Chapter 268 : A Series Of Happy Events (2)
Ye Shi made a trip to Jing Wangfu and brought back the good news that Song Ce Fei had a miscarriage.
Zisu whispered to Yuxi, “Miss, I heard she had a male fetus.” If this child were born, it would be Jing Wang’s eldest son, and his status would have been different.
Yuxi was not surprised that Song Linger would have a miscarriage. Yuchen had given birth to a son who then became Jing Wangfu eldest di in her previous life. However, Yuxi was more interested in how Song Linger had a miscarriage.
Zisu shook her head and said, “I didn’t inquire about this.”
Yuxi instructed, “Don’t ask about it for the time being.” This was a sensitive matter. So, it’s definitely not possible to inquire about it outside, and it was unnecessary to investigate it from within the residence. Song Linger’s fetus had been five months old, and the child had already taken shape. It would not be easy for her to have a miscarriage.
But that afternoon, Yuxi found out the reason from Qiu Shi’s side. Qiu Shi told her, “Song Ce Fei initially couldn’t keep her child, so she wanted to plant evidence to frame Yuchen. As a result, her plan didn’t work, and Jing Wang learned the truth instead.” The reason why Song Linger was able to get pregnant was that she had used tricks. After she married Jing Wang, the number of times he went to her room was pitifully low. In order to produce a child before Yuchen married into the wangfu, Song Linger used drugs to liven things up when Jing Wang was together with her. Since she conceived only after using the medicine, her pregnancy became very unstable, and it took the Imperial Physician a lot of effort to get her through the first three months. On the night Yuchen married into Jing Wangfu, Song Linger pretended to have a stomach ache and tried to trick Jing Wang into coming to her courtyard, ready to give Yuchen a hard time. She did not expect Yuchen to follow him along, though. Thus, when she saw the loving and tacit understanding scenes between Jing Wang and Yuchen, her ruse became real as she suddenly had pregnancy complications.
When Yuxi heard this, she somehow remembered a gossip that the maid had told her. If direct cousins married to each other, they would easily have miscarriages and fail to maintain their children. Even if they managed to keep them, they might be born with defects or poor health. At that time, this gossip spread all over the place. There were a couple of direct cousins who were married and had two children, where one became deaf and one mentally handicapped.
Suppressing the doubt in her heart, Yuxi asked, “The Imperial Doctor has concealed the real situation for her?” With Song Linger’s status, it was not impossible to force the Imperial Doctor to conceal the truth of her situation.
Song Ling’er’s idea could be considered quite sinister. Once Yuchen was charged with plotting against a wang’s son, she might have been thrown into a bottomless pit forever and never had a chance to redeem herself. Unfortunately, Song Linger’s scheme might be good, but what she didn’t expect was that Yuchen had already planted her people in the wangfu before her marriage. Concerning Song Ce Fei’s fetus was unstable, Yuchen already knew about it not long after she married, but she just waited for Song Linger to make a move. As soon as Song Linger proceeded with her plan, Yuchen would catch her in the act.
Qiu Shi nodded and said, “Speaking of which, Third Girl is indeed brilliant. You should learn more from her in the future.” Not only did Yuchen expose Song Ce Fei’s plot, she even made Jing Wang wholly disgusted with Song Ce Fei. At the same time, Yuchen also led the Imperial Physician to find out that she was pregnant.
Yuxi smiled and nodded.
When she returned to the Taoran House, Yuxi called for Momo Quan and spoke to her about the gossip she had heard in her previous life. “Momo, do you think this could be true?” The drug that Song Ce Fei used to liven things up in her bedroom was incense and was used externally, not internally. Hence, it was not very likely to harm the fetus. If this gossip was true, then Song Ce Fei’s unstable fetus was because she and Jing Wang were direct cousins.
Momo Quan was not the stubborn type. After listening to Yuxi’s words, she thought carefully for a moment before saying, “As far as I know, those direct cousins who married each other seem to have a harder time than others in terms of having children.” She had heard of several cases like easy miscarriage and having children with poor health. As for impaired children, she hadn’t heard of any. This was because people were mainly superstitious. If you had an impaired child, people around you would think it was retribution or punishment from God for your family. So if a child were born with a defect, they would dispose of the child privately and then tell the public that the child died after accidentally falling to the ground.
