Sima Hong smiled, kissed Mingyu's forehead, and said, "Don't worry. All the Tatars are my father's murderers. Can I avenge them completely? If I really lead the army to destroy the Tatars, I'm afraid the emperor will not tolerate me when I return to the court."
However, his smile could not hide his anxiety.
Mingyu sighed slightly in her heart. In fact, when she learned that the court had no intention of sending troops to attack the Tatars in the past two years, she was secretly happy. At least Sima Hong didn't have to lead troops to fight, and there was no danger. But seeing Sima Hong's anxious and bored look, she felt sad for him again. Seeing victory in sight, as long as the court was willing to hold on for another year or two, he could realize his ambition, but he failed at the last moment.
As his career was not going well, Sima Hong put all his energy into rebuilding Tianshui.
At the end of August, Mingyu received a letter from the Xu family in Beijing. In the letter, Xu Mingye told Mingyu that Fu Lemei had given birth to a chubby, white boy weighing seven kilograms. His father named the child Xu Yuanzhong, and because it rained heavily on the day the child was born, his mother gave him the nickname Yuger.
Mingyu was so happy after receiving the letter that she didn't know what to say. She wanted to run back to the capital to see her chubby and tender little nephew. Her nephew was born, and as an aunt, she had to express her gratitude. Mingyu and Sima Hong searched for a long time at home, and finally found a satisfactory gift in the six boxes Sima Hong brought back, a longevity lock inlaid with gold and jade. The jade was fine white jade, and one side of the lock was engraved with the auspicious beast Qilin, and the other side was engraved with the words "live a hundred years".
Mingyu wrote the reply letter, put it together with the longevity lock, and asked Baihao to ask someone to take it to the capital.
In September, when the autumn wind started to blow and the weather was getting cooler, Mingyu felt something was wrong with her body, so she asked Sima Hong to call a military doctor to diagnose her. The doctor diagnosed her with pregnancy. Mingyu calculated the days and found that she was only a month pregnant. Sima Hong was overjoyed to be a father for the first time. He was afraid that the military doctor's diagnosis was not accurate enough, so he asked Baihao to go to Lintong to find a senior doctor to check Mingyu's pulse.
After confirming once again that it was a pregnancy pulse, Sima Hong had a smug smile on his face and walked in a floating manner.
Mingyu didn't feel much. She couldn't even feel the baby growing in her belly because it was too early. When she found out that she was pregnant, she breathed a sigh of relief and even felt like she had "finally received her mission". However, seeing Sima Hong smiling happily even when he was sleeping, she was infected by his emotions and began to look forward to the baby in her belly. When she was free, she couldn't help but touch her belly to guess whether it was a boy or a girl, and whether it looked like her or Sima Hong.
When she wrote to her mother-in-law and parents in the capital again, Mingyu couldn't help but want to tell them that she was pregnant. However, Sima Hong heard from somewhere that pregnancy should not be publicized in the first three months, otherwise the fetus would not be stable. So he didn't let Mingyu tell them and told her to wait until the baby was stable for three months before telling the elders at home.
Mingyu didn't quite believe this and thought it was unscientific, but Sima Hong was extremely worried about the child. Mingyu could only take the attitude of believing it rather than not believing it and didn't mention this matter to the elders of both families.
Until October, two months into her pregnancy, Mingyu still felt that there seemed to be no changes in her body. She ate and slept as usual. She was not like other pregnant women who could not stand the smell of fish or eat. The doctor from Lintong came to take her pulse every ten days.
When Mingyu talked about it with Sister Liu, she was a little worried, afraid that there might be something wrong with the child. Sister Liu, who had given birth to three children, smiled and comforted Mingyu, "Don't worry, Madam, this is because the young master is considerate of you and doesn't make a fuss. He must be healthy."
Sister Liu always firmly believed that Mingyu was pregnant with a boy who would be Sima Hong's successor and the future Marquis of Anxi, and strictly prohibited Mingyu from making any beautiful speculations about a girl, on the grounds that it might scare the boy away and replace it with a girl. Mingyu was quite amused by Sister Liu's almost superstitious behavior.
Mingyu, however, felt that she was pregnant with a girl. She felt that her temper had worsened and she would lose her temper at Sima Hong at any time. Her mood fluctuated greatly and she was not at all like the quiet girl she used to be.
A few days ago, an incident of some importance occurred in Tianshui City. Several workers living on a construction site had a fight late at night over a trivial matter and injured several people. Sima Hong was furious. He had always been strict in disciplining his troops, so how could he tolerate such a thing happening? He did not go home for several days in a row and was busy visiting all the foremen of various construction sites one by one, and taught them a lesson with both kindness and severity.
Sima Hong stayed in Tianshui for four days before returning. He was too busy to send someone to deliver a message to Mingyu.
Mingyu waited anxiously for Sima Hong to return, and then she couldn't help but get angry.
Sima Hong laughed and said, "I have been busy before and didn't go home for a few days. Besides, you are worried and you will start to think about it if I tell you. Now you are pregnant, aren't I afraid that you will worry and think about it?"
It would have been fine if he didn't explain. As soon as he explained, Mingyu's face darkened. "What do you mean by that? Hiding everything from me is good for me? Are we still husband and wife? Just don't tell me anything and let me be alone at home with my imagination?"
