“The patient is pregnant.”
Yun Yi’s face suddenly exploded red.
She grabbed Xiao Zhi’s arm: “What did the doctor say? Why can’t I understand?”
“A Congolese person would understand even less.” Xiao Zhi glanced at her. “You go take care of her. I’ll listen to the doctor.”
He stepped outside the ward and questioned the doctor.
Yu Lian’er struggled to get up from the hospital bed.
“Emper—”
At the sound, the figure outside the door cast a look.
Yu Lian’er immediately changed her words: “Young Master Xiao.”
Young Master Xiao, like a patriarch, stood with hands behind his back before the white-clad female doctor, listening earnestly.
“The patient is five months pregnant,” the female doctor said. “No identity information. She’s not a local, is she?”
Xiao Zhi: “Mm. A relative’s wife. First time visiting our home.”
“She looks a bit malnourished. Prenatal nutrition needs to keep up.”
The doctor looked at the girl by the bed. The two’s intimate manner resembled newlyweds.
“That’s your wife, right? Have her cook some nutritious soup for the patient these days.”
“My… wife doesn’t know how to cook.” Xiao Zhi pursed his lips.
The doctor cast him an approving look: “Then you cook.”
“I don’t know how either.” The pot calling the kettle black.
“You two.” The doctor shook her head. “Young people nowadays all order takeout.”
Xiao Zhi looked at Yun Yi with feigned seriousness: “No takeout. The kitchen would explode.”
“…”
“Lie down quickly. Don’t talk.” Yun Yi gently pressed Yu Lian’er back onto the bed, her gaze landing on her belly. “Here. There’s a baby.”
Yu Lian’er understood, yet didn’t understand.
Her thoughts drifted to the heavens.
Yun Yi handed her a paper cup with a straw.
“Sister Lian’er, I got red date water from the auntie in the opposite bed. The temperature is just right. Moisten your mouth first.”
“How can I let the young lady serve me?” Yu Lian’er tried to rise again.
Yun Yi: “…”
Help! Yu Lian’er was harder to communicate with than Xiao Zhi had been back then!
Three hours later, Yun Yi brought her home.
Yun Yi found Cheng Su’s pajamas. “Sister Lian’er is taller than me. You’ll have to wear my mom’s clothes for now. We’ll buy some new ones later.”
“Miss Yun, I…”
“No more ‘miss.’ These days that’s not how people talk. You have to call us by our names.”
Yun Yi led her to the bathroom and brought a stool, teaching her to sit while washing.
Yu Lian’er, red-faced and bare, was both shy and frightened, yet didn’t dare defy Yun Yi in the slightest.
The scene before her was like a dream. The shower water was gently warm. The body wash smelled refreshing. The hair dryer made her drowsy.
“Sleep.” Yun Yi turned on the humidifier and dimmed the guest room lights. “Don’t be afraid. Call me if you need anything. My room is right next door.”
“Thank you, Xiao Yi.”
She closed the door and unexpectedly bumped into a solid wall of a person.
Before she could scream.
The man’s arm wrapped around her. His finger pressed her lips.
“Shh.”
“…”
The two didn’t dare go far, afraid the pregnant woman might call for someone at any moment.
The study door was open. Yun Yi and Xiao Zhi, like spies making contact, spoke in lowered voices.
Xiao Zhi: “The doctor said the pregnancy is over five months.”
The person in question was right next door. Yun Yi felt the guilt of gossiping.
But things being what they were, she covered Xiao Zhi’s mouth with her palm. “Talk softer.”
Her warm palm brushed his lips. Xiao Zhi instinctively took a sip.
Yun Yi felt scalded. That small patch of skin on her palm suddenly had the illusion of being “kissed.”
In the blink of an eye, blood rerouted.
Yun Yi’s claw stingily curled. Xiao Zhi’s gaze dimmed slightly.
She didn’t let go. Instead, she pinched his lips with her fingers, like a villainous crab spirit.
“Your palace maid is pregnant. Whose is it, you tell me?” Her tone carried the manner of an interrogation.
His brow twitched. “You suspect me?”
The ultrasound showed Yu Lian’er was five months pregnant, with a blurry little thing in her belly.
Setting aside the time flow difference.
He had been in the modern era for over half a year. How could this account be laid at his door?
“The palace has either maids or eunuchs.” Yun Yi looked straight into his eyes. “Besides the Emperor, I really can’t think of anyone who could get a palace maid pregnant.”
Palace rules were strict.
A palace maid being pregnant was a very serious matter.
Especially a senior maid by the Emperor’s side. Besides the consorts of various palaces, plenty of people would be watching.
Walking through the palace with a five-month pregnant belly, without powerful protection, the only ending was death.
As she spoke, Xiao Zhi caught her troublemaking hand and applied force to pull her closer.
“The Emperor?” He looked down at her—deep chestnut pupils like a sea in a storm, carrying doubt and interrogation. “Don’t fling dirty water. My brother took over as emperor.”
“You mean the child is your brother’s?” She pressed both hands on his chest and looked up to ask.
“Just a guess.”
“That’s not right.” Yun Yi remembered that in the historical records, Xiao Qian had no sons and passed the throne to his nephew. “Wasn’t your brother impotent? So many consorts in the harem didn’t get pregnant, but a palace maid alone did?”
Xiao Zhi bent his finger and scraped her nose. “Stupid.”
Since ancient times, the throne passed to males, not females. The historical records only stated Emperor Wen of Yan had no sons. They didn’t say how many daughters he had.
“Ah, your brother had all little princesses.”
Thinking of Yan’s princess Xiao Qingzhu’s arrogance and dominance, Yun Yi imagined Xiao Qian’s daughters as imperious as their aunt, insufferable, giving Xiao Qian a headache. She suddenly burst out laughing.
