The Mute Wife Who Brings Prosperity-Chapter 514 - 481: The Passing of Empress Su (Part 2)
Fahua Temple, East Garden.
The cries of a baby broke the mountain’s silence.
The little one was born without a father or mother, and being premature, his constitution was weak. Now swaddled tightly, without mother’s milk, Xiao Tao fed him some sugar water, but he kept crying.
Su Yaoqi stood by the bed, a heaviness of death lingering between his handsome brows.
"Fourth Young Master." Xiao Tao finally managed to soothe the child to sleep and looked up, "Shall I go down the mountain to find a wet nurse for Young Master Sun? His little body is too weak, if this continues, I worry..."
Su Yaoqi, with lifeless eyes, responded to her, "Alright."
Xiao Tao felt her pouch at her waist, weighed the amount of silver, and thought it should be enough, then quickly left the East Garden and descended the mountain.
Su Yaoqi asked Brother Shiming to help look after the child, while he went to the Dharma Hall to see his master.
Master Xuyun was meditating and hadn’t left, knowing that Su Yaoqi would come.
Hearing a noise, Master Xuyun slowly opened his eyes, his gaze falling on Su Yaoqi, he sighed softly to himself.
He had thought that this lifetime could change the outcome, but in the end, it played out once more.
"Master, I wish to leave the monastery and descend the mountain," Su Yaoqi knelt before him, "I hope Master will grant me permission."
Master Xuyun asked him, "Do you wish to avenge your family, or to continue the Su family bloodline?"
"That child is the only offspring left by my brother and sister-in-law," Su Yaoqi murmured, "I don’t want him to grow up entangled in the grievances of the previous generation, I’m planning to take him away and live in seclusion."
Master Xuyun breathed a sigh of relief, "Seeing you so open-minded brings me great comfort."
...
Su Yaoqi returned to the East Garden not long after, and Xiao Tao brought back a wet nurse, a young woman whose child was reportedly just half a year old.
The young woman skillfully took the child to nurse, and once he fell asleep, gently placed him back on the bed.
"Fourth Young Master..." Xiao Tao asked him, "Young Master Sun is still small, should we stay here a few more days?"
Su Yaoqi reached out and touched the little one’s barely developed cheek, after a while, he said, "From now on, don’t call me Fourth Young Master, call me Fourth Lang, the child shall be named Su Wang, and he is mine by birth."
Hearing this, Xiao Tao choked up immediately, her eyes reddened.
Su Yaoqi said, "There’s no one left in the Su family, I must protect the last thread of blood for my parents, brother, and sister-in-law."
Xiao Tao nodded with tears in her eyes.
Compared to full-term babies, Su Wang was skinny and small, even crying lacked strength, but fortunately, with the careful care of the wet nurse and Xiao Tao, the child was still quite well-behaved.
Suddenly having a son, Su Yaoqi began to learn how to care for an infant, the former innocence and simplicity transforming into responsibility, he seemed to grow up overnight.
After Su Wang’s full month, Su Yaoqi took Xiao Tao and the wet nurse and left Fahua Temple.
...
The Su family was annihilated overnight, a situation identical to the explosion at the Qiao Family’s Charity House back then, only on a larger scale.
All the people in the capital, even Emperor Guangxi in Qianqing Palace, had no time to react.
Though he had long wanted to deal with the Su family, he never imagined that the Su family would be destroyed so tragically, over three hundred people in the grand mansion, none left with a complete corpse, the once magnificent Duke Mansion had now been razed to the ground, even Empress Su had no way to gather the limbs to bury her brother and sister-in-law.
Overwhelmed with anger and sorrow, she fell ill and was bedridden, vomiting blood.
In just a few days, Empress Su passed away.
...
With Jinbao’s birthday approaching, Old Song and Granny Song brought him back from the estate, originally planning to celebrate it lively, only to find the entire city hung with solemn white mourning banners.
Having seen the national mourning ceremony last year when the Empress Dowager passed away, Granny Song guessed something happened in the palace and didn’t dare to speak all the way.
Only when they got home did they learn from their daughter-in-law that the Empress had passed.
Granny Song’s mouth opened wide, "Wasn’t the Empress still young? How could she..."
Wen Wan didn’t mention the Su family’s matter, considering that such a bloody massacre might be too much for the elderly, she simply said, "I heard from my husband that she fell ill."
Thinking that she herself also held a decree, Granny Song asked Wen Wan, "Should we go to the palace to pay our respects?"
"We should have gone," Wen Wan nodded, then looked at her gradually bulging belly, "but I’m pregnant, and pregnant women shouldn’t attend such events, so I’ll just stay home."
