The physician who entered greeted the Emperor and gave a lengthy congratulations and informed that the n.o.ble Consort is PREGNANT. He also insinuated the fact that it is a miracle, since it is only been less than two months since the n.o.ble Consort had entered the palace and most times you could detect pregnancy only later.Rijun became skeptical of this doctor" s intentions as he is leading the Emperor to believe that the Consort was already pregnant before entering the inner palace and in that case the entire family will be persecuted for cheating on the Ruler of the land. But his sister cannot be pregnant! He is lying.
Rijun knew in his heart that if there is a possibility that his sister might be pregnant, she won"t be in the inner palace even if it cost her everything. He didn"t believe her story of how she is in here to find Shengli either. There must be more to it. Even so, she"d endure her being called the Consort of another man but she"d never endure the possibility of her child with Shengli to be labelled as another one"s, either mistakenly or deliberately not when Shengli"s whereabouts are unknown. His sister may seem insouciant most times and she is, at certain things but when it comes to Shengli, she is as Conservative as they get. So Rijun was one hundred percentage sure that she is not pregnant and this is some conspiracy that need to be looked into.
Rijun looked at his father who usually grabs on these subtle clues that others lead for bringing down their family but sadly his father gets his emotions run wild when it comes to his daughter and he did not look rational now. To his relief, the Emperor seemed to have understood his bad intentions and sent off the physician commanding him to keep this matter secret for the "safety of the Consort" and treat her properly, allocate more funds for her and a separate cook for cooking nouris.h.i.+ng food for the sake of the "prince". This is a typical move to keep this matter less priority for now.
AoTian hearing the news was flabbergasted. His daughter is pregnant with Shengli"s baby and is in the inner palace now. What kind of unfortunate incident is this when the father is missing? That day he saw both of them exiting her bed chambers together, he knew something was askew and he interrogated Xu mama who told him what she saw even though she wasn"t much sure. Now she is pregnant as he feared... What can he do now with this willful daughter of his? What"s going to be her future and the child"s? He was extremely troubled.
The Emperor on the other hand jumped in joy the moment the physician exited.
"Rijun! We are both going to become uncles!", he hugged him.
"Wait... Is it going to be a niece or nephew...? I"d prefer a nephew looking exactly like my brother! Huh! Who cares... I"m going to get my brother"s baby to play with ", he kept on rambling out of joy.
Rijun looked at him perplexed. Isn"t he just too happy for nothing? He pitied those who planned to trap her by making the Emperor doubt her chast.i.ty... Poor sc.u.ms! The Emperor himself is s.h.i.+pping her with his brother!
" Your Majesty! Just make your own babies to play with ", he pushed the Emperor, who was still hugging him.
" Why aren"t you happy? I"m not sharing my nephew with you... I"m going to pamper him so much and He"s going to call me his only favourite uncle, you sour faced killjoy!", the Emperor poked Rijun. He was too exhilarated to notice the deep pondering of Rijun.
" Father, you know sister could not be pregnant, right?" ,Rijun asked his father who seemed to be in deep thoughts and he just looked at him blankly and asked the Emperor permission to visit his daughter in the inner palace and excused himself.
Rijun sighed seeing his father"s disbelief in his daughter but that is not unfounded. Those two never s.h.i.+ed away from showing their intimacy to their family but as someone who was closer to Xing, Rijun knew of her more than his father. And she had promised to keep their distance until wedding too. He trusted her.
So Rijun tried to investigate this matter before the end of the day and before it becomes a big issue. He also learned that his sister had been running around throughout this day and that aroused his suspicion more because the last time his sister ran around, he was held for interrogation and the Zhong family was blamed but somehow they all were exonerated by her planning.
So Rijun found out this plot by Eunuch Xin by the end of the day and never in the phantom of his mind did he imagine that in today"s dark night he"d witness his sister stabbing Shengli right where the heart is...
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Xing who was resting in her bed after her lunch without knowing all the conspiracies happening around her, felt a little dizzy and tired. She knew it"s nearly time for the departure of Ran family and if everything goes according to her plan, the moment the Ran Family pa.s.ses the gate and reach the outskirts of the city, Eunuch Xin"s secret guards will exterminate every single member of the Ran family. But that won"t be the end of it since Eunuch Xin"s people will be the mantis stalking the cicada unaware of an oriole stalking them. It"s time for the end of the cicada and the mantis. Both have committed enough atrocities.
While she was pondering, her father"s arrival was announced and Xing was surprised since she saw him just sometime before.
"Mingxia", he whispered, "What is it that the physician said that you are pregnant?"
"What?", Xing was stupefied, "Is he a quack?". It"s not like she didn"t want to get pregnant by Shengli. Why wouldn"t she want little ones with that adorable nose of his, right? But she was not allowed to do the act that might enable her to be pregnant! She still gets furious thinking about the day they got interrupted by those perverted G.o.ds who peek on mortals. Despicable!!!
AoTian was asking her to be honest with him as he believed firmly that those two with all their sneaking away and sleeping together..... There is a high chance something might have happened between them. When there is flame and cotton in close proximity, there is a high possibility of cotton burning, right?
But as usual he noticed his daughter s.p.a.ced out looking behind him as if he is not talking to her. He really wanted to knock her hard in the head.
Oh, Mingling! How much patience and love must you"ve had to raise our shrewd of a daughter!
He didn"t know it actually took a village and a certain Tiger G.o.d to raise her!
Xing was actually looking at the spirit of Ran Weici and her heart broke.
So she failed! That must hurt knowing your father values a position more than his daughter"s life!
Xing could see those spirits but cannot communicate with them. But she could feel the sadness emitting from her. Xing remembered her saying that she just wanted to see her father smile again.
Xing looked at her father who was seriously saying something to her.
"Father, are you ticklish?", she asked and AoTian"s eyebrows twitched. Did she listen to a word I say?
Before he could respond Xing tickled him and to her surprise, her father was extremely ticklish and he laughed till his eyes watered.
"Mingxia, stop this childishness right now", he screamed but Xing only stopped after the spirit of Ran Weici disappeared.
She must have pa.s.sed to the underworld. Once she drinks the soup of Old Meng and crosses the Lethe river, she"ll forget all the troubles and resentments of this life and enter to her next life.
Rest in peace Ran Weici....