It took a lil longer for this chapter because I was working on Sacrifices in an Empty Moon
This chapter really focuses on Yue Ying's decision whether or not to have a child.
Hehe, the last paragraph in this fic made me lol.
Enjoy!
Birth Throes – Chapter 3 – Decision
Sitting down under one of the Peach Trees in the back garden of Chengdu castle, Yue Ying's mind told her to sigh. The story she had read was about a mother and her son more auspicious than anyone thought. The son, of course, was born on an auspicious day, the mother dreaming of a dragon the day before he was born. The father was a no-show, for he had been married to the mother for quite a while but grew more pleased at "Happy Houses". The mother longed for him.
The son she had was named "Dayue" because he had been born when the moon was at its closest point to the earth and a date of the full moon, the fifteenth. It was indeed a promising date, since this date he was born was the same day that the kingdom was established. The mother was overjoyed.
Unfortunately, after giving birth, the woman began to suffer from a heart condition. She complained of weakness, dizziness and loss of coordination to the physician. He prescribed her many powerful drugs to cure her, but she just didn't heal in time. "I'm sorry," the last physician said. "But there is no drug powerful enough to stop an ailment of the heart."
She died three months after giving birth.
Dayue grew up to be a very powerful man. He excelled quickly in many arts. He was favored my many people in China.
The kingdoms China was divided into were finally united when Dayue turned eighteen.
A month later, he decided to join the government's army. He went to the Emperor and the emperor gladly recruited him. Dayue noticed the Emperor looked strikingly familiar to him, but he couldn't place where, so he just brushed it off.
A later day while dining with the Emperor, Dayue noticed the Emperor's oldest son who had looked strikingly familiar as well. Recognizing from where the emperor and his son looked familiar from, finally, he exclaimed, "The Emperor is my father! I am his eldest son! I should claim the throne!"
He and the Emperor's oldest son battled out for days. Dayue died a few days later, on the same day he was born.
Yue Ying shuddered. "How ironic." She stood up, stretched and walked deeper into the garden.
---
"I don't get it," Lady Mi wondered, looking around the room. "How could she have escaped?"
Zhuge Liang laid his eyes upon the window and muttered sarcastically, "I wonder how."
Lady Mi looked at the window, noticing the table with ropes tied upon its legs. "Oh, how come I didn't notice this earlier?" She went around the table and examined it, then the rope and continued searching.
"Any luck yet?" came the voice of Lady Gan. She re-entered the library. Once she saw Zhuge Liang, she turned red, pointed to him and accused, "You pervert! You don't want to become a father to a son; you just want to have a son!"
"Haha, very funny," Zhuge Liang muttered. "Lady Mi, Lady Gan, you never answered my question. Why were you two and Yue Ying here?"
"It's none of your business. Just be a man already and help us," Lady Gan snorted.
Zhuge Liang took a look at the table. "Looks like something must have scared her. The book here is ... killed."
Lady Gan laughed. "Knowing the Prime Minister, he would give it a funeral!" She and Lady Mi continued laughing.
Zhuge Liang shook his head. "Why does Yue Ying stay around you all day?"
"She has nothing better to do." Lady Mi snatched the book Zhuge Liang was holding.
"Hey," she exclaimed. "I never put this book along with the ones Yue Ying should read. How did this get here?"
Lady Gan looked at it. "Oh this?" She took the book. "It's mine."
Zhuge Liang looked at her. "How did it get there?"
"I wanted to scare her!" Lady Gan exclaimed. "I wanted to see how she would react ... "
"Wonderful, sister-in-law!" Lady Mi exclaimed. "You scared the poor woman off!"
"Not my fault," replied Lady Gan. "This book wasn't a true story anyway. Now, Zhuge Liang, if she hadn't reacted this way after reading this book, don't you think she would be ready for a child? I thought the only thing to do to test her if see how she would react, and look! It scared her off! She's not even close to ready! Give her another ten, maybe twenty years. She'll be ready then!"
Surprised by Lady Gan's clever maneuver and tone, Zhuge Liang sighed. "Maybe I pressed it on too early."
"O dear," Lady Gan said sarcastically. Her drama was completely emphasized. "What makes you think so?"
