Pregnant Salted Fish Chapter 17

TL: Hua

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“Didn’t you go to the Su mansion with Mother?” Xu Xianzhi had returned to the manor at some point and was practicing martial arts in the courtyard. Seeing him shirtless, revealing his toned muscles, made Xu Yanqing a little envious.

When Xu Xianzhi put down the wooden staff in his hand and looked up at his brother’s pale face, he couldn’t help but laugh: “Why are you back so early? Didn’t the Su mansion provide food?”

“It’s not our maternal grandparents’ house; what’s there to stay for?” Xu Yanqing felt that his outing, though doing nothing, had tired him out considerably. At this moment, he only wanted to go back to his room and lie down.

Xu Xianzhi, reeking of sweat, put an arm around his brother’s shoulder: “What’s wrong? Did the people at the Su mansion upset you?”

Xu Yanqing immediately pushed his brother away: “Brother, stay away from me with all that sweat. Be careful, or I’ll throw up on you.”

Seeing his younger brother’s disgusted expression, Xu Xianzhi gave a foolish chuckle. Thinking of how his brother hadn’t been eating well lately, he didn’t argue with this “rebellious” brother: “Alright, alright, I’ll go bathe. It’s hot today; don’t stand in the sun. Go back to your room and rest quickly.”

Who was stopping him from going back to his room to rest? Xu Yanqing glared at his brother in annoyance, then turned and left.

Xu Xianzhi rubbed his nose and beckoned to the servant standing by, watching the show: “Tell the kitchen to make some light food and send it to the young master.”

The servant bowed in assent. Xu Xianzhi wiped the sweat from his forehead and quickly returned to his room to bathe.

The moment the listless salted fish lay on the bed, he slowly exhaled, feeling as though he had come back to life. Gazing up at the carved patterns on the bed canopy, Xu Yanqing was a little lost in thought. After a long while, as if remembering something, he furtively reached out and pulled over a small bundle by his pillow, taking out the smoky gray cloak from inside.

The cloak still carried the clear scent of its original owner. Xu Yanqing turned his body, hugged the cloak to his chest, and slowly closed his eyes.

This was a small secret he had accidentally discovered. Whenever he felt nauseous or unwell, just sniffing the scent from the cloak would significantly alleviate the discomfort. Although this behavior seemed extremely perverted, the listless salted fish was quite unbothered; anyway, Taoist Priest Xuanchen wouldn’t discover it.

However, Xu Yanqing also had some suspicions about this, but that suspicion was too far-fetched, so that little conjecture was immediately forgotten and cast to the winds.

When Xu Yanqing woke up from his nap, the feeling of fatigue greatly diminished. He rubbed the cloak in his arms and took a deep breath, then carefully folded the cloak piece by piece and put it back into the small bundle.

Mu Yu heard the sound coming from the room and walked in carrying the meal: “Young Master, please eat something. The prince asked the kitchen to make a few dishes you like.”

Xu Yanqing rubbed his stomach, indeed feeling a bit hungry. He sat up, let Mu Yu re-comb his hair, and then sat at the table to eat.

The food at Wu’an Marquis mansion tasted better than the vegetarian dishes at the Su mansion, mainly because Xu Yanqing was a picky eater. Since he found out he was pregnant, he had been throwing up endlessly every few days. To get their son to eat something, the Marquis and Lady had truly put in a lot of effort in the kitchen.

As Xu Yanqing was eating, he saw Lady Su walk in with a stern face: “What a good child, leaving your mother behind and happily eating by yourself.”

Xu Yanqing had Mu Yu get another pair of chopsticks and fawningly served Lady Su some rice himself: “Mother, please eat.”

The young master’s cheeks were smiling, looking very well-behaved.

Lady Su retaliated by pinching Xu Yanqing’s chubby cheek, took the chopsticks, and ate a little more with her youngest son.

“Mother, have you seen Princess Qingzhu’s child?” Speaking of which, Xu Yanqing had gone to attend the young girl’s third-day wash ceremony, but he went in vain, not even getting to see the young girl’s face. In any case, he was that young girl’s maternal uncle.

Lady Su had eaten at the banquet and wasn’t hungry now. She only ate a little to accompany her youngest son. Hearing Xu Yanqing’s question, she replied, “I saw her. The little girl is very beautiful, with a fair and tender little face exactly like Princess Qingzhu’s. Her name is Su Xuelian, and I heard the Emperor personally bestowed upon her a courtesy name, Rongyue.”

“Su Xuelian?” Xu Yanqing couldn’t eat much at each meal; fearing he’d throw up if he ate too much, he put down his chopsticks. Hearing this slightly familiar name, he was momentarily stunned.

Lady Su didn’t notice anything amiss with her son. She nodded lightly: “Indeed. Everyone says the Emperor is detached, but now it seems he’s quite good to his sister, Princess Qingzhu. He even specially gave the little girl a courtesy name; maybe she’ll even be titled a county princess someday!”

Princess Qingzhu’s legitimate eldest daughter, the Emperor and Prince Huai’s niece, and the Su family’s legitimate eldest granddaughter, Su Xuelian, courtesy name Rongyue. From birth, she was a noble lady of distinguished status.

In the original plot, when Su Xuelian was seven years old, the crown prince of the current dynasty fell ill. The Su family, considering that the palace only had one child, the Crown Prince, asked Princess Qingzhu to take her daughter to the palace to accompany the Crown Prince.

