Chapter 35.1

If they didn't want to have Yan’er and the child in her belly had nowhere to go, Feng Heizi had to be alright.

Yao Cheng was someone who worked in Yamen. So, not only the Widow Feng, even Mrs. Li couldn’t help but pin her hopes on him.

Yao Cheng was constantly being nagged by the two women. But he wasn't a county magistrate, how could he make something like this possible? Still, he couldn’t ignore them and could only force himself to find a way to manage it.

As luck would have it, Jinzhou happened to be close to the border. When the border troops were in a shortage of manpower, the authority would send local death-row prisoners to fill in the army. With such a timely document coming down, Feng Heizi was exempted from the execution scheduled after the autumn harvest. He was sent to the border town after the selected date.

Before the departure, Widow Feng went to see her son off. However, Yan'er did not show up at all.

Feng Heizi bid farewell to his mother and set out on the way to the border town. Death-row prisoners usually went to the war as cannon fodder. Obviously, Feng Heizi was aware of the truth, hence he escaped in the middle of transport.

That's right, he fled.

When the news arrived, the Yao Family and Feng Family did not know whether to laugh or cry.

Although Feng Heizi ran away, he also ended up being unable to return to his family, as he was registered as a fugitive and deserter. Once he got caught, his crime would be unpardonable.

Widow Feng breathed a sigh of relief. No matter what, it was still better than having her son lose his life. On the other hand, the Yao Family was caught in a dilemma.

Mrs. Li and Yao Cheng originally intended to let Yan'er have an abortion. Since the pregnancy was still early, the matter would be settled quickly. But this decision was made on account of Feng Heizi’s indisputably death penalty. Now that Feng Heizi had escaped, what should they do with the child?

In the end, Yan'er decided to abort the child.

She would rather die than bear the child, showing her aversion by kicking up a huge fuss.

Mrs. Li then found a wandering doctor and brought him home to take a look at Yan'er. He prescribed a few packs of medicine, saying to consume one pack a day. After three days, the fetus would certainly be able to bleed off. Mrs. Li paid the doctor with some silver then sent him off. She went to boil the medicine for Yan'er with relish.

This elated mood of hers was owing to the fact that if she looked for a doctor from a medical clinic, she had to spend at least ten liang of silver. Since she found a wandering doctor, it only took one to two liang of silver to solve the problem.

But Mrs. Li had forgotten one thing. If the condition wasn’t critical, it was impossible to pay a licensed clinic with one or two liang of silver or so. Yet this wandering doctor’s fee was even several times cheaper, not realizing that cheap things were questionable.

The medicine was indeed as effective as the wandering doctor said. Yan'er bled after consuming the concoction, but the bleeding lasted for almost six days nonstop. Mrs. Li finally couldn't sit still and sent her daughter to the clinic.

At the clinic, the doctor reproached Mrs. Li, rebuking her for buying such strong medicine. Abortion is a life-threatening matter. If one doesn't want to hurt the root, they must carefully plan it out and absolutely cannot take strong medicine. Moreover, if the medicine is of poor quality, it will end with abnormally excessive uterus bleeding. That was what currently happened to Yan'er. Before being sent to the clinic, she had passed out due to excessive blood loss.

The doctor was able to rescue Yan'er, but she ultimately lost her capacity to become a mother in the future. The doctor said that the possibility of her getting pregnant was very small since her injury was too severe.

Mrs. Li was very distressed and cried herself half-dead until she fainted, then woke up while blaming herself for being stingy. She actually didn't do that to solely save money. Since doctors in the county clinic could only prescribe the medications after they examined the patient, Mrs. Li was ashamed, afraid that the matter would spread and do harm to her daughter’s reputation. Consequently, she looked for a wandering doctor who made rounds of streets and alleyways.

Who knew that the wandering doctor would be so terrible? 

And this matter wasn't over yet. Widow Feng came to the door and went berserk, throwing a fit at Mrs. Li. Given that Feng Heizi was in exile, whether he would survive or not was obscure. The child in Yan'er’s belly was the only life of Widow Feng.

