Chapter 6 The Little Reborn
Zhao Xian didn't bother to look at his sour face, and picked up the account book: "If you came to see me just to say these things, then go and hug your daughter more. You're a father now, and you still don't know how to be proper."
What she really wanted to say was that she should take better care of her daughter, who was also incredibly unlucky and died before reaching marriageable age.
She remembers seeing a comment after finishing the original novel.
The author said that the male protagonist was too ruthless in the early stages, and since he couldn't win back his wife, he deliberately arranged for Xiu'er's death so that she could avenge her daughter.
This serves to highlight the male lead's power and influence, allowing the heartbroken female lead to rely on him and creating an opportunity for the two to reconcile.
Forced happy ending.
The comments below were filled with both agreement and disagreement, leading to a heated argument.
Jiang Wei's expression was tense, his eyes as cold as ice: "Composed? Mother, do you know what people outside are saying about you, how they are laughing at me?"
Even when he's angry, he always has a cold face. Zhao Xian finds it hard to imagine what he'll be like when he melts his iceberg while pursuing his wife later on. It's terrifying.
“Lianniang’s premature birth this time was too dangerous. You have good handwriting, so copy a few pages of Buddhist scriptures every day when you come back. After Lianniang’s confinement period is over, we will go to the temple together to pray for her and the baby.”
When it came to praying to gods and Buddhas, Zhao Xian's thoughts wandered.
She will then pray to the Bodhisattva to bless her return home, or see if she can encounter a wise monk to seek her way home.
The world of angst-filled stories is too murky; she doesn't want to get involved. It's best to stay away from this place.
Jiang Wei frowned. "Mother, I'm talking to you about the rumors."
Zhao Xian put down the account book in her hand, looked up at Jiang Wei, and said, "People can say whatever they want. Am I supposed to sew their mouths shut? If others laugh at you, you can scold them back if you're unhappy. You're married now, you're a father of a child, you're not a little kid anymore, and you can't go home to your parents to stand up for you if you're wronged."
Jiang Wei's chest heaved. He had never realized that talking to his mother would be so difficult, and he was so angry that his chest ached.
The footsteps faded away, and the breeze stirred the smoke from the incense burner, scattering it before it rose again after a while.
“He’s always so quick to turn his back and run away. His father doesn’t have that kind of weird temper.” Zhao Xian glanced at Granny He: “Go tell the eldest young master that he needs to hold the child more so that he will be close to him. Don’t keep a cold face and not let the child call him. Also, remind him to remember to copy the Buddhist scriptures.”
Granny He: "Madam, those rumors outside..."
Zhao Xian waved her hand: "It's just a rumor, there's no need to pay attention to it."
As an artist's assistant, I've seen it all.
Rumors? It's just a publicity stunt. There are plenty of ways to deal with it, but now is not the time.
Granny He picked up the ink stick and ground the ink, speaking gently:
“Madam, as you just said, the eldest son is no longer a child. There are plenty of ways to take care of the eldest young mistress. There are female doctors, midwives, and maids available. Why do you need to live in Yunzhu Garden yourself?”
Granny He always felt that the madam had been acting differently ever since the second young master stormed off that day.
In the past, the madam disliked the eldest young mistress the most, but this time she repeatedly embarrassed the eldest young master because of her.
If it was said that her moving to Yunzhu Garden was to cause trouble for the eldest young mistress, then judging from the mistress's actions, it was all for the eldest young mistress's good.
Granny He couldn't quite understand the lady.
“In the eyes of parents, no matter how old they are, they are still children.” Realizing that she had said something contradictory, Zhao Xian added, “Lianniang’s delivery this time was too dangerous, which reminded me of the difficulties I faced when I first gave birth to Wei’er.”
Since Granny He hadn't always been by the original owner's side, and Zhao Xian deliberately spoke in a sad tone, the other party couldn't persuade her any further.
“Go open the storeroom and bring out those brightly colored, high-quality fabrics. Lianniang worked hard giving birth to our Jiang family’s children.”
--
This time, Jiang Wei stormed off and did not appear before Zhao Xian for several days.
However, she sent servants every day to ask him to hold the child.
The bond between parents and children is built through interaction. If you don't spend time together, how can you maintain it based on that meager blood relation?
That's too unrealistic.
Zhao Xian suddenly received many invitations to go out, such as flower viewing parties and tea parties.
The life of a wealthy woman is truly colorful.
The Jiang family's account books and the trivial matters in the mansion were giving her a headache, so she didn't have time to go out.
They just hoped that Li Lianniang would recover quickly and finish her postpartum confinement so she could take over these matters.
