latelenovela Chapter 440 The Little Doctor Girl Knows How to Pamper and Flirt (Part 35)
Chapter 440 The Little Doctor Girl Knows How to Pamper and Flirt (Part 35)
When Siji was six years old, he had a special "teacher".
"Your Highness, this is millet." An old farmer from Lijia Village held up a handful of golden grains. "It's drought-resistant and can save lives in famine years."
The young prince carefully wrote it down on the bamboo slips and even drew crooked patterns on them.
Ji Xiaosong added from the side, "The millet porridge should be cooked until it's thinner so that the patient can digest it more easily."
"Ji'er, your younger brothers and sisters should learn too."
As soon as Ji Xiaosong finished speaking, the four toddlers were brought over by their wet nurses.
These are the quadruplets born to Ji Xiaosong when Si Ji was four years old: Si Su, Si Shu, Si Liang, and his only sister Si Sui.
"Big brother!" Si Sui rushed over in a childish voice, her little hands grabbing Si Ji's clothes.
Si Ji immediately put down the bamboo slips and lifted his younger sister onto his lap: "Sui Sui, look, this is millet. We can cook porridge with it."
Si Shu reached out curiously to grab it, but Si Su stopped her: "You can't just take it, you have to ask the master!"
The old farmer laughed so hard his beard trembled: "The young princes are so sensible."
*
Golden waves of wheat rippled in the autumn wind, the heavy ears of wheat swaying gently and making a rustling sound.
Seven-year-old Siji stood by the edge of the field, his small hands tightly gripping a sickle that was still somewhat heavy for him, his eyes fixed intently on a plump ear of wheat in front of him.
"Big brother, I want to get one too!" Si Liang said eagerly, waving his little hand.
"No, Liangliang is still too young, the sickle is too dangerous."
Si Ji shook his head, looking serious like a little adult, "When you're older, your older brother will teach you."
Si Liang pouted, but didn't make a fuss. He just squatted to the side and watched longingly.
Si Ji took a deep breath and, imitating a farmer, gathered the wheat stalks with one hand and swung the sickle with the other.
The sharp blade sliced through the wheat stalks, and the ears of wheat fell to the ground, but the awns also left several small red marks on his fair palm.
"Hiss—" He took a soft breath, but stubbornly pursed his lips, refusing to cry out in pain.
"Big brother!"
Si Sui, with her sharp eyes, immediately noticed the red marks on her brother's hands.
She ran over with her short legs and took out a handkerchief embroidered with small wheat ears from her bosom.
It was specially embroidered by Ji Xiaosong for her, and Sui Sui treasured it terribly, not letting anyone touch it on ordinary days.
“Sui Sui’s handkerchief…” Si Ji hesitated.
"Give it to my older brother!" Si Sui stood on tiptoe, holding the handkerchief in her small hands, and carefully pressed it into Si Ji's palm. "Mother said that if you blow on it, the pain will go away."
She puffed out her cheeks and carefully blew on her brother's palm, the warm breath brushing against the slightly red scar.
Sunlight filtered through her soft hair, casting dappled shadows across the wheat field.
Si Ji felt a warmth in his heart and squatted down to be at her eye level: "Thank you, Sui Sui."
"Does it still hurt, big brother?" Si Sui asked, blinking her big eyes.
"It doesn't hurt anymore." Si Ji smiled and shook his head, reaching out to rub his sister's head. "Sui Sui is really amazing."
"I want to help my brother too!" Si Liang squeezed in, not wanting to be outdone.
“Me too!” Si Su also stepped forward.
In the blink of an eye, several little kids gathered around, blowing air into their older brother's hand one after another, making a ruckus.
Si Ji was squeezed in the middle by his younger siblings, and his heart felt filled with something soft, making even the stinging in his palms seem insignificant.
On the distant ridge of the field, Ji Xiaosong quietly watched this scene.
A gentle breeze brushed her cheek, bringing with it the joyful laughter of children.
She gently touched the pale golden Heavenly Dao mark on her wrist, her eyes glistening with tender tears.
"Your Majesty?" Qingliu called softly.
