Chapter 7
Yuan Xiujin lifted his teacup without even raising his eyes.
“With her status now, is she fit to attend our child’s first-month celebration?”
“She would only be an eyesore and a nuisance.”
Before his words had faded, I could no longer suppress my churning stomach.
A rush of sourness rose to my throat, and I retched aloud.
The wolf-hair brush in my hand swerved, blotting the freshly copied sutra into a mess.
Yao Mingzhu instantly shrank into Yuan Xiujin’s arms, patting her chest.
“Miss Meng, what are you doing?”
“If you don’t want to pray for my child, just say so. Why do something so disgusting?”
“If anything happens to my baby, I won’t want to live either…”
By the end, she was sobbing softly against Yuan Xiujin’s shoulder.
He quickly put an arm around her and glared at me.
“Meng Shanwu, do you want to die?”
“You can’t even copy a sutra properly!”
“Are you trying to bring Mingzhu bad luck?”
He shouted, “Guards! Drag her out and give her twenty hard strokes!”
Lühe stood in front of me, pleading desperately.
“Your Highness! My mistress didn’t mean it!”
“Please be merciful! Forgive her this once!”
“She studied, rode, and practiced archery with you. You grew up together. How can you bear to do this?”
The guards were already approaching.
The abbess exchanged a look with Yao Mingzhu, then pressed her palms together.
“Spilling blood in this sacred place might offend the child Her Highness carries.”
“I know a little medicine. Let me examine Miss Meng first. If she truly intended an offense, punishment can wait.”
Yuan Xiujin flung out his sleeve, utterly impatient. “What a troublesome creature.”
I sat on the cushion, my forehead slick with sweat.
The abbess examined my pulse for a while. At first her face was ordinary, but suddenly it changed.
She switched to my other wrist and pressed it again for a long time. “This… this is… a pregnancy pulse!”
Yao Mingzhu reacted first. “The legitimate daughter of the Meng clan, carrying a bastard!”
“So that’s why you’ve been hiding here instead of returning to the capital!”
“You’d already committed this shameful act!”
The noble ladies beside her erupted too.
“An unmarried girl, daring to take a lover?”
“How did the Meng family raise something so shameless?”
Yuan Xiujin kicked over an offering table.
“Meng Shanwu, how dare you take a lover behind my back!”
“Tell me who he is! I’ll cut him to pieces!”
I sank beside the cushion, instinctively protecting my belly with my hand, and said nothing.
That only enraged him further.
Though he had always despised me, in his mind I already belonged to the Eastern Palace.
Even if he did not want me, no other man had the right to touch me.
Furious, Yuan Xiujin gripped my chin. “Tell me! Who is your lover?”
“I want to see who dared lay hands on you!”
Pain darkened my vision, yet I gave a low laugh.
“I ask only… that Your Highness grant me death.”
That drove him completely mad.
“Fine! You won’t speak?”
“Guards, investigate! Find that adulterer!”
“When you find him, castrate him, beat him to death, and throw his body into the burial pit for the dogs!”
“And this bitch—strip her and drag her through the streets!”
“Let all of Chang’an see!”
“Let them see that the Duke of Meng’s daughter is a shameless whore who’ll sleep with anyone!”
The guards came to drag me away.
Lühe clung to me and refused to release her grip.
“Your Highness! Please have mercy!”
I let them pull me outside, never making a sound.