The Fall of Wei and Shu
Chapter 2
Ai Rong opened her mouth and let the elderly doctor look down her throat, wondering how looking in her mouth would tell the old woman if she was pregnant or not. The woman took her pulse and muttered to herself, putting a hand low on Ai Rong's belly and pushing gently. The old woman nodded, then left the room. When she came back she held a cage with a small rabbit inside.
"I need you to urinate in this bowl. Then we will move on to the last test."
Ai Rong took the small bowl from the woman with a confused smile. What on earth was the rabbit for? Was it supposed to help her gain insight? Was it a gift?
When she called the old woman out from behind the screen that she had stepped behind to give the younger woman privacy, she heard glass and metal clattering. The old woman took the rabbit from its cage, holding it by the scruff of its neck. Taking the bowl, she injected a small amount of urine into the animal.
"Now what?"
The old woman patted the woman's hand with a warm smile.
"I'll watch the rabbit. We have to see what happens."
Five minutes passed, and suddenly Ai Rong heard the animal start to have a seizure. With a happy laugh, the old woman congratulated Ai Rong as she disposed of the dead rabbit. She was carrying a descendant inside of her. Ai Rong bowed to the old woman and walked out of the small room and was nearly knocked over by Shang Xiang's enthusiastic greeting.
"Well? What did she say?"
Ai Rong smiled sadly, and Shang Xiang's heart sank.
"The rabbit died… I guess that means that I'm pregnant…"
Shang Xiang looked up at her adopted older sister, who was grinning, and laughed. Both women cried out happily, walking out of the clinic hand in hand.
"So, you're going to write to Lu Xun and Father and Gan Ning, right? You're going to tell them, right?"
Ai Rong smiled as she climbed onto Laughing Moon's back, listening as her younger sister hauled herself into her own saddle and set a slow easy pace. Ai Rong wasn't sure if writing was a good idea, as she didn't want to distract her family and friends from the battle. When she said this to Shang Xiang, the woman sighed.
"They would want to know, Ai! You could at least tell Zhou Tai! You know he thinks of you as a niece."
The older ex-pirate had known Ai Rong since she was nine years old, and often would sit and talk to her late into the night playing go. He knew her better than most people did, but she knew relatively little of his past before she had met him.
She nodded, thinking of what the quiet man's reaction might be to the news.
"He probably will just say 'congratulations' and go on with what he was doing."
Shang Xiang laughed while Ai Rong spurred her horse into a run, shrieking a challenge to race. The two women thundered toward the stables, laughing and urging their horses to go faster. Ai Rong got there a second before her younger sister, laughing as she dismounted and handed her reigns to a stable hand, who also took Shang Xiang's reigns.
"You cheated! I didn't know that the road was so uneven back there!"
"I did not cheat! How could I? I can't even see!"
"Psh, whatever."
Ai Rong laughed as they walked into the garden and sat on a comfortable wooden bench. Shang Xiang stood and ran inside, coming back with a stack of paper and Ai Rong's writing tools.
"What?! Shang Xiang, I can't see to write!"
"So you can dictate, and I'll write for you! We're telling our family!"
"Ugh, fine. Hm."
