But as the saying goes, reality is harsh.
Because that night, Lord Fourth still went to spend the night at Yi Lan Villa.
At the moment, a maidservant was helping him to change his clothes.
Lord Fourth said that Ruoyin was pregnant and couldn't do heavy work.
Ruoyin was speechless. How was this heavy work? If it was, then how would the peasant women be able to do any work in the farms?
And if Lord Fourth was being so cautious now, how much more cautious would he become when her tummy grew larger?
When the two lay down, Lord Fourth held her even more carefully than he ever had, as if she was like tofu, afraid he might break her.
Ruoyin couldn't be bothered as she put her arms and legs on Lord Fourth.
On that night, the beauty lay in his embrace. It was so rare that Lord Fourth didn't do anything naughty and only held his woman and put her to sleep soundly.
It wasn't until morning came that he felt numb in his arm, so he carefully pulled it away so as not to wake Ruoyin.
On the following days, Lord Fourth continued to spend the night over at Ruoyin's place and spent six consecutive nights there.
On the sixth day, Ruoyin vomited so badly that she didn't eat anything all day. She vomited everything that she ate.
When she was eating with Lord Fourth at night, she went into the room for a while to vomit so as not to affect Lord Fourth's meal.
When she came out, Lord Fourth realized how thin her face had become in just a few days' time.
Then, he said sternly, "What's wrong with the kitchen? Can't they even make a proper meal? I don't keep useless people!"
His words were carried across by an imposing tone.
It scared the subordinates in the house. They didn't dare to make a squeak for fear of getting involved.
"My Lord, what does this have to do with the kitchen? What kind of pregnant woman doesn't vomit?" Ruoyin said mildly.
She was afraid that Lord would go and punish the kitchen staff with beatings again.
Just then, Nanny Liu laughed. "The Fujin is right. Women in pregnancy will usually vomit. The worse the vomit, the greater the chance of it being a boy."
Ruoyin smiled. She didn't intervene since it didn't matter to her whether it was a boy or a girl.
Lord Fourth turned his eyes slightly and said, "Su Peicheng, the Fujin can't just keep vomiting like this. Get the kitchen to do something about it."
Just then, before Su Peicheng could give his reply, Li Fukang, who was in the house, knelt down and said, "Lord Fourth, I have a home remedy that can treat vomiting during pregnancy."
Lord Fourth glanced at Li Fukang and said mildly, "Elaborate."
"The remedy is very simple. It is to use a chicken that has hatched chicks. We take the chicks away, and after the chicken misses her chicks so much that she loses weight over it, we use it to make soup. That will treat vomiting during pregnancy. When my sister was pregnant, she was given only this kind of chicken, and it was very effective," Li Fukang said in a lively manner.
Li Fukang, who was in front of her, always seemed to stand out as an honest person to Ruoyin, so he should be telling the truth.
Otherwise, would a subordinate be seeking trouble by speaking untruths in front of Lord Fourth?
Thus she looked at Lord Fourth and saw him smile back at her before telling Su Peicheng, "Go, get someone to bring back some of these chickens. These chickens should be clean. Don't take those that are sick. And then get the kitchen to cook the stew for the Fujin."
"Yes!" Su Peicheng went to carry out his instruction immediately after replying.
There was a tug at the corner of Ruoyin's lips. It seemed that Lord Fourth had also been cautious, knowing that she should not be eating sick chickens.
But why did it seem as if "clean chickens" sounded so awkward?
Alright, forgive her for thinking dirty.
Ruoyin watched Li Fukang kneeling on the floor. He didn't dare to get up without Lord Fourth's telling him to.
So she smiled and said, "Alright, Li Fukang, you may leave."
Upon acknowledging her, Li Fukang took his leave.
After the meal, Lord Fourth went to practice his calligraphy again. Currently, Lord Fourth considered ink grinding to also be a laborious task.
He didn't need Ruoyin to help him. Instead, it was the maidservant, Liu Ye, who was beside Lord Fourth who did it.
As for Ruoyin, she was so bored as she sat on one side and read old literary fiction.
At that moment, she really wanted to read the book she bought that was written in vernacular language and easier to read than the old literary fiction.
But Lord Fourth was there, so she definitely couldn't read that. If Lord Fourth found out that she was reading those useless books, he would definitely give her a stern lecture.
As a result, she fell asleep from boredom.
Lord Fourth casually glanced toward the couch and saw that the woman's pretty eyes were partially closed and that the book had already fallen down to her arms.
He couldn't help but smile as he told Liu Ye, "Go and help the Fujin to change her clothes and wash up. Get Su Peicheng to come in and wait on me."
Upon acknowledgment, she first went to get Su Peicheng before going to Ruoyin and calling her, "Fujin, will you allow me to help you change out and wash up?"
"Nngh~" Ruoyin opened her eyes in a daze. Then she finally sobered up a little and said, "Alright."
After a while, when the subordinates had left, Lord Fourth and Ruoyin lay down in the room.
Ruoyin had thought that since she was pregnant, she couldn't wait on Lord Fourth.
Lord Fourth should have gone to the back courtyard. How could she have known that Lord Fourth would stay with her for several consecutive nights?
She knew that Lord Fourth was making sure that the subordinates would not be neglectful in their duties to serve her, who was, at the moment, unable to entertain him with pillow talk.
But she still said softly to test him, "My Lord, I can't entertain you today. Why don't you head someplace else? I can't just keep you like this."
Yeah. Asking her lord to keep restraining himself was not a good solution.
In the past few days, Lord Fourth had had many huge boners, but he still remained virtuous while he was here with her, and that made it hard for her to watch.
As soon as she said that, Lord Fourth's breathing became slightly heavier. He had obviously gotten angry.
With him not saying a word, his arm that was holding on to Ruoyin's arm retracted instantly.
The atmosphere suddenly became frighteningly quiet. The air seemed to have frozen.
Frightened, Ruoyin immediately looked at Lord Fourth and saw his grim face. There was a vein popping up at his temples.
Ruoyin knew that Lord Fourth must have gotten angry. She began re-evaluating her actions. Did she say something wrong?
In books and television dramas, didn't the emperor or prince all want their wives to be sensible, generous, and not jealous?
And every time the original Fujin became jealous, Lord Fourth always became upset.
Why was it that when she wanted to be a virtuous first wife, it didn't work?
Lord Fourth was so hard to understand! How she wished to have it simpler!
But no matter. She knew she had said the wrong thing and she had to humor him.
Now her makeshift stratagem could only be to say the opposite of what she'd just said.
Thus, she shamelessly laid her hands and feet on him.
Lord Fourth paused. He was going to push her away at first, but at the thought that she was still pregnant, he stopped himself.
"My Lord, I didn't mean anything ill. Actually, I really really really wish that Lord Fourth can be with me every day, but… but I'm worried that you might not be happy. That's why I said what I said. In the end, you still became upset~" Ruoyin said in a shaky voice as her hands and feet entangled with Lord Fourth's.