After confronting Jiang Heng, Zhao Xian was in high spirits.
Arriving at Yunzhu Yuan, she found Li Lianniang painting a portrait of the swaddled Jiang Shuxiu: “You’re still in confinement—how can you be holding a brush to paint? Isn’t this her father’s job?”
Hearing her mother-in-law’s voice, Li Lianniang looked startled. She set down the brush, somewhat flustered, and said, “I was just idling around and felt the urge to paint.”
Zhao Xian stepped closer for a look and had to admit that Li Lianniang was quite skilled at painting, with a meticulous touch. The Xiu Jie’er in the portrait looked lively and adorable.
“Still, you should hold back a little. Once your confinement is over, you can paint as much as you like. Your daughter is right here—it’s not like she’s going anywhere.”
Not being scolded, Li Lianniang’s unease faded. She smiled, touched by the concern.
Watching Zhao Xian playfully tease Xiu Jie’er with such familiarity, Li Lianniang couldn’t help but feel puzzled. Hadn’t Xiu Jie’er’s second uncle returned? Why did her mother-in-law still have time to come to Yunzhu Yuan?
In the past, whenever Second Young Master Jiang Heng came home, her mother-in-law’s heart was entirely devoted to him. But this time…
Zhao Xian held Jiang Shuxiu in her arms, her gaze drifting to the gentle and serene Li Lianniang sitting at the table. A well-rested confinement period truly made a difference.
A beauty like her was a delight to behold.
As for Jiang Heng’s nonsense, she paid it no mind at all.
Sweet romance novels and tragic novels were fundamentally different—they couldn’t be lumped together.
Jiang Wei had been invited out for drinks with colleagues and returned home later than usual.
From a distance, he noticed the lights on in the side room of Yunzhu Yuan and narrowed his eyes slightly.
The next morning, as it was a day off, he wasn’t in a hurry to leave.
Seeing his mother holding Xiu Jie’er and chatting, Jiang Wei felt something was off. He turned to Qing Fan beside him and asked, “Has Second Brother returned to the City Guard Battalion?”
Qing Fan shook his head. “No, I saw Liu Feng this morning.”
That was strange. His mother wasn’t hovering around Second Brother.
After all, ever since Second Brother joined the City Guard Battalion, every time he returned home, even for just four days, their mother would practically try to fatten him back up to his chubby childhood self in one go.
She’d fuss over him every time, saying he’d lost weight.
Besides showering him with concern, she would also start packing food, clothes, ointments, and medicinal supplies for him to take back to the City Guard Battalion the very next day after his return.
Jiang Wei glanced at Qing Fan and said quietly, “Go find out what happened at Haitang Ju the day Second Young Master returned.”
With Jiang Heng’s straightforward nature, he was likely to have said a few words to their mother about her staying at Yunzhu Yuan.
Jiang Wei had anticipated this and had hoped to use Jiang Heng’s words to persuade Zhao Xian to move back to Haitang Ju.
But the outcome was unexpected—this time, his mother hadn’t listened to Second Brother.
“Mother,” Jiang Wei said as he stepped inside.
Seeing Jiang Wei, Zhao Xian handed Jiang Shuxiu over to him and asked, “How are the Buddhist scriptures coming along? In a few days, Lianniang will be out of confinement.”
She was still thinking about going to the temple to burn incense. First, to see if she could find an opportunity to return—despite the many inconveniences of ancient times, she missed even being a corporate drone back home.
Second, the sweet romance novel’s male and female leads’ birth characters needed to be matched again.
From the way Nanny He spoke, the master at Huguo Temple who had matched their birth characters carried authority. She couldn’t fake or alter it, nor could she directly present it to others.
The best approach was to find someone else to match them again.
In the novel, the sweet romance leads should have been a match made in heaven.
Hearing Zhao Xian mention the Buddhist scriptures, Jiang Wei’s expression tightened. “Is it too unorthodox for me to copy Buddhist scriptures for Lianniang?”
“You’re copying Buddhist sutras for your mother, is that straying from the path?”
Jiang Wei flatly denied it: “This is different.”
“How is it different? The identity merely shifts from son to husband—don’t you want the Buddha to bless your wife?”
Jiang Wei looked at Zhao Xian, thinking his mother was twisting logic.
Zhao Xian blinked and joked, “Or are you saying you want your mother to copy them for your wife? Or perhaps your not-yet-one-month-old daughter to do it for you?”
You tormented her so much in the book—what’s wrong with copying a few pages of sutras? Is it going to kill you?
Suppressing the urge to roll her eyes in front of him, Zhao Xian turned around and gave Jiang Wei a pointed glare before attending to her household affairs.
I really need to return to the modern era. Being the mistress of the household isn’t much better than being a corporate slave—the workload is just as heavy.
Jiang Shuxiu couldn’t speak yet, but if she could, she would definitely cheer for her grandmother. Grandma is awesome.
Forcing her father to copy Buddhist sutras to pray for her mother’s blessings—what a brilliant move.
The baby in her arms grinned, her eyes crinkling with joy. Unaware of his daughter’s thoughts, Jiang Wei assumed she was happy to see him: “So happy to be held by Daddy, huh?”
Jiang Shuxiu: Ugh, what a nuisance!
As Jiang Wei was playing with his daughter, a servant came to inform him that Jiang Heng wanted to see him and was already waiting in his Molin Study.
“Let’s go, meet your second uncle,” Jiang Wei said, carrying his daughter straight to the study.
The first thing Jiang Heng said upon seeing his elder brother was: “I think I really angered Mother this time.”
