Pregnant with the Empress’s Alpha Heir - Chapter 26.1

Nestled in Ah Jiu’s arms, Yu Zhitao finally regained some composure.

Feeling somewhat embarrassed, she tried to wriggle free to walk on her own.

But Ah Jiu wouldn’t allow it.

She held Yu Zhitao firmly, like a dragon clutching its long-lost treasure.

“Put me down,” Yu Zhitao sniffled, her nose red. “People are staring at us!”

Zhen Qianqiu looked up and scanned their surroundings.

The banquet guests who had been casting curious glances immediately averted their eyes some pretending to drink, others engaging in forced conversation, a few even bumping heads. Not a single person dared pay them any attention now.

“No one’s looking,” Zhen Qianqiu murmured softly.

This only made Yu Zhitao feel more mortified.

Their transparent act of feigned indifference, combined with Ah Jiu’s patronizing tone meant to soothe a child, completely dissipated her earlier sorrow, leaving only overwhelming shame in its wake.

So she buried her entire face deeper into Ah Jiu’s chest, becoming a proper little turtle retreating into its shell.

Fortunately, Zhen Qianqiu’s long legs carried them swiftly through the bustling banquet hall into the secluded imperial garden.

Ahead lay the Emperor’s private chambers.

As the surroundings grew quieter, Yu Zhitao finally relaxed slightly.

Peeking out to observe their location, she asked, “Ah Jiu, where are we going?”

“To let you rest,” Zhen Qianqiu replied.

Yu Zhitao nodded.

Bored during the walk, she began playing with the loose strands of hair near Ah Jiu’s temple.

“Your hair has grown so long,” Yu Zhitao murmured absently.

She gathered the silky strands, tickling her palm with the ends. The hair mirrored its owner, jet black, perfectly straight, radiating vitality without a single split end.

Zhen Qianqiu obligingly lowered her head, indulging the playful touches. “Bored? We’ll arrive soon.”

Yu Zhitao sniffled in acknowledgment.

Unbeknownst to them, the imperial guards following behind were on the verge of panic.

The Iron Empress was legendary for her ruthless efficiency, normally they maintained strict professional distance during reports. Yet here was someone practically climbing all over their sovereign!

Remembering the word overheard outside the banquet hall, the guards silently suppressed their confusion.

Yu Zhitao glanced around. “I think I’ve been here before.”

Zhen Qianqiu smiled. She possessed infinite patience for Yu Zhitao.

“Oh? When do you remember visiting?” she humored.

“In my dreams,” Yu Zhitao answered earnestly.

Zhen Qianqiu chuckled, nuzzling the crown of her head in response.

Undeterred, Yu Zhitao pointed right. “Is there a greenhouse over there?”

Now Zhen Qianqiu was genuinely surprised.

The palace’s inner layout had never been made public. Yet Yu Zhitao could pinpoint the garden greenhouse’s exact location.

Her steps slowed involuntarily.

Seizing the opportunity, Yu Zhitao slipped from her embrace and looked up pleadingly. “Can we go see?”

Zhen Qianqiu relented. “Alright.”

Yu Zhitao naturally extended her hand.

After a brief hesitation, Zhen Qianqiu reached out, gently interlacing their fingers.

Hand in hand, Yu Zhitao led her Ah Jiu toward the remembered greenhouse.

The further she walked, the clearer her memories became, and the more astonished she grew.

This path, which she had traversed over a dozen times in her dreams, actually had a real-world counterpart.

However, in the dreams featuring the young girl Ah Jiu, the garden had been largely destroyed by a beast tide.

But in the real palace, everything remained in pristine condition.

Lush trees and blooming flowers lined the path, and because it was nighttime, carefully designed lanterns illuminated the way, making it feel as though she were walking through an enchanted forest teeming with fairies.

At the end of the path stood a flower arbor.

It was September, and the weather in the upper district was still mild. Clusters of climbing vines wound around the wooden beams of the arbor, giving it an ethereal and picturesque appearance.

Yu Zhitao didn’t enter. She stood frozen in front of the arbor, murmuring, “It really is this place…”

Zhen Qianqiu, standing behind her, asked, “What’s wrong?”

Yu Zhitao affirmed, “This is the palace I dreamed about.”

Zhen Qianqiu gently squeezed her palm. “And then? What happened here?”

“I saw you about this tall.” Yu Zhitao withdrew her hand and gestured to her chest. “Back then, you were only ten, not very tall, but already so cool.”

Recalling her first lucid dream, she couldn’t help but laugh. “The moment we met, little Ah Jiu chased me around with a bow and arrows.”

Zhen Qianqiu insisted firmly, “That wasn’t me.”

