Long after, Zhou Yi accidentally discovered the reason why Nangong Muyan had gotten pregnant despite drinking the contraceptive soup.
On the hundredth-day celebration of Jiang Ning's second child, their group gathered at the Princess's mansion. At lunchtime, the maids served winter melon meatball soup. The soup was steamed in earthen pots, one serving per person, and the aroma was enticing. Just as Zhou Yi lifted the lid to take a sip, a retching sound came from beside him.
"Ugh~"
Everyone at the table turned to look as Nangong Muyan covered her mouth and ran towards the door.
"Mother!"
"Muyan!"
Zhou Yi and his two daughters immediately chased after her, while the others, after a moment's hesitation, also stood up and went to check on the situation.
Nangong Muyan felt nauseous as soon as the meat soup's aroma entered her nose. When she reached outside, the winter's cold wind hit her face, and the urge to vomit instantly vanished without a trace.
"Mother, what's wrong?"
"Mother, are you sick?"
Zhou Ruxing and Zhou Siyue ran to Nangong Muyan's side with worried expressions, lifting their identical faces to look at her.
Nangong Muyan waved her hand and was about to say she was fine when Zhou Yi approached and asked concernedly, "Muyan, what's wrong?"
Nangong Muyan looked around and saw that everyone had followed them outside, making her feel embarrassed. "It's nothing, nothing. I just felt suddenly nauseous. Maybe I ate something bad yesterday."
"Could you be pregnant?" Su Hui looked at Nangong Muyan and said, "When I was pregnant with Zhang Haozhi, I had morning sickness quite often."
Nangong Muyan's heart skipped a beat as she realized her monthly cycle hadn't come this month.
As it turned out, this was indeed the case.
Zhou Yi hadn't expected that coming to attend Liu Ming'an's son's hundred-day celebration would result in him having another child.
Although he had been a father before, becoming one again made Zhou Yi smile from ear to ear.
Nangong Muyan was initially happy too, but later found it hard to smile as this child was quite troublesome.
From the day they discovered the pregnancy, for the next three months, she would vomit at the mere smell of meat - whether it was pork, chicken, or fish. No matter how the cook prepared the ingredients, she couldn't tolerate any of it, forcing her to live like a vegetarian nun.
When spring came with its warm weather, her condition finally improved.
After being cooped up for three months, Nangong Muyan couldn't wait to take Zhou Yi to Mulberry Leaf Town as soon as the spring days turned pleasant.
Since their marriage, they had made it a habit to stay in Mulberry Leaf Town for a while almost every year, just the two of them, away from everyone else.
The town hadn't changed much over the years, except that Qu Xiaoliu had grown from a little girl into a young woman and was now betrothed.
And Big Yellow, who had slowly become an elderly dog over the long years, now loved nothing more than sleeping in the sun on the mulberry field ridges, no longer as lively as before.
When Nangong Muyan and Zhou Yi arrived at Mulberry Leaf Town, Qu Xiaowu came out to receive them as usual.
"Who are those people? What are they doing?" Zhou Yi asked Qu Xiaowu curiously, noticing a group of strangers carrying hoes in the mulberry field.
"Oh, young master, they're herb merchants, here to dig up some old mulberry tree roots for medicine."
"Mulberry roots can be used as medicine?"
Just as Zhou Yi finished speaking, a man who appeared to be the leader smiled and joined in from a few steps away: "Of course they can. Mulberry roots can clear heat and calm convulsions, dispel wind and promote circulation. They're effective in treating convulsions, red eyes, toothache, and injuries from falls and impacts - it's truly a good medicinal ingredient."
The speaker wore brown work clothes and had somewhat dark skin, about the same age as Zhou Yi. Seeing how thoroughly he had answered his question, Zhou Yi smiled gratefully at him: "I never expected that a herb merchant would be so knowledgeable about the medicinal properties of his wares. It's truly admirable."