The Crown Prince adored this beautiful and delicate little girl very much. Upon meeting her, he immediately asked Su Xuelian to call him “Big Brother” and play with him. In reality, the young girl was a year older than the Crown Prince and should have been his elder cousin.

It was naturally a joyous occasion when the Crown Prince recovered his health. At the same time, the Imperial Astronomical Observatory sought an audience with the Emperor, stating that the Su family’s legitimate daughter possessed a phoenix destiny of immeasurable nobility.

When the news of her phoenix destiny spread, it naturally shocked the court. However, upon reflection, it was known that the Su family’s legitimate daughter was only seven years old, so she certainly wouldn’t be the emperor’s empress. Thus, she could only be matched with the Crown Prince.

Therefore, the ministers petitioned for the Su family’s legitimate daughter to be bestowed upon the Crown Prince. Thus, the seven-year-old girl became the future Crown Princess of Daliang from then on.

Xu Yanqing chatted with Lady Su for a while longer, then sent the slightly tired Lady Su off. He nestled into a lounge chair in the courtyard, blinking blankly. He felt it was all a bit too miraculous, so after all that, he hadn’t transmigrated to another world but rather into a book.

As if remembering something, Xu Yanqing got up from the lounge chair, asked Mu Yu to guard the door, and went back to his room. Sitting at his desk, he took out a piece of white paper.

The Su family’s relationships were both complex and simple. After roughly drawing out the Su family’s relationship chart, Xu Yanqing specifically circled Su Xuelian’s name.

Then Xu Yanqing took out another piece of white paper. He recalled the plot, which was already a bit fuzzy in his memory. However, because he had argued with someone in the comment section just before his sudden death, he could barely extract some key points.

The Crown Prince was one year younger than Su Xuelian, so at this time, the Crown Prince’s birth mother should have just become pregnant. And the Crown Prince’s father, the Emperor of Daliang, seemed to be…

[The Emperor grew up in a Taoist temple due to some special reasons, so it could be said he was a Taoist emperor. He was quite aloof towards everything, including this son.]

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A Taoist… emperor? The first image that flashed into Xu Yanqing’s mind was a dignified, composed, and detached face.

This made everything clear. No wonder Taoist Priest Xuanchen appeared in the Su mansion today, and no wonder he, as a Taoist, was treated as a distinguished guest by the Su mansion.

Because the true identity of Taoist Priest Xuanchen was the current emperor—Yin Yanjun.

Xu Yanqing clenched his fists, his gaze unconsciously falling to his abdomen. So, the child in his belly was very likely the Crown Prince from the original plot, and he was the Crown Prince’s short-lived birth mother?

“By the way, is it still too late to abort you now?” Xu Yanqing gazed at his belly with an extremely complex look, raising a hand to lightly touch it. The child was only two months old, not yet showing signs of a pregnant belly, just a tiny sprout.

It was hard to imagine this child growing up to become as paranoid and irritable as depicted in the plot. This made Xu Yanqing think of his mother from his previous life, and he became even more depressed.

His gaze slowly fell upon the two messily drawn papers. Xu Yanqing lit a lamp and burned the papers to ashes. According to Dr. Qi’s advice, he definitely couldn’t abort this child; otherwise, he would end up with a fate of “one corpse, two lives.”

So, he now only had one path to take: prevent Taoist Priest Xuanchen from discovering this child and prevent this child from becoming the Crown Prince of Daliang.

Nip everything in the bud. As long as the Crown Prince of Daliang wasn’t this little sprout in his belly, and then he ran far, far away, preventing the little sprout from meeting Su Xuelian, maybe the future tragic fate could be prevented.

Mu Yu at the door sniffed. He suddenly smelled something strange, so he couldn’t help but knock on the door: “Young Master, is something burning?”

Xu Yanqing cleaned up the burnt marks: “Nothing at all, you smelled wrong.”

Having figured this out, the salted fish silently pondered that he still needed to find an excuse to make a quick escape. However, with his father and mother keeping such a close eye on him, there was definitely no chance of leaving the capital right now.

But fortunately, he didn’t look like a pregnant person yet. As long as he stayed honestly within the Wu’an Marquis mansion and didn’t bump into Taoist Priest Xuanchen again, the risk was still very low.

However, half a month later, a great opportunity to run away arrived in front of the mourning salted fish.

Though Marquis Wu’an is now a nobleman, he was once just a farmer who rose through the military ranks. Before he made his fortune, his hometown suffered a natural disaster, and most of the village was scattered. In the end, he was the only one who survived in his family.

To survive in those chaotic times, Marquis Wu’an decisively joined the army. Being alone, he naturally could risk his life, and after countless brushes with death, he earned his current glory.

Later, due to severe injuries, Marquis Wu’an had to remain in the capital to recuperate. However, he still held a position and naturally couldn’t leave the capital at will. When his eldest son was young, he would return to his hometown every five years to pay respects to his ancestors. Once Xu Xianzhi grew up, the task of ancestor worship was passed on to him.

Coincidentally, it was almost time for Xu Xianzhi to return to his hometown for ancestor worship, so Xu Yanqing pestered his elder brother to go with him.

“This is utter nonsense!” Lady Su, rarely stern with her usually pampered youngest son, retorted, “You’re nearly three months pregnant now. Although it’s much more stable than the first two months, your father’s ancestral home is very far from the capital. How can your body possibly endure such a journey?!”

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