Chapter 34 Hidden Story

The timing of Lin's pregnancy and that of Xiao Song's pregnancy were almost the same; both would be full term in about ten days.

Therefore, although her sudden childbirth was unexpected, fortunately the household had all the necessary supplies, so there was no rush or panic.

In March, the climate in Lin'an is humid and changeable.

The sky was clear when the group disembarked, but within half a day, it started to drizzle again.

Pei Zhun was punished by Pei Lin and made to kneel in the ancestral hall, guarded by the brothers Xingyun and Xingzhou. Xiao Songshi also stayed quietly in the house to rest during her pregnancy, accompanied by Yaoguang. The mansion gradually became more orderly.

If it weren't for the indelible wounds on the faces and necks of those servants, it would be difficult for anyone else to tell that this huge mansion had been in complete chaos that morning.

Pei Lin: "A-Zheng, I need to go to the government office first."

The affairs within the manor were not yet settled, yet he suddenly wanted to go out, which was completely out of character for him.

Even if Wen Lingzheng was slow to understand, she could tell that he was probably hiding something from her.

Glancing at Pei Lin's seemingly calm and collected expression, Wen Lingzheng smiled, took an oil-paper umbrella from outside, and handed it to him, pretending not to know his heavy thoughts. "It's raining heavily outside, be careful not to catch a cold."

Startled, Pei Lin stared into Wen Lingzheng's eyes and silently accepted the oil-paper umbrella. "Aren't you going to ask me what I'm going to do?"

Smiling, Wen Lingzheng gently stroked Pei Lin's brow and said softly, "I know you always care about our household. You can rest assured that I'll take care of things here."

In those short six years, too many things happened in quick succession, forcing him to grow up overnight, shoulder the responsibility of the family name, and bear the honor of the Pei clan.

He had long been accustomed to carrying the burden alone, and it had been a long time since anyone had said such things to him.

After staring blankly at Wen Lingzheng for a long time, Pei Lin reached out and gently put his arm around her waist. A rare look of fatigue appeared in the corner of his eyes. "Ah Zheng, I'll explain to you when I get back."

She naturally reached out and wrapped her arms around him, resting her chin on his shoulder, and softly replied, "Okay, I'll wait for you."

Those who do wrong will always face retribution.

Lin's delivery was quite difficult. The old women in the courtyard kept coming in and out, bringing out basin after basin of bloody fluid, but they never heard the baby cry when it was born.

As night falls, a light rain begins to fall, and even the gentle spring breeze carries a hint of coolness.

Wen Lingzheng, who had been staying in the courtyard, listened to the increasingly mournful cries of Lin Shi inside the house, and couldn't help but feel sad.

"Where is the Third Young Master? Has he been given any food?"

Wen Lingzheng turned to look at Yuheng, and seeing her pouting, she couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong? Did someone upset you?"

Lin: "Ah!—"

A sudden cry of pain from inside interrupted Yuheng's unspoken words. Thinking of the charming and lovely appearance and melodious voice of Lin Shi that he had seen during the day, Yuheng felt a chill in his heart.

Seeing Yuheng's expression change repeatedly, Wen Lingzheng had no choice but to take her hand and comfort her, "If you're really scared, go and rest. I'll have someone prepare two bowls of ginger tea for you. Lin'an is damp and cold, so don't catch a cold."

"Aunt...Madam, I'm not afraid, I just..."

Yuheng hesitated, but seeing Wen Lingzheng's questioning gaze, she honestly replied, "Just now I went to deliver food to the Third Young Master, and the Marquis punished him by making him kneel, but he was fast asleep! The one inside has been calling out all afternoon, but he hasn't asked a single question. Although that Lin Shi is not a good person, she is truly pitiful..."

“It’s never easy being a woman in this world.” Wen Lingzheng sighed and shook her head, then reached out and covered Yuheng’s ears. “Yuheng, don’t be afraid, I will protect you.”

The child born to Ms. Lin was born at midnight.

The faint cries of a baby in the lonely night, mixed with the patter of rain, sounded indistinct.

"Madam, Lin has given birth, it's a girl."

The door to the room suddenly opened, and the midwife brought out the baby and handed it to Wen Lingzheng. "Although this baby was premature, its cry is loud and clear, and it's very healthy!"

