You’re Carrying the City Lord’s Bloodline, So You Won’t Have An Issue
The moment Su Jingyang heard that, he felt it was no small matter. He rose with Rong Ci, and Rong Ci looked as if he still wanted to say something to him. Su Jingyang hurriedly waved him off. “Go on, go on. The important business comes first, don’t worry about me.”
Rong Ci tightened his grip on Su Jingyang’s hand, then turned and strode away. That single departure lasted two full days before he returned.
During the two days Rong Ci was gone, Su Jingyang deliberately climbed up high to look out from a distance. He noticed that the pale purple mist around the Wuqun Mountain seemed thinner than before, and he couldn’t help frowning.
To be honest, Su Jingyang could understand the Wuqun Mountain’s existing, but he had never truly understood what that so-called “energy” was, where it came from, or how it worked. Yet it undeniably existed in such a mystical way, and it was tied to Rongcheng’s rise and fall.
In the past, Rong Ci would go up the mountain depending on the situation, to maintain its stability.
Su Jingyang couldn’t help thinking, could this have happened because Rong Ci had been away too long, and something went wrong as a result?
Yet when Rong Ci came back and heard him ask that, he denied it. “No. Wuqun Mountain has a major fluctuation about once every twenty-some years. This time, it came a bit earlier than I expected.”
Su Jingyang asked curiously, “Is that fluctuation a good thing or a bad thing?”
“Could be good, could be bad, or could be neither good nor bad,” Rong Ci replied, then explained more plainly. “Afterward, whether the mountain’s energy increases, decreases, or stays the same depends on fate. In the past… at least three out of four times, it decreased.”
Su Jingyang caught a faint trace of worry in his tone, something rare for him, and he comforted him. “Maybe you’ll get the fourth time, then?”
“Mhm. Perhaps,” Rong Ci said.
Su Jingyang lay on his side in Rong Ci’s arms and turned his head to look at him. “Why does it feel like being City Lord is harder than being emperor?”
A slight curve lifted at Rong Ci’s lips as he lowered his gaze to meet Su Jingyang’s. “Are you feeling sorry for me?”
Su Jingyang pretended he hadn’t heard. He turned his head back, then remembered something and added, “Right, while you were gone these two days, I heard people saying Ru Furen has been sighing and lamenting everywhere, claiming that ever since you became City Lord there have been all kinds of ominous signs, putting you down in every way, openly and subtly.
What is that woman even trying to do? Going by what you all say, even if you weren’t City Lord anymore, Rong Xia still wouldn’t have the ability to take over. So why is she so insistent? Is she trying to get her own child killed?”
By all logic, Su Jingyang didn’t think that should be the case. He felt Madam Ru actually treasured Rong Xia quite a bit.
“She’s simple-minded,” Rong Ci said. “She probably believed some rumor and got blinded by it.” He paused, then added, “Even Rong Xia is clearer headed than she is.”
Su Jingyang agreed with that. Rong Xia might be gloomy and short-tempered, but he was extremely attached to and respectful toward Rong Ci. He didn’t look like he had been successfully brainwashed by her.
“I don’t know why, but I always feel like she knows the children in my belly aren’t yours. A woman’s intuition is terrifying.”
After Su Jingyang muttered that, he felt Rong Ci hold him tighter. Su Jingyang was squeezed uncomfortably, so he shifted his shoulder to make him loosen up. Rong Ci immediately relaxed his hold.
After a moment of silence, Rong Ci suddenly tested the waters. “Jingyang… if someone hid something very important from you, what would you do?”
“Something very important? That depends on who’s hiding it from me,” Su Jingyang replied. “If it’s Ah Li, then he must have his reasons. If it’s you…” Su Jingyang’s tone abruptly turned sinister. “I’ll smash your dog head first and talk later!”
Rong Ci: “...Sleep. It’s late.”
Su Jingyang let out a belated hiss. “When someone says ‘if someone did this,’ it’s usually the person themselves. Is it you? Are you hiding something from me?”
Rong Ci pushed Su Jingyang’s head back when he tried to turn around, leaving no room for argument. “Didn’t you just say you were sleepy? Go to sleep.”
Yet half an hour later, Su Jingyang still wasn’t asleep.
His throat bobbed as he swallowed several times. He couldn’t hold it in anymore and said faintly, “Rong Ci, I suddenly really want congee.”
Rong Ci had just started to feel drowsy, but he opened his eyes at once. “Hungry? I’ll have someone prepare it. What kind do you want, sweet or savory?”
Su Jingyang said, “I want the congee they serve in town. The kind of plain white congee cooked in one huge pot. I really want it…”
“...”