From the first floor came banging and clattering.
Yu Lian’er got up and, like a toddler learning to walk, felt her way to the first floor.
The scene before her—she wouldn’t have dared imagine it even in a dream.
Her master was gathered around strange-looking skirts, a soup ladle in hand, clumsily fiddling with a clay pot.
Miss Yun was at the cutting board, flustered, chopping mushrooms.
Seeing her, Yun Yi greeted warmly: “Dinner’s almost ready!”
The two muttered over the clay pot.
At the kitchen door, Yu Lian’er had already knelt.
“This servant has committed a capital crime. Please punish me, Young Master.”
“…” Yun Yi quickly tried to help the pregnant woman up, but she seemed glued to the floor tiles, refusing to rise.
She had to run to Xiao Zhi, anxious as a monkey.
“Speak. What crime?”
Yun Yi read his eyes: If Yu Lian’er wasn’t allowed to speak freely, she wouldn’t get up.
“The child in this servant’s belly is His Majesty’s.” She lowered her face, a voice of anguish pouring from her throat, as if suppressed for a long time. “I only beg to give birth. This servant will accept whatever punishment Young Master decrees.”
Xiao Zhi glanced at Yun Yi and shook his head.
Yun Yi sighed silently: Ah, the romantic debt your brother incurred has fallen on our heads.
Xiao Zhi only said: “Since that’s the case, let’s eat first.”
Yun Yi: “I want to drink the soup you made!”
Yu Lian’er rose in terror.
She saw Young Master Xiao personally bring out the soup.
One minute later.
Yun Yi: “Yue…”
Yu Lian’er also took a sip and immediately covered her mouth, forcibly swallowing back her pregnancy nausea.
“My soup is that bad?”
Xiao Zhi ladled a spoonful, drank it, and fell silent.
Considering the pregnant woman’s physical and mental health, he had no choice but to order takeout.
Half an hour later, the doorbell rang.
Xiao Zhi skillfully retrieved two bags.
Yu Lian’er’s knees went weak. She knelt on the floor again: “This servant deserves death ten thousand times!”
Actually making His Majesty serve her.
Xiao Zhi glanced at her and walked straight out of the dining room.
The atmosphere suddenly turned cold.
Facing Xiao Zhi’s Sichuan opera face-changing, Yun Yi was put on the spot: “See, see? Your master is angry.”
Unexpectedly, Xiao Zhi moved the entire living room coffee table into the dining room and said concisely: “You love kneeling so much? Then kneel and eat.”
“…”
Throughout the meal, Yun Yi kept serving the pregnant woman food.
Yu Lian’er’s bowl piled into a small mountain.
After dinner, Yun Yi sat on the backyard swing, burying herself in searching for prenatal fish oil, maternity clothes, and baby clothes.
“No need to rush like this, is there?” Xiao Zhi knew Yun Yi was shopping online. Everything in her cart was mother-and-baby supplies.
“How can I not rush?” Yun Yi was displeased. “Your brother’s child—isn’t that your niece or nephew? You won’t care for them?”
Xiao Zhi: “I didn’t say I wouldn’t.”
It was just that Yu Lian’er’s identity made it unsuitable for her to stay at the Yun house.
“We need to find them a place to live.”
“Ah?”
“Men and women should not touch.”
This made Yun Yi’s jaw drop. “You’ve been freeloading at my house so long. Why haven’t I heard you say that before?”
Xiao Zhi stood behind the swing, his tongue pressing against his cheek.
What was with this careless girl? Was he deliberately freeloading?
He just wanted to be with her.
The night wind lightly hooked the stray hairs at her temples.
The girl on the swing turned her head: “Why did you stop talking?”
The man behind her suddenly pushed the swing.
Her center of gravity shot upward. Wind roared past her ears. His deep, magnetic voice poured into her ears along with it: “If I move out, how would I spend every day and night with you?”
Yun Yi gripped the swing ropes, wanting to say something, but the man pushed the swing higher and higher.
Her heartbeat accelerated. She heard Xiao Zhi’s righteous interrogation: “Still chasing me away?”
As if she were a wicked woman beyond redemption.
Yun Yi shook her head: “Not chasing you away!”
Xiao Zhi thought her head didn’t shake hard enough and was dissatisfied: “We’re looking at houses tomorrow.”
The intermittent weightlessness made Yun Yi’s voice choppy: “Then you find an agent… the three of them, they need two apartments, right? One with a small yard for the pregnant woman…”
The more Xiao Zhi listened, the angrier he got. She chattered for ages, picking all the things he didn’t want to hear.
“One small two-bedroom is enough.” He declared his dissatisfaction word by word.
“Ah…?!” Yun Yi was tossed into the air by Xiao Zhi.
Before she could cry for help, he flashed to the front of the swing, spread his arms, and caught her steadily.
Her body nestled against the man’s scorching chest. Before her eyes was his sharp jawline.
She pressed her palm to it, feeling the heartbeat in his chest, thud after thud, vigorous and strong.
The surrounding scenery blurred into an indistinct background.
Yun Yi swallowed and asked dryly: “Such a small apartment—who’s it for?”
“Me,” Xiao Zhi said. “Move-in ready. I’ll move out tomorrow.”
“…”
Xiao Zhi held her waist with one hand. His free hand swiped several times on the phone screen.
Yun Yi leaned over to look. He naturally thrust the screen before her.
[Lianjia Xiao Wu: Mr. Xiao, fully furnished hotel-style apartment, move-in ready. Monthly rent 5500 yuan. Deposit plus three months’ rent.]
[Xiao Zhi: Viewing tomorrow.]
The moment his eyes darkened, Yun Yi’s heart sank too.
Done for. He really was leaving?
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