Faithful Heart (Flesh of my Flesh...Blood of my Blood 2)

Chapter 88

Author's note: My goodness, it has been a long time. But I am still committed to seeing this fanfic through to the end. This fanfic will end at the 100 chapter mark. All the plot has been written out for this to happen. In this chapter, DongFeng and Baby are featured heavily; also Feng Jiu finds she has a few problems in her Kingdom.

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The first few days after birth were the most painful and felt the longest to Feng Jiu. Her body was bruised and aching, not as bad as when she had gone to war, but this was a different sort of pain. Donghua had sat by her side, and outstretching his hand, he had pulsed healing energy into her body, speeding up her recovery.

Gungun was a joy. Not a second would pass that she did not want to gaze upon his tiny face or play with his hands. If she was not breastfeeding him, Donghua would hold him and rock him to sleep. A small cot had been brought into the room, and Donghua would sleep on it during the night to care for Gungun if he woke up crying.

By the end of Gungun's first week, Feng Jiu had recovered from giving birth and could leave the bed independently. Biyu stayed at Tai Chen Palace to cook for her daughter, and Feng Jiu was glad to have her mother help her with her newborn son. Babies were demanding. Feng Jiu had spent many sleepless nights soothing Xinji's crying, and now she was doing the same for Gungun. If it were not for Donghua, who was sleeping in the room helping her care for their son, she would have been drunk with sleep in the mornings.

Mi Gu and Hou Ming had visited Tai Chen Summer Palace with reports, all was quiet in the Eastern Lands, but Feng Jiu felt she had left her Kingdom alone for too long. The responsibility to go back started to nag in the back of her mind. Once Gungun turned five months, she packed up and, riding a cloud with Donghua at her side, she descended into the Eastern Lands with her son in her arms.

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The lakes and rivers of Quing Qiu greeted her eyes as the clouds dissipated past the tall green mountains. It had rained not too long ago, and the fragrance of wet earth and grass filled her lungs with happiness. Quing Qiu was Feng Jiu's home, the Eastern Lands, where she had played as a child. She wanted to raise her son here, amongst the lakes and mountains covered in the thick, lush Forest. As they neared the fox den carved from magical stone, she saw Migu at the entrance, waving wildly at them and smiling with Hou Ming at his side.

The cloud they were riding dissipated, and they touched the ground gently. Mi Gu and Hou Ming immediately swarmed Feng Jiu, gawking at Gungun, who doubled his size in four weeks. Feng Jiu had dressed him in a blue romper and wrapped him in a blanket to keep him warm during the cloud ride, but her arms were getting tired, and she passed him on to Mi Gu as they walked inside the den.

"Cousin, we got the basinet delivered yesterday and prepared the adjoining room for the babe," Hou Ming said as Feng Jiu headed into the kitchen thinking of dinner.

"Thank you, Hou Ming," Feng Jiu smiled. "I am going to need some ingredients for dinner tonight, and we can talk then."

Mi Gu left with Hou Ming to the Mushroom Market riding an old fashion pulled on by two horses with a list of ingredients on hand. Feng Jiu took the opportunity to feed Gungun and bring out the sheets from the closet to make the bed. She cut some vegetables from the garden and dug up potatoes, purple sweet jam and carrots. In the kitchen pantry, she found the pickled vegetables and jams she had made some time ago ready to eat. Hou Ming and Mi Gu returned with the rice and lamb she had ordered, and Feng Jiu turned it into a hot pot.

Donghua fed a curious Gungun a bit of plain mash purple jam before placing him in a small bassinet. Hou Ming rattled numbers, silk production orders and various matters of veteran Qing Qiu soldiers settling in on their new farmlands. Mi Gu talked about how the Forest had slowly come out of mourning from losing Caspara Baba, allowing a few select visitors and approvals of parcels of land for monoculture of crops. Gungun grew started to fuss in the middle of the conversation, and Donghua picked him up from bassinet, taking him away for a bath.