Volume 1, Chapter 24: My Husband, I Am With Child

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The next morning, Xie Mingyue rose at dawn.

She was about to see her father, and excitement kept her from sleeping at all.

After breakfast, she went to the front hall. Not only was Madam Luo sitting there with dark circles beneath her eyes, but Madam Yun was there as well.

Apparently, Madam Yun had taken advantage of the previous night’s events to whisper in Marquis Shunqing’s ear, softening his heart enough for him to release her.

Xie Mingyue smiled faintly and bowed properly. “Madam Marquis. Mother.”

She had never attended the morning and evening greetings, and Madam Yun had always been helpless against her. Now she hated Xie Mingyue even more for causing her confinement.

At this, Madam Yun set down her teacup.

“Mingyue, the Xie family is sending someone here today. What are you doing here?”

Xie Mingyue’s expression darkened. “The Xie family is coming, so I’m not allowed to appear?”

Madam Yun regarded her coldly. “Have you forgotten your former identity? It would be inappropriate for the Xie family to see you.”

Xie Mingyue knew Madam Yun intended to use her status as a false heiress against her. She gave a derisive laugh and replied sharply, “Does Mother think that my present status as the wife of the Marquis household’s heir is not enough to earn the Xie family’s respect? Since when has our Marquis Shunqing household been so concerned with the Xie family’s opinion? Must even Qi Jinshan’s wife hide herself out of deference to them?”

Madam Yun was rendered speechless.

She had been so intent on using Xie Mingyue’s identity to hurt her that she had forgotten this point. If she argued back, she would only make herself look ungracious as a co-wife, leave her son humiliated, and make the entire marquisate appear timid and afraid of trouble.

“Yun Lifang, are you truly one of this household’s people?”

Madam Luo had already been in a foul mood. Seeing Xie Mingyue silence Madam Yun made her feel somewhat better, and she joined in the reprimand.

“Belittling the marquisate’s daughter-in-law—apart from emboldening the Xie family, does that do anything good for our household or your son? Even Mingyue understands such a simple principle, yet you do not.”

After saying this, she still felt dissatisfied and added, “As expected of someone from a petty, provincial family. You do not even possess this much breadth of vision!”

“You—”

Madam Yun’s face turned livid, but she could not find a single word to retort.

She had indeed come from a humble family. In the household, she had always proceeded cautiously, feeling her way step by step. Even after relying on her son to rise to an equal standing with Madam Luo, her knowledge and horizons still fell short of those possessed by a woman from a great and distinguished house. From time to time, she was liable to make a fool of herself over small details.

“What are you quarrelling about so early in the morning?”

Marquis Shunqing entered the hall with an unhappy expression. Qi Xiuyu followed behind him, while the servants dragged in Xie Wanqing, who had spent the night locked in the woodshed.

Madam Yun quickly wiped the coldness from her face and smiled gently. “It was nothing more than idle chatter. Marquis, have you had breakfast?”

“Father and I have already eaten.”

Qi Xiuyu forced a smile as he looked at his wife kneeling on the floor, disheveled and miserable. His heart ached.

After all, she had borne him a son, and the two of them had supported each other for many years. He truly could not bear to see her suffer.

“Father, perhaps you should have Wanqing untied. Otherwise, when my father-in-law arrives, the scene will be rather unpleasant.”

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He would have done better not to say anything. His words only made Marquis Shunqing even more displeased.

“She burned our Qi family ancestral hall. What is wrong with making her kneel?”

“One by one, you claim to be the heir of the marquisate, yet you are so afraid of the Xie family? You are not even as good as Mingyue!”

Madam Yun had been criticized by implication, yet she still had to maintain her smile.

Qi Xiuyu’s handsome face flushed crimson beneath the rebuke, and his embarrassment deepened.

After Xie Wanqing had been locked away the previous night, Feng’er had searched everywhere for his mother. The wet nurse could not soothe him, so Qi Xiuyu had been forced to care for his son for the entire night, leaving him unable to sleep.

In Qi Xiuyu’s eyes, even the burned ancestral hall had become less important than his own peace and quiet.

A servant had died, and some ancestral tablets had burned. It had not been something Wanqing had done deliberately. Why insist on pursuing the matter?

Did Marquis Shunqing truly want his son to lose his mother and the second branch to be torn apart?