She wasn't the original owner of this body and didn't want to work hard.
Being the mistress of the household is no easy task. Every day, she has to handle the household expenses, the income, and report any damage or repairs to the house. When the snow melts and spring arrives, she has to allocate money to prepare new clothes and shoes. There are things to do for both the mistress and the servants.
"Our Xiu-jie is still the most comfortable."
Eat and sleep, sleep and eat, don't worry about anything.
After settling down in Yunzhu Garden, Zhao Xian also developed the habit of playing with the children whenever she had a spare moment.
After all, there are people to comfort and feed the child when he cries or is hungry, so she treats it like playing with a little figurine and enjoys it.
"Wow..."
As a result, as soon as I held the child in my arms today, the child burst into tears.
She quickly handed the baby to the wet nurse, asking, "Has it not been fed yet?"
The wet nurse looked troubled and stammered.
I tried to soothe her for a while, but she didn't get better.
It was Li Lianniang who spoke up, "Give me the child."
Inside the house, where there was no wind, Li Lianniang had already gotten out of bed and started walking around, but she just didn't go outside.
The child stopped crying immediately when placed in her arms.
"Xiu'er is so clever, she knows it's her mother who's holding her."
"A child recognizes his mother and stays with her."
The maids and servants smiled and flattered each other, their words conveying the same meaning.
Zhao Xian, the child's biological mother, didn't care much.
But she noticed that every time she saw Li Lianniang over the past few days, she was holding the child. When she asked, she learned that apart from breastfeeding, the child no longer wanted to be held by the wet nurse or maids, and just clung to her mother.
Even when she held her, she would cry as soon as she was held, but the crying would stop as soon as Li Lianniang took her.
"Where is the eldest son?"
The wet nurse said cautiously, "The eldest young master has been here for two days. Xiu'er cries whenever she sees him. After that, the eldest young master refused to come anymore. Even when he does come, he only glances at her from afar."
Do you recognize people like that?
Li Lianniang loved holding Xiujie'er; what mother wouldn't want to hold her own daughter?
Even if my arms get sore from holding you, I can't bear to put you down.
"Go and bring the child over."
The wet nurse carried the child to the side room. As soon as Zhao Xian reached out to take the child, the child's dark eyes glanced at her and immediately burst into tears.
The wet nurse reached out to take her back, but Zhao Xian didn't move. Holding the wailing Jiang Shuxiu, she turned around and muttered to herself as she walked around the room:
"You let your mother hold you all day long. Are you trying to exhaust her? Even if holding her won't kill you, your mother just gave birth to you. She can't hold a baby during her postpartum period. The more and longer she holds the baby, the more hand and back pain she'll develop, leaving her with a host of postpartum ailments. In severe cases, she'll experience unbearable pain on rainy days. If you let your mother hold you every day, she won't be able to recover properly, and she'll start having headaches later on..."
When Zhao Xian said, "You want to work your mother to death," the baby in her arms stopped crying.
However, she didn't realize that she was rambling on and on, recounting all the postpartum illnesses she had heard about from her sister-in-law and cousin who had given birth.
After a while of nagging, the child stopped crying.
Whether it was her imagination or not, Zhao Xian felt that the baby's eyes seemed to show some heartache and pity.
"What a sweet child who cares so much for his mother."
Praise is always a natural thing to say, regardless of whether the child understands it or not.
After that, the baby no longer clung to Li Lianniang alone, and Zhao Xian had a feeling that the baby might not have completely forgotten her.
When Jiang Wei arrived, he heard that the child was crying less, and Zhao Xian forced him to do so again.
As a result, the baby started crying without warning as soon as I held him in my arms.
Jiang Wei's already cold face looked even more chilling.
"You're a father, can't you even smile at your daughter? You're so cold-faced, look how scared the child is." Zhao Xian took the child from Jiang Wei's arms, turned to look at Jiang Shuxiu who was crying with tears streaming down her face, pulled her closer, and whispered, "Your father is a man, strong and healthy. Carrying a baby won't tire him out or make him sick. Why are you so worried about him?"
Jiang Shuxiu found her grandmother very strange; weren't her words contradictory?
“He didn’t give birth to you, he didn’t experience the pain of childbirth, he doesn’t know how hard it is to bring a child into the world. If you don’t let him hold you more, how will he love you? Good baby, be good, let him hold you more, and let him learn how to be a father.”
Jiang Shuxiu looked closely at her grandmother in front of her, wondering why she was completely different from the one she remembered.
Her grandmother never hid her dislike for her in her memory. Could it be that her grandmother loved her before she could remember anything?
Over the past few days, she discovered that her grandmother was also very kind to her mother, a completely different person from her previous life.
