This child looked at least sixty percent like her. The round little face, though thin, clearly carried her own likeness, and the shape of those almond eyes seemed cast from the very same mold as hers.
There were also traces of her husband in her features, especially that little chin, which looked remarkably like his.
Was this truly her child?!
Unable to hold back, Song Shuqing pulled Feng Tianxing into her arms, kissing her face over and over again.
“Child, will you be my daughter?” Song Shuqing was already convinced that this was undoubtedly her child.
She needed no proof; just looking at that face was enough.
Though she did not know what was happening, there had to be some bond between them for her to hear the child’s inner voice.
Furthermore, there had to be something extraordinary about this child that she was not yet aware of.
Feng Tianxing nodded vigorously.
Her eyes gleamed brightly as she looked at Song Shuqing.
I was Mother’s child all along. Blood truly is thicker than water; my adoptive mother only ever knew how to beat me.
Feng Tianxing planted a resounding smack of a kiss on Song Shuqing’s cheek, then broke into a wide grin.
Hearing Feng Tianxing say her adoptive mother had beaten her, Song Shuqing nearly burst into tears.
Carrying Feng Tianxing, she stepped out of the washroom.
“Madam! Madam, something terrible has happened! The Marquis has met with an accident!” Chen Shiming, the steward, rushed directly into the inner courtyard, disregarding all propriety.
“What? What happened?” Song Shuqing’s grip on Feng Tianxing suddenly tightened, and she nearly lost her footing.
“The Marquis’s page-boy returned to report that the Marquis was wounded while on a mission, and it is very severe!” Chen Shiming said urgently, his eyes bloodshot.
“What?!” Stunned, Song Shuqing began to collapse toward the ground. Her two senior maidservants immediately supported her.
“Where is the Marquis now?” Song Shuqing steadied her mind and asked.
“He is on his way back right now,” Chen Shiming reported swiftly.
“Bring the page-boy in. I want to question him myself,” Song Shuqing commanded.
The page-boy was already waiting at the second gate.
“Madam, some time ago, an important tribute item was stolen from the palace. It was traced to a notorious bandit, and the Marquis was ordered to capture him. Who could have foreseen that this bandit possesses formidable martial arts and wounded the Marquis?” The page-boy wept as he made his report.
Upon hearing this, Song Shuqing swayed twice more.
In Song Shuqing’s arms, Feng Tianxing was also listening attentively.
She searched her memories of the twenty years her soul had drifted above the Kingdom of Chiyan. It had been quite some time, so her recollections were somewhat hazy. Only when the matter was placed right before her and she was prompted did she recall that such an event had indeed occurred.
“The Marquis is back! The Marquis is back!” voices called from outside.
Several soldiers carried a stretcher, upon which lay a person drenched in blood.
It was none other than the Marquis of Wu’an, Feng Zuwen.
His face was pale and his sword-like brows were tightly knitted, though he was still conscious. His clothes were slashed in several places and stained crimson with blood. Most fatal of all, a dagger was plunged deeply into his chest.
Following behind were an imperial physician and Feng Zuwu, Feng Zuwen’s younger half-brother born of his stepmother.
“Sister-in-law. The moment I heard Eldest Brother was injured, I immediately brought Imperial Physician Hong,” Feng Zuwu stepped forward and said upon seeing Song Shuqing.
As soon as he heard the news at the government office, he had promptly summoned Imperial Physician Hong, whom the Duke of Zheng’s manor frequently consulted.
“Quick, carry him into the bedchamber!” At such a time, there was no need for etiquette. She had the soldiers carefully carry him into the bedchamber the couple normally shared and help move him onto the bed.
Song Shuqing handed Feng Tianxing to Cuixiang and walked to the bedside.
“Husband, Husband, how are you? Don’t frighten me!” Tears rolled down Song Shuqing’s face uncontrollably.
“Madam, fear… not,” Feng Zuwen struggled to squeeze out the four words.
“Imperial Physician, quick, treat my eldest brother!” Feng Zuwu urged anxiously.
