The distant mountains were veiled in a light mist, while the pear blossoms in the estate blanketed the branches in white.
Inside the room, she lay on the bed, her lower abdomen cramping in waves. Bright red blood gushed out, soaking the sheets and staining the pearly-white silk quilt a deep crimson.
Sweat covered her forehead from the pain, and her face was as pale as paper.
The physician’s voice trembled with unease. “Old Madam, the child in Madam’s womb… cannot be saved.”
This was followed by the Old Madam’s quiet sobs and words of comfort.
“Mu Li, don’t grieve too much. Take good care of your health. You’ll have another child someday.”
Liu Muli’s heart ached until it went numb. Her face grew even paler, and tears continuously slipped from the corners of her eyes. Soon, she could no longer suppress her sobs.
Her child was gone.
Day and night, she clutched the tiny clothes she had sewn for her baby and wept uncontrollably.
Everything had been fine before. How could the baby suddenly be gone?
It was only later that Liu Muli discovered that someone had plotted against her and secretly put an abortifacient in her food.
When Wei Linyе returned from his official duties, she wanted to tell him what had happened. But as she stood outside his study, she heard him say to someone inside, “It’s better that she miscarried. This child couldn’t be kept anyway.”
His voice was so cold that she could not hear even the slightest trace of sorrow.
And the other person in the study was the very woman who had caused her miscarriage—the An’yang Commandery Princess, who was in love with him.
…
“Wei Linye, in this life, I never want to see you again.”
Liu Muli suddenly jolted awake from her dream, clutching the thin blanket around her. Her breathing was slightly labored, and tear stains still lingered at the corners of her eyes.
She had dreamed of that nightmare again.
Her heart still felt as though it had been stabbed violently by a sharp blade, leaving her breathless from the pain.
Since discovering that she had been reborn on the night of the Ghost Festival, she had already dreamed of this scene three times.
There had been a blood-red moon in the sky on the night she was reborn. People said that when the moon turned red, disaster was sure to follow.
Yet she had been immensely grateful, laughing until tears gathered in the corners of her eyes.
Liu Muli raised her eyes and glanced out the window.
The night was pitch-black, thick clouds covering the sky and hiding the moon completely.
In her previous life, after hearing Wei Linye coldly utter those words, she no longer wanted to remain married to him. Once her health had improved, she left him a letter of separation and departed the capital.
She and her maid, Huaying, returned toward Yongning County. But on the way, they encountered a heavy snowstorm. She caught a severe chill and fell gravely ill.
Before she could make it back to Yongning County, she had already breathed her last and died in a foreign land.
Perhaps Heaven had taken pity on how miserable her previous life had ended and granted her a second chance.
She had been reborn to a time before she followed Wei Linye to the capital, before she had even married him.
In this life, she would never have anything to do with him again.
All she wanted was to stay far away from him and live a peaceful life.
As for the An’yang Commandery Princess who had caused her to lose her child, Liu Muli had been powerless against her in her previous life. Now that the princess was still an abandoned daughter whom neither her father nor mother cared for, she had even less ability to take revenge.
That was her own helplessness.
She had failed to protect the child in her womb.
It was her fault.
She had failed her child.
On the night she was reborn, she had not slept at all. She had spent the entire night praying that her poor, ill-fated child would be reborn into a good family and live a happy life.
It was already the end of the month.
Wei Linye, who had been studying in the prefectural city, should be coming home soon.
After returning this time, he would stop studying in the prefectural city. Instead, he would pack his belongings and head to the capital to prepare for the imperial examination.
But in this life, she would not accompany him to the capital.
Having been given a second chance, she no longer wanted to be with Wei Linye.
Once he became the top scholar and secured a high-ranking official position in the capital, she would tell her mother-in-law that she wanted to leave.
Her mother-in-law, Madam Huang—Huang Xi’an—was a truly kind woman.
Liu Muli had been born into poverty. Neither her parents nor her grandparents had ever cared much for her. They only favored her two younger brothers.
As soon as she reached fifteen, her parents had eagerly planned to sell her to the county magistrate, Old Zhang, as a concubine, all for the sake of one silver tael.
