

Seeing his mother concubine Li Jiubao, the smile vanished from the little prince’s face and the wooden stick fell from his hands.

Li Jiubao walked over and bowed to the princess consort.

The princess consort personally helped Li Jiubao up. “You’re pregnant again. Take good care of your health. All of Prince Yu’s mansion’s hopes rest on your belly. It’s windy today – instead of resting indoors, why did you come out?”

Li Jiubao said, “I went to the study this afternoon to see how Sanlang’s calligraphy was progressing, but he wasn’t there, so I came out to find him.”

As she spoke, Li Jiubao looked at her truant son.

The little prince knew he was in the wrong and couldn’t bear his mother concubine’s gaze, instinctively hiding behind the princess consort.

The princess consort reached out to stroke the little prince’s head comfortingly, smiling, “I asked him to come out. I thought he liked kites, and today is good weather for kite flying. When he saw me playing chuiwan, he was very curious, so I taught him a few strokes. It’s not his fault – I delayed his studies.”

How could Li Jiubao dare criticize the princess consort? She quickly said, “The princess consort combines education with entertainment – what fault could there be?”

Seeing the maid behind Li Jiubao holding a stack of copybooks, the princess consort said, “Don’t push the child too hard. At his age, he’s growing and needs plenty of sleep, running, and sunshine to be healthy. Nothing is more important than health.”

“Besides, Sanlang already recognizes several thousand characters at only four and can read to me. Children from scholarly families aren’t as good as him. He’s already learning very well. Our kind of family doesn’t expect him to become the top scholar. When he’s tired from studying, let him come out to play – balance work and rest.”

With the princess consort speaking, Li Jiubao as a concubine could only listen and dared not contradict. “Yes.”

Li Jiubao had fought her way up from the bottom. She hoped her son would receive the best education, read the sages’ books, and stay close to worthy ministers while avoiding petty ones.

As the princess consort who had given up on bearing children, the most important thing was for the little prince to live healthily. As the legitimate mother, the prosperity of Prince Yu’s mansion’s offspring would all be her achievement. She didn’t mind if the little prince was shallow and mediocre in learning – mediocre people were easier to control.

Moreover, all children naturally love to play. Between a concubine mother who constantly pushed him to study and a legitimate mother who “rescued” him from heavy coursework to play, which would the child prefer?

Li Jiubao had the natural advantage of giving birth to him, but she could never compete with that. Only the grace of raising him could rival it.

The princess consort pointed to a nearby pavilion. “Go rest there. I’ll teach Sanlang to play a few more balls, then you can take him.”

“Yes.” Li Jiubao obediently retreated to the pavilion, sitting in the windproof curtains watching her son and the princess consort play chuiwan.

Li Jiubao slowly caressed her belly that wasn’t yet showing. The princess consort clearly wanted to interfere with her son’s education, making him close to her and distant from his birth mother. As the princess consort, she had every right to do so – it was perfectly legitimate.

But Li Jiubao truly couldn’t bear to be just a breeding tool, enduring the pain of multiple births only to bear sons for the princess consort! Ten months of pregnancy, one delivery, and a month of confinement that couldn’t restore her – she needed at least a year to complete bearing one child.

She had given so much, yet was just a surrogate mother who could be discarded at any time, like a chuiwan ball – after being hit into one hole, there were still many other balls waiting to be hit.

Author’s Note: “Empress Dowager Li: The Rise of a Bottom-Tier Surrogate Mother”