Outside, daylight was bright, but inside, affection was lingering.
The atmosphere was just right, and no one mentioned the taboo of daytime consummation.
Some things, when feelings are intense, naturally happen.
But after it was done, the child Su Xiaoqi couldn't guarantee she could get pregnant.
This was because the original owner had severely damaged this body before.
The foundation of the body was extremely poor.
It was only after Su Xiaoqi arrived that she began to condition it.
However, she suffered from cold uterus and cold womb, making it difficult to conceive.
In the early stages, it was Su Xiaoqi who didn't want to have a child, so she had been taking her own formulated contraceptive pills.
But recently, her relationship with Shen Yun had grown closer, and she had developed more anticipation for having a child.
She had stopped taking the contraceptive pills.
But for a long time, she still hadn't conceived.
Su Xiaoqi herself was a doctor, so there was no need to see one.
She could only slowly recuperate.
Besides, having a child was also a matter of fate.
After the carnal act, the couple lingered affectionately for a while longer before going out to attend to their respective tasks.
Shen Yun took Xiao Jiu to see the headmaster of Qingshan Academy.
Su Xiaoqi knew that Headmaster Xu liked the pastries made by Mingzhu, so she asked Mingzhu to make four kinds of dim sum.
And Headmaster Xu's wife, Madam Ouyang, liked to eat the lotus root starch and snow fungus she made.
So she packed six boxes of each.
She also took out ten boxes of the snow fungus eye masks she had previously prepared.
Seeing the abundance of gifts Su Xiaoqi had prepared, Shen Yun smiled wryly.
Xiao Jiu, on the other hand, was deeply touched.
He vowed to study hard, get into Qingshan Academy, learn diligently, and become a high-ranking official in the future to repay Sister Xiao Qi.
After Su Xiaoqi sent Shen Yun off, she, along with Shen Mingzhu and Xiao Xique, went to Chen Jin Ji.
Xiao Xique wanted to hire another person to help make pastries at Liuyuan.
The business at Liuyuan was simply too good.
One person making pastries was already too busy.
They had no choice but to poach talent from Chen Jin Ji.
As they dismounted from the carriage at the entrance, Shen Mingzhu stopped. She turned and quietly greeted Su Xiaoqi: "Sister-in-law, I'm going to see Huan Niang."
Su Xiaoqi quickly recalled the woman Shen Mingzhu had mentioned before, who seemed a bit eccentric but was actually just traumatized and suffering from amnesia.
Unexpectedly, she was quite tidily dressed.
She wore an indigo coarse cloth top and trousers of the same color, her hair tied into a bun and pinned at the back with a homemade peach wood hairpin.
Wearing a pair of patched cloth shoes, she wandered back and forth on the street, as if searching for something.
Everyone else called her a madwoman, so Su Xiaoqi had expected to see someone disheveled.
Instead, she saw a neatly dressed middle-aged woman.
Everything about her was clean.
Only her eyes were hollow and dull, having lost their luster.
Looking at her, Su Xiaoqi felt an uncontrollable sadness.
She remembered what the original owner looked like when she was a beggar.
With a thought, she took Xiao Xique and followed.
Shen Mingzhu was talking to Huan Niang.
She said that Huan Niang had come too early.
Usually, she would have to wait another hour. When they made cakes, there would be some scraps, which would be packed together and sold at a lower price.
She would tell the staff to give them to her.
Huan Niang lowered her head and rubbed her hands, saying somewhat sheepishly that she was disturbing them and would come back in the afternoon.
Shen Mingzhu nodded.
At this point, Su Xiaoqi, with Xiao Xique, had approached the two women.
Just then, Huan Niang looked up with a face full of fear and trepidation.
Su Xiaoqi saw her face at a glance.
A melon seed face, willow eyebrows, and phoenix eyes.
Su Xiaoqi's heart skipped a beat. She subconsciously looked at Xiao Xique.
At that moment, Xiao Xique was also looking at Huan Niang.