The herb merchant scratched his head embarrassedly when Zhou Yi praised him, grinning: "Haha... Young Master Zhou is mistaken. I'm not knowledgeable about all medicinal properties, I just remember everything about mulberry roots."
"Oh? Why is that?" Zhou Yi's curiosity was piqued.
Nangong Muyan, who had been patting Big Yellow's head, also looked up, ready to hear the story.
"Ah, it's actually a sad story..."
The herb merchant had barely begun when Zhou Yi, worried about intruding on personal matters, was about to say "never mind," but the man continued on his own.
"Actually, I wasn't always a herb merchant. I used to be an apprentice at a medicine shop in the capital, planning to become a doctor and save lives."
"I paid ten strings of cash as an apprenticeship fee, learning about herbs from my master, memorizing their properties, attending to customers in the shop, helping prepare medicines, and doing odd jobs."
"Everything was going well until one day, a young gentleman rushed into the shop asking for a contraceptive soup."
"Master wrote the prescription and gave it to me to prepare, but I wasn't paying attention and mistook mulberry root for Ligusticum wallichii! That one mistake changed the effectiveness of the contraceptive soup."
"Master discovered it during the evening inventory check and berated me severely, saying that carelessness in medicine could cost lives. He said if I could mistake mulberry root for Ligusticum wallichii today, would I mistake arsenic for sleeping powder tomorrow? That night, he returned my apprenticeship fee and told me to leave..."
The man sighed several times as he spoke, clearly still not over it.
Nangong Muyan suddenly remembered that she had once drunk an ineffective contraceptive soup, and some suspicions flashed through her mind.
"Do you remember what that young gentleman looked like?"
"What he looked like?"
The man was surprised by the young madam's question but tried to recall anyway. After a moment, he shook his head: "It's been so many years, I've forgotten. However, hehe... he had definitely just gotten out of a woman's bed, there were bite marks on his neck. That's actually why I kept looking at him, which distracted me and made me mix up the medicines..."
Zhou Yi suddenly froze and turned to look at Nangong Muyan, his eyes filled with disbelief.
During their first intimate encounter, Nangong Muyan had bitten his neck because she was inexperienced and in pain.
"Was the medicine shop called Huichun Tang? Near Jinse Lake?" Zhou Yi asked, trying to maintain a casual expression.
"Yes, how did Young Master Zhou know?"
Zhou Yi made a casual excuse: "Just a guess. Do you remember which year and season it was?"
"Ah! Of course I remember, I'll never forget this for my entire life! I even remember the exact date!"
Zhou Yi and Nangong Muyan's hearts both skipped a beat.
"It was the seventh day of the second month in the fourteenth year of Chongming."
As soon as the herb merchant finished speaking, he noticed the couple exchanging smiles with expressions he couldn't quite understand.
Just as he was about to ask why they were smiling, Zhou Yi untied his money pouch and placed the entire thing in his hands.
"Young Master Zhou, what is this?"
The pouch felt like it contained nearly ten taels of silver, and the herb merchant felt uneasy about accepting it without having done anything to deserve it.
Zhou Yi generously said, "Keep it. We were destined to meet, and I find you agreeable. Consider this small sum as treating you to a drink."
"Then many thanks, Young Master Zhou!"
After they returned to their room and closed the door, Nangong Muyan immediately dove into Zhou Yi's embrace, holding him tight.
"Zhou Yi, he truly was our benefactor. Without him, we might have..." Nangong Muyan couldn't continue. She had loved Zhou Yi for so long that she couldn't imagine how she would live without him.
Zhou Yi kissed her forehead, also feeling somewhat emotional: "We should also thank that bite you gave me, which distracted him. Though honestly, you bit really hard back then, it hurt terribly."
"That was because you weren't cooperating at the time, kept moving around, making it hurt so much for me. I just wanted you to suffer a bit too."
Zhou Yi laughed: "Well then, tonight I'll cooperate properly to make it up to you..."
