Jiang Wei hurried back to Yunzhu Yuan. Everything in the courtyard appeared as usual, and if not for the sound of a baby crying, he wouldn’t have believed that the birth had truly taken place.
Logically, it wasn’t even eight months yet—how could there be a sudden premature birth?
“The eldest young master has returned.”
From a distance, a maid lifted the curtain and called out.
As Jiang Wei entered the room, Danruo, who had been waiting in the outer chamber, stood up and bowed. “Eldest young master.”
Stepping inside, Jiang Wei caught a whiff of incense that smelled slightly different from usual—the scent was somewhat muddled. He couldn’t help but raise a hand to cover his nose, frowning as he said, “Change this incense. Use the kind we always burn.”
Danruo glanced at the incense burner. Wasn’t this the same incense they burned daily?
She had accompanied Li Lianniang through the birth, staying up all night without sleep. She had just been about to rest for a moment but hadn’t yet fallen asleep.
Hearing his words, she numbly went to pick up the incense burner.
Jiang Wei approached the bedside. After giving birth, Li Lianniang lay on the bed, her face pale and lips colorless. Jiang Wei’s heart suddenly ached. He sat by the bed and took Li Lianniang’s hand. “Lianniang.”
Li Lianniang slowly opened her eyes, and the first thing she saw was Jiang Wei’s expressionless face.
Only when he leaned closer did she notice the slap mark on his cheek.
A flicker of emotion crossed Li Lianniang’s face. She reached out, wanting to touch his cheek. “What happened?”
At the same time, Jiang Wei asked, “Why did you go into premature labor when everything was fine?”
The two spoke almost simultaneously, but Li Lianniang’s faint voice was completely drowned out by Jiang Wei’s accusatory tone.
Danruo, holding the incense burner, couldn’t help but speak up. The moment this topic was mentioned, her face instantly darkened, and her small mouth opened and closed as she chattered away. “All the other servants in the household knew that the eldest young master had accompanied Miss Cui out, but my young mistress was kept in the dark. It wasn’t until yesterday, when she overheard two gossiping maids, that she learned of it. Who knows if someone deliberately arranged it just to harm my young mistress?”
The household physician had advised the young mistress not to sit for too long and to move around from time to time. Who would have thought that while taking a stroll in the garden to pick plum branches, she would hear such distressing news and go into premature labor?
“Danruo.”
“Shut your mouth, insolent servant.”
Two voices rang out at the same time—the first faint and breathless, the second filled with rage.
Jiang Wei even stood up from the bedside, his entire body radiating an intimidating aura.
Danruo trembled in fear, still holding the incense burner as she knelt on the floor.
Jiang Wei glanced at the kneeling maid before turning his gaze to Li Lianniang. “Is this the kind of servant you keep by your side? Speaking recklessly, gossiping about her masters—how audacious.”
Li Lianniang had just given birth and was at her weakest. Her lips parted, but before she could utter a word, Jiang Wei spoke again:
“As a servant, failing in her duties and causing her mistress to go into premature labor, yet all she does is shift blame. Someone, drag her out and give her twenty lashes as a warning to others.”
Hearing this, Danruo turned deathly pale, kowtowing repeatedly. The bruise on her forehead from before hadn’t yet healed, and now fresh injuries were added. “This servant hasn’t spoken a single false word. Please investigate, eldest young master. Please investigate.”
Li Lianniang reached out and grabbed Jiang Wei’s sleeve, her breathing extremely unsteady. “Husband, don’t blame Danruo. It’s my fault. I failed to discipline her properly. If you must punish someone, punish me. It has nothing to do with Danruo.”
Jiang Wei pulled his sleeve away, looking down at Li Lianniang from above. “If she hadn’t been instructed by you, would she dare to gossip about her masters like this? I’ve told you before—Tingyue is the daughter of my benefactor. Her father and brother died saving me. Accompanying her to the temple was to light eternal lamps for them.”
“I finally understand why Mother said I was accompanying other women on outings—the root cause lies here.”
“A servant who dares to slander her master with such baseless accusations—I only refrained from selling her off out of consideration for you.”
His sleeve was pulled away too quickly, leaving Li Lianniang’s fingertips stinging, yet the pain paled in comparison to the sting of his words.
She offered a feeble defense: “No, that’s not true.”
