webnovelvip Chapter 332 What?! My sister is pregnant?!
Chapter 332 What?! My sister is pregnant?!
This figure is none other than someone else.
It was Jiang Qingxue.
Xu Longxiang's eyes lit up, and he immediately rushed over in three steps.
The moonlight peeked out from behind the clouds, illuminating the narrow alleyway in a half-light, half-dark manner.
His shadow left a long, twisted dark trail on the ground, like a snake whose spine had been crushed.
His heart was pounding so hard it felt like it was going to burst out of his chest, and his breathing was rapid and hissing.
Mo Ya stood in the shadows at the base of the wall, his hand already on the short knife at his waist, the hilt wrapped with non-slip hemp rope, his palm pressed against the rough texture.
His gaze passed over Xu Longxiang's back and landed on the moon-white figure, on her hands hanging at her sides, and on the dark alleyway behind her.
His brow furrowed slightly.
The alley was deserted.
She was all alone, her moon-white dress fluttering gently in the night breeze, like a flower blooming before a grave, a flower that shouldn't exist there.
His lips parted slightly, the two words almost escaping his lips.
"Your Highness, be careful."
It has already rolled around on the tip of my tongue.
But he saw Xu Longxiang's back.
His back was taut like a fully drawn bow, each step carrying an barely suppressed urgency.
The crow closed its beak again.
He removed his hand from the hilt of the knife, took a step back, and disappeared back into the deeper shadows.
Xu Longxiang stopped three steps in front of her.
His chest heaved violently, his breath condensing into wisps of white mist in the night wind, dissipating and gathering again.
His lips opened and closed, then opened and closed again.
"Qingxue".
He finally called out the name, his voice so hoarse it was almost inaudible.
"You... what are you doing here? Did you... did you know I was coming here?"
Jiang Qingxue looked at him.
The moonlight shone in from behind her, obscuring her face in a faint shadow, making her expression impossible to discern.
All I could see was the slight movement of the corner of her mouth, like a faint arc spreading across the surface of water ruffled by the wind.
"After I saw Sister Liu being taken into the palace..."
She spoke, her voice very soft, like a leaf falling on the water's surface, carried slowly and gently by the current.
"I guessed you might come. So I came up with a plan to come out early and wait for you here."
A light suddenly shone in Xu Longxiang's eyes.
The light surged from the depths of his pupils, dispelling all the gloom, all the weariness, and all the unease.
His Adam's apple bobbed; something was stuck there, something he couldn't swallow or spit out.
He strode forward.
He raised his hand and reached towards her shoulder.
He wanted to hug her, to pull her into his arms, and to say to her:
You have suffered, I have come.
But before his hand could even touch the hem of her clothes, her voice rang out again.
"Brother Dragon Elephant."
Her voice was softer and fainter than he remembered, as if through a thin veil, indistinct yet every word fell clearly into his ears.
"I have something very important to tell you. That's why I risked coming out today."
She paused, her eyes, hidden in the shadows, seemed to fall on his face, as if looking at him, yet also as if seeing nothing at all.
"You need to be mentally prepared."
Xu Longxiang's hand froze in mid-air.
The light was still in his eyes, but something in that light trembled slightly, like a candle flame being blew on through a crack in the door.
"What is it?" he asked.
For Jiang Qingxue to risk so much danger to come here so late at night, it must not be a good thing.
His voice was very low, so low it sounded like an echo coming from underground.
Countless thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant, each one like an invisible hand gripping his heart, tightening little by little.
Jiang Qingxue did not speak.
She simply stood there, moonlight streaming through the folds of her clothes, the night wind rustling through her hair, time slipping away slowly in the gaps of her silence, as slow as a frozen river in the North during winter.
"Sister Xu is pregnant."
Six characters.
Her voice remained soft and indifferent, as if she were talking about something unrelated to her.
Xu Longxiang was stunned.
He stood there, his eyes wide open, the light deep within his pupils shattering bit by bit.
Like cracks spreading across ice, radiating outwards from the center.
He opened his mouth, making a "hoarse" sound from his throat, like an old stove with its bellows stuck, struggling to get it burning.
His mind went blank.
The blankness lasted for a long time, long enough for the moonlight to move an inch behind the clouds, long enough for the night wind to stop for a moment.
His body swayed slightly.
"What?" Xu Longxiang's voice was squeezed out of his throat, hoarse and dry, like sandpaper rubbing against rust.
"My sister—is pregnant?"
Jiang Qingxue nodded.
"Yes."
Xu Longxiang took a step back.
His foot stomped on the bluestone slab with a dull thud, the sound echoing through the narrow alley, again and again, like someone striking his heart with a hammer.
