Chapter 98

 

In fact, apart from worrying about childbirth, Yuan Ci Xian still regretted that she couldn’t spend the remaining of this year with Lu Shi Qing. He might be in time for her to give birth, but it was absolutely impossible for him to watch the new year with her.

When a war broke out in Huihu, Great Zhou dispatched troops to support them. In order to avoid being watched covetously from all side, the border gates were all under martial law, and the generals guarding the border towns were not allowed to leave their posts without authorization. Therefore, before the end of the war, her father and mother were also unable to enter the capital.

This year is destined to be deserted.

Before dawn the next morning, Lu Shi Qing went out of the door quietly.

But Yuan Ci Xian didn’t sleep well, and she woke up when he lifted the quilt, she just pretended to be ignorant like he wanted. One, she didn’t want to say goodbye to him seriously, making this matter like a life and death separation, and secondly, she wanted to make him feel at ease when he left.

She had already asked Lu Shi Qing about the cause of the Huihu war last night.

Because the Second Prince was deeply involved with the Huihu and the Turks in the past, Emperor Huining chose Yazhou, which was far away from the northwest, as his place of exile in order to prevent him from causing trouble after being forced into a dead end.

The old emperor’s idea was good at first, but the devil is in the details. He didn’t consider that from Chang’an to Yazhou in the southeast, it would need to pass through Huainan where Ping Prince located.

In fact, the Second Prince had never arrived in Yazhou at all. As early as when the escort team passed through Huainan, the person in the prison carriage had been transferred by Ping Prince’s men without anyone noticing.

After that, Ping Prince had been actively arranging for the Second Prince to join forces with the Turks to prepare for the war until today, half a year later.

To put it bluntly, the war between the Huihu and the Turks still started from the endless struggle for the throne of Great Zhou. After all, Lu Shi Qing had been involved in mediating for many years. Yuan Ci Xian believed that with his ability, he would be able to successfully reach an alliance with the Huihu. But she was still worried that he would be besieged on all sides on the march, and the Turks might kill him in order to prevent him from meeting the Khan. Not to mention that it was a long journey, and he followed the hurried march to eat the wind, frost, rain and snow, she was afraid that his old injury would relapse.

After being so worried for more than a month, the Yuan and Lu families and even the entire Great Zhou did not have a good year-end, until the first good news finally came from the northwest, saying that the reinforcements of Great Zhou had successfully joined forces with the soldiers and horses of the Huihu Khanate Court, and successively recaptured five cities that were originally captured by the Turks vanguard.

The things that were told to the common people were always the good news but not the bad news, but Yuan Ci Xian knew how difficult this month had been.

Although she couldn’t get the first-hand military report, she could roughly estimate from the few information that she got, Lu Shi Qing’s Great Zhou rapid march had experienced at least three big battles before entering the Huihu territory. And after going deep into the Huihu, confronting the Turks soldiers who had always been tyrannical was tantamount to blocking the enemy with a human board.

This seemingly glittering triumph was actually very heavy.

Lu Shi Qing never sent a message back. Perhaps because he was under a lot of pressure and couldn’t get away, or because of the raging war in the Huihu territory, if the letter was intercepted, the traces of the Great Zhou army might be revealed, so they could only choose to hide for the sake of the overall situation.

Yuan Ci Xian also understood this, but she couldn’t help counting the days with her fingers every day, and asked Jian Zhi how many days before she gave birth.

Jian Zhi answered her every day, but later she couldn’t help it anymore, and asked: “Lady, you really don’t remember how this maid answered you yesterday?”

She said confidently: “I remember, you said yesterday, there are about Fifteen more days.”

“Then you…” Wouldn’t it be good to just subtract with one day.

Yuan Ci Xian glanced at her: “I just want to hear you tell me.”

Jian Zhi had no choice but to say: “You should have about half a month before giving birth.”

She let out a “Hmm” and looked at the ice edge outside the window, then said to herself: “Fourteen more days. Soon.”

Jian Zhi knew what she meant by “soon”. Lady knew that Master was a man who kept his word, and he would do what he promised. She asked her time and time again the day she would give birth, but she was just hoping for his triumphant return.

She was about to say something to comfort Yuan Ci Xian, but Shi Cui hurried in and asked her where she put the cloak that Lady wore on New Year’s Eve last time.

She was slightly taken aback when she heard this, and then quickly said: “Can’t you find it? I’ll go and have a look with you.” After saying that, she looked at Yuan Ci Xian, and asked for permission, “Lady, this maid will look for your cloak first.”

Yuan Ci Xian nodded, and looked at the two of them with a smile: “Go.”

The two nodded and stepped back, talking about the cloak all the way, and after they were far away from Yuan Ci Xian’s room, they couldn’t hold back their expressions. Jian Zhi asked first: “What happened?”

The cloak Yuan Ci Xian wore on New Year’s Eve was not packed by her, but by Shi Cui, so when she heard that strange question just now, she knew that there was something else hidden in it.

Shi Cui’s face looked anxious, looked back at the direction where Yuan Ci Xian was, and said vigilantly: “Come with me.”