Jiang Wei’s face was as dark as storm clouds, making the red handprint on his cheek appear even more vivid. “You weren’t like this before. How have you become so scheming now, even going so far as to endanger your own child just to frame someone?”
His eyes were filled with disappointment. “Now that you’ve given birth and become a mother, you should have a broader heart. Don’t set a bad example for the child.”
Danruo kowtowed until her face was covered in blood, but she only heard the young master blaming the young mistress for the wrongdoing. Desperate, she crawled over and tugged at Jiang Wei’s robe. “Young Master, the young mistress did nothing wrong. You can’t blame her like this—ah—”
Jiang Wei kicked Danruo in the chest and shouted toward the door, “Are my words no longer of any use in Yunzhu Yuan? Where is everyone?”
Several sets of footsteps hurried over, dragging Danruo out of the room as her pleas and cries echoed through the rafters.
Without another glance at Li Lianniang, Jiang Wei strode away. He couldn’t understand how she had become like this—using their child as a pawn out of jealousy and even arranging for a maid to imply that Tingyue had deliberately caused her premature labor.
How could she be so malicious?
“Husband, husband, spare Danruo, husband—”
Even after he left the room, Danruo’s screams continued to pierce Li Lianniang’s heart. Frantic, she threw off the covers, gripped the bed rails with both hands, and struggled to get out of bed.
Chilan had taken a young maid to the kitchen to fetch soup. Before reaching Yunzhu Yuan, she heard Danruo’s screams and quickened her pace.
As soon as she entered the courtyard, she saw Danruo being held down on a long bench and beaten with a paddle. “Stop! What… what is happening?”
A second-tier maid quickly pulled her aside and whispered an account of what had transpired.
“This…”
With the young master’s order to administer the beating, Chilan could only watch helplessly, her anxiety growing. She hurried into the room.
“Ah—Young Mistress—”
A piercing scream tore through the air. Outside, the servants exchanged uneasy glances, and soon Yunzhu Yuan was in an uproar.
Meanwhile, at Haitang Ju.
The delicate beauty had left some time ago, and Zhao Xian was still lamenting that this wasn’t the modern era—such a rare, natural beauty.
Nanny He hurried into the room, her hands clasped before her, her expression grave. “Madam, something has happened at Yunzhu Yuan.”
With a thud, Zhao Xian’s pleasant daydream shattered.
“Something happened?”
What could have happened?
“A servant reported that the young mistress fell out of bed and is hemorrhaging badly.”
Zhao Xian sprang up from her stool so abruptly she nearly cried out. “A doctor, a doctor, find a doctor quickly!”
As she spoke, she lifted her skirts and rushed outside. Hemorrhaging right after childbirth—this could be fatal.
Halfway there, she grabbed Nanny He’s arm. “The midwife—summon the midwife and the best imperial physicians and doctors. Quickly, give the orders at once.”
Nanny He nodded. “This old servant has already given the orders. The sedan chair is also ready. Does Madam wish to go over?”
“Yes, let’s go.”
On the way, Zhao Xian pressed for details, but according to Nanny He, the maid who delivered the message only said that after the young master visited the young mistress and punished Danruo, Chilan reentered the room to find the young mistress hemorrhaging badly.
As for exactly what had happened, the servants did not know the details.
They only said the young master was furious.
Zhao Xian: That bastard!
She had deliberately kept Cui Tingyue behind, thinking that without the supporting female character around, the tragic romance protagonists wouldn’t clash, reducing the risk of a disastrous fallout.
Yet that bastard still managed to create a mess all on his own. How impressive.
Yunzhu Yuan
As soon as Zhao Xian was helped out of the sedan chair by Nanny He, the maid who had previously kowtowed to her and bluntly called for Danruo rushed over, shouting loudly:
“Madam, please save my young lady, save her!”
The sedan bearers acted swiftly, restraining the maid before she could reach Zhao Xian.
Looking at the maid of the tragic female lead, Zhao Xian remembered that this maid was fiercely loyal but impulsive—a trait that ultimately led to her downfall.
In the book, after this maid named Danruo died, the female lead’s resentment toward the male lead deepened.
At this moment, Zhao Xian had no time for her and hurried inside.
Liu Nüyi, the female physician who had been taken by Jiang Wei earlier to care for Cui Tingyue, had arrived early this time.
She was currently checking Li Lianniang’s pulse.
