Chapter 67 Labor: "We must stop her."
Yesterday's rain caused the white banners fluttering in front of the Lu residence to be covered in frost the next day. After the seals were put on, the candles in the dark mourning hall burned out, and the whole courtyard was filled with an indescribable chill.
Apart from the soldiers guarding the gate, the local people dared not pass by the entrance of the Lu residence.
Hearing that the old lady was suffering from hysteria and would cry miserably and wail every night while holding a broken doll, these ignorant people believed the rumors that the deceased was young and had died tragically, so her resentment was extremely strong and that anyone who got close to her would suffer great misfortune.
Whether or not they had received aid from the Lu family in the past, these families now kept their distance. Not only that, they even invited monks from the temple to perform rituals so that the souls would be trapped in hell and never be reborn.
Bashu was defeated, and this precious land was returned to the Ning family. It was also the first time Ning Xian set foot on this land.
"His Majesty."
The commander of the Imperial Guards was not informed in advance that Ning Xian would come to Bashu in person. He was taken aback, and when the handsome man on horseback dismounted, he knelt down to welcome him.
Ning Xian responded lightly and then pushed the door open and entered.
The courtyard was quite desolate, and all the facilities in the Lu residence looked rather simple, not at all as extravagant and wasteful as he had imagined.
The once grand master bedroom was now deserted, with no servants to attend to it. In a dirty corner, only a disheveled old woman was howling incessantly.
Ning Xian listened for a while before realizing that the person was insulting him. He scoffed and turned away.
Ruixue Pavilion.
It was also Ruan Yang and Lu Wenjin's wedding room.
They spent three years in that room, inseparable and deeply in love.
Ning Xian stood in the pavilion for a long time, the traces of their love piercing his eyes like fine silver needles.
Before him, on the small table, lay an unfinished tiger-head shoe. In the half-open drawer, there was a lifelike portrait of Lu Wenjin, painted by Ruan Yang. Beside the bed, in a basket, were neatly folded clothes and knee pads. He recognized the fine stitches; Ruan Yang had personally tailored them for Lu Wenjin. In front of the dressing table were dozens of letters, evidence of their mutual affection.
The bed was wide, but there was only one quilt. They would hug it tightly when they slept at night. Ning Xian picked up the brocade pouch hidden in the gap between the beds. It was painted with little figures in various poses. He knew that Ruan Yang and Lu Wenjin's intimacy in bed was no less than when they were by his side.
He crumpled the things into a ball and threw them far away. He lay back on the bed, which still smelled of Ruan Yang's hair, to relieve the suffocation in his heart. Slowly, he hugged the pillow that still smelled of Ruan Yang's hair and the clothes she had hurriedly changed out of, and buried his head to smell them deeply.
They were of one mind and deeply in love.
Ruan Yang no longer cared about him; he had become a complete outsider.
Tears soaked the small, soft bundle of clothing. He opened his eyes and said angrily to the guard, "Go, burn everything here for me!"
The guards were taken aback and stammered, "The deceased's seven-day mourning period has not yet passed, and the coffin is still in the mourning hall. Does Your Majesty intend to... burn it all together?"
Ning Xian laughed and said, "You pity a traitor?"
"No, Your Majesty has misunderstood. I will take care of it immediately."
Three days later, if all goes well, Ruan Yangxu will have reached the border of Lizhou, and later he will enter the northern border region.
Ning Xian suddenly sat up from the couch and called over the guards waiting outside the door: "Go after them. Fu Ling knows the terrain of Lizhou better than anyone else. Bring him along and make sure to intercept Ruan Shi."
......
The further north they went, the lower the temperature became. After Ruan Yang escaped through the secret passage with the north wind, the carriage traveled for three days and three nights on the winding mountain road. At this time, a sea of glaciers and snow stretched out before them.
The wind howled like wolves and ghosts, and a thin layer of white fur rolled up on the ground. Ruan Yang slammed the car window shut and bent down to remove the ice stains clinging to the fox fur.
This environment made her very uneasy.
Besides Shuofeng, who was escorting her, she was accompanied only by the midwife Wang and a naive little girl. Although she had brought enough dry food, clothing, and fire starters, there were too many uncertainties at the moment.
For example, she started feeling unwell in the morning. Fortunately, it was just a slight soreness in her lower back, which was bearable. But now her stomach has started to tighten regularly, accompanied by a dull, aching pain.
Along the way, she didn't dare tell Wang about her situation, because under these circumstances, the carriage couldn't possibly stop and wait for her to finish giving birth before continuing.
She could only hold back her tears, stroking her belly while silently comforting herself that this was her first pregnancy and the baby wouldn't be born so quickly.
"Is it about to start?"
Wang noticed that something was wrong with Ruan Yang; the girl's brows were furrowed, and her fingertips, gripping her sleeve, were turning white.
She touched the bottom of Ruan Yang's abdomen and thought to herself that this was bad; it was clearly a sign of impending labor, but the child couldn't possibly be born on a carriage.
"Don't worry, madam. The child won't arrive so soon. Fortunately, we're almost down the mountain. We'll find a house to rest at in a bit."
Ruan Yang nestled in Wang's arms and nodded weakly.
After he finished speaking, the carriage suddenly stopped, and Shuofeng drew his sword, cutting through the wind.
Who are you?
In the vast expanse of heaven and earth, a nimble black figure stood less than three zhang away from them.
Fu Ling was dressed in casual black clothes, with half of his nose covered by a mask. His pupils, like obsidian, stared at the carriage as if trying to see through it.