Yu Zhitao teased her with a glance. “But later, she treated me very well.”

Pointing inside the arbor, she smiled. “Little Ah Jiu lived in there. After I arrived, she gave up her bed for me.

“I didn’t want to take it, but every time I woke up, I’d find myself lying on the only bed there.”

Zhen Qianqiu’s gaze flickered. “She… lived inside the flower arbor?”

Yu Zhitao nodded.

She sighed. “Right next to the magnificent palace, but she… was driven out, so she had no choice but to stay here.

“She could have gone back, but she stubbornly endured the hardship.”

Yu Zhitao stared at the real arbor, but her gaze seemed to drift far away, as if she had returned to that dream.

She repeated softly, “Ah Jiu,  it wasn’t her fault.”

Zhen Qianqiu looked at her with a complicated expression.

When she was young, she had indeed lived in this flower arbor for a time.

Back then, her father was away, and Zhen Wu You had fallen ill again.

One day, after returning from training, Zhen Wu You complained that the smell of her sweat made her eyes sting.

Zhen Qianqiu immediately wanted to wash it off, but her mother ordered her to be driven out.

At the time, the palace was guarded by her father’s personal guards.

They were furious at the former empress’s actions and wanted to stand up for Zhen Qianqiu, even nearly escalating the matter to the absent former emperor.

But Zhen Qianqiu stopped them.

Remembering the recliner in the arbor, she packed her things and lived there for over a month, only moving back after Zhen Wu You’s condition was temporarily stabilized.

To this day, Zhen Qianqiu had never thought much of the incident.

But now, hearing Yu Zhitao mention it, she suddenly realized.

Every scene, every detail of that event, even the looks her mother and sister had given her at the time, were all still etched in her memory.

Yu Zhitao’s dreams must be connected to her.

So, it turned out that this incident was her earliest and most deeply buried emotional wound.

Seeing no response, Yu Zhitao turned around and spoke to Ah Jiu again.

“Ah Jiu, it wasn’t her fault.”

Zhen Qianqiu bent down and gently pulled her into an embrace.

“Mhm, I know.

“It wasn’t her fault.”

Yu Zhitao raised her arms and hugged her back.

“Why is your heartbeat so fast?” Pressed so closely together, Zhen Qianqiu could feel the rise and fall of her chest.

Yu Zhitao began to stammer, “I’m a little nervous.”

Zhen Qianqiu was puzzled. “Nervous about what?”

A hint of a sob crept into Yu Zhitao’s voice. “I think I’ve just realized something huge.”

After comforting her Ah Jiu, she suddenly remembered something important.

This was the imperial palace!

Why would scenes of the palace appear in her dream?

Though the original body was a noble lady, she had no right to set foot in this place.

Which meant everything in the dream was likely where the young Ah Jiu had lived.

Thinking this, all the things she had overlooked along the way began flashing through her mind one by one.

The kneeling nobles and ministers, her stunned parents, and… that sentence Ah Jiu had said to a rather handsome woman before leaving.

What had she said again?

Dazed, Yu Zhitao asked, “Ah Jiu, what did you just order someone to do with my parents?”

Zhen Qianqiu replied, “I had them temporarily detained.”

Yu Zhitao frowned. “No, not that, the sentence before that one.”

Zhen Qianqiu suddenly smiled. “So you didn’t hear me clearly?”

“I think I heard it…” Yu Zhitao’s mind went blank. “Or maybe I didn’t.”

She had been too busy wallowing in her own distress to properly process anything.

Just as Zhen Qianqiu was about to lean in and whisper it again, Yu Zhitao clutched her stomach and crouched down.

“I can’t, Ah Jiu. My stomach hurts,” she said.

Zhen Qianqiu’s emotions had been in turmoil all night. She had barely calmed down after finding Yu Zhitao, only to be yanked back to the edge of a cliff by her words.

Without another moment’s delay, she scooped Yu Zhitao up into her arms again.

“Is Dr. Xi here yet?” she asked as she strode forward.

The moment she had spotted Yu Zhitao from afar, she had already signaled her subordinates to contact the affiliated hospital.

Wan Qing wasn’t present, but another guard stepped forward. “Your Majesty, Dr. Xi is already waiting in your chambers.”

Zhen Qianqiu didn’t even have time to nod before rushing toward her palace.

By the time Wan Qing finished handling the Yu family’s affairs and returned with Xiao Jiu, who had been forgotten in the banquet hall’s second-floor lounge, she found a crowd, including Dr. Xi, gathered outside the emperor’s bedchamber.

She strode forward and asked Xi Shuwen, “Where are Her Majesty and the others? Inside?”

Xi Shuwen nodded.