Imperial Physician Hong stepped forward to cleanse and apply medicine to all the wounds over Feng Zuwen’s body, leaving only the dagger embedded in his chest.
Then, he took his pulse.
By this time, Feng Zuwen had long lost the strength to endure and had slipped into unconsciousness.
“Second Uncle, what happened to my father?” Feng Yuanhao asked with a trembling voice.
The two brothers, Feng Yuanhao and Feng Yuanhan, had also arrived upon receiving the news.
“Yuanhao, your father was wounded by a bandit,” Feng Zuwu said, looking at the two brothers with a mournful expression.
“Imperial Physician, how is he?” Song Shuqing asked desperately once Imperial Physician Hong finished taking the pulse.
“Madam, this old official is powerless. I dare not draw the dagger from the Marquis’s chest, as it is right at the heart. If it is forcibly pulled out, the bleeding will not stop, and the consequences…” Imperial Physician Hong’s implication was clear: once it was drawn, death would follow swiftly.
Yet, leaving it in was not an option either.
In other words, either way meant death.
Pull it out, and death would come faster; leave it in, and he might hold on for a few more days.
Imperial Physician Hong was leaving the choice to the family.
Feng Tianxing stood in the corner, taking in the entire scene.
In my past life, Father didn’t die from this injury. Why is it so severe now that I’ve returned? Could it be that my reincarnation altered fate? Feng Tianxing found it difficult to understand.
She could clearly see a number that had appeared on Feng Zuwen’s forehead: Five.
That meant Feng Zuwen had only five days left to live.
She possessed a special ability—she could see a number between the brows of anyone destined to die within half a month. Whatever the number was indicated how many days of life they had left.
Hearing the imperial physician’s words, combined with Feng Tianxing’s inner voice reaching Song Shuqing’s ears, proved too much.
Unable to bear it any longer, she swayed twice and fainted.
“Mother!” the two brothers cried out in unison.
Just a moment ago, they too had heard an ethereal, childlike voice. Before they could even ponder where it had come from, they saw their mother collapse.
Imperial Physician Hong had no choice but to begin another round of treatment.
When Song Shuqing slowly came around, she broke into heartbroken wails.
“Husband! Wu… Husband!” She lay across the edge of Feng Zuwen’s bed, weeping as if her heart were being torn to pieces.
The two brothers wept in muffled anguish as well.
What could be done?
Feng Yuanhao pounded his own legs fiercely, while Feng Yuanhan could not suppress the itch in his throat and coughed violently.
“A-Qing, what happened here?” Having just returned from offering incense at the temple with her second daughter-in-law and daughter, Ruan Ruoying rushed into the room in a panic the moment she heard the servants’ reports upon entering the manor.
She was Feng Zuwen’s stepmother and Feng Zuwu’s birth mother, merely forty-one years old this year.
“Mother, Eldest Brother is gravely injured. Imperial Physician Hong says he is powerless and dares not draw the blade,” Feng Zuwu replied with a tremor of tears in his voice.
Song Shuqing was already weeping beyond all control.
“What?!” Ruan Ruoying was taken aback as well.
“Steward, go and fetch Doctor Zhang from Kangyuan Hall to take a look!” Feng Yuanhao choked back his tears and shouted.
Doctor Zhang was a well-known trauma surgeon among the common folk.
“This servant will go at once!” Chen Shiming hurried out at a jog.
By the time the fifty-something Doctor Zhang was dragged and hauled into the room, half an hour had already passed.
Doctor Zhang stepped forward to feel the pulse and examine the wound; his conclusion was largely the same.
“Old Madam, Marchioness, if the bleeding can be stopped, there is still a glimmer of hope. It all depends on the Marquis’s fate,” Doctor Zhang delivered his conclusion heavily.
“Doctor Zhang, what are the chances of his survival?” Song Shuqing forced the words out with immense difficulty.
“Ten percent.”
“What? Only ten percent?” Unable to bear it, Song Shuqing nearly fainted once more.