Through the curtain, Zhao Xian caught a glimpse of Lianniang’s pale, bloodless face. She scanned the room but saw no sign of that bastard.
Since the female physician was inside, she didn’t disturb them.
Retreating to the outer room, she finally spoke: “Go and call that bas—the eldest young master to me.”
Such a major incident had happened to his wife. She had already heard about it and rushed over, yet that bastard was nowhere to be seen.
Compared to yesterday’s childbirth, where the agonizing screams from the room had made her frown repeatedly, she hadn’t been overly worried then, even feeling relieved it wasn’t her ordeal, as it was part of the book’s normal plot.
Today, however, the eerie silence in the room filled her with intense anxiety.
Had her interference altered the course of events?
She recalled the book’s plot: Cui Tingyue had accompanied Jiang Wei to visit the tragic female lead.
Right after giving birth, the tragic female lead was berated by the tragic male lead, who accused her of being scheming.
Due to the premature birth, there was even a plot where the tragic male lead doubted whether the child was his.
Oh, and the original host had participated in spreading that rumor.
Slap—
Zhao Xian raised her hand and slapped herself.
Jiang Wei, summoned by a servant, saw this scene as he arrived and halted in his steps: “Mother!”
Nanny He, standing nearby, was startled and was about to speak when Zhao Xian raised a hand to stop her.
Zhao Xian didn’t even want to look at her eldest son, her gaze fixed intently on the direction of the inner room.
Just then, the midwife and the physician arrived.
The imperial physician who had been summoned yesterday hadn’t come. A maid whispered to Nanny He, who then said softly, “Madam, the imperial physician was unavailable, so we invited an experienced old physician from Jin’an.”
Zhao Xian nodded and said to the old physician and the midwife, “Please, both of you, hurry inside. You must save my daughter-in-law’s life.”
The midwife had been here yesterday and received a generous reward. She knew the Jiang family’s madam was a good mother-in-law who hadn’t shown displeasure over the child being a granddaughter.
Though puzzled—how could something go wrong again after just one night?—she kept her thoughts to herself.
As a midwife and a woman, she entered the inner room first. The old physician asked a maid to set up a curtain for pulse diagnosis.
Zhao Xian wanted to say that at a time like this, there was no need to worry about propriety between men and women—saving lives was paramount. But she knew times were different and couldn’t rashly voice such thoughts.
There was no sound from the inner room. A soft couch was nearby, but Zhao Xian couldn’t sit still, pacing back and forth restlessly.
“Mother.”
Slap—
As soon as Jiang Wei opened his mouth to speak, he was slapped across the face.
Zhao Xian had long wanted to hit him and finally seized the opportunity. “Why did Lianniang suddenly suffer a massive hemorrhage when she was perfectly fine? She just gave birth to your daughter. What did you do to her?”
From childhood to adulthood, Jiang Wei had always been restrained and proper, consistently praised by others.
Having been slapped twice in a single day, his brows furrowed like mountains, and his already expressionless face grew even colder. His tone was stiff as he said, “I did not do anything to Lianniang.”
“Didn’t do anything? You left, and she had an accident right after. Could it be that she no longer wanted to live and stabbed herself with a knife?”
Even if you twisted romance novels play with extremes and cruelty, surely you wouldn’t go so far as to harm a woman who just gave birth? Where is the morality? Where is the humanity?
Jiang Wei pressed his lips together, several times on the verge of speaking, only to find he had no words to refute his mother.
When he arrived, he had already learned from the servants that Li Lianniang had met with misfortune.
He guessed it was likely due to his punishment of Danruo, but that maid had spoken recklessly—could he not have her beaten?
Watching the maids come and go, some carrying bloodstained clothes and handkerchiefs, others fetching water.
“If Lianniang is fine, all is well. But if anything happens to her…” Zhao Xian shot a sharp glance at Jiang Wei.
“Madam, Brother Wei, is sister-in-law alright?”
Cui Tingyue, supported by a maid, stepped into Yunzhu Yuan, her eyes filled with worry as she asked softly.
“Cough, cough, cough…” After just a few words, she covered her mouth and began coughing.
Before long, a flush appeared on her face from the intensity of her coughing.
Seeing this, Jiang Wei naturally went to support Cui Tingyue, his voice full of concern: “Why have you come when you’re not well? You must have caught a chill, coughing this badly.”