凌大鹏同周小云是在傍晚的时候来陶家的，正赶上陶家吃晚饭。
Tao Wan's mother was quite surprised. Could her son and daughter-in-law still have this much conscience? Or... were they just here to freeload?
"Mother, I went to town with the people from the estate today, and I'll leave tomorrow." Ling Dapeng said somewhat nervously. He didn't know why, but he felt a lot of unfamiliarity and estrangement when facing his own mother.
"Have you seen Zhi'er?" Tao Wanniang answered calmly at first, then looked at Zhou Xiaoyun and asked.
“I saw him, and he still recognized me,” Zhou Xiaoyun replied. “It’s just… he’s not clingy anymore!” A deep sense of loss was evident on Zhou Xiaoyun’s chubby face.
"It's good that the child is alright," Tao Wan's mother replied. "Have you eaten?"
"No, no, Mother, that... I... that..." Ling Dapeng said awkwardly. Zhou Xiaoyun insisted that Shishi had harmed her, which made him feel uneasy, so he wanted to ask Tao Wanniang about it.
Tao Wanniang didn't think much of Ling Dapeng's appearance, and he even stammered when he spoke.
"Speak quickly if you have something to say, otherwise just wait for dinner. My family won't starve either of you," Tao Wanniang said impatiently. Only Ling Dapeng and Zhou Xiaoyun came; the two servants were not with them.
Ling Dapeng breathed a sigh of relief. He had thought his mother would scold him, but she actually invited them to stay for dinner.
Even when no one else was around, the Tao family's dinner table was always full of people, making Zhou Xiaoyun and Ling Dapeng seem like outsiders.
After dinner, Tao Wan's mother invited the two men to the living room to talk. She rinsed her mouth with water, cleared her throat, and said, "Tell me, what exactly did you come here for today?"
"Mother, this stubborn man! I told him it was that bitch Shishi who drugged me, but he won't believe me," Zhou Xiaoyun said angrily. "Does he think he's lucky to have such a vicious woman by his side?"
“Mother, what Xiaoyun said was just her guess, but Shishi has always taken good care of her. I think she’s just overthinking it!” Ling Dapeng said with a bitter face. He still felt that Shishi gave him money, served him, took care of Zhou Xiaoyun, and suffered with him in the manor. She couldn’t possibly do such a thing.
Tao Wanniang glanced at Ling Dapeng, who looked distressed. There was no evidence for Zhou Xiaoyun's matter at the moment, but she subjectively agreed with Zhou Xiaoyun's conjecture.
She had seen this method before in the worlds she had experienced: fattening pregnant women to the point that the fetus was too large and eventually caused a difficult birth.
However, it's true that no evidence can be found. How can you investigate something that's been ingested? Besides, Zhou Xiaoyun is almost seven months pregnant. When she took the medicine is impossible to find out.
“Zhou Xiaoyun, this is evidence, not just words,” Tao Wanniang said calmly. “Now that you’re back in the city, you should focus on taking care of yourself. You’ll be giving birth in a little over two months. Ling Dapeng, as a husband and father, you should know what to do when your wife is in labor!”
“Mother, I’m on the estate, it’s not like I can just come back whenever I want,” Ling Dapeng muttered.
"Is that so, or do you simply not want to come back?" Tao Wanniang looked coldly at Ling Dapeng. "If you don't come back then, you might as well never come back in this lifetime!"
Ling Dapeng said, "Then...then I'll come back. Mother, the estate is quite far from the city, so please let me know in advance!"
"I don't know when your wife is due to give birth," Tao Wanniang said irritably. This man is really irresponsible. He used to stay by her side and be disciplined by her, which is why he didn't show his lack of responsibility and bad intentions.
"Mother, I... I'll just have Cao'er come and inform you when the time comes. You have manpower and a carriage here, you can send someone to inform Dapeng." Zhou Xiaoyun calculated the days and looked at Tao Wan's mother expectantly.
Tao Wanniang nodded. After what had happened, Zhou Xiaoyun seemed a bit more reliable.
“Then Mother… when the time comes, Shishi…” Ling Dapeng had just started to speak when Zhou Xiaoyun slapped him.
"If you bring that woman back when I give birth, believe me, I'll jump into the river with my baby!" Zhou Xiaoyun said angrily.
"Oh, okay." Ling Dapeng didn't quite believe that Shishi would harm Zhou Xiaoyun. In his eyes, Shishi was truly the best girl in the world! He was disliked by Tao Wanniang and complained about by Zhou Xiaoyun, but Shishi was always gentle and even used her own money to subsidize him, unlike Zhou Xiaoyun, who kept all the money in the house and would question him about every penny he spent.
The more she thought about how good Shishi was, the more she felt that Zhou Xiaoyun's words were too far-fetched. How could this be possible?
Tao Wanniang looked at the two of them with a sense of irony. The two who used to be so loving were now in such a state; it seemed both laughable and pathetic to her. She wondered what would become of them in the end. They had one child after another, but their relationship was unlikely to ever be the same again.
"Alright, let's go back. It's getting dark, let's go home early." Tao Wanniang gave them the order to leave.
“Mother, why don’t you have Zhang Liang drive the carriage back for us? I’m fine, but Xiaoyun’s health…” Ling Dapeng calculated that the carriage he had hired on the way here had cost him five coins!
Tao Wan's mother rolled her eyes at Ling Dapeng, which granted his wish, since it was dark and her daughter-in-law was heavily pregnant!
Xiao Yi and Hongzhu experienced several more accidents, but all ended without serious harm. After all, Hongzhu's identity was unusual, and she possessed a keen intuition for danger. After these incidents, Xiao Yi had come to believe Tao Wanniang's words: someone was trying to make him happy!
What kind of grudge could possibly lead someone to harm him like this? Xiao Yi didn't believe that the person behind it was just someone obsessed with him; he suspected that someone wanted to wipe out the Prince Rui's lineage!
Having survived so many accidents, it's time to put the wedding on the agenda.
"Sister Tao, my mother and I are discussing whether Hongyu can be married off from your family." Xiao Yi and Hongzhu were discussing this with Tao Wanniang at the Zhaixing Tower.
Tao Wanniang was taken aback. Didn't the Prince Rui's mansion have anyone else they could turn to?
"Why my Tao family?" Tao Wanniang asked directly.
“Hongzhu is not from a wealthy family, and we have never hidden this fact. So, after much thought, we think it is most suitable for Hongzhu to marry into a suitable family, and Tao Dajie’s place is the best choice,” Xiao Yi said calmly. As for his personal motives, he naturally would not reveal them.
It's not that it's impossible; Tao Wanniang is actually quite curious to see who the person behind all this trouble for Xiao Yi is.
“Alright, let’s just say we’re sharing in the good fortune,” Tao Wanniang replied readily.
"Well, when the time comes, Sister Tao, could you come to the Prince's Mansion for a drink at the wedding?" Xiao Yi invited.
"Of course I will go. The princess invited me before, and it would be too ungrateful of me not to go!" Tao Wanniang said with a smile. "I have only seen my son get married, but I have never seen my daughter get married. Hongzhu, I will treat it as a rehearsal of my daughter's wedding."
"Sister Tao, thank you!" Hongzhu didn't know that Tao Wanniang knew the inside story, but when she heard Tao Wanniang's words, she felt a kind of joy in her heart as if she were really getting married.
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