Chapter 446 Taking it to heart

What happy event could a mother, a paralyzed housewife, possibly have?

Full of doubts, Meng Lingge perked up, her eyes sparkling. She knew that if she said a few nice words, Wen Zhiming would tell her the truth.

But that unknown joy had a strange magic, making her excited and eagerly anticipating the moment she would witness it with her own eyes.

The carriage was moving at a steady pace, but Meng Lingge was eager to get home and kept lifting the curtain to see how far it was.

Wen Zhiming smiled indulgently at her girlish behavior and simply used his long sword to lift a corner of the carriage curtain, letting Meng Lingge lie in his arms so that he could have a clear view of what was happening outside the carriage.

Meng Lingge knew the way back to the Meng residence by heart.

I could keep an eye on where I was going, and it felt much faster. Before long, the carriage entered the Meng residence.

Everything in the Meng residence remained the same, but Meng Lingge noticed that all the maids and servants she encountered along the way had happy expressions on their faces, as if they had all found some silver.

There were already people waiting at the entrance of the main courtyard. After the carriage stopped, Wen Zhiming helped Meng Lingge down from the carriage.

After Du Shiyin's personal nanny bowed, she said with a smile, "The Prime Minister and his wife have been waiting for a long time. Your Majesty and Empress, please."

Meng Xingyuan followed the etiquette of the emperor before his subjects, and whenever Wen Zhiming came to the Meng residence, he would always personally greet him, instead of waiting in the inner courtyard and only sending a nanny out to greet him.

His actions today were most likely in accordance with Wen Zhiming's orders.

Seeing this, Meng Lingge was even more confused about Wen Zhiming's intentions. The two walked hand in hand towards the inner courtyard, Meng Lingge's heart pounding, and she held Wen Zhiming's hand tightly.

A familiar path, which I usually take for granted, took on a different flavor today.

Upon arriving at the main courtyard, a delicate aroma of pastries wafted from afar, a blend of various kinds of pastries.

The familiar scent quickened Meng Lingge's pace, and she soon arrived at the hall with its doors open.

Just by glancing up, Meng Lingge was instantly shocked and covered her mouth.

There were more than a dozen plates of pastries on the table in the hall. They were colorful and exquisitely shaped, making them very appetizing.

But what shocked Meng Lingge was not the snacks, but Du Shiyin, who was looking at her with a loving expression.

Du Shiyin, who has been paralyzed in bed for many years, is either lying in bed or sitting in that old wheelchair.

But now she stands there perfectly fine, without anyone helping her or using any tools for support, standing there like a normal person.

Along the way, Meng Lingge had actually made this guess, but she immediately dismissed it.

In recent years, not to mention the imperial physicians, almost every one of them has treated Du Shiyin. Meng Lingge also invited Su Leyan and some famous doctors from the folk to come to her home, but without exception, they all said that her blood vessels were blocked and that she could not be cured.

Over time, the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment.

Later, Du Shiyin refused to see a doctor again, and Meng Lingge also completely gave up on the matter.

Meng Lingge thought she would never see her mother stand up again in her lifetime, but she never expected...

This was more than just a surprise; it was an event she never dared to dream of.

Watching Du Shiyin and Meng Xingyuan standing lovingly by the table, I recalled how, when Du Shiyin was young and not paralyzed, she would often make a table full of snacks, waiting for me to taste them one by one.

Meng Lingge couldn't help but burst into tears.

When she was little, she was quite picky. She wanted her food to not only taste good but also look beautiful, and it was hard to find what she liked outside. Whenever Du Shiyin had free time, she would cook some exquisite and cute desserts herself, filling a whole table with almost no two of them the same.

After Du Shiyin fell ill and became paralyzed, no one indulged her willfulness and pickiness anymore, and Meng Lingge no longer cared about the presentation of the food.

But seeing this table full of things from her memories again still moves her deeply.

"mother……"

Meng Lingge stood at the door, not daring to take a step forward, afraid that everything in front of her was just an illusion that would vanish as soon as she walked over.

Du Shiyin's face no longer showed any trace of the depression of a paralyzed person. Seeing this, she quickly stepped forward and hugged Meng Lingge.

"Lingge, it's true, Mother is really better. Although she can't walk very steadily yet and can't walk for very long, the doctor said that with another year or two of rest, she will be no different from a normal person."

Meng Lingge had observed carefully that Du Shiyin's steps were indeed not as steady as those of an ordinary person, like a toddler just learning to walk. But compared to being paralyzed in bed, this was an unimaginable miracle.

The mother and daughter hugged and cried for a while before Meng Lingge gently pushed Du Shiyin away.

"Mother, what's going on? Where did you find such a renowned doctor...?"

"Mother doesn't have that ability; it was all arranged by the Emperor." Du Shiyin glanced at Wen Zhiming, her eyes full of satisfaction.

"Ever since the doctor you found two years ago said he couldn't cure me, I haven't wanted to see any doctors. But the Emperor still occasionally summons a famous physician, and I dare not disobey his orders, so I can only cooperate. At the end of last year, a doctor who is skilled in clearing the meridians came and said that acupuncture could be tried. I thought I'd give it a shot, and to my surprise, after more than a year of acupuncture, I actually stood up..."

Wen Zhiming had already been invited by Meng Xingyuan to sit down at the table. He was smiling as he looked at Meng Lingge while drinking the tea on the table.

Upon hearing this, he raised his eyes and smiled, "The Empress has always been concerned about my mother-in-law's health. I am merely expressing my gratitude to put the Empress's mind at ease. The fact that the illness was cured is mainly due to my mother-in-law's good fortune."

Meng Xingyuan said, "In any case, if the Emperor hadn't invited such a divine physician, Madam certainly wouldn't have had the chance to stand up."

“Yes.” Du Shiyin pulled Meng Lingge to the table and pointed to a table of pastries, saying, “Try them quickly, is it still the same as before? I haven’t cooked for many years, and my skills have become rusty. You try them first, and if you think they taste good, then invite the Emperor to enjoy them, and take some back for Woyu.”

Meng Lingge couldn't help but laugh and said, "Mother is so biased now, she cares more about her son-in-law than her daughter."

Du Shiyin's smile was genuine.

"You are my good daughter, and the Emperor is my good son-in-law. In my heart, you are the same and I care about you equally. It's just that these are simple dishes, and I hope the Emperor won't find them offensive."

This was something she had been preparing all morning. The taste might not be as good as what the imperial chefs would make, but it was all made to Meng Lingge's liking. It was all about the thought that counted.

Upon hearing this, Wen Zhiming immediately took a pastry and began to enjoy it.

"My mother-in-law's cooking is excellent; I like it very much."

He didn't particularly like pastries, and he especially disliked these fancy designs, but when he thought about how these were things Meng Lingge liked when she was a child, he couldn't bring himself to resist them.

Du Shiyin's lips curled up in delight when Wen Zhiming said he liked her.

She likes and is more and more satisfied with this son-in-law the more she looks at him.