Seeing Mingyu glaring with anger, Sima Hong was helpless. He held Mingyu and sat her on his lap. He touched Mingyu's slightly bulging belly, kissed the corners of Mingyu's pouting mouth, shook his head and said jokingly, "You have always been unreasonable. You are about to become a mother, but you are still so irritable. You pretended to be gentle and virtuous before, and it seemed like that. But now, you have completely taken off your disguise!"
Looking at Sima Hong's bloodshot eyes, Mingyu couldn't help but feel distressed. She rarely felt that she had a bad temper and was difficult to please, but now that she was pregnant, she would feel scared when she woke up alone at night and looked at the empty room, but she couldn't tell Sister Liu. Her emotions accumulated little by little, and she could only direct her anger at Sima Hong.
"You think I'm hot-tempered? You also think I'm not gentle enough?" Mingyu yelled, her heart aching. She blinked and tears fell on her legs. The more she thought about it, the more aggrieved she felt. She said fiercely: "Who is pretending to be gentle? It's not the first day you know I have a bad temper..." Sure enough, she is fickle!
As the ancients said, all men are bad! It is true!
Sima Hong wiped away the tears on Mingyu's face with his big hands, kissed and coaxed her for a long time, half sweet and half sad, and said with a smile: "Hey, look at you, you are about to be a mother, but you are still like a delicate girl, crying at the slightest provocation. Where is the grievance so great? When the child is born in the future, he cries and you cry too. Who do you think I should coax first?"
Mingyu couldn't help laughing, pinching Sima Hong's ears, and said in a coquettish tone: "Coo me first!"
Sima Hong laughed and hugged Mingyu tightly, then stood up and walked around the room a few times, "Okay, my wife is the most important in the world, I'll coax you first!"
Under Sima Hong's careful management, in just two months, the main courtyard of the newly built Anxi Marquis Mansion had been completed, and the surrounding garden for viewing was still under construction. Not only the Anxi Marquis Mansion, but also the houses built for officials in other places had been completed and could be moved in. At this time, the families of the officials who had come to Tianshui earlier began to head to Tianshui.
Sima Hong asked someone to calculate an auspicious date, planning to move to the new house on the sixth day of the tenth month, and to entertain his officials and their families on the eighth day of the tenth month, both to celebrate his own family and to exchange feelings with his subordinates. After all, he was a military officer, and he was not from the same family as the civil officials from the capital. He also recruited seven or eight servants with good family backgrounds for Mingyu to use.
The moving process was not troublesome. The two of them did not have much stuff, and most of their belongings were neatly packed in boxes and delivered to the marquis' mansion by Sima Hong's trusted soldiers late at night. Mrs. Liu also packed up the remaining bedding and clothes and went to Tianshui with Mingyu.
The newly built mansion still exudes the fragrance of fresh wood, and the furniture in the house is also newly made. Although it is known that the paint used in ancient times is unlikely to contain substances harmful to the fetus like modern paint made from gasoline, but for the sake of safety, at Mingyu's request, the furniture in their room is unpainted.
Sima Hong was puzzled, and Mingyu didn't know how to explain it to him. She just vaguely said that the smell of paint was too strong and made her uncomfortable.
"Then I'll find another store to exchange for a batch." Sima Hong said. As the wife of a marquis, she couldn't use the fourth-rank imperial edict that had been used by others.
Mingyu shook her head. “Don’t bother. Wait a year or so. When the smell of the furniture in the other rooms has mostly dissipated, we can just move them to our room.”
Sima Hong looked at the room full of wood-grained furniture and couldn't help but twitch his lips, "How ugly this is."
Mingyu secretly despised it. This is called log, which combines the American rural style with Chinese characteristics. In modern times, log furniture bought at a high price may actually be plywood fooled by unscrupulous dealers. This pure natural solid wood furniture is good stuff. Sima Hong, you are really a country bumpkin who has never seen the world...
The outer courtyard of the Anxi Marquis's mansion was still under construction, and the entire Tianshui had not yet been completed, so Sima Hong's banquet for his subordinates was a bit shabby. He set up a tent in the large courtyard of the Anxi Marquis's mansion. Baihao invited three chefs from Lintong to take charge of the banquet, and built a pot in the back of the courtyard.
In Mingyu's opinion, this banquet was somewhat like a wedding banquet in the countryside where people would eat noodles to get married. She had seen the dishes in advance. Although the specifications and level were by no means comparable to her grandmother's birthday banquet a few years ago, it was already very good under the current circumstances.
On the eighth day of October, Mingyu and Sima Hong got up early in the morning. They had been smiling since the first guest came in. By noon, their faces were stiff from smiling, and they were a little tired from registering the gifts.
Men and women were seated separately in the banquet hall, with only an aisle in between for serving food. This was a special period, and the people in Northwest China were generally open-minded, so there weren't so many rules to follow.
Mingyu was surrounded by many officials' wives like the moon surrounded by stars, and her ears were full of flattering voices of different tones. To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to go to Qidian... Vote for recommendation and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. ． PS: Thank you jja for the gift~br> Sorry for the late update. I worked overtime until 8 o'clock tonight and got home. I was so sad! RS