Li Yu did what he said. He didn’t particularly need any special preparation for this either. Rolling up his sleeves, he got started. And plus, it was only making a cucumber salad. It didn’t count as getting close to oil and smoke so it wouldn’t affect the little sweetie pie.
He was already in the middle stage of his pregnancy period. He was a bit more fond of sleeping than when he first got pregnant. Right now, however, he felt like he was strong as an ox. Don’t talk about smacking cucumbers, even if he had to smack elephants, it’d be no problem.
Li Yu still found Aunty Xu to help him. Aunty Xu was already numb to Taizi-fei’s culinary skills and very quickly got everything ready ahead of time.
Smacking was a type of activity that required strength. Aunty Xu didn’t want the pregnant Taizi-fei to do it and was just about to do it herself. Unexpectedly, Li Yu already swung the back of the knife over here and nimbly started smacking away.
The hand raised and the knife landed. The cucumber already broke into several pieces. Aunty Xu had no choice but to attentively act as Li Yu’s assistant.
“Huh, what’s this?” In the corner of a kitchen counter, Li Yu found an inconspicuous little jar which looked kind of like sugar or salt jars.
Aunty Xu accepted it and took a look. She smiled widely: “Master, this is the pepper only found in the South. Not much is produced every year. This tiny amount is worth more than gold.”
Li Yu: “……”
Li Yu almost thought he heard wrong. Wasn’t this just pepper?
In his original world, pepper wasn’t worth much.
However, he knew that this was ancient times. In the ancient era, spices were very valuable. Perhaps peppers were really worth more than gold?
Plus, to directly throw peppers, that were worth more than gold, inside a small jar just like this, wasn’t it way too casual?
The Crown Prince really refreshed Li Yu’s knowledge towards his obscene amount of wealth each and every time.
…… What did ancient peppers taste like?
Li Yu curiously sniffed the little jar. Sure enough, this taste still hasn’t changed in hundreds of thousands of years.
While Li Yu was taking a whiff, his hands accidentally shook. Plenty of peppers ended up landing on the cucumbers.
Li Yu: “…….”
These were the peppers that were worth more than gold ahhhhh!
He can’t let the peppers head into battle by itself!
Resolved, Li Yu added plenty of other condiments inside.
The grand hall of the Ministry of Rites.
Mu TianChi received the news that Wang Xi-gonggong hastily sent over. His originally emotionless face gained a bit of warmth.
The Crown Prince’s personality was aloof and cold. It was rare for him to look so amiable and approachable. The official from the Ministry of Rites gathered the courage to say: “Did something good happen, your highness?”
“……En.” For the first time, the Crown Prince nodded.
Xiao Yu was cooking for him. This was indeed something good.
However, if he was also making food for the kids……
The Crown Prince paused briefly. He needed to figure out a way to intercept it.
The Crown Prince summoned a guard and gave them instructions. The guard left in a hurry. Soon after, they returned holding two food containers.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
As it turned out, the Crown Prince had this guard return to the estate and think up a plan to secretly accept the assignment to bring the love bentos.
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Taizi-fei had instructed. The red color was to be given to the kids. The other green one was for the Crown Prince.
The guard followed the Crown Prince’s orders and first brought the two food containers to the Ministry of Rites.
Mu TianChi received both of the food containers and opened them to take a look. Then he took out another red container that looked exactly the same and placed a lot of snacks that the kids loved in it. Done, he ordered the guard to bring this to the Imperial Study.
The kids were still too young. Instead of making them understand the meaning of a white lie, and how to do it without revealing anything, it’s better for the Crown Prince to handle everything.
To the Crown Prince, this wasn’t hard at all. The Crown Prince himself didn’t actually like sharing Taizi-fei’s culinary skills with anyone else. Even if it’s the kids, he’d get jealous.
After forcibly seizing both of the love bentos, the Crown Prince sat down in a happy mood and took out the portion inside the green container that was made for him.
The officials at the Ministry of Rites were all extremely clever. When they heard that Taizi-fei had sent food for the Crown Prince, their eyes were filled with envy. As expected of people working at the Ministry of Rites, even in praising the Crown Prince couple’s deep love towards each other, they were full of creative words.
When they saw and smelled the weird aroma emitting from the cucumber salad on the Crown Prince’s plate, however, they all choked in unison, not knowing what to say anymore.
Other than the peppers placed inside the cucumber salad this time, there were also plenty of star anise and fennel. Under the awed gazes of the Ministry of Rites officials, the Crown Prince completely ate everything without a change in his expression.
The Taizi-fei went through all the hard work and troubles. When the Crown Prince and kids returned to the estate, they all said that the love bentos were very delicious.
The kids shouldn’t have lied. Was the Crown Prince’s portion also delicious?
