As night fell, lanterns were lit in various courtyards of the Shen Mansion.

Shen Yuewei changed into a plain, simple cotton nightgown and sat down in front of her dressing table. Her face, reflected in the bronze mirror, was still pale, but her eyes held a cold, almost ruthless calm as she set her sights on something. She picked up a comb and slowly began to comb her long, flowing hair.

"Wei'er?" Madam Shen's voice sounded from outside the door, tinged with cautious inquiry. "Are you asleep? Mother made you some bird's nest porridge, it's very nourishing..."

Shen Yuewei's hand trembled, and the comb almost slipped from her grasp. She quickly adjusted her breathing, looked in the mirror, and forced a slightly tired but still natural smile: "Mother, come in, you're not asleep yet."

Madam Shen walked in carrying a small, sweet white porcelain stew pot. Her gaze immediately fell on her daughter's face. She carefully examined the forced smile, her brows still furrowed: "Your complexion is still so bad... You really can't drink a single drop of that calming medicine?" She put down the stew pot and tenderly stroked Shen Yuewei's cold hand.

"Perhaps the medicine is not to my stomach," Shen Yuewei lowered her eyes to hide the turmoil in them, her voice deliberately weak and with a hint of coquettishness, "I'm sorry to have worried you, Mother. This bird's nest smells so good, and I'm actually a little hungry."

She picked up a small silver spoon, scooped up a spoonful of crystal-clear bird's nest, and put it in her mouth. The warm, sweet taste melted on her tongue. This should have been a nourishing delicacy, but at this moment it felt like poison coated in honey. The moment she forced it down, her stomach immediately experienced a violent spasm and churning!

"Ugh..." The metallic taste in her throat could no longer be suppressed! Shen Yuewei suddenly covered her mouth, her face instantly turning from white to green, her body leaning forward violently, and she dry-heaved with a heart-wrenching pain!

"Wei'er!" Madam Shen was so frightened that she dropped the handkerchief in her hand to the ground.

"Bang!" Almost simultaneously, the door was violently pushed open!

Shen Wenbai rushed in like a gust of wind! He had obviously just returned from outside, still carrying the cool scent of the night breeze, his handsome face filled with anxiety and deep worry. He strode to the dressing table, grabbed Shen Yuewei's swaying body, and supported her so quickly that Madam Shen didn't even have time to react.

"What happened?!" Shen Wenbai's voice was as taut as a fully drawn bowstring, and his sharp gaze was like a searchlight, instantly sweeping over his sister's pained and contorted face, over the few drops of bird's nest that had splashed on the ground, and finally locking onto her slightly curled-up posture as she subconsciously protected her lower abdomen!

That pose in that instant... it was so familiar! He had seen it countless times on his friends and pregnant women on the street! It was a maternal instinct to protect!

An utterly absurd yet terrifying thought exploded in Shen Wenbai's mind like a thunderbolt! It instantly shattered all the doubts and anxieties of the past few days! Why was his sister so afraid of the Crown Prince? Why did she wake up in terror every night? Why had she lost so much weight? Why was she... experiencing such intense nausea and retching?!

“Wei’er! You…” Shen Wenbai’s voice trembled with extreme shock and fear. His hand, which was supporting Shen Yuewei’s shoulder, tightened uncontrollably. His gaze, like a quenched knife, pierced straight into her eyes, filled with an almost desperate plea for confirmation, “Tell your second brother! You are not… are you…”

The moment Shen Yuewei rushed in, her heart stopped beating! When Shen Wenbai's all-knowing gaze fell on her hands protecting her lower abdomen, her blood seemed to freeze instantly! Immense fear, like a cold tide, instantly overwhelmed her!

Oh no! We've been discovered!

She jerked her head up, meeting her second brother's eyes, which were filled with shock, fear, disbelief, and... unfathomable pain. Those eyes were like a red-hot iron, searing her very soul!

"No...no...Second Brother...I didn't..." She stammered, her voice trembling uncontrollably, her eyes instantly filling with desperate tears. She shook her head frantically, trying to deny it, but her body collapsed completely due to immense panic and exhaustion.

"Wei'er!" Madam Shen finally reacted, rushing forward to hug her daughter. Seeing her son's expression of utter despair, and then at her daughter's pained and hopeless state, an even more terrifying thought chilled her to the bone, making her almost unable to stand. "Bai'er! You... what nonsense are you talking about?! How could Wei'er... she..."

Looking at his sister's utterly devastated state, where even denial seemed so powerless, and at his mother's face that turned deathly pale, Shen Wenbai felt a chill run from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, freezing his entire body. He held Shen Yuewei's hand, his own hands trembling uncontrollably.

This is not nonsense!

That pale face, that deep-seated fear, that severe morning sickness, that instinct to protect the lower abdomen... all the fragments point to the most terrifying, the most impossible, yet the only answer that can explain everything!

Who is it?!

A name, carrying a devastating power, crashed into his mind—Crown Prince Xiao Chengjing! Only him! Only that aloof prince who showed unusual concern for his sister, who terrified her as if she were seeing a demon!

Overwhelming rage and utter terror instantly engulfed Shen Wenbai! He felt dizzy and a metallic taste rise in his throat! He clenched his teeth tightly to keep from losing his composure. His arm, supporting his sister, was stiff as iron, his nails digging deep into his palms, leaving deep bloody marks.

"Mother..." Shen Yuewei collapsed into her mother's arms, her breath weak, tears streaming down her face, soaking Madam Shen's clothes. Looking at her second brother's near-collapse, his eyes churning with turbulent emotions, she felt an overwhelming sense of guilt and despair, like a giant python coiling around her, almost suffocating her. She knew she couldn't hide it anymore. At least, she couldn't hide it from her second brother, the one who had always loved her most and was the most perceptive.

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