Yuxi took this matter to her heart.
Although there was no basis for it, Momo Quan also felt there was some truth to it. She was pretty surprised with this sudden question that she asked, “Miss, where did you hear such words?”
Yuxi shook her head and said, “I don’t remember. I read about it in a book a few years ago. I don’t know why I suddenly remembered this when my mother told me that Song Ce Fei had a miscarriage. ”
Momo Quan didn’t pursue it either. Anyway, Yuxi had a lot of secrets, and it was not surprising that she had another one. “It’s good that Miss knows about this. But, don’t tell anyone else.” It didn’t matter if Yuxi talked to people close to her, such as Qiu Shi. But if someone exposed her words to the outside world, she would easily be attacked.
Yuxi smilingly said, “I won’t tell anyone anything outside.” This kind of thing was without any factual basis after all. No one would believe it even when she spoke about it out loud. Instead, they would think she was talking nonsense. And why would she even do such an arduous and thankless task?
Another half month had passed in the blink of an eye, and it was already the middle of the fourth lunar month. Zisu looked at Yuxi, who was peacefully reading a book there, and asked, “Miss, isn’t Second Master Chen going to take the Palace Examination tomorrow?” She was reminding Yuxi to pay close attention to the Second Master Chen.
Yuxi smiled as she put down her book and said, “What’s wrong with the Palace Examination tomorrow? He had earned himself the second rank passed scholar previously, and his result for the Palace Examination will surely not be bad.” As long as Chen Ran did not suffer from stage fright, he would not have any problem getting one of the top three positions. If Chen Ran still had stage fright even with his background, it would be even worse than failing the exams. Of course, with Chen Ran’s temperament, there would be no way that he would have stage fright.
Zisu was about to cry. She had never seen anyone who didn’t care so much about her fiance. “Miss, when we get into the Chen family, you can’t have such an attitude anymore.”
Zijin brought up the pastries that Guo Daniang had just made and placed them on the table next to Yuxi. Then she said to Zisu, “Zisu Jiejie, don’t worry about it. Miss has a sense of propriety in her actions.” Zijin was baffled. She had only been away from the house for a few years. Why had Zisu Jiejie become such a naggy person?
Zisu became annoyed.
Seeing Zisu’s reaction, Zijin immediately disappeared into the kitchen. “I’ll go and help Guo Daniang with the cooking.” When she said ‘help with the cooking’, it could be said that she was learning how to cook properly. Perhaps because she was responsible for three meals a day on the mountain, Zijin was now interested in cooking and wanted to learn how to cook well so that others would not dislike her because of her cooking skills. Guo Daniang was not stingy either. When she saw that Zijin truly wanted to learn, she taught her very earnestly.
Yuxi looked at Zisu, whose face was all twisted up, and smiled, “Don’t worry, Chen Ran will surely win the top three positions.” She still had faith in Chen Ran.
Zisu honestly had nothing more to say.
Yuxi didn’t want Zisu to nag her anymore, so she immediately changed the subject by asking, “When will the Jiang family present gifts to finalise the betrothal?” The marriage would only be finalised once the families settled the bride and groom’s eight-character compatibility check-up. Of course, there were also cases where one of the parties would back out from the marriage arrangement after that, but such cases were very rare.
Zisu was most interested in this kind of thing. “It’s a coincidence that it will also happen tomorrow. Miss, do you know? Ever since the Jiang family came to propose marriage, the Fifth Miss and her personal have become the same as they were before.” Jiang’s family lineage and Jiang Hongjin’s looks and talents were not inferior to Chen Ran in every way. When Yurong had been given such a good marriage, she felt she had something to fall back on for life. Thus, she could no longer suppress some of her old temperament. The maids around her were naturally affected by this. Fortunately, these people knew that the people of Taoran House were not people they could freely push around. Even if they wanted to bully other people, they wouldn’t dare to do so to the people of Taoran House. [+]
When Yuxi heard this, she laughed a little and said, “It is easier to change the mountains and rivers than to alter one’s character.” At that time, she didn’t know if she had lost her mind when she wanted to mess up the marriage. If she did, not only would she not get Yurong’s gratitude, she would unquestionably hate her for the rest of her life. She should never do such a stupid thing again in the future.
