Two days later, Hong Taiji left Shengjing once again. The midwife predicted that Jeje would give birth in about seven or eight days, but due to the pressing matters at the front lines, he had no choice but to leave his wife and children behind.
Da Yuer stood silently watching her husband disappearing into the billowing dust settled in distance, recalling how she had asked Hong Taiji the previous night if he could stay a few more days until her aunt gave birth. His refusal had been swift and unwavering.
"Miss, the sun is harsh today. Let's go back," Sumala approached her gently, trying to pull her out of her thoughts. "Everyone is watching."
Da Yuer nodded, and the two of them returned to the inner palace.
Along the way, she noticed the wet nurse holding her youngest daughter, pacing under the eaves. Wanting to cradle her child in her arms, Da Yuer reached out, but just as she extended her arms, a sudden scream echoed from Qingning Palace, followed by a flurry of chaos. Instantly, Da Yuer realized: her aunt was going into labour.
This was Jeje's third childbirth. She had married Hong Taiji at sixteen, and nearly twenty years had passed since then. Though their marriage was harmonious, his constant military campaigns meant they spent little time together, and the opportunities for her to conceive were few and far between. Despite two previous pregnancies, she had never borne him a son.
Now, at thirty-five, she saw this as her final chance.
The familiar, long-forgotten pains of labour gripped Jeje's body, testing her resilience. As she clutched Da Yuer's hand tightly, her voice trembled with both pain and urgency, "Yuer, if anything happens to me, you must take care of yourself. I'm sorry, I've wronged you."
"Aunt..." Da Yuer's eyes brimmed with tears as she watched her aunt endure the agonizing pain. In that moment, any resentment she had felt melted away. Shaking her head desperately, she choked out, "You'll be fine, Aunt. You'll give birth to a healthy baby boy."
Jeje, pale and barely able to bear the relentless waves of labour, clutched Da Yuer's hand so tightly that her grip almost pierced through her skin. Before Da Yuer was ushered out by the midwives and palace maids, Jeje's final words were still an apology, "I'm sorry."
Outside the delivery room, Da Yuer collapsed onto Sumala's shoulder, sobbing uncontrollably. She had always understood that her aunt was trapped in circumstances beyond her control, and Jeje's suffering far exceeded her own, by hundreds, by thousands of times.
As the sun set, Hong Taiji's troops were already far from Shengjing. While resting along the route, a group of messengers from the capital finally caught up to them.
They had no news yet of whether it was a boy or a girl, only that the Grand Consort had gone into labour prematurely.
The army had marched for an entire day, and turning back now would cost another day of travel. After weighing his options carefully, Hong Taiji made his decision: he commanded his eldest son, Hooge, to continue leading the troops forward, while he himself would return to Shengjing briefly, see his wife and the new-born child, and then immediately re-join the front lines.
Hong Taiji rushed back to Shengjing through the night, arriving just as dawn broke, the palace shrouded in silence.
As he approached the gates of Qingning Palace, he was careful not to disturb the peace, avoiding alerting the palace servants. Gently lifting the curtain, he slipped inside alone.
Through the exquisite Si Mei screen that had been seized from the Ming dynasty, he could see Da Yuer feeding Jeje some rice milk porridge. Jeje took a couple of bites before weakly pushing it away, her breath faint and weary. "Go sleep," she murmured, "You don't need to stay and take care of me."
"I'll sleep once you've fallen asleep, Aunt," Da Yuer replied gently.
Jeje, however, was overwhelmed with sorrow. "How could I sleep?" she sighed, her voice frail and mournful. "Why is my fate so cruel, Yuer? Why won't the heavens grant me a son?"
Hong Taiji's footsteps faltered, his hand unconsciously tightening into a fist as he stood frozen in place, listening.
"Yuer, you must strive harder. You're still young," Jeje said, her voice laden with grief. "I know I've forced you, pressured you, to bear a son for the Great Khan. I know the bitterness and resentment you hold in your heart, I understand it all. But we must have a son, Yuer— for our tribe, for your father and your brothers, for the future of the Khorchin."
The room fell into a heavy silence. Da Yuer didn't respond, and Jeje didn't press further. Huang Taiji's heart felt constricted, as though something heavy was blocking it, leaving him unable to release his emotions.
Finally, Da Yuer's soft voice broke the silence. "Don't worry, Aunt. I will bear a son. The next time the Great Khan returns, I will make sure he loves me more… Aunt, please take care of yourself."