Chapter 85 – A Difficult Delivery Of The Marquise
“Lady Marquise didn’t have difficulty in giving birth to you at first, Sixth Young Lady. Lord Marquis was not at home at the time. The Madam Dowager didn’t come when she heard Madam was going to give birth to you. She only asked Nanny Hong to come to take a look. Concubine Dong was standing guard outside on the surface, but she got extremely panicked. When Second Lady came, she even bumped into her. Second Lady scolded her and Concubine Dong cried and apologized. It was totally a mess outside. It was because Lady Marquise was affected by the commotion outside that… that she had a difficult delivery.”
Nanny Han burst out crying, tears streaming down her face. She still remembered the chaotic scene at the time and this memory was still vividly presented before her eyes. The Madam Dowager had always neglected Lady Marquise, so she paid little attention to the fact that Lady Marquise’s was having a delivery.
Concubine Dong and Second Lady deliberately caused trouble, crying loudly and making noises outside to disturb Lady Marquise’s mind. Lady Marquise had almost died with the baby because of that. Fortunately, Lord Marquis came back in time. Otherwise, Lady Marquise would not have been able to give birth to the Sixth Young Lady safely.
However, even so, Lady Marquise’s health was affected. She was feeble all along afterwards and had to be confined to bed for the most part of the year. At last, she passed away, leaving the miss behind who was still a child.
As Nanny Han saw it, if it were not for the Second Lady Li and Concubine Dong, such a tragedy wouldn’t have happened. Lord Marquis was furious after that and wanted to flog Nanny Han to death. However, the kind Lady Marquise saved her life.
The Madam Dowager also gave a helping hand, saying that the process of giving birth to a baby was a life-and-death struggle for women and no one was to blame. Nanny Han was thus assigned to the Madam Dowager’s courtyard as a menial servant.
After that, she did the job for more than ten years.
The Madam Dowager had given this order and also made it clear that although the Second Lady and Concubine Dong had caused much commotion, there was no evidence that they had done that on purpose. Concubine Dong in particular, had continuously begged the Second Lady to spare her and said that she would willingly receive any beating and scolding from the Second Lady after the Madam inside the room gave birth to her child.
“Miss, Concubine Dong obviously had an ill intent. She was afraid that Madam would give birth to an heir and so she would lose her status. That was why she conspired with the Second Lady. They had always gotten along very well. How could they get into a fight at that time?” When Nanny Han finished telling the whole story, she was seized with stronger fits of crying.
Wei Yuewu quietly listened to Nanny Han. When Nanny Han finished, she raised her eyes and said coldly, “Is Concubine Dong the one who followed father to the border?”
“Yes, she’s the Third Young Lady’s mother. She and the Third Young Lady are at the border with Lord Marquis right now.” Nanny Han nodded and looked at Wei Yuewu with sorrow. “Miss, you are the first daughter of the Mansion and Madam was the real Lady Marquise. But Concubine Dong and her daughter reaped the benefits in the end. For so many years, people thought that the Third Young Lady was Lord Marquis’ daughter, they were totally ignorant of you, the Sixth Young Lady.”
“Lord Marquis was actually so stone-hearted. Back then…well, what did he say to Madam? He said that he would love you the most whether you were a boy or a girl.” As long as she thought of the fairy-like Lady Marquise, Nanny Han was choked with crying.
How could Lord Marquis be so heartless? He had treated Madam so well, but after Madam was gone, he actually cast Miss away to Madam’s original family, and he had practically ignored Miss for so many years. The Second Lady would hypocritically send servants to visit Miss every year with some gifts.
However, every visit brought back rumors that Miss had neither good appearance nor talent. Nanny Han did not believe that such a beauty as Lady Marquise would have an ugly child. Even though Lord Marquis looked fierce, this was a result from his character. How could the daughter of this handsome couple possibly look even inferior to a maid servant?
Moreover, when the Sixth Young Lady was little, she was as lovely as like a pinkish little ball.
The Second Lady must have deliberately made up the rumors and smeared the Sixth Young Lady’s reputation in order to dismiss the Madam Dowager and Lord Marquis’s thoughts of bringing the Sixth Young Lady back.
“Nanny Han, how come Third Elder Sister is older than me?” Wei Yuewu raised her eyes. A trace of coldness flashed in her dark eyes as she calmly asked.
Logically speaking, there were rules in big families like the mansion of Marquis Hua Yang, according to which concubines couldn’t have babies ahead of the wife. However, Wei Yuejiao, her third elder sister born to Concubine Dong, was older than her.
“I… am not very clear about this. I served Madam after she married into the mansion. I heard later that the Madam Dowager disliked Lady Marquise because the Madam Dowager had already decided upon another lady to be her daughter-in-law, but Lord Marquis insisted on marrying Madam. That noble lady was the original choice and it was almost about the time for the wedding ceremony… It was quite a long time before Lady Marquise was pregnant, so the Madam Dowager insisted on letting Concubine Dong have a child first…”
Nanny Han said as she recalled.
