Chapter 119: The World Line Converges

Chapter 119: The World Line Converges

After Lin Yingxue was diagnosed with pregnancy, she still often had a strange feeling. Her abdomen was flat, and she couldn’t feel anything. How could life be conceived in there?

It was said that pregnancy would cause loss of appetite, but Lin Yingxue didn’t feel nauseous at all. In fact, she had started to like eating fish, something she hadn’t been so fond of before.

Lin Yingxue was also peculiar about the way she ate fish. She didn’t like the belly part of the fish, preferring only the meat on the surface and the tail.

Because of this, she felt a bit embarrassed.

Her palate was too picky.

In response to his wife’s embarrassment, Fu Jiaze would simply clean the plate, eating all the fish.

The fish was eaten and not wasted.

By the time Lin Yingxue was four months pregnant, her belly had started to show a slight curve.

Lin Yingxue still sometimes had the illusion—was she really pregnant, or had she just gained weight, with her belly being a product of that?

Fu Jiaze, amused, held his wife in his arms, his hand gently covering her abdomen.

“You haven’t had your period for a long time. How can you think you’re not pregnant, just gaining weight?”

“Periods can be delayed sometimes,” Lin Yingxue said, touching her belly. “My appetite is good, I eat a lot, there’s some extra flesh on my abdomen, and my face has gotten a bit chubbier. It really feels like I’ve just put on weight.”

There was one more place that had gained some extra flesh, but Fu Jiaze didn’t dare mention it. If he did, he would get pinched on the soft flesh of his waist, which he was extremely ticklish about. No one but himself could touch it, yet Lin Yingxue loved to tease him about it.

“There are chosen ones who experience little to no suffering during pregnancy,” Fu Jiaze said with a smile. “It seems Yingxue is one of these chosen ones.”

“If I’m a chosen one, then I hope I’ll have an easy delivery,” Lin Yingxue said with a laugh.

“That requires more movement,” Fu Jiaze said. “You need to start practicing horse stance. Tomorrow is a day off; I’ll practice with you.”

Lin Yingxue was eating well and gaining weight quickly, which seemed good. However, the doctor had reminded her not to let the baby in her womb become too heavy, or there might be difficulties during birth. It would be best to exercise regularly.

Lin Yingxue was reluctant, pouting.

Fu Jiaze’s eyes sparkled with amusement. She hadn’t been like this before. As a lesser daughter of the Lin family, with an elder sister who overshadowed her, she had never been so carefree.

“Why are you looking at me?” Lin Yingxue felt gloomy just thinking about practicing horse stance.

Fu Jiaze pinched her cheek. “I’ll do it with you.”

Fu Jiaze was already very busy, and after receiving his reassurance, Lin Yingxue felt she had been unreasonable.

“I really am pregnant,” she said wistfully. These strange emotions didn’t feel like her at all.

In response to Lin Yingxue’s remark, Fu Jiaze chuckled softly, burying his head in her shoulder, gently leaning on her, causing the person beneath him to laugh as well.

Yes, Lin Yingxue thought, if not for the life growing inside her, how could she have developed such a picky tongue and odd temper?

·

One day, when she was five months pregnant, there was movement in her belly.

It happened while Lin Yingxue was visiting Lady Qian, the wife of the prefect.

Lin Yingxue and Lady Qian were close because their husbands were politically aligned, both belonging to the faction of Lord Pei.

Lady Qian had a bookstore as part of her dowry, and Lin Yingxue, encouraged by Lady Qian, had many of her writings—documenting her experiences from the capital to this place—published in Lady Qian’s bookstore.

Lin Yingxue had thought her writings were just for her own amusement, meant to be passed down as family books stored in the study, but the response had been quite positive.

Many women in the inner chambers read a lot but rarely had the opportunity to travel like Lin Yingxue. Her articles, written as travel notes of a woman from the inner chambers, allowed readers to vicariously experience the magnificent mountains and winding rivers through her eyes.

As a result, Lin Yingxue received many letters from readers. This time, she had come to collect more letters.

Just as she received the letters from Lady Qian’s hands, there was a sudden movement in her belly, like a small fish blowing bubbles inside her. Lin Yingxue quickly placed her hand on her belly, and the letters fell to the ground.

“What’s wrong?”

“It just moved,” Lin Yingxue said. “It was so light; I don’t know if it was just my imagination.”

Lady Qian, covering her mouth with a handkerchief, said with a smile, “That’s definitely not your imagination. It should be moving about now.”

