Chapter 83.2

Placing the bowl down, the Ninth Princess reached out for the potted plant which hastened the Crown Princess to help her. Even Song Momo and two palace maids raised their hands vainly towards the bottom of the pot too lest she accidentally dropped the treasure.

As someone who is ignorant, the Ninth Princess clumsily turned the potted plant around and asked with a drool, “It smells so good, can it be eaten?”

“Not edible.” The Crown Princess covered her mouth and laughed lightly.

Yu Xiang sighed, “If I had known this thing was so good, I shouldn’t have undercut the sea merchant’s price when he sold it to me. I bought a packet of seeds for only two taels and even though only one pot has grown, it still seemed I have seized a huge bargain.”

Seemingly realizing she had actually given such a cheap gift and even revealing it in front of the host, she coughed in embarrassment while her round eyes darted to the Crown Princess’ face.

The Crown Princess likes the frankness and straightforwardness of Yu Xiang. Moreover, a gift was just a heartfelt token, instead she would not have known how to deal with it if the gift was too valuable. Although this potted plant merely cost two taels, it has redeemed her life back and this favor is enough for her to remember for the rest of her life. So, she laughed and said, “It is not you who seized the huge bargain but Bengong. In the future, Bengong will send you any novel plants or seeds that Bengong gets.”

Yu Xiang secretly breathed a sigh of relief and about to decline when the loud sound of babies’ crying came through the cubicle. Having just avoided the calamity of death, the Crown Princess was at her most emotionally vulnerable state hence she asked Song Momo to bring the two children to her immediately.

The little imperial grandchildren’s features have grown out and their fleshy bodies are all soft and tender like the joints of a lotus root, appearing absolutely adorable. The Crown Princess held one in each arm and kept calling them her darling. When she thought of herself being harmed and almost separated forever from her husband and children, her tears could not stop trickling down.

Seemingly sensing something, the two babies’ cries gradually diminished and started babbling while patting their mother’s face lightly with their chubby little hands.

“Niang-niang, please don’t cry, even the little imperial grandchildren are comforting you.” Song Momo handed her a handkerchief.

Returning the babies to their wet nurses, the Crown Princess took the handkerchief and wiped her tears. Seeing both the Ninth Princess and Yu Xiang stared unblinkingly at the pair of babies, she couldn’t help smiling and asked, “Want to carry them? Let the wet nurses teach you how to hold a child as both of you are just about there in two more years.”

The Crown Princess would never banter like this if they are not someone close. Yu Xiang and the Ninth Princess, however, did not blush at all as they stretched their hands out in unison and stared at the wet nurses with bated breath. The wet nurses, as if on the brink, explained in detail the correct posture to hold a child while carefully placing the little imperial grandchildren into their arms.

Tired of crying, the babies fell into dreamland with glistening tears still stuck at the corners of their eyes. From time to time, their mouths would move, making savoring smacking noises and their cute appearance melts everyone’s heart.

Yu Xiang was reluctant to let go as soon as she got started. She hung her head and gently rubbed the tip of her nose on the imperial grandson’s plump cheeks that still smelled of the sweet milk scent while her mouth kept mouthing the word precious darling. When she intended to nibble him, she saw a tiny black thread poking out of the little imperial grandson’s nostril. She reached her hand out to pinch and asked in surprise, “Niang-niang, how did little imperial grandson inhale a piece of thread in his nostril? Should we ask the imperial physician over to take a look?”

On the other side, the Ninth Princess also said, “Little niece has it in her nose too.”

The faces of the Crown Princess and Song Momo turned ghastly pale as if they had been struck by lightning and froze for a moment.

Yu Xiang, however, was hit even harder than both of them because she had twisted the piece of thread between her index finger and thumb before finding out it was squirming slightly while the thin end was sniffing and licking at her fingertips as if looking for a good place to take a bite.

How could this be a thread, it was actually a leech looking for a source of blood. Yu Xiang feared neither heaven nor earth but the thing that she feared the most in her two lifetimes was bugs. She felt her soul had already left her body: Holding the little imperial grandson steadily, she calmly spoke, “Niang-niang, this doesn’t seem to be a thread, it’s a leech which has crawled into the little imperial grandson’s nostril.”

The soul, however, was frantically scratching its hair and shrieked shrilly, ‘It’s a leech! How could a leech crawl into a human body? This is too horrible. Elder Brother, come and help!’

Just when she thought she was turning into a stone statue, Song Momo used a needle to pick away the leech that stuck on her finger and put it into a teacup, she then lifted the lower hem of her skirt and rushed out of the room, shouting all the way, “Imperial physician, where’s the imperial physician? Get the imperial physician over here quickly!”

The Ninth Princess was confused but the Crown Princess had already snatched the baby into her bosom and wrapped her tightly in a quilt before breaking down and bursting in tears. The room was in chaos for a moment. The Crown Prince came hurriedly over and asked the two little girls to leave the room then ordered the imperial physician to carefully check on the babies. He even moved the potted plant closer to the children’s heads with a gentle and loving expression at times then hideous and frightful next, no one actually knew what was going through his mind.

The first thing Yu Xiang did once she was out of the room was having a court lady bring a basin of water and rubbed her fingers vigorously, but the sticky and slimy sensation of the squirming worm could not be washed away no matter how. An inexplicable itchiness that had no way to be scratched then crawled up her skin, burning her heart and lungs.

The Ninth Princess refused to leave and stood guarded outside the room door. The court lady instead took Young Miss Yu to the side hall to wait as ordered by the Crown Prince. Yu Xiang, however, did not dare to stay any longer in the residence as she kept feeling worms crawling all over the place and trying to burrow into her flesh at the drop of a hat. She ordered someone to carry her out of the residence where Tao Hong and Liu Lu were waiting, who then hurriedly carried her into the carriage and covered her with a thin quilt seeing her trembling incessantly.

What Yu Pin Yan saw when he boarded the carriage was a disheveled haired girl with disarray clothes and covered in cold sweat out of fright while a strong gush of flower scent assaulted his senses the moment the carriage curtain was lifted making his eyes covetous, heart palpitated and mouth parched.