Chapter 332 — Pomegranates

"At the very least, we won't know until after the Laba porridge," she said, hastily cutting Song Yan short. "Don't go shouting it everywhere. If it turns out not to be true, we'll only make ourselves a laughingstock." Then she added, "I'm quite well. You needn't worry. If I want to eat or drink anything, I'll tell Ganlu and the others."

Song Yan nodded again and again, unable to hide his excitement. He paced back and forth across the room several times, then made to call Ganlu: "Have her take two sets of bedding to the study."

Would she then have to arrange a bedchamber maid for him?

The very thought of it made Dou Yan feel rather uncomfortable.

She hesitated. "Or perhaps you should stay in the inner chamber after all…" As she spoke, Dou Yan recalled how eager Song Yan had been for the marriage bed since their wedding, and she doubted he could restrain himself. Her spirits sank for a moment. "Never mind. You had better sleep in the study!"

Song Yan was long accustomed to Dou Zhiwei's company. He had only been following the household rule that "a wife with child must keep separate chambers from her husband." Hearing Dou Yan bid him stay, his heart leaped with joy, and he pretended not to have heard her last sentence. "Very well, then. I'll stay in the inner chamber."

At that, Dou Yan grew rather worried instead. She said hesitantly, "You had better sleep in the study…"

Song Ji began to play the rogue with Dou Yan. "Whoever decreed that I must sleep in the study?"

There was sense in what he said.

In poor households that could not spare an extra set of bedding, husband and wife still shared a bed even when the wife was with child.

Dou Yan said, "Then you mustn't carry on!"

Song Yan felt a small sense of triumph.

Clearly the rule was a living thing; in some matters, it paid to be a little shameless.

In excellent spirits, he teased Dou Yan with a smile: "As long as you don't make a fuss, how could I possibly make a fuss?"

Dou Yan recalled how she had thrown herself into his arms, quite unable to help herself, and her embarrassment turned to fury. She raised her voice and called for "Ganlu!"

He had carried the joke too far!

Song Yan hurriedly drew Dou Yan into his arms and said gently, "There now, don't be angry. I was only teasing you to cheer you up."

Ganlu, who had lifted the curtain and was just about to enter, took one look at the scene and hastily withdrew.

Song Yan's voice softened further. "It's just that I always used to feel I was like a barber carrying his pole—only one end of the load was warm…"

That one sentence left Dou Yan thoroughly ashamed, her face burning. "No… if I am with child, and my moods swing wildly, it will be bad for the baby… I must keep a calm frame of mind…"

Something stirred in Song Yan as he listened. "So if I behave myself properly, we won't have to sleep apart?"

Dou Yan nodded.

Song Yan was torn between hope and doubt. "You're probably only repeating hearsay, aren't you?"

If the two of them had a proper elder in the family, he would not have to be so uncertain.

His mind raced. "Doesn't your aunt still live in the capital? Why don't we bring her here to look after you for a few days? Then we'd know exactly what rules and customs apply to pregnancy."

In his previous life, Dou Yan had figured everything out on his own; in this one, he listened with keen interest and was just about to discuss with Song Yan when they should go fetch his aunt when Ganlu burst in clutching a box, her face stricken with alarm: "Madam, something terrible! That box of pomegranates Lord Chen sent over—they are carved from jade. At a glance they look exactly like real pomegranates..."

As she spoke, she was on the verge of tears.

Dou Yan handed her a handkerchief and said gently, "Don't panic. Tell me exactly what happened."

Ganlu composed herself and said, "Didn't you tell the old woman to take the pomegranates back, Madam? But she said they were only a few pomegranates, and if she carried them back and Lord Chen learned she couldn't even manage such a trifling matter, he would surely dismiss her—so she insisted on giving them to us sisters to taste.

"Ruotong is young and knew no better. Thinking they were just a few pomegranates, she accepted them.

"After supper, when we sisters went back to our room, Ruotong wanted to peel the pomegranates for everyone to taste, and only then did we discover they were fake, carved from jade..." So saying, she opened the box and set it on the kang table.

Yellow-brown skin, white membrane, crimson seeds... laid in a box lined with purple satin, they were lifelike beyond compare; under the lamplight, true and false were impossible to tell apart.

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Brothers and sisters, here is the belated update for August 28!

o(∩_∩)o~

PS: It's the end of the month—please vote for me with your pink tickets!

※(To be continued...)