Upon hearing this, there was an immediate silence. Even Fang's crying stopped, and everyone stared at her blankly.

After Shen Muyu said it, she suddenly felt a sense of relief.

She glanced around at her father, sister, and mother, taking in their shocked and astonished expressions. She lowered her head, touched her flat stomach, and said with a slight smile, "Prince Chen has already said that he will come to propose marriage in a few days. The child in my belly will be Prince Chen's first offspring."

If the first child of the Prince of Chen is a boy, then he would be the eldest son born out of wedlock.

It doesn't matter if it's a girl; the first child is always the one who gets the most love.

As long as she enjoys Prince Chen's favor, she will eventually give birth to a second and third child.

Shen Muyu touched her lower abdomen, thinking about the not-too-distant future, and suddenly found the courage to look up and meet Shen Mingjiang's gaze.

Shen Mingjiang's cheeks puffed out, his anger flaring up. He finally couldn't hold back and smashed the teacup beside him at her feet: "You bastard!"

"If I had known you would do something so foolish, I shouldn't have listened to your mother and arranged your marriage so early!"

Fang was also shocked. It took her a long time to process this shocking news. She grabbed Fang's shoulders and cried, "You can't say such things."

"I'm not talking nonsense!" Shen Muyu grabbed her hand and said quickly, "Mother, think about it. Rather than marrying a rude military general and living a life of hardship and no dignity, it's better to marry Prince Chen. If I bet right, maybe I can even earn you an imperial title in the future..."

Fang was initially flustered, but after listening to her words, she felt that they made sense, and her expression began to waver.

Shen Mingjiang almost laughed in exasperation as he watched the mother and daughter talking to themselves.

He didn't try to reason with his daughter anymore, but said in a deep voice, "Please take the eldest daughter away, and go and fetch a doctor who is good at keeping quiet."

Upon hearing this, Shen Muyu panicked and clutched her stomach, asking, "Why does Father want to see a doctor?"

Shen Mingjiang looked at her intently: "Do you still want to give birth to the bastard in your belly? Now that you are already pregnant, I have no face to ask you to go and ruin those good men. The Shen family can afford to raise a girl. You can stay at home in peace. The Shen family will have plenty of food to eat in the future."

Upon hearing this, Shen Muyu's face turned pale. She shook her head and hid behind Fang Shi, saying, "I don't want to! I don't want to!"

Seeing an old woman come to pull her away, she screamed in fright, and in her panic, she pulled out the hairpin from her hair and held it to her throat, saying, "Don't come any closer!"

The old woman who went to arrest her was so frightened that she dared not approach any further.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Shen Muyu distanced herself, her eyes bloodshot, and said, "If Father wants to force me to have an abortion, he might as well kill me first!"

"You think I don't want to?!" Shen Mingjiang suddenly stood up.

Shen Youying stopped him in time and advised, "Father, please don't be angry. Let me say a few words to my elder sister."

Shen Mingjiang clenched his fist and then relaxed it, but in the end he sat back down.

Shen Youying walked up to Shen Muyu, but seeing her staring at her warily, she didn't approach. Instead, she asked, "Do you think that having Prince Chen's child and giving birth to the eldest son and daughter before Princess Chen enters the household will put your mind at ease?"

"Perhaps you could even become a concubine if Prince Chen were to inherit the throne in the future?"

Shen Muyu hated her arrogant tone, as if she saw through everything and knew everything, as if everyone else was just an ordinary mortal and only she was an ethereal fairy.

"Otherwise what?" She glanced at Shen Youying's lower abdomen and said disdainfully, "The King of Qin is a useless man, and my second sister has been married for so long without any results. You yourself have no hope, so you can't stop others from moving up the social ladder, can you?"

Shen Youying remained expressionless: "Then let me tell you a story. You should have heard some of them before, so they won't be too unfamiliar to you."

Shen Muyu still looked at her warily, her expression disdainful: "I don't like listening to stories."

Shen Youying told her about Liu's situation.

"When Lady Liu was having an affair with the Prince of Chen behind the back of the Prince of Qin and became pregnant, she had the same thoughts as you. But you know her final fate. The Prince of Chen didn't want her or the child in her womb, and in the end, she died and her soul was extinguished."

"How can you be so sure that you won't be the next Liu?"

Shen Muyu did indeed know about the affair between Prince Chen and Lady Liu; she had casually mentioned it when she and Prince Chen were boating on the lake before. However, Prince Chen had said at the time that it was a trap set for him by Prince Qin, and he had unwittingly fallen into it…

She kept shaking her head: "I don't believe it. Anyway, Lady Liu is already dead, and the King of Qin and the King of Chen are at odds. So you can say whatever you want."

“I know you’ve lost your mind and are stuck in a rut. The more others try to stop you, the more you’re willing to jump into the fire. Besides, Prince Chen hasn’t come to propose marriage yet. You should take this time to think things through,” Shen Youying sighed.

Shen Muyu sneered: "What is poison to one is honey to another. Didn't you marry the Prince of Qin yourself? You never used to say that the Prince of Qin's mansion was a pit of fire, but now you're lecturing me."

Shen Youying thought she was probably insane. She looked at her with a strange gaze, then shook her head and said, "You need to calm down."

Shen Muyu, her eyes red, sniffed and said, "I'm very calm now. If I can't marry Prince Chen, I'd rather die."

"If you want to force me to my death, then go ahead and do it!"

Shen Mingjiang, hearing her increasingly absurd remarks, angrily ordered, "Lock her up! She can only be released when she's thought things through!"

Seeing this, the old women on both sides had no choice but to obey and step forward to capture the man.

This time, Shen Muyu didn't struggle anymore. She glared hatefully at Shen Youying and Shen Mingjiang, then shook off the old woman's hand: "Let go, I can walk by myself!"