As Wei Qingping finished handling matters and walked out, Gu Chusheng had already calmed down. He took the child from Chu Yu’s arms; the baby had fallen asleep under Chu Yu’s soothing. He quietly looked at the child and said, “You certainly have a way with children.”
Chu Yu smiled without answering. However, Gu Chusheng suddenly remembered that, regardless of everything else, Chu Yu had once been a mother.
She had once been the mother of his child.
He held the baby, lowering his eyes. Chu Yu knew what he was thinking and said with a smile, “Give the child a name. Whether or not you have children in the future, this will be your first child.”
Gu Chusheng quietly looked at the sleeping child in his arms. He held him awkwardly for a long while before raising his head to look at Chu Yu and slowly asking, “May I call him Yan Qing?”
Chu Yu was slightly taken aback.
This was the name of their child from their previous life.
That child had never even had the chance to call her mother.
When she left him, the child was just learning to speak. When she saw him again, they were like strangers.
Chu Yu stared blankly at Gu Chusheng. He lowered his eyes to look at the baby and said in a calm voice, “In my two lifetimes, I’ve wronged you and Yan Qing the most. As a husband, I didn’t treat you well. As a father, I neglected Yan Qing too much. In this lifetime, I’ll make it up to you, but Yan Qing will never appear again.”
Gu Chusheng raised his eyes to look at Chu Yu and solemnly promised, “I will raise this child well. I will teach him myself. I will accompany him as he grows up. I failed as a father before, but in this lifetime, I will be a good father.”
“What I owe Yan Qing…” His voice paused, but in the end, he still said, “I want to repay it.”
“Chusheng, not everything from the past can be made up for,” Chu Yu heard his words, and her voice softened. “Moving forward is enough. You should treat this child well because that’s what he deserves, not as compensation for Yan Qing.”
Gu Chusheng didn’t speak, but his hands tightened. He felt that Chu Yu’s words had a hidden meaning and that she didn’t want him to place his feelings on her. However, he didn’t respond or argue. He fell silent, turned back to hold the child tightly, and only said, “Now that you’ve sent grain and herbs, don’t stay in Qingzhou for too long. You should return quickly.”
Gu Chusheng guessed, “Zhao Yue is a treacherous person. I’m afraid he might scheme against you.”
“Don’t worry,” Chu Yu waved her hand. “Almost no one knows about my coming here. I just came to check on you and Qingping. Now that I see you’re both fine, there’s nothing else.”
Gu Chusheng nodded, and Wei Qingping said from the side, “We’ll be fine. If you have no other business, you should head back soon.”
Chu Yu agreed. Wei Qingping glanced at Gu Chusheng and said, “First, find a wet nurse for him. Even if there’s no wet nurse, get a cow or a sheep. We need to keep the child alive first.”
Reminded by Wei Qingping, Gu Chusheng finally reacted. He quickly ordered someone to deal with Chen Jiu’er’s body and to find a wet nurse for the child. Meanwhile, Chu Yu returned to the room with Wei Qingping.
Wei Qingping briefly explained the current situation to Chu Yu, saying calmly, “The disaster has been mostly controlled now. What I’m most worried about is the subsequent epidemic. The areas we’ve passed through don’t have much of an epidemic, but usually after a major disaster, there are some cases of epidemic infections. As long as there’s no news reported for a day, I feel uneasy.”
Chu Yu nodded. She recalled the situation from her previous life; indeed, after the earthquake, there had been a series of epidemics. So she said, “I’ll have people carefully inquire about the news from various places. Don’t worry.”
Wei Qingping agreed and entered the room with her. After thinking for a moment, she said, “You seem quite impressive now. Your affairs are talked about everywhere; my ears are almost calloused from hearing about them.”
“Isn’t that good?” Chu Yu smiled as she began to take off her outer coat, casually saying, “Then I don’t need to repeat everything to you.”
Wei Qingping watched her undress and, after a moment of silence, finally asked, “Have you seen Shiyue?”
Chu Yu turned her head with a smile, quite proudly saying, “I knew you would ask about this.”
Wei Qingping’s face remained calm. “He is my lover. Who else should I ask about, Wei Yun?”
“Yes, yes, yes,” Chu Yu pulled out some letters from her clothes. These letters were ones she had previously asked people to get from Qin Shiyue, thinking that when she met Wei Qingping, she would pass them on. She tossed the letters to Wei Qingping and turned to walk into the room. “Letters from your lover. I had people get them from him. You should be grateful to me.”
Wei Qingping raised her hand to catch the letters and hurriedly opened them. Seeing the contents, she smiled with pursed lips.
Chu Yu glanced at her and pouted, standing by the bed and asking, “Are you going back to your room tonight, or sleeping with me?”