Li Yu strangely felt somewhat guilty, however the Crown Prince remained smiling the entire time, and when he looked at Li Yu, the warmth at the bottom of his eyes couldn’t even be concealed.
Li Yu suddenly understood. The Crown Prince must really like peppers! He will remember this!
The Crown Prince was introverted. His preferences were mostly transmitted through his eyes. The kids weren’t the same.
“Dad, it was delicious!” Bao#2 yelled especially loudly and made a request out of love: “Want more tomorrow!”
“Not a problem!” Li Yu quickly agreed. The hubby and kids’ approval was the biggest encouragement to him.
Although he didn’t have a Koi’s luck in terms of culinary skills, was he not allowed to become a self-made genius?!
“TianChi, how about I cook for you everyday as well?” Li Yu wasn’t a person who’d forget the hubby just because he had sons. He liked taking care of them together.
The Crown Prince: “…….”
The Crown Prince smiled: “Okay.”
Li Yu was just about to boast shamelessly and commend himself when suddenly he clearly felt his stomach moving slightly.
Stunned for a moment, he finally realized what this was. Li Yu was so delighted that his voice changed an octave.
“Tianchi, come over quickly. She, she moved!” Ever since Li Yu got pregnant with the little sweetie pie in human form, he’s been secretly hoping to feel her move for a long time. However, even he wasn’t too sure what fetal movement felt like. Sometimes, his stomach would have a bubbly feeling, like he was pregnant with a fish. However, this was only his individual experience. The Crown Prince couldn’t feel it.
This time, it wasn’t the same. Someone seemed to have nudged him forcibly very quickly from inside his stomach. A bump faintly appeared on the surface of his stomach.
Li Yu was extremely certain that the little sweetie pie was moving here. Afraid that if he started moving, the little sweetie pie would stop moving, Li Yu didn’t even dare to blink his eyes as he called out to the Crown Prince.
Mu TianChi rushed over and hugged him. He also hugged Li Yu’s stomach. Almost like he had received encouragement, Li Yu grabbed the Crown Prince’s hands and placed them on his bulging stomach.
However, after waiting left and right, there was no more activity inside.
“Huh? Perhaps you’re out of luck this time?” Li Yu apologized jokingly and moved away the Crown Prince’s hands. Unexpectedly, after doing this, it started moving inside again.
Li Yu: !
Li Yu hastily placed the Crown Prince’s hands back on there. But all movement stopped again.
Li Yu didn’t know if he should laugh or cry: Little sweetie pie, please don’t play with daddy, alright?!
Perhaps she was able to feel fish dad’s complaints. This time when Li Yu placed the Crown Prince’s hand back on his stomach, the little sweetie pie lived up to expectations and continued to move.
“She…… is really moving!” The Crown Prince very quickly felt the strength under his palm and looked incredulously at Li Yu’s stomach.
“It’s our daughter!” Li Yu nodded his head smugly, feeling proud for the little sweetie pie.
“Dad, dad!” Bao#1, Bao#2, Bao#3, and Bao#4 crowded around him. The kids didn’t know how to express themselves and hugged Li Yu’s stomach together. After a while, they wailed all over the place: “Moving! It’s moving!”
Li Yu didn’t avoid the topic and told them that it was their little sister in his stomach. The kids corrected themselves in unison: “Sister moved!”
Seeing all of this from afar, Wang Xi couldn’t help but wipe his eyes. Although he didn’t really understand, since this was already Taizi-fei’s second pregnancy, why would the two masters still be so excited, however, even Wang Xi felt extremely emotional himself.
He didn’t know, although Li Yu already had four kids, this was the first time he was giving birth in human form. Of course, it’d feel very novel to him.
Even the Emperor was exceptionally concerned with Li Yu’s pregnancy this time. Since he learned about the pregnancy, he’s been ordering the Imperial Physicians over to the Crown Prince’s Estate daily to assess Taizi-fei’s status.
The little sweetie pie moved. The next morning at court, the Crown Prince spent the entire time with his mouth curved happily upwards.
The Emperor was very surprised. On the day he gave the Crown Prince his title, the other wasn’t even behaving like this.
He asked about it. The Crown Prince said: “My daughter moved. I’m happy.”
After learning the truth of this matter, the Emperor actually felt a bit sour.
The four Baos were born in the West Frontier. The Emperor wasn’t able to look after them. Even when holding them for the first time, they were already almost a year old. For the 5th child this time, the Emperor had been thinking this whole time about how to showcase his care.
However, the Imperial Physicians haven’t even confirmed whether the Taizi-fei had a boy or a girl this time, why would the Crown Prince be so confident?
The Emperor figured that since the Crown Prince husbands already had four sons, they probably really wanted a daughter. He heard that Taizi-fei had already picked a nickname already, calling the child little sweetie pie.