His legs suddenly felt weak, his knees bent, but he managed to hold on.
His hand pressed against the wall beside him, his fingertips digging into the cracks in the plaster, and bits of plaster fell down, landing on his sleeves and his shoes.
Are you sure?
His voice trembled, from the first word to the last, like a string that had been blown by the wind for too long, finally unable to hold on any longer, emitting a final, trembling hum.
"I was told this news by Physician Wang."
Jiang Qingxue's voice remained soft, "There's no mistake."
Xu Longxiang's pupils contracted slightly.
Physician Wang. Wang Jimin.
He was all too familiar with that name.
Those were people from the North, people his sister had personally placed there a long time ago, and one of the few spies he trusted most in this imperial city.
Wang Jimin's words are not wrong.
This news is true.
His fingers slipped off the wall.
My fingertips were worn raw, and beads of blood oozed out, gleaming a dark red in the moonlight.
He stood there, head down, watching the few drops of blood on his fingertips, watching them slowly gather, slide down, and drip onto the bluestone slab, spreading out a small dark stain.
Those six words kept echoing in his mind—his sister was pregnant.
My sister is pregnant.
My sister is pregnant with Qin Mu's child.
His body began to tremble.
The trembling started in the fingers, spread to the wrists, to the arms, to the shoulders, and to the whole body.
He was like a leaf in the wind, swaying precariously.
His earlier joy, rekindled hope, and unwavering belief that everything could turn around were all shattered by those six words.
He was just thinking about it.
Hongyan was by Zhao Qingxue's side. Qingxue was Qin Mu's concubine, and her sister was also Qin Mu's concubine.
They were all his people, his spies planted deep within this palace.
But my sister is pregnant.
She was pregnant with Qin Mu's child.
This thought was like a red-hot branding iron, pressed hard against his heart.
It hissed and emitted invisible white smoke, burning him until his whole body trembled.
"How could this happen..." he murmured, his voice so soft it was as if he were talking to himself.
"How could this happen..."
He had just thought that there was always a way out.
The red smoke is still there, the clear snow is still there, the older sister is still there, all three of them are still there, the roots of the Northern Border in the capital have not been severed.
But at this moment, he suddenly became uncertain.
Will a pregnant woman still hate the father of her child as she did before?
His sister's face flashed through his mind.
She stood on the northern city wall, gazing south, the wind making her words falter—"Longxiang, you must remember, the people of the Xu family have the strongest backbone."
Bones are the hardest material.
But can even the hardest bone be harder than the flesh inside your belly?
Xu Longxiang suddenly raised his head, his eyes bloodshot, as red as frostbite wounds in the northern winter.
"That tyrannical ruler—does he know?"
Jiang Qingxue shook her head.
"He doesn't know yet."
Xu Longxiang let out a long breath.
The breath squeezed out of his chest carried a scalding, burning heat that had been suppressed for too long, condensing into a thick, impenetrable white mist in the night wind.
His shoulders relaxed, and the tension that had been building for so long finally eased a little.
"That's good." His voice was hoarse, carrying a sense of relief as if he had survived a disaster.
"That's good. As long as my sister gets rid of the baby—then everything will be fine."
He spoke very softly and casually, as if he were talking about something extremely ordinary.
It was as if that wasn't a life, not the child growing in her sister's belly, not the child with her sister's blood, the child who could cry, laugh, and call for her mother.
It was just a piece of meat that shouldn't have been there; once it was cut off, everything was clean.
Jiang Qingxue looked at him.
Moonlight shone in from behind her, illuminating half of her face while the other half remained hidden in shadow.
The half that was illuminated still held a faint, polite smile.
In that hidden half, something is slowly cooling down, like a basin of water forgotten on a windowsill, slowly and silently freezing in the winter night.
She recalled the deep affection she had once believed in, the moments when she was gazed upon with tender eyes, and the promises she thought were sincere.
She remembered him saying, "Qingxue, wait for me. When I rule the world, I will use the entire land as my dowry to marry you as my queen."
The vast land of China.
What lovely words.
But at that moment, she suddenly wondered, what if she were the one who was pregnant?
If she is also pregnant with that man's child, what will he do?
Will they just casually say, "Just get rid of it, it'll be fine," like they do now?
The smile on her lips was still there, the curve and the depth unchanged, but something beneath that smile had shattered.
It shattered quietly, without a sound or a trace, so quietly that she could hardly notice it herself.
At this time,
Xu Longxiang suddenly seemed to remember something, looked up at Jiang Qingxue, hesitated for a moment, and then asked in a trembling voice:
"And...and what about you?"