The rumor quickly spread within the city. People were whispering about the infamous wealthy Jiang family and their kidnapped youngest daughter that had gone missing for twelve years. A hot topic that had been discussed throughout the years.
And now, people were whispering that the lost child had finally been found!
...
Deep in Chang'an City, in a three-roomed straw-roofed house…
Jiang Ning rubbed her flat belly anxiously. She had a sinking feeling that she might be pregnant.
There were several reasons why she came to this conclusion… It was so obvious when she thought about it, especially when she realized that recently…
The smell of rice makes her want to vomit.
She can't wake up without feeling lethargic.
She always felt disgusted with everything.
Her chest was constantly in pain–
And she had an urgent need to pee at the most inconvenient times!
These things were typical symptoms of pregnancy!
But how did she get pregnant in the first place?
'I am still an unmarried young lady!'
'In this ancient era, if people heard about this… They would definitely drown me with their spit.'
Jiang Ning rubbed her chin in thought. Could she even abort the baby? Where would she go?
'A hospital?'
'No. There wasn't any hospital in this era.'
She wasn't sure which dynasty she was currently in, and besides, the workers in the hospitals, or should she say the healer's hut, were all men. Not only that, she doubted abortion surgery was even practiced in this period in time.
So clearly, an operation is not an option…
The only choice was to take medicine.
'It must cost a lot to buy medicine from the healer's hut, right?'
Jiang Ning looked through her purse, but it was empty. She couldn't even find a single copper coin inside.
Looking around for something that she might be able to sell in her house, she noticed that grass had grown on the roof of the dilapidated thatched house.
Despite the poor state of the house, the area she lived in wasn't all that bad. The house was located in Chang'an City's bustling market, which was perfect for her job. She owned a small shop right at the entrance of her home, that had a poorly hanged wooden sign with the word "Eat" on it.
Jiang Ning, or to be precise, the "original" Jiang Ning, the body she had transmigrated into, was an orphan with a paralyzed left leg. Sadly, her parents passed away so early in her life, leaving her with the three-room, straw-roofed house and a small restaurant in front of it. Her life depended on cooking food, and even then, she only earned a few copper coins from her small business, which often left her hovering on the edge of starving to death.
With the odds weighing against her, how could she afford an abortion?
Even if she decided to keep the baby, how would she raise them? She could barely take care of herself, let alone care for a small and fragile human being.
Given a choice, she didn't want to raise a child either.
She was so unlucky that she just had to draw the short end of the stick and be reborn as a disabled orphan. And at this rate, it was only a matter of time before she succumbed to her death.
Jiang Ning continued to drown in her worries when she saw the courtyard door open. An overweight older man in his fifties walked in, followed by a young boy around four or five years old.
The little boy was stumbling through the gate as he carried a big basket with great difficulty.
"Why do you look so sad, little girl?" The older man asked nicely, though, in Jiang Ning's eyes, it felt like an exaggeration, especially when she knew the reason why the man was here.
"I'm in a bad mood today, so I don't feel like cooking," Jiang Ning said, waving her hand as if to shoo the man away. "And there's no more rice to go to the pot. You'd better find another family to get a free meal, Old Li,"
She had picked up Old Li two months ago, around the time she just transmigrated into this world.
The older man was even poorer than she was and had fainted from hunger when she first found him.
She couldn't just stand by and watch him suffer by the shop's door. So, Jiang Ning gave him the remaining half of her bowl of porridge.
In the end, the older man was addicted to the free food she cooked that he would stop by every few days for a meal.
Despite being in a tight predicament herself, seeing the older man's pitiful state, Jiang Ning didn't have the heart to kick him out. After all, it was just a matter of adding another bowl of water to the pot, though the action itself wasn't easy for her to do.
But today, she was really out of ammunition and food.
The plump old man rubbed his hands and laughed sheepishly, "I've been eating your food this whole time. It made me feel embarrassed. So, I brought some rice, flour, and some fish today. Grandson, come here."
The little boy hurriedly carried the basket over.
"Old Li, you have a grandson?" Jiang Ning asked curiously.
"What? Can't I have a grandson?"
"You're so poor, yet you still have the nerve to get a wife and raise a family?" Jiang Ning teased as she pinched the boy's face. He was pretty cute, "What's your name?"
"I'm... Qian," As the little boy spoke, he put down the basket. There was indeed rice, noodles, vegetables, a piece of meat, and two fishes.
Jiang Ning swallowed her saliva when she saw the fish.
Looking at the little boy's eager eyes, Jiang Ning picked up the basket and said, "You two wait here, the meal will be served soon."
As Jiang Ning pushed her wooden wheelchair away, the boy, Li Tingqian, gazed at his grandfather with shining, bright eyes.
The gaze that Jiang Ning could easily interpret as love. And this boy was full of it.
Unbeknownst to Jiang Ning, underneath the little boy's innocent and bright doe eyes, Li Tingqian was full of skepticism.
When he saw Jiang Ning leave the courtyard, the boy tsked quietly to himself.
'Why did Imperial Grandfather value this pretty girl so much?'
There was gossip that had been circulating around the palace. People were saying that the emperor, the Imperial Grandfather, had a beloved woman in the past. Unfortunately, the woman was married, and the last they heard of the mysterious woman, she had passed away not long after she gave birth to a baby girl. But the baby girl was then raised outside the palace.
'Could she be that child?'