From the start, Yiren had planned to extract money from the nobility of the State of Zhao, not from the pitiful Shuren (commoners).
Pitiful Shuren·Zhao Xuwan: "Together with Lü Shang?"
The merchant’s surname was Lü—Zhao Xuwan knew that much, though she wasn’t aware of his specific given name.
She felt conflicted. Although merchants were also of low status, at least they could earn money, which was better than being a Shuren. However, in the eyes of the nobility, they were looked down upon. Even a Prince from a fallen noble family would face ostracism if he mingled with merchants, wouldn’t he?
Yiren found Zhao Xuwan’s conflicted expression somewhat amusing.
"What’s wrong? Don’t you trust me?" Yiren reached out and tucked the stray hair behind her ear.
Zhao Xuwan shook her head. "The recipe is very simple. I’m just afraid you might be… looked down upon by others."
She spoke the last three words softly, but Yiren was close enough to hear them clearly.
"What does it matter?" Yiren had been kneeling for too long, and his legs were uncomfortable. He leaned slightly to the side to improve blood circulation. "Many people look down on me. Should I care about all of them?"
To be honest, Yiren had been cold and aloof during the early days of his marriage to Zhao Xuwan. Over the past month or so, he had suddenly changed, almost as if he had been driven mad by some stimulus.
Not wanting to provoke him, Zhao Xuwan recited the papermaking recipe. "However, the paper produced will be that blackish-yellow color from the other day. The best quality is white or slightly yellowish. Black paper is actually not very good."
She phrased it delicately, but her meaning was clear: the paper wasn’t particularly attractive, and it might not be recognized as valuable if sold.
Yiren nodded. He didn’t plan to involve himself too much. Lu Buwei was more reliable in business matters. As for him, he would simply wait to see how far Lu Buwei could take this venture.
Lu Buwei schemed against him, waiting to see how much profit he could bring. Similarly, Yiren waited to see how capable Lu Buwei was and how large a business he could build.
With the recipe handed over, Zhao Xuwan felt relieved. The previous night, as she lay in bed, Yiren had stroked her belly while talking about the paper. He told her not to worry about it anymore—let Lü Shang handle it. After all, he had money and manpower, so Zhao Xuwan didn’t need to exert any effort. She could simply wait to use the paper.
Finding it bothersome to stroke her belly over her clothes, he lifted them. Zhao Xuwan was now just over four months pregnant, and her slightly protruding belly looked somewhat incongruous against her slender frame. Under the flickering candlelight, she saw Yiren staring solemnly at her belly.
"What’s wrong?" Zhao Xuwan, who had been lying down, grew uneasy under his gaze and tried to sit up, only to be gently pushed back down.
A sigh escaped his lips beside her ear. Yiren had initially lifted her clothes just to look at her belly, but once he did, things took a different turn.
Still, such matters were normal between husband and wife, especially since Yiren was not a particularly lustful person.
In a daze, Zhao Xuwan was pushed back down. At first, she nervously clutched Yiren’s clothes, but as things progressed, she realized his hands were trembling even more severely than hers.
"Truly torturous," Yiren remarked afterward, not forgetting to blame the child.
Lying in bed, Zhao Xuwan recalled the way his hands had trembled. The contrast between his usual demeanor and this vulnerable side was truly endearing.
During the day, Zhao Xuwan no longer busied herself with paper pulp. Instead, she focused on potato cultivation.
Potatoes, like sweet potatoes, are first sprouted before being planted in the soil. These were tasks Zhao Xuwan was accustomed to and could handle alone.
With the help of two maidservants, it went without saying that everything was prepared by the morning. The soil had also been turned over by the servants. Given the hot weather, sprouting might occur even earlier.
In the afternoon, with nothing else to do, Zhao Xuwan was once again dragged to the study to practice writing. She wore a pained expression as she practiced writing her own name and Yiren’s name.
"You said you wanted to improve yourself, but now you’re just learning names. When the child grows up and starts studying, won’t it be even more difficult?" Yiren teased her.
"Isn’t that what you’re here for?" Zhao Xuwan replied confidently. In ancient times, wasn’t it always the father who oversaw the child’s studies while the mother handled food and drink?
"What about setting an example for the child?" Yiren asked again.
"Well, then why didn’t I see you setting an example last night?" Zhao Xuwan retorted without backing down.
After saying this, her neck and face flushed red.
Good heavens, what nonsense was she saying? The child would be corrupted. Thankfully, there was no fetal movement yet.
Despite the brief interlude, Yiren remained completely unaffected, making Zhao Xuwan feel that as a modern person, she was less open-minded than an ancient one. It was truly infuriating.
"If only the characters could be simplified, they’d look simpler and be easier to write," Zhao Xuwan said, resting her head in her hands.
"What kind of talk is that?" Yiren replied without looking up from the bamboo slips.
Zhao Xuwan sighed, thinking to herself, "Of course, as a pure ancient, you wouldn’t understand. I, a modern person who has been here for eighteen years, haven’t learned or recognized a single character. In this era without unification, the scripts and currencies of each state are different. I’m truly exhausted."
After grinding away for the entire afternoon, repeatedly practicing their names, she was finally allowed to leave.
Zhao Xuwan felt that pregnancy hadn’t aged her, but studying certainly had.
"In the future, it’ll be up to you," Zhao Xuwan whispered, patting her belly. "Your mother really can’t help. Unless someone time-travels here and becomes the First Emperor to change the characters, I truly can’t keep studying."
These prehistoric scripts, which modern experts might take days to decipher, were something she simply couldn’t master.
