Farm Girl's Manor-Chapter 1384: Extra Episode 15: Going to Give Birth

The north wind howled, and the snow swirled in flurries. In the corner of the room, four braziers burned brightly, and the modestly sized room was warm and free of any chill.

Mo Yan leaned softly against the couch, her lower half covered by a thick woolen blanket, presently engrossed in a medical book, staring in a daze at the snowflakes outside the window resembling large goose feathers.

At that moment, the thick door curtain was lifted a sliver, and a tall and handsome figure silently walked in, carrying a faint chill.

Looking at his wife, who was quietly watching the snow by the window, Xiao Ruiyuan didn’t immediately go over. He stood by the closest brazier for a while until the chill on him had entirely dissipated, then he trudged over to his wife’s side and grasped her hand.

Mo Yan looked up, her face showing a trace of surprise, "You’re back? Is everything taken care of?"

Previously, some matters had arisen in Jing City, and Emperor Huian had urgently summoned Xiao Ruiyuan to the palace, a trip that lasted over ten days. On one hand, Mo Yan missed him, and on another, she worried he was involved in dangerous affairs, which left her unable to sleep soundly these past few days.

"Mhm," Xiao Ruiyuan replied lightly, adjusting the blanket over his wife’s body, "There shouldn’t be anything else this year, so we can stay until the seventh day of the twelfth lunar month."

After the seventh day of the twelfth month came the eighth, by then they must return. The house’s first Laba Festival couldn’t be without its master and mistress present.

Upon hearing this, Mo Yan felt somewhat wistful, "The days here are too leisurely, and there are hot springs to soak in during winter; I don’t want to leave."

Xiao Ruiyuan, couldn’t help but pinch her slightly protruded cheek as he listened to her childlike words, "If you like it here, we can come back after the new year, and it’s fine to stay until you give birth to the child."

Mo Yan was quite tempted by the idea and was about to nod in agreement when she suddenly remembered her mother, who was also pregnant, and shook her head, "Never mind, my mother and I will give birth around the same time. If I really stayed until the birth, the bath-three ceremony and full-month celebration would be difficult to manage. We can’t expect my father and the others to travel all this way."

The place where the couple currently resided was a hot spring villa left to Xiao Ruiyuan by his mother, located sixty li to the east of the city. It was a quiet area with breathtaking scenery and natural hot springs to enjoy.

Only the couple remained here, as Cui Qingrou and Liu Tinglan had been taken home by their respective husbands half a month earlier. Xin Er and Shengsheng also returned to Jing City, concerned that their salted eggs might sell out.

Now, the couple’s salted egg business was thriving, with daily profits reaching ten taels after expenses, amounting to three hundred taels of silver a month, which was more than what Xin Er could make from a year of hard work on embroidery.

However, Xin Er preferred to embroider those intricate and splendid screens and make beautiful garments, dedicating only half a day to salted egg production while spending the remaining time on her embroidery.

Combined, the silver they saved was enough to buy a significant portion of an embroidery workshop. Xin Er planned to continue the salted egg business for another two years, and as soon as she had enough silver, she would buy a shop and open an embroidery workshop, resolutely refusing the silver sponsored by Mo Yan and her family.

Xiao Ruiyuan also felt it wasn’t appropriate upon thinking and then said, "Then let’s wait until the child’s full-month celebration to come back. We can also invite your mother and younger brother then. Your father said that this baby your mother is carrying is a boy."

Mo Yan suddenly sat up, asking urgently, "Are you sure? Is mother really carrying a brother?"

Xiao Ruiyuan, frightened by his wife’s drastic movement, quickly stretched out his hand to hold her down, "Be careful not to twist your waist."

Mo Yan waved her hand, twisting her still agile waist, "No worries, I haven’t become a big fatty, so it’s not that easy to hurt my waist. But tell me, is the baby my mother’s carrying a boy or a girl?"

Not reassured, Xiao Ruiyuan directly picked up his wife, then leaned back against the couch, holding her tightly in his arms to stop her from moving around, "The Cui family consulted a famed imperial physician from Taiyi Hospital and a reputable midwife in Jing City, both of whom said your mother is carrying a boy."

Mo Yan nodded, relieved, "If mother’s baby is truly a boy, that would be great. Our family has only Zhenzhen as a male child, which is rather meager."

Although Yun Zhao was an adopted son of the Mo Family, and no one in the Mo Family treated him as an outsider, Yun Zhao’s surname was ultimately Yun, and if he changed his surname, it would be back to Mu, definitively not a direct descendant of the Mo Family.

Xiao Ruiyuan smiled slightly, grasping his wife’s hand tighter, "If it were any other family, they might have wished the stepmother had borne a sister instead!"