Ji Feiyu couldn't help but let out a soft exclamation at the sight. "Is this baby a boy or a girl?"
Yong Yaxuan frowned and said, "Isn't it obvious?"
Ji Feiyu couldn't help but sigh. "How can it be so beautiful?"
Yong Yaxuan smiled and poked her. "Then shall we go back and have one right away?"
"Okay!" This time, Ji Feiyu wholeheartedly agreed. "If I could give birth to such a beautiful baby, I'd surely hold her in my arms and kiss her every day."
Yong Yaxuan raised his eyebrows. "I'm really looking forward to it."
Just as they were talking, the crowd here hadn't dispersed yet when there came screams from the moat over there. "Oh! Someone has jumped into the river!"
"Huh?" Ji Feiyu and Yong Yaxuan turned their heads simultaneously and saw a commotion beside the moat. Then someone shouted, "It's a man and a woman! Hurry and save them, hurry!"
Ji Feiyu was just wondering whether she should go over with Yong Yaxuan to help when she looked back and saw a staggering old woman walking towards them. As she walked, she mumbled, "Alas... The morals of the martial world are declining... The Ronghua Cult is out there deceiving people again..."
Hearing this, Ji Feiyu couldn't help but call out to the old woman. "Grandma, do you know about the Ronghua Cult?"
"It was many years ago..." The old woman continued walking. Her cloudy eyes glanced at them casually. She didn't really want to pay them any heed at first, but when she got closer to them, she stopped. She gave them a strange look, took a step back, and said, "Have the two of you been married for many years but still have no children?"
Both Ji Feiyu and Yong Yaxuan were taken aback. Then they asked, "How do you know?"
The old woman gave a strange smile and started rummaging in her bosom. After rummaging for a long time, she finally took out two dirty red beans and stuffed them into Ji Feiyu's hand. "Plant these in front of your house when you get back, and you'll have a child."
"What?" Ji Feiyu obviously hadn't come to her senses yet. The old woman gave a he-he laugh and said, "Your good fortune has arrived." Then she continued walking towards the moat.
There was quite a commotion over there. Vaguely, it seemed that they could hear that the people had been rescued, but they had stopped breathing.
The cold river wind suddenly made Ji Feiyu shiver. Seeing this, Yong Yaxuan put his arm around her and said, "Well, it's getting late. Let's go back and have a child."
Ji Feiyu punched him with the hand that was holding the red beans. "You really believe that?"
Yong Yaxuan smiled but didn't say a word. He just tightly wrapped his hand around hers. Looking into his gentle eyes, Ji Feiyu suddenly felt at ease.
That night, they returned to the palace. Ji Feiyu planted the two red beans in front of the Qiwu Palace.
Two months later, one day, when Ji Feiyu was having a meal with Yong Yaxuan, she suddenly felt nauseous. Yong Yaxuan asked her what was wrong, but she couldn't say. This was a feeling she had never had before.
Seeing that her complexion was not right, Yong Yaxuan quickly sent someone to invite the imperial physician. As soon as the imperial physician arrived and felt her pulse, he said to Yong Yaxuan, "Congratulations, Your Majesty. The Empress is pregnant."
Ji Feiyu was stunned for a moment and looked at Yong Yaxuan. Yong Yaxuan was also stunned, and then he was overjoyed.
"My dear!" Yong Yaxuan looked at Ji Feiyu, his eyes filled with uncontrollable excitement.
Seeing this, the imperial physician said, "This old official will go and write a prescription for the Empress to protect the fetus."
The imperial physician very tactfully withdrew.
Yong Yaxuan hugged Ji Feiyu tightly, overjoyed beyond words.
"I didn't expect it to really work! Maybe it's our previous child coming back to us." Yong Yaxuan was so excited that he was on the verge of crying.
Ji Feiyu also didn't expect this. Her menstruation had been absent for a month, and she had a faint suspicion that she was pregnant, but she wasn't sure. Afraid of disappointing Yong Yaxuan, she didn't dare to invite the imperial physician to check. Now that it was finally confirmed, she was of course extremely happy.
In the following two months, except when he was in court, Yong Yaxuan basically never left Ji Feiyu's side. He inquired about her well - being every day. Since Ji Feiyu had been feeling nauseous and was really not very comfortable, she got a bit annoyed after being asked so many times. Ji Feiyu said, "Your Majesty, why are you so idle these days? The imperial physician will come for the regular pulse - taking soon. Why don't you go and attend to some business first? I'll tell you the result after the pulse - taking."