The results of the Palace Examination did not need to wait for the following day to be released as they came out on the same day as the test. In response to Chen Ran being given the title of tanhua, Yuxi only felt that it had happened as she had expected, without any other feelings.
On the other hand, Qiu Shi couldn’t stop smiling and was busy asking people to set off firecrackers to celebrate.
Yuxi hurriedly stopped it and advised, “Mother, Chen Ran being titled tanhua is a great joy for the Chen family. If our family also set off the firecrackers, we would be laughed at.” Although a son-in-law could be considered one’s half child, she hadn’t even entered the Chen family’s gate yet!
Qiu Shi patted Yuxi’s hand and agreed with a smile, “Okay, I’ll follow just as you said.” It was an absolute honour to have a son-in-law who was titled tanhua!
After spending half a day with Qiu Shi, Yuxi went back to her Taoran House. When she arrived there, the smile on her face immediately disappeared, and she looked preoccupied.
Zisu asked hastily, “What’s wrong with you, Miss?” For Guye to have the title tanhua, it should be a delightful thing!
Yuxi’s heart became heavy as she replied, “The title zhuangyuan is given to the Grand Chancellor Yu’s family. The title bangyan to Song Guifei’s family and the tanhua for Marqui Taining’s Chen family. While, the chuanlu is taken by Vice Minister Jiang of the Ministry of Personnel’s family.” She would not have known what all this meant in her previous life, but now she was trembling with fear.
Zisu didn’t understand. “What’s wrong with this, Miss?”
Yuxi didn’t explain to Zisu. Even if she did, Zisu wouldn’t understand it anyway. “Go and call Momo Quan to come over.” She could still discuss this matter with Momo Quan.
When Momo Quan heard Yuxi’s words, she asked calmly. “What does Miss want to ask?” Such a thing was not an unusual thing for Momo Quan.
Yuxi gave out a wry smile. She had long heard from Han Jianming about how corrupt the administration of local officials was. But, she never thought it would reach this far. The Imperial Examination was a significant event for the court, and it was not too much to say that it was the country’s foundation. After all, the Emperor and the Imperial Court selected most future pillars from this event. If something went wrong with the Imperial examinations, the entire Imperial System would collapse. “Why did Momo return to the capital from Shaanxi that day?”
Momo Quan didn’t hide it, as she said, “Miss already knew it.”
Yuxi nodded and said, “I know. But does Momo thinks that the capital is safe?” The country was already on the verge of collapse, and no one could guess how much longer it would last.
Momo Quan shook her head and said, “I don’t know, but I know that the taxes in Shaanxi and Gansu are so heavy that the people have long been overwhelmed by it. Sooner or later, there will be chaos there.”
Yuxi commented, “When the world is in chaos, it is the common people who suffer.”
Momo Quan felt that she really couldn’t understand what Yuxi was thinking. “Miss, you don’t need to worry about that.” No matter how chaotic the outside world was, with the shelter of the Chen family, Yuxi did not need to worry about the future.
Yuxi shook her head and said, “Can eggs remain intact under the nest that has been overthrown?” When the world was really in chaos, no one would be able to avoid it. Only those who were lucky would suffer less.
In response, Momo Quan didn’t know what to say. Sometimes she regretted that she should not have encouraged Yuxi to read history books in the first place. Reading too many history books had too many after-effects. For example, what could a woman do if the world was in chaos other than adapting to her circumstances? But Yuxi was somehow being very compassionate towards the people of the world? This was not something she should be thinking about at all, was it? Momo Quan pointed out, “Miss, these are not things you should worry about.” Yuxi shouldn’t even be concerned about it.
Yuxi smiled bitterly. “Momo is right. I am the one who worries about it too much.” She had fled the disaster herself and knew how miserable those days would be. So when she thought of the time when many people would be destitute and homeless, her heart could not bear it. But as Momo Quan had said, what could she even do if she worried? She could do nothing except to add to their worries.
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter