Seven Unfortunate Lifetimes, All Thanks to a Single Moment of Impulse - Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Edited by renderedreversed

Chapter 26

 

Though Chu Kong was blushing, he didn’t hide away . Instead, he slowly began to walk towards us . I drank a cup of wine while observing everyone’s expression . Xinyun leaned closer to me, her face full of panic . Chu Yi was more nervous than I was . Quietly, he went over to Xinyun’s side as if he was afraid that when Chu Kong got here, he’d kill her . The expressions of the maids behind Chu Kong were resentful . Only Chu Kong seemed indifferent . With a raised chin, he stood proudly before me . His face was a bit pale . The pregnancy must’ve weakened his body’s health .

I stroked my chin . Under such circumstances, how should the dialogue of the princess and the general go? I agonized over it without result . Chu Kong took the initiative and sat down beside me . He pointed at Xinyun’s hand, which was holding mine, and said, “Let go . ”

Her voice wasn’t loud, but her tone was arrogant and left no room for disobedience .

Fire seemed to have caught on Xinyun’s hand . With a “putong” sound, she immediately knelt down . Tears were in her eyes as she looked at me . It was a display worthy of pity .

At this point, I still hadn’t figured out how General Chu would react, so I continued to act all mean, serious, and general-like with an inscrutable look on my face . And I kept drinking . Naturally, I was waiting for Chu Kong to clean up this mess .

Chu Kong also picked up a cup and poured himself some wine . The maid behind him immediately said, “Princess, you’re pregnant . You shouldn’t drink . ”

Chu Kong quietly played with his cup of wine for a while . Then, he placed the cup on the table and pushed it over to Xinyun .

“I’ve forgotten that I was pregnant . That being the case, Lady Xinyun can drink this cup of wine on bengong’s . ”

Xinyun shivered . Her eyes were frightened . I suddenly remembered that this was no different from getting wine from the royal family2 . But I also know that, although Chu Kong was arrogant, he wouldn’t just casually murder someone . This wine must be because he wanted to tease her…

When an emperor or someone from the royal family wants to give you a cup of wine, mostly it’s poison

So, I also opened my eyes and excitedly looked at Xinyun .

“General…”

Chu Yi was more impatient than I . I waved to shut him up . Xinyun looked over to me, asking for help with her eyes . I also stared at her . She seemed to know that I wouldn’t open my mouth to save her, so she gritted her teeth, grabbed the cup of wine, raised it, and drank it all in one go . Xinyun closed her eyes and waited in fear for a long while . But…nothing happened . More horrified than she was before, she opened her eyes and quickly glanced at Chu Kong .

“Princess Qingling, you…”

“What about bengong?”

Chu Kong smiled .

“What about bengong, you can only endure it . ”

Xinyun hung her head . Her fists were clenched . The surroundings turned dead silent . Chu Kong’s finger was tapping on the table . His head was bent, so I didn’t know what he was thinking . I felt that staying silent like this was also not the answer, so I let Chu Yi send Xinyun off . Chu Kong and I sat for a while, and then she let the maids wait outside .

After everyone left, I raised my thumbs: “You performed very much like a princess . That arrogant look, cheche… Forcing a woman like that, don’t you feel guilty?”

I suddenly remembered the first time I went to the Netherworld: there was a lady dressed in pink who stood beside Chu Kong . I thought really hard and finally remembered her name . Thus, I decided to tease him and said, “Did you ever treat that Immortal Yingshi like that?”

Chu Kong’s eyes lightly swept over me . “Yinshi would not make such a disgusting expression . ”

Hearing him protect another woman shouldn’t have upset me so, but I was reminded of a time four lifetimes ago, when he told that same woman he would come back and watch the stars with her after he made me an eunuch . The difference in treatment, so stark as it was said in the same breath, was as marked as the Netherworld was vast .

My heart suddenly decided it was unhappy .

I placed my cup on the table and said, “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with Xinyun’s expression . Being weak can reap many benefits . ”

Chu Kong looked at me out of the corner of his eyes and raised a brow . “After receiving a turtle shell, you still think of yourself as a man?”

I didn’t want to argue with him about this, so I turned and looked at the sky . “So . Autumn . The weather is nice today . ”

Chu Kong coldly laughed . “While I was busy thoroughly investigating this situation, here’s a certain someone who spent his time sitting around and drinking all day . Getting comfortable as the man of the house, I see . Eating men and women alike, your life is really good . ”

Chu Kong meant that she likes both men and women .

I protested: “Firstly, I don’t see myself as the owner of this body, and I didn’t spend my time eating men and women alike . Secondly, I also earnestly went to find out more about our surroundings . ”

“Oh? Then tell me what you’ve found out . ”

I put on a solemn expression and seriously said, “The cook of the General’s manor tends to overcook the food . ”

As an example, I picked up one of the desserts on the table and took a bite . It was disgusting . “I really don’t know how the general and the princess bore it till now . I’m trying to find a reason to dismiss him . ”

Chu Kong’s lips trembled . Unrestrained, he flung the plate of desserts into the pond to feed the fish .