Su Jingyang felt like something was wrong with him because he had spent the entire night thinking about that congee and couldn’t sleep. In his mind was nothing but the bowl he had poured down his throat when he first arrived in this world, borrowing Ling Li’s bowl.
Back then he had practically just dumped it into his stomach and hadn’t tasted anything at all, but now he wanted it so badly it made him itch inside. Congee cooked in other pots wouldn’t do. He only wanted the taste from that one pot.
Wanting, wanting, wanting, and wanting until his heart was frantic and chaotic! He couldn’t wait another second. The next morning, the moment he got up, he grabbed Rong Ci and insisted on leaving the city.
However when they reached the town, he discovered it was too early, and the congee stall hadn’t been set up yet. A strange disappointment swept over Su Jingyang. “Forget it. We’ll come back later.”
Seeing Su Jingyang drooping, listless and wilted, Rong Ci clicked his tongue. He turned and gave Yun Qi a few instructions, then first took Su Jingyang to eat something else to pad his stomach.
Then by sheer coincidence, they ran into Liang Lu on the street.
“Oh, you two are…” Liang Lu was still dressed in luxurious brocade, a folding fan in hand, handsome and dashing. He first sized up Su Jingyang’s belly, then glanced at Rong Ci, and understanding immediately dawned on him. Smiling, he said, “Congratulations to you both.”
Rong Ci wrapped an arm around Su Jingyang’s waist and gave a slight nod. “Many thanks.”
Su Jingyang also hadn’t seen Liang Lu in a long time. He invited him to eat breakfast together, but Liang Lu instead led them to the former location of Lin’s Small Eatery.
Staring at the newly renovated two-story building before him, Su Jingyang fell into a daze. Back then, after the Eatery burned down and they received compensation, that piece of land had been put under Liang Lu’s name so he could help sell it cheaply.
Not long after, someone bought it, and the price hadn’t even been pressed particularly low. Su Jingyang hadn’t come by much since then. He never expected that a restaurant had opened here again, and the signboard now read Liang Ji.
Su Jingyang and Rong Ci followed him inside. With uncertainty roiling in his chest, Su Jingyang asked Liang Lu, “Young Master Liang, did you buy this place back then?”
Liang Lu turned and smiled at him, guiding them to sit. “Of course. I saw how well your restaurant business did, and I got envious. Happened to borrow your favorable wind.”
Liang Lu’s attendant couldn’t help muttering behind them, “Originally sold it at a low price, then after it burned, eagerly bought it back. Young master, you really…”
Liang Lu shot him a vicious glare. The attendant immediately shut his mouth.
However, Su Jingyang had already heard it. His face filled with disbelief. This building had originally belonged to Liang Lu?! Seeing his shocked expression, Rong Ci pressed his lips together and said nothing.
Liang Lu had a whole table of food served to host them. Su Jingyang couldn’t shake the feeling that he owed him too much. He used tea in place of wine and raised his cup to Liang Lu, thanking him from the heart. “Young Master Liang, thank you for all your care and help all this time.”
Back when he first arrived in this town, if Liang Lu hadn’t kept helping, Su Jingyang would have had plenty more hardship to swallow. His gratitude now was sincere to the point of earnestness.
“Not at all, not at all. Don’t be so polite with me,” Liang Lu said, taking a sip of tea. His gaze swept back and forth between Su Jingyang and Rong Ci. Smiling as he fanned himself, he added, “Oh right, are you two interested in attending my wedding banquet?”
Su Jingyang paused in surprise, then laughed. “You’re getting married? When?”
Liang Lu beamed. “You’re catching it at just the right time. Five days from now.”
Rong Ci and Su Jingyang raised their cups together to congratulate him, then agreed they would come in a few days to attend the wedding banquet.
That day, Rong Ci had Yun Qi go to the household that served congee to explain the situation. They were especially warmhearted and cooked Su Jingyang a large bowl ahead of time, even packing it into a food container. Yun Qi silently left behind a three-hundred-tael banknote as support. When the people inside discovered it and rushed out in a panic, clutching such a huge sum as they tried to catch up, they found the others were already long gone.
Su Jingyang had already eaten breakfast, but he still drank the entire large bowl of congee down to the last drop. Rong Ci took the chance to lean in and taste a bit too. After savoring it carefully, he found nothing particularly special about it at all. Yet Su Jingyang looked thoroughly satisfied, eyes narrowing with a comforted, content expression.
Su Jingyang vaguely looked down on himself. He felt a little unhinged, wanting one thing one moment and another the next. This was probably part of how pregnancy changed a person.
