Thirteenth Lady's Comback: Her Everyday Life as a Bystander-Chapter 360 - 40: Unexpected Fatherhood (Part 1)

Winter fades, spring arrives, and summer approaches. Time swiftly leaves people behind, reddening cherries, greening plantains.

In the blink of an eye, it’s June, and Susu is nearly nine months pregnant.

As the saying goes, pregnancy lasts ten months. But in truth, it’s not a full ten months, because each month is counted as twenty-eight days.

Calculating it, Susu’s due date is around these days. With her nine-month belly, she is still beautiful enough to captivate cities and countries. Apart from her round belly, her cup size has unexpectedly increased from B to beyond C!

The delivery room and the necessary equipment were prepared under Nanny Jiang’s guidance. As a precaution, the ginseng that the Old Madam asked Uncle Wei to send in spring is hundred-year-old wild ginseng from Changbai Mountain.

Aunt Qin, fearing Susu might be scared, has practically stayed at the Hong Mansion with the Household Doctor every day recently, leaving all household matters to Sister An and Sister Zhen.

Fourth Miss and Sister Ten, after all, are Prince Ke’s women and cannot go out casually, but their matrons visit daily.

Several maids and daughters-in-law watch over Susu day and night.

The relatively calm Susu thinks, luckily, she has a strong heart; otherwise, she’d be scared to death by their stance.

However, the feeling of being cared for is like honey water, sweetening one’s heart.

So even if Hong Sheng is not around, Susu doesn’t feel there’s anything to fear, only somewhat disappointed.

In April, Hong Sheng finally wrote a letter saying that the army had reached outside Tartar Shangjing City and he could soon return with the Vanguard Camp.

Yet now June has arrived, and Hong Sheng is still not back. Susu pats her belly and sighs, "Baby, baby, it looks like your father won’t see your mom’s hardships during pregnancy."

On this day, Susu felt something in her heart, and insisted on going to see the well-prepared baby room despite her big belly.

Susu plans to nurse the child herself, so there was no preparation for a wet nurse. Despite the maids’ constant persuasion, Susu remains ’headstrong’, even if Aunt Qin intervenes. She compromises only halfway, intending to nurse the child for six months before finding a wet nurse.

Modern mothers know the importance of breast milk for children, especially the ’golden’ elements in it that enhance infant immunity in the first six months.

Moreover, the intimate contact and parent-child relationship during breastfeeding stimulates infant brain and intellectual development.

Therefore, Susu insists on breastfeeding the child herself.

Actually, which mother doesn’t want to nurse her child? Only the customs of wealthy families dictate otherwise.

Qin acknowledges the feelings of a first-time mother, recalling how she secretly nursed Qi Qiao. Seeing her unpersuadable, she sternly warns the servants.

"Don’t get arrogant just because your mistress is well-disposed. If she doesn’t notice, I will. If I hear any rumors spreading outside, I won’t care who said it; I’ll send you all to open up wastelands in Mosen. I have that authority!"

If Sister Ten were at Hong Mansion, she’d support Susu, but Susu’s biggest secret would be almost exposed.

Currently, Susu doesn’t mind reconnecting with her fellow townsfolk; she feels it’s better to do so naturally and doesn’t need to hide deliberately.

Just that Sister Ten remains in Ke Prince’s harem, and when Susu sees her, she’s accustomed to ancient etiquette and customs, never thinking in that direction.

Because Susu will nurse her child herself and can’t leave the room during Postpartum Confinement, the originally connected eastern rooms used as a study have been emptied and transformed into a nursery.

Every piece of furniture in the room was bought from Siam gold-threaded teak after Susu confirmed her pregnancy. She designed the drawings herself.

It took half a year to complete, led by Qi Qiao’s father—Wei Rong—and two sons.

Susu loves Chinese classical furniture, especially expressing all her beautiful blessings and auspicious patterns on the wood, just like cutting those little garments, feeling happiness.

One day, when Qin came in, upon seeing the nursery filled with soft leather-covered furniture edges, she exclaimed, "Parents’ hearts are said to be compassionate, but I’ve never seen anyone as meticulous as you."

Susu smiled, "Not that meticulous, just avoiding over-pampering. Not mentioning aristocratic families, even ordinary rich households have three to five maids around their sons and daughters.

Before three years of age, they barely walk, let alone have a chance to bump into things.

But I heard that children need to tumble and get hurt to become sturdy."

...

Inside the room, Linglong and Linlang supported Susu as she saw that everything in the room was ready, saying, "Now, all that’s left is to welcome the master!"

She gently touched her rounded belly, "Baby, hey, when will you arrive?"

Just then, Susu felt the mischievous little rascal that kept her awake recently kick her.

Susu laughed, "You’re eager too?" But as she laughed, she felt something was wrong; her belly started to throb painfully, "Call Nanny Jiang!"

The pain was still bearable, so Susu wasn’t anxious, worried about scaring a few maids.

Fen Dai laughed, "Mistress wants Nanny Jiang to boil the clothes and scissors in strong wine again? Rest assured, I’m supervising!"

"No, your mistress is going into labor!"

"In labor, labor, labor?"

Even when it came to this situation, several young maids were at a loss. Susu was helpless, "Not yet, but if you don’t hurry, it’ll be soon!"

Linlang couldn’t handle it and rushed out of the room, shouting outside, "Mistress is going into labor!"

This surprised Long Jiao and Shu Xin, who were hidden in the laurel tree crown to fall down, but at this moment, no one paid attention to ’discover’ them.

Several daughters-in-law replaced Fen Dai and the other younger ones, quickly half-supporting, half-dragging Susu to the delivery room, while Wei Fugua drove the little maids out.

"What trouble are you causing here? Quickly ask the kitchen to boil water and prepare a bowl of bird’s nest porridge for when the mistress wants to eat!"

Nanny Jiang had also changed her clothes at Susu’s picky request, completely convinced by this stubborn lady. It’s the first time she’s seen such a willful expectant mother.

This day, on the fifth of June in Kangping’s ninth year, the lively chaos at Hong Mansion still lingered in many people’s minds afterward, causing mixed feelings.

Hong Sheng arrived at the doorstep, and the caretakers who were listening to the inner courtyard’s commotion shouted loudly: "Master is back!"

Meanwhile, inside the courtyard, the maids and matrons were cheerfully laughing, "Mistress has given birth!"

Hong Sheng dashed into the inner courtyard, hearing this, his mind momentarily blanked, grabbing a coarse servant woman, "What do you mean, Mistress has given birth?"

The excited servant woman looked at Hong Sheng, "Master is back! Of course, our mistress has given birth, truly a double delight!"

Hong Sheng:...

Joy of becoming a father!