Chapter 463: Gamble
Editor: Atlas Studios
As the fruit wine was soft and sweet, Mu Yangling couldn’t help but drink too much. No matter how low the alcohol content was, it was still alcohol. Besides, Mu Yangling had never drunk much alcohol in this life. Although she wasn’t drunk, she let Qi Haoran carry her back to her room in a daze.
Qi Haoran chuckled and kissed Mu Yangling’s face. He said smugly, “Who asked you not to let me get into bed.”
Mu Yangling stared at Qi Haoran in a daze for a while before suddenly turning around and rolling into the blanket. Then, she pulled the thin blanket over herself and fell asleep obediently.
Qi Haoran’s jaw dropped. Was it over just like that?
He pressed down on Mu Yangling indignantly and kissed her carelessly. “Don’t sleep yet. I still have something to tell you.”
Mu Yangling kicked him off in a daze and muttered, “It’s dark. I’m going to sleep.”
Unwillingly, Qi Haoran climbed up again and reached out to unbutton her clothes. Originally, he just wanted to fool around with her, but as he got more and more into it, he extinguished the lights, completely pressing down on Mu Yangling…
When Mu Yangling woke up the next day, she had a headache when she saw Qi Haoran pestering her nakedly. Thinking of the fruit wine last night, she felt that she had fallen into his trap. She wasn’t too eager to have a child at this time to begin with. Thinking about it, she decided to let nature take its course and not torture herself.
Seeing that Mu Yangling had completely relented, Qi Haoran became happy. He thought that she had finally thought it through and wanted to have a child with him.
The two of them lived happily together in their own world, while Madam Li was also very busy recuperating and taking care of the baby. Thus, their lives slid forward happily for two months. By then, Little Treasure was already three months old.
On the morning of the third month, Mu Yangling and Qi Haoran went to Madam Li’s place together and waited for the imperial physician to examine Little Treasure.
The imperial physician and doctor had been staying in the farmstead for the past three months. Through observation, they had already confirmed that the child was fine a month ago. However, they adhered to the principle of ‘better safe than sorry’. Today, after three months, they still seriously checked for a long time. In the end, the two old men gathered together and talked for a long time. In the end, they concluded that there was nothing wrong with Little Treasure’s intelligence. Although his body was a little weak, that was because he had been born prematurely and had been stifled in his mother’s womb for a long time. As long as they paid attention to nursing his health, it would not be a problem for him to catch up to other healthy children in the future.
It was easy to nurse the child’s health. Because the child was young, the damage to his body was not particularly serious. Furthermore, he was nursed through the milk of the wet nurse, so most of the medicinal poison had already been removed.
However, Li Jinghua was different. The impact on her health was more serious. After discussing with the imperial physician for a long time, she could only receive a vague comforting answer. That is, if she took care of herself, she might be able to recover and get pregnant again in the future.
Qi Haoran and Mu Yangling were a little sad. Mu Yangling was sad that Li Jinghua’s health had been affected at such a young age. Qi Haoran was sad that his big brother might only have one legitimate son in his life.
On the other hand, Li Jinghua was the most resilient and open-minded because she had already prepared for the worst after giving birth. Now, she only hoped to raise Little Treasure. She also hoped that Qi Xiuyuan’s second child would be a few years younger than Little Treasure, so that Little Treasure’s position as the eldest son would be more stable.
The imperial physician left behind a few prescriptions for recuperation before bidding farewell and returning to the palace to report.
The doctor continued to stay in the farmstead.
Now that Little Treasure was declared to be fine, the confinement was naturally lifted. Mu Yangling began to bring Little Treasure to the farmstead from time to time to play.
At first, Li Jinghua wanted to stop her, but after seeing that Little Treasure had become more lively after two days of going there, and his face had become more rosy, she stopped stopping her.
With a smile, Mu Yangling said, “Sister-in-law, don’t worry about the child being naughty. The more naughty the child is, the smarter he will be. You should take children out often and let them see more things. This way, their brains will develop faster.”
