Chapter 73 Chapter 73 One is stupid, the other is vicious, and they harmed Liu...
An's eyes flushed red as she sighed, "I thought Auntie, having given birth to three children, must have known everything and understood the seriousness of this matter better than I do. I never imagined... Oh, how am I supposed to explain this to Sanlang?"
Yue Qing'e and Fang Ying looked at each other and saw surprise in each other's eyes.
"I don't quite understand what Third Sister-in-law said. Could it be that Aunt He was negligent, so Liu..."
Fang Ying had just asked halfway when she was interrupted by An: "What are you talking about, Sixth Sister-in-law? That's not what I meant."
She denied it flatly, but her eyes flickered. Yue Qing'e frowned and asked, "Then what do you mean by 'never thought'?"
An opened her mouth and closed it again, looking as if she wanted to say something but hesitated.
Fang Ying saw her pretentiousness. If it were in the past, she would have tolerated it. But now, she and Yue Qing'e came to An Shi to discuss Liu Shi's funeral. She found her behavior particularly abominable and said coldly, "If Third Sister-in-law is not comfortable talking about it, then forget it. Mother meant that Second Sister-in-law just said that if there is nothing else, Second Sister-in-law and I will go ahead and take care of it."
An was stunned for a moment, and before she could react, she saw Yue Qing'e also stand up without hesitation and urged her, "Third sister-in-law, remember to send someone to bury Liu as soon as possible. Don't delay."
"Hey..." An stood up and wanted to keep them, but she didn't know how to say it, so she could only wink at the maid standing by the door.
The maidservant, who had come with her as a dowry, came forward and said, "Second and Sixth Madam, please stay. Our wife is in great pain, but she can't say it." Then she pretended to persuade An, "You haven't spoken yet. Are you waiting for Sanlang to come back and be wrongly accused and killed?"
An immediately pulled out her silk handkerchief, covered her face with it, and sobbed twice, saying in a tearful voice, "Hasn't I been wronged enough? Even if I speak up now, it won't stop others from blaming me."
Fang Ying watched the master and servant act coldly without saying a word.
Yue Qing'e also saw that An was getting anxious, so she just waited for her to speak first without asking any questions.
The maidservant had no choice but to reply, "Second Lady and Sixth Lady are both sensible people. As long as Madam speaks out, they will certainly help to defend her."
An looked at her two sisters-in-law, and Yue Qing'e finally spoke: "Why am I confused? Who wronged you? What's the connection? What's there to defend? Is there something else behind Liu's difficult labor?"
"There is something behind this." An sighed, asked her two sisters-in-law to sit down, and then sat back down herself. "I dare not say that Liu's difficult labor is definitely related to this, but when I saw her yesterday and recalled what happened in the past few months, I couldn't help but wonder..."
She took a sip of the now lukewarm tea beside her and began again, "My second sister-in-law and sixth brother's wife knew about that incident. I was heartbroken and didn't want to be implicated. Concubine He volunteered, so I sent Liu to the concubine's courtyard. But she's still my wife, and I still pay for her food, clothing, and other expenses. I can't let Concubine He take the responsibility."
Fang Ying felt annoyed when she heard her talk about these insignificant things again. The Ji family had not divided the family, and the allowances for each room were distributed by the public treasury. Pregnant concubines like Liu received their own monthly allowance from the public treasury. Although it was lower than that of concubines like Concubine He, it was still a hundred yuan. As for food and clothing, the public treasury never lacked anything.
Liu's body is still warm at this moment, and An still wants to settle a small score?
Yue Qing'e didn't like to hear An talk about this either, so she interrupted, "The kitchen prepares two meals a day, and there's snacks at noon. She's a pregnant woman and can't wear any nice clothes. At most, she's craving something to eat, so she cooks a small meal. My third sister-in-law wouldn't be so reluctant to even give her this, right?"
"Who does Second Sister-in-law think of me?" An was a little annoyed. "When did I ever say I couldn't bear to leave?"
"Then you say these..."
An sneered, "Hasn't Second Sister-in-law ever considered that her difficult labor was due to eating too much?"
