The Double-Chapter 571 - 168 Joyful News_4

"Of course we can’t take action now," Li Xian said, "Otherwise, just after receiving the good news, if she were to suddenly miscarry, not only would she blame us, but Prince Cheng would point his finger at us as well. Let’s wait a little longer. During these days, act as if unaware, and do not skimp on the medicinal food for securing the pregnancy. When the time is ripe, let her ’accidentally’ miscarry, and no blame can fall upon us."

"Even so, are we to just let her deceive us?" Li Lian said, unwilling to accept the situation, "Anyone who could do such a thing to the Li Family would have already lost their life. And yet, this woman is still alive and well, taking the Li Family as a joke."

"What other choice do we have?" Li Xian said with a bitter smile, "She is, after all, Prince Cheng’s sister."

"Speaking of which, does Prince Cheng actually know about this matter? If he does, then it’s like biting the hand that feeds him. We’ve been following him loyally, yet he has us play the fool for his sister behind the scenes. That’s hardly honorable," Li Lian remarked.

"Prince Cheng..." Before he could finish, they heard Li Zhongnan speak from the side with a heavy tone. His eyes swirled with indignation as he said, "This is intolerable!"

...

The news of Princess Yongning’s pregnancy spread throughout Yanjing City overnight.

When Jiang Li learned of this, she found it particularly amusing.

"Isn’t it less than a month..." Bai Xue wondered, "In our hometown, there’s a belief that if a noble family conceives a child, they shouldn’t tell anyone during the first three months of the pregnancy. Only after this critical period, they can announce it widely. Otherwise, the child might easily be taken by King Yama."

"Exactly, exactly," Tonger said, "I’ve also heard this. Princess Yongning really isn’t afraid of putting her child in danger, announcing it to the whole world so hastily. She couldn’t even wait a month." frёeweɓηovel.coɱ

"Of course she couldn’t wait," said Jiang Li with a slight smile, "She wants everyone to know about her good news, to know that she conceived a child of the Li Family’s as soon as she entered their household."

The less one has, the more one hurries to prove something, such is human nature since ancient times. Princess Yongning, fearing others would realize that the child is the secret progeny of her affair with Shen Yurong, proclaimed to the world, trying to affirm that the child is undoubtedly of the Li Family. But this was like ’three hundred taels of silver not here’, only making those who knew the truth laugh.

Jiang Li was one who knew the truth, and of course, Li Xian was as well. The more Princess Yongning made a grand announcement to the world, the more the people of the Li Family felt as if they wore green hats, feeling oppressed and short of breath.

However, Princess Yongning’s motivation might not have been solely to assert that the child belonged to the Li Family. Perhaps it was also to show Shen Yurong, making him feel uncomfortable, his child calling another man father, bearing another’s surname. Shen Yurong would undoubtedly feel uneasy. This was Princess Yongning’s counterattack.

Yet Jiang Li understood even clearer than Princess Yongning, Shen Yurong would be indifferent. If he could be so cold towards his own lost child even while in the depths of passion with her, he wouldn’t care too much about a child with whom he had intentions of utilitarianism, Princess Yongning’s own child even less so.

Perhaps if one day Princess Yongning’s child disappeared, Shen Yurong would clap his hands in delight, relieved, for then the threat against him would vanish. No more leverage to threaten him would remain.

Jiang Li walked to the dressing mirror and picked up the pearl earrings from the box, carefully putting them on. Tonger, realizing after the fact, poked her head over and asked, "Are you planning to visit the Ye Family, miss? Weren’t you supposed to go after noon?"

"No," Jiang Li said, "I’m going somewhere else."

Last night she had told Zhao Ke that she wanted to visit the Duke Residence today. She had some matters to discuss with Jih Heng, involving the play between Princess Yongning and Li Xian. She hoped that Jih Heng could lend a hand, but she really didn’t know what she could offer in return. Jih Heng could cook, so sweets and such were unnecessary. Thus, she picked out an oddly-shaped piece of jade from the trinkets Ye Mingyu had given her. The jade’s shape was peculiar and indistinct, but its color was distinct—a translucent red that deepened from the center to the edges, reaching the richest hue at the core before fading to a pale red around the periphery.

Jiang Li had spent the past few days carving it with a pair of tweezers and a fine brush, and at last, it resembled a butterfly.

He owned a golden silk folding fan, a deadly weapon adorned with blooming peonies. When not being used for assassination, the fan was a beautiful accessory but seemed to lack something. Jiang Li made a butterfly fan pendant, thinking it would enhance the appearance of his fan. The butterfly fluttering around the peony was like his clothes fluttering as he killed—beautiful and terrifying.