Chapter 146: Pig’s Trotters

Following the doctor’s strict orders, Bao Ning remained confined to her bed for five full days. Aside from getting up to use the washroom, her feet practically never touched the floor.

Pei Yuan stayed by her side day in and day out. However, with the heavy burden of his responsibilities, certain official documents and correspondence required his personal attention and could not be delegated to anyone else. To make things easier, he simply moved all his paperwork from the study straight into their bedroom. He set up a screen between his workspace and Bao Ning’s bed, using every spare moment after she fell asleep to hastily process his official duties. Whenever Bao Ning was awake, Pei Yuan was almost glued to her side, refusing to let anyone else handle tasks like changing her clothes or feeding her.

Nanny Liu was deeply moved by his dedication. She pulled Bao Ning aside on the sly, whispering that a man this fiercely devoted was a rare find in this world—especially one who was so handsome and possessed such immense wealth. She told Bao Ning she was truly blessed with incredible fortune.

At first, Bao Ning felt exactly the same way. Even though Pei Yuan seemed to have turned into an entirely different person, lecturing and nagging her endlessly all day, she did her best to be understanding, keeping in mind that this wasn’t easy for him either.

But as the days dragged on, the charm wore off, and annoyance took its place. Eventually, just hearing the rustle of the door curtain signal his arrival made her blood boil, leaving her with a strong urge to kick him out of the room.

One evening, Pei Yuan was unexpectedly called away by Wei Meng, who claimed there was an urgent matter to discuss. With her husband gone, Bao Ning sat comfortably by the charcoal brazier, happily cracking melon seeds.

Before stepping out, he had explicitly warned her: “You are only allowed to eat the portion I left for you. Once they’re gone, that’s it. Don’t go asking the servants for more—not that anyone would dare give them to you anyway.”

Bao Ning was already in a foul mood, and his parting words only made her feel more stifled. “You are completely over the top!” she huffed. “They are just melon seeds, not solid gold! Is there any need to be so incredibly stingy? Giving me exactly one hundred and fifty seeds a day—barely two small handfuls! I finish them in fifteen minutes flat without even getting a proper taste. When I say I want to eat one thing, you say no; when I ask for another, you forbid it. All you do is brew chicken soup and force-feed me medicinal meals all day long. My mouth tastes like nothing but gamey chicken grease right now! It’s just a regular old chicken, not a phoenix! How nourishing can it possibly be? My health is perfectly fine. What is the point of stuffing me like this? Are you trying to turn me into a prize ox?”

Pei Yuan’s hand froze mid-air as he reached for his heavy cloak. He stared at her blankly as she unleashed her fury.

The more Bao Ning spoke, the angrier she became. Suddenly, she bolted upright, swept the remaining melon seeds off the table, and threw them all into the brazier with a loud whoosh . She turned on her heel and marched toward the bed. “I can’t beat you in a fight, and I can’t out-argue you either. Just get out the door already, I’m sick of looking at you! Don’t you dare come back tonight!”

A rare look of deep hurt flickered across Pei Yuan’s face. He stood frozen in place for a long moment before silently hanging his cloak back on the hook. Walking over to the bedside, he tried to coax her in a gentle, hushed voice: “Eating too many of those will give you internal heat. Eating less is for your own good…”

Bao Ning kept her back turned resolutely toward him, letting out a sharp scoff. “For my own good? Whether you’re doing this for me or for the baby, you know the truth in your heart.”

“How can you say that?” Pei Yuan’s brows knitted together in distress. “Without you, how could there even be a baby? Don’t you know how much weight you carry in my heart? Your situation is delicate right now. If we don’t start paying strict attention to everything from day one, there will be no way to fix it if something goes wrong down the line, right?”

Pei Yuan reached out to gently take her by the shoulders, attempting to make her face him. Bao Ning twisted her body to resist his touch, and after a brief struggle, Pei Yuan gave up.

He let out a long sigh and sat down silently beside her. He desperately wanted to say something, but facing her absolute resistance, he couldn’t find the right words.

After a long silence, he finally spoke: “Ningning, it cuts me deep that you would doubt my motives like that.”

Bao Ning’s eyelids fluttered. A wave of guilt and unease washed over her, and she felt a powerful urge to turn around and check his expression.

But the moment she remembered how bizarrely overprotective and irritating he had been lately, she gritted her teeth and held back. I’ll make it up to him later! she thought.

“Try to get some sleep,” Pei Yuan said, pulling the quilt over her as he forced a tight smile. “I’ll be out for a bit, and I might be back late tonight.”

Bao Ning kept her eyes squeezed shut, her ears straining to catch every sound outside. She heard the distinct click of the door closing, and after waiting a few more moments to ensure he wouldn’t turn back, she sat bolt upright in a flash.