Now that the baby was gone, Widow Feng was dead set on opposing Mrs. Li.

Nonetheless, Widow Feng made no sense. In the end, Yan'er and Feng Heizi had neither the words of matchmaker nor their parents' orders. Even their marriage hadn't been decided, therefore Yan’er couldn't be regarded as a member of the Feng Family. It wasn't unreasonable that she didn't want to keep the child and expected to marry another person in the future.

But from the outlook, Feng Heizi ended up like that and didn't even have a son. The convention of human nature is to sympathize with the weak, especially since an heir is considerably more of family honour. Although Widow Feng was disheartened, the rumours about Yan'er were already flying around.

Mrs. Li's idea of marrying Yan'er off was completely ruined. In Linyun County, only a few people would be willing to marry Yan'er.

***

These days, Yao Cheng was drained by his family's affairs and couldn't even do his work properly.

The family was in constant chaos. Before he went out, he rebuked Mrs. Li and Yan'er to put an end to it.

As soon as he entered Yamen, the county magistrate called for him.

Did the sunrise from the west today? Although Yao Cheng was a minor official at Yamen, to the county magistrate, he was merely an insignificant subordinate.

Was there any major case in the county?

Yao Cheng thought that even if there was one, he wouldn't get called by the county magistrate. He still had a direct superior above him. It wouldn’t be his turn.

He went to the back hall of the county government in doubt. When he entered the hall, he saw that the county magistrate, who had always looked straight into the sky and never looked to the ground, was talking to a person.

This person’s appearance looked ordinary, but his clothes were different from those of common people. He looked like a military commander from an influential family. Yao Cheng had some ideas and could perceive something from the dress that looked different from how common people dress, but he wasn’t really sure.

"Yao Cheng, come here and give a salute to Guard Wang." The county magistrate was unusually friendly, with eyes fixed on Yao Cheng. Yao Cheng's heart was pounding, somehow having an illusion that he was the long-lost son of the county magistrate.

But his father's surname was Yao, and his mother's surname was Li. His mother said the pain of giving birth to him lasted for three days and nights, she even bit his father's hand that time.

Yao Cheng, who previously was lost in thought, stepped forward to salute Guard Wang cautiously.

Guard Wang seemed to be a bit pretentious. He simply nodded and didn’t say a word to Yao Cheng.

The county magistrate closed in on Guard Wang and said, “Guard Wang, this is Yao Cheng. He is smart and capable, one of the most competent people in our county government. This lowly official has always admired him and is planning to promote him. When you told me that our county government had a minor official surnamed Yao, this lowly official realized that it was him.”

Yao Cheng had never seen the county magistrate act like a bootlicker he currently did. What was the identity of the Guard Wang? Yao Cheng was only a small official and his word did not carry much weight. He stood aside listening in silence.

Guard Wang glanced at the county magistrate and smiled, "I can see that Lord Qian is a wise man who knows how to assess people. You may get things done soon. I’ll go back to report once the duty is done."

"Yes, yes, yes." Lord Qian nodded repeatedly then turned his head to look at Yao Cheng kindly, "Words had it that your younger sister-in-law has been working as a servant in the Wang Mansion?"

Yao Cheng's heart tightened, thinking something happened to Yaoniang in the Wang Mansion. However, they came to his door, and he couldn’t pretend to know nothing, so he nodded honestly, "My sister-in-law did go to Jin Wang Mansion a while ago. The job was introduced by Aunt Wang, Wang Daniu’s mother, through her sister. Lord, what happened to my wife's younger sister? Only a while ago, Yaoniang asked someone to bring home a letter… "

Lord Qian interrupted him, "Nothing happened to your sister-in-law, but we can’t overlook the safety of Jin Wang Mansion. Your sister-in-law’s background needs to be clear. By the way, is your sister-in-law recently widowed and has an infant son?"