However, after he attended Liang Lu’s wedding banquet and returned, he realized that his earlier morning sickness, fetal movement, racing heart, nightly bathroom trips, and bouts of “going crazy” didn’t even begin to compare.
Looking back, those days that followed were, for him, truly a stretch of oppression so suffocating it made him want to die.
Without warning, his back began to hurt. Sitting was slightly better, but the moment he lay down, that pain point would spread across his entire back in an instant. It felt as if every nerve was being gnawed on and ground down, agony tearing through him, pain so intense his stomach surged violently. He vomited more than once.
Li Yin was helpless about it. He only said something was being compressed and that it would get better after the children were born, but there were still at least two months before the birth.
Su Jingyang had never imagined he could become afraid of sleeping. When night fell, he didn’t dare lie down at all. The second he lay down, it felt like his whole body would convulse from the pain. He didn’t even want to go near the bed. Every night he could only sleep while being held in Rong Ci’s arms, leaning against him. Even then, he couldn’t sleep. He lay with his eyes wide open, counting time and waiting for the night to pass.
Sometimes he would stare dead at the dim head of the bed and feel as if there was a monster there that would open its bloody maw to devour him.
He rested so poorly that in the end even sitting started to hurt his back. Su Jingyang felt as if a dark shadow covered his heart, impossible to shake, and impossible to strip away. Little by little, he began to feel as if he was turning jumpy and strange.
At times, when he saw something sharp, a terrifyingly strong impulse would surge through him. He wanted to use it to cut open his belly and dig the children out, so he wouldn’t have to endure this torment anymore.
Afterward though, he would be frightened pale by his own thoughts.
Su Jingyang began to notice that Rong Ci spoke to him more and more gently. Every night Su Jingyang lay with his eyes wide open refusing to sleep, Rong Ci would stay up with him through the entire night. He would kiss him, comfort him, and tell him scattered stories about his own childhood, or strange tales he had heard. Sometimes, in a low voice by his ear, he would even say he was sorry.
In the sleeping hall, everything even slightly sharp was taken away. Servants watched him at all times. Every time Ling Li brought Ah Xuan to see him and keep him company, they looked cautious and tense. Rong Hua also came often, trying to cheer him up.
Being treated like this only made Su Jingyang more agitated and panicked. It felt as if everyone was desperately proving that something was wrong with him.
Just like this, muddled through a difficult month. Someone who had once been bright and lively now looked haggard beyond recognition. Only when he was exhausted to the extreme could he sleep a little. His cheeks had hollowed out, his eyes were dull, dark circles lay heavy beneath them, and only his belly continued to grow, as if it might stretch his skin to the breaking point.
Sometimes Su Jingyang wouldn’t say a single word all day. His eyes were thick with gloom. All the negative emotions he had suppressed in his heart erupted at once. What had he even done? Why did he have to suffer this?!
He should have been working a normal nine-to-five, sitting in an office, relaxing on weekends. When the time came, he would find someone suitable and date.
Yet now he was carrying two children of uncertain fatherhood, tormented until he barely resembled a person.
Why was all of this happening?!
Just because he had said one sentence.
When Su Jingyang stood by the window lost in thought and feeling melancholic, he even began to understand why Lu Qian had jumped off a building back then. Because wanting to die was truly just a sudden thought. It was simple, so simple it came out of nowhere. Some people made it through, and some people couldn’t endure it.
That night, Su Jingyang finally managed to sleep leaning against Rong Ci’s arms for about an hour. When he woke, he found Rong Ci staring into space, lost in thought, and not asleep at all.
Su Jingyang lifted a hand to touch Rong Ci’s face. His voice was weak from qi deficiency as he urged, “Lie down and sleep. I’ll sit for a while by myself, it’s fine.”
Over this past month, only when he lay in Rong Ci’s arms did Su Jingyang feel less lonely and miserable. He had even grown addicted to that warmth. Still, Su Jingyang knew Rong Ci had been exhausted too, and he wanted him to rest for a bit. Rong Ci refused, continuing to hold him as he softly sighed, “I can’t take the pain in your place, but I can at least stay with you.”
Su Jingyang felt unbearably ill. He knit his brows and closed his eyes, feeling like even one more word would take too much effort, so he stopped trying to persuade him.
In his haze, he seemed to hear Rong Ci say “sorry” again. Sorry for what, exactly? Su Jingyang’s head was heavy and muddled, and he had no strength left to think.
The next day, Su Jingyang drifted around the room like a wandering soul, shuffling a few slow steps, only to notice a note Rong Ci had left on the table. It said he had to go up the Wuqun Mountains and that he would have Ling Li come to keep Su Jingyang company at night.
