Chapter 110: The Spicy Ninth Princess Consort 7

The Ninth Prince had lost significant face this time, making him even more reluctant to return to the back courtyard.

He even stopped joining the Ninth Princess Consort for dinner, a habit he had maintained for a long time.

It wasn’t that he was staying away out of spite for his Fujin. It was purely because his mother’s words had awakened him, and he realized how foolish he had been. He felt too embarrassed to face the Ninth Princess Consort.

It was rare for this scoundrel to actually feel shame and find himself unable to face his own wife.

Throughout the entire New Year festival, Su Huandan felt that the Ninth Prince had cornered the market on all the royal family’s jokes.

Everyone else thought so too.

That was until something happened to the Tenth Fujin, causing those who were enjoying the Ninth Prince’s misfortune to shift their attention to the Tenth Prince and his wife.

The Tenth Fujin had suffered a miscarriage.

Worse, it happened because the Tenth Prince had pushed her, causing her to collide with the corner of a table.

The Tenth Prince had now been punished by the Empress Dowager and placed under house arrest.

Su Huandan was stunned when she heard the news. The Tenth Prince was even more of a scoundrel than the Ninth Prince; he actually hit his wife?

Yet another creature unworthy of having a wife.

While others avoided visiting the Tenth Fujin due to the taboo surrounding miscarriages, Su Huandan had no such qualms. She brought the customary gifts and went to the Tenth Prince’s manor.

The Tenth Fujin was lying in bed, having suffered terribly. She had been nearly three months pregnant when she lost the child. Although seven days had passed since the incident, her face remained deathly pale.

The Tenth Fujin had known she was pregnant, but tradition dictated it was best not to announce it too early. To court good fortune, and knowing her own health was robust and unlikely to fail, she had kept the matter hidden.

She had eaten and drunk heartily during the New Year without issue, hadn’t she?

In the end, the couple had quarreled over a bed-warming palace maid.

The Tenth Prince felt sorry for the maid who had been forced to drink the Contraceptive Decoction^[1]. He went to argue with the Tenth Fujin, and as the couple’s shouting escalated, they came to blows. In a moment of carelessness, the Tenth Prince struck out, and the Tenth Fujin was finished.

“Did I do something wrong? It’s not that I won’t let her give birth, but at the very least, she should wait until I’ve given birth to a Legitimate Son^[2]. Isn’t that how everyone lives? If a woman can’t stop her man from finding concubines, then the man shouldn’t go around producing concubine-born sons to destabilize the position of the legitimate wife and son.” This was the typical mindset of noblewomen in ancient times.

They knew it was normal for men to have three wives and four concubines. They weren’t asking for a “one life, one couple” arrangement; they just wanted a secure status. Was that too much to ask?

“And yet, as soon as that little vixen shed two cat-tears, he felt sorry for her and came to argue with me, calling me cold-hearted and inhumane. I’m baffled. That maid is just a Booyi^[3], which corresponds to the status of a female slave in Mongolia. Even if I beat her to death, it’s no different from killing a sheep. And he actually said I have no humanity? Heh, if he didn’t fancy that maid, would he have called me inhumane? Try that with an ordinary maid. He’d probably help me give her a few kicks himself.” This was the Tenth Fujin’s worldview, shared by most Mongolian noblewomen.

That was why, after the incident, the Empress Dowager had directly bestowed a cup of poisoned wine upon the maid who caused the trouble, without so much as blinking.

The noblewomen of the Manchu and Han Eight Banners often called the Mongolian noblewomen crude, likely for this very reason.

To put it bluntly, the Manchu and Han women felt they were more civilized and advanced than the Mongolian women, looking down on their “backward” thinking.

Su Huandan felt a chill hearing this. The values of ancient people were simply too far removed from those of modern people.

In the heat of the moment, the Tenth Fujin had lashed the Tenth Prince with a whip, and the two had started fighting. The Tenth Prince truly hadn’t known she was pregnant; otherwise, he absolutely would not have argued with his Fujin over a Contraceptive Decoction.

