Chapter 123 Didn't you say you'd be my wife?
Xianghe Teahouse on East Street.
Outside, along the riverbank, willows provide shade and flowers add to the scenery, while groups of scholars compose poems and paint in the pavilions.
Xie Min, wearing a veiled hat, sat in a private room on the second floor, but had no mood to appreciate what was in front of her.
Last night, Lu Zhi gave her a note that said "Let's get together at Xianghe Restaurant today," but the seal on the note wasn't Lu Zhi's.
The door creaked open from the outside, heavy footsteps sounded, and a familiar smell wafted in, reminding her of that nightmarish experience.
Xie Min's hands trembled involuntarily.
She felt a little flustered and got up to run away, but was grabbed by a pair of large hands: "Where are you going?" Lu Yuanzhang's voice rang out.
More than a month later, hearing that voice still made her tremble all over.
Seeing that Xie Min had no intention of sitting down, Lu Yuanzhang stepped forward and grabbed her by the neck: "Are you afraid of me? Didn't you say you wanted to be my wife?"
Xie Min grabbed those large hands with both of them and started pounding on them in terror, her neck aching.
She managed to say with difficulty, "Let...let go!"
Lu Yuanzhang glanced at her stomach, snorted, released her, and sat down in the chair.
Xie Min coughed a few times, feeling that she could breathe again. Only then did she shakily sit down on the chair next to her.
Just then, there was a knock at the door. Lu Yuanzhang called out to the person outside, "Come in."
A doctor came in carrying a medicine chest: "Second Master."
Xie Min stared at the doctor.
From the first time she fainted, it was this doctor who came to the village to take her pulse.
At that time, neither she nor her mother, Lin, knew that he was one of Lu Yuanzhang's men.
"Dr. Wang, please take a look at the lady."
Lu Yuanzhang gave the instructions.
I heard last night that she was so frightened by Xie Yanzhi that he almost dragged her out to feed the dogs.
If anything were to happen to the child in her womb...
Thinking of this, Lu Yuanzhang slammed the teacup down on the table.
Doctor Wang placed the handkerchief in Xie Min's hand before taking her pulse.
Upon seeing Lu Yuanzhang set out the teacup, he hurriedly and respectfully said, "My lord, the child in your wife's womb is doing well."
"However, Madam seems to have been frightened. I will prescribe some medicine to calm her down."
The fierce look on Lu Yuanzhang's face faded, and he nodded in satisfaction: "Thank you for your trouble, Doctor Wang."
Doctor Wang slung his medicine box over his shoulder, bowed respectfully once more, and left the room.
Looking at Xie Min across from him, Lu Yuanzhang thought to himself that she was not the woman he was most satisfied with over the years, but she was the most promising of all the women he had ever been with.
He has had no children all these years, and this has always been a source of worry for him.
Indeed, he didn't let any of the women he slept with go; he kept them all in his mansion, just to see who could conceive his child.
Even if Xie Min was forced, as long as he planted the seed, she could still get pregnant.
Therefore, after Xie Min returned to his residence that day, he secretly sent people to keep an eye on him. If Xie Min felt unwell, they were to report it immediately.
A month ago, Xie Min fainted for the first time at the estate, and Lu Yuanzhang received the news.
He immediately bribed the doctor Lin had hired, so that the doctor could make an excuse that he couldn't go and let Doctor Wang take the case instead.
After Doctor Wang arrived, he was absolutely certain that Xie Min was pregnant. This greatly pleased Lu Yuanzhang.
But Dr. Wang said that Xie Min's condition looked very bad.
He then thought that since he had forced the child into this situation, Xie Min or the entire Jingnan Marquis's mansion probably wouldn't keep the child.
Therefore, he asked Doctor Wang to help him save the child no matter what.
Lu Yuanzhang reached out, wanting to touch Xie Min's belly and her child.
Xie Min screamed and dodged away.
This action clearly angered Lu Yuanzhang.
He stared fiercely at Xie Min, gritting his teeth as he said, "If you weren't carrying my child, do you think I would want you!"