The Emperor thought about the Baos. Having a granddaughter this time didn’t seem bad either.
The Crown Prince returned to the estate, bringing back a pile of gifts that the Emperor had bestowed. The Emperor, who had verbally said he was only rewarding one or two, practically wanted to make up the amount for all four of the kids together.
When normal people received the Emperor’s gifts, they might overthink it a bit. After becoming pregnant, Li Yu’s response was usually one step slower. If he didn’t need to think, then he didn’t.
Right now, more months passed by. Li Yu started having trouble moving around. Li Yu, who originally thought that he had almost 10 months to slowly adjust to the situation, started to feel somewhat anxious regarding labor recently.
The JinJue Princess came over to visit him frequently. She didn’t quite understand Li Yu’s worries.
In the Princess’s eyes, Li Yu was already a God who had given birth to quadruplets. How could she have known that this was his first time?
However, the Princess still described her experiences under Li Yu’s request. The more Li Yu heard, the more scared he became. Instead of helping, it made him even more anxious.
After becoming pregnant, he usually slept extremely well. But now, because of his apprehension, he actually couldn’t sleep at all.
Li Yu uncomfortably flipped around twice, waking up the Crown Prince.
“Xiao Yu?” The Crown Prince rubbed the top of Li Yu’s head.
Li Yu was turned away from him, but he should be awake. However, the fish didn’t move at all. Mu TianChi carefully flipped this fish back over and discovered that fish was covered with tears and snot all over his face.
“What’s the matter?” Mu TianChi panicked and hastily hugged him.
Li Yu buried his head into his chest: “I…I suddenly feel somewhat afraid.”
He paused stunned, as if finally enduring until the breaking point, Then started crying uncontrollably.
It wasn’t because he didn’t want the child in his stomach. He had carried the little sweetie pie long enough to grow an emotional attachment already. The one who was happiest when the little sweetie pie moved was him. However, the fear was still true and genuine.
This was a personal fear related to facing the dangers of labor, which he had never experienced before.
The reason for crying, also had nothing to do with being weak. This was just the only way Li Yu could free himself from his worries– by expressing these emotions outwardly……
Li Yu encouraged himself relentlessly. He can definitely do this.
He wanted to push the Crown Prince, wanting the Crown Prince to not worry about him. In his pregnancy, he’s been more sensitive. He was already easily angered. Perhaps now he was just more of a crybaby.
Was this like trying to escape right before the start of a battle?
It was a bit dramatic. He even disdained himself a bit.
“I’m okay. Just a little emotionally unstable.” Li Yu said weepily.
However the Crown Prince didn’t actually leave just because of his rejection. Instead, he held Li Yu and stroked his back comfortingly.
“Xiao Yu, if you want to cry then just cry. Don’t force yourself.” Mu TianChi consoled gently. Li Yu had originally calmed down somewhat. Because of these words, he started crying some more.
The Crown Prince couldn’t really provide any help here. Li Yu understood this internally. And because he “couldn’t help,” it actually felt a bit “despicable”.
Pregnancy really wasn’t easy. In terms of physiological health and mental health as well.
Li Yu kind of wanted to complain. Clearly this child belonged to the two of them. Why did he have to endure the suffering alone?
Pursing his lips, he was busy being sulky and depressed when the Crown Prince rolled up his sleeve and extended an arm over.
The Crown Prince said in a low voice: “If you’re not happy, then just bite me.”
Li Yu: “…….”
Li Yu really did find an area on the Crown Prince’s arm with a lot of meat and took a vicious bite, clamping down without letting go.
The Crown Prince didn’t even furrow his brows. After Li Yu finished biting, the Crown Prince hugged him tightly and said sympathetically: “Unfortunately, it’s not even compared to 1/1000 of what you’re experiencing.”
“Don’t be afraid……” The Crown Prince said: “I will stay with you.”
Li Yu, who had shed many tears, felt his eyes shamefully turning red again.
Good thing the Crown Prince said these words. Li Yu had also finished taking such a big bite. Now he felt much better internally.
“I, I’m fine now– don’t worry.” Li Yu said hoarsely.
Sometimes fear grows like a snowball rolling downhill; however, as long as one realizes that they’re still loved, then even fear will be dispersed by love.
I feel bad for our fish 😭 labor is so scary and painful i hope he will be ok
Thank You for the chapter (｡’▽’｡)♡
thanks for the chapter!
System made this happen: system better ensure the outcome! Hahahaha!
We all need a Jing wang 🥹
I also want a Jing wang 🥹
if only husbands were this caring towards their wives, a lot of mothers wouldn’t suffer from post partum depression! why is this Jing wang fictional???
ikr😔
Uhmmm…👀how will the baboo came out? Through which orifice???💀😳 I’m ded
It’s mpreg so it’s a really ugly detail about its birthing process💀