He didn't speak, but reached for the long sword tucked at his waist with his left hand.
"Please let me go."
Ruan Yang peeked out when she heard the voice, her eyes red as she pleaded.
Upon seeing Fuling, Ruan Yang felt a chill run down her spine. She realized that her whereabouts had been exposed, and Ning Xian was probably on her way.
With the pain somewhat relieved, she slowly got out of the car and walked to the boy, her cool, soft fingers wiping the snow off his forehead.
In a pitiful tone, she said, "My dear Fuling, please have pity on me and let me go, okay?"
"I don't want to go back to your brother."
Fu Ling was stunned. He looked up at Ruan Yang and his nose suddenly felt sore. Something inside him melted away again.
She still remembered him.
Several months later, the woman was still as gentle and beautiful as ever. She was very slender, but even though she was wrapped in a thick fox fur coat, she could not hide her high, protruding belly under her palm.
He couldn't imagine that such a slender girl was carrying a baby weighing several pounds in her belly; the extent of her suffering was beyond his comprehension.
"Say something..."
Fuling came to her senses.
It was just a fleeting affair, which she quickly forgot about, but he couldn't forget it. Whenever he recalled that innocent and passionate night, he would blush and wake up in the middle of the night from a dream, unable to sleep and feeling restless. He had to take a cold bath to calm himself down.
He also wanted to snatch Ruan Yang back, hide her away secretly, and then tell Ning Xian that she was dead.
Fu Ling gritted her teeth, her eyes slightly red, then she sheathed her knife and turned to leave.
"I'll go and distract them. You should leave here first."
......
After a bumpy night in the carriage, we finally descended the mountain. After walking along a narrow path, the view opened up, revealing a village with lights twinkling and wisps of smoke rising from chimneys.
Wang breathed a sigh of relief and glanced at the trembling girl in her arms: "Alright, we've arrived. I'll go see if anyone is willing to take us in."
The child was moving around a lot, and the bloating and pain in his waist, legs, and abdomen were getting worse over time.
Ruan Yang couldn't hold on any longer. Moving her body was extremely difficult for her, but at this moment, a fear even deeper than the impending delivery haunted her mind.
She gritted her teeth and slowly got off the carriage.
Suddenly, a warm liquid trickled down my trouser leg, melting the snow beneath my feet.
The dampness made Ruan Yang feel embarrassed. She leaned against a tree trunk and stood in the snow, unable to hold back her tears.
Upon hearing what Shuofeng said, the village woman at the door dried her wet hands and hurried over to greet him.
Seeing Ruan Yang's condition, she couldn't help but slap her thigh and say, "Oh dear, her water has broken, how can she walk? Quickly help my wife to the room to lie down."
In her hazy state of consciousness, she heard the sounds of boiling water, talking, and pots and pans clattering around her as Wang and several other village women bustled about in the small house.
Ruan Yang clutched the corner of the blanket, cold sweat quickly soaking her hair.
Wang had already removed Ruan Yang's skirt and undergarments. She knelt at the foot of the bed, her fingers probing under the covers to check: "Madam, you can exert yourself now."
Outside, the wind and snow raged. Over the course of half an hour, he tried repeatedly, but there was almost no movement below. Ruan Yang was exhausted.
Time passed slowly, and the baby in her womb grew weak, moving only faintly. Outside, Wang and the village women began to discuss whether to save the mother or the baby.
Ruan Yang gave a self-deprecating laugh. She had been hiding from Ning Xian for so long, but she never expected that fate would be so cruel, and she would meet her end here.
Well, she's dead now, which means she's finally rid of Ning Xian.
…
Fu Ling didn't expect Ning Xian to be one step ahead of him. By the time he turned back, Ning Xian had already led his men down the mountain and had reached the village entrance.
They were only a few feet away from Ruan Yang.
Fuling closed her eyes, feeling a pang of regret for the child who was about to be born.
Seeing that he arrived late, Ning Xian asked with a gloomy look in her eyes, "Where is he?"
The whip marks from last time hadn't healed yet, so Fuling was naturally afraid of him. He dared to lie: "I didn't see it."
"Didn't you see it?"
Ning Xian chuckled, pinched the boy's chin, and whispered, "You lied again."
Before anyone could react to what had happened, the sound of flesh slapping against flesh echoed through the snowy night.
Fuling fell to the ground, her cheek swollen from the slap.
Ning Xian's eyes reddened, and she pointed at him like a madwoman, angrily saying, "Do you know that you almost made me lose her forever! She's leaving, what are you going to give me in return?"
Fuling used her last bit of strength to grab Ningxian's sleeve, but she still couldn't withstand the man's rough strength.
Ning Xian drew the guard's sword, pushed open the fence gate, and strode toward the brightly lit wooden house.
Inside, various sobs and cries mingled together.
He heard Ruan Yang's faint groans coming from inside the house.
"Madam, don't sleep! If you sleep, neither the mother nor the child will survive. Quickly go and brew a bowl of ginseng soup for Madam!"
".....yes!"
Ruan Yang kept groaning in pain, which slowly brought Ning Xian back to his senses. He looked down at the long sword he was holding.
...What is he doing?
Ning Xian threw away the weapon in his hand, turned around and left the wooden house.
He sat blankly under the plum tree, his mind buzzing. The anxious busyness of the midwife and doctor told him that everything was not going well and that Ruan Yang was having a difficult childbirth.
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