"Let's go." Ji Xiaosong turned around, a smile on her lips. "Go prepare some candied fruit; the children must be hungry."
In the wheat field, Siji had already picked up his sickle again.
This time, his movements were much more steady.
Si Sui followed behind him like a little tail. Every time he cut a sheaf of wheat, she would cheer and pick it up, holding it in her arms.
Si Liang and Si Su were responsible for neatly stacking the wheat ears together. Although the stacks were crooked, the two of them looked very proud.
As the sun set, it cast long, long shadows of the seven small figures.
Those footprints, some deep and some shallow, left in the wheat field are like marks of growth; one day they will take root, sprout, and grow into towering trees.
*
On his eighth birthday, a torrential downpour occurred.
Siji was supposed to be in the palace receiving the congratulations of the officials, but he suddenly rushed out of the main hall.
The guards hurriedly caught up and saw the young prince standing at the palace gate, watching the grain transport convoy struggling to move forward in the rain.
"They're getting soaked in the rain!" Si Ji stamped his foot anxiously. "The grain will get moldy!"
Before the guards could react, he had already rushed into the rain, his small figure helping to push the grain cart stuck in the mud.
The passing people recognized the prince and exclaimed that they wanted to kneel down, but he stopped them, saying, "Uncle, help the cart! Food is the most important thing!"
This "escape banquet" caused quite a stir in the city.
The Minister of Rites was so angry that his beard bristled: "What kind of behavior is this! How could His Highness the Crown Prince..."
"What do you mean?" Si Di interrupted him, his gaze sweeping over the outside of the hall. Six little rascals had followed him out at some point. Si Sui was even holding an oil-paper umbrella taller than herself, stumbling and running into the rain, calling out, "Big brother! Sui Sui is here to help you!"
Emperor Si laughed three times and publicly bestowed his personal jade pendant upon his son, saying, "Only those who understand the people's livelihood can be considered wise rulers!"
That night, Emperor Si discovered that the lights in his son's bedroom were on until late at night.
Pushing open the door, I saw the little guy sorting grains across the table, muttering, "Millet for dry land, wheat for fertile fields..."
What's even more ridiculous is that his six younger siblings had sneaked in at some point, and one by one they were lying on the table, imitating him as he fiddled with the grains.
Si Sui even mimicked her brother's tone and said to Si Liang in a serious tone, "Liangliang, you can't eat this!"
*
In the early winter of the year when Si Ji was about to turn nine, Ji Xiaosong suddenly fainted while admiring chrysanthemums in the Imperial Garden.
The sun shone brightly that day, and golden chrysanthemums swayed in the wind. She was bending down to put a flower in Si Sui's hair when suddenly her body swayed, and she fell silently like the last leaf in autumn.
Si Sui was so frightened that she stood there frozen, scattering the wild chrysanthemums she had just picked all over the ground.
"Mother!"
Si Ji was the first to rush over, and the nearly nine-year-old boy was already able to catch his mother steadily.
The moment he touched Ji Xiaosong's arm, his heart skipped a beat.
The wrist beneath the sleeve was so slender that you could almost feel the bone, completely unlike the soft and warm appearance in my memory.
The Imperial Physician and three other imperial physicians were busy in the palace until the moon was high in the sky.
Emperor Si paced back and forth outside the palace. The seven children sat in a row under the eaves. The youngest, Si Sui, tightly clutched the hem of her brother's clothes, her eyes red like a little rabbit's.
"Big brother, Mother will get better, right?" Si Liang asked, looking up at his mother, his voice trembling with tears.
Just as Si Ji was about to answer, he saw the Imperial Physician walk out with a solemn expression and whisper a few words to his father.
Si Di swayed slightly, only managing to avoid falling by grabbing onto a pillar.
That night, Si Ji saw his father shed tears for the first time.
The majestic emperor knelt before Ji Xiaosong's bed, burying his face in her palms, his shoulders trembling like a lone boat in a storm.
"Xiao Song, you can't... the children are still so young..."
Ji Xiaosong gently combed her husband's hair with her pale fingertips, but her gaze went past him and landed on the seven small figures at the door.
Si Ji's heart tightened, and he subconsciously hid his younger siblings behind his back.
