The June sun scorched the capital, even the chirping of the cicadas in the old locust tree tinged with a feeble, restless air. Chen Weiwan, waving a round fan painted with a lotus, had just stepped through the western corner gate of the General's Mansion when she saw Chuntao stumbling in from the Moon Gate. The pomegranate-red silk flower on her temple had fallen to the back of her ear, and a locust leaf was stained in her hair.
"Miss! Come, come with me!" Chun Tao panted as if she had just run ten miles. She grabbed Shen Weiwan's sleeve and dragged her towards the ancestral hall. "Shen Ruorou is making a fuss in the ancestral hall, saying, saying that she is pregnant!"
"Pregnant?" Chen Weiwan raised an eyebrow, her fingertips unconsciously stroking the carvings on the fan bone. It was an old item left by her biological mother, and it felt cold to the touch. She paused and looked at Chuntao's wide eyes. "Whose pregnancy? Are you trying to put the blame on me again?"
"That's even more outrageous than putting the blame on someone!" Chun Tao lowered her voice and practically shouted into her ear, "She said it was His Royal Highness the Seventh Prince!"
With a snap, the fan suddenly slammed shut, startling the sparrows napping on the beams below. Chen Weiwan gazed at the surging crowd in the west wing, a cold smile curling her lips. "Let's go and take a look. I want to see what she can come up with with this 'Civet Cat Substitute Prince'."
The entrance to the ancestral hall was already packed, with servants huddled at the bottom of the steps, whispering to each other. Seeing Chen Weiwan approach, they immediately fell silent and made way. Inside the hall, candlelight blazed brightly. Shen Ruoruo, dressed in a plain white skirt, knelt on a mat. Her belly bulged beneath the hem, like a watermelon. She was tearing at her handkerchief, sobbing bitterly. Seeing Chen Weiwan enter, her sobs suddenly rose an octave:
"Elders and uncles, please help me—" She pounded the ground, the silver hairpin in her hair shaking violently. "The Seventh Prince, he, he always cheated on me, and now that I'm pregnant, he's turned his back on me!"
The old patriarch, seated at the head of the clan, was so angry that his silver beard trembled, and he slammed his cane down on the blue brick floor: "Nonsense! This is outrageous! If this gets out, where will the reputation of our General's Mansion be?!"
Shen Weiwan leaned against the vermilion door frame, her fingertips lightly tapping her chin, her eyes falling on Shen Ruorou's belly with a half-smile: "Cousin's belly... looks a lot rounder than last month. I just wonder, is she pregnant with a dragon seed, or is she hiding an embroidered pillow?"
"Cousin, why do you say that?" Shen Ruorou suddenly looked up, a trace of panic in her eyes. She hurriedly covered her stomach and shrank back, bumping against the copper incense burner behind her. "I woke up this morning with nausea and retching, and I couldn't eat. Even Doctor Wang from the west of the city came to check my pulse!" She winked in the corner, and an old doctor in a gray gown trembled forward, stroking his goatee and saying, "It's indeed a pregnancy pulse, and it's been over two months."
"Doctor Wang?" Chuntao suddenly sneered, stepping forward with her hands on her hips. "Is that the butcher Wang who delivered a pig at the market last month? My young lady saw the second young lady climbing a tree in the garden to pick apricots the other day, more nimble than a monkey. How come she's suddenly pregnant?"
"You are slandering me!" Shen Ruorou's face suddenly changed, and she turned to the elders and cried, "My cousin must be jealous that I can win the favor of His Highness, so she deliberately bribed the servants to slander me!"
Shen Weiwan stepped forward, her high heels making a crisp sound as they rolled over the blue bricks. She suddenly reached out, pretending to touch Shen Ruoruo's belly. She was so startled that she jerked back as if scalded, her lower back slamming against the altar. The cotton balls hidden under her skirt couldn't withstand the jostle and tumbled out, snow-white clumps rolling to the feet of the elders.
The ancestral hall fell silent, and even the crackling of the burning candle could be heard clearly. The old patriarch looked at the cotton on the ground, his knuckles turning white as he leaned on his cane. "What the hell is this?!"
Shen Ruorou's face turned pale as paper. She hurried to pick up the cotton, but her fingers trembled like leaves in the autumn wind: "No, no! It was my cousin who framed me! She had prepared the cotton a long time ago to slander me!"
"Slander?" Shen Weiwan squatted down, picked up a ball of cotton with her fingertips, and sniffed it gently. "Cousin, I'm afraid you forgot. Yesterday, you asked your maid Lu'e to go to the cloth shop to buy ten kilograms of new cotton, saying that you wanted to make a winter quilt for Liu. The accountant remembered it clearly in the account book." She suddenly leaned close to Shen Ruoruo's ear and said in a voice that only the two of them could hear, "Oh, by the way, that 'Doctor Wang' who took twenty taels of silver from you is probably ten miles away from the city now, holding the silver and drinking wine."
Shen Ruoruo felt as if struck by lightning, stumbling to the ground, her plain white skirt covered in dust. Shen Weiwan stood up, patted the hem of her skirt, and turned to the old patriarch and bowed: "Elders, please understand, my cousin has ruined her own innocence in order to cling to the royal family, and even attempted to smear the reputation of His Highness the Seventh Prince. Her heart is deserving of death—"
"Shut up!" Liu suddenly rushed out from the crowd, holding Shen Ruoruo behind her. Her hair was disheveled, and her face was still stained with dirt from last night's jail. "Ruoruo was just confused for a moment! Please, elders, consider her young age and ignorance..."
"Young?" Chen Weiwan sneered, her eyes like a knife scraping across Liu's haggard face. "She will be coming of age next month. Do you still think that everyone in the capital is blind and deaf?" She suddenly raised her voice, her voice as clear as a bell. "Just now I heard my cousin crying, 'The Seventh Prince cheated on me and then abandoned me'? If this gets to His Highness's ears..."
Before he finished speaking, the sound of hurried horse hooves suddenly rang out from outside the ancestral hall, their iron hooves pounding against the bluestone slabs like a dense drumbeat. Before anyone could react, Xiao Yu, dressed in a dark brocade robe, had already stepped through the curtains, followed by a dozen imperial guards wearing long swords at their waists, their armor plates gleaming coldly in the candlelight. He glanced at the mess on the ground, his gaze finally settling on Shen Ruorou's swollen belly. A hint of cold sarcasm curled his lips:
"When did this prince have physical contact with Miss Shen Er?"
Shen Ruorou looked up in horror, her gaze meeting Xiao Yu's cold, obsidian pupils. Her entire body trembled, her teeth chattering. Liu collapsed to the ground with a thud, kowtowed profusely, and said, "Your Highness, spare me... It's my fault for being ignorant... It's my fault for not being a good parent..."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
