Zhenshu patted her belly and said, "How come I didn't notice?"
Du Yu chuckled, then turned around and saw that Huang Zijing was getting too close. He waved for him to step back, then quickly took a few steps to catch up with Zhenshu and said, "Wife, you're walking too fast. Now that you're pregnant, you should walk slowly."
He recalled that when his stepmother, Madam Yang, was pregnant, she was held by two maids on either side of her, swaying back and forth.
Zhenshu didn't want to send him away, but then she remembered what Zhenxiu had just told her, and turned back to ask, "Have you gone to the Ministry of Justice to see Tong Qisheng?"
Du Yu said, "He's gone. But he took it home to Wang Zhen, and later..."
Zhenshu asked, "Is he dead?"
Du Yu said, "Yu Yichen usually doesn't leave any survivors, but he died in a rather gruesome way, and he's probably still lying in that police station."
Zhenshu said, "If you don't mind the trouble, how about you hire someone to collect his body for me?"
After all, he was her childhood playmate, and she also had a past with Jung-soo.
Du Yu nodded in agreement and said with feeling, "No wonder you wanted to go find Yu Yichen. The people you met before, Tong Qisheng and me, were really not good people."
Zhen Shu thought to herself, "It's good that you know," but she was still amused by his words.
Du Yu was overjoyed to see that Zhen Shu had finally been amused by him. He felt so happy that he wanted to jump up into the sky, do a somersault, and then come down. He followed her all the way to the door of the mounting shop and saw Zhen Shu go inside before he remembered that he had to go to the yamen.
Zhenshu was afraid that people would say even worse things if she became pregnant, so she hurriedly started arranging the wedding for Zhenyi and Xiuer again. Xiuer's parents were both long-term laborers for a landlord's family on a farm outside the city. Because they didn't want Xiuer to follow in their footsteps, they saved up some money to send Xiuer to be an apprentice. Now, only a few years later, Xiuer is only sixteen or seventeen years old. Not only can he manage the counter, but he can also marry the shopkeeper's daughter. For them, this is a great thing that they could never have dreamed of.
☆、117|Dowry
Zhenshu didn't have much money left, and she also had to prepare some for Zhenxiu, so she couldn't even afford to rent a small courtyard for Zhenyi. The wedding was held in a small building in the backyard, which was cramped but lively and festive. Because the mounting shop was too small to hold the banquet, Zhenshu booked a table at Huixianju, which was not far away. She invited the guests who came to congratulate her to come directly from the shop to Huixianju for the banquet. Although it cost more money, it saved her the money of hiring a cook and buying food and wine, so it was still manageable.
Two marriages were arranged in the Song family in a row, and two of the four daughters were finally married. Madam Su sat there with a look of grief on her face. Even when Madam Shen and Madam Lu came, she only responded briefly. Zhenshu knew that she was worried about Zhenxiu, but there was nothing she could do.
Even after the guests had left in the evening, Zhenshu remained seated behind the counter, still calculating the shop's expenses. Suddenly, a young man entered through the door, tossed a note at her, and ran off. Zhenshu unfolded it and read the same words: "Left hand when you leave."
She had only ever seen Yu Yichen use Xue Ji's handwriting.
She still wore her thick wool coat as she went out and turned left, where she saw Yu Yichen standing at the street corner, dressed in an ivory-white silk robe. He was still slender and tall, while she, due to her pregnancy, was dressed in a rather disheveled manner, and even her face was gradually developing freckles. Zhenshu lowered her head and walked over, asking, "Why are you here?"
The weather was getting really cold, almost like winter was approaching. Yu Yichen lifted the carriage curtain and said, "Hurry up and get in, it's cold outside."
Zhenshu, now pregnant, was also somewhat sensitive to the cold, and I could deeply understand his fear of the cold. However, her belly was quite swollen and hard, making it inconvenient for her to climb up, so Yu Yichen carried her into the carriage. When Zhenshu saw that Yu Yichen had followed, she quickly shook his knee and said, "My shops are still open."
Yu Yichen said, "Someone will go and call them to close the door for you."
Zhenshu lifted the curtain and, sure enough, Hua'er and Huang'er were on the door panel. She then lowered the curtain and asked, "How have you been these days?"
Yu Yichen said, "Very good."
