Do you know the long song of laughter?

Chapter 495 Working together
A month ago, everything needed for delivery was prepared.

Hot water is available in the kitchen at all times of the day.

In the past few days, Old Madam Sheng has been living in the Li family, and she has asked Nanny Fang to train the maid and practice it several times.

At a command from Old Lady Sheng, the maids began to work according to the procedures they had rehearsed in advance.

Although it looks hurried, it is not messy at all.

Minglan didn't know all this and was helped into the inner room and onto the bed.

She felt her consciousness becoming a little blurry, and waves of pain came over her like waves.

It was unknown how long it took before she regained some consciousness.

Sweat soaked her clothes and even her eyelashes were wet, making it difficult for her to see clearly.

I heard the voices of the midwife, grandmother and mother-in-law.

“Push harder.” “Breathe in.” “It will come out soon.”

The noisy sound made Minglan's mind a mess, and she instinctively did what she heard.

I don’t know how long it was, but I felt a warm sensation between the mattress and the pain receded like the tide.

However, she didn't even have the energy to think, and in a daze she heard someone shouting in surprise.

"It's born, it's born, it's a boy, a big fat boy."

Amid the noisy sounds, there was also the cry of a baby, which was loud and powerful.

"It's a son. He sounds healthy."

This was Minglan’s thought before she lost consciousness.

…………

An unknown amount of time had passed before Minglan, in a daze, felt a warm current in her mouth and swallowed it instinctively.

When she woke up slowly, she saw Danju sitting on the edge of the bed, feeding her ginseng soup.

Seeing Minglan open her eyes, Danju said in surprise: "The lady is awake."

There was a sound of hurried footsteps outside, and soon a large group of people walked in.

"Ming'er, how do you feel?"

Old Madam Sheng, Mrs. Liu and Ruichu gathered around the bed.

"Grandma, mother-in-law, I'm fine. I just feel like I have no strength in my body." Minglan forced a smile on her pale face and said weakly.

"This is normal. Giving birth to a child has damaged your vitality. You will be fine after a few days of rest." Mrs. Sheng said with a smile.

Hearing about the child, Minglan suddenly gained some strength and asked anxiously, "Where's the child? Why didn't I hear any crying?"

Although she vaguely heard crying before she fell into a coma, she was in a daze at the time and didn't know if it was an illusion.

"Don't worry." Old Madam Sheng quickly held Minglan down and said, "The child was taken away by the nurse to be fed. He has already eaten and fallen asleep."

"It's a big fat boy. I'll go and get the child." Liu said as she walked out.

The courtyard where Minglan lives is the main courtyard in the backyard. There is a bedroom on each side of the main hall. The bedroom on the left is Li An and Minglan's.

On the right side is where the servants live.

But now that place has been vacated for the wet nurse to live in.

During the confinement period, women should not be exposed to wind, and this also applies to their children.

However, the three rooms were connected, the windows were closed, and there were thick curtains in the hall, so there was nothing to worry about.

Minglan was relieved when she heard it was a son.

"Grandma, please sit down." Minglan said.

"Don't worry about us. You haven't recovered yet. So talk less." Old Lady Sheng lifted the quilt for Minglan, made way for her, and let Danju continue to feed Minglan ginseng soup.

After taking a few sips of ginseng soup, Minglan felt a little better and her face became rosy, not as pale as before.

At this time, Mrs. Liu came in holding the child.

Seeing this, Minglan didn't even bother to drink the ginseng soup and tried to get up.

"Don't move!" Mrs. Sheng scolded.

Liu held the child and carefully placed him beside Minglan's bed.

Minglan turned her head to look at the child, whose wrinkled little face was sleeping soundly.

Minglan stretched out her hand and carefully reached it towards the child.

When my fingers touched the child's face, a feeling of blood connection surged in my heart, and a smile appeared at the corner of my mouth.

…………

Yangzhou
Ang Lee had been up all day and night. Although he was full of energy and did not feel tired, he went back to his room, washed up, lay down on the bed, and fell asleep soon after.

I don’t know how much time had passed, but Li An suddenly sat up, gasping for breath.

"Brother Niu, what's wrong with you?"

Shizhu heard the noise, opened the door and walked in.

"fine."

Li An wiped the blood off his forehead and said, "I had a dream that my wife gave birth."

The child was born in the dream, and by the time he returned from inspecting the salt business, more than a year had passed.

The child could already call people, and Minglan asked him to call her dad, but the child timidly hid behind Minglan and was unwilling to speak.

No matter how Li An and Minglan coaxed him, he refused to cry and even blamed Li An for not being there when he was born.

When Li An dreamed of this, he was awakened.

At this time, Li An also knew that this was a dream. The child was over one year old and could not speak fluently, so how could he know so much?

Maybe he had such a dream because he felt guilty for not being able to accompany Minglan during her childbirth.

