Ju Zi had seen cats give birth, but she had never seen a human give birth before; this was her first time.
At first, hearing Yang Jinniang’s pitiful cries, Ju Zi was very anxious and ran into the delivery room.
Seeing that Yang Jinniang was taking so long to give birth, Ju Zi felt that she had to go to a hospital, but there were no hospitals for childbirth here, and the only one she could rely on was the midwife.
The sky outside the window grew brighter, but the midwife’s face, contrary to the brightness of the sky, gradually became solemn.
Yang Jinniang was tormented all night, sometimes lying down, sometimes sitting, sometimes standing, trying every birthing position. She even drank ginseng soup. Blood was everywhere in the room, but Yang Jinniang, supported by Zhao Mama and Lu Mama, half-bent over and weakly standing on the birthing stool, was ashen-faced, and no matter how much sweat she washed over her, not a trace of color came out.
The midwife, half-kneeling before Yang Jinniang, finally saw movement from the blood-soaked birth canal.
This long-awaited movement, however, caused the midwife’s face to change drastically.
Ju Zi saw it too.
A tiny, frail foot emerged, dangling from Yang Jinniang’s bloodied lower body, its delicate toes wriggling and grasping.
The midwife abruptly stood up and strode out: “Get the person in charge of the household here…”
“Save the mother or the child? Decide quickly… any further, and it will be too late!”
Wang Xichen, who had been waiting in the outer hall, turned deathly pale.
The experienced midwife paused, then truthfully told him, “It’s most likely a boy…”
Wang Xichen’s eyes widened. Ignoring all taboos, he rushed into the birthing room and immediately saw his wife, who looked like an old rag soaked in dirty water. Yang Jinniang was helped back to bed, where she lay, her eyes weary and unfocused.
“I want the younger one…” she said weakly and hoarsely as her husband approached, “Second Master, I want the younger one.”
Tears welled in Wang Xichen’s eyes, and he gripped his wife’s hand tightly, refusing to let go.
The others in the room also looked on with pity, hesitant to speak.
Until an old woman’s voice rang out: “There’s no such thing as saving the mother or the child.”
Wang Xichen turned around and saw that his mother had also arrived.
“A thing that can’t be born isn’t even considered human,” Old Mrs. Dong said decisively. “There’s no reason to sacrifice a life for a mere thing—the Wang family has no such rule of treating human life so lightly!”
Upon hearing this, Wang Xichen had no more hesitation. Tears welled in his eyes as he resolutely said, “Listen to Mother, save the mother!”
Ignoring his wife, who was still shaking her head, he solemnly bowed to the midwife: “Please, please save my wife, Jinniang!”
The midwife sighed and dismissed everyone except for Zhao Mama, who assisted her.
Ju Zi remained, guarding Zhenyi’s mother; it had to guard her in Zhenyi’s place.
Ju Zi had heard the concept of saving the mother versus the child on television before, but it didn’t know how it worked until today. The midwife, holding scissors in one hand, reached into Yang Jinniang’s lower body with the other, muttering, “You’re not destined for this. Go now… Next time, look carefully before you come back!”
Yang Jinniang cried and tried to struggle, but she was too weak and could only be held down on the bed by Zhao Mama.
Ju Zi clearly saw that the protruding fetus’s feet initially moved, but quickly turned into a pile of minced flesh. As the midwife’s hand reached further in, there seemed to be muffled crying sounds.
More and more minced flesh was pulled out. Yang Jinniang’s face gradually went numb, seemingly unable to feel any pain, until her body trembled slightly, and a large pool of murky, bloody flesh slid out from her lower body. Her abdomen quickly deflated.
Ju Zi saw the midwife cut something, clean it up, and then stuff a clump of flesh back into Yang Jinniang’s belly.
Zhao Mama carried the basin of minced meat out. Wang Xichen glanced at it, then turned away, tears welling in his eyes, nearly vomiting. He couldn’t bear to look a second time: “Go bury it…”
He walked unsteadily into the room and came to the bedside.
“Second Master, tell me…” Yang Jinniang’s eyes were empty, her voice hollow: “Is it a boy or a girl?”
Wang Xichen grasped her hand, his voice hoarse: “It’s…it’s a girl, I saw it.”
Yang Jinniang’s eyes trembled, and tears finally streamed down her face, but she seemed relieved, sobbing, “I’m not meant to be with her…”
After a moment, she turned to her husband and said, “Once I recover…we’ll have another one, we can always have one.”