"How could that be..." Yue Qing'e replied halfway, then saw An's expression and choked back the rest of the sentence. She asked in surprise, "Are you saying the fetus is too big because she eats too much? Seriously? Who were the people serving her? Didn't they try to stop her? And the doctor often came to take her pulse, didn't he give any instructions?"
"The doctor said that he had warned a long time ago that pregnant women should not be allowed to eat as much as they want after they are further along in the pregnancy. The maids and servants all said that the doctor said so and they had advised her, but Aunt He ignored them and told Liu not to be afraid and that she should eat more so that she would have enough strength and give birth faster. She also said that this way the fetus in her belly would be strong and she would not give birth to a stillbirth like her sister." An said it all in one breath, as if she was pouring beans.
"..." Yue Qing'e felt that although Concubine He was a confused person, "It's not like Concubine He had never given birth before. How could she not know the dangers of an oversized fetus?"
An sighed, "I don't understand either."
The two of them were talking back and forth, and Fang Ying didn't interrupt until then: "How much does it take to become like this?" She had never heard that pregnant women can't eat too much. She had only heard people say that a pregnant woman is two people, and eating more will help the fetus grow well.
"Five meals a day, breakfast alone can include five large meat buns, a plate of sesame oil steamed eggs, and three bowls of sugar porridge. That's not to mention the remaining four meals." An pointed to the servants beside her. "One time they went to the kitchen and saw braised pork, stewed duck, roasted honey pigeon, and a pot of lard and rice on the stove. They came back and told me. I tried to persuade my aunt a little, but she blamed me for not wanting to eat them."
When Yue Qing'e heard these last three words, she couldn't help but think of what she had said before. Seeing An looking over, she could only clear her throat and say, "I didn't know there was such a thing. I said something I shouldn't have said. Please don't blame me, Third Sister-in-law."
An said, "How dare I blame my second sister-in-law? I only ask that my second sister-in-law and my sixth brother's wife speak a few fair words for me in front of mother, and I will be grateful."
There was something sarcastic about these words, but Yue Qing'e was in the wrong first, so she didn't care and said goodbye to Fang Ying.
"It turns out that as the pregnancy progresses, you can't eat too much..." Fang Ying whispered as she walked out of the An family's yard.
Seeing that she looked unhappy, Yue Qing'e took her hand and explained as they walked, "It's not that you can't eat more, but you can't eat too much. You don't know that in the last three months of pregnancy, the appetite often opens up, sometimes even more than an adult man. But the nanny around you will usually watch over you and not let you eat too much. After dinner, they will also urge you to go out for a walk, so that you can have an easier time during the birth."
"Yes, Aunt He has given birth to three children, so it's impossible for her not to know the connection between these two things. Why would she..."
"I can't figure it out either. When the other concubines were pregnant, Mother always sent capable maids to take care of them, but nothing like what happened to Liu happened."
Concubine He had no reason to harm Liu's life, and she certainly wouldn't want to see the baby die in her womb. Why on earth did she... Fang Ying was thinking, and suddenly remembered Concubine He's face. She stopped and asked Yue Qing'e, "Second sister-in-law, do you think Concubine He has gained a lot of weight in the past two months?"
Yue Qing'e nodded: "Yes, she has gained some weight, and her face has become a little rounder." Thinking of An's words, she couldn't help but guess, "She wouldn't accompany Liu to eat five meals of delicious fish and meat, right?"
"Maybe it's true. When Concubine He was pregnant, my mother sent a nanny to watch over her and not let her eat too much. With her confused mind, she might think that the nannies were deliberately torturing her." Fang Ying raised her foot again and spoke as she walked.
"Yes." Yue Qing'e nodded. "In the month before the birth, even I woke up twice at night with an empty stomach and hunger. Aunt He had given birth to three children, so I think she had that too, but she didn't dare to wake up and ask for food like me. She usually endured it until morning."
"So she didn't believe that the maids were doing this for her own good. She only remembered how she had been hungry and suffered. Now that she was at Liu's place, she had the final say over her courtyard, and with her third sister-in-law paying for it, she could eat as much as she wanted. This not only enriched herself, but also..." and cost Liu her life.