“Good for nothing . ” That was his evaluation of me .

Then he said, serious: “Did you see that this Xinyun is not simple?”

I was surprised and gulped down the desserts in my mouth, letting them come to rest in the pit of my stomach .

“How complex can she be?”

“Think, with the little brain that you have . If the arrogant princess really decided to perish together with the general, do you really think that she’d leave Xinyun alone? But this woman is still alive, so I relentlessly researched her . Sure enough, someone is manipulating her from behind . ”

“Who?”

Chu Kong shook his head . “What I can find now isn’t much . But you must be careful around this woman . ”

He touched his chin, narrowed his eyes, and said, “With the limited power I have at the moment, I couldn’t find much about Xinyun . The previous general who climbed from soldier to general must have been a smart man . He must’ve also detected something strange about Xinyun’s origin . But why did he love her? Did she really befuddle his mind…”

I tapped my cup and speculated: “Could it be…that the general didn’t actually like Xinyun as much as other people thought he did?”

And also, I privately added, he didn’t actually hate the princess as much as other people thought he did, either…

Chu Kong frowned and thought for a while . Then, he said, “These troublesome mortals! All day long, they only know how to make a mess of things!”

I scratched my head and said, “I really want to go to the Netherworld and ask them what happened!”

Feeling sad for a while, I sat down, and the pavilion quieted down as well . The autumn wind blew . I whispered: “Pregnancy…how are you feeling?”

Chu Kong’s voice seemed to have disappeared . I continued to ask, “Did your belly grow bigger? Why do I feel that nothing is happening to you, ah…”

I thought that after hearing me start such a topic, Chu Kong would get angry . But all he did was glance at me and say, “What should happen? Say it, let me hear it . ”

I raised my fingers one by one and counted: “The whole body feels tired, loss of appetite . ”

“A little . ”

“The breast hurts, nauseous and vomiting . ”

Chu Kong shook his head . “No . ”

I wondered: “Didn’t your belly grow bigger?”

“How would I know if it got bigger?” Chu Kong asked me . “Would xiaoye touch a woman’s belly when he’s bored?”

“But now this is your body!” I pouted . “Do you think it’s cool to need to lift up this small jiji when I go to the toilet? I, a virtuous lady, need to do this every day . What’s wrong with touching your belly every day to see if the child is well?”

Chu Kong narrowed his eyes . “Do you think it’s easy to be a woman? This chest feels like a heavy iron ball, but every day, I still need to walk with a straight back . It’s really tiring . ”

“Nonsense! Do you think I haven’t been a woman before?! Don’t exaggerate . ”

Chu Kong raised an eyebrow and was quiet for a while . Suddenly, he smiled and said, “En, I think you’ll never know my sorrow . ”

I clenched my fists . This bastard…what was he trying to say…

Chu Kong suddenly stood up and picked up the jug of wine .

“This afternoon, I’ll go and test that ‘weak expression that can reap many benefits’ of Lady Xinyun’s . The wound on General is still not healed . I’ll reward this wine to others . ”

He walked out of the garden .

I stared at the empty table . This pregnancy of Chu Kong was strange . I should go and ask a doctor; let him give her some medicine that would be good for a pregnant woman…

Princess was busy doing things outside, so the general needed to make him feel at peace on the inside . After all, we had a working relationship now .

After the meal, I went to see the live-in physician . Physician Zhang was a middle-aged man . He seemed a little useless, too afraid of death . When I entered his room, he had already been shivering . Frowning, I asked: “Did you recently go to check the princess’s pulse?”

Physician Zhang uncontrollably shivered . “Answering the general, since the last time the princess…was poisoned, she no longer lets me check her pulse, and the medicine has also been returned . ”

“Nonsense,” I shouted angrily . “Forget about the princess being capricious . You helped her hide this and did not report to me!”

If it delayed Chu Kong’s labour, I feared that I could no longer see this kind of adventure!

Physician Zhan was scared and kowtowed . “General, forgive me! General, forgive me!”

I saw him pitifully shivering on the floor and let him stand up to answer . Then I told him the symptoms that Chu Kong told me earlier . I hadn’t even asked him about it yet, when he knelt again with a “putong” sound . His body was trembling now . I wondered: “I didn’t bully you . What are you afraid of? Stand up . ”

“I don’t dare! I don’t dare!”

Seeing him like that, I got angry and snapped: “Stand up! Say everything you know!”

Physician Zhang attached his head to the floor . With a tremulous voice, he said, “I…I think that this symptom of the princess is… I fear…I fear that in princess’ belly is a stillborn . ”

I blinked . I didn’t understand .