Ju Zi, who considered herself incredibly brave, suddenly felt a chill of terror.
Yang Jinniang’s weak face showed gratitude, shame, and self-reproach, yet this frail woman showed not a trace of lingering fear.
Ju Zi suddenly felt a growing dislike for Yang Jinniang.
Ju Zi turned and ran away.
A short while later, Zhenyi ran in.
Chun’er followed, her eyes also red and swollen: “Miss didn’t sleep all night, I really couldn’t stop her…”
“Get out quickly…” Yang Jinniang’s voice was so weak it was starting to break: “It’s bad luck…”
“Mother, I’m not afraid!” Zhenyi finally cried, hugging her mother’s shoulders: “I’ll stay with you, Mother! I won’t go anywhere!”
For the next few days, Zhenyi couldn’t sleep well, often having nightmares. She would suddenly wake up in the middle of the night, wanting to run to her mother’s room to see if she was still there.
Even more troublesome was that Ju Zi was missing.
The house had been in chaos lately, and Chun’er hadn’t had time to search thoroughly. Orange often slipped away, but it never stayed out for more than two days; this was the fifth.
Zhenyi searched everywhere, calling out everywhere, but she couldn’t find Orange.
The sun was setting, and the stars were becoming more numerous.
Orange walked along the back riverbank. Familiar cats kept greeting it, but Orange ignored them all.
Orange’s fluffy tail hung low. It crossed the riverbank, came to an alley, leaped a few times, and darted onto a rooftop, where it sat, lost in thought.
It didn’t seem to truly hate Yang Jinniang; it hated this place. It wanted to go home.
But how could it get back? Orange thought carefully. It had come here because it had fought with the outsider tabby cat and accidentally fallen from a height, ending up here.
Orange leaped from the rooftop.
But mid-air, it instinctively scrambled to the wall for cushioning, landing safely without a scratch.
Orange sighed; undeniably, it was a very capable big cat.
Orange sat there for a while, lost in thought, when suddenly it heard a child crying in the house, seemingly having a nightmare, being gently patted and soothed by adults.
Zhenyi must have nightmares, too, right?
With the house in such a mess, who will comfort Zhenyi?
Suddenly, Orange got up, its four legs moving faster and faster, and it dashed back to the Wang family’s house.
Orange easily found its way back to the second house’s courtyard, pushed open Zhenyi’s door a crack, and nimbly slipped inside.
Zhenyi was asleep. Chun’er was in the next room with Zhao Mama, taking care of Yang Jinniang.
Perhaps afraid Zhenyi would be frightened after a nightmare, Chun’er had left a lamp on in the room.
Ju Zi jumped onto the bed and, seeing that Zhenyi was sleeping peacefully, felt relieved.
Ju Zi stared at the sleeping Zhenyi and suddenly wondered, would Zhenyi grow up to be like Yang Jinniang?
Ju Zi didn’t want that. It was worried about Zhenyi’s future; it didn’t know what Zhenyi’s fate was according to history.
Ju Zi didn’t like it here, but he loved Zhenyi very much. After much thought, I still couldn’t bear to leave Zhenyi alone here.
It wanted to accompany and protect this child.
Ju Zi stretched out a front paw and gently pressed its paw pad against Zhenyi’s forehead, as if making the most loyal pact.
The cool, soft touch made Zhenyi drowsily open her eyes.
Before Orange could even retract its mischievous paw, Zhenyi grabbed it and rubbed against it affectionately.
Overjoyed at its newfound possession, Zhenyi was ecstatic.
She got out of bed barefoot, changed Orange’s water in its bowl, and carefully tore up some dried fish, placing it in another small bowl placed beside it.
Orange jumped onto the small table to eat, while Zhenyi climbed onto a chair, squatted down, her hair flowing, and hugged her knees, watching Orange eat and drink.
Orange, having eaten and drunk its fill, licked its fur and swaggered onto Zhenyi’s bed.
Zhenyi quickly followed, lying down next to Orange. After covering Orange with a small blanket, she held one of Orange’s paws in one hand before closing her eyes in peace.
Orange yawned—see? It knew it! Cats are very important to humans; there’s no way around it.
For the next few months, Yang Jinniang spent most of her time recuperating in bed. Zhenyi rarely went to the study, spending most of her time practicing calligraphy and arithmetic in her mother’s room.
