Wife, Don't Be Like This!

Chapter 29 - Your Wife Has Been Pregnant for a While

A cool morning breeze rolled up a few fallen leaves, adding a touch of bleak loneliness to the once-bustling county town. Paired with the drizzling rain, it seemed to announce that autumn was coming soon.

On the streets shrouded by thin clouds, figures appeared very early. Accompanied by the thunderous sound of gongs and drums, people automatically parted to both sides.

Before long, they saw carriages arriving... they were open-topped, with large and small chests placed on them.

"Which family is having a happy event again?"

"So ignorant. This is the 'return visit' of that young master from the Duke's mansion who married out."

"Such a grand procession for a return visit? Didn't I hear that the dowry the Song family sent was all junk?"

"This is what you don't understand. I heard the County Mistress said that while the Song family lost its etiquette, the Luo family cannot be without rules. The necessary etiquette must be observed. This is called having class. Even without the status of a Grand Princess, she is still of royal birth, completely different from that nouveau riche Song family."

"To prevent people from gossiping, the County Mistress specifically had the chests packed and loaded onto the carriages in front of the Luo Mansion. I saw it with my own eyes. Gold leaves, silver cakes, being stuffed into the chests as if they were free."

"How much money would that be?"

"At least seventy to eighty thousand taels, right? But in my opinion, the County Mistress is just wasting her effort. With the shameless character of the Song family's Yang Shi, she'll probably accept the return-visit gifts and then turn around and say the Luo family sent a pile of junk."

"That's truly possible."

Such voices could be heard from the crowd.

Song Yan gave an understanding smile. The ability of these people to spread gossip was truly top-notch. Before long, there would be hundreds or thousands of people in Ningping County who had 'personally witnessed' the Luo family sending return-visit gifts worth seventy to eighty thousand taels to the Song family.

The carriage swayed. Ningping County was not large, and they arrived in half an hour.

Song Yan got out of the carriage. Gu Banxia immediately held up an umbrella, not letting a single drop of rain touch him.

The three handmaidens, Kong Chan, Die Yi, and Xue Ying, had a bit of envy in their eyes. The news of what happened in Song Prefecture had slowly trickled back to Ningping. The three little handmaidens also wanted to experience the feeling of 'one person holding an umbrella, and two walking together.'

Everyone in the Luo Mansion was a little surprised that Song Yan could compose such two lines of poetry. The first line was one thing, but that 'A lonely person stands alone, in the light rain, a pair of swallows fly' was praised endlessly even by the Luo Mansion's clan school teacher. When they also said that Song Yan had been imprisoned for years and had never studied, they felt it was even more of a pity. If he had been nurtured from a young age, he would now be a talented scholar in his own right.

Most of the handmaidens didn't understand poetry. They just simply felt that the image of 'one person holding an umbrella, and two walking together' was very romantic.

Women, well, they are always a bit sentimental.

Unfortunately, the job of holding the umbrella was firmly grasped in Gu Banxia's hands, and she refused to let it go no matter what. Thus, Kong Chan, Xue Ying, and Die Yi were unable to experience 'one person holding an umbrella, and two walking together,' and instead first experienced what it meant to be a 'lonely person standing alone'!

They couldn't help but feel a little annoyed.

Song Yan naturally saw this little competition between the girls. As long as it wasn't too excessive, he wouldn't mind these things and just let them be.

Lifting his eyes, the Duke Song's mansion was right in front of him.

The misty rain made the plaque also appear a bit blurry.

It was a bit chilly. Song Yan tightened the clothes on his body. According to the usual custom of previous years, this season should be extremely hot and dry. This year, I'm afraid, will be a cold year. For the poor families, autumn and winter will probably be very difficult to get through.

Thinking this, Song Yan's thoughts returned to the past. It was the second year after he had just transmigrated to this world, and they were met with a severe winter the likes of which hadn't been seen in decades. Lacking food and clothing, he nearly froze to death. Fortunately, he had his mother, and he managed to hang on to his life.

In fact, it shouldn't have been so wretched. Mei Xue was, at the very least, a concubine, and he was a concubine-born son of the Duke. Even if their treatment couldn't compare to the First Mistress and the legitimate sons, a basin of charcoal fire or a hand warmer shouldn't have been a problem.

But Song Hongtao never asked about the affairs of the back residence, and Yang Shi's attitude towards the concubines and their children goes without saying. Even if they died for no reason, Song Hongtao wouldn't care much, which emboldened the servants.

He didn't know when it started, but carving up the concubines' monthly allowance became a way for those servants to make money.

With Yang Shi's indulgence, even the charcoal fire and quilts distributed in the winter would be snatched away. As for whether those concubines and their children would freeze to death, no one cared.

Anyway, she had given out everything that was supposed to be given. If someone still accidentally froze to death, then it could only be considered bad luck.

"Brother-in-law!"

A voice came from beside his ear.

There was a light touch on his arm.

Turning his head to look, he saw it was Luo Tianyi. Seeing that Song Yan had been standing there in a daze for too long, she couldn't help but poke his arm and remind him in a low voice.

Her cold, clear eyes held a hint of worry.

Song Yan smiled: "I'm fine."

Then he took the gift list from Gu Banxia's hand and walked towards the gate of the Song Mansion.

At the main gate was a man in his thirties. He was the gatekeeper, Zhang Xiaoshan.

Song Yan had a deep impression of this person. It was said that this person was originally an orphan, abandoned outside the Duke's mansion in the middle of winter. That year, the Old Duke of the Song family was already old and dying. Perhaps wanting to do a good deed to accumulate some merit for himself, and seeing that this child was quite clever, he had someone bring him into the Duke's mansion. Because a steward with the surname Zhang had no son, the child was given to him to raise, and was named Zhang Xiaoshan.