“Are you leaving tomorrow?”
Wei Qingping looked up at her briefly, her gaze returning to the letters. Chu Yu leaned against the bed and said, “I’ve delivered the supplies. What else is there for me to do here?”
Hearing this, Wei Qingping put the letters into her bosom and walked over to her, saying happily, “Then I’ll sleep with you. We can talk for a while.”
Chu Yu crossed her arms and smiled without speaking. Wei Qingping scanned her up and down and suddenly said, “You’ve been fighting for so long, how come you’ve gained some weight?”
“Huh?” Chu Yu was stunned. “I’ve gained weight?”
“You haven’t noticed?”
Wei Qingping’s gaze fell on her lower abdomen, which had swollen slightly. If one paid attention, it was indeed noticeable that she had gained some weight.
However, her face was extremely thin, and her entire body had only gained weight in the lower abdomen. Wei Qingping carefully examined her for a moment, then suddenly said, “Come, turn around.”
Chu Yu was a bit confused, but due to her absolute trust in Wei Qingping’s medical skills, she turned around. Wei Qingping frowned, pulled her to sit down, and placed her hand on Chu Yu’s wrist.
Chu Yu felt that something seemed amiss. She held her breath waiting for Wei Qingping’s words. After a long while, she heard Wei Qingping suddenly ask, “When was your last menstrual period?”
Chu Yu was taken aback. She remained silent for a long time, thinking. Wei Qingping looked up at her and knew the result. “Forgot?”
Chu Yu hurriedly smiled apologetically. “Too many things have happened lately…”
“When was the last time you were intimate? Did you drink the contraceptive decoction?”
Wei Qingping changed hands to check her pulse. Hearing these questions, Chu Yu was stunned. She began to seriously consider Wei Qingping’s questions.
All along, she and Wei Yun had been very careful. Wei Yun didn’t want her to take medicine, and he rarely finished inside her. She knew her constitution was extremely yin and not easily conceived. In her previous life, it had taken great effort to have Gu Yan Qing, so after Wei Yun was already being careful, she hadn’t paid much attention either.
The only time…
Chu Yu thought carefully. It seemed to be only on the night Wei Yun was crowned king.
That night, both she and Wei Yun had been somewhat out of control, and by the time they realized it, it was already past the time to take the medicine. But she had always been too confident in her constitution and hadn’t thought her luck would be this good.
It’s just that in her previous life, it had been so difficult for her and Gu Chusheng to have a child, how come Wei Yun…
As she began to think about it, Chu Yu couldn’t help but wonder if, in her previous life, the main problem had been with Gu Chusheng.
Wei Qingping didn’t know about her jumbled thoughts. After confirming her diagnosis, she slowly said, “It’s fortunate that you practice martial arts and have a good physique. Your qi has protected this child. If it were an ordinary person, it would have been lost long ago.”
“Wait,” Chu Yu finally came to her senses. “Are you saying that I am with child?”
“What else?” Wei Qingping looked up at her, then stood up to grab paper and brush. She then looked up at her and asked, “Are you keeping this child or not? Give me an answer.”
Chu Yu was completely stunned. After a long while, she hurriedly said, “That’s not right. My constitution shouldn’t allow me to have children…”
“What constitution?” Wei Qingping frowned. Chu Yu explained in confusion, “I… I have an extremely yin constitution, not easily conceived…”
“You’ve been taking medicine for five years and have been nourishing yourself for five years,” Wei Qingping said impatiently. “Before, Wei Yun even had me look at your prescription. You just had a cold uterus and yin deficiency. It’s been treated well over five years.”
Wei Qingping looked up at her, somewhat puzzled. “How are you so sure you can’t easily conceive? Your body is in excellent condition.”
Chu Yu sat there dumbfounded. She suddenly remembered that she had indeed been nurturing her health for many years. At first, it was at her request, but later the taste of these decoctions changed, no longer bitter and unpalatable. Just like how other ladies would drink a bowl of white fungus soup or bird’s nest and peach gum as a tonic after meals, she had a bowl every day and almost forgot that she was still nurturing her health.
Later, when Wei Yun returned to the capital and war broke out again, with so many things piling up, where was there time to think about these things?
It took Chu Yu a long time to digest this news. Then she laughed out loud.
If it were before, she might still have had to consider Liu Xueyang and the Wei family. Now that she had come out on her own, what else did she need to consider?
So she raised her head and decisively said, “Keep it.”