Now, what separates them is not only Du Yu, but also a child.
Yu Yichen handed a file to Zhenshu and said, "Your aunt, the city patrol censor, is quite a character. She spread rumors about Zhang Rui's death everywhere, saying that you personally stabbed Zhang Rui more than a hundred times to death. Tong Qisheng believed these rumors and that's why he went to arrest you."
Zhen Shu said, "He has hated me for a long time, so he naturally believed what he heard. But is it true that you imprisoned the entire Privy Council?"
Yu Yichen said, "Really."
Zhen Shu said, "Since the Privy Councilor's niece is the Empress, won't you cause trouble by throwing the Empress's family members into prison?"
Yu Yichen smiled wryly and said, "She agreed, otherwise I couldn't have done it."
Zhenshu felt that she and he were somewhat like accomplices in a conspiracy. Hearing him say that she was the empress in a rather intimate tone, and looking at her own round belly, she realized that this was not the time to be jealous. However, the jealousy she felt was so intense that she couldn't stop it and was on the verge of tears.
Yu Yichen handed over a box and said, "Open it and take a look."
Zhenshu unfastened the clasp and opened it, revealing a neatly rolled-up stack of things inside. Unwrapping it, she found stacks of silver notes, with the wooden hairpin rolled up in the middle. Seeing that he was still giving her the hairpin, she thought there was still hope for the marriage, and happily took it, asking, "What are you going to do with these silver notes?"
Yu Yichen said, "Since you are getting married, I should prepare some dowry for you."
Zhenshu suddenly understood what he meant, and threw the hairpin box at him, saying, "I will not marry anyone, so don't give me this."
Yu Yichen held Zhenshu in his arms and said, "You will eventually get married. Du Yu is a good man."
Zhen Shu pushed Yu Yichen away and sat down sideways, sulking. Then she heard Yu Yichen say again, "If you get married, leave the capital and live somewhere else as soon as possible. Du Wu is ambitious and will become regent sooner or later. At that time, it will be a problem for Du Yu to be loyal to the emperor or his father. Getting away from the capital will at least give you some peace and quiet."
Zhenshu sensed that he was making arrangements for his last moments and felt a pang of panic. She asked, "Could it be that Prince Ping has really gone to the capital? Is he really going to join forces with Duke Du against you?"
Yu Yichen smiled wryly and said, "The situation is much more complicated than that."
Zhenshu stuffed all the silver notes into his pocket and said, "If that's the case, and you have no chance of winning, why not take this opportunity to escape for your life instead of provoking the entire Privy Council?"
Yu Yichen said, "The world is vast, what's the point of escaping?"
Zhen Shu said, "Du Yu once said that if you lead the northern barbarians to attack Liang and Gan provinces, King Ping and Du Wu and others will be wary of you because of this."
Yu Yichen said, "But you don't like me doing this kind of thing."
Zhenshu suddenly felt that she had extremely bad intentions, and grabbed his hand, saying, "But you are doing this to protect yourself."
Yu Yichen squeezed her hand back and said, "I am a eunuch. If I incite conflict in the court, no matter what prejudices they may have, they will unite to deal with me. Prince Ping's return to the capital is not to incite conflict, but there are others, such as the newly arrested Privy Councilor and Minister Xu. Du Wu will gather more allies to oppose me."
Zhen Shu said, "But you said that you are only one hand, and that things did not start because of you, nor will they end because of you."
Yu Yichen said, “That’s right. It didn’t start because of me, nor will it stop because of me. But the emperor is ill and his life is not long. If it’s not for this reason, all my efforts will be in vain.”
Zhenshu sensed something was amiss and after a long pause, she said, "If the emperor dies, won't there be a new emperor? Didn't you say the emperor had princes?"
Yu Yichen laughed and said, "Silly girl."
There will be many emperors, but in the end, it will not be him, nor the one that Yu Yichen himself wants to protect.
Zhenshu listened to his mysterious tales, ultimately remaining clueless about the ins and outs of the matter. She was merely a small shopkeeper; the complexities and secrets of court affairs were beyond her comprehension. She leaned on his shoulder for a long time before asking, "If the child isn't Du Yu's, but someone else's, and that person doesn't want me anymore, would you still want me?"
