Chapter 170: Volume 1, Chapter 170: Pregnancy

With Yuan Bao's intervention, the Internal Court Bureau was thrown into chaos—at the mere mention of an audit, who didn't have something to hide?

Everyone's first thought was that they had gone to the Empress Dowager to complain, which meant they had offended Noble Consort Rong, and Noble Consort Rong would turn right around and deal with them.

But they weren't about to give up so easily; when the Late Emperor was on the throne, there had also been audits, and they already had a familiar routine for dealing with them.

What they never expected was that audits under the Late Emperor had been merely for show, whereas this time Rong Luoge's audit was meant to make them bleed.

Add to that Yuan Bao's covert maneuvering, slowly breaking apart what had been an iron plate, using rhetoric to attack people's hearts—after all, if you didn't throw in with the Noble Consort, someone else might, and given how many benefits the Internal Court Bureau had swallowed over the years, whether they could even keep their lives was an open question, not to mention their families would likely be implicated.

Under such circumstances, the choice one made was the only chance; once missed, there would be no other opportunity to make up for it.

Yuan Bao had followed his master Shi An for so long that his grasp of manipulating hearts couldn't be called perfect, but it was seven or eight parts there; he put on a fine show of borrowing another's authority, leaving the people of the Internal Court Bureau on pins and needles, and inevitably they began to suspect whether others might betray them to throw in with the Noble Consort.

Thus, once people began to suspect one another, prying open this iron plate was only a matter of time.

After Rong Luoge handed the Internal Court Bureau matter over to Yuan Bao, she began to turn her attention to the Imperial Manufactories Bureau.

In her plan, she wanted to build the Imperial Manufactories Bureau into a complete assembly line like those of later generations; the greatest advantage of assembly line work was that practice made perfect, and secondly, it allowed each part's secrets to be kept in one's own hands, not easily mastered by a single person, thereby reducing the possibility of leaks.

As for leaking secrets, that wasn't a major concern here; the most important thing was still to increase production efficiency, so an assembly line was worth setting up, especially in the paper armor trade—the technical skill required wasn't high, but extreme proficiency was needed to accelerate output.

Rong Luoge marked out every step of the paper armor production process, then listed them one by one in sequential order, striving to minimize the time needed for each step and to help everyone increase their speed as quickly as possible.

Such a production method commonly used in later generations would not be easy to promote in this era where craftsmen earned their living and took pride in their own skills, but it was different in the Imperial Manufactories Bureau, because the bureau belonged to the imperial court—you did whatever you were told to do.

Moreover, this craft didn't take away anyone's existing livelihood; it was an entirely new method of making armor, so people shouldn't resist it, and promoting it would be relatively easy.

Rong Luoge wrote and sketched for half a day until she was exhausted; everything she looked at had double vision, and her head buzzed faintly, so she had no choice but to set down her brush and rest for a while.

She had been stretched too tight these days; Han Xinglan, as emperor, had it hard—rising earlier than the rooster and sleeping later than the dog—but in truth she wasn't far off either; pot shouldn't call kettle black.

She fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow, heavy and dazed; when Han Xinglan returned she was still sleeping, which was quite rare, so he called Rong Xin and the other maid over to ask what had happened.

Rong Xin hurriedly replied, "Early this morning, the Empress Dowager had Her Highness the Noble Consort make a trip to Funing Palace. After she returned, Her Highness dealt with the Internal Court Bureau matter, and after dealing with it she didn't rest but went straight into the study. She spent most of the day in the study, came out, and fell asleep the moment she lay down. We servants wanted to summon an Imperial Physician, but Her Highness wouldn't allow it."

Han Xinglan reached out and placed his hand on Rong Luoge's forehead; it felt a bit warm, so he immediately sent someone to summon an Imperial Physician.

The Imperial Physician arrived quickly, paid his respects to His Majesty, and immediately stepped forward to take Noble Consort Rong's pulse.

Rong Xin lowered the bed curtains and placed a handkerchief over her wrist; only then did the Imperial Physician step forward and rest his fingers on Noble Consort Rong's wrist.

Han Xinglan watched the Imperial Physician with some anxiety, glancing at Rong Luoge from time to time; she had always been strong and healthy, and rarely showed such exhaustion.

After a moment, they saw the Imperial Physician rise, his face full of smiles, and say to him, "Congratulations, Your Majesty. Her Highness the Noble Consort is with child."

Han Xinglan was taken aback—with child?

They hadn't shared a bed since the Late Emperor passed away; Han Xinglan's mind raced—it must have been before the passing, and counting the days, it had to be at least a month and a half.

Just as he was thinking this, he heard the Imperial Physician say, "Her Highness the Noble Consort's pregnancy is not yet two months along. She must rest and not overexert herself."

Han Xinglan's eyes couldn't help but fall on Rong Luoge's belly, feeling a twinge of regret—if only they had found out before his enthronement, he could have made her empress. But counting the time, the child would have been less than a month old then, and indeed it couldn't have been detected.

Still, he was also very happy now; this was wonderful—Luoge wouldn't have to keep worrying about whether she could have children.

The Imperial Physician, seeing His Majesty so pleased, became all the more certain that Noble Consort Rong's position was extremely secure; he carefully wrote a prescription to stabilize the pregnancy and instructed the palace attendants to watch her diet.

The Emperor gave a slight nod and said, "This is the Noble Consort's first pregnancy. You must serve her well."

Because they were still in mourning and it wouldn't do to appear overly joyful, the Emperor suppressed his emotions and sat by the couch, watching Rong Luoge as she continued to sleep soundly.

Before withdrawing, the Imperial Physician inadvertently glanced up and saw His Majesty holding Noble Consort Rong's hand, gazing at her; he quickly lowered his head, not daring to look again, and hastily backed out.

The Imperial Physician left Yuzhao Gong with a hefty reward, musing to himself that if this one gave birth to a prince as her first child, it would be His Majesty's eldest imperial son, and her position would then be truly secure.

Wasn't the court officials' biggest complaint about Noble Consort Rong that she had entered the Dong Gong earliest yet had no children?

Now that Noble Consort Rong was with child, he wondered what kind of faces those people would show.

Rong Luoge opened her eyes to find Han Xinglan sitting by the couch, watching her with a smile; she instinctively touched her face, and Han Xifeng's smile only grew wider at the sight.

Rong Luoge, not understanding why, braced her arms to sit up; Han Xifeng quickly reached out to help her up.

Rong Luoge looked at him in bewilderment. "What's wrong with you?"

Perfectly fine yet a bit unnerving.

The smile at the corners of Han Xinglan's mouth grew wider and wider; he pulled her into his arms and whispered by her ear, "You must be careful now—you're carrying two lives."

Rong Luoge was stunned—two lives?

"I'm pregnant?" Rong Luoge felt nothing; from the Late Emperor's passing to her entering the Hou Gong and taking over these matters, the days had flowed by like water, and she hadn't felt at all that a tiny life was growing inside her.

Han Xinglan nodded, gently released her, and said with a smile, "Yes. We're both fools."

Rong Luoge still felt it was a bit unreal, looking at her own belly. "I didn't expect it either. I've been too busy these days."

Irregular menstruation happened often enough in later generations too—sometimes early, sometimes late. When her period didn't come this month, she hadn't thought anything of it. Who knew she was pregnant?

Rong Luoge looked up and met Han Xinglan's gentle gaze watching her; seeing the unguarded joy in his eyes, she couldn't help but smile along with him.