Once Rong Ci left, five days passed without him returning.
Su Jingyang remembered what Rong Ci had said before and grew increasingly uneasy. A fluctuation every twenty years, could something truly have gone terribly wrong this time?
Ling Li had learned a bit of the situation from Rong Hua and comforted Su Jingyang, saying this time was special and it might take longer.
However, less than an hour after he said that, the ground suddenly rocked violently, the world swaying as if the heavens and earth were being overturned. Ling Li and the servants nearby rushed forward at once, bracing the unsteady Su Jingyang. After only five breaths, the quake stopped.
The people Su Jingyang sent to investigate Wuqun Mountain hadn’t returned yet. Now with this strange earthquake, he only felt his eyelids twitching, that bad premonition in his heart growing stronger and stronger.
Su Jingyang never expected the one to deliver the news would be Rong Xia. He came running in a panic, tears streaming down his face. Tugging on Su Jingyang’s sleeve as he cried, “The elders and shamans guarding the mountain all bled from the seven orifices and passed out! Brother is still on the mountain, his life and death unknown! Hurry and save Brother! Hurry!”
Su Jingyang’s mind exploded with a roaring crash. He didn’t have time to think. He immediately ordered Yun Qi to prepare the carriage. Yun Qi was terrified something would happen to him and refused. “Furen, the City Lord said no matter what, you must not go there…”
Su Jingyang shot him a cold, razor-edged look. “I won’t say it a third time. Go!”
Yun Qi’s heart trembled. After a moment of silence, he turned and had people prepare it.
Ling Li was frantic and wanted to go with Su Jingyang, but Su Jingyang stopped him. The situation there was unknown, and Su Jingyang feared it would be dangerous for Ling Li to go.
“Ah Li, stay at home. We’ll be back soon.”
“Jingyang!!!” Ling Li could only watch as the carriage drew farther and farther away. He grabbed his own head with both hands, feeling as if he couldn’t breathe, his expression collapsing into despair. Su Jingyang was already more than eight months along, and he had been unwell the entire time. How could he possibly endure long, jostling travel? Ling Li stood stiffly for a moment, then suddenly remembered something. He turned and sprinted toward Li Yin’s residence.
There was a small road to Wu Qun Mountain, but because it was too bumpy, Yun Qi still chose the main road, inevitably taking more time.
When they reached the foot of the Wuqun Mountains, Su Jingyang climbed down from the carriage and shook off Yun Qi’s hand, hurrying forward. Yet when he looked around, he couldn’t see Rong Hua, the shaman, or any of the other elders. Perhaps they had already been taken away for treatment.
After a while, Su Jingyang heard Yun Qi shouting anxiously behind him. The voice seemed to be growing farther away. Only then did Su Jingyang dimly realize something was off. He turned his head and discovered that Yun Qi and the other guards had somehow fallen more than ten steps behind, standing beside a stone tablet with a huge red seal marker, no longer advancing.
Su Jingyang was baffled by why they were staying so far back. Yun Qi, sweating with panic, saw him finally turn around and hurriedly shouted, “Furen, come back quickly!! Even if you can go in, you can’t climb the mountain, it’s too dangerous! Come back!”
Su Jingyang stood there, face deathly pale. His wide sleeves snapped loudly in the wind. His mind had been blank earlier, driven only by the need to find Rong Ci, so the moment he arrived he had charged forward without caring about anything. Yun Qi was right. He could barely walk as it was, so how could he possibly climb the mountain to search for someone?
Besides, Yun Qi had said before that if one wasn’t of the Rong clan’s direct bloodline, it was impossible to approach this mountain.
However, could he truly only wait at the foot of the mountain?
A fierce cramp tore through Su Jingyang’s abdomen. He uncomfortably arched his back, saying with difficulty to Yun Qi. “Yun Qi, come over and support me… I can’t walk anymore…”
Yun Qi froze hard, then cried urgently, “I’m sorry, Furen, I can’t, I-I truly can’t cross over. Where you’re standing is already the forbidden ground of Wuqun Mountain. You’re carrying the City Lord’s bloodline, so you won’t have an issue, but if we, who aren’t direct blood of the Rong clan, force our way in, the lightest outcome is bleeding from the seven orifices, and the worst is the five viscera burning to ash! Our cultivation is shallow. If we go over, we can only…”
Su Jingyang’s body suddenly stiffened. It was as if a thunderclap detonated inside his head, blasting everything apart. His face went paper white as he staggered back a step, staring in disbelief at where he stood. After a long moment, he looked toward Yun Qi. His lips trembling and voice shaking beyond control, “What you just said… I’m standing in forbidden ground already?”
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