“How could it be?” Ruan Ruyi shirked orally, but her facial expression became quite unnatural. Her hands were wringing the handkerchief under the sleeves, looking rather nervous, “Third Sister-in-law, didn’t you know that married women should not take that incense with her?”
“Oh,” Qin Yunuan glanced at Ruan Ruyi. She was quite sure that the one who put musk in her house belonged to Tang and Ruan Ruyi. However, seeing that Ruan Ruyi felt nervous about little things, she was no more than an accessory criminal. Xie Ruying was only a helper. Qin Yunuan smiled at Ruan Ruyi, “Now I know. Thank you for your reminding. Now that I am pregnant, when I’m back, I will be very careful and examine everywhere.”
“Pregnant?” Ruan Ruyi was so surprised that she forgot about the manner and caught Qin Yunuan’s sleeve directly, “Are you pregnant?” It was impossible! With so much musk, how could she be pregnant?
“Yes,” Qin Yunuan replied happily, “Yesterday, the royal doctor made a definite diagnosis in the palace. What? Haven’t you heard about it?” How could she ever hear about it? Although last night Leng Changxi sent all relatives in the Prince Ning’s Mansion out of the Royal City and arranged them temporarily in a manor in the suburbs of the Royal City which belonged to Prince Ning’s Mansion according to Guo Shidong’s prediction, all he did was to deceive the public so that Prince Ray and his people would lower their guard, thinking that even the famous General Leng believed Guo Shidong’s words. But for what else happened, people like Ruan Ruyi knew nothing about it.
“Well. Congratulation to you,” Ruan Ruyi was a little absent-minded, looking disappointed. As the sister-in-law in the Prince Ning’s Mansion, it had been nearly three years since her marriage, but she showed no signal of getting pregnant. Since her husband was the legitimate son, she always wanted to get pregnant before others did and gave birth to a son, who would be, in this way, not a legitimate son but the eldest son. That was why she agreed on the method of Tang, her mother-in-law, to prevent Qin Yunuan from getting pregnant as best as she could. Now she had run out of methods. She could only blame herself for not getting pregnant quickly.
Qin Yunuan gave out a small smile as bright as a sunflower, “I’ve heard that sister-in-law has made friends with Miss Xie in the East Court. She will be present today. We can have a good talk.”
“Yes,” Ruan Ruyi forced a smile. Xie Ruying’s love for Leng Changxi was clear to everybody in the mansion. When she heard that Qin Yunuan was pregnant, she must be quite disappointed.
With Ruan Ruyi in the front and Qin Yunuan following, they entered the Chrysanthemum Garden and heard the waves of laughter and cheerful voices in it.
“Aunt, the Begonia in your courtyard is so beautiful! There is also the most precious Green Begonia here. Prince indeed treats you well,” the flattering voice was familiar. By the form of address, it seemed to be Consort Cao’s niece. However, Qin Yunuan had never heard there was such a person.
There were lots of flowers in the garden, all of which were Begonias. Bright red ones, rose red ones and even the green ones supplied especially by West Xia, which cost much effort by gardeners in West Xia to develop such amazing color. Qin Yunuan only saw it from afar in the Royal Palace. To her surprise, it would also appear here.
The flowers were beautiful, and the wind was gentle. Consort Cao wore the madder red bouffant. Bright color was not beneath her dignity but made her transcendent in the scenery. But the decoration on her hair was rather simple: a bead flower made by tortoiseshell agate and a pair of jade hair clasp, which were what a person worshipping the Buddha should look like.
Opposite Consort Cao, the one who was calling Consort Cao as “aunt,” was nobody else but Dou Meishuang, whom Qin Yunuan had seen in the Qin Family. She was smiling so sweet that her eyes and eyebrows were all curved. There was no more upset that once appeared on her face when the Dou Family collapsed, and she first came to the Royal City. She even greeted Qin Yunuan the moment she saw her, “Third Young Madam, Grand Young Madam, you come.”
“My greetings, Consort Cao,” Ruan Ruyi and Qin Yunuan both curtseyed to Consort Cao.
“Don’t be so polite. We are all families. There’s no need to be so courteous.” Highly cultured and steeped in propriety, Consort Cao could easily gain good impressions from others. If Qin Yunuan hadn’t known about agrimony, she would have liked Consort Cao.
The moment everybody sat down, tea, fruit, and snacks were served to the table, in which sweet glutinous rice cakes were rather pretty. They were supposed to put right in front of Qin Yunuan, but Consort Cao asked servants to put the dish away from her.
“Now that you are pregnant and the glutinous rice was cold, you’d better avoid having it,” that was her reason.
Consort Cao said with a smile and much care in her voice. But all the guests were shocked.