Yu Yichen said softly, "Little shopkeeper, no matter whose child you are pregnant with, or how terrible things you have been through, I will never abandon you. But you deserve a normal life, children, and a husband to make your life complete. Therefore, you must marry him."
He was initially full of confidence, planning their upcoming happy life together. He was even willing to try accompanying her to the market to buy groceries after returning from the palace or after his official duties, and then cook the simplest meals at home. Du Yu wasn't scary, and no man was scary; she had tasted that kind of bitterness before, and he was confident he could give her something better.
So even knowing she was pregnant, regardless of who the father of the child was, he could accept it after swallowing the overwhelming jealousy in his heart.
But the situation has changed.
Just as he was preparing the animal net to capture Wang Zhen, Du Wu also quietly reached out his hand, reaching towards a place he couldn't attend to for the time being.
Now, Du Wu has the upper hand. Although he is still fighting hard, it is nothing more than a desperate struggle.
When he has nothing left, he cannot drag her into this hopeless, distorted life with no future.
Zhenshu took the box from his pocket, rolled up the silver notes and put them inside, then handed the wooden hairpin to Yu Yichen, saying, "Alright, I'll listen to you. But I can't take this hairpin. I know you have no relatives or friends in this world. If you still consider me family, when you really have nowhere to go and are about to die, remember to send someone to call me. I will come to see you, take this hairpin, and collect your body, okay?"
Yu Yichen laughed uncontrollably, cupped Zhenshu's face and kissed her from forehead to lips until he was satisfied, then said, "Okay."
The two returned to the small courtyard in Chuanzi Lane. Since Zhenshu had already learned the way here and knew that Yu Yichen had informed the mounting shop, she simply let Yu Yichen give her a comfortable bath, then wrapped herself up tightly and lay down on the bed that he had already warmed with a hot water bottle. Yu Yichen brought warm yellow wine and sat on the bed, taking a small sip from a wine cup.
Seeing that Zhenshu was already sleepy, he deliberately put his two cold feet between her legs to warm them. Zhenshu got up and said, "I'm pregnant now and can't drink alcohol. If you're lonely, pour me a glass too. I'll keep you company by smelling the aroma, how about that?"
Yu Yichen handed her the wine cup he was holding, then poured himself another cup and held it. He stared at Zhenshu and said, "Among those stacks of silver notes is the land deed for this house. Even if you're married, you should still have a family home. Because you have such a fiery temper, I'm afraid that if you get angry with your husband and start crying, you'll have nowhere to go. Perhaps you could come here, take a nap on this bed, and drink a cup of warm yellow wine like I do, and maybe your anger will subside."
Zhenshu kicked him hard and said, "You're just like my old maid."
Yu Yichen said, "If I had caught you eavesdropping outside the window back in Hanjiahe..."
Zhenshu laughed and said, "Then you would have killed me, and there would be no me today."
Yu Yichen shook his head and said, "No, how could I kill you? I would have fallen in love with you sooner and had more time to spend with you. Looking back, I only regret that I met you too late."
Zhenshu said, "If you are willing, let's leave here and look to the future so that we can have more days ahead."
Yu Yichen said, “When I was a child, I ran away with my mother for a while. I hated the days of running away. Once, she made a very sweet rice dumpling. I couldn’t bear to eat it all at once and kept it in the kitchen. In the middle of the night, I got up to run away. Halfway there, I remembered the rice dumpling and cried loudly, wanting to go back to find it. It was my crying that made the pursuers hear us and catch us.”
Zhen Shu said, "I'll run with you, and I'll run very fast."
Yu Yichen pushed the plate over and pulled her into his arms. After a long while, he said, "Silly girl, I shouldn't have spoiled you, making you unable to love anyone else."
Zhenshu felt as if her heart was being torn apart: "Then you shouldn't have given up on me, and you shouldn't have given up on yourself."
☆、118|Variables
Yu Yichen said, "Just as my unintentional giving away of that dog foreshadowed our inevitable parting today, so too was this fate when the Emperor was still in the Eastern Palace. If we don't deal with the court officials, we'll become puppets, and the court and the world will become easy prey for powerful families. If we take action and eliminate these families one by one, it will ultimately be a case of the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind. In a court emptied out, Du Wu holds military power and is in his prime. The Emperor has left no heir, so perhaps we could buy him two more years. But now that there's a Crown Prince, what use does he have for the Emperor?"
