Lin Jiayue felt irritated and distressed.

Previously, when Jiang Xingjian kept asking whether this child would be born smoothly, whether he would be healthy, she only felt unbearably annoyed. But today, she began carefully contemplating this question.

Touching her strangely protruding belly, Lin Jiayue closed her eyes.

Jiang Xingjian’s thin lips pressed together slightly, his expression indifferent.

“I’m going to the Shenshu Battalion. Take good care of our child.”

Lin Jiayue trembled slightly, not daring to speak.

She lay in bed the entire day. Qian Bi and Qing Hong sat on small stools by the door speaking in low voices. “The concubine made a scene again last night?”

Qian Bi nodded. “Quite a fierce one. The concubine keeps saying she can hear drum sounds, but I’ve never heard them.”

Qing Hong bit her lip. “I don’t know if it’s because the concubine mentions it so much, but I also feel it’s eerie at night, and those drum sounds appear from time to time.”

“Do you think it could be… that the First Madam doesn’t want the concubine to…”

“What nonsense!”

Covering Qing Hong’s mouth with her hand, Qian Bi frowned. “If anyone hears you slandering the First Madam, just watch how Nanny Li won’t tear your mouth apart and take your little life.”

The two were grappling when they saw Lin Jiayue standing behind them like a ghost.

“Concubine Lin.”

“I want to go to Lanting Courtyard.”

Lin Jiayue drifted outward but was firmly held back by Qian Bi, Qing Hong, and two old women.

“I need to find Song Wan. I have questions for her.”

Pushing aside Nanny Li, Lin Jiayue walked out on her own.

In Lanting Courtyard, Song Wan was preparing incense pills with Heng Zhi and Heng Wu. Heng Zhi took the cleaned agarwood and slowly ground it into granules with a silver mortar. Heng Wu poured in angelica root and incense powder. Before Song Wan was honey, and she was carefully rolling the incense pills.

The three mistress and servants were leisurely discussing the incense pill recipe. Just as they reached an interesting point, they saw Lin Jiayue approaching with a group of maids and old women following behind her.

Upon seeing Lin Jiayue, Song Wan was quite shocked for a moment.

This person had truly been tormented beyond recognition, with not an ounce of flesh on her entire body, only a protruding belly sticking out.

Seeing this, Song Wan frowned slightly and casually used the incense shovel to extinguish the lit incense pill.

Lin Jiayue sat down casually, then began staring vacantly into space.

The three mistress and servants of Lanting Courtyard were completely baffled, no one understanding what she meant.

Although Lin Jiayue would go mad every few days and they had grown quite accustomed to it, after Jiang Jing and Concubine Zhou passed away, this person had quieted down. Today, not knowing what new ailment had struck her, the dying embers had rekindled and she had rallied her forces again.

Song Wan looked at Lin Jiayue, completely puzzled.

“Do you think I’m insane?”

In that instant, Song Wan felt a sense of guilt at being seen through. She put down the incense pill in her hand. “What business do you have?”

Lin Jiayue lowered her head again without speaking.

After a long while, she finally murmured, “You were right. I shouldn’t have sold off the servants. I shouldn’t have interfered in Jiang Jing’s marriage. I wronged them.”

Having said this, she left again in a lost and dejected state.

Song Wan and her servants exchanged glances, none knowing what scene she was playing out now.

Lin Jiayue returned to her room. The several people guarding her relaxed. Old Woman Liu and Nanny Li went to catch up on sleep in the side room. Qing Hong had run off somewhere to slack off. Only Qian Bi remained in the room to keep her company.

“Concubine Lin, it’s time to eat.”

Lin Jiayue said dully, “Qian Bi, tell me—can the fetus in my womb be born healthy?”

Qian Bi lowered her head. “Why does the concubine ask such a thing?”

Lin Jiayue muttered to herself, “Probably not.”

“My health is poor, there are no doctors here, and I have no experience. What if he’s born incomplete, or missing fingers or limbs? Jiang Xingjian is very worried, and I think his concerns are not without reason.”