"That’s right." Granny Song nodded, "You’re with child; it could invite misfortune if you go."
She added, "Since it’s a national mourning, Jinbao’s birthday banquet can’t be expected."
Her words had just fallen when a discontented hum came from nearby.
Wen Wan turned her head, seeing her son tanned to a shiny black, was lost for words.
After a while, Wen Wan called him, "Jinbao?"
"Huh?"
Wen Wan called again, "Jinbao?"
"What?" The little boy pouted, still sulking over not being able to have his birthday.
"Tanned so, are you still my son?" Wen Wan couldn’t help but smile. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶
What on earth had he been doing for more than a month?
"No." Jinbao continued to grumble.
Wen Wan took the chance to ruffle his little head and asked knowingly, "Who made our Jinbao so angry that his face turned black?"
Seeing the little one listless, Wen Wan’s smile dimmed, reminding him, "Enough with that. Since you were one year old until now, you’ve had a proper birthday every year. Do you need it so much that you can’t skip just once? Your brother is eleven years older than you, and he hasn’t celebrated many birthdays yet. Missing one won’t kill you, will it? Moreover, on the day you were born, your mother suffered a lot in labor; what’s there to be so happy about, right?"
Seeing that his mother had pulled a long face, Jinbao didn’t dare to be stubborn any longer. After a while, he quietly asked Wen Wan, "Does it still hurt, mother?"
"It hurts, of course, it does." Wen Wan said, pulling him into her embrace, "Mother hurts for Jinbao. So, Jinbao must be good and listen, no fussing, understand?"
The little one quickly forgot about his birthday sulk and began bragging to his mother about his "great achievements" at the estate.
Grandma said fertilizing the seedlings in the fields would make them grow faster, so he ran to urinate there every day, resulting in half the patch of beans being scalded to death.
Grandpa asked him to pick chives, but he mistook them for rice seedlings, and ruined a large portion.
Wen Wan: "..."
...
After pacifying the little ancestor, the next day Wen Wan went to the Governor Mansion.
Lin Xiaoyue’s spirits were low, and seeing her, she lacked enthusiasm even for greetings.
"What’s wrong?" Wen Wan asked her.
"I used to hate the people in the mansion," Lin Xiaoyue said, "I wanted nothing more than to torment them until they begged for mercy, but when I heard the explosion and learned that over three hundred people inside all perished, I couldn’t feel happy, Wen Wan. Do you think I’m sick?"
"You’re not sick; you have flesh and blood, you’re a living person," Wen Wan said, "Only zombies would be devoid of emotion, after all, not only your enemies died but also many innocent master-servants and even newborn babies. Being joyful and lighting firecrackers in response to such an event, that’s truly sick."
Lin Xiaoyue moved over, leaning on her shoulder, her nose reddening, "Aside from the seventh house, there is no one left from the Su family. The Young Madam at an estate outside the city went into early labor from shock, delivering the child and passing away immediately. The child was sent to Fahua Temple, and when I sent someone to find them, they said Little Four had already left with the child, but as to where, no one knows."
Wen Wan sighed, "Our people couldn’t find them either."
When the Su family just had the accident, Song Wei was running between the government office and the palace, overwhelmed, and only when he settled down did he remember Su Yaoqi and sending people to find him did not yield any trace.
However, Song Wei speculated that Su Yaoqi most likely went into seclusion with the child.
Patting Lin Xiaoyue, Wen Wan said, "Cheer up, you still have a heap of things to handle."
Lin Xiaoyue didn’t need to enter the palace, but, as for the Su family clan’s matters beyond the funeral, she had to take care of it herself.
"I wish I could wake up and find it was all a dream," Lin Xiaoyue rubbed her temples, "You wouldn’t know what it feels like when people you saw alive turn into dozens of memorial tablets placed in front of you."
Wen Wan asked, "Wasn’t the third branch of the Su family expelled from the clan before? Now that something happened, didn’t the third Madam come to help you?"
"Don’t mention it." Speaking of the third branch, Lin Xiaoyue scowled, "The couple regard themselves as outsiders, squeezed a few crocodile tears, and then tucked their tails to retreat. Their indifferent attitude makes one’s blood boil."
After she finished speaking, Lin Xiaoyue sighed again, "But come to think of it, back then it was because the third branch young master was involved in the coal mine case, the Duke forced the third branch to be expelled from the family to avoid implicating the rest of the Su family. If they didn’t share small troubles together, how can they be expected to help with great calamities now? If it were me, I’d probably be reluctant too. So what’s this? Karma is relentless in returning; we should not be too ruthless in life, or who knows, one day, karma might just come knocking."
