ITVCFITB CHAPTER 79

Chapter 79 – It Was You

Shen Mingyun’s pregnancy made Luo Shuyu marvel, protagonist’s luck, indeed.

For a ger to conceive twice in three years was rare enough; the world really did coddle its “lead.” It even diverged from the book: in the version Shuyu read (800k words), Shen never got pregnant before the Fourth Prince took the throne. Now he not only could conceive, he kept doing it. Third time already: one miscarriage, one son born, now a new one on the way.

At not yet two months, this child was… awkward.

Shen had trailed Hachi for over a month outside the capital; the timing was hard to explain. Shuyu eyed him with doubt, given Shen’s way of “befriending” men, who knew what had happened with Hachi.

He almost envied Shen’s body: running around like that and the baby still held fast, tough little thing. Being Shen’s child meant trials began in the womb.

Awkward or not, the pregnancy arrived at a perfect moment for Shuyu. So long as the child was kept, the mess would ripen on its own. He didn’t need to sow discord, Shen would. The Fourth would inevitably wonder: is it mine… or the Ghost-Yan prince’s? Whether to keep the baby wasn’t Shuyu’s problem; his job now was to make sure the baby survived until the Fourth came to collect.

He ordered Lin Yuan to dose Shen with stability tonics three times daily and forbade him from leaving the Third Prince’s manor. No overland escort to the capital, too much could happen on the road.

Their express letter to the Fourth included the bombshell. Shuyu pictured the Fourth’s face going green then white; any spouse would spiral if their consort ran off and came back pregnant.

Shen himself clung to “the innocent are self-evident.”

Meanwhile, he started making trouble. He wanted out. Shuyu’s handpicked matrons watched him in shifts; outside, hard-faced guards ringed the courtyard. Double walls meant as much for the system as for Shen. No exits.

He shouted across the yard, “I want to see the Third Prince Consort! Why am I locked up? I’m no prisoner!”

Feng Momo’s face stayed stone. “Your Highness the Consort, the Third Prince Consort does this for your sake. The physician says the journey jostled the fetus, one month of strict rest is required. Once the baby settles, you may walk. Since we’ve sheltered you, we must hand you back to the Fourth with honor.”

If the Fourth were present, Shuyu wouldn’t meddle. But he wasn’t, so Shuyu would keep the child safe until the first trimester passed.

Shen sulked. “So I’m stuck in this tiny yard a whole month?”

Feng Momo didn’t blink. “In snowy winters the the Third Prince Consort stays indoors for two or three months. Your highness, you can manage one.”

Stonewalled day one, Shen tried again day two, this time demanding to see Hachi. Shuyu would have been an idiot to allow it. The Ghost-Yan prince was under Li Mingjin’s control; Shen’s identity was being kept off the streets. One loose tongue and the questions would cascade: Why is the Fourth’s consort at the frontier? With no escort? No imperial orders?

Shuyu and Mingjin had bled to build Gucheng’s prestige; he wouldn’t let system props buy Shen a fresh round of “people’s love.”

Shen did consider bolting, he’d miscarried once before, and though the system could “reset” him, it cost a mountain of points. Pregnant again meant no new points for a long time. How did the Fourth keep getting him pregnant? Must be protagonist buff…

Pregnancy, for Shen, wasn’t joy. No running, no jumping; nine long months of “stay still.” He wanted to scream. In this nowhere town with no entertainment and now house arrest.

Half a month passed. Shen kept testing the fences; Shuyu kept sending tonics. Hachi stayed in custody; Mingjin kept him very quiet.

Hachi, the king’s favored son, had come with power and information. If there was jade, Mingjin wanted the mine. Shen, greedy but cowardly, had already babbled: he and Hachi were going to partner in jade; Hachi had found a deposit.

Mingjin wanted both the prince and the vein.

Hachi angled for terms, but a prisoner had none. Mingjin treated him decently, good food, no torture, while springing traps to net Ghost-Yan moles in town. Truth be told, they’d have slipped through if Shen’s purse hadn’t been “stolen” and he hadn’t made a scene at the inn; thus, low profile turned high drama in an instant.

Caged two weeks, Hachi’s stance shifted. Live first; throne later. He should’ve approached the Crown Prince, not the Third. Too late.

He finally agreed to cooperate.

To verify, Mingjin sent scouts. If Hachi lied, Mingjin would gift his location to the Ghost-Yan eldest prince, who loathed the pampered younger brother. In that succession brawl, that tip would be a death sentence and a boon to the elder. Hachi understood that behind him stood tribes, and they needed him alive.

He gave up the true coordinates. Scouts confirmed the mine. Extraction began, quietly, piece by piece, into Gucheng.

Release Hachi? Not yet.

“When do I go free?” Hachi snapped.

“I promised your life,” Mingjin said mildly. “Not your liberty.”

“Shameless,” Hachi spat.

Letting him go now would be letting a tiger back to the mountain. Better to time his release so the steppe princes bloodied each other further. The bed was Great Xia’s; no guest would snore upon it.

Hachi stayed. So did Shen.

Shen almost escaped once, burned a system item to do it, but Feng Momo caught the absence immediately and the manor swarmed. He was hauled back, hand over mouth, to face Shuyu.

“Cous—Third Prince Consort, have a heart. Let me go walk!” he wheedled.

“To do what? Run jade with Hachi to Ghost-Yan?” Shuyu said dryly.

“Just air! I’ve been here a month. I’m fine.”