She, how could she look so much like her?
Ah, no, she was older, so it should be that she looked like her.
"Who... who are you?" Xiao Xique almost cried out instinctively.
Huan Niang, who was about to leave, stopped abruptly when Xiao Xique called out, and looked up suddenly.
She seemed to see her younger self.
She exclaimed, "Xi'er, are you Xi'er?"
All three present were stunned.
Only Huan Niang was looking at Xiao Xique with surprise and panic.
She looked too alike, too alike!
Su Xiaoqi's gaze swept over Xiao Xique, then turned to Huan Niang. She had a bold guess in her heart at this moment.
But there was no evidence, so she couldn't voice it.
"Xi'er, no, you are not. Xi'er is already dead, she died.
She died right after she was born. Brother Wen told me!"
Seeing Huan Niang, who had been normal moments before, suddenly become hysterical,
She kept scratching her face, and her faded yellow skin was immediately torn by her fingernails.
"Ah..." She writhed on the ground in pain, crying out in distress.
This scene happened so suddenly that it startled Xiao Xique.
She hid behind Su Xiaoqi, afraid to go forward.
Su Xiaoqi patted her shoulder and whispered to comfort her, "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid."
"Sister Xiao Qi, what's wrong with her? Is it because I look too scary that I frightened her?" Xiao Xique asked.
"It has nothing to do with Xiao Xique, it's her own emotions that are unstable." Su Xiaoqi pulled Xiao Xique to the side.
Then she quietly beckoned to Zhang Yu behind her.
Zhang Yu stepped forward, intending to help Huan Niang up.
But she was suddenly pushed away by Huan Niang.
Zhang Yu raised her hand impatiently and delivered an elbow strike to Huan Niang's neck. She fainted without even a chance to hum.
The commotion had been quite loud, but due to Huan Niang's earlier frantic state, everyone could only watch from afar, not daring to get closer.
Seeing someone knock her out, they began to discuss.
"I know this crazy woman. She came from outside the capital not long ago.
She often begs on this street and lives in the City God Temple at the end of the street.
From time to time, she has an episode.
I heard she said her daughter and husband are both gone."
"Hey, you're talking nonsense. I heard that she was once a noble lady.
She was blind and ran off with the music tutor from the household.
But the man scammed her dowry, got her pregnant, and abandoned her.
She was stimulated and lost her mind.
She usually seems fine, but when stimulated, she goes mad.
Hey, it's so scary.
Last time, a street thug tried to take advantage of her, but she scratched and bit him, almost taking off half his ear."
"May her whole family be cursed. Others have fallen to this extent, and they still dare to take advantage. They deserve to die."
...
Listening to the voices around her, Su Xiaoqi felt a story slowly piecing together in her mind.
She glanced at Xiao Xique, whose resemblance to Huan Niang was striking, which further strengthened her resolve to help her.
She instructed Zhang Yu to carry Huan Niang into the nearby inn and asked Shen Mingzhu to look after the business at Chen Jin Ji.
She then followed with Xiao Xique.
A short while later, Zhang Yu had paid a female inn worker to tidy Huan Niang up.
She knew her mistress's personality; she was clean.
Since she had asked her to bring the person to the inn, it meant she intended to treat her.
So, she tidied Huan Niang up first to avoid any dirt from her frenzy on the ground.
Su Xiaoqi reached out to feel Huan Niang's pulse.
She quickly reached a conclusion: "Indeed, she has lost her mind due to stimulation.
Coupled with a previous injury to the back of her head, which pressed on the memory nerves, she has selective amnesia."
Humans have a self-protection mechanism.
When encountering something difficult to deal with, or even something they don't want to face, people will choose to forget.
This is to protect themselves.
Huan Niang was in such a state.
Su Xiaoqi wrote a prescription and asked Xiao Xique to go and get the medicine.
As soon as Xiao Xique left, Zhang Yu eagerly asked,
"Madam, do you think she and Xiao Xique might be related?"