Chapter 7: The Mysterious Xiao

In the early chill of winter, Mo Liuli still walked barefoot, clad lightly, exuding an air of solitude and coldness. Yet her eyes shone with an extraordinary brightness, like gems sparkling in the dark of night.

Having slept soundly through the night, Mo Liuli was unaware that she had narrowly escaped being sent away from her home just hours before.

“Lüya, how did you find out that I’m with child?” Mo Liuli asked without emotion, watching the maid bustling about with a fresh wound on her forehead.

Lüya, who was carrying a vial of medicine ready to be poured out, paused at the sudden question. Her expression grew strange, a flicker of something unusual passing through her eyes.

“Miss, you forgot. It was your missed period that alarmed you, and you told your servant yourself,” Lüya replied timidly, turning to face Mo Liuli with her head bowed.

“Oh? Are you sure it was I who was alarmed, not you?” Mo Liuli smiled faintly, her voice cold and distant. Her gem-like eyes swept over Lüya, as if trying to see through her, sending an invisible pressure that made Lüya uneasy.

“Miss, I—”

“Cough, cough...” interrupted by a sudden coughing fit.

Lüya shifted nervously, glancing up at Mo Liuli’s face, trying to read her expression. Just then, Mo Liuli’s mother’s voice came from the side chamber, soft and husky, yet tinged with grace.

“Li’er, Li’er. Come, your mother has something to say to you.”

Mo Liuli cast a sharp glance at Lüya before rising and approaching, leaning close to her mother’s side. Her expression softened as she saw her mother’s frailty.

“Mother, I’m here. Don’t worry. Take your time to speak. I’m here.”

A faint whisper traveled into Mo Liuli’s ear. Her complexion shifted repeatedly as she unconsciously touched the jade pendant left to her by Mo Zichuan the day before.

In the western corner of the Mo residence, on a hidden branch of the garden wall, a man in an elegant silver robe had been stationed for months. He had arrived on the third day since Mo Liuli had become pregnant.

In some sense, the seed growing within Mo Liuli’s womb was his. In five days, as the seven stars shifted and the heavens changed, the seed would grow and take form. When that time came, Mo Liuli, as the human host, would endure pain a hundred or even a thousand times worse than the current abdominal cramps.

The very reason Mo Liuli suffered such excruciating pain was the growth of this seed within her.

Embroidered on the man’s left shoulder was the character for Xiao, flowing like drifting clouds. His brow was marked with lines both cold and soft. His narrow phoenix-like eyes squinted slightly, exuding both ease and allure. His lips were red but cold, embodying the visage of a peerless beauty. Reclining lazily on the branch, he looked utterly relaxed. Anyone who saw him would be stunned by his striking appearance and aura.

“Mo Liuli, don’t waste the effort I’ve put into you!” the man murmured faintly from the shadows of the branch, startling the birds in the tree, which scattered as if fleeing a beast.

“Achoo!” Mo Liuli sneezed far away in the southern part of the Mo residence, a shiver running down her spine as a sense of being plotted against crept over her.

Mo Liuli’s mother had only briefly awakened before slipping back into a deep sleep, weakened by her injuries.

After Mo Liuli sneezed, Lüya brought her a rose-red coat to drape over her shoulders, casting worried glances her way. In the end, she silently returned to the side chamber to dutifully care for her mistress.