She led her to the room next door, and said: “Brother Cao just received a secret report saying that the morning before yesterday when the Huihu and Turks cavalry troops clashed on the border of Great Zhou, they encountered snow disasters, and both armies were completely annihilated. Master…” She said nervously, “Master seems to be in that group as well. ”

Jian Zhi’s face changed, and when she saw that Cao An was also in the room, pinching a letter anxiously, she asked him directly: “Why is Master in the Huihu troops?”

Cao An explained: “Master was in a hurry to come back, but our soldiers couldn’t get away because of the war. The Huihu Khan was concerned about his safety, so after reaching an alliance with Great Zhou, he proposed to dispatch a troop to escort him back to Chang’an first. Judging by the tracks, it’s very likely to be this cavalry team.”

Jian Zhi’s breath stopped when she heard this, then decisively said: “Since it’s not certain, we must never let Lady know about it. Brother Cao, please find a way to find out…”

When she spoke until here, she suddenly heard the rustling of the hem of clothes outside the door, and when she looked back, she saw Yuan Ci Xian standing there with a white face, it was unknown what she had heard.

The three of them froze in unison. Shi Cui was the first to mutter: “Lady…”

Yuan Ci Xian had just arrived at the door, but just listening to the last sentence was enough for her to understand. She didn’t look at them, but stared at the secret report in Cao An’s hand and said coldly: “Give it to me.”

Cao An subconsciously hid the secret report behind him, but after hiding it he felt that it was redundant, so he stiffly presented it but said first: “Lady, the news is ambiguous, this servant thinks it’s absolutely unbelievable. Don’t worry too much, this servant will go to a credible person to discuss countermeasures.”

The credible person he implied was naturally Zheng Zhuo.

Yuan Ci Xian read the letter at a glance, but she was not as flustered as the three of them imagined. She was even calmer than them, then said quickly, “Give me a topographic map of the border between Huihu and Great Zhou, as well as a brush and paper.”

Shi Cui hurriedly went to get it for her, and saw her spread out the cowhide map on the table. After reading it, she took a brush and quickly circled a few places, and said to Cao An: “The Turks and Huihu are fighting each other, and the border of Great Zhou is right in front of him, it’s impossible for him to waste his time in this muddy water. He should have escaped before the snow disaster happened. But since he failed to send report of his safety before the bad news reached Chang’an, he must have encountered other troubles. What you should pay attention to is not the snow disaster, but the return journey from then on, and the hidden danger within the territory of Great Zhou.”

Cao An’s eyes lit up when he heard this, and he nodded: “What Lady said is correct.”

Yuan Ci Xian scanned the map again, pointed to the top point, and drew a line with her index finger: “No need to consult with anyone else, you should set off now, and lead people along this road to provide support, and remember not to expose your traces.”

Seeing Cao An took the orders and rushed away, Yuan Ci Xian then grabbed the edge of the table as if she had lost her strength, and dense fine sweat soon broke out on her forehead.

Shi Cui and Jian Zhi were startle, and hurried forward to support her on both sides: “Lady, you should go back to your room and get rest first.”

Yuan Ci Xian grabbed their arms, frowning, and the whole person couldn’t help but slide down: “I can’t go back, I seem to be giving birth…”

The whole Lu Mansion was in chaos. Shi Cui and Jian Zhi didn’t expect that Yuan Ci Xian, who was still as stable as Mount Tai one moment, would be like this the next moment. Looking back carefully, they realized that her face was indeed very pale just now, and she was probably already moved the fetus qi when she heard their conversation outside the door, but in order to figure out the countermeasures, she endured herself.

The Lu family had already arranged for midwives a few days ago, and they were supposed to be asked to move to the mansion tomorrow or the day after tomorrow to stand by, but they never expected that Yuan Ci Xian would be ahead of schedule for so many days, so now they had to call people immediately.

Fortunately, there were a few old women in the house who had some knowledge of childbirth, so they got ready as soon as possible. The two midwives who were rushing over were also quick and agile. When they saw that the hot water and soup were ready, they cleaned up their hands, and entered the bedroom.

Xuan shi was anxiously pacing back and forth outside the door, seeing that there was no sound of Yuan Ci Xian screaming in pain, she instead became worried and kept asking the maid why she was silent.

It wasn’t until half an hour later, probably because the decoction for inducing labor was finally take effect, that Yuan Ci Xian stepped into the gate of hell of giving birth, but what she shouted was not the same as that of ordinary women.

“Why…it hurts so much!”

“Lu Shi Qing… you’re pissing me off!”

“Who said you will catch up with my labor? When you come back, I will… pull out your tongue!”

Xuan shi trembled all over when she heard this, and then listened to her say again: “Peel your skin! Draw out your tendons! Hang you up and whip you with a whip! Ah, it hurts…”

Lu Shuang Yu, who came to accompany Xuan shi on the side, was also shocked. She looked at her with awkwardly: “Mother, in order to make sister-in-law have more energy, let brother be wronged.”

Xuan shi nodded thoughtfully, clasped her hand for support, and shouted inside: “Ci Xian, if you want to scold, just scold! Mother told you, the harder you scold, the smoother your birth will be!”

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TN: Best mother-in-law ever.