Li Jinghua smiled and said, “You even know that? When it comes to raising children, you do sound like you know a lot.”
“I raised my younger siblings every step of the way.” Mu Yangling said proudly, “My Bowen’s body has been weaker than Little Treasure’s since he was young. Yet, I brought him all over the village just after he turned 100 days old. In the end, you see, although his body can’t compare to others, no one can compare to his intelligence.”
Li Jinghua also knew that Mu Yangling had a ten-year-old tongsheng1 younger brother. It seemed that he had even participated in the academy examination this year, but she didn’t know if he had passed. If he had, he would now be a ten-year-old xiucai and could indeed be considered a genius.
Li Jinghua asked, “When did he participate in the academy examination?”
“He participated once this year and didn’t get in. His teacher asked him to study for two more years before trying again. Anyway, he’s still young and has so many things to do. There’s no hurry.”
Li Jinghua nodded slightly and looked at Little Treasure, who was shaking his head. Smiling, she said, “Then I’ll have to trouble you to give our Little Treasure more guidance in the future.”
Mu Yangling kissed Little Treasure and said with a beam, “Sister-in-law, don’t worry about that. In the future, our Little Treasure will definitely be the most heroic person in the world.”
Seeing that Mu Yangling really doted on Little Treasure and that Little Treasure also liked Mu Yangling, Li Jinghua couldn’t help but be happy. “We’ve been out for quite a long time. Let’s go back. Seeing as Little Treasure is almost a hundred days old, we have to hold a hundred-day celebration for him.”
Since they didn’t even hold a one-month-old xisan ceremony for Little Treasure, there were all kinds of speculations in the capital. Because the Qi family had a disagreement with the Zhang, Shu, and Zhou families because of this matter, the news spread very widely. There were even casinos setting up bets. Some bet that Madam Li was critically ill, and some bet that the child was critically ill, both outcomes of which odds were very low. The outcome with the highest odds was Madam Li and the child being fine.
At first, Qi Haoran was so angry that smoke came out of his nose. Later on, he suppressed his anger when Mu Yangling casually said, “The health of Sister-in-law and the child doesn’t depend on the bets of those people outside. Why are you so anxious? If it maddens you, just pretend that you didn’t hear it.”
He suppressed his anger, but this matter could not be settled like this.
At that time, the child’s condition was still unclear, but judging from his performance, he was very likely healthy. In a fit of anger, Qi Haoran bet all the cash he could get and even ran to Fan Zijin to sweep away all his allowance.
Because of this, Mu Yangling even teased Qi Haoran for being too serious. Still, she also handed Fei Bai some money to get him to bet on it.
In order to please his masters and earn some extra money, Fei Bai came back and said with a smile, “Fourth Master, Fourth Madam, I’ve also placed a bet of 20 taels, hoping to rub off on your luck.”
Mu Yangling smiled and did not say anything. However, Qi Haoran curled his lips in disdain and said, “You’re so poor to actually only bet 20 taels of silver. Don’t tell others that you’re my servant when you go out.” As he spoke, he took out 10 taels of silver from Mu Yangling’s drawer and tipped him to bet more.
Mu Yangling did not know whether to laugh or cry, but Fei Bai was so happy that he kowtowed three times to the two of them. Considering the salary of a servant was three taels a month, this was his salary for three months and ten days.
Originally, when the imperial doctor returned to the capital a few days ago, they thought that the casino would close. After all, they could find out the exact situation from the imperial doctor. However, who knew that this imperial doctor would be so tight-lipped and not say a word? Not only did it make the betting odds higher, but it also made many young women start to contact Madam Wu to find out how long it would be before Qi Xiuyuan remarried.
Even Qi Feng and Madam Wu sent someone to ask about Madam Li and the child.
Mu Yangling said that Madam Li and the child were fine for the time being. She was telling the truth because Madam Li and the child were indeed still a little weak.
Qi Feng and Madam Wu regurgitated Mu Yangling’s exact words, but no one believed them.