The doctor moved the transducer against the warm gel on her exposed stomach. Her heart was beating in excitement as she looked at the screen in front of her.
"Do you see here?" the doctor pointed to a small, dangly rounded shape on the screen, "This is a male genital, which means that you are having a boy."
Yanyue did not know why, but tears started to trickle down her cheeks when the doctor told her that she was having a baby boy. It was as if she was grieving a loss and welcoming a gift. She had never felt such complicated emotions before.
Ultimately, as a mother, it did not matter which gender her baby was because she would love her baby despite their gender or differences. What she wished for them was good health.
"He's a strong boy, probably a little stronger than your first one," the doctor suggested with a smile.
Yanyue's eyes enlarged, and her heart seemed to have done a backflip on a trampoline, with the aftereffect still reverberating long after the stunt.
"... My first one?" she asked, her voice trembling slightly.
"Yes, this is your second pregnancy, is it not?" inquired the doctor casually.
Yanyue slightly shook her head. She hesitated before saying, "I've never been pregnant before this."
The doctor touched her chin as if contemplating an interesting fact.
"Hmm, is that so? I must have been wrong about your abdomen scar."
"Scar on my stomach..." Yanyue repeated. She touched the four-inch scar below her medium bump.
The doctor moved her head up and down, "Right, I thought it was an incision from a C-section surgical procedure. The doctor who performed the surgery must have also been skilled to make such good stitches."
The doctor looked through the forms on the desk and raised an eyebrow, "But if it's not a C-section procedure, then what surgery did you do there? I don't see anything about it in your medical chart."
Yanyue said with little confidence, "... I got the scar four years ago when I fell off my horse."
The doctor was surprised.
"I see," she thinned her lips. "That must have been quite a fall to require such a big surgery."
"Yeah, I guess so..." Yanyue said awkwardly. To be frank, she did not remember much from the accident, so she could not assuredly confirm the pain.
"Well, there is no need to worry. Your baby is healthy, so that won't be a problem at all when you are due because we probably don't need to do a C-section. Just a natural birth will suffice."
After explaining the caution that she would need to exercise during the second trimester, the doctor left Yanyue with more questions than before. Many were about the faint scar on her abdomen.
When she woke up from her coma, the scar was already there. She asked Lily about the scar, but that girl knew nothing about it. She did consider the possibility that Lily was lying to her, but she looked so genuine then.
So, Yanyue thought the scar must have resulted from hitting something when she fell into the lake.
Otherwise, what could it have been? She was not pregnant before this, so it was unlikely that the scar came from a pregnancy surgery. Furthermore, her first experience was with Beichen, so it was even more impossible for her to have a baby before that.
As she put the bizarre thought away, she wanted to visit Lily. After she moved out of the mansion to her apartment for work, she barely got to see that girl. Soon afterward, she got married and heard that Lily returned to her hometown in the north to care for her ill mother.
Throughout those years at the Shen mansion, Lily was the only person who had truly treated her well. All the other maids and servants would ignore her behind her father's back.
Her stepmother had the authority to manage the maids and servants, so they treated her poorly because she ordered them to ignore her. They never physically abused her, but the mental abuse was just as painful.
After moving out, she felt more alive, but now things were back to how they were in the Eastern Palace. At least at the Shen mansion, she had the bright and cheerful Lily to accompany her. However, she was all alone in the Eastern Palace. Grandma Lu would often visit her, but living together was different.
The doctor suggested that Grandma Lu stay in one location for a better result. Thus, the old lady would go back to the Moon Palace during the night because that was where her treatment for her heart condition was done.
Recently, Grandma Lu stopped visiting the Eastern Palace frequently because she wanted to take her treatments seriously. She wanted to get better so that she could see her grandchildren in the future.
So, Yanyue was alone most of the cold nights. Before, Beichen would only come when he wanted to sleep with her. She loved him unconditionally, so she looked forward to his appearance on those nights even though his purpose was to humiliate her.
However, now that she was pregnant, she barely saw the man, and she could only endure his absence because the person he loved was not her. She could not force a person's feelings to change, especially not Beichen, who she "stole" from her sister.
Alas, it was only fair that she suffered from his indifference. And the most miserable part of everything was that she knew she could not quit loving him. That was not an option at all.
Sometimes, when he hurt her, she wished that someone would cut out her heart to see if it would still beat for him if she were not alive anymore. But, when he made her feel that he cared for her, such as that time at the hospital and those times when he made love to her like she was the only woman in the world, she would forget about the anguish that he caused her.
*
Yanfeng was already gone by the time Yanyue was done with the checkup. He had sent a message to her before he went running his errand.