Zhuge Liang shook his head and cursed at the woman. "Obviously," he began, "You two will be absolutely no help. I'll look for her on my own. I have a strong feeling I know where she is right at this moment."
"Well ... fine!" exclaimed Lady Mi. "Two hundred taels of silver to the person who finds her first!"
Lady Gan tossed two hundred taels of silver on the table, followed by Lady Mi. Zhuge Liang, clearly angry, tossed a gold bar on the table.
"I don't have time for you two," he snapped, and left the room.
---
"O my god, so many problems come up when come when even mentioning conception," muttered Yue Ying, looking down from the sturdiest tree in the garden. "I'll call it birth throes. Yes, birth pains, that's the perfect word for the situation I'm in. I don't want to end up like Dayue's mother in that story. Nooo, that was scary. I don't want Zhuge Liang to leave me. That's even scarier. I would rather die of a heart aliment. And whatever happens, I don't want two people with even remotely the same blood to fight one another. Well, I guess when that does happen, we can call it 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms!' "
She looked up at the blazing sun of that day. It was spring, but felt like blazing summer.
"Can someone block that sun over there?" She muttered, shielding her eyes.
And then came a voice from below. "Ah, I knew I would find you here!"
Yue Ying glanced downwards. "Ai, how did you find me here?"
"It's pretty easy to tell when you've known someone for this long," he replied. "And I noticed you from the Library window. Lady Mi and Gan are complete idiots."
"I know. I only stay around them because they're clever. When they're not, they're either sewing, or cooking, or weaving, or whatever women naturally do. Like I know."
The sun and Yue Ying were at the same angle to him. He chuckled at her last comment and then asked, "Can you come down from there?"
"Of course I can," she replied. "Will I? Maybe later, I'm lost in my thoughts."
"I need to speak with you on what I said last night," he replied.
Had it been someone else Yue Ying would be suspicious. "Can't we just talk like this? I don't feel like descending this instant."
"I'm slightly shouting," replied Zhuge Liang. "Can you come down? I don't want others to hear this."
"You know very well my hearing is better than perfect," Yue Ying whispered. "And so is yours. Come on now, at least join me."
"I don't think this tree is strong enough for two." He looked around it. "Well anyway, I'm starting to think we shouldn't have a son."
Yue Ying felt her heart skip a beat. "Where ... did you get that idea from?"
"I was with Lady Mi and Gan before and when in the Library, I saw the book you had nearly destroyed."
"I was just frightened, that's all."
"Yue Ying, what's scaring you?"
"The story is complicated, Liang, and I don't want to repeat it. Point is, I don't want you to become perverted or our son fight his own half-brother."
Surprised at how detailed Yue Ying's words are, he said, "You know that story was fictional, right?"
"It is?"
"Yes. Lady Gan told me herself."
Yue Ying twiddled her forefingers. "Doesn't mean it can't happen ... "
"All these birth throes," Zhuge Liang whispered and sighed.
He crossed his heart and then countered, his voice becoming lower and lower with each word, "I promise you, I will never stop loving you. And if I do, or if you feel like I haven't, Heaven may strike me dead that very moment. So be it."
"What?" she exclaimed. "Soviet? Like the Soviet Union?"
"I said, so be it!"
"So Viet?" Her eyes widened. "Liang, we're Chinese! Have you forgotten the Viets are south of us? What's so Viet?"
He emphasized the words again, making Yue Ying sound retarded. She turned red and the apologized. "You're right, Liang. Anyway, it would be nice to have a son around. I bet he'll flatter Lady Mi and Gan so well they'll run away from Liu Bei! If he's as handsome as you, Zhuge Liang, I'm sure of it!" She giggled.
"I guess I'll come down now." She looked down. Grabbing nearby sturdy branches, Yue Ying pushed herself off and then came toppling down on Zhuge Liang.
Yue Ying shot up in pain, her right hand on her back, her left on Zhuge Liang's face to support herself. She moaned, and Zhuge Liang would have as well if he could breathe.
And it just so happened Zhang Fei was walking by them, slightly sober.
"Ah, come on!" he exclaimed, holding a jug of Chengdu's finest wine brew. "You don't have to make a son this instant! At least have the decency to do it at night! No one wants to see your naked asses winking in this sun!"