Chapter 184 – The Peony and the Beautiful Man (1)
Ji Man naturally knew that Marquis Moyu was seeking confirmation on whether or not she was really pregnant. However, her belly was already slightly protruding. What was there for her to worry about? She had finally spat out the secret that she had been hiding for so long and succeeded in shocking the female lead into running away. But, she hadn’t had enough fun yet. She wanted to use her status as a delicate pregnant woman to nauseate him a couple times more.
“My lord, this servant is so happy that you’re placing such a high importance on this child.” Ji Man clung to Ning Yuxuan’s body like a creature without legs. Her gaze was full of tender sentiments. She grabbed Ning Yuxuan’s hand and placed it on her belly. In a cutely spoiled voice, she said, “As this servant was walking over here, this servant wondered what would be a good boy’s name and girl’s name. This servant is truly feeling too happy.”
Marquis Moyu’s expression looked as if a heavy blow had struck him. The hand on Nie Sangyu’s belly was cold and stiff. Hearing these words, he opened and closed his mouth. He didn’t know how to respond.
“It’s always a difficult matter to pick a name for a child, so this servant thought we should use my lord’s name. Regardless if the child is a boy or girl, let’s give it the same nickname.” Ji Man twisted her body even more as she looked at Marquis Moyu with smiling phoenix eyes.
Ning Yuxuan had a bad feeling. “What do you want to call it?”
Ji Man giggled. She gently stroked his Adam’s apple and said, “Let’s call it Little ~Xuan ~Xuan.”
Ning Yuxuan felt goosebumps and took a deep breath. Then, after taking another deep breath, his lips still twitched as he said, “Let’s discuss this later. Let me get an imperial physician first.”
Ji Man’s gaze suddenly became depressed. She flattened her lips and looked at him. “Can’t you send other people to fetch the imperial physician? Why do you have to go there yourself? Right now, this servant doesn’t want to be separate from my lord. This servant just wants to be by your side. Otherwise, this servant will feel uneasy and afraid that this child will share the same outcome as the other unborn babies in this household.”
She wouldn’t even give him some space and time to calm himself down? Ning Yuxuan’s temples were throbbing. He really couldn’t accept the change in reality right now.
Put it in another way, right now, he just wanted to be an unobtrusive, beautiful man. He wanted time to seriously contemplate about the future. However, this peony wouldn’t let him off and continued to twist around him like a pretzel.
A servant came into the room and said, “Madam, marquis, Old Madame wants the two of you to hurry and go over to her place.”
The news of Nie Sangyu’s pregnancy had already spread throughout the household and Old Madame had naturally been informed as well. Thus, Old Madame wanted them to hurry and come over.
Looking at Marquis Moyu with a pair of lovely, luminous eyes, Ji Man sweetly asked, “My lord, what…”
Ning Yuxuan decisively said, “Let’s go see mother first.”
And so, a peony continued to cling to a beautiful man that just wanted some time alone as they walked to the main courtyard. As they approached the main courtyard, they heard the nosiest racket. All of the ordinary and honored concubines had arrived the before them.
Seeing Nie Sangyu and Marquis Moyu coming into the room together, Old Madame smiled and her face appeared much softer. “Xuan-er, you already know too, right?”
Ning Yuxuan momentarily closed his eyes and nodded.
“That’s good. This household hasn’t been peaceful lately. Sangyu’s pregnancy will bring some much-needed cheerfulness and excitement,” Old Madame happily said, “This will be this household’s first child.”
As soon as these words were said, a thought popped into several people’s minds.
Originally, everyone had expected that Mu Shuiqing would be giving birth to this household’s first child. But, she had inexplicably suffered a miscarriage and gone insane. Then, Jinse had become pregnant and used her pregnancy to rise up from her status as a prostitute. But, she had lost her baby too. If someone wanted to use the reason that these two women had relatively lowly status and had suffered miscarriages because they hadn’t been given proper care, then what about Wen Wan? At the time of her pregnancy, she had been a secondary wife and the marquis greatly treasured her. But, in the end, she had lost her baby too because of a fake haunting.
There had been rumors outside of the marquis’s residence that there was a curse in this household. It was if there was an unseen, ghostly hand that was taking away the life of each child before it could be born.
However, Ji Man wasn’t afraid. If she could face Nie Sangyu’s ghost, why would she be scared of a grieving spirit? Sometimes, humans were much scarier than ghosts. She had to keep her guard up against people, not ghosts.
—
Marquis Moyu sent Guibai to the palace with his personal token to fetch an imperial physician. When Imperial Noble Consort Nie heard this news, she sent her most frequently used imperial physician over to Marquis Moyu’s residence.
The imperial physician confirmed that Nie Sangyu was four months pregnant. Moreover, he said that her pregnancy was very stable and that she would definitely be able to give birth without any complications.
During this entire examination, Ji Man was smiling without a care, but Ning Yuxuan had his eyes closed and was deeply contemplating.
The third prince’s side had been acting extremely arrogant, and the crown prince had already decided to keep a low profile for now. However, when the crown prince found out that not only was Nie Sangyu pregnant, but that she was already pregnant for four months, he would definitely think that he was being disloyal and had deliberately hid this information from him.
With Old Madame and Imperial Noble Consort Nie protecting Nie Sangyu, he couldn’t make any moves against her. On the contrary, he had to show a pleased and happy expression.
Actually, if he didn’t have to be concerned about alliances, Marquis Moyu would feel very happy about this child. When he was younger, he didn’t want any children. But in a couple of years, his group of friends would be having their grandchildren. It really was quite unreasonable that he still didn’t have even one child.
The only unfortunate thing was that this child would have a mother with the last name Nie. He really needed to carefully consider this matter and figure out his next steps.