However, we must speed up the investigation of the salt affairs.

Calculating the time, it’s almost time for the baby to be born.

Li An didn't want to go back when the children were already calling for help.

Shizhu scratched his head, smiled innocently, and said, "I often had dreams when my wife gave birth. My father said that I was too nervous. Brother Niu should be the same."

Li An smiled and said, "I think so. Zhuzi, I'm a little thirsty, pour me some water."

"Hey."

Zhuzi walked to the table nearby, poured a bowl of water for Li An and handed it to him.

Li An took a few sips and drank it, then handed the bowl to Zhuzi and asked, "What time is it now?"

"It was not long after midnight, and Brother Niu only slept for a few hours." Zhuzi said.

"Then I'll sleep for a while, and you can go back to sleep too, and don't keep guarding. This is an inn, and there are so many imperial guards guarding outside, so nothing will happen." Li An said.

When he came, Shi Lin told Shi Zhu to protect Li Ang.

Li An didn't say anything and he stayed outside all night without sleeping.

When I feel sleepy, I lean against the wall at the door and take a nap.

This situation never happened before when we were on a boat and lived in a room with two people.

Two days ago, after Zhao Ceying arrived in Yangzhou to meet up, Li An didn't notice it at first. But when he went out to relieve himself because of a stomachache at night, he was frightened.

"Yeah." Zhuzi nodded, put the tea bowl on the table, closed the door and walked out.

"call."

Li An lay on the bed with his eyes open, completely sleepless.

"I don't know whether Minglan has given birth or not."

Communications in ancient times were too backward, unlike in modern times where we can just make a phone call and get everything done.

Even after Minglan gave birth, it would take several days for the letter from home to arrive.

"Ah." Li An sighed. He was actually full of worries.

Giving birth in ancient times was actually very dangerous, and the mortality rate for ordinary women was very high.

In addition to age, lack of money for nutritional supplements and backward medical conditions are also reasons.

Rich families don't have this problem, but the mortality rate is still high.

Otherwise, giving birth to a child would not be called going through the gates of hell.

It sounds a bit mysterious, but it seems that none of the women in the original drama died of childbirth complications.

The only possible person seems to be Yu Yanran's mother.

Yu Yanran's younger brother and sister are not born to the same mother, but their ages are not much different.

Given the status of the Yu family, it was impossible for them to support a concubine as the principal wife. It was most likely that she was a second wife.

In other words, Yu Yanran's mother died when she gave birth to her, and her father remarried not long after her death, otherwise it would be impossible for her younger brothers and sisters to be so much older than her.

Although Minglan did not suffer from difficult childbirth in the original drama, her appearance itself changed a lot of things.

Thinking of this, Li An felt filled with annoyance.

Li Ang fell asleep after thinking about all sorts of things until dawn.

…………

The next day, after breakfast, Zhao Ceying gathered everyone and made some arrangements.

He left some people behind to continue checking the account books. Although some problems had been found, he didn't know whether there were other hidden problems.

In addition, several people were arranged to go out and continue the investigation.

He took Xia Shaohua and Li An to inspect the Lianghuai Salt Field.

After arranging all these, Zhao Ceying took Li An and the others on a boat to the Lianghuai Salt Field under the protection of the imperial guards.

When officials from Yangzhou heard the news, they hurried over to see him off.

Wen Duo even offered to accompany him, but was rejected by Zhao Ceying.

Zhao Ceying already had some doubts about Wen Duo, so naturally he would not take him with him.

While Zhao Ceying was sailing upstream, a boat was sailing downstream on the canal, hundreds of miles away from Bianjing.

There were a man and a woman sitting in the cabin.

The man was about forty years old, with a gloomy face, while the woman was in her early twenties and dressed like a woman.

The table was filled with food and wine. The man was already a little drunk, and looked at the woman next to him with a dazed look in his eyes.

The woman noticed the man's gaze, frowned slightly, and said with a smile: "We will arrive in Bianjing in a day or two."

Hearing this, the man raised his head and drank the wine in the glass. He placed the glass heavily on the table and sneered, "Gu Tingye has seized my Bai family's property, and he is still unwilling to let us go. He investigates the salt business first instead of anyone else. How hateful! I hope you didn't lie to me, or you're dead."

"Of course I dare not lie to the Second Master. After all, I hate him too." The woman said hatefully.

"Didn't you give birth to two children for him? Do you really want to ruin his reputation?" the man asked doubtfully.

This man and woman are the Second Master of the Bai Family and Man Niang.

When Gu Tingye drove away Man Niang and her siblings, he told them that they would be killed if they dared to enter Bian Jing again!

Man Niang planned for so long, but in the end, all her efforts were in vain, so she was naturally unwilling to accept it.

However, she couldn't do anything to Gu Tingye.

If you go to Gu's house and cause trouble, you will most likely die without knowing why.

However, Man Niang has followed