The baby was less than a month old, his pink little face scrunched up, crying his heart out. Wen Lingzheng glanced at him briefly, then looked past the midwife towards the back room. "How is Madam Lin?"

The midwife gently comforted the baby, her face showing distress. "The labor has dragged on for too long, the bleeding won't stop, and right now we're just keeping the baby alive with ginseng soup. I'm afraid..."

Startled, Wen Lingzheng looked at the doctor who came out next and saw that he also sighed and shook his head, which made her have no choice but to believe it.

Midwife: "Mrs. Lin said she has something to say to the eldest daughter-in-law."

This midwife was originally brought by Xiao Song's family. She shared Xiao Song's hatred and had always disliked Lin. However, she looked down at the sleeping child in her arms, thought for a moment, and then conveyed Lin's words to Wen Lingzheng.

After instructing Yuheng to take good care of the child, and having someone inform Pei Zhun of the news, Wen Lingzheng still reached out and pushed open the door.

The sealed room had no windows open, and the strong smell of blood lingered.

The dim candlelight flickered, seemingly mourning the dying life.

Wen Lingzheng walked around the screen and stopped about ten steps away from the bed. "I heard you wanted to see me."

Perhaps due to excessive blood loss, the girl on the bed, whose skin had been rosy and plump in the morning, was now pale and colorless.

A smile appeared in Lin's usually gloomy eyes when she caught a glimpse of Wen Lingzheng's arrival.

She tried to sit up straight, but she had no strength left in her hands. She could only turn her head slightly to look in Wen Lingzheng's direction. "You must have a lot of questions to ask..."

Looking into Lin's eyes, Wen Lingzheng felt a mix of emotions.

—With such beautiful eyes and a clever mind, why did she end up like this?

"What are your conditions?" Wen Lingzheng moved a chair over and sat closer to her.

Lin did not answer Wen Lingzheng's question directly. Instead, she lay down on the bed and murmured, "In the twentieth year of Jianzhao, the Lin family embezzlement case must have been heard of by Madam Wen, right?"

Wen Lingzheng was born in the twelfth month of the eighteenth year of Jianzhao. When the Lin family embezzlement case broke out, she was only a little over a year old and therefore did not witness it.

"I've heard of it."

"The Lin family is innocent!"

Having already lost all her strength, Lin suddenly found a surge of power. She rolled over, forced herself to lift her head, and gripped the bed curtains tightly with both hands, repeatedly saying, "The Lin family is innocent!"

With a slight tremor between her brows, Wen Lingzheng calmly asked, "The Dingbei Marquis's Mansion and the Lin family's old case can be said to have no connection whatsoever. My third brother was just a child back then."

Lin shook her head, her last breath leaving her lying half-reclined on the edge of the bed.

"When the Lin family was wiped out, I was only five years old. I was able to escape with the protection of the servants. I thought I could live an ordinary life, but when I was seven, someone came to my door, killed my adoptive parents, and sent me to Fusheng Tower."

Floating Life Pavilion? What kind of place is that?

Although Wen Lingzheng remained outwardly calm, her heart suddenly tightened.

She searched through her memories of both lifetimes, but couldn't find even the slightest bit of information about the Floating Life Pavilion, which shows how deeply the person behind it is hiding.

"Were you forced to approach my third brother?" Wen Lingzheng continued to press.

As she lay dying, Lin no longer concealed anything, saying, "Yes, but my original target was not Pei Zhun."

"Is this my lord?" Wen Lingzheng's heart tightened. "When did this happen?"

"In the third year of Qinghe, the drought in Jiangnan was severe. Emperor Taizong ordered the then Crown Prince to personally go to Jiangnan to provide disaster relief, intending to enhance the current emperor's reputation. The people accompanying him were none other than your lord, the Marquis, and the heir of the Duke of Jing."

Lin's face grew paler and paler, and her words became intermittent. "Although I was only ten years old that year, I had already shown signs of beauty. Unfortunately, your Marquis was cold-hearted and unmoved, so they changed their target to Pei Zhun."

Wen Lingzheng frowned and helped Lin Shi, who was so weak she almost fell off the bed, to her feet. She then asked, "Who are the people you're talking about?"