What exactly happened that made her grandmother dislike her and her mother so much later?
They tried putting the baby in Jiang Wei's arms, and this time the baby didn't cry anymore.
"Did she laugh? Did she laugh?" Jiang Wei asked, his voice slightly agitated.
However, when the wet nurse peeked out, she didn't see Xiujie smiling. The baby was only born a short time ago, so crying was common, but smiling was rare.
No one echoed Jiang Wei's words, but he had just clearly seen the curve of his daughter's lips.
It was this smile that swept away his previous annoyance from the child's crying, and he held the child with more sincerity.
Zhao Xian was surprised. Could it be that he really hadn't completely forgotten?
Regardless, Jiang Shuxiu no longer picks who holds her, and there are more heartwarming scenes of Jiang Wei holding the child with Li Lianniang.
Zhao Xian occasionally runs into them, which makes people feel like they're being fed dog food (a Chinese slang term for witnessing public displays of affection).
"Mother." Jiang Wei's face was still expressionless, but the change in address from 'mother' to 'mother' indicated that he was not angry at the moment.
Zhao Xian nodded, "Look how well-behaved your daughter is."
Hold her well, hug her often, otherwise how will you raise a doting father?
Li Lianniang looked at Zhao Xian apologetically: "Mother, your daughter-in-law wants to apologize to you."
After her daughter was held by her mother-in-law, she no longer recognized only her. At first, Li Lianniang was a little sad, wondering if her mother-in-law was trying to take her daughter away.
But when her husband held the child and joked with her, and her mother-in-law never mentioned taking Xiu'er away to raise, she realized her mother-in-law's good intentions.
“What did you do wrong? You are now the most meritorious person in our Jiang family.”
Zhao Xian sat down on the stool, and Granny He smiled and handed a brocade box to Chi Lan.
Zhao Xian sipped the tea served by Danruo, glanced at the brocade box, and said, "It's freshly made. See if you like it."
Chi Lan held the somewhat heavy brocade box, supporting it with one arm and opening the lid with the other.
The first thing you see are two hairpins with filigree and pearls, with pearls as petals, rubies as stamens, and sapphires as wings. The two kites with floral decorations are lifelike.
Even though the tassels hanging from the end of her hair were never worn in her hair bun, she could already tell how stunning they would look if she wore them.
"Mother, this..."
Li Lianniang looked up at Zhao Xian. These days, her mother-in-law had treated her very well, sending her things from time to time.
But she herself never owned a complete set of face ornaments, nor did she dare to accept them.
"After you finish your confinement, I'll dress you up. Pearls and riches will suit you." The heroine in the tragic novel didn't have much dowry, so much so that she had to copy books and paint to save money before her divorce. It was quite pitiful.
"But Mother, this set of face ornaments is too expensive."
"What's so precious about it? You went through so much hardship giving birth to Xiu'er. It's just a set of facial ornaments."
Zhao Xian changed the subject and looked at Jiang Wei: "Wei'er, what gift did you prepare for your wife? She went through so much to give birth to your daughter."
These days, she looked at the account books and found that Jiang Wei not only secretly bought things for Cui Tingyue, but also used public funds from the manor to support Cui Tingyue. Just those medicines alone were a considerable expense every month.
She's the daughter of my benefactor, someone who risked her life for me; this is all she deserves.
But for a husband to not think about his wife and daughters at all is going too far.
He can't distinguish between close and distant relatives; he deserves to be chased down to the crematorium after his wife's death.
Jiang Wei paused for a moment, then said, "Lianniang likes calligraphy, so I'll give her my piece of Huizhou ink."
Zhao Xian lowered her head and drank her tea, remembering that this plot had appeared in the book, where he pursued his wife later in the story.
Jiang Wei also gifted a piece of ink, claiming it was made by his own hands, and the ink even bore the names of the two men.
After so many years of marriage, it seemed as if he had only just realized then that his wife enjoyed calligraphy and painting.
The plot of the book is so far ahead of time.
It seems the female protagonist in this angst-filled novel is too tight-lipped; she doesn't fight or compete, so this is how she ended up revealing herself.
Jiang Wei understands his mother less and less now. Granny He says it's because Li Lianniang's childbirth reminded his mother of the hardships she faced when she gave birth to him.
Having heard too much about the dangers of childbirth these past few days, he didn't dare argue with his mother much, so he simply took Xiu'er to the outer room.
Before leaving, Jiang Wei glanced at Li Lianniang.
The two seemed to be exchanging secret signals.
Zhao Xian saw it, but she turned her eyes away and pretended not to see it.
A note from the author:
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