Wen Ning gave all five taels of silver to Chūn Xìng.
Chūn Xìng gasped sharply, her eyes wide. “Sister Wen Ning, you… you and the Marquis… Did the Marquis… you…”
Wen Ning tapped her forehead lightly. “What’s that little head of yours thinking? Getting Mother treated is the priority right now.”
Wen Ning also asked Chūn Xìng’s family to help purchase several doses of menstrual-regulating medicine. She only needed to adjust the dosage and combination to prepare the abortion medicine.
…
In a small side room of the Stewards’ Courtyard in the northeast corner of Hou Manor’s outer compound, Tang Zhu lay sprawled on the kang, grimacing in pain. Every breath felt like a knife stabbing his lungs.
Táng Lí held a medicine bowl, reluctantly spoon-feeding her brother mouthful by mouthful.
Granny Li stood nearby, muttering incessantly. “You wretched fool! I told you not to provoke that flirtatious widow, but you wouldn’t listen. Now look what’s happened—you’ve caught the attention of that living Yama!”
Tang Zhu looked unconcerned, instead blaming Granny Li. “If you had listened to me and begged Old Madam earlier to grant me that beautiful lady, none of this would have happened!”
“You haven’t seen her…” He gestured with both hands. “That girl, she’s so beautiful it’s almost unreal.”
Hearing this, Táng Lí shoved the medicine bowl into her brother’s hands and glared. “Look how bewitched you are! That hussy is just more cunning, that’s all. Otherwise, why would the Marquis, who’s always loved peace and quiet, suddenly open a Small Kitchen? It’s all because of her flirtatious face, always sneaking into the Marquis’s chambers!”
Tang Zhu stiffened his neck, his face livid. “Why him! Why him! No matter how noble the Marquis is, there’s still an order of precedence! Now Wen Ning has been taken into his courtyard—he must have already claimed her. A grand Marquis, yet he still fights with me over a woman! What kind of master is he? Just an ungrateful wretch who forgets old favors!”
Hearing this, Granny Li quickly glanced outside the door and lowered her voice to scold, “What time is it now, and you’re still thinking about that slut? The steward has already started checking the kitchen’s accounts today. What are we going to do? Tell me honestly—how much of Hou Manor’s silver have you secretly embezzled over the years? I need to know.”
Tang Zhu’s eyes darted around. After a long pause, he stammered, “Just… just a few thousand taels.”
Granny Li’s face changed instantly. “A few thousand taels! Where’s the money?”
“Hidden Fragrance Garden, Soft Red Pavilion, Drunken Immortal Tower, and sometimes… sometimes the Thousand Gold Gambling Den.”
Tang Zhu usually played extravagantly, spending lavishly outside. He was addicted to the feeling of being flattered as a “young master,” and coupled with his gambling habit, he spent money like water.
“You! You…” Granny Li, furious, stepped forward and hit him. “Do you know that for over a thousand taels, he can have you poisoned to death within the manor? If handed over to the authorities, at worst you could face lingchi (death by a thousand cuts), and your sister and I would be exiled to the borderlands!”
Táng Lí’s small face instantly drained of color. She rushed forward to support Granny Li, who was about to collapse. “Mother!”
Tang Zhu hung his head, a rare flicker of fear in his eyes. But in an instant, it was replaced by the fire of resentment.
…
In the Small Kitchen of Tingsong Courtyard, Wen Ning had already poured the prepared abortion medicine into a pot. She stared at the boiling decoction, her heart filled with indescribable emotions.
Although Wen Ning had been running between the kitchen and Tingsong Courtyard these days, no further trouble had come her way.
Táng Lí had even taken the initiative to show goodwill, saying her mother and brother were coarse people and asking Wen Ning not to take it to heart.
Wen Ning viewed Táng Lí like peonies seen through a mist, unable to discern her true nature, so she never spoke much in her presence, focusing only on doing her own work well.
Tonight, the rain outside the eaves fell in a continuous drizzle, and the Marquis had finished his evening meal. Most of the servants had slipped away to enjoy some peace and quiet.
Only then could Wen Ning seize the opportunity, under the pretext of preparing the Marquis’s medicine, to brew her own.
The medicinal liquid gradually thickened, swirling into an inky vortex.
Yet tears kept falling into the medicine pot. Wen Ning repeated "I'm sorry" in her heart—sorry to this tiny life.
After struggling with herself, she finally took the medicine into her mouth, its bitterness numbing the root of her tongue.
She closed her eyes, her throat working as she tried to force it down. Once swallowed, it would be a final farewell to this child.
"Ugh…" A spasm gripped her stomach, and she bent over sharply, vomiting out all the medicine in her mouth.
Wen Ning picked up the remaining decoction, intending to force it down again, but her hand trembled, and the celadon bowl slipped from her fingers, shattering into pieces.
A sudden heat welled in Wen Ning’s eyes, and large teardrops slid down her cheeks.
Why? She was so close to the final step. Could this be fate?
Now fatherless and motherless, this child was the only person in the world connected to her by blood, carrying her flesh and blood, curled up and growing in the darkness.
At this thought, Wen Ning suddenly felt how cruel her heart was. Why should an innocent child suffer such a fate?
But if she didn’t take the abortion medicine herself, staying in Hou Manor would only lead to two outcomes.
Either she would be discovered midway and forced to abort.
Or she could give birth to the child, but the child would be registered as a new servant, while she herself would be sold off.
If she wanted neither, the only options before that would be to buy her own freedom or escape from Hou Manor.
So, for now, it was best to make the Marquis lose interest in her. Otherwise, even if she escaped Hou Manor, as long as the manor wanted to find her, she would never live in peace.
After finishing his official duties, Xie Jinglan couldn’t wait for Wen Ning to bring the medicine and instead made his way to the Small Kitchen behind the side room to see her.
Though he had restrained himself from touching her these past days, how could a beast tolerate its prey lingering before it for long without baring its fangs?
Standing outside the door, Xie Jinglan happened to see Wen Ning at that moment, her face streaked with tears, her delicate shoulders trembling lightly.
"What? Did you spill this Marquis’s medicine and cry so pitifully over it?"
Wen Ning shuddered in fright, raising her head in panic to meet Xie Jinglan’s unfathomably deep eyes.
He walked up to her, using his thumb to wipe away the lingering tears on her cheek.
"Why are you crying, really?"
Wen Ning turned her face away, as if all her grievances sought an outlet at this very moment.
Without careful thought, the words spilled out: "I remembered the childhood sweetheart I had before marrying Liu Lang…"
Liu Lang again, and a childhood sweetheart. The implication was that, though her husband was dead, there was still another man in her heart.
Xie Jinglan’s expression darkened abruptly, his eyes sharp as unsheathed cold blades. "Childhood—sweetheart! What? Do you still want to marry your childhood sweetheart?"
Wen Ning instinctively took a step back, whispering, "He was a scholar. He promised to come redeem this servant once he passed the imperial examination…"
Before she could finish, Xie Jinglan suddenly wrapped an arm around her waist, trapping her in the corner of the kitchen, sealing her hesitant lips and swallowing her unfinished words.
Wen Ning panicked, pushing against him, but her body was held even tighter in his grasp.
His kiss was fervent and forceful, as if punishing her for what she had just said.
The mulberry charcoal in the medicine stove shifted from a blazing white to a dull red. She felt her legs giving way, relying entirely on his large hand to support her.