Zhenshu felt like she had become a very, very bad person because she almost blurted out, "The child might not even survive, so why the rush?"
Yu Yichen said, "As long as Du Wu and the Empress can work together, they will naturally be able to protect the child as he grows up."
Zhenshu suddenly realized: "So, the Empress and Du Wu have formed an alliance?"
Yu Yichen said, "Yes. This is the biggest variable that neither the emperor nor I anticipated."
Zhen Shu pushed Yu Yichen away and shook her head, saying, "I still don't understand these complicated things. I need to get some sleep now. Would you still like to sleep with me?"
The two snuggled into bed, and Yu Yichen reached out and stroked her slightly protruding belly, asking, "Can it move now?"
Zhen Shu said, "Occasionally. He'll kick you suddenly, but when you actually try to touch him, he won't move anymore."
Yu Yichen still reached out to stroke it, and asked, "How many months pregnant are you?"
Zhen Shu silently calculated for a while and then said, "More than five months."
Yu Yichen said, "When the Empress was pregnant, her belly wasn't this swollen when she was over five months along."
Zhenshu kicked off the blanket in anger and asked, "Are you a eunuch for the emperor or the empress? How do you know how big her belly was when she was pregnant?"
Yu Yichen regretted his slip of the tongue, but still explained without changing his expression, "Her pregnancy was a top priority in the palace at the time, how could I not know?"
Zhenshu said resentfully, "I don't believe it. You must have held her and stroked her belly like you held me."
She glared at him angrily, a hint of fierceness in her eyes, her almond-shaped eyes wide open, and a few pretty freckles scattered on her face, still the look he loved most.
Yu Yichen couldn't stop laughing and gave Zhenshu two big kisses on the cheek, saying, "I love seeing you jealous the most."
Zhenshu turned her head away, pretending to be asleep. Only after Yu Yichen's breathing had calmed did she turn back to look at him, reaching out to lightly trace his features, wanting to imprint his entire appearance in her heart. She didn't understand the affairs of the court; she only knew that even before she fell in love with him, she knew he was a bad person, a bad person who would eventually face retribution. She gradually fell in love with him amidst the hatred and curses of others, ultimately becoming hopelessly trapped in this distorted love, and now she had to watch him suffer his retribution.
"Go to sleep." Yu Yichen suddenly opened his eyes and laughed, "If you cry your eyes out, who will take care of the child for you?"
Zhenshu wiped away her tears and nestled against his slightly thin chest, trying to warm his cold chest with her own warmth. She sobbed, "Why did you bring yourself to this point? Even if the Crown Prince had shown you kindness and favor, and you studied literature and martial arts with him, you should know the way of a gentleman: to cherish life rather than death, to value virtue rather than evil. Why did you still commit so many evil deeds?"
Yu Yichen hugged Zhenshu tightly and said, "It was a cold winter about twenty years ago. The snow fell for several days and wouldn't stop. I was alone in a dilapidated house in Yongxiang, on a bare bed with a broken door, waiting for death to come slowly. The wind blew the snow in and covered my body, and the bone-chilling cold lingered. At that time, Li Xuzhe, who was still the crown prince, somehow managed to escape the eyes of the palace maids, wet nurses, and eunuchs and ran into Yongxiang."
He gestured and described, "He was about my age, wearing a golden brocade cloak lined with fur, and holding a steaming hot dumpling in his arms. He curiously lay down at the head of the long, communal bed, untied the cloak and covered me with it, and handed me the warm dumpling. When the Empress Dowager arrived with eunuchs and maids, he insisted that I accompany him in his studies. That's how I was able to receive the medicine and stay with him until he came of age."
He gave a slight, bitter smile: "Of course, I kept some things from him, but most of the time I did everything I could for him. I haven't let him down. But I'm a deformed person, and deep down I can't erase the urge to destroy everything beautiful, so I often end up acting like a monster, doing things that make me feel better but harm the world. But I never regret it. In this world, I have nowhere to come from and nowhere to go. If hell is to be expected, then it is my only destination. The only person I've ever hurt, the only person I've ever wronged, is you."
Zhen Shu patted Yu Yichen's hand and said, "Go to sleep."