Chapter 183 – My lord, I’m pregnant with your child (2)
Looking at her back figure, Marquis Moyu felt somewhat doubtful. After she returned, he said, “You seem to have gain weight recently.”
Ji Man paused, then she said with a smile, “The kitchen servants cook such delicious food. Even if this servant doesn’t want to become fat, it’s difficult, ah.”
Ning Yuxuan pretended he was asking without any hidden intentions, “Did you period come last month?”
“It came.” Ji Man blinked. “My lord, why are you asking this question?”
Marquis Moyu shook his head. “It’s nothing. I was just thinking it would be really nice if you could become pregnant.”
Ji Man silently spat out two words, hypocritical liar. But, she outwardly continued to smile. “This servant is looking forward to that too. If this servant ever becomes pregnant, this servant will definitely use her life to protect the safety of that child and won’t let anyone touch even a stand of its hair.”
Ning Yuxuan froze in surprise for a moment. Then, he chuckled and said, “How could my heir’s life be more important than yours? Why would you need to use your life to protect it?”
If these words were said between a normal couple, they would be words of love. Look, isn’t he a wonderful husband? He would pick his wife over his child if he could only save one.
However, Ji Man knew that Ning Yuxuan wanted more than anything else for Nie Sangyu to never become pregnant while remaining his main wife. This way, he could manipulate her as he wished.
She instinctively rubbed her abdomen. It would be time soon. Once she heard that news from the palace, she would tell Marquis Moyu about her pregnancy.
By that time, she would have been pregnant for four months. Unless Ning Yuxuan was willing to sacrifice Nie Sangyu’s life, he wouldn’t dare to anything against this fetus.
“Master, the medicine is ready.” Dengxin and Gancao brought inside two bowls of medicine and placed them on the table.
Ji Man smiled again. She waited until the medicine had cooled down for a bit, then she picked up one bowl and raised it towards Marquis Moyu and said, “My lord, here.”
Cheers, let’s drink this bowl of pregnancy medicine together!
Marquis Moyu seemed somewhat lost in his thoughts and actually picked up his bowl and clinked it against hers. Then, he slowly drank the bowl of medicine.
Ji Man was quite gleeful for the rest of the day because of this little trick.
However, Ning Yuxuan had no idea about the source of her happiness. Seeing that Nie Sangyu was in such a good mood today, his mood actually worsened. He knew that every time that she was happy, it had nothing to do with himself.
—
During the last crucial month before it would be too late for Marquis Moyu to do anything, Ji Man was very careful about what she ate and seemingly asked Doctor Li to come over every day to check up on her.
The previous attempt with saffron hadn’t been successful, and she didn’t have any evidence to say that Honored Concubine Xue was behind that attempt. On the surface, the two of them continued to have an amicable relationship.
At the end of the month, Ji Man finally received the news that she had been waiting for. Noble Consort Nie was prematurely giving birth.
Naturally, a premature birth wasn’t a good thing. Someone must have done something bad to cause this. However, Noble Consort Nie was tough. Although the baby shouldn’t have been born for another month, Noble Consort Nie and the baby survived this ordeal.
The fortunate premature baby was a boy.
Noble Consort Nie had almost lost her life and had barely been able to keep the life of her second son. While crying and holding the baby, she pleaded with the emperor to right the wrong that had been done to her. Someone had something to her food. Fortunately, it hadn’t been a serious poison, and it only result in a premature birth. All the evidence pointed that the empress had been behind this.
In this midst of his great joy, the emperor was furious when he heard about this. Although the empress’s position couldn’t be lightly taken away from her, the emperor took away her phoenix seal. Moreover, he promoted Noble Consort Nie to the position of imperial noble consort. The power had shifted from the empress to Imperial Noble Consort Nie. Thus, Nie Clan became second to no one according to public opinion. In addition, the third prince had become quite favored by the emperor recently and started participating in politics. This made the crown prince’s faction very worried.
If this trend continued, it wasn’t impossible the current crown prince would lose his position. However, this wasn’t something for Ji Man to worry about. There were only benefits and no disadvantages to Nie Sangyu’s aunt being promoted to the position of imperial noble consort. She finally had her chance to give Ning Yuxuan a vicious shock.
Ji Man went to the western courtyard. In front of Wen Wan, she bashfully sat down on Ning Yuxuan’s lap and gently called out, “Yuxuan…”
Marquis Moyu thought there had to be something wrong with Nie Sangyu today. However, he didn’t push her away. He only straightened his posture and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“I…”Ji Man looked at Wen Wan’s twisted expression from her peripheral vision. Then, she copied Wen Wan’s favorite act of looking delicate and weak as she said in an unbearably clingy voice, “This servant had something to say.”
“En, what do you want to say?” Ning Yuxuan actually found her behavior somewhat humorous. He supported his chin and looked at her as he waited for her answer.
Ji Man stretched her hand out and placed it on her already slightly protruding belly. There were two spots of red on her face as she said shyly said, “This servant is pregnant with my lord’s child ~”
Ning Yuxuan’s smile stiffened. Standing nearby, Wen Wan looked at Nie Sangyu with utter shock.
“… How many months is it?” Ning Yuxuan lowered his head and looked at her belly.
Ji Man wanted to gloatingly smile, but she covered half of her face and pretended to blame herself. “This servant was too careless and didn’t discover this until now. This servant has already been pregnant for four months.”
Marquis Moyu almost couldn’t stop himself from exposing her lie. Who was she trying to fool? How could she have not known until now? Didn’t she say that her period had come when he asked recently?
Wen Wan’s lips were trembling. She immediately turned around and ran out.
How could Ning Yuxuan possibly have the energy to care about her little tantrums right now? He only stared at Nie Sangyu.
Hiding her smile, Ji Man looked at Ning Yuxuan’s expression. In a very wronged tone, she asked, “My lord, didn’t you say that you hoped that this servant would become pregnant soon. Why are you showing this type of expression then? Could it be that my lord doesn’t want this child?”
“No.” Ning Yuxuan stood up. Looking at her with a complicated expression, he said, “Go to Old Madame’s place for now. I’m going to the palace to bring back an imperial physician to check up on you.”