As she walked along the corridor, she saw the two people from earlier exiting a VIP ward.
It seemed that he was successful in coaxing Wanyue.
Even though Yanyue could turn a blind eye towards her husband, hugging and holding another woman, she still could not entirely repress the sadness and oppressive feelings that were surging up from the deepest corner of her heart.
From afar, they were the perfect couple. The man was handsome, and the woman was beautiful. The nurses around them stared at the woman in his arms with envy. They wished they were as lucky as she was.
Yanyue did not want to encounter these two, especially not when they were so intimate. But it was too late to avoid them completely, so she could only turn her back on them.
The couple passed by her. They did not notice her at all because they were chatting with each other and looking at the sonogram on Wanyue's hand.
After they were gone, Yanyue stuffed the sonogram in her hand into her bag. She felt like a piece of dust on the road—that was how unimportant she was in Beichen's heart.
Even though she understood her non-existent position in his heart, she would never be able to fall for another person. He was all she had known since she was a child.
She sighed deeply in her heart. If only he could remember as well...
The driver drove her back to the Eastern Palace.
Upon Yanyue's return, Beichen was in the room, observing the outfit on the mannequin in the middle of the room. Although he knew she only designed women's fashion, the messes on the table led him to conclude that the male suit on the mannequin was something she created.
He perceived that the woman loved him to some extent, even though she had many men before him. But he had made his heart clear to her that the only person he would ever love was Wanyue. He thought she would listen and back away, but who knew they would end up having that one-night stand together, which changed their lives?
He smirked arrogantly. It was a good feeling, though, witnessing her obsession with him until the point that she would venture out of her boundaries and secretly design this outfit for him. After all, she was his property, so anything she created would also be his.
"Your Highness..." Yanyue earnestly greeted Beichen from the door. It seemed that he came straight home from the hospital as well.
"You've seen me naked multiple times, but it seems that your observation skills are not good enough," Beichen paused, "the size is too small."
Yanyue saw that Beichen had uncovered the mannequin. Her face flushed red because she was not used to him inspecting her work so intensely. She quickly picked up the cloth from the floor and recovered the mannequin.
She cleared her throat.
"T-- this is for Jason, so it's going to be a little small..."
Beichen was in a good mood, but when he heard that the outfit was meant for his brother, his good feelings were replaced with madness.
"For Jason?" he asked, his voice as cold as ice. Yanyue felt chills run down her spine.
Yanyue nodded, "It's for his acceptance speech tomorrow night."
Beichen's eyes became dark, and he could feel his blood running wild.
"You even seduced your brother-in-law, too?" he pinched her chin.
"How often must I remind you that your body belongs to me?"
Yanyue's heart was beating fast. She mustered, "I know my body belongs to you, but I'm only making this outfit for him and nothing else."
"Nothing else?" he sneered. "Who knew if you guys have slept together?!"
Yanyue's eyes stretched in disbelief. She shook her head with tears welling up in her gleaming orbs, "I don't mind if you say that I'm a slut, but how could you slander your own brother? We are innocent!"
He disregarded her defense.
"Have you seen an adulterer say they are an adulterer?"
Then, he jerked her chin away and walked over to the table where Yanyue had put her sewing materials. He easily found the shears.
Yanyue's eyes widened in horror as she noticed what he had grabbed. She sped over to the mannequin in an attempt to seize the outfit before he could do anything to it, but he halted her movement, grasping tightly on her arm with his bare hand. Then, with his other hand, he cut the outfit into pieces.
The sparkly and flashy suit Yanyue had spent months working on was destroyed before her eyes. Only she understood the loss.
"You should know better what you should and shouldn't do," he remarked as he watched her speechless expression. "Remember this: Your everything belongs to me and only me. You signed up for this on that contract and when you chose to marry me."
After that, Beichen left the room. Yanyue was still jarred by what had just happened. She could not believe that he would not even spare an outfit.
She lingered by the fallen pieces and stayed still for a long time.
Only when her phone vibrated crazily from her bag did she finally move.
"Yueyue!" Jason spoke cheerfully from the other side.
Yanyue wiped away the tears that she had silently shed.
"Jason, I-"
The young man on the line intercepted, "Tomorrow is my acceptance speech. I can't wait to see my outfit!"
His excitement made Yanyue feel even more regretful. She said weakly, "Jason, I have something to tell you... the suit is not," she paused, "... I mean, the suit is ready, and I will send it to you personally tomorrow."
"Really? Okay, that's a promise!"
She smiled, "Yes, it's a promise."
After the call ended, she went to the closet and took out an elegantly sewn suit that had been hidden away from view.