Throwing a robe over her shoulders, she trotted over to the window, pushed it open, and let out two sharp, bird-like chirps. Yuanzi, who was keeping watch at the courtyard gate, carefully scanned the path to ensure Pei Yuan’s retreating figure was a safe distance away. He turned back, pumped his fist toward Bao Ning, and called out enthusiastically, “Dinner is served!”

At his signal, the door to the small kitchen swung open, and six or seven young maids filed out in a neat line. They carried a variety of multi-tiered food boxes, and under Nanny Liu’s frantic direction, they rapidly and silently laid out a lavish feast across the table.

A-Huang and Jixiang were also let into the room, bounding forward into Bao Ning’s waiting arms.

Bao Ning buried her face in their massive heads, murmuring longingly, “I missed you two so much… Pei Yuan is completely out of his mind. He wouldn’t even let me hold my own dogs, claiming you guys are dirty. How on earth are you dirty? You get a sponge bath every single day; you’re practically cleaner than he is.”

Jixiang let out a couple of highly indignant barks, causing Bao Ning to instantly clamp her hand over its snout. “Shh! Keep it down, don’t end up summoning him back here.”

Yuanzi scurried into the room as well. He pulled a handful of candies from his pockets and stuffed them safely inside her vanity case. “Auntie, I’m hiding these here for you. If you ever get a sweet tooth, you can sneak one on the sly.”

As he spoke, he produced two tiny, hand-rolled objects that looked like little soybeans with little tails, placing them in Bao Ning’s palm. “Auntie, I rolled these myself. You can stuff them right into your ears. I already tested them out, and they work wonders—once they’re in, the outside world goes completely quiet! If Uncle starts nagging you again, just pop these in secretly.”

Bao Ning pulled him into a warm hug, deeply touched. “Thank you, Yuanzi.”

Nanny Liu glanced anxiously out the window, urging, “Wangfei, you must eat quickly. Chen Jia is keeping watch outside, but we can only pull off a stunt like this once. If we do it too often and the Prince catches on, we’re in major trouble. Eat whatever you’re craving right now; we have to clear this table completely and leave enough time to burn incense to mask the smell before he gets back.”

Bao Ning pulled Yuanzi over to the table as Nanny Liu opened the food containers one by one. The spread was incredibly rich and heavy: braised pork trotters in savory brown sauce, red-braised pork belly, sweet and sour fish, Four Happiness meatballs, and a plump, golden roast chicken.

The moment Bao Ning caught sight of the chicken, her stomach turned, and she instinctively gagged, waving her hand frantically. “Take it away, take it away quickly.”

Nanny Liu reassured her, “This isn’t that bland medicinal chicken, Wangfei. It’s a real roast chicken made with plenty of oil and salt. It tastes wonderful.”

“Still, no. I’ve eaten a whole family tree’s worth of chicken over the past few days. Just looking at it makes me want to heave.” Seeing her intense aversion, Nanny Liu had no choice but to have the maids whisk it away immediately.

Bao Ning let out a sigh of relief, then proudly placed a prime piece of pork belly into Yuanzi’s bowl with her chopsticks. “Eat up, it’s absolutely delicious.”

Looking at the meat in his bowl, Yuanzi felt a sharp pang of sympathy.

He thought his auntie was incredibly pitiful right now. Uncle wouldn’t even let her have these ordinary dishes, to the point where getting to eat a single piece of braised pork felt like she had struck gold. According to Nanny Liu, even the daily amount of salt Auntie could consume was strictly measured now. If her food lacked flavor, they could only throw in cilantro to help enhance the taste. The doctor had forbidden her from eating anything too salty or greasy; sweets were strictly regulated, and spicy food was completely off the table.

Nanny Liu explained that Uncle had been utterly terrified that day when the doctor warned them she was at high risk for a miscarriage. He was told they had to be cautious to the absolute extreme, and ever since, Uncle had been acting like a man possessed.

Yuanzi recalled a new idiom he had learned that very day— overcorrecting a mistake . This seemed to be the exact definition of it.

Bao Ning took a deeply satisfying bite of rice drenched in rich meat gravy, feeling as though her withered soul had finally snapped back to life.

It tasted absolutely heavenly!

…

Meanwhile, Pei Yuan finally sensed that something was amiss.

Wei Meng didn’t actually have any urgent business to discuss at all. He had practically dragged Pei Yuan to a seat, set down a flask of wine and a plate of chicken feet, and spent the last fifteen minutes rambling endlessly about the romantic escapades of his youth. He went on and on about the stunning courtesans and alluring madams he had encountered in the brothels over the years, as well as an extraordinary woman who had sold herself to pay for her father’s funeral. He even started reciting legendary tales he had overheard from storytellers at tea houses. At the peak of his excitement, he passionately bellowed out a rendition of “Viewing the Blue Sea,” a classic poem penned by a legendary hero from the Cao clan of the previous dynasty.