In this world that valued offspring and the distinction between legitimate and concubine-born children above all else, the Tenth Prince would have to be insane to cross his legitimate wife while she carried his child for the sake of a bed-warming maid.

After returning from visiting the Tenth Fujin, Su Huandan lay on her bed. She claimed she wanted a nap, but in truth, she was just unsettled by the Tenth Fujin’s “killing a person is like killing a sheep” comment and needed some quiet time alone.

In that quiet, of all things, her Horse-Face Superior “quietly” appeared.

“Do you have some instructions?” Su Huandan’s scalp tingled the moment she saw her Horse-Face Superior.

Even though there was no bad blood between them, an employee always feels a sense of guilt and panic when their boss suddenly seeks them out.

The Horse-Face Superior smiled warmly. “I wouldn’t call it instructions. I’m just here to ask if you’ll take a big commission. I won’t tell you the background of this big shot—it wouldn’t mean much to you anyway—but I can tell you about the reward. If you accept the commission and give birth to this big shot, they will gift you a Portable Space. You can’t enter that little courtyard of yours during your reincarnations, and the Underworld’s standard-issue warehouse doesn’t allow for farming. If you ever face a life-threatening crisis, you can’t exactly hide inside the warehouse to escape disaster.”

There was no coercion, just a clear layout of the pros and cons. As for the choice, the Horse-Face Superior left it to her.

Su Huandan thought to herself that her Horse-Face Superior was truly a master of seduction.

She was shamelessly tempted, yet she truly didn’t want to bear a child for Seshe.

“That’s simple. I can extract the essence and blood of another man for you. Giving birth is a simple matter, isn’t it?” As the Horse-Face Superior finished speaking, Su Huandan nodded.

They agreed to act in three days, and the Horse-Face Superior departed.

Three days later, Su Huandan prepared a table of food and wine and invited the Ninth Prince back for a meal, getting him thoroughly drunk…

The Horse-Face Superior came and went in a flash. In less than a minute, he declared everything was settled.

Before he left, Su Huandan didn’t even ask who the child’s biological father was.

Early the next morning, the Ninth Prince rose from his Fujin’s bed, his face slightly flushed. His Fujin still liked him after all; she had even invited him of her own accord.

But that evening, when the Ninth Prince rushed back to the Main Courtyard in high spirits, he was kicked out again.

“Donggo Clan, what exactly do you mean by this?” The Ninth Prince was truly furious. Hadn’t everything been fine last night? They had shared a bed, so why was he being kicked out again today?

Su Huandan sat in her chair, not even lifting her eyelids. “I just wanted a child. It’s not like I actually fancy you. You don’t like me much either, so why should we keep up pretenses? We’re partners for life now; can’t we just live honestly with each other?”

The Ninth Prince trembled with rage at her words. “I am a Prince of the Aisin Gioro clan, and I’m not even worth your fancy?”

“Donggo Clan, you had better pray that you conceive. I’m telling you, I will never touch you again for the rest of my life.” If she wanted to bear a son, she could keep dreaming.

The Ninth Prince stormed off in a huff.

Su Huandan looked at the closed doors of the Main Courtyard and let out a mocking snort. As if she cared whether he touched her or not. If the rewards hadn’t been so perfectly suited to her tastes, she would have only planned to remain the Ninth Princess Consort for ten years.

Worthless brat, he had never been likeable.

When Consort Yi learned of the situation between her youngest son and his wife, she fell silent.

After a long while, she looked up and asked her trusted head maid, “Is this how all primary wives live their lives?”

The head maid lowered her head and remained silent, thinking to herself that she had never married in her life, so how could she possibly know?

Consort Yi wasn’t sure if this was the norm either. After all, she was a concubine, and she truly didn’t dare to cross the Emperor. Her only point of reference was her eldest daughter-in-law.

But her eldest daughter-in-law had said last night that she had kicked her husband right off the bed…

Consort Yi sighed. It really was better to be a primary wife; one lived with so much more dignity!