She also felt that things were strange at the time. They all said that Lord Marquis was very good to Madam, but Madam always ignored him. She always turned a cold face to him whenever she saw him coming. When she was going to deliver the baby, she was even relieved to hear that Lord Marquis was not at home. Madam went into labour right at that night. And what she had seen in secret that day…
Nanny Han shook her head and refrained from thinking further. She must have thought wrong. Madam was so gentle. It was impossible for her to do that! That bowl of medicine, that bowl of medicine must have nothing wrong. It must be some ordinary medicine for the health of the baby. There must be someone trying to harm Madam! ~
Wei Yuewu silently walked on after coming out from Nanny Han’s. She thought over Nanny Han’s words again and again in her mind.
This concubine who followed Marquis Hua Yang to the border was once father’s chamber maid. She was father’s chamber maid before mother entered the mansion. It was originally settled by the Madam Dowager that father was going to marry another noble lady. However, father met mother at that time and insisted on marrying mother.
After that, the chamber maid rose to the status of a concubine. The Madam Dowager also compromised. And then, mother was married to the mansion of Marquis Hua Yang but wasn’t pregnant for a few years. Under pressure of the Madam Dowager, Concubine Dong got pregnant first and gave birth to Wei Yuejiao. After more than a year, mother became pregnant and gave birth to her with difficulty. After four years of being confined to bed, mother passed away.
Then she was sent away and Marquis Hua Yang took Concubine Dong and her daughter with him when he was ordered to guard the border…
After such a series of events, Concubine Dong was the one who had benefited the most.
Shufei was following Wei Yuewu. She bit her lips and couldn’t help saying, “Miss, this Concubine Dong seemed to have reaped only benefits but no losses.”
“Concubine Dong? Humph!” Wei Yuewu lowered her eyes and laughed coldly. If Concubine Dong was involved in mother’s death, she would not spare her.
Moreover, Concubine Dong was very suspicious. From every perspective, Concubine Dong had benefited the most from these things. It seemed that this Concubine Dong, once a chamber maid, was not a simple character. Well, her irresponsible father would come back to the capital with his beautiful concubine and daughter in half a month.
She would like to see what kind of person this Concubine Dong was.
As for her irresponsible father, Wei Yuewu directly ignored him. He was her biological father, but so what? He abandoned and ignored her for so many years, during which time he only cared about his beautiful concubine and treated his wife’s daughter like nothing. Then why should she take him as her father?
As for the Second Lady, Wei Yuewu believed that she wasn’t clean either. If mother didn’t have a son, Lady Li’s son, the eldest young master of the mansion of Marquis Hua Yang, would be most likely to succeed the title.
A trace of bloodthirsty coldness surged from the depths of her delicate eyes. She would fight a good fight with Lady Li. Didn’t Lady Li always find her unpleasing to the eye and wish to eat her up? It seemed that this grudge between them was not started from the assassination on her way to the capital, but it had already taken root since thirteen years ago.
In this case, she must avenge mother as well, apart from herself and Qinruo.
“Miss, there’s someone up ahead,” said Shufei as she suddenly grabbed Wei Yuewu’s hand. They had walked into the forest of plum trees by this time. They were surrounded by the trees before they realized it. There wasn’t a single person around, but the sobbing of a girl came faintly from afar.
However, because the plum blossoms were too many and the twigs thickly gathered together, it was impossible to see exactly where the sound came from.
Wei Yuewu stopped and listened. She turned to her right and pushed away a cluster of twigs. To her surprise, she saw a pavilion among the trees.
Flowers fluttered around an octagonal pavilion. Plum blossoms fell like snow in the wind. Yet the most eye-catching was a person who was more brilliant and beautiful than the blossoms.
A snow-white fox fur cloak draping over the shoulders, a jade crown on the head, a handsome face was unparalleled in the world, making him outshine the blossoms completely. The handsomeness between his eyebrows was beyond imagination. His gentle eyes were as noble and elegant as to take people’s breath away. He was only standing there with his back to a plum tree, but he seemed to attract all the energy of nature.
As flowers fell one after another on the snow-white fur cloak on his shoulders, one would think that those bright flowers stained him. A person like him could only be compared to the pure light of the moon.
It was Yan Huaijing. Amazement was succeeded by sighs on Wei Yuewu’s part. Although she didn’t want any involvement with this difficult heir-apparent of the Duke of Yan State, she had repeatedly bumped into him. If she left now, she would definitely attract his attention. His men weren’t around him, but Wei Yuewu didn’t believe that he came alone.
On the path in front of him stood a girl wearing a snow-colored cloak. As the girl stood with her back to Wei Yuewu, Wei Yuewu could not see her face. She could hear her sobbing softly with a hint of helplessness. Any man would be soft-hearted when hearing such a voice, wouldn’t they?
From Wei Yuewu’s point of view, she could not hear clearly what the girl was saying, but she could see that Yan Huaijing had a gentle expression while standing there with his hands behind his back and that he wasn’t displeased at all.
The two of them were standing close. A maid was not far away drooping her head. Wei Yuewu’s eyebrows twitched when she saw that maid. A trace of surprise flashed through her bright eyes. Wasn’t that maid the one with the young lady who had followed the prison carriage out of the gate?
Her eyes moved from the maid to the young lady. That young lady must be the one she had seen. She recalled that the fat man in gorgeous clothes had mentioned some brat from the Yan Clan. Could it be Yan Huaijing? Had he been looking for this young lady in front of him?
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