Chapter 5: She hadn't returned for over a month due to illness, and it was long ago that she took...
She hadn't returned for over a month. As soon as she received her monthly allowance, she asked Liu Hu to change their room, saying they would live next door to Liu Hu. That was really too kind of them. They had originally lived in a woodshed, which was hot in summer and cold in winter. Even adults couldn't stand it, let alone a young daughter like her.
Now they've moved to a small covered room. Although it's still small, at least it won't leak in winter or during heavy rain in summer. Mother Chen is cooking, and the smoke from the burning firewood makes her cough incessantly. Her granddaughter is sitting quietly in a wooden basin used for washing clothes, sucking her fingers.
She saw Shen Yunrong first, and fearfully stretched out her hands toward her grandmother, making frightened screams.
Mother Shen put down the firewood in her hand, turned around, and saw her daughter standing in front of the door with a small bundle on her shoulder. Startled, she quickly clapped her hands and stood up: "Girl, why did you suddenly come back?"
Working for a noble household is no easy task, and Madam Shen assumed she had been dismissed and sent back home.
"Mother, I took leave today to come back and see you and Nini." Shen Yunrong's eyes were filled with tears. She hadn't seen her for more than a month, and her daughter treated her like a stranger.
"Nini, it's your mother! Don't you recognize your mother?" Shen Yunrong reached out to hug her daughter again, and the daughter burst into tears.
Mother Shen clapped her hands and picked up Nini: "Little girl, your mother has come to see you so often, why are you crying like this?"
Shen Yunrong couldn't hold back her tears of heartache and secretly wiped them away while tending the fire.
When she found out she was pregnant, she told her mother she didn't want the child. Her mother secretly bought and brewed the abortion medicine for her. The mother and daughter sat and waited for the bowl of dark medicine to cool down. With a resolute heart, she picked up the bowl and prepared to drink it in one gulp, but her mother knocked the bowl away.
The bowl fell to the ground and shattered into pieces. The bitter medicine splashed onto their trouser legs. Mother Shen hugged her and wept bitterly: "My child, you can't drink it. We'll give birth to this child and treat him as if his father is dead."
Shen Yunrong was also crying uncontrollably. She knew her mother was afraid that if she drank the medicine, she would miscarry the child and lose her life as well.
When I was little, the aunt next door gave birth to three daughters in a row. When she was pregnant again, her mother-in-law went to a fortune teller somewhere and said that she was also carrying a girl. She gave her a bowl of abortifacient medicine. The aunt wailed for three days and three nights. When she was carried out, she was covered in blood. She hid behind her mother and wanted to see more, but her mother covered her eyes and pulled her home.
They then packed a few clothes and left Shenjiazhuang early the next morning.
The rice was cooked; it was vegetable porridge, cooked into a paste. This was what Xiao Nini ate when she went to work at the Prince's mansion.
The daughter ate a bowl of vegetable porridge with relish. Seeing this, Shen Yunrong was about to shed tears again. Other children of this age were still breastfeeding, but her daughter was eating the same food as adults.
Perhaps because she was full, or perhaps because of the bond between mother and daughter, little Nini dared to look Shen Yunrong in the eye and no longer cried when she saw her approaching.
Mother Shen then asked her a lot of questions about working in the Prince's mansion, worrying that her rough hands and feet from the poor countryside might offend those nobles. She said that their lives depended on the word of those nobles, and that she had never wanted her daughter to go to such a high-ranking household in the first place.
But she also knew that her family was about to starve, and she was old with young children. If her daughter didn't go, the three of them would starve to death. All the money she had saved up in her life would only be enough for them to travel to the capital.
"You just focus on your job. I'll take care of things at home, and Liu Hu's mother comes to help out from time to time. I think that kid is pretty good. He has a good job, and his family owns so many houses..."
"Mother, you know that he's a good man. I have a daughter now, so what good family would want me?" Shen Yunrong knew what her mother meant as soon as she heard her mother's words. She still hoped that she could find a man to marry.
Mother Shen didn't say anything more. She shoveled the leftover porridge from Nini into her own bowl and ate it silently.
Shen Yunrong tried to hug her daughter again, and little Nini actually let her. She hugged her daughter tightly and said, "I don't want to get married. You and Nini are enough. Once we save up some money, we can set up a small stall to make a living. We won't starve to death."
"You also need to be careful. There are many rules for royalty and nobility. Come home early," said Mother Shen while clearing away the dishes.
"Mmm." Shen Yunrong was about to feed Nini when her mother told her to eat first. She had originally wanted to help her mother clear the dishes, but now she was holding her daughter and couldn't bear to let go.
"Okay, Mom, you can leave it there. I'll wash it later."
"Hold Nini for a bit." After washing the dishes, Shen Yunrong noticed that it was almost noon and she had to go back.
She hurriedly dressed her daughter in the little clothes she had brought. The clothes, which were too small for the young master, looked too big on her. There was also a box of pastries that Granny Li had given her, which she couldn't bear to eat and brought back to her mother.
"The money you brought back is enough. Keep these things for yourself." Mother Shen felt sorry for her daughter, who had become thinner in just over a month since she went to the Prince's mansion.
"I can eat whatever I want every day in the Prince's mansion." Shen Yunrong coaxed her daughter to sleep, not knowing when she would see her again, and was reluctant to put her on her bed.
"Sometimes I really regret letting you give birth to this child!"
"Mother, I don't regret it!" Shen Yunrong said firmly. She was very grateful to have given birth to her daughter.
After hurriedly bidding farewell to her mother, Shen Yunrong found a donkey cart in the village and paid an extra ten coins before the owner agreed to take her to the Prince Zhuang's mansion.
The donkey cart was much slower than the horse cart, and by the time she arrived, it was already so dark that she couldn't see her hand in front of her face.
Not daring to eat dinner, she hurried to relieve Zheng Zhuer. Fortunately, the weather had turned to autumn, and she was not covered in sweat, so she didn't need to change her clothes. After a quick wash, she took the young master in her arms.
"You rarely go back, why are you in such a hurry to come back?" Zheng Zhu'er originally thought she wouldn't be back until late at night.
"Just take a look around, and come back as soon as you're relieved?" Shen Yunrong said, her voice choked with emotion. She longed to never be separated from her daughter again.
“All mothers are like this, they are all flesh and blood of our own bodies.” Zheng Zhu’er also thought of her daughter at home, her eyes reddened, and she reached out to hold Shen Yunrong’s hand.
The little boy in her arms was listless today. This morning he was lively and wanted to play with her. Shen Yunrong didn't think too much about it and assumed that he was just tired from playing.
Zheng Zhuer went to rest, but the young master became increasingly strange. His originally rosy face turned pale, and he groaned in discomfort.
Shen Yunrong touched his forehead; he didn't have a fever, but she was still worried about his condition, so she picked him up and headed to find Granny Li.
She had just stepped outside when she nearly bumped into a man's arms. His cold breath brushed against her face, but this time she wasn't afraid. Instead, she clung to him like a lifeline: "Your Highness, the young master seems to be ill!"
Zhao Linzhang returned late at night. He hadn't intended to visit the child that day, but somehow he ended up in the child's yard.
The child smelled wonderful, but before he could examine him closely, his eyes fell on the child's pale face. He quickly shouted, "Quick, find a doctor!"
A note from the author:
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