To make amends, he had gone out early to buy his mother’s favorite pastries, but not only did she refuse to accept them, she even had Yingchun distribute them to the servants.
In the past, whenever he returned, he found his mother’s fussing over him annoying, thinking it was noisy and tedious.
This time, his mother ignored him, and he felt uneasy all over.
“What did you do this time?”
The word “this time” slipped from Jiang Wei’s lips without a hint of surprise, as if it were a common occurrence.
Clearly, this wasn’t the first or second time something like this had happened.
Jiang Heng glanced up at his elder brother, displeased. “Brother, that’s not fair. What do you mean ‘this time’? It sounds like I’m always upsetting Mother.”
Jiang Wei said nothing, simply taking a seat with Jiang Shuxiu in his arms.
The sudden silence left Jiang Heng flustered. He scratched his head and muttered, “Brother, you can stand by and watch Sister-in-Law suffer, but I can’t bear to see Yingying suffer after marrying me.”
Jiang Wei frowned slightly. How had he made Lianniang suffer?
No wonder Mother was angry—with a mouth like that, who knows how many people he’s offended.
“What exactly did you say to Mother?”
“I said that once I’m married, I’ll choose a separate residence to live in.” Jiang Heng quickly added, “I only said that to scare Mother, not because I actually want to move out.”
Jiang Wei’s expression remained unchanged as he let out a light, mocking laugh. “So you spoke to Mother in a threatening tone?”
Jiang Heng looked somewhat guilty. “I apologized. Mother is probably still upset about me refusing the concubine she arranged for me last time.”
He then shot a dissatisfied glance at Jiang Wei. “Brother, you’re to blame too. You should have tried harder to stop Mother from moving to Yunzhu Yuan. Then none of this would have happened.”
“So now you’re blaming me?”
“You’re the elder brother—you should set a good example.”
Jiang Wei: “…”
‘Dad, aren’t you going to hit him?’ Jiang Shuxiu listened with great interest, even trying to stir up trouble, though she lacked the ability to speak at the moment.
Was Second Uncle always this blunt? And he even angered Grandmother.
I remember in my past life, my second uncle was the best at pleasing grandmother. I even tried to learn from him, but unfortunately, grandmother detested me and wouldn’t listen to a word I said. When she saw me picking her flowers, she even hit me and grounded me.
Jiang Shuxiu listened until she fell asleep. Whatever her father and second uncle discussed afterward, she didn’t hear a single word.
Zhao Xian was discussing the arrangements for the Manyue Jiu with Li Lianniang.
“Your family should have received the letter by now and are likely already on their way.” Just a few days after Li Lianniang gave birth to Jiang Shuxiu, Zhao Xian, reminded by Nanny He, had sent a letter to the Li family announcing the happy news.
“Nanny He, arrange for someone to meet them along the way and see how many more days it will take for them to reach Jin’an.” Pointing to several suitable dates for holding the banquet, Zhao Xian said to Li Lianniang, “These dates are all suitable for the Manyue Jiu. Once we confirm the travel time of your family, we can set the specific date.”
The date needs to be decided in advance to allow enough time for sending out invitations.
Nanny He nodded. “Yes, I’ll make the arrangements right away.”
Li Lianniang only nodded throughout the conversation. Since Xiu Jie’er was a daughter, she hadn’t even dared to hope for a grand Manyue Jiu.
“Mother, mother, mother, mother…”
A young boy’s voice calling for his mother, accompanied by the sound of a child wailing.
Jiang Heng practically flew to Yunzhu Yuan on light feet, his face full of anxiety and his voice utterly helpless.
Fortunately, he knew this was his elder brother and sister-in-law’s courtyard and that his sister-in-law was still in confinement, so he couldn’t barge in recklessly.
He only shouted loudly in the courtyard.
“What’s going on?”
Zhao Xian stepped out of the room and saw Jiang Heng looking flustered, holding the wailing Jiang Shuxiu in an awkward posture, appearing completely overwhelmed.
Seeing Zhao Xian, he seemed to have found a savior. “Mother—”
Taking Jiang Shuxiu into her arms, Zhao Xian gently patted the swaddling clothes. After holding the baby so often these days, she had become quite skilled.
“Xiu Jie’er, don’t cry. Did your second uncle bully you? Grandmother will scold him for you.”
“I didn’t, Mother. Don’t make things up.”
After handing over his little niece, Jiang Heng had already taken several steps back.
The child’s crying was truly loud and piercing. She had wailed the entire way here, and his ears felt like they were about to burst.
Upon seeing Zhao Xian, Jiang Shuxiu’s cries gradually softened until they disappeared entirely.
The little one looked utterly pitiful.
After soothing Jiang Shuxiu, Zhao Xian glanced at Jiang Heng and asked, “What happened? If you don’t know how to hold a child, why did you tease her?”
A child not yet a month old—holding her like that is so dangerous. Thankfully, the weather is cold and the swaddling clothes are thick.
“I didn’t want to either. Elder brother shoved her into my arms.”
A sudden sense of foreboding washed over Zhao Xian.
“Miss Cui lost the heirloom her father left her and asked Elder Brother for help finding it. They were in a hurry to leave, so they dumped my niece on me. How would I know how to hold a child? She just kept crying.”
Jiang Heng’s words spilled out in a rapid stream.
Behind a door curtain.
“Young Madam…”
Chilan supported Li Lianniang, whose body was swaying unsteadily.
Author’s Note:
The update at midnight was delayed. I’ll change the time for the next chapter to 7 a.m.