Chapter 92
Miscarriage

Lin Jiayue felt troubled.

Previously, Jiang Xingjian constantly asked if the child would be born safely and healthy, which annoyed her to no end. But today, she began to consider the question seriously.

Touching her protruding belly, Lin Jiayue closed her eyes.

Jiang Xingjian’s lips were thin and tightly pressed, his expression indifferent.

“I’m going to Shen Shu Camp. Take good care of our child.”

Lin Jiayue shivered slightly, not daring to speak. She lay in bed all day while Qian Bi and Qing Hong sat whispering on small stools by the door.

“Did she cause trouble again last night?”

Qian Bi nodded. “She made quite a fuss, saying she could hear drums, but I never heard anything.”

Qing Hong bit her lip. “I don’t know if it’s because she keeps mentioning it, but I also feel a bit eerie at night and sometimes hear the drums.”

“Do you think it’s because… the First Madam doesn’t want her to…”

“Don’t talk nonsense!” Qian Bi quickly covered Qing Hong’s mouth and frowned. “If anyone hears you slandering the First Madam, Nanny Li will tear your mouth apart and take your life.”

As they were arguing, Lin Jiayue suddenly appeared behind them like a ghost.

“Concubine Lin.”

“I want to go to Lan Ting Courtyard.”

Lin Jiayue walked out slowly, but Qian Bi, Qing Hong, and two older maids held her back tightly.

“I want to see Song Wan. I have something to ask her.”

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

In Lan Ting Courtyard, Song Wan was preparing incense pills with Heng Zhi and Heng Wu. Heng Zhi was grinding cleaned agarwood into granules with a silver mortar, Heng Wu was adding angelica and incense powder, and Song Wan was rolling the incense pills with honey.

The three of them were chatting about the incense pill recipe when they saw Lin Jiayue approaching with a group of maids and older women.

Seeing Lin Jiayue, Song Wan was momentarily surprised.

Lin Jiayue looked tormented, her body emaciated except for her protruding belly.

Song Wan frowned slightly and extinguished the lit incense pill with a spatula.

Lin Jiayue sat down casually and stared blankly.

The three in Lan Ting Courtyard were puzzled, not knowing what she wanted.

Although Lin Jiayue occasionally had episodes, they had gotten used to it. But since Jiang Jing and Madam Zhou’s deaths, she had been quiet. Today, for some reason, she was acting up again.

Song Wan looked at Lin Jiayue, full of confusion.

“Do you think I’m crazy?”

For a moment, Song Wan felt guilty, as if she had been seen through. She put down the incense pill and asked, “What do you want?”

Lin Jiayue lowered her head and remained silent. After a long time, she murmured, “You were right. I shouldn’t have sold the servants, and I shouldn’t have interfered in Jiang Jing’s marriage. It’s my fault.”

After saying that, she left in a daze.

Song Wan and her maids exchanged puzzled glances, not knowing what she was up to.

Back in her room, the people watching Lin Jiayue relaxed. Nanny Liu and Nanny Li went to nap in the side room, Qing Hong disappeared to slack off, and only Qian Bi stayed with her.

“Concubine Lin, it’s time to eat.”

Lin Jiayue said blankly, “Qian Bi, do you think the baby in my belly will be born healthy?”

Qian Bi lowered her head. “Why do you ask that?”

Lin Jiayue murmured to herself, “Probably not.”

“My health is poor, and there are no doctors here. I have no experience. What if he’s born with disabilities or missing fingers or toes? Jiang Xingjian is very worried, and I think his concerns are valid.”

“Even if he’s physically healthy, he’ll still be an illegitimate child!”

“Do you know what an illegitimate child is?”

Tears streamed down her face as Lin Jiayue cried, “An illegitimate child is like Jiang Yan. He has to call the First Madam ‘mother,’ and his birth mother has to call him ‘Second Master.’ Madam Zheng has to bow to Jiang Ang when she sees him outside.”

“She calls him ‘Fourth Master,’ and Jiang Ang calls her ‘Madam Zheng.'”

“Concubines can’t decide the marriages of illegitimate children. When an illegitimate child gets married, they have to serve tea to the First Madam. When an illegitimate child has children, the concubine has to call them ‘master.'”

“But having an illegitimate son is still better. If it’s an illegitimate daughter, it’s all over.”

“An illegitimate daughter, like me, can never leave this courtyard. An illegitimate daughter can’t even read ‘Yingying’s Biography.'”

Lin Jiayue cried and then let out a bitter laugh. “Isn’t that crazy?”

“Qian Bi… why should I give birth to him? To suffer and be miserable?”

“Qian Bi, help me find the physician.”

Lin Jiayue called for the physician and asked for an abortifacient. Her mind was so troubled that she didn’t notice the physician’s calm demeanor, as if he had expected this.

Soon, Qian Bi brought a bowl of crimson medicine.

Without looking at it, Lin Jiayue drank it down.

Within half an hour, she felt unbearable abdominal pain and rolled on the bed. The physician checked on her, placed a slice of fifty-year-old ginseng in her mouth, and then left.

Qian Bi listened to the screams from the room, feeling panicked. She went to her room, restrung the scattered pearls in her box, and prepared a large bag of calming herbs.

Xiu Yan Pavilion was small, and Lin Jiayue’s painful cries echoed through every corner. Huai Su, in the next room, listened and took out an old rattle drum from under the bed, burning it in a copper basin.

The Marquis of Chengyang’s residence could not have an illegitimate firstborn son. If that happened, the Marquis’s reputation would be ruined. Thinking of the pleasure she had just experienced the day before, Huai Su took out a packet of contraceptive soup from the cabinet and began to brew it.

When Jiang Xingjian returned to the Marquis’s residence, Xiu Yan Pavilion had quieted down. He went to Lin Jiayue’s room and looked indifferently at the sleeping figure.

This outcome was satisfactory for everyone.

Song Wan was shocked to hear that Lin Jiayue had taken an abortifacient. When she learned Lin Jiayue had requested it herself, she finally understood.

“So that’s it.” Song Wan murmured, her face pale.

Jiang Xingjian had people guard Xiu Yan Pavilion not to protect Lin Jiayue but to prevent news of an illegitimate firstborn son from spreading.

Before the child was born, the Song family would not make a fuss. And since the child had no chance of being born from the start, he wasn’t afraid of the Song family finding out.

Song Wan pressed her lips together, too shocked to speak.

After a long while, she whispered, “Disaster comes from not knowing one’s place…”

“So he didn’t hate Lin Jiayue for ruining the Marquis’s residence.”

“He just…”

He just knew that great schemers act invisibly. He knew where to strike a woman to hurt the most. He knew how to protect his reputation and escape unscathed when everyone in the capital was waiting to catch the Marquis’s mistakes.

Song Wan sat dejectedly on the embroidered couch. Only today did she realize that the heroic husband she had imagined in her childhood was actually a complete scoundrel.