Pei Yuan had initially been feeling quite down over Bao Ning’s lack of understanding, so as Wei Meng rattled on, he didn’t give it much thought, completely immersed in his own brooding.

But as time went on, the stories grew increasingly absurd.

Having finished his grand recitation, Wei Meng stood there with a proud grin, eagerly waiting for Pei Yuan to shower him with praise.

Pei Yuan stared at him with a deadpan expression before asking flatly, “Are you out of your mind?”

Wei Meng froze. “I…”

Pei Yuan countered, “Do I look like I’m in a particularly wonderful, cheerful mood? Do I look like the kind of man who thoroughly enjoys sitting here listening to you talk absolute garbage?”

Wei Meng’s eyes widened to the size of saucers.

Truth be told, he hadn’t seen much of Pei Yuan lately. Because of Bao Ning’s pregnancy, Pei Yuan had stopped going out entirely, dumping all the mundane patrol duties onto his shoulders. Wei Meng had only just ridden back into Feng County that very morning. He had heard the manor servants gossiping that the Prince had completely transformed into a gentle, approachable, and remarkably pleasant master.

Is this the ‘pleasant’ master they were talking about? Wei Meng thought.

Pei Yuan slammed his wine cup down, shot him a thoroughly contemptuous glare, and barked, “Idiot.”

With that, he stood up, preparing to storm out.

Cold sweat poured down Wei Meng’s neck. Remembering Bao Ning’s desperate plea, and despite his absolute terror of dealing with an irritated Pei Yuan, he forced himself to step forward to block his path. “Young General, please wait!”

“Wait for what?” Pei Yuan sneered as he lowered his gaze to tie the strings of his heavy cloak. “I don’t have the time or the patience to watch you play the fool. If you’re truly that lonely, go stand guard at the city gates or run a patrol through the Qilian Mountains. I know the Qilian Mountains fall under Su Wei’s jurisdiction, making it awkward for me to deploy troops there directly, but I am absolutely going to scour that range and wipe out those bandits. Since you have so much free time on your hands, why don’t you go handle it? Go negotiate with Su Wei. If he refuses to cooperate, slap him across the face twice and tell him exactly how you conquered all those alluring courtesans back in the day. And if he’s still not intimidated, recite your poetry to him. You managed to butcher ten words out of seven lines just now; I guarantee he’ll be utterly terrified of you.”

Wei Meng blinked. “Why on earth would he be terrified of me for that?”

Pei Yuan fired back, “Who wouldn’t be terrified of an idiot wielding a blade?”

Wei Meng froze in his tracks once more. Seeing that Pei Yuan was fully dressed and pushing the door open to leave, he hastily glanced at the hourglass. The designated time wasn’t up yet; Bao Ning’s side likely hadn’t finished clearing everything away. Panic rising in his chest, Wei Meng lunged across the table to grab Pei Yuan’s arm, only to be forcefully shoved back. Pei Yuan fixed him with a freezing stare. “Are you stalling for time?”

Wei Meng immediately shook his head. “How could I possibly be doing that?”

Pei Yuan snapped, “If I actually believed a word out of your mouth, how would I be any different from a pig?”

Wei Meng stared at him in utter disbelief. He got the distinct impression that all the unvented fury Pei Yuan had been bottling up over the past few days of practicing restraint was being unleashed entirely on him tonight.

Paying him no further attention, Pei Yuan stormed out of the room with long, aggressive strides, heading straight back to his own courtyard.

He was going to see for himself what exactly Bao Ning was up to behind his back!

Chen Jia was keeping watch at the courtyard entrance. Catching sight of Pei Yuan’s figure in the distance, he was thoroughly shocked by how early the Prince had returned. In a frantic bid to alert Nanny Liu and Bao Ning, he hurriedly let out a series of sharp, mimicking crow calls.

Inside the room, Bao Ning was busy tearing into a juicy pig’s trotter. Nanny Liu stood by her side nervously, constantly reminding her, “Slower, eat slower! No one is going to steal it from you.”

As Pei Yuan drew closer and closer, Chen Jia knew he couldn’t keep making bird noises without exposing himself. He forced himself to stand up and take a step forward to block Pei Yuan’s path, attempting to buy just a few more seconds. He squeezed out an incredibly awkward smile. “Your Highness, I just heard a hilarious joke today. Would you care to hear it?”

Predictably, the only response he received was a sharp: “Get lost.”

Pei Yuan sidestepped the utterly helpless Chen Jia, covered the remaining distance to the bedroom door in a few swift strides, and threw it open with a loud bang .

Just in time to catch Bao Ning declaring in pure delight, “Nanny, these trotters you braised are absolutely heavenly!”

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