Chapter 31: Li Rong Had a Miscarriage

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With Li Rong’s sudden scream, quite a few people turned to look. Clutching her stomach, Li Rong cried out in agony, “My stomach—it hurts so much.”

The next moment, bright red blood began to seep from her trousers, stark against the white prison garments.

“Gu Yuru, you’ve killed my child! I’m not letting this go!”

So it had come to this after all. Just now, Li Mumu had remembered the incident in which Li Rong, unable to keep the child in her womb after fooling around with the bailiffs, had framed her mother for it.

If she hadn’t been afraid of bringing trouble upon her family, she would have loved to poison the lot of them.

But who knew whether the plot would collapse if the female protagonist were never born?

Besides, letting these villains die so easily would be far too merciful.

They had to stay alive and suffer first.

Gu Yuru stood rooted to the spot. She had vaguely guessed before that Li Rong was pregnant, but she had never imagined it would actually be true.

“I didn’t push you. You—”

“Gu Yuru, how could you be so heartless?” The Li family crowded around her, looking as though they intended to tear her alive.

“What are you doing? Keep moving!”

The bailiffs’ whips came down upon them, making everyone grimace in pain.

Old Madam Li shouted, “Officer, save us!”

Zhang Xiang arrived at last. One glance at Li Rong’s blood-soaked lower body made him frown in disgust. All he could think about was that this woman would be of no use to him tonight. Li Fengzhu was young, but boring—she did nothing but cry, and servicing him gave him no pleasure at all.

“She isn’t dead, is she? This is the middle of nowhere—where are we supposed to find a doctor? If you want her to live, then get moving.” Zhang Xiang spoke impatiently. He had no desire to spend another night outdoors; the experience had frightened him half to death.

As for Li Rong, she was merely a woman to toy with at will, not even as good as a brothel girl.

“Officer, my child can’t just die for nothing, can it?” Li Rong asked, fighting through the pain and dizziness.

“What do you want, then?” Zhang Xiang asked.

“A life for a life. I want to settle accounts with her.” Li Rong pointed at Gu Yuru.

“Her life doesn’t belong to you,” Zhang Xiang snorted. “It belongs to the imperial court now.”

That was no lie. Even he could bully prisoners as he pleased, but he would never dare kill one. He still had to answer to his superiors, and losing even a single prisoner would cause him no end of trouble.

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If an important prisoner died, he would lose his post as well.

“If you won’t give me her life, then you at least owe me money,” Li Rong said bitterly. If she hadn’t just failed to get any money from her mother, things would never have come to this.

Song Qiang gave a cold laugh. “So it’s money you want.”

The Li family had truly shown them the baseness of human nature.

Li Rong rolled her eyes at her. “A life for a life. Since I can’t take your lives, what’s wrong with demanding money? Do you think seeing a doctor and buying medicine costs nothing?”

“Gu Yuru, do you dare claim you didn’t push me?” Li Rong asked weakly.

Gu Yuru stared at her. What else was there to misunderstand?

“I didn’t. You grabbed my arm yourself and fell to the ground. Li Rong, there must already have been something wrong with this child of yours.”

Li Mumu’s eyes lit up. Just as she had expected—once her mother’s infatuation was cured, she had become much cleverer.

“You… You’re talking nonsense! Why would I harm the child in my own womb? I’m its mother!”

Gu Yuru gave a cold laugh. “Aren’t the people in your Li family especially fond of harming their own children?”

It was not only Li Rong whose expression darkened. Li Yuan’s face turned black as well.

“Gu Yuru, stop insinuating things. If your Gu family hadn’t refused to help yesterday, why would I have been forced to use Mumu to draw the black bear’s attention?”

Gu Yuru cast him a cold glance. “Why should our Gu family have helped? What did it have to do with us?”

“That’s right,” Song Qiang retorted. “You can’t get enough food or water on the road, and failing to keep a child alive is only natural. Yet you blame everything on my sister. Do you take us for easy prey?”

Zhang Yi nodded, her voice soft and wholly unsuited to an argument. “Shouldn’t the urgent matter be getting her to a doctor as quickly as possible? The way you’re focusing only on money while ignoring the injured person makes it difficult not to suspect that you have some other motive.”

Li Rong glared furiously at them, but she knew that delaying any longer would harm her as well. “In any case, don’t think you’ll get away.”

The town was only four or five miles away, not especially distant. In her condition, Li Rong certainly could not walk there herself. She had calculated everything carefully: the bailiffs would never carry her on their backs—they already looked disgusted enough—and Li Yuan was covered in wounds, making it impossible for him to carry her even if he wanted to.

In the end, the eldest Li brother, Li Ye, was released from his cangue and carried Li Rong on his back.

The Gu family found the whole affair disgusting. Once they reached the town, however, they hurried to purchase supplies before nightfall. The provisions they had bought earlier had all been seized by the Li family, only to be lost afterward. It was a heartbreaking waste.

This time, Li Mumu did not go. Her second aunt had gained some experience and went with her second and youngest uncles instead. The three of them could purchase more supplies together.

Three members of the Li family went out as well: Li Yuan, Li Rong, and Lin Siyan.

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Li Rong went to see a doctor, while Li Yuan and Lin Siyan went shopping.

Madam Zhao complained, “Mother, what’s that woman of Third Brother’s doing, waddling around with a big belly? How much can she possibly help him carry? You should have sent me instead.”

If Old Madam Li had not been in poor health herself, she would have gone out as well. “You? Does your husband even have any money?”

Madam Zhao’s face fell at once. She poked her daughter, Li Fengzhu, on the head.

“You useless girl. You gave yourself to that man and didn’t get a single thing in return. Tonight, make sure you keep the officer happy. Do you hear me?”

If she had said nothing, it might have been better. The moment she spoke, Li Fengzhu burst into tears, earning an even more vicious round of curses from Madam Zhao.

Li Fengzhu had wanted to say that she was uncomfortable below the waist, but after being harshly rebuked by her mother, she no longer dared. She was still an unmarried girl, after all, and too embarrassed to speak of such things.

But she was truly in pain.

Li Yuan first took his sister to the clinic, then went to purchase supplies. He kept all the money in his own hands because he knew exactly what his family was like. If he gave it to them, they would squander every last coin before reaching the place of exile.

There was nothing difficult about shopping for supplies. They only had to imitate what the others had bought.

“Siyan, why did you come along? With your belly so large, you should be resting more.”

Lin Siyan shook her head. While the others had ignored Song Qiang’s words, she had taken every one of them to heart.

Walking like this every day without enough good food, the child in her womb would surely not survive either. Besides, the doctor had just said that Li Rong’s pregnancy had damaged her body, and that it would be very difficult for her to conceive again in the future.

So this child of hers had to be saved, even if it turned out to be a girl.

She had come out for another purpose.

“Brother Yuan, I only want to stay by your side. When you aren’t there, I’m afraid.”

A vicious glint flashed through Li Yuan’s eyes. “Don’t worry. If Gu Yuru dares lay a hand on you or the child, I will never let her off.”

That was not what Lin Siyan had meant, but when she saw that he had misunderstood, she did not explain. After all, the two of them already had three children. What if they became entangled again in the future? The deeper the misunderstanding, the better.

“Brother Yuan, I’ll be content as long as I can follow you for the rest of my life.”

In truth, she regretted it.

She had regretted it like hell for a long time.