Rong Shu’s face turned red from her ears to her cheeks, so choked by her mother-in-law’s blunt words that she didn’t even dare to breathe.
Seeing this, Madam Xie frowned impatiently: “You’re all women now, and you’ll be having children soon. What’s there to be embarrassed about?”
Fearing that her mother-in-law would scold her if she didn’t speak, Rong Shu could only stammer, “Three…three times.”
Xie’s brow relaxed, and her tone softened.
“That’s good. Has the incense been lit?”
When Rong Shu first spoke about such matters of the bedroom with her strict mother-in-law, she lowered her head to the ground and spoke in a voice as soft as a mosquito’s buzz.
“I ordered…”
The incense that Xie mentioned was given to Rong Shu a few days ago.
More than a year after their marriage, she still hadn’t conceived, but Xie didn’t blame her for it.
Because Song Wenjing has been studying at Guyue Academy recently, he only comes back once every ten days or half a month, so the two of them rarely see each other.
Yesterday was the day Song Wenjing returned home. Before that, Xie gave her a piece of incense.
Xie had told her about the effects of the incense, saying that Song Wenjing looked calm and composed, but in reality, he might not be so clever.
Madam Xie wanted her to get pregnant before Song Wenjing went to the capital.
There was a similar incident in her past life, but she was too shy to actually use the incense, so she left it aside after returning home.
On that night in their past life, they each covered themselves with their own blankets and slept peacefully until dawn.
The next morning, when she came to pay her respects, her mother-in-law gave her a cold shoulder.
This time, she wanted to change her fate from her previous life, so she lit incense last night.
At first, the two of them still used their own blankets, just like in their previous life.
She lay there for an unknown amount of time, and she felt hot all over, but the person next to her remained motionless.
Having already lived a lifetime, she was bolder than before, and recklessly slipped her small hand under Song Wenjing’s blanket…
As a result, if she put the child aside, she felt that she had been courting death last night!
She felt a pang of sympathy; her back and knees were aching from walking all the way from Songtao Garden.
Madam Xie was quite satisfied with this. “That’s good. Not to mention that Yanqing is clueless, so are you. If I hadn’t asked you to light incense, I’m afraid that even after Yanqing went to the capital next year, your belly would still be empty.”
Yanqing was the courtesy name of Song Wenjing.
Rong Shu’s face grew hotter as she listened, and she could only lower her head and agree.
She listened with a blush on her face, silently counting down the days until the person arrived.
Fortunately, not long after, a commotion came from outside the door.
Madam Xie stopped talking with a displeased expression and asked outside, “Who’s making those noises?”
Rong Shu was thinking about what the old woman was going to report next.
The same thing happened in her previous life, but back then Xie was scolding her for being useless, and she was interrupted halfway through her sentence.
Thinking about the major events that were about to happen and the consequences they would bring, Rong Shu felt a chill run down her spine.
The old woman came in and reported, “It’s about Fifth Master’s side. Aunt Huo was pushed during an argument with Fifth Madam and miscarried.”
Upon hearing this, Madam Xie turned pale with anger. “These scoundrels! Their petty squabbles are one thing, but to cause such a huge commotion!”
Rong Shushi offered a teacup and advised, “Mother, please calm down.”
Madam Xie glanced at Rong Shu and noticed that her usually timid and dull daughter-in-law was actually comforting her today.
After all, this was the true blood relative. Even if he was useless, he was still better than those troublemakers who were always causing trouble. Xie’s anger subsided by half.
“Bring those bastards here!”
Hearing Xie’s reaction, which was exactly the same as in her previous life, Rong Shu quickly found a reason to dissuade her.
“Mother, Aunt Huo just had a miscarriage, and things are probably in chaos there. Why don’t you send a nanny over there to help my sister-in-law sort things out first, and then send someone back to report?”
Xie’s temper wasn’t very good; she usually didn’t have much patience.
Hearing her daughter-in-law say this, she realized it made sense. If they were to call the people over now, it would probably just be a noisy mess that wouldn’t stop.
She waved for Granny Zeng to come over.
“Go and see what’s going on, ask carefully and then come back to me. Also, ask Dr. Guo to take a look.”
Granny Zeng accepted the order and left.
Madam Xie took a few deep breaths and glanced sideways at her honest and dutiful daughter-in-law, who was helping her split silk threads.
She gradually realized that although Rong Shu seemed unambitious, he was actually quite steady.
At least he acted very composedly in what just happened.
The more Xie looked at Rong Shu, the more pleasing she found him to the eye.
Rong Shu breathed a sigh of relief.
In her previous life, her mother-in-law had someone bring the people from the fifth branch of the family over. Apart from Aunt Huo, who was unable to move due to a miscarriage, Fifth Master, Madam Shen, Shen Ying, and a group of servants all came to the main courtyard.
Fifth Master was a reckless scoundrel, and he immediately started shouting that he wanted to divorce his wife.
Shen Ying kept insisting that she had been wronged.
The two sides were arguing fiercely here.
It even escalated to the point where they were pushing and shoving each other, almost coming to blows.
Rong Shu could only step forward to dissuade her, but in the chaos, she was pushed by someone and hit her head, breaking it open.
Enraged, Xie immediately forced the two men to kneel in the ancestral hall.
As a result, Shen Ying miscarried that very night.
Two children from the five families were lost in one day, and the matter reached the ears of Master Song.
Master Song was furious and had a fight with Madam Xie.
She was injured for no reason, and apart from Xie arranging for a doctor to treat her injuries properly, she did not receive a single apology from anyone.
Shen Ying even blamed her for losing the child.
She said that if she hadn’t interfered, she wouldn’t have been forced to kneel in the ancestral hall by the Xie family, and she wouldn’t have miscarried.
Rong Shu sighed inwardly, realizing how utterly pathetic she had been back then.
Because no one expressed any apology, and everyone was busy with their own things, she didn’t dare to ask too much of others, fearing that causing trouble would make her mother-in-law even more unhappy.
At that time, Song Wenjing went to the academy. When he returned half a month later, the injury on her head had healed.
She didn’t bring it up herself, and Song Wenjing didn’t ask either.
Looking back now, her husband knew nothing about these things until her death.
Even if they knew, they probably wouldn’t care.
Thinking of this, she felt a lump in her throat.
Fortunately, Xie didn’t notice and instead had a meal prepared.
Today, only the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law ate lunch together. Xie Shi did not let her serve them, but told her to sit down and eat with them.
Rong Shu hadn’t gotten used to her mother-in-law’s “care” when a maid brought over a steaming bowl of soup and placed it in front of her.
Madam Xie said, “It’s been simmering all morning. We’ll drink the soup after we eat.”
Rong Shu nodded obediently. She smelled the soup had the aroma of angelica root, and looking at the dishes on the table, she understood that her mother-in-law had specially invited her over for a meal to nourish her body so that she could get pregnant soon.
The soup was fresh from the stove and still piping hot, so Rong Shu picked up her chopsticks and went to eat something else.
However, the meal was ultimately interrupted by a commotion outside.
Rong Shu vaguely heard a rough male voice shouting “divorce his wife,” and thought it must be that Fifth Master causing trouble.
Ms. Xie slammed down her chopsticks.
“Go, bring those good-for-nothings here!”
Her mother-in-law was truly furious. When Rong Shu thought of how she had been unjustly slandered in her past life, she couldn’t help but shrink back.