The person from Zhao Ying’s family arrived on the third day after she was rescued, bringing many gifts and speaking politely.
It was then that Zhao Xuwan learned Zhao Ying was not a daughter of the Zhao royal family but belonged to the household of Zhao She, the Lord of Mafu. Zhao Xuwan might not have immediately understood who Zhao She was, but she knew of the Lord of Mafu.
"Our mistress said that once the young lady’s leg has healed, she will trouble you again. It is truly kind of you, madam, to have saved our young lady," the person said very politely.
Zhao Xuwan didn’t refuse the gifts. Yiren had previously told her to accept whatever was offered, so as not to make them feel indebted and unable to repay the favor.
Zhao Xuwan followed his advice.
Sure enough, after accepting the gifts, the person’s smile became even more sincere.
After seeing the person off, Zhao Xuwan looked at the pile of gifts in the courtyard and sighed bitterly. "Dealing with people isn’t that easy either."
Summer arrived fiercely and swiftly, as if the sky had suddenly become exceptionally dry. A month had passed without rain, leaving not only the crops thirsty but Zhao Xuwan feeling parched as well.
She was pregnant, her body more sensitive to heat than usual, her temper flaring up uncontrollably. Especially now in the middle trimester, she wished she could eat chilled bowls every day.
Seeing her so irritable, Yiren sent someone to buy a lot of ice, though he controlled the amount and didn’t let her eat too much.
"It’s really so hot," she said, looking outside, feeling wave after wave of heat, making it hard to breathe.
At times like these, she often thought of modern life—air conditioning, fans, refrigerators. She felt like she was melting from the heat. Who would have thought the weather over two thousand years ago wasn’t much better either.
"Just bear with it a little longer," Yiren said beside her, fanning her with a hand fan. Recently, the heat had kept Zhao Xuwan from checking on the growth of the potatoes and sweet potatoes. Fortunately, Yun Heyu remembered and helped water and weed them for her.
Almost six months in, it felt as if all the hidden discomforts of pregnancy had suddenly surfaced. Zhao Xuwan’s eyes turned red. "Why is it so hot?"
To be honest, although Yiren also felt the heat, he could still endure it. Especially since his health wasn’t great—he had to wear long robes even in summer. Seeing Zhao Xuwan in such distress, he couldn’t fully imagine it but tried his best to ease her discomfort.
"Have some more water? It was just soaked in well water, so it’s cool," Yiren coaxed.
"Mhm," she straightened up and held the bowl to drink.
Now, she was immensely grateful that the table and chairs had been made and were ready to use. Otherwise, with her belly so big, she might have collapsed after kneeling for just a few minutes.
"Being pregnant is really too hard," she sighed. Some things she couldn’t say to Mother, nor could she share them with the two maidservants. In their eyes, being able to bear Yiren’s child was a great honor, especially given her humble background.
But Zhao Xuwan couldn’t hold back. If she couldn’t complain to others, she’d just say it to the person directly responsible. After all, it was his child she was carrying—why should she suffer alone?
"Only after having a child can one truly understand how difficult it is to be a mother," Yiren said, showing no disgust or annoyance. Instead, he gently wiped away her tears with pity.
"When the child is born, I’ll make sure to educate them properly," Yiren said with a fierce tone.
Zhao Xuwan, however, was displeased and frowned. "What’s there to educate them about? It’s not like they asked to be born."
She grew even angrier. "Don’t we, as parents, bear responsibility too? Don’t you have any responsibility?"
"Yes, yes, yes," Yiren said, feeling a headache coming on. "It’s all my fault."
Recently, he had been staying idle at home, spending every day with Zhao Xuwan, just staring at each other. When Zhao Xuwan was farming, he would read or help with the planting. When she was learning characters, he would guide her from the side. At first, they got along well, but now they were growing tired of each other—or rather, Zhao Xuwan was growing tired of him.
But Yiren didn’t mind, attributing it to her overthinking during pregnancy. Besides, the weather had indeed been abnormal lately. Many crops had withered, and the rivers had dried up. If this continued, there might be another famine.
Qin and Zhao had been locked in a struggle over the Shangdang region all year. Perhaps before long, the State of Qin would launch a war toward the Changping region.
By then, the State of Zhao would only face greater hardships.
Zhao Xuwan drank some cool water, calming her emotions for a while, then picked up the much-improved paper on the table to examine.
No matter how she looked at it, she wasn’t satisfied. "These names have too many characters. The child will get tired of writing them," Zhao Xuwan shook her head.
"They have good meanings," Yiren said.
"Do you think they’ll cry and ask to change their name once they start school?" Zhao Xuwan suddenly wondered aloud.
"Probably not like you," Yiren teased.
Zhao Xuwan was worried about what to do if the child didn't like its name in the future, so they had spent the entire afternoon choosing names, none of which were used.
"Let's think about it some more, there's no rush yet," Zhao Xuwan said.
Yiren knew she was anxious and worried, so he didn't argue with her. Silently, he put away the paper and picked up the bamboo slips. "Where did we leave off last time?"
After the baby moved in her belly, both of them were thrilled.
"It should be able to understand speech now, right?" Yiren said. After all, it could already move, and it seemed to be growing well.
"From now on, we should read to it more often." Yiren thought Zhao Xuwan was nervous, but in truth, he was just as anxious, worried that the child might be dull when born, so he planned to help it early on.
Zhao Xuwan felt it was a bit like modern early education—no, prenatal education. Even though listening to Yiren read dryly made her sleepy, she persisted in having him read every day.
Author's Note:
There will be another update tonight.