“No. When the Fourth’s men arrive, you can parade all you like. While you’re in my house, I’m responsible.” Shuyu turned to the staff. “See him back. If he gets out again, I dock pay.”

No one wanted that fate; rumor had it one guard had gone a year unpaid.

Shuyu summoned Lin Yuan. “Can he travel?”

“I don’t advise it,” Lin said. “Too early; without a doctor on the road, odds are poor.”

“So the only safe plan is deliver first, move later.”

“Yes.”

“Good. Watch both mother and child. No mistakes.”

A month later, the Fourth’s escort arrived, powerful guards, ten matrons, ten maids, most new faces; at their head, the Fourth’s trusted steward, Yang.

Shen brightened instantly, at last, the capital! The jade venture was cooked; time to tend other schemes. Pity he couldn’t say goodbye to Hachi, what a waste.

In the hall, the steward bowed politely to Shuyu.

Shen, all breezy arrogance, chirped, “Steward Yang! We’re going back now, yes? Hurry and make arrangements.”

Yang, a tall, spare man with neat mustaches, wore an awkward smile, he’d just discussed the plan with Shuyu. Shen nudged again. “Well? Move!”

Yang finally said, “By the Prince’s orders, Your Highness will remain in Gucheng to carry the child to term. After confinement, we will consider the journey.” He produced a letter.

Watching Shen’s face twist through colors, Shuyu hid his grin behind a teacup. Distance was a cure; a year apart, with Hachi also in Gucheng and a steady drip of “ambiguous interactions”, their split was baked in.

The Fourth’s first instinct had been simple: keep Shen out of the capital and the gossip mill.

But moving Shen out of their manor risked “accidents.” If a convenient “misfortune” ended this pregnancy, the plan collapsed. Shuyu refused to hand him over to a separate compound. If the child was lost, the Fourth would likely be relieved; which was precisely why Shuyu insisted the birth happen under his roof.

Shen skimmed the letter, guessing at half the characters. “This is really from him?”

Yang bowed. “It is.”

Handwriting was right. Shen still couldn’t believe the Fourth would dump him in Gucheng to have a baby. Was he a brood mare? Why listen?

Yang repeated the arrangement they’d just agreed with Shuyu.

Shen gaped at Shuyu. “I have to keep living here?”

“Where else?” Shuyu said sweetly. “Our doctors are the best; our kangs the warmest. You’re my cousin, if not here, where? Nowhere in Gucheng is safer or larger.”

Yang, shrewd enough to know he stood on Shuyu’s turf, stayed quiet.

Shen nearly burst with rage. “Even if I stay, I want another house.”

Shuyu ignored him and told Yang, “Find a compound for your people. His Highness remains with us.”

And so it was. Shuyu had already placed Shen in the most remote courtyard; they’d never cross paths.

Shen howled; Shuyu slept well. Who knew the “protagonist” would one day be the one penned in?

---

While Shen incubated in Gucheng, the Fourth and the Crown Prince tore at each other in the capital. The Gucheng Grain-and-Stipend Case clawed its way into daylight, thanks largely to Chen Rong, who wanted justice for his grandfather and father.

The emperor wrote to Li Mingjin about reopening the case, knowing the moment it moved, Luo Shuyu would know. He was, in a way, offering Shuyu the choice.

Mingjin handed Shuyu the letter. Shuyu sighed. “If we reverse it, what then? Father is tossing the decision into my lap.”

“Cunning,” Mingjin said. “It wasn’t your doing, and you’re one of the victims. If the truth is there, issue the order, why ask?”

“Such is emperorship,” Shuyu said, head on his shoulder. “It touches both Yan and Chen. Once reopened, I stand opposite the Yans.”

He wasn’t afraid. While Yan stood, their fates were strings in someone else’s hand.

In Year 19, Ninth Month, the emperor ordered a retrial, led by the Fourth. In the Tenth Month, he traced a Yan collateral branch to the crime; arrests followed. He also uncovered evidence of Yan treason, letters in the Ghost-Yan king’s own hand, matched against palace archives. In the Eleventh, the Chancellor Yan was stripped of office; he denied all, insisting forgery.

Only then did Shuyu see clearly who had orchestrated the ruin of his family.

Fourth Prince. It was you who destroyed us.

---

Year 20, Second Month: Shen Mingyun delivered safely, a daughter.

Mingjin immediately sent congratulations to the Fourth.

The Fourth tore the letter in two.

In the Fourth Month, another convoy arrived to fetch Shen.

Shuyu eyed Shen’s rounder face with satisfaction. Through pregnancy and confinement, Shen had taken tonics every day. From last year to now he’d put on thirty jin.

Yes… the once-slender protagonist had somehow transformed into a pudgy version of himself.

---

Author’s Note:
Third Prince: Wife, I already know how you’ll counter today.
Luo Shuyu: Oh?
Third Prince: You’ll turn yourself into a fatty!
Luo Shuyu: Nope.
Third Prince: Then war! I’m an imperial general in space; you’re my assigned spouse, a crazed fanboy. I despise you, you refuse to quit, you sneak into the army and onto my bed—
Luo Shuyu: My combat power can’t match yours; I can’t get near you. I’m devastated, binge-eat daily, grow too fat to face the world… and kill myself.
Third Prince: You said you wouldn’t be a fatty!
Luo Shuyu: I’m a dead fatty.
Third Prince: …

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Litte note(s):
30 jin ≈ 15 kilograms ≈ 33 pounds"