Chapter 65
A tea stall was set up beside the pavilion, where Zhou Bo, with his full head of white hair, and a woman dressed in lake-blue brocade sat. As for Cui Wuyang, he had already gone out to greet them as soon as he saw the figure on horseback.
In the distance, Zhu Yun dismounted first and then reached out to Luo Yan.
She thought to herself that it wasn't necessary, but after being warned with a glare, she had no choice but to silently let him hold her. Luo Yan took the opportunity to tease her, "You're so clingy."
"You are a married woman," Zhu Yun said meaningfully. "Remember not to let any cats or dogs get too close to you."
She landed steadily, and gently inhaled the fragrance of plum blossoms carried on the cold wind, chuckling as she said, "That's as if I have three or four husbands outside."
Oh no, he saw me acting crazy.
Luo Yan pulled her veil down a little, not wanting him to see her ashamed expression.
She deliberately lowered her voice and said coldly,
"How could I possibly compare to that general's daughter? I urge you, young master, to go to her residence and propose marriage as soon as possible, lest you embarrass Miss Ruoyun."
As she spoke, tears streamed down her face and fell to the ground with a soft thud.
Qin Sizhao forcefully lifted the white veil from her hat, looking into her eyes.
"I wonder if Miss Luo Yan has misunderstood something? The only woman I have ever wanted to marry is Miss Luo Yan."
Upon hearing this, Luo Yan took several steps back like a startled bird.
"You don't understand me at all, you don't know me, how can you think you can marry me? It's ridiculous!"
“Miss Luo Yan, you are even more absurd. You don’t know me at all. You just asked me to go to the General’s Mansion to propose marriage. What makes you think that I will be happy if I marry her?”
He suddenly ripped away Luo Yan's protective shell of madness, and she fled in terror, escaping Qin Sizhao's mansion like a bird.
She pulled her veil down, feeling utterly ashamed.
Luo Yan has always been a girl who dares to express her love and hate frankly and passionately, but now she has become extremely timid in front of her only lifeline.
On the bus, she suddenly felt nauseous.
In fact, Luo Yan is usually very healthy. Only a robust body can withstand hysterical emotional fluctuations.
Recently, Luo Yan has been experiencing frequent nausea, cravings for sour foods, and dry heaving... She can no longer ignore these signs that resemble pregnancy.
"Master, please change your route and take me to see the female doctor..."
Her lips trembled as she uttered those words.
If she is not pregnant, then it is God's mercy that spares her life; if she is pregnant, then it is God forcing her to her death.
Gently lifting the curtain, Luo Yan, wearing a veiled hat, entered the clinic. This was a place specifically for women's medical care, and the doctor was a rather elegant middle-aged woman.
"Please have a seat. Is this young lady feeling unwell?"
She extended a slender, pale wrist and began to recite the pre-prepared story.
"Doctor, to be honest, I am a maidservant in a wealthy family, and I suspect I am pregnant."
The female doctor seemed unfazed by such things, and said nonchalantly,
"The young lady is indeed pregnant."
This news struck Luo Yan like a bolt from the blue.
"Doctor, I'm afraid my mistress won't tolerate my pregnancy... Could you give me a prescription for an abortion?"
"According to the laws of the time, a woman could not request an abortion prescription on her own; she needed her husband's consent."
Luo Yan took out more than double the amount of silver.
"Is this not acceptable either?"
The female doctor shook her head again.
"Young lady, please go back."
Luo Yan took only some anti-nausea pills and walked out dejectedly.
Qin Sizhao must have only expressed his sympathy for her out of kindness, which is why he said he was willing to marry her. How could she take advantage of his kindness to trick him into marrying a woman who was pregnant with an illegitimate child?
Luo Yan lost even her last shred of will to save herself and eventually returned to the Prince's mansion.
Thankfully, Zhu Yun wasn't there... She didn't want to see Zhu Yun right now.
She returned to her room, took out a sachet, and clumsily began to embroider mandarin ducks.
With each stitch, Luo Yan inexplicably felt that her life was on a countdown, and that sooner or later she would die because of the fetus in her womb.
Now she has given up on the idea of taking revenge on Zhu Yun with the child in her womb. She just wants to live one day at a time, and when her belly becomes too big to hide, she will find a clean place to die quietly and be reincarnated.