Wang Xichen also rarely went out, focusing on taking care of his wife’s diet and medicine, and occasionally tutoring his daughter.
One day, Wang Xichen returned home with a long-lost smile of relief on his face. He held two letters in his hands, one already opened, from Jilin: “Father sent a message back; he arrived at the border post last October…”
Jilin was bitterly cold, and many had died on the road to exile. Fortunately, Wang Zhefu had set off during the Qingming Festival last year, thus avoiding the harsh winter.
Yang Jinniang breathed a sigh of relief, and Zhenyi was overjoyed.
Wang Xichen handed another letter to his wife: “Jinniang, I’m going to Mother’s first. I’ll read it to you later.”
Yang Jinniang nodded and urged, “Go quickly, you should go to Mother’s first… Go quickly.”
Zhenyi wanted to go with her father, but stayed behind instead.
Yang Jinniang smiled and said, “Go if you want, hear news from your grandfather.”
“I’ll stay with Mother,” Zhenyi always said decisively, “I’ll ask Father when he gets back… Mother, let me read the letter to you!”
Zhenyi was eight years old this year and already knew hundreds of commonly used characters very well.
Seeing her daughter’s obedient and considerate appearance, Yang Jinniang nodded with satisfaction: “Good, let Mother hear which characters Zhen’er has learned.”
This letter came from Jiangxi, where Yang Jinniang’s sister, Yang Tingniang’s, husband’s family lived.
Yang Tingniang couldn’t write, so the letter was written by someone else. Some parts were likely Yang Tingniang’s own account, written in a style that was more colloquial, mixed with local dialect. Other parts were probably briefed by the writer andwritten in a more formal, official style. The vocabulary was a mix of both, but fortunately, it wasn’t difficult to understand.
At first, it mostly concerned trivial matters, mentioning that her health was better, the family’s situation fluctuated, and her eldest daughter’s engagement.
At the end, she mentioned that she had given birth to another daughter last year, who was doted on by her mother-in-law.
The language was straightforward, without any expression of emotion, as if she were simply mentioning something very ordinary.
Yang Jinniang’s heart trembled, and she murmured in a daze, “I’m already a very fortunate person…”
Then, looking at Zhenyi, she said, “My Zhenyi is also a very fortunate child.”
Thinking of her “youngest daughter,” whom she hadn’t even had a chance to see, Yang Jinniang was overcome with sorrow and worried about her elder sister’s situation at her parents’ home, and her eyes welled up with tears again.
Upon hearing that Shuyi had come to visit, Yang Jinniang quickly wiped away her tears and put the letter away.
Zhenyi hadn’t seen her eldest sister for some time; her sister looked much thinner.
Shuyi’s marriage to Wen Yiheng had dragged on for nearly a year, but ultimately failed.
The Wen family hadn’t explicitly refused at first, but kept delaying. The Wang family, also concerned with their reputation, saw the Wen family’s retreat and stopped mentioning it.
Qian Yuling had asked his elder brother to inquire and learned that Wen Yiheng was still interested, but couldn’t resist his domineering grandmother. His father, being an official, was also inevitably suspicious due to Wang Zhefu’s exile.
Upon hearing this, Shuyi didn’t blame anyone, only nodded gently, lowered her eyes, and said, “Then let it be.”
A young woman’s age is most vulnerable to delays; Shuyi’s marriage needed to be planned for as soon as possible. The Third Madam was very anxious about this matter.
Many suitors came to propose marriage, but their conditions were all unsatisfactory. It seemed they were only interested in taking advantage of the Wang family’s current predicament, hoping to find a daughter-in-law they wouldn’t normally be able to afford.
The third wife, from a moderately wealthy family, had some pride. Moreover, her husband was still an official; how could she let her carefully raised daughter be married off so hastily?
Over a year of these marriage proposals passed, and another year passed until the Qingming Festival. Before long, Shuyi’s marriage was settled, and she had earned a reputation for being picky.
Wang Xipu, who had returned to Jinling to pay respects to his ancestors, had a few words with his wife about this matter. When Ju Zi eavesdropped, she saw Shuyi secretly wiping away tears under the jujube tree in the courtyard.
Until one early morning, in the light rain, a mother and son, accompanied by two servants, arrived at the Wang family’s door, and the atmosphere in the third wife’s household improved.
Upon hearing the news, Orange also rushed to help with the matchmaking.