Si Sui crawled out from under his arms and stumbled to the bedside: "Mother, is it in pain? Sui Sui will warm it up for you!"
"Sui Sui is so good."
Ji Xiaosong smiled as she took her youngest daughter, but let out a muffled groan the moment she picked her up.
Si Ji could clearly see that the pale golden wheat ear mark on the inside of his mother's wrist was fading at a visible speed, turning from a dazzling gold to a dull gray-white.
The old physician's voice choked with emotion, "The Queen's body is like a candle that has burned out its last drop of wax."
*
The next morning, Si Ji knelt before his father, the emperor, with his six younger siblings.
The nine-year-old crown prince pressed his forehead against the cold gold brick, but his voice was as firm as iron: "I beg Father Emperor to allow my younger brother and sister and me to serve Mother the medicine."
Emperor Si looked at his seven children. The eldest, Si Ji, was only up to his waist, while the youngest quadruplets were still at the age where they needed to hold hands and ask for sweet cakes every day.
His Adam's apple bobbed a few times, but in the end he simply patted his eldest son's shoulder heavily.
From then on, Ji Xiaosong's palace became a school for children.
Si Ji gets up before dawn every day, first finishes his studies with the Grand Tutor, and then brings his younger siblings to visit his mother.
Si He and Si Miao quietly stayed by her side, occasionally serving her tea or keeping her company.
Si Su was responsible for reading agricultural books to her mother, Si Shu learned to identify medicinal herbs, and Si Liang always liked to tell jokes he had heard in the marketplace.
Si Sui, the most clingy little girl, practically lived in her mother's bed, even sleeping curled up in Ji Xiaosong's arms.
"Ji'er, bring me the 'Essential Techniques for the Common People'."
Even while bedridden, Ji Xiaosong persisted in teaching the children.
She leaned weakly against the headboard, guiding Si Ji in recording the crop growth cycles of various regions, occasionally interrupted by violent coughing.
Si Ji bit his lip as he wrote, the ink often smudged by his falling tears.
On the eighth day of the eleventh lunar month, Ji Xiaosong suddenly felt much better.
She ordered the palace maids to open all the windows, saying she wanted to see the first snow of the year.
Si Ji's heart pounded. He remembered the imperial physician saying that this was called "a final burst of energy before death."
"Ji'er, help me up." Ji Xiaosong's voice was as light as a feather.
Si Ji carefully supported his mother's thin back, barely feeling her weight.
Outside the window, fine snowflakes were falling. She suddenly grabbed her eldest son's hand: "Remember, those who know the five grains know the world."
Si Ji knelt before the bed, watching his mother take out seven notebooks from under her pillow.
The names of the seven individuals were written in neat handwriting on the cover.
"This is what your mother left for you..."
Her words were interrupted by a cough, and a glaring red plum blossom bloomed on the plain white handkerchief.
Si Sui burst into tears and rushed over to wipe the blood from her mother's lips with her little hands: "Mommy, it doesn't hurt, Sui Sui will blow on it!"
The other children also gathered around, eagerly trying to warm their mother's hands and feet.
Ji Xiaosong smiled and hugged them all, but tears kept falling down her face.
At that moment, the Emperor rushed into the palace.
This once invincible king on the battlefield now had his hair ornament askew and his court robes soaked with snow.
He knelt before the bed, holding his wife's hand, and muttered incoherently about the newly found divine doctor and the immortal herbs of Penglai.
Ji Xiaosong simply shook her head gently, placing her husband's hand on top of her children's hands.
“Aji”.
She suddenly changed her address, no longer using the dignified "Ji'er," but the affectionate term a mother would use to call her child: "Take good care of your younger siblings, and also take good care of... your father."
Her gaze swept over each child's tear-streaked face, finally settling on Si Di's face. "Husband, I'm so sorry..."
Si Ji felt the fingers in his palm suddenly lose their strength.
Si Sui, still a little dazed, snuggled into her mother's arms: "Mommy, Sui Sui is sleepy and wants to hear the story of Little Sparrow..."
Before the words were even finished, the little girl suddenly widened her eyes in horror.