“Say that again . ”

I squatted down and placed my ear beside his mouth .

“Louder . ”

“Princess…princess is pregnant with… . with a stillborn . ”

I carefully listened to his words, and once I comprehended them, I stood up, feeling a little dizzy . Physician Zhang, trembling again, began a bumbling speech: “General, General, if we don’t let the fetus come out quickly, it’ll cause great harm to the mother! If it isn’t done properly, the princess will also…”

My heart chilled . I grabbed Physician Zhang’s hand and went straight to Chu Kong’s residence .

Let a stillbirth be a stillbirth . Being unable to see Chu Kong go into labor was fine, but if he died…

I inexplicably began to panic . If he was dead, with what would I play with?

I hurriedly rushed to Chu Kong’s chamber . His maid was evasive and refused to tell me where Chu Kong was . I was so angry that I was nearly breathing fire . Suddenly, I remembered that he told me he was going to test Lady Xinyun this afternoon . At about this time, he should already be at Xinyun’s . I grabbed the physician again, let Chu Yi prepare a carriage, and hustled over to Xinyun’s residence .

Xinyun lived in a small house on the west of the city . This was especially arranged by the general . When the carriage stopped in front of the door, I jumped out .

I suddenly heard Chu Kong’s gasp, coming somewhere from the yard . “Damn… . . ”

His voice was tight . He sounded like he was in unbearable pain .

Chu Yi frowned . He must be surprised that the haughty and proud Princess Qingling would lower herself to curse .

I didn’t have time to care about our identities being discovered; something must’ve happened inside, and I wasn’t going to spend another minute waiting . I took two steps, kicked the door open, and went straight inside .

Nothing prepared me for the scene inside . There were three men in black standing tall . One of them had grabbed Xinyun by her armpits . She seemed to have suffered light injuries .

Chu Kong was squatting on the ground . His whole forehead was full of cold sweat, and he was very pale . A large gorgeous skirt was spread over the ground . Two maids were lying beside Chu Kong, and whether they had just fainted or had already left on the road to the Netherworld was anyone’s guess .

At my sudden appearance, the three men, frightened, shared a look .

Then someone shouted the word “run,” and something exploded . Dust was everywhere . The Chu Yi beside me didn’t wait for the dust to settle and went to catch up with them . In a blink of eye, I didn’t know where he went to, and I didn’t care about who those people were, either . I ran towards Chu Kong instead, patting his face to consciousness .

“Hey, how are you? Injured? Where are you injured?”

Chu Kong grabbed my hand . He couldn’t spit one complete word out . I listened to each carefully for half a day and still didn’t understand . His eyes began to roll to the back of his head . Finally, I was able to understand two words from the broken pieces that came out of his mouth: “Given…birth…”

I blanked out . Nothing else mattered at the moment; I pulled him close and hugged him . The wide skirt beneath him was drenched in blood, and even more blood was still gushing out at an unimaginable speed . It was my first time experiencing such a scene; I was so scared that I began to tremble . Panicked, I exclaimed, “Chu Kong, this isn’t right! Why is it like you’re menstruating instead of giving birth…this isn’t right!”

Physician Zhang, who was hiding outside, seemed like he couldn’t stand it anymore . He ran over to me, gaze flickering to Chu Kong as he cried, “General, it’s a dead fetus . The fetus has flown out! We can’t let the princess continue to bleed . We must stop the bleeding!”

In the chaos, somehow I still managed to ask: “How, how, how do we stop the bleeding? Block it? With what does it need to be blocked? Rolling pin?”

The physician hadn’t given me an answer yet, when Chu Kong, who I thought had already fainted, suddenly grabbed my hand . His glare was ferocious when he said, “You dare to be so reckless… Try it and see what happens!”

I was so anxious that I was about to cry . My eyes were red and my nose felt sore and sour .

“Then what am I supposed to do?! Does it hurt? What do I need to do? What do you want me to do?!”

Chu Kong, seeing me in such a state, was a bit surprised: “It’s just…one reincarnation…”

How could I not understand that? The purpose of our lives in this world was just a reincarnation, just one lifetime in a line of seven, but every reincarnation was unique . If we missed it, it would be gone for good .

Humans were fragile . That was why they knew how to cherish life more than us immortals . Perhaps Chu Kong and I would never understand the fear of death, but at this moment, I knew that he miscarried a life . All I could do was helplessly watch that life pass, as all humans would…

It was impossible to be unafraid . It was impossible to stop trembling . Gods had very few feelings, but perhaps that was only because there were very few matters that concerned them .

 

 

本宫 (Běn gōng): means I . When someone from the court excluding the emperor refer to him/herself they’ll use ben before their title like ben wang, ben fei, ben jiangjun and ben gong . behalf