Wei Qingping wasn’t surprised, but she asked, “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure,” Chu Yu sat cross-legged, saying seriously, “I’ve thought it through. If Wei Yun and I aren’t destined to be together, I’ll take this child back and raise him myself. If it’s a boy, I’ll name him Chu…”
“Alright, alright,” Wei Qingping, having seen many women overjoyed upon learning of their pregnancy, quickly raised her hand to stop her and said, “I have no interest in how you plan to deal with this child. If you plan to keep it, I’ll write you a prescription. Don’t ride horses on your way back, and don’t rush too much. Don’t push yourself just because you have a good foundation.”
“Okay.” Chu Yu was very happy. She waited for Wei Qingping to write the prescription and continued, “I need to write a letter to Xiao Qi… No,” she paused, “I want to tell him in person! He’ll be so happy to know I’m having a child…”
Wei Qingping’s hand holding the brush paused. After hesitating for a moment, she finally guessed, “A romance between uncle and daughter-in-law, pregnancy before marriage. Ah Yu,” she looked up at her, “Have you thought about everything you’ll have to face?”
Hearing these words, Chu Yu smiled, “What do I have to face?”
“If I were afraid of people’s words, I wouldn’t be with Wei Yun in the first place. Since Wei Yun and I are together, whether I’m condemned for one crime or two, what’s the difference? Moreover, this is not just Wei Yun’s child, it’s also mine. Even if I didn’t have Wei Yun in this life, I would still be overjoyed to have a child.”
“The sorrow of women mainly lies in their powerlessness. If I couldn’t raise this child, if I were counting on marrying another man in my next life for a comfortable life, if I were relying on family or anyone else, of course, I would care about people’s words and other things. But I don’t need to now. With or without Wei Yun, with or without the Chu family, I can raise this child.”
As she spoke, Chu Yu laughed, “Worst case scenario, I could even become a mountain bandit chief, don’t you think?”
Wei Qingping nodded. Hearing Chu Yu’s words, she felt reassured. Chu Yu wasn’t surprised by Wei Qingping’s attitude. In her previous life, Wei Qingping had also been pregnant before marriage, but Qin Shiyue had died on the battlefield, entrusting her to Wei Yun. Wei Yun, for the sake of brotherly loyalty, had married Wei Qingping to protect her reputation.
But if it weren’t for Qin Shiyue and the King of Wei, Wei Qingping probably wouldn’t have cared about these things either and would have raised the child on her own without any issues.
Life never becomes irredeemable because of a single point. The real reason that makes a person irredeemable is only when they give up on themselves, allowing themselves to be submerged in the mire.
Wei Qingping prescribed Chu Yu and gave her many instructions. Then the two of them lay down on the bed and fell asleep.
Chu Yu was very excited, but she was indeed too tired. She thought of Wei Yun and the child, her hand unconsciously resting on her abdomen, a smile spreading across her face as she slowly fell asleep.
In her dream, she returned to Bai Ling. Wei Yun was kneeling in the study, the lamplight falling on him. She stood at the door and called out to him, “Huai Yu.”
Wei Yun raised his head from his writing, his gaze filled with stars and her.
In the dream, she wanted to open her mouth but didn’t know how to express her joy. So she just placed her hand on her abdomen and said happily, “I’m with child.”
There was not a hint of fear, nor any unease. When love is what’s being nurtured, all storms become fearless.
As Chu Yu slowly fell asleep in her dream, Wei Yun was sound asleep in his bedroom in Bai Ling.
He heard the sound of rain in the middle of the night, awakened by it. He slowly opened his eyes, hearing the rain falling on the leaves, on the branches, into the soil.
He didn’t know what had come over him, but he felt empty inside. He got out of bed, his long hair loose, sleeves hanging to his knees, and walked barefoot to the window, pushing it open. He watched the rain falling on the branches and was surprised to find that at some point, tender green buds had sprouted.
Wei Qiu walked to Wei Yun’s side and respectfully asked, “Does Your Highness have any instructions?”
Wei Yun didn’t speak. He quietly looked at that tender green for a long time before shaking his head and saying, “Nothing.”
After saying this, he closed the window and returned to his desk. He picked up his brush, suddenly wanting to write something to Chu Yu.
However, when he put brush to paper, he didn’t know what to write that would make his strokes appear steady and composed, without revealing the agitation of being awakened in the deep night.
He didn’t want his frenzied longing to become a constraint for her. He only wanted to let her know that the sky was wide and the earth was vast, that she could come and go as she pleased, without worrying about having nowhere to return, because he was here.
As long as he was here, she could travel ten thousand miles alone, and home would be where she turned back to.
So he held his brush for a long time, and finally told her:
Ah Yu, new buds have appeared on the branches outside the door. I wonder, is it spring in full bloom where you are?
Ah Yu, I intend to take Yu River. Where will you go next?
If there’s nothing else…
Wei Yun’s brush stopped. After a long while, he finally asked:
Can we meet at Yu River?