It so happened that in that year, Song Hongtao's eldest son, Song Huai, was born. The two became playmates from a young age and grew up together, forming a deep bond.

Later, when Song Huai left home to study, Zhang Xiaoshan then accompanied Song Zhen. Relying on this connection, he even managed to get a small steward's position in the residence.

After Song Zhen came of age, he went to plead with Yang Shi, and Zhang Xiaoshan became the gatekeeper of the Duke's mansion.

Menzi, from a modern person's perspective, is just a gatekeeper. But in this era, for the household of a noble or an official, the position of gatekeeper was a job with a lot of power and great financial prospects.

You want to visit my master? How can you without a little something for me?

The so-called 'seventh-rank official at the prime minister's gate' is just like this.

Last year, he even married a head handmaiden from the Duke's mansion. His days were quite comfortable.

As he was reminiscing, he had already arrived in front of Zhang Xiaoshan. He handed over the gift list in his hand.

"Please inform my father that I have returned."

That Zhang Xiaoshan looked down on Song Yan quite a bit. He shot him a sideways glance and spat:

"A live-in son-in-law, and you want to use the main gate for your return visit? Go that way..."

Saying this, he jutted his chin, indicating that he should use the side gate.

Luo Tianyi, Gu Banxia, and the other household guards from the Luo family who had come along, their expressions turned a little ugly.

This Zhang Xiaoshan had often bullied him in the past. It was normal for him to look down on him. But Song Yan didn't think Zhang Xiaoshan would have the guts to disgrace the Luo family, especially under the circumstances where Luo Yuheng had already become a County Mistress. To make him use the side gate was most likely Yang Shi's doing.

He couldn't help but feel that woman was nothing special after all. Wanting to make things difficult for people, that's fine. But a smart person's method is to leave no fault for outsiders to find on the surface. Yang Shi's style of doing things was an inferior move, merely leaving a handle for gossip.

Song Yan sneered, not angry. He just silently glanced at Zhang Xiaoshan. After a brief pause, he slowly spoke:

"Speaking of which, when you were a small steward in the Duke's mansion before, you were in charge of my mother's and my area, right?"

Zhang Xiaoshan frowned, not sure what Song Yan was trying to say.

"You were quite greedy. The monthly allowance of ten taels of silver, you embezzled it all, not leaving a single copper coin for my mother."

Song Yan's tone was flat, as if he were just narrating an ordinary matter that had nothing to do with him, without any emotion.

Hearing this, Zhang Xiaoshan's expression turned ugly.

Some things can be done, but cannot be said.

Once said, it's breaking the rules.

"I still remember..." Song Yan sighed.

"In the second year after I was born, a great snow fell from the sky, crushing who knows how many houses in Ningping County, and who knows how many people were buried under the snowdrifts, never to wake again."

"The distributed charcoal, quilts, and clothes were all taken away by you."

Zhang Xiaoshan's fingers subconsciously curled. Still remember? Who are you kidding? You were only two years old that year, you wouldn't remember things. Mei Xue must have told him.

As if recalling the scene from that time, Song Yan's body curled up slightly.

"It was really cold."

"The wind howled, mixed with what felt like shards of ice. I thought I was going to freeze to death. Fortunately, my mother held me in her arms the whole time and managed to save my little life. But your room had a charcoal fire burning day and night. That set of quilts and two sets of clothes were sold by you for one tael and five qian of silver, and then you bought several jars of good wine."

Song Yan chuckled: "You really know how to enjoy life."

Gulp.

For some unknown reason, Zhang Xiaoshan swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

Song Yan's calm and unruffled attitude, for some reason, made his scalp tingle. He still didn't know what this Song Yan was trying to do.

He let out another breath, as if briefly reminiscing, before Song Yan spoke again:

"Although my mother was protecting me, the weather was just too cold. I still caught a cold and had a high fever that wouldn't go down."

"I still remember, my mother's face was always full of worry. She begged you to call the mansion's physician over, but you ignored her."

"Helpless, my mother could only give you a family heirloom, a snow jade pendant."

According to his mother, the two jade pendants were the keepsakes exchanged by his maternal grandparents. One was carved with a plum blossom, the other etched with 'snow'. They were a pair. After his mother grew up, both were given to her.

Zhang Xiaoshan's face became even uglier.

But Song Yan didn't care about Zhang Xiaoshan's expression, as if muttering to himself:

"You took the jade pendant, but still refused to do anything. You even threatened my mother to give herself to you. You are just a servant, yet you coveted a concubine. Truly audacious. Fortunately, my illness suddenly got better. My mother's face was covered in tears, and she kept saying the gods were protecting us."

In reality, what gods were there?

It was just that Song Yan himself had swallowed a paracetamol tablet.

At that time, Song Yan was small, and his body was not yet under his full control. He couldn't speak normally. Even with medicine, he couldn't unscrew the cap of the ibuprofen suspension. To be able to dig out that one paracetamol tablet had already taken all his strength.

He still remembered, the tablet got stuck in his throat, and he almost suffocated.

At this point, Song Yan's tone suddenly changed.

"Oh right, your wife seems to have been pregnant for a while now, right? Seven months? Eight months?"

Zhang Xiaoshan finally couldn't hold it in any longer. His throat moved as he spoke: "What... what are you trying to say?"

Song Yan chuckled and said casually: "I'm just saying, you... probably won't get to see what your child looks like.”