Lady Qian looked at Lin Yingxue’s face and had a thought in her mind—she was probably carrying a daughter. But she wouldn’t say such things out loud, so as not to cause any displeasure.

“Seems like the baby is quite composed, with the demeanor of a great general, able to hold its ground.”

Lin Yingxue actually thought having a boy or a girl would both be good. She even felt that having a daughter who was close to her would be nice.

The maids had already picked up the letters and handed them back to Lin Yingxue.

Lin Yingxue placed the letters in a box. She would read them carefully when she returned home. Usually, she read letters very attentively, but today, perhaps because of the feeling of the little fish blowing bubbles, she was distracted, wanting to feel it again to confirm it wasn’t her imagination.

Unfortunately, the fetal movement during the day was like a fleeting glimpse, disappearing suddenly. For the next half month, there was no movement again, and Lin Yingxue even began to wonder if the movement that day had been an illusion. Then, the little fish blew bubbles again.

She wasn’t sure if it was a small hand or foot, but something touched her belly, and Lin Yingxue quickly placed her hand on the spot where the movement had occurred. It was just a light touch again.

Lin Yingxue’s eyes widened. Before, she hadn’t felt anything, only that her belly had grown a bit, gotten a bit chubbier. Other than the doctor’s regular check-ups assuring her everything was fine, she hadn’t felt any real sense of being pregnant.

Now, the baby's movements made her acutely aware that a small life was growing inside her, a tiny being developing in her womb.

Was the baby in her womb also sensing someone outside, and that's why it was moving?

Lin Yingxue simply placed her hand on her belly, feeling the baby's movements from within.

When Fu Jiaze returned to the residence, Lin Yingxue grabbed his hand, and before he could ask what was wrong, he felt the impacts from inside her belly.

Lin Yingxue, with her eyes curved in a smile, waited for her husband's reaction.

"Does it hurt?" The commotion from inside to outside made Fu Jiaze a little worried that his wife might be in pain.

"No pain." Lin Yingxue shook her head, her eyes hinting at reproach, "You're not feeling it with your heart."

Since his wife had made it so obvious and even warningly narrowed her eyes, Fu Jiaze naturally placed his hand on his wife's belly again.

After about a quarter of an hour, the baby in her womb moved again.

The child in his wife's womb was greeting him, and Fu Jiaze couldn't help but smile, experiencing a sense of reality that he hadn't felt since learning from the doctor that his wife was pregnant.

Fu Jiaze had never thought much about his birth mother. To him, the most important person was his adoptive mother. He had always scoffed at the idea of blood ties. What he knew was that his adoptive mother had raised him, and so she, his sister, and his current uncle were his family.

As he touched his wife's belly, Fu Jiaze suddenly felt a bit curious. What was it like when his birth mother was carrying him?

"What are you thinking about?" Lin Yingxue gently brushed her finger across Fu Jiaze's finger.

When Fu Jiaze was deep in thought, he had a habitual gesture of rubbing the callus on his index finger.

Even after taking office, he had never stopped practicing martial arts, and there was a layer of callus where his fingers touched the bowstring.

"Nothing much..." Fu Jiaze shook his head, seeing Lin Yingxue pout dissatisfiedly, her eyes filled with a faint hint of amusement.

He pinched Lin Yingxue's cheek, "Your temper seems to have grown quite a bit."

This little temper made her even more vivid.

Lin Yingxue felt a little embarrassed and buried her head in her husband's shoulder, "I just want to know."

Her coquettish tone reminded him of sweet pastries, and Fu Jiaze's eyes sparkled with even more amusement.

"I didn't think it was necessary to bring up, but there's nothing you can't know if you want to. Just now, for a moment, I thought about my birth mother. I wondered what she felt like when she had a child in her womb."

That thought was like a leaf falling into a heart lake, creating a shallow ripple. If Lin Yingxue hadn't asked, the ripple would have disappeared without a trace, blown away by a gentle breeze in less than half a quarter of an hour.

But since Lin Yingxue had asked, the leaf remained, always rippling on the heart lake.

Lin Yingxue sat up straight. In the past, she had also thought about how Fu Jiaze had been abandoned by his birth mother and how pitiful he was, fortunately saved by his mother, Fu Heng.

But now, with a child of her own, Lin Yingxue's feelings for the baby in her womb were different. She could never bear to part with her child.

So, what had happened with Fu Jiaze's birth family?

Fu Jiaze was a boy, and most people favored boys. Under what circumstances would a family abandon a healthy boy?

Lin Yingxue tried to recall the things Fu Jiaze had mentioned before, "You said that when you were... there was still an arrow in your chest."

