Han Suiqin was pregnant, and it had been a month.
Wang Qingyao thought: Prince Qi is truly vigorous, hitting the mark in one go.
This matter naturally had to be told to Xiao Yun.
Xiao Yun was quite jealous: "Heh, among the princes, Prince Qi is the most fond of women. Since he was sensible, women have never stopped. Isn't it said that wine and women harm the body? How could he get pregnant so quickly? Am I not better at health preservation than him? I wake up early and sleep early, drink less, and don't indulge in women. Is he comparable? Can you find a man in Duanjing who is more self-disciplined than me?"
Xiao Yun seemed quite annoyed as he spoke.
Wang Qingyao laughed heartily: "My fault, my fault, you are a good ox, but my land is not very fertile."
Xiao Yun scoffed: "Are you worse than that Han Suiqin?"
Wang Qingyao educated him: "...Some women have an easy-to-conceive constitution, and can get pregnant with just a touch. Han Suiqin is probably of that constitution. I am of the normal type."
"So it has nothing to do with Prince Qi?"
"It has nothing to do with him, it's all Han Suiqin's credit."
Xiao Yun felt a little better.
The Wang family's attitude towards Han Suiqin's pregnancy was not very clear; they didn't know whether to be happy or ashamed.
An unmarried pregnancy would have drowned any young lady from any family with spit, and in severe cases, they would have been secretly strangled.
However, Han Suiqin was not a daughter of the Wang family after all.
Moreover, the Emperor had already bestowed the marriage. The main figures of the Wang family knew that Han Suiqin and Prince Qi had already consummated their marriage, but they did not expect her to be pregnant.
This was Prince Qi's first child, and it was a legitimate one. If it were a son, Han Suiqin's position would be stable forever. Perhaps in the future, she would be the Crown Princess, the Emperor, with boundless prospects.
Old Madam Wang and Wang Da secretly felt that Han Suiqin's belly was indeed impressive, but they could not celebrate it openly. Furthermore, the wedding date was also a problem. If they married six months later, Han Suiqin's belly would be quite large, and the royal family could not afford such a loss of face.
They had no choice but to inform Prince Qi. Prince Qi also did not expect to be so potent. Prince Rong's wedding was before his, and Wei Qing still had not conceived!
Prince Qi was smug for a while and went to the palace to beg the Emperor to move the wedding date forward.
Of course, he could not lie. He told the truth, which angered the Emperor and earned him a scolding. However, the Emperor ultimately cared for his grandson and issued an imperial decree. The wedding date was moved to the eighth of next month. The official reason given was that Old Madam Wang was gravely ill, and Han Suiqin, being purely filial, had begged the Emperor to advance the wedding to bring good luck to Old Madam Wang.
Although this was a grand excuse given to the public, everyone who attended the tea party that day knew what was going on, and rumors slowly began to spread.
There was nothing the Wang family could do but pretend not to know.
The Han family lived far from Duanjing. By the time they received the news, the entire family was rushing to Duanjing. Before the people even arrived, they had already asked the Wang family to help rent a large mansion with three courtyards.
The Ministry of Rites was busy preparing for Prince Qi's wedding, working tirelessly and cursing countless times in secret.
Which prince or county prince got married with half a year or a year of preparation time? Where was there only one month?
And this time, both the main consort and a secondary consort were entering the household together. Princess Yin Yue learned of Han Suiqin's advanced wedding date and also begged the Emperor to enter the household on the same day.
The Emperor agreed.
The Minister of Rites was so anxious that his mouth was covered in blisters, and he had lost a lot of weight.
Although the Han family had rented a mansion, Han Suiqin still decided to marry from the Wang family. She was now the prospective Princess Qi, and with her pregnancy, she was highly valued. Even the elders of the Han family dared not defy her, and she already had the air of a Princess Qi.
The Wang family decorated with red banners and hung festive decorations early to prepare. It was even livelier than when Wang Qingyao got married, but although it was lively, the scale was not as grand as then.
Although Prince Qi was a prince, he did not genuinely intend to marry Han Suiqin as his princess, so the betrothal gifts were merely conventional. Unlike the Xiao family, who were the wealthiest, they chose the most expensive and opulent gifts to attract attention.
The Han family had many daughters, and Han Suiqin was a concubine's daughter. Her dowry was only a portion from the family's common fund, and her own maternal aunt gave her some more. As an adopted daughter of the Wang family, the Wang family also contributed a dowry. Old Madam Wang was indeed generous, even supplementing some jewelry in private.
"You can't catch a wolf without sacrificing your child," Old Madam Wang said to Wang Da. She then thought of Wang Qingyao, who at that time she had not expected to be so favored by Prince Ding'an, thriving in the Prince Ding'an's mansion. She regretted not giving her some benefits then, which led to their current estrangement.
Therefore, when it came to Han Suiqin, Old Madam Wang's vision was far-reaching.
"Qin'er is even more fortunate than Er Yatou."
Wang Da nodded in agreement.
With a niece who was a princess and an adopted daughter who was an imperial consort, Wang Da no longer paid much attention to the Minister of Revenue. He also wanted to become a Grand Tutor and develop the Wang family into a noble lineage that would last for a hundred years!
On the sixteenth of February, Xiao Yun received a letter from Prince Dingnan.
Prince Dingnan wrote two letters in total. One was to Feng Jiangduo, which was five pages long. The other was to Xiao Yun, a thin piece of paper with a single sentence, recording the results of his investigation into the descendants of the creator of the Green Demon.
"Zhao Peng, went to Duanjing with a merchant caravan more than fifty years ago."
Even the name was found. Prince Dingnan was truly amazing.
The next day, the Ministry of Revenue, which had been busy for a whole month, also had news. They did not find any man who had settled in Duanjing from Nanzhou and was around sixty years old.
Xiao Yun did not believe it and asked them to directly search for someone named "Zhao Peng."
There were indeed more than a dozen people named Zhao Peng, but without exception, their ages did not match.
Xiao Yun and Wang Qingyao were somewhat dumbfounded.