Three-and-a-Half-Year-Old Quick Transmigrator - Chapter 36

Zhou You was Emperor Hui’s son. That fact aside, there was also the fact that being around Zhou You alleviated his headaches. Zhou You was a blessed boy, and Emperor Hui needed him. He was the only thing that Emperor Hui could rely on to make his headache better.

Shi Peirou waited in her palace. However, even after several days passed, her child still didn’t return to her. As time passed, she became increasingly anxious and uneasy.

The boy’s voice had grown hoarse and he was going to fall ill from crying. He couldn’t keep crying like this! Was the empress happy to see the child cry this way? 

Perhaps she did. After all, Zhou You was not her own son. The empress, that two-faced and jealous woman, seemed to prefer killing her child than returning her child to her!

Shi Peirou was at the end of her ropes now. She regretted that she had gone to Fengqi Palace and kicked up a fuss there. Because of that, the empress now would rather kill her child than sacrifice her reputation.

This harem, this d*mned harem…!

Shi Peirou broke into tears. Just the thought of having to please the empress like a dog, in order to see her child, made her feel suffocated. She looked in the direction of Fengqi Palace and clenched her hands.

Nanzhi could hear Zhou You’s crying all the way from Yongchun Palace. She endured it for a while, though with a worried expression on her face. However, she eventually couldn’t bear it anymore and ran to see her younger brother in Fengqi Palace.

“Greetings, Imperial Mother,” Nanzhi said as she greeted the empress with a childish and cute bow.  When she saw the empress’ haggard look, she concernedly said, “Imperial Mother, you should get some rest. You need to pay attention to your health as well.”

Seeing the sincere concern on Nanzhi’s face, the empress forced a smile onto her face and said, “I am fine. Go see your brother.”

When Nanzhi saw her younger brother, she felt that he had lost a lot of weight. His face was flushed, and when he opened his mouth to cry, the voice that he let out was hoarse. Nanzhi stretched out her hand and lightly patted him, saying, “Don’t cry, Brother. Don’t cry.”

However, such reassurance was useless. Zhou You didn’t stop crying. Seeing this, Nanzhi frowned and wondered, what was wrong with her younger brother? Why was he crying so much?

Nanzhi turned to the empress and said, “Imperial Mother, could my younger brother be missing his mufei? I like my mufei. When I miss her, I have to smell her fragrance. Could my younger brother really be missing his mufei?”

Nanzhi used to not like Consort Xian’s fragrance before. However, as the two of them got closer, Nanzhi started liking being hugged by her consort-mother and feeling surrounded by the fragrance. 

It gave her a rare sense of security and relaxation. Whenever she was hugged by her mother, she felt like nothing could hurt her.

The empress frowned. Suddenly, she asked the prince’s wet nurse, “Do you use any special incense to change your smell?”

“No, Your Majesty. I am not allowed to use any special incense. I only smell of soap,” the wet nurse hurriedly explained. She feared being falsely accused of committing a wrongdoing.

“Bring all your clothes here, including your underwear,” the empress said to the wet nurse.

The wet nurse immediately brought her clothes over. Nanzhi looked at them with a confused look on her face.

If only the palace wasn’t as dangerous as it actually was. Nanzhi felt that every single woman here was very talented. They could play musical instruments, dance, draw, and sing. They were so beautiful, as well. If they were in the modern era, they would certainly have a thriving life.

The empress smelled the wet nurse’s clothes, and then handed them to the maid who had good knowledge about fragrances and incenses, saying, “Smell it.”

The maid smelled the fresh clothes and said, “They smell like soap. Nanny, do you have any unwashed clothes that you used while in Imperial Concubine Shi’s place?”

The nurse thought carefully about it, before saying, “What about breast pads?”

She had used them to prevent her milk from overflowing and wet her clothes. She had quite a lot of those.

“Yes, I should be able to use them. Please let me smell them, Nanny.”

The nanny dug out one of her used breast pads from the box and handed it to the maid. The maid smelled them carefully and compared the smell of each one of them. After a while, the empress asked, “What do the breast pads smell like?”

“It smells mostly like soap and slightly like orange peel. Your Majesty, please give some orange peel to His Highness, so he can smell it, for now. I will try my best to make an incense that smells like this as soon as possible.”

Nanzhi was stunned. She picked up a breast pad and smelled it. However, she could only smell the scent of breast milk, and not orange peel. She exclaimed, “Wow, you’re so amazing!”

The maid smiled at Nanzhi and said, “Princess, I just happen to have a slightly more sensitive nose than most.”

“That’s still amazing,” Nanzhi said. She then asked, “Sister, can I learn how you do it? How do you know what something smells like after you smell it?”

It was so cool!

“Ah, this…” The maid glanced at the empress, who nodded. Children would be naturally interested in most things that they saw, but they might not necessarily stick to it.

The maid took some dried orange peels, soaked them in water, and then sprinkled that water on the wet nurse. The wet nurse then picked up Zhou You and held him in her arms. The little prince sniffled and soon fell asleep in the wet nurse’s arms.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. It was certainly better for him to fall asleep rather than cry all the time.

Nanzhi learned about fragrances from the maid, Chun Liu. She was asked to smell a lot of things. Some of them smelled good, while some others smelled bad. Eventually, she smelled too many things and her nose went numb, to the point that she couldn’t smell anything anymore. She also started sneezing all the time after that.

Chun Liu thought that the little princess’ interest would soon wane. However, to her surprise, the little princess came to her every day to learn about fragrances. Chun Liu ended up teaching Nanzhi about how she made incense.

Nanzhi was still very young, so she often forgot the things that she had learned. Chun Liu had to teach her things repeatedly. However, some things clearly stuck with her. Now, she could at least understand the functions of certain raw ingredients.

Chun Liu made incense sticks and used them to change the smell of the empress’ and the wet nurse’s clothes. The little prince used to cry all night and all day, to the point that he had lost a lot of weight. However, he now cried less.

Shi Peirou, on the other hand, was still waiting. She was heartbroken for her child and worried that he might fall sick from all that crying. However, she figured that he could hold on for a while.

She and the empress were stuck in an invisible stalemate. It was a game of mentality, and only by being patient could she defeat the empress.

She had lost so much. She had lost the spirit elixir, the emperor’s favour, and now she’d also lost her son. What more did she have?

Why did she transmigrate here? Why did she get the spirit elixir?

The spirit elixir came to her in a mysterious way and left in an equally mysterious way.

As time passed, Zhou You cried less and less in Fengqi Palace. In the end, he rarely ever cried anymore. That day, Zhou You went the entire day without crying at all. Shi Peirou suddenly had a terrifying thought. Did something happen to the child? Could he be dead?

She asked a maid to inquire about this. After a while, the maid returned and told Shi Peirou, “His Imperial Highness is fine. He doesn’t cry all day anymore, either.”

“How could this happen?”

Shi Peirou fell into a chair. Her eyes were dull and her expression was despondent. Her entire body was also trembling.

It failed! Her last idea had failed!

Shi Peirou knew that children would feel safe only when they smelled familiar smells. In order to cultivate her relationship with her son, she made herself and his wet nurse smell the same.

To be exact, she made the wet nurse smell like her. She didn’t make it very obvious and irritating, though. The incense she used had a very mild scent of ordinary fruit peels.

When the wet nurse went to Fengqi Palace with her son, she was bound to wash her clothes eventually. The special incense scent on them would be washed away. Without that smell, her son would naturally be uncomfortable and cry.

However, to her surprise, the empress had figured out a solution!

What a surprise!