Whenever he thought of how his father had grown increasingly partial to the first branch over the years, Qi Xiuyu felt even more bitter.

But he dared not say so.

With no one speaking on Xie Wanqing’s behalf, she continued kneeling in silence. Then, all at once, she began to sob softly.

“You still have the nerve to cry.”

Madam Luo watched her coldly.

The daughter-in-law she had favored from the beginning had been Xie Mingyue. If she had known things would turn out this way, she would rather have broken off the engagement and married her son to some other girl than allow Xie Wanqing through the gates.

Qi Xiuyu was also vexed and flustered. “Wanqing, stop crying.”

But Xie Wanqing wept piteously. “Mother, Xiuyu, it isn’t that I’m delicate or fond of tears. Being tied up is nothing, but I’m afraid the child in my belly won’t be able to bear it.”

“Child? What child?”

Madam Luo’s expression froze, and her gaze fell upon Xie Wanqing’s abdomen.

Qi Xiuyu had only been home for a few days. How could he possibly have fathered a child?

Suspicion and astonishment filled the eyes of all three elders. Only Qi Xiuyu looked delighted. He stepped forward and pulled Xie Wanqing into his arms.

“Wanqing, is this true?”

Xie Wanqing sobbed softly. “Husband, I’m carrying your child!”

Seeing this, Madam Luo flew into a rage. “Xiuyu, have you lost your mind? You only just returned a few days ago. Even if she is pregnant, how could the child be yours?”

She glared fiercely at Xie Wanqing. “How dare you disgrace the marquisate—”

“Mother! Please stop!”

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Feeling the woman in his arms tremble, Qi Xiuyu could endure no more. He untied Xie Wanqing and rose abruptly to his feet.

“The child is mine!”

A look of embarrassment crossed his face as he lowered his voice. “At the beginning of the third month, my superior granted me several days of special leave.”

Madam Luo froze. At the beginning of the third month, Xie Wanqing had taken advantage of the opportunity to go up the mountain and pray for blessings, leaving the household for several days.

So that was it…

The husband and wife had secretly gone off to enjoy themselves for several days.

How shameless…

She trembled with fury.

“You did not even come home for the New Year. After finally receiving a few days of leave, instead of returning to visit your parents and your son, you went off to carouse with her?”

With a sharp crack, Madam Luo smashed the teacup beside her onto the floor. Her voice was dignified and furious.

“You are a married couple. Once you returned home, who would have stopped you from reuniting? Yet you chose to indulge in such vulgar pleasures!”

Qi Xiuyu lowered his head in shame. He had originally intended to return home. It was Xie Wanqing who had suggested in her letter that, since they had been apart for so long and his leave lasted only a few days, the couple should meet privately first. They would be returning home in April anyway; being delayed by a month would not matter.

As Marquis Shunqing watched Madam Luo rage and his son endure her reprimand, his entire heart turned cold.

It was utterly outrageous. Qi Xiuyu had been married for ten years and was no longer some inexperienced youth, yet he had still managed to do something like this.

“Marquis, please do not be angry. The household has not received such wonderful news in a long time. Perhaps Second Young Master and Wanqing were merely being a little playful, but at least they are giving the household another child.”

Madam Yun tried to placate Marquis Shunqing. Her own daughter-in-law was useless to her; Xie Wanqing, on the other hand, thought of her in everything she did. Now that Wanqing had fallen into disgrace, Madam Yun was the last person who wished to see her suffer.

Xie Wanqing had given her the feeling of standing as Madam Luo’s equal. More importantly, the two of them had once divided the accounts of the first branch between them…

Whether or not Marquis Shunqing had seen through her thoughts, he stared at Madam Yun for a long moment before saying with disappointment, “Lifang, I had thought you would know better.”

Xie Wanqing’s pregnancy was indeed cause for celebration. But she had committed an offense first, and the child’s origins were so dubious that the news only made matters more difficult for him.

What was he to say when the Xie family arrived?

Could he still divorce this wife? Could she still bear responsibility for the arson and resulting death this time?

He had originally been able to follow Madam Luo’s lead and reprimand Xie Wanqing with righteous indignation. But after Madam Yun spoke, how could he continue scolding her?

Would that not make him appear to be a harsh and heartless father-in-law?

Madam Yun felt as though Marquis Shunqing’s words had drenched her in icy water. Only when she met his disappointed gaze did she realize that she had committed a grave taboo.