There were parts that Lin Yingxue couldn't remember clearly, and seeing her interest, Fu Jiaze elaborated a bit more.

"I've told you some of it before. I was found in Fengcheng, bare and wounded by an arrow. When they said 'bare,' it wasn't entirely accurate. I still had a layer of cloth diaper."

Lin Yingxue had been playing with her husband's hand, leaning close to him, her heart pounding as if she could see the child, less than a year old, left bare in Fengcheng.

"What material was the diaper? How long was the arrow?"

The diaper was made from an old undergarment of a woman, not particularly precious fabric.

The arrow stuck in his chest had been broken off, piercing through him.

Fu Jiaze said, "Both of these things were kept by my mother, and I brought them along when I took office. Do you want to see them?"

Lin Yingxue, who had no idea these things were still kept, nodded.

Fu Jiaze went out and returned with a box that had been wiped clean of dust.

Seeing the traces of wiping, Lin Yingxue knew that this box hadn't been opened in a long time.

When it was opened, Lin Yingxue was slightly stunned, for she saw a broken arrow.

The arrow had been snapped in half, with fuzzy, jagged edges, and the metal arrowhead, despite being over a decade old, was still brand new, without a single trace of rust.

Lin Yingxue picked up the arrow and turned it around, indeed finding no rust at all.

Her eyes were sharp, and she even noticed some markings on the barb of the arrow, but they were too small to make out clearly.

"Have you ever opened and maintained this arrow?"

"Why maintain it?" Fu Jiaze asked, then furrowed his brow, understanding the implication of Lin Yingxue's question.

After more than ten years, a regular arrow would likely have rusted.

He had casually left this box untouched, never maintaining it, and yet the arrow that had once pierced through his chest showed no signs of rust after all these years.

Holding the arrow and frowning as he examined it, Fu Jiaze realized he had been found bare and severely wounded, and he had always assumed he was abandoned by his birth parents.

He had never thought to seek out his birth parents or closely examined this arrow.

Lin Yingxue leaned in, "There are markings here. Could it be the craftsmanship of the Di people?"

Fu Jiaze's eyesight wasn't bad, but he still couldn't make out the insignia inside the cloth. "Later, I'll try to ask the blacksmith and see."

"The blacksmith probably won't be able to recognize it either. If they can, they might be secretly selling ironware to the Di people. I don't think it's appropriate to ask the blacksmith."

Lin Yingxue offered a suggestion, "Why don't you let General Jian take a look at this arrow?"

The sealed city from years ago was a battleground between two armies. It was possible that the arrow was from the Di people, and General Jian would definitely be able to recognize its origin. Perhaps he could even gather information about Fu Jiaze's biological parents from the insignia.

"It's too much trouble for General Jian. Besides, they might have already passed away," Fu Jiaze shook his head. "There's no need to know about them."

Lin Yingxue continued, "In the past, you always thought you were abandoned. But now, what if they didn't abandon you and were killed by the Di people? If that's the case, we should still try to find out about them."

Fu Jiaze fell silent. It was hard for him to break free from his long-held beliefs.

Lin Yingxue looked at Fu Jiaze and picked up a pillow from the bed, placing the arrow at an angle in the pillow.

"Judging from the diaper, it was indeed made from ordinary material, but is it possible that while the outer clothes you wore were very good…"

Good clothes could be pawned, so one could completely break the arrow and remove the child's clothes.

This was an angle Fu Jiaze had never considered before. His gaze grew complicated. For a moment, he thought about whether his own mother might have had tender feelings for him. But he hadn't considered that perhaps he wasn't a child who was abandoned, but one who was loved by his parents.

Lin Yingxue also saw the inner garment and noted that it wasn't made of particularly good fabric, but it had been washed countless times, making the material very soft and suitable for a diaper.

Women in the capital had the custom of washing and re-washing their old inner garments, cutting them up to use as diapers for children.

Fu Jiaze's birth mother must have washed and rubbed her clothes repeatedly to make such a soft diaper for her child. The fact that it was so soft indicated that she must have loved her child dearly.

Lin Yingxue, about to become a mother herself, knew that no matter the gender of her child, she would love them deeply. She thought that Fu Jiaze's birth mother must have felt the same way.

Lin Yingxue said softly, "Perhaps this is an arrow from the Di people, aimed at your parents and at you. Your parents didn't abandon you out of malice but because they lost their lives. General Jian is very familiar with the situation at the sealed city. If we ask him, we might be able to find out about your parents."