Yue Qing'e sighed, took a few steps forward, and suddenly shook her head. "No, even if it's what we suspected, Sanniang can't escape responsibility! The fetus weighed 8.12 pounds when it was born. How could it be increased by eating in a short time? Since she knew it was not right, and she couldn't persuade Concubine He, why didn't she report it to Mother as soon as possible?"
"Maybe she's afraid that mother will send Liu back to her room again? Or maybe Aunt He will complain to Third Uncle..." Fang Ying didn't want to think so badly of An, but after she said these two sentences, she felt it was far-fetched, because even if An was really worried about these two things, it was obvious that the lives of Liu and the child in her belly were insignificant in An's heart.
Yue Qing'e glanced at Fang Ying and said nothing more.
The two sisters-in-law finished taking care of Liu's funeral with their hearts set on their shoulders and went to Li's room to report back. "...She was quietly carried out through the west corner door. Little Liu from Si Niang's room went to see her off."
Li nodded: "Thank you both for your hard work." This matter should have been handled by An herself, but she didn't trust it, so she let the two daughters-in-law busy for half a day.
Fang Ying and Yue Qing'e hurriedly said it wasn't hard and was part of their job. Yue Qing'e then reported back to An Shi and what she had said. Finally, she said, "Sanniang asked me and Liuniang to speak up for her in front of you, but after thinking about it, I feel like something is not right."
Li sneered, "Nothing's right! If she knew He was confused, why didn't she report it to me? Now that everyone is gone, she only thinks of saying this, just to distance herself from the matter!"
Seeing that Li seemed angry, Fang Ying and Yue Qing'e hurried forward to persuade her to calm down.
"One is stupid, the other is vicious. How can I calm down?" Li raised her hand and slammed the table lightly. "Go call He and An!"
The maid replied and left. Li sighed and said to her two daughters-in-law, "It's none of your business. Go back and rest."
Fang Ying and Yue Qing'e didn't dare to say much. They agreed in unison and left.
After returning to the room, Fang Ying was still in a daze. She sat there in a daze for a while, and then Ji Yanlang came back.
"I heard that my mother was angry. What happened?" he asked as soon as he entered the door.
"Everyone in the outer courtyard knows about this? Did it spread so quickly?"
"I felt something was wrong the moment I entered the house. From the gatehouse to the second gate, everyone was hunching their necks." Ji Yanlang sat down, picked up the tea served by the maid, gulped it down, and then asked, "Is it because of the matter of the third house?"
"Yes." Fang Ying recounted what An had said, and what had happened after she reported it to Li. Finally, she said, "Second sister-in-law also feels that Third sister-in-law is implicated. Perhaps she was deliberately condoning it. What do you think?"
Ji Yanlang said: "How could this be possible? It must be intentional connivance."
"But if things go wrong, there will be two deaths!" Fang Ying still refused to believe that An had intended to harm anyone.
Ji Yanlang heard the tone of her voice was wrong, and after a closer look, he realized that her face was pale and her eyes were not as calm as usual. She looked frightened. He reached out and held her fingertips. They were so cold that it made him feel distressed. He quickly squeezed them and said soothingly, "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid. Didn't mother ask the third sister-in-law to question her? There will be a result."
"What could possibly be the result? She's already gone. I'm afraid she's buried by now. She was only eighteen or nineteen, the age of a blooming flower..." Fang Ying felt very sad. "My third sister-in-law won't admit it."
"The law of nature is clear. Good deeds will be rewarded and evil deeds will be punished. Those who do evil will be punished sooner or later." This is the only way Ji Yanlang can comfort himself.
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The author has something to say: A sentence was added to the previous chapter.
This chapter has been slightly revised and a menu has been added~
Thank you to the little angels who voted for me or irrigated nutrient solution between 2021-11-10 02:27:49 and 2021-11-18 00:59:30~
Thanks to the little angel who irrigated the nutrient solution: 10 bottles of Chuxia Xianju;
Thank you very much for your support. I will continue to work hard!
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