Thinking back on how naive she had been, even wanting to transform into a vengeful ghost in red and haunt Zhu Yun day and night... she had even sacrificed her soul for someone who wasn't worth it... Luo Yan couldn't help but smile bitterly.
She took out a Buddhist scripture she had never read before from under the bed and began to read it carefully, hoping to accumulate some blessings for her next life, as she wanted to be her parents' daughter again.
After putting down the Buddhist scriptures, Luo Yan looked at the pair of mandarin ducks she had embroidered with red eyes, thinking that since she was going to die anyway, she might as well be selfish for once before she died.
Even if it's just a little bit, she wants to experience what it feels like to be valued.
Two days later, Jinzhan returned in high spirits.
It seems she had a good vacation at home; she looked radiant and several years younger.
She said she was tidying up the house, but actually she went through all of Luo Yan's things as soon as she entered.
"Hey, the girl has finally started learning needlework! That's really something."
She picked up Luo Yan's sachet and launched into a long, detailed critique. Luo Yan didn't get angry; she just gave an awkward, apologetic smile.
She knew she had caused Jinzhan a lot of trouble, and now that her days were numbered, she didn't want to bother innocent people anymore.
"Young lady, what kind of medicine is this?"
She picked up Luo Yan's anti-nausea pills and asked.
"It's for treating globus hystericus. Lately, I always feel a lump in my throat that I can't cough up or swallow, and I can't stop gagging."
Jinzhan suppressed a laugh.
"Young lady, isn't it said that only people who hold their breath get 'globus hystericus'? When you get angry, you shout and yell, as if you want to tear the roof off. Can you get 'globus hystericus' like that?"
Luo Yan felt embarrassed and couldn't help but blush at her previous actions. She simply said...
"I didn't understand before, but I won't anymore."
Jinzhan was overjoyed.
"The girl has reached the age where she should be and has finally become sensible."
As long as she doesn't cause trouble, she's a good girl to Jinzhan.
Luo Yan practiced needlework alone, embroidering mandarin ducks again and again.
Sunlight streamed through the window and gently fell on her face, adding a touch of sacred and serene beauty.
Zhu Yun walked in and was stunned by what she saw.
It was the first time he had seen her quiet and gentle demeanor, and he felt somewhat unfamiliar with her.
Zhu Yun kissed her cheek. The skin from her hairline to her blushing ears was particularly thin and delicate, and he couldn't help but kiss it again.
Luo Yan silently dodged, which annoyed him. He snatched the sachet from her hand and used a needle to prick the fingertips of both of them, the blood dripping down and mixing together.
"Even putting aside the fact that I'm going to marry someone else... do you think I would wear such a crudely made sachet? These two mandarin ducks are embroidered like ducks, all crooked and crooked, not presentable at all."
He glanced at Luo Yan out of the corner of his eye, waiting for her to become enraged and rush over to prick him with a needle.
But she simply wiped the blood off her fingers with a handkerchief, nodded slightly, and indicated that she had heard.
Why has Luo Yan become so amiable?
He forcibly turned Luo Yan's chin, making her look at him.
He searched her eyes thoroughly, but found not a trace of hatred.
She now looks at him as if he were an insignificant person.
No, what he wanted was the extreme love and hate emanating from Luo Yan. If Luo Yan died before him, she would become a vengeful ghost and haunt him every night; if he left first, Luo Yan would sneak to his grave in the middle of the night, pry open his coffin, and prevent him from resting in peace.
"Your Highness, please wipe the blood off your hands."
Luo Yan took a brand new handkerchief and was about to wipe the blood off his hands.
The smooth, vibrant blood instantly stimulated his nerves.
"Luo Yan, come and taste the flavor of my blood."
He obsessively shoved his bleeding fingers down her throat, as if his blood could awaken the evil within her and turn her back into that cold, cunning ghost.
The sweet, metallic taste of blood spread in her mouth. He gripped her chin tightly; there was no way for her to escape.
He was so strong that she squeezed out two drops of physical tears.
He was waiting for her to bite him hard, but she never did.
He pulled his hand back, and she simply wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief, lowering her head as she spoke.
"Your Highness should focus more on state affairs."
A very uneasy feeling spread through Zhu Yun's heart.
"Luo Yan, do you think you can win back my favor by pretending to be virtuous and sensible? You have no family background, so even if you are virtuous, what use are you to me? I still won't marry you, so give up on that idea."
