Chapter 468 - 238: The Child-Seeking Case

Chapter 468: Chapter 238: The Child-Seeking Case

Whoever prays gets pregnant?

Zheng Xiu froze when he heard that, sitting up straight under the eaves.

Almost simultaneously, two different sounds came from overhead.

The sounds were incredibly faint. In the past, Zheng Xiu would never have been able to hear them.

But things were different now. After pushing open the seventh door on the Prisoner Path, he had experienced comprehensive, exponential growth. With his five senses enhanced, a sound so faint and close could not escape his perception.

First, a PATTER, PATTER—the sound of boots on the roof tiles.

Then, a soft THUMP, THUMP, THUMP—the sound of plush little paws treading upon the mortal realm.

"Since you can hear me, come on down."

Zheng Xiu called out to the roof.

Immediately after, one large and one small figure—a person and a cat—landed at the same time.

Feng Bei landed gracefully, her hands clasped behind her back. Her long ponytail shot straight up, as rigid as a spear pointing toward the heavens. Beside her, the Orange Cat’s movements were nearly synchronized with her own. With its paws also behind its back, its hind legs landed first. Then, it bent its back legs, its tail perked up, and it held this "Feng Bei stance" for a good while before finally relaxing into a normal feline posture.

The Orange Cat’s very Feng-like behavior left the Red King stunned for several long breaths. He only snapped out of it when Xi’er, looking puzzled from within the mirror surface, began to think the Eternal World Painting had broken. Her shouts of "Hello? Hello? Hello!" finally brought Prince Zheng back to his senses. He still hadn’t grasped the gravity of the situation and asked casually, "Why is it copying the way you walk?"

Feng Bei picked up the Orange Cat and sat primly beside Zheng Xiu. She ignored his question, instead squishing her face up against his. Feng Bei still wasn’t quite used to video calls and thought she had to push Zheng Xiu out of the frame for Xi’er to see her.

Feng Bei’s breath washed over him, carrying a faint Orchid Fragrance. From the touch of her skin against his, Zheng Xiu could tell the hair behind her ear was still damp.

’Did she just take a bath? Did she soak in flower petals? Where did she wash? How? For how long?’ Zheng Xiu interrogated his own heart several times, each question a painful stab. He pulled his face away. He’d nearly been unable to stop himself from kissing Feng Bei right in front of his subordinate on the call. ’The thought is actually a little thrilling.’ This must be that old saying: a wife is less thrilling than a mistress, a mistress is less thrilling than a secret lover, and a secret lover is less thrilling than flaunting the affair in public. The saying was crude, but Zheng Xiu was truly enjoying this alternative sort of pleasure with Feng Bei, like plowing an old field in a new way.

Feng Bei’s expression was calm, betraying no emotion. "It’s me," she said evenly. She then hijacked the Prince’s video call, addressing the dumbfounded Xi’er on the other side of the Eternal World Painting. "Tell me more about this pregnancy."

She seemed quite interested in this "temple that can get you pregnant."

Zheng Xiu could tell from her posture alone. Feng Bei was not a very good listener, because she wore her emotions on her sleeve—or rather, in her posture. When a topic didn’t interest her, she would sit casually. During their decade-long relationship, she would often use her feet to prod at Zheng Xiu—back and forth, up and down, left and right—deliberately trying to distract him. But when she heard something that piqued her interest, her reaction was completely different. She would sit bolt upright, palms placed squarely on her knees.

Zheng Xiu pressed his lips together, fighting back a smile. He put on a stern face and addressed Xi’er’s reflection in the Eternal World Painting. "Yes, tell us more about the pregnancy... I mean, about the case."

The corners of Xi’er’s mouth and her eyebrows twitched as she tried to suppress a strange mix of emotions.

She was holding the Eternal World Painting, looking at the two strange faces on it.

Feng Bei’s face, though clearly interested, was contorted into a mask of feigned calm. The Red King’s face, which clearly wanted to break into laughter, was forced into an expression of stern seriousness.

Then there was the Pillar Cat, rumored to be something of a mascot within the Disaster Prevention Bureau. It had its paws splayed out, one planted on Zheng Xiu’s shoulder and the other on Feng Bei’s.

This...

Xi’er found the whole situation baffling.

She, too, put on a serious face. Since the Red King and Pillar Phoenix were so interested in "getting pregnant," Xi’er began to recount the details of the thorny case.

「This happened just before Ye Weiyang’s operations were crippled.」

About one hundred fifty li northeast of the Imperial City lies a small town called Lu Town.

Lu Town was a remote place, nestled among barren mountains with scarce water. The land was infertile, making farming difficult. However, the mountains near Lu Town were covered in a peculiar type of tree called the Red Shirt. Its leaves were shaped like those of a banana plant, but its green blades were traced with red veins as distinct as blood vessels.

For nearly a century, the residents of Lu Town had made their living raising silkworms and weaving cloth, a trade dictated by their geography. Then, about twenty years ago, the townspeople discovered the mulberry trees on the mountains were slowly withering away, unable to be cultivated. Out of desperation, someone tried feeding the silkworms with the leaves of the Red Shirt trees, which grew in wild abundance all over the mountains. Unexpectedly, not only did the silkworms survive, they began to produce even more silk. The resulting cloth was glossy and shimmering, as smooth as skin. This discovery sent the people of Lu Town into a state of euphoria. As a result, over the past twenty years, the number of Weaver Girls making their living from weaving in Lu Town has steadily increased.

The sight of streets filled with young, beautiful, and skillful Weaver Girls working their sewing machines became a unique spectacle in Lu Town.

Speaking of which, the Zheng Clan’s Gold Medal Tailor, Xi’er, had her own connection to Lu Town. Roughly thirty percent of the raw cloth produced in Lu Town was bought at a high price by Zheng’s Cloth Shop. A portion of the finest quality material would end up in Xi’er’s hands, to be tailored into delicate bodices and long skirts that eventually found their way into the wardrobes of high-society ladies.

About half a year ago, a suspicious "case" was registered with Ye Weiyang.

A certain Weaver Girl, unable to conceive a child, was tricked by others into going up the mountain to pray at an abandoned temple for several days. That temple enshrined a strange entity called the "Wutong God." Sure enough, a month later, her period didn’t arrive—she was truly pregnant. However, the Weaver Girl’s joy turned to tragedy. Not long after she conceived, her husband died on a dark and windy night, collapsing on her pale, swollen belly. The Weaver Girl became a widow.