Wan Qing was confused. “Then why are you out here?”

Xi Shuwen replied lazily, “I’m not an obstetrician, and even as an assistant, I’m no match for our hospital’s professional nurses.

“Dr. Lin’s team is inside, examining Miss Yu.”

After answering, she eyed the cat in Wan Qing’s arms with interest. “Where’d this little one come from? So cute!”

Wan Qing tucked the cat behind her. “Don’t get any ideas.

“Her Majesty owns this one.”

Xi Shuwen regretfully withdrew her gaze.

After a pause, Wan Qing asked, “What happened to Miss Yu? Is she alright?”

Xi Shuwen said with lingering fear, “At first, when the Emperor carried her back, his brows were tightly furrowed, and all our hearts were in our throats.”

“But after the preliminary examination…”

She spread her hands: “Miss Yu was probably just overly tense, causing abdominal contractions and pain.”

“If there are no other issues, I believe they’ll be out soon.”

Wan Qing finally relaxed.

But Xi Shuwen grew curious and asked her, “Hey, who is that Miss Yu? To have the Emperor so concerned?”

Wan Qing recalled what Zhen Qianqiu had said earlier and replied woodenly, “The future Empress.”

Xi Shuwen froze: “Huh?”

Wan Qing decided to lay it all out: “The child in her belly is the future heir of our Empire.”

Xi Shuwen nearly covered her mouth: “Don’t say such things recklessly!”

“I’m not.” Wan Qing said, “His Majesty said it himself.”

“The entire banquet hall was in an uproar. Miss Yu’s parents were detained for offending her, and now her younger brother is surrounded by everyone offering congratulations.”

Xi Shuwen was astonished: “Such a thing happened?”

Wan Qing nodded.

Truth be told, she felt quite pleased.

Originally, the banquet was for the Grand Princess, and everyone had been fawning over Zhen Wuyou.

But after Zhen Qianqiu took Yu Zhiyi away, all attention shifted to the “future Empress and the Empire’s heir.”

They swarmed around Yu Zhihuai, while the original guests of honor, the Empress Dowager and the Grand Princess were completely sidelined.

When she returned, she even saw the Empress Dowager trembling with anger but forced to leave the banquet hall with Zhen Wuyou.

As Zhen Qianqiu’s adjutant, Wan Qing dared not openly express her disdain for the Empress Dowager and the Grand Princess, but seeing them humiliated secretly delighted her.

Feeling more at ease, she even had the mood to pet Xiao Jiu in her arms.

Before long, the door to the Emperor’s chambers opened.

Zhen Qianqiu personally escorted Dr. Lin out, discussing early pregnancy precautions as they walked.

The moment Xiao Jiu saw its true owner, it immediately abandoned Wan Qing, leaping to the ground and clinging to Zhen Qianqiu’s leg, scratching insistently.

Zhen Qianqiu picked it up and handed it back to Wan Qing.

Wan Qing: “?”

Xiao Jiu: “Meow?”

Zhen Qianqiu said, “Take it to the hospital for a checkup and a thorough cleaning.”

“Zhiyi is pregnant, we must be cautious in everything.”

Wan Qing snapped back to attention and nodded: “Understood, Your Majesty.”

Zhen Qianqiu nodded in satisfaction: “End the banquet early. There’s been too much today, finish up and rest.”

“Tomorrow… in the afternoon, summon the Elder Council to the palace. I have important matters to announce.”

Wan Qing saluted again: “Yes, Your Majesty.”

After giving his orders, Zhen Qianqiu dismissed the two maids inside and closed the door, shutting everyone out.

Wan Qing exhaled.

She instructed her subordinates to handle the remaining tasks, then carried Xiao Jiu and followed Doctors Xi and Lin to the adjacent hospital.

On the way, the three naturally began discussing Yu Zhiyi.

Wan Qing’s biggest concern was: “Is the child she’s carrying… really His Majesty’s?”

Dr. Lin grinned broadly: “We haven’t done a paternity test yet this was just to check the baby’s health.”

“But…”

“But what?” Xi Shuwen also grew impatient. “Stop keeping us in suspense.”

Dr. Lin coughed lightly. “The fetal neural wave readings have been analyzed. You might not believe it, but I can guarantee that’s definitely His Majesty’s child!”

“The last time I saw values this high was in the examination report when the Empress Dowager was pregnant!”

“That child is unquestionably His Majesty’s, and will undoubtedly grow up to be just as exceptional.”

Wan Qing was so overwhelmed with excitement that she lost her composure, even squeezing little Jiu too tightly in her arms.

The cat’s sharp yowl snapped her back to her senses, and she quickly lowered her head to apologize. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize.”

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