“Moreover, even if he’s physically sound, he’ll only be born a concubine-born son!”

“Do you know what a concubine-born son is?”

Tears kept streaming down. Lin Jiayue cried, “A concubine-born son is like Jiang Yan. He must call Madam ‘mother.’ His birth mother must call him ‘Second Master’ when she sees him. When Concubine Zheng sees Jiang Ang outside the courtyard, she must bow to him.”

“She calls him Fourth Master. Jiang Ang calls her Concubine Zheng.”

“A concubine can’t decide a concubine-born son’s marriage. When a concubine-born son marries, he must serve tea to the principal wife. When a concubine-born son has grandchildren, the concubine must call them young masters.”

“But bearing a concubine-born son is still acceptable. If one bears a concubine-born daughter, it’s completely finished.”

“A concubine-born daughter is like me—unable to leave this courtyard for her entire life. A concubine-born daughter can’t even read Romance of the Western Chamber.”

Lin Jiayue cried and cried, then suddenly laughed. “Isn’t that sick?”

“Qian Bi… tell me, what’s the point of giving birth to him? To be born to suffer and endure hardship?”

“Qian Bi, help me find the physician.”

Lin Jiayue summoned the physician and had him prepare miscarriage medicine for her. Her mind was in turmoil and she didn’t notice that the physician’s expression was calm, as if he had long known this day would come.

Before long, Qian Bi brought over a bowl of blood-red medicinal soup.

Lin Jiayue didn’t even look at it and tilted her head back to drink it down.

In less than half an hour, she felt unbearable abdominal pain and began rolling around on the bed. The physician came forward to examine her, cut a slice of fifty-year-old ginseng and stuffed it in her mouth, then turned and left.

Qian Bi heard the miserable screaming from the room and panicked terribly.

After thinking for a moment, she ran to her own room, restrung the scattered pearls in her box, and disposed of a large package of calming medicinal herbs.

Xiuyan Pavilion wasn’t large. The woman’s painful wailing spread to every corner. In the adjacent room, Huai Su listened, pulled out an old rattle drum from under the bed, placed it in a copper basin, and set it alight.

Chengyang Marquis’s residence absolutely could not have a concubine-born eldest son first. If that happened, the marquis’s reputation would be completely ruined.

Thinking of how she had just received favor yesterday, Huai Su pulled out a packet of contraceptive medicine from the cabinet and began brewing it herself.

When Jiang Xingjian returned to Chengyang Marquis’s residence, Xiuyan Pavilion had already quieted down. He went to Lin Jiayue’s room and looked indifferently at the person sleeping soundly on the bed.

Such an outcome could indeed be called satisfactory to all parties.

Song Wan was quite shocked to hear that Lin Jiayue had miscarried. Only when she learned that she herself had requested the miscarriage medicine from the physician did understanding dawn on her.

“So that’s how it is.”

Song Wan murmured in a low voice, her face turning pale.

Jiang Xingjian having people guard Xiuyan Pavilion wasn’t to protect Lin Jiayue—it was simply to prevent word from spreading that the marquis’s residence had a concubine-born eldest son.

Before this child was born, the Song family would absolutely not rashly make a fuss about it. And this child had never had a chance to be born from the very beginning, so he wasn’t afraid at all of the Song residence knowing about it.

Song Wan’s thin lips pressed together slightly, too horrified to speak.

After quite a while, she finally murmured softly, “Those who know neither when to advance nor retreat will meet with disaster…”

“So he doesn’t not resent Lin Jiayue for ruining the marquis’s residence to this state.”

“He only…”

He only knew that those who scheme for great things leave no trace. He only knew where it hurt most to strike a woman. He only knew how to preserve his own reputation and emerge unscathed when everyone in the capital was waiting to catch the marquis’s residence in a mistake.

Song Wan slumped down on the embroidered couch. Only today did she finally realize that the heroic husband she had imagined in her childhood was actually a thorough and complete true villain.