“What?” Tang could hardly hide her surprise, “Third Young Madam, are you pregnant? Have doctors diagnosed? Don’t be a mistake.”
Qin Yunuan saw Tang out of the corner of her eye and said calmly, “The royal doctor in the palace has already diagnosed. I’ve been pregnant for more than one month.”
The moment she spoke, Qin Yunuan almost heard the voice of Xie Ruying grinding her teeth. Qin Yunuan’s pregnancy meant that she had fewer chances.
“That’s good,” Consort Cao smiled to relax the atmosphere, “It’s been a long time after a child was born in our mansion. This time, the mansion will be lively again.”
With Consort Cao’s words, others, especially Tang, had to chime in with her with some congratulating words. Qin Yunuan replied with a gentle smile.
During their conversation, there were servants offering fruit wine and cakes. Suddenly, there came a thud implying that a clay pot was broken. When the people turned their heads, they saw a servant, who was tall and handsome, standing embarrassingly by the broken pot. There was light green in the wreckage and the mud. The servant had broken the most precious green Begonia!
“Hey! What are you doing? Didn’t you know that it is the green Begonia that our consort likes most? Selling you won’t pay one petal of it,” the old nanny in charge came immediately to criticize the servant and put in a good word to Consort Cao, “It’s my fault. It’s my fault that I didn’t manage the servants well.”
“Don’t hurry,” Consort Cao seemed not to be angry at all, but raised hands to call the servant, “Come here. I found you sad when you did things. What’s more, you wiped the tears from time to time. Have you met with some difficulty?”
Consort Cao’s voice was natural and kind as if she had been the living Bodhisattva. While the servant was quite tall, he appeared inferior when bowing in front of his masters.
He shrugged his shoulders, seeming to bear his tears. Suddenly he kneeled down, not towards Consort Cao but towards Qin Yunuan, kowtowed while cried in a trembling voice, “Third Young Madam, please! Please let go of my old father. Our family has been having one single son for nine generations. You are Third Young Madam of Prince Ning’s Mansion. I’m not good enough for you. Please stop harassing my father.”
The unexpected words braced everyone here up.
“Stand up,” although everybody was watching Qin Yunuan, she was very calm, “What do you mean by ‘old father’ and ‘not good enough for me’? I don’t understand.”
“Yes. Stand up and speak what you want to say slowly,” Tang seemed to realize the scheme behind it. She smiled coldly.
Straightening up, the servant said slowly, “My name is Li Long. I used to do rough work in the Carp Pool. Because I am strong, I was arranged more work than others did. One night, when I was the last one to leave the Carp Pool, I found Third Young Madam entered the yard totteringly. I was about to make a detour when Third Young Madam called me. She seemed not to be conscious at that time. She suddenly… suddenly….”
“Suddenly what?” Tang looked excited.
Li Long gritted his teeth, “She suddenly hugged me and said that she always liked me. She ordered me to obey her. Then she began to disrobe and forced me to have sex with her.”
All at once, all the people gasped and thought in their minds. It was surprising that the Third Young Madam, who was intimate to Third Young Master, had committed adultery secretly.
“How come I don’t know about what you’ve said?” Qin Yunuan glanced at Li Long, who was really handsome, “Everyone knows how to tell lies.”
“I’ve got a keepsake,” Li Long began to grope from his waist. Suddenly he pulled out a flower-patterned fringe, which Qin Yunuan recognized that it was indeed made by her, “This is the keepsake that Third Young Madam gave to me. There is also the same one in her waist. She said that she only wanted to be with me and that it was the real happiness to be with me. But then I realized that I could not let Third Young Master down, so I refused many times. Third Young Madam sent people to make trouble in my home on purpose. My father has been scared to coma. Now his medical fee hasn’t been settled yet. That’s why I….”
Consort Cao frowned as if she had heard of something extremely dirty. She looked at Qin Yunuan and said, “Didn’t you have anything to say?”
“Yes,” Qin Yunuan glanced at Li Long coldly and pointed at the flower-patterned fringe in his hand, “I’ve made many such flower-patterned fringes. Almost all servant girls and nannies in my yard have them. It’s easy to get one, so it cannot prove anything. If it can be seen as proof, then any lady in the mansion can be accused of adultery casually. I don’t know this guy, neither will I send people to bully his old father. My husband is good to me, so there is no reason for me to betray him.”
“Don’t hurry, Third Young Madam,” Tang pretended to persuade her, then asked Li Long, “When did the thing you said happen?”
Li Long thought before saying, “About one and a half months ago.”
It was silent. Only Consort Cao said slowly, “I remember that Yunuan said just now that she had been pregnant for one and a half months.”