Zhu Yun thought, "This should finally provoke her."
"knew."
Luo Yan seemed somewhat impatient.
Zhu Yun was instead enraged by her perfunctory attitude. What did she mean by "when is it her turn to be impatient with him"? She was really going too far.
"Hmph, you've been a prostitute for so long, and now you put on clothes and pretend to be virtuous. You don't really think you're some respectable young lady from an official family, do you? If it weren't for me, you, an orphan, would have been sold to a brothel by human traffickers long ago."
Now, Luo Yan believes in living one day at a time and naturally doesn't want to waste her time on Zhu Yun, nor does she want to get entangled or angry with him.
But Luo Yan couldn't tolerate him using her identity as a pretext. Her parents were her bottom line, and she wouldn't allow anyone to comment on them.
"If it weren't for the prince, how could my parents have perished in the fire? I would only need to inherit the family business and find a son-in-law to live with me."
"I've told you so many times, I didn't start that fire! My status is so low that I wouldn't deliberately set a fire to kill your parents. Even if I wasn't there that day, the fire would still have happened. When you become an orphan, you'll be kidnapped and sold into a brothel sooner or later!"
"Besides, if the fire hadn't broken out that day, I would have given your parents a sum of money to take you in and make you a concubine for life. Would you think that would be good enough?"
He was fed up with Luo Yan's constant belief that he deliberately burned her parents to death because of lust. He admitted that he did indeed have lustful thoughts that day, but he didn't start the fire at all. He didn't even remember whether he knocked over the candlestick.
That day was an accident, but even though it was an accident, she was determined to hold him responsible for this blood debt.
Luo Yan retorted relentlessly.
“My parents only have one daughter, why would they sell me for money? Besides, what’s the difference between being in your house and being in a brothel? It’s just a difference between selling one person and selling a hundred people.”
Hearing the two of them start arguing again, Jinzhan, standing outside, began to feel nervous again.
Luo Yan had finally behaved herself for a few days, so why did the prince summon her again? He must have had nothing better to do. And now, when it comes to the Marquis of Yun, she's caught in the middle again, suffering all the injustice.
She walked away with a belly full of complaints. She didn't want to stand at the door and listen to their debauchery in broad daylight.
She had intended to cuddle with her grandmother like she used to when she was a child, but when she got closer, she realized that her grandmother had shrunk in stature—no, it was she who had grown taller. She could see the white hair just by looking down slightly, and she pouted, "I definitely didn't have this much hair before."
Jia Yufang's tears subsided slightly as she was amused. She took the woman's hand to check her pulse and her eyes lit up immediately: "She's really cured."
After saying this, he put his hands together in prayer and bowed, saying, "Amitabha, Amitabha, Heaven has eyes."
Luo Yan tilted her head and leaned on her grandmother's shoulder: "You and A-Yun are really alike, you both want to take each other's pulses as soon as you meet."
"Otherwise, how could we be family?"
Zhu Yun was talking to the divine physician, with quite a few people standing around him. His expression was clearly impatient, and his gaze followed Luo Yan, but he managed not to lash out.
Jia Yufang suppressed her smile and sighed deeply: "Back then, Yun'er was so thin he looked unrecognizable, and I was always worried that he would do something stupid. Fortunately, fortunately. Now that you have grown up safely and are even engaged, I can die without regrets."
Upon hearing this, Luo Yan bit her lip and quietly shed tears.
Zhu Yun immediately stepped forward, first nodding to Jia Yufang in greeting, and then naturally taking Luo Yan's hand.
"It's getting windy, you two go first. The place with the rabbit lantern hanging in the courtyard is where I live." Jia Yufang patted Luo Yan's hair and said kindly, "It's only proper that I go and pay my respects to His Highness."
Cui Wuyang, entrusted by his friend to look after Jiang Xue, couldn't leave. His heart tightened as he glanced at the figures walking away side by side.
Beside him, the divine physician stroked his beard, hesitating between following Zhu Yun's instructions to trip up Ye Ning and finding an excuse for Ye Ning to chase after him and cause trouble. Finally, thinking of Ye Ning's entanglement with Medicine King Valley, he suddenly felt annoyed: "Young master, have you come to your senses? Go with Ding Wu to get the prescription."
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