Upon hearing this, Xie Min suppressed her fear and walked up to Lu Yuanzhang.
But just as Lu Yuanzhang's hand was about to touch her stomach, she could no longer hold back and ran to the side to vomit.
Lu Yuanzhang frowned: "You've only been here for a little over a month, yet your reaction is so strong."
Xie Min took out a handkerchief to wipe her mouth and slowly said, "My mother said that this reaction might indicate it's a boy."
As she spoke, she patted her belly and observed Lu Yuanzhang's expression, seeing that he was indeed very happy.
I despise him in my heart; how can someone who has committed so many evils be worthy of having a son?
Her mother didn't even know she was pregnant, so how could she say it was a boy?
Lu Yuanzhang was overjoyed upon hearing this. He had always dreamed of having a son, and he never expected that Xie Songyi's daughter would give birth to one for him.
He'll have to thank this opponent later. Now, Xie Songyi is about to become his good father-in-law.
Lu Yuanzhang laughed heartily.
I wonder what kind of expression Xie Songyi would have if he knew that his daughter had married him?
He then said, "You stay here and wait. Before you leave the mansion, I will have Doctor Wang come to take care of you."
When this Doctor Wang was mentioned, Xie Min clenched her handkerchief tightly.
That day, after she fainted, this Doctor Wang came to the village to examine her and told her mother that she was worrying too much and had a problem with her spleen and stomach.
They also prescribed her a lot of pills.
Until the day Shen Qing came to the manor, after Doctor Wang took her pulse and gave her a bottle of pills, she turned her head and said, "You're one of Lu Yuanzhang's men, aren't you?"
Doctor Wang was somewhat alarmed, wondering how Xie Min had found out.
But Master Lu had instructed that she must not discover that she was pregnant.
"What is the young lady saying?"
Seeing that Doctor Wang was still pretending to be stupid, Xie Min picked up the hairpin from her hair and pressed it against her throat: "Do you really think I don't know what's wrong with me?"
Her period hadn't come for a month. After thinking about it carefully, she realized what was going on.
Doctor Wang was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat.
In the past ten years or so, this has been the only child Master Lu has had, and nothing can happen to him.
Seeing that he didn't answer, Xie Min shook the medicine bottle in her hand again: "Is this a pregnancy-preserving medicine?"
For a woman of her status to be pregnant would be a great disgrace to the Marquis of Jingnan's household.
Her grandmother or her mother, Madam Lin, might have given her a bowl of abortifacient medicine.
Who would be so kind as to give her pregnancy-supporting medicine? It could only be that old scoundrel Lu Yuanzhang!
He cares about the child in her womb.
"Young lady, don't hurt yourself." Doctor Wang wanted to take the hairpin away, but he didn't dare to get closer.
He originally wanted Xie Min to take pregnancy-preserving pills for two or three months, so that when the pregnancy was too advanced, she wouldn't be able to have an abortion.
I didn't expect the girl to find out so quickly.
"Give me an abortion pill."
"I don't want this bastard!" Xie Min said, almost crying.
Doctor Wang has been following Master Lu for over ten years; how could he dare prescribe abortion pills for her?
He thought for a moment and then advised, "You are imprisoned in this manor all day long, isn't it because your status is not high enough?"
Upon hearing this, Xie Min looked at him with teary eyes. Seeing that she was finally softening, Doctor Wang continued, "Second Master also holds real power. If you marry Second Master, you will be the Second Madam of the Marquis's Mansion. Who would dare to lock you up on the estate?"
"Such honor is enjoyed by very few women."
Then, she caught a glimpse of Shen Qingnian picking plums under a tree with Ling'er outside the window. Her radiant smile deeply stung her.
She put down the hairpin, as if she had made some kind of decision.
“Tell him that if he wants this child, he should marry me as his legal wife.”
Once she becomes the second wife of the Marquis of Guangde, she will use Lu Yuanzhang to do what she wants.
Besides, she also wanted to take revenge on Lu Yuanzhang!
He ruined her life so badly, and he still expects her to give him a child! What a pipe dream!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