Old Zhang was ancient and ugly, with a fat head and large ears. His mouth was full of yellow teeth, making her sick just looking at him.
She would rather jump into the river and die than become that disgusting old man’s concubine.
She had been about to throw herself into the river when Madam Huang stepped in and saved her.
She even brought Liu Muli home and asked whether she would be willing to marry Wei Linmu.
She had smiled and said that Liu Muli had the character “Mu” in her name, while Wei Linmu also had “Mu” in his name. They were clearly destined for each other.
Wei Linmu was Madam Huang’s eldest son.
He was handsome, tall, and strongly built. He often went into the mountains to hunt and supplement the family’s income. He was capable and hardworking.
Not only did he ensure that the Wei family often had meat to eat, but he could also afford to support his younger brother, Wei Linye, in his studies.
Back then, Liu Muli thought Wei Linmu was a good man, so she agreed to become engaged to him.
Wei Linmu paid five taels of silver to bring her into the Wei family.
From then on, she severed ties with the Liu family and became a member of the Wei family.
The Wei family had no complicated relatives.
Wei Linmu’s father had died of illness years earlier, leaving Madam Huang and her two sons to depend on each other. Their eldest uncle was a live-in son-in-law in another family and did not live with them.
Liu Muli thought her life was finally getting better.
But Heaven had other plans.
When the conscription order came down, the Wei family had to send one able-bodied man to serve in the army.
Wei Linmu naturally refused to let his younger brother, who was still studying, go to war.
So he went himself.
Liu Muli still remembered what he had told her before leaving.
“You’re still young. If I return safely, I’ll marry you immediately. If I don’t make it back, Mother will give you a divorce-and-release document and find you a good husband.”
Wei Linmu never returned to marry her.
He died on the battlefield in his second year of military service.
The military officer who brought the news said that Wei Linmu had fought bravely on the battlefield and had even risen to the position of a small officer—a squad leader.
He had died while saving a deputy general.
Grateful for having been saved, the deputy general sent his men to personally deliver silver to the Wei family.
The official compensation was eight taels of silver, plus three taels for funeral expenses, making eleven taels in total.
The deputy general himself gave another fifty taels as compensation.
Altogether, the Wei family received sixty-one taels of silver.
For a farming household, that was an enormous sum.
But it was money Wei Linmu had paid for with his life.
Madam Huang and Wei Linye were both unwilling to spend the money.
With the family’s main breadwinner gone, Wei Linye had no choice but to shoulder the responsibility of supporting the household.
Of course, even while Wei Linmu had still been alive, Wei Linye had also earned money himself. He had never been someone who simply spent the family’s money on studying.
It was now the seventh month of the eighth year of the Jinghe era.
Liu Muli had technically been observing widowhood for three full years.
But in truth, she and Wei Linmu had never officially married. They had only been engaged, so she could not even truly be considered his wife.
She did not actually need to observe widowhood for him.
During the first two years, Madam Huang had earnestly tried to find her a good husband.
But Liu Muli remembered how kind Wei Linmu and Madam Huang had been to her. She rejected every proposal and remained with the Wei family.
Later, she became entangled with Wei Linye.
Back then, her heart and eyes had been filled with nothing but Wei Linye.
She had been like the lovestruck young women in the romance stories, with her entire heart occupied by love and affection.
She accompanied Wei Linye to the capital for the imperial examination, stayed there with him, married him, and finally became pregnant after much difficulty.
Yet someone had caused her to lose her child.
Whenever she thought of the baby she had lost, Liu Muli’s heart still clenched painfully, again and again.
As she sank into her thoughts, dawn gradually broke.
She rose from bed, simply arranging her hair into a married woman’s bun before washing up and heading to the kitchen to prepare breakfast.
The household had run out of polished rice. There was only coarse rice left.
She cooked a pot of porridge and cracked two eggs into it.
It was egg-and-brown-rice porridge.
The first meal she had eaten after being reborn had also been coarse rice.
Strangely, she found herself a little unaccustomed to it.
She had spent more than two years living a comfortable life in the capital in her previous life, and those good days had made her forget what hardship used to feel like.
But now she had grown accustomed to it again.
She no longer yearned for the good life she had once enjoyed.
Halfway through breakfast, Wei Linye returned.