“Have you.” Lu Zhanye’s voice sank. “About what happened at the threshing ground a month ago, about your sister’s lie, about—”
He paused, his gaze falling on the hand she instinctively placed protectively over her lower abdomen.
“About the child in your belly whose father is supposedly ‘unknown.’”
Su Wantang trembled all over. The wooden basin in her hands nearly slipped.
Lu Zhanye reached out and steadied the edge of the basin. Their fingers accidentally brushed against each other, and Su Wantang recoiled as if she had been burned. The basin crashed to the ground with a loud clang, and the wet clothes spilled everywhere.
She hurriedly crouched down to pick them up. Lu Zhanye also bent down, and among the scattered rough cloth garments, their foreheads almost touched.
Su Wantang caught the faint scent of tobacco on him, mixed with the fresh fragrance of soapberry—an aroma left behind from when she had used spiritual spring water to clean his wounds.
“Su Wantang.” Lu Zhanye suddenly spoke, his voice lowered so only the two of them could hear. “That night… was it you?”
She suddenly raised her head and met his deep eyes.
Inside them were scrutiny, investigation, and a complicated emotion she couldn’t understand.
“I…” She opened her mouth, but no sound came out.
The pain in her lower abdomen suddenly intensified, as if an invisible hand was violently pulling downward. Her face turned deathly pale, cold sweat forming at her temples, and her body went limp uncontrollably.
[Warning! Warning! The fetus is showing signs of threatened miscarriage! The host’s life value is linked to the fetus’s condition. Please take protective measures immediately!]
The system’s sharp alarm exploded in her mind.
Lu Zhanye’s expression changed instantly. He reached out and caught her.
“What’s wrong with you?”
Su Wantang curled up in pain, her fingers clutching her lower abdomen tightly as darkness flickered before her eyes.
Just as her consciousness was about to fade, the system notification rang urgently.
[Emergency mission triggered! One Anti-Miscarriage Pill has been issued. Please take it immediately!]
She felt a warm pill suddenly appear in her palm. Without thinking, she stuffed it into her mouth.
The pill melted instantly upon contact, and a warm current flowed from her throat through her entire body, eventually gathering in her abdomen and slowly calming the tearing pain.
Lu Zhanye watched her swallow a pill that appeared out of nowhere. His eyes darkened slightly, but at that moment, he had no time to question her. He scooped her up into his arms.
“I’m taking you to the clinic.”
“No… don’t…” Su Wantang weakly grabbed the front of his military uniform. “You can’t… Doctor Li will… he’ll notice…”
“Notice what?”
Lu Zhanye stopped and looked down at her.
Su Wantang bit her lip. Tears rolled down her cheeks, but she stubbornly refused to say another word.
Lu Zhanye stared at her for several seconds. Then, without saying anything, he turned around and carried her toward the village outskirts.
The sun had completely sunk behind the western mountains. Darkness covered the land. His military boots stepped over the gravel path, his pace steady and fast.
“Where are we going…?” Su Wantang asked nervously.
“To somewhere no one can see us.”
His voice was calm but carried an unquestionable determination.
“The medicine you just took—what was it? Where did it come from? And…”
His gaze sharpened.
“Your secrets. Tonight, you’re going to explain everything.”
Su Wantang felt a chill spread through her body.
She knew that some things could no longer be hidden.
And as Lu Zhanye carried the fragile woman in his arms, feeling the familiar scent of soapberry and medicinal herbs coming from her, the vague suspicion in his heart gradually became clearer.
The person from that night in the haystack was her.
The person who treated his wounds and helped him recover was her.
And this woman in his arms—the one who was pregnant, hiding countless secrets, and terrified enough to nearly lose the child…
The child was most likely his.
Night deepened as their figures disappeared at the end of the path outside the village.
Under the old locust tree, the scattered wet clothes still lay quietly on the ground. The overturned wooden basin remained there like a silent witness to everything.
Far away, inside the Su family courtyard, Su Wanrou pushed open the window and stared toward the village entrance. Her fingernails dug deeply into the wooden frame.
……
The old locust tree at the village entrance still held traces of morning dew.
When Lu Zhanye carried Su Wantang away in his arms, her mind went completely blank.
The cramping pain in her lower abdomen had gradually eased because of the anti-miscarriage pill, but her heart was pounding wildly.
He saw it.
He saw her take the medicine that appeared out of nowhere.
“Put me down…”
Her voice trembled.
Lu Zhanye’s military boots stepped through the wet mud as he walked steadily toward the clinic, ignoring her request completely.
His arms held her tightly. Even through the coarse fabric of her clothes, she could feel the strength that made escape impossible.
Su Wantang struggled twice but failed. She eventually gave up, turning her face away to avoid looking at his cold, rigid profile.
Far away, the figure behind the wooden window of the Su family courtyard disappeared.
The clinic smelled of disinfectant mixed with medicinal herbs.
Doctor Li was not there. Lu Zhanye directly carried Su Wantang into the examination room and placed her on the wooden bed.
The door closed behind him.
The latch fell into place with a crisp sound.
Inside the small room, only the two of them remained, along with the occasional sounds of chickens and dogs outside the window.
“The child is mine.”
Lu Zhanye stood before the bed.
It was not a question.
It was a statement.
Su Wantang curled herself up, her fingers gripping the bedsheet tightly.
The system in her mind was silent, like dead water.
No mission notification.
No warning.
As if even the system was waiting for her answer.
She remembered that night in the haystack—the heat of his body, the terrifying old scars across his waist and abdomen, the suppressed sounds in the darkness, the cold countdown from the system…
And afterward, the way he had repeatedly tested her with his eyes.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She heard her own dry voice.
Lu Zhanye leaned down, one hand braced against the wooden bed beside her, his shadow covering her.
His other hand moved toward her waist—the place where the red mole was.
Su Wantang instantly moved backward, but his other hand pressed down on her shoulder, stopping her.
“The scent of soapberry mixed with medicinal herbs. Waist-length hair. The red mole on your waist.”
With every word he spoke, his voice became lower, but his gaze became sharper.
“Although I was affected by the drug that night, I wasn’t completely unconscious. I remember someone using cold water to wipe my body again and again. I remember the itching sensation when my wounds healed. I remember someone crying. And I also remember…”
He paused.
His eyes fell on the lower abdomen she was instinctively protecting.
“I remember that in the end, that person kissed me willingly.”
Su Wantang’s face turned completely pale.
“Su Wanrou’s folk remedy couldn’t have saved wounds that were already infected and rotting.”
Lu Zhanye continued, his breath brushing against her ear.
“Doctor Li said that night, only you came to get gauze. At the threshing ground, I found pieces of coarse cloth. The fabric was the same as what you were wearing.”
“And just now…”
His eyes darkened.
“Where did you make that medicine appear from?”
With every sentence, Su Wantang retreated another inch until her back pressed against the cold earthen wall.
“I don’t know…”
She repeated herself, her voice already breaking with tears.
“You recognized the wrong person… That night it was my sister who took care of you. Everyone says so…”
“Is that so?”
Lu Zhanye gave a cold laugh and suddenly released her, straightening up.
He took a small cloth bundle from his military uniform pocket and opened it.
Inside was a strand of hair carefully tied with a red string.
Black, smooth, and waist-length.
“This hair was found in the crack of the straw mat at the threshing ground.”
His gaze moved to her.
“Su Wanrou’s hair only reaches her shoulders. Your hair…”
His eyes swept over the long hair hanging behind her.
“Reaches your waist.”
Su Wantang stared at the strand of hair.
Her entire body turned cold.