Lying on her back on the bed, Lin could feel her life slipping away little by little.

She stared at the increasingly blurry ceiling, her fingers hooking onto a piece of Wen Lingzheng's sleeve. "I've never seen them."

Never seen it before? Wen Lingzheng suppressed the urge to pull the sleeve away. "How could you not have seen it before?"

“I’m about to die, why should I lie to you?” Lin closed her eyes wearily and murmured, “From the moment I stepped into Fusheng Tower, people came to teach me poetry and prose every day, but they all wore masks, and I couldn’t see their faces at all.”

“When I was ten years old, they sold me to Lanyueju. The madam saw that I was quite pretty, so she agreed to let me sell my art but not my body for the time being. From then on, I only corresponded with them by letter.”

With her brows furrowed and lips slightly pursed, Wen Lingzheng suddenly remembered something and asked again, "How often do you usually communicate?"

With barely a whisper, Madam Lin could only vaguely hear Wen Lingzheng's words and replied in a low voice, "In the first two years of my stay at Lanyue Residence, sometimes I wouldn't receive a single letter in a whole year. It wasn't until the fourth year of Xuanren, when Pei Zhun arrived in Lin'an, that I received five letters in a single week."

Five letters a week? That means the person who sent the letters must have lived not far from Lin'an in the fourth year of the Xuanren era... or even lived in Lin'an.

Wen Lingzheng felt a chill, but Lin Shi's grip on her sleeve loosened even more.

"Tell me all this, and what are your conditions?" Wen Lingzheng glanced at the hand that Lin Shi still refused to let go completely, and she couldn't quite describe her feelings.

Lin struggled to open her eyes, but to no avail. Her lips moved, and she managed to utter only four words, "My child..."

Only then did Wen Lingzheng finally understand why Madam Lin insisted on making a scene on the day she and Pei Lin arrived in Lin'an, and why she insisted on having the child born in Pei's residence.

The forces behind her were too powerful; she was powerless to resist.

From the moment news of Pei Lin's group's journey to Jiangnan reached Lin'an, someone as intelligent as her could not have failed to understand that she was highly likely to become a pawn in the power struggle.

She wasn't afraid of death, but the child was innocent, so she had no choice but to take advantage of the situation.

—Using the power of the Marquis of Dingbei's mansion, they protected the innocent children.

With a sigh, Wen Lingzheng pulled the piece of clothing from Lin's hand and promised, "That child is ultimately of the Marquis's bloodline, and we will not mistreat her."

Perhaps her last wish had been fulfilled, Lin Shi, on her deathbed, showed a relieved smile. With her last bit of strength, she called out to Wen Lingzheng, "Help me, help me tell... Madam Song... that I... I've wronged her."

When Wen Lingzheng walked out of the delivery room, the rain had stopped.

The baby in Yuheng's arms had already drunk its first milk from the wet nurse, and its previously wrinkled skin was gradually becoming smooth.

“The Lin family…” Yuheng caught a glimpse of the sorrow in Wen Lingzheng’s eyes, but the words caught in his throat.

Taking the child from Yuheng's hands, Wen Lingzheng whispered, "Go to the ancestral hall immediately and call Xingzhou here. Have him secretly arrange some people in various corners outside the mansion. I have a feeling something is not right."

With a serious expression, Yuheng nodded: "Okay! I'll go right away."

As night deepened, in a dilapidated alley in the western corner of Lin'an City, a dark figure blended into the darkness and flashed by in an instant.

Suddenly, the door, covered in cobwebs, was knocked on, the sound uniform, like a song.

Hearing the commotion, the people in the courtyard listened carefully for a moment before opening the door with candlelight.

The flickering firelight illuminated the room separated by a door, revealing two people wearing identical masks, their faces contorted like demons from legends.

"Wishing you good health."

"Mingyi, are you injured?"

The pungent smell of blood made Old Master Zhu frown. He pulled Mingyi into the room, looked around cautiously, and then closed the door.

"Where is that girl, Lin?"

"They were courting death; the mission failed."

"Failed?" The elder, referred to as Elder Zhu, was clearly furious. He looked at Ming Yi with sharp eyes. "Why did you come back alone?"

After a moment of silence, Mingyi said, "They've discovered us."