"No, no. I'm not busy at all. I just want to watch the imperial physician take your pulse and know the news about you and the baby immediately." Yong Yaxuan was as thick - skinned as a city wall and couldn't hear the annoyance in Ji Feiyu's tone at all.
Today's pulse - taking was for the fourth month of pregnancy. It was said that one could tell the gender of the baby at this time, so Yong Yaxuan was especially concerned. Ji Feiyu didn't bother to care about him anymore. If he said he wasn't busy, then so be it.
The imperial physician soon arrived. He saluted Yong Yaxuan and then began to take Ji Feiyu's pulse. He first felt her left wrist and then her right wrist. Finally, he said to the emperor, "Your Majesty, great joy! The Empress is carrying twins!"
Ji Feiyu thought that was why her reaction was stronger than what the nanny had said. There were actually two babies. Yong Yaxuan was even more overjoyed when he heard this. He couldn't help but ask, "Twins? Are you sure?"
The imperial physician stroked his beard and said, "This old official has just felt the pulse. It is indeed twins. After the Empress shows more obviously in the later stage, it will be even more evident. However, compared with a single pregnancy, the Empress will be more hard - pressed."
Yong Yaxuan was originally happy, but when he heard that Ji Feiyu would be more hard - pressed, he felt sorry for her. As soon as Ji Feiyu saw his expression, she knew it was bad. He would surely stick to her even more closely from now on. She said, "Your Majesty, actually I feel okay. Your Majesty doesn't have to always follow me."
Yong Yaxuan said, "My dear, what's wrong? Isn't it good for me to be by your side all the time?"
It wasn't really bad, but he was just being too over - cautious. He wouldn't let her do this or that.
Ji Feiyu gave a helpless smile but still praised him. "Your Majesty has done very well." After that, Yong Yaxuan followed Ji Feiyu even more carefully. He would even support her when she walked, afraid that she might stumble or bump into something.
Ji Feiyu could understand Yong Yaxuan's over - nervousness. After all, they had the experience of losing their first child. Speaking of the first child, Ji Feiyu still felt a bit regretful in her heart. However, when she thought that there were two babies now, she felt that it was the previous baby coming back to her.
But she never thought that the reason why she and Yong Yaxuan had never been able to conceive might be because of their love across two lifetimes.
It was a noon a very long time later. Ji Feiyu saw such a legend in the "Strange Tales".
The legend goes that after a husband and wife die at the same time, they have to pass through the Hall of Reincarnation before they are reincarnated. In the Hall of Reincarnation, there sits an old matchmaker who tallies up the fates of marriages. Whenever a husband and wife who die at the same time pass by, the old matchmaker will ask them if they are willing to be husband and wife again after reincarnation. If one of them is not willing, the couple will be reincarnated separately and will not meet in the next life; if they are so in love that they will never be separated in life or death and say that they want to be together even after reincarnation, then this couple will be accepted by those with a two - lifetime marriage fate and will be born as a dragon - phoenix twin; if they are willing to be husband and wife in the next life, the old matchmaker will tell them that a two - lifetime marriage fate is very hard to come by. They will spend a long time looking for each other. If they can't find each other in a lifetime, they will never be able to achieve their marriage fate. If they find each other, they still have to wait for another couple who are unwilling to be separated to appear before they can have their own children, because only the affection of two lifetimes is worthy of a two - lifetime marriage fate.
For some reason, after hearing this story, Ji Feiyu couldn't help but think of that strange - behaving old woman and that couple who jumped into the river to die for love. Then she shivered all over. But when she saw her two children, who were as lively as rabbits when playing and as gentle as virgins when still, frolicking behind Yong Yaxuan in the distance, her mood calmed down again.
In any case, they were growing up healthily and happily, weren't they? As for whether she and Yong Yaxuan really had a two - lifetime marriage fate, it didn't matter anymore.
Just then, Yong Yaxuan raised his eyes and looked at her. Then he got up, walked around the two children, and came towards her. She gave him a gentle smile and calmly hid the "Strange Tales" under the armchair. He didn't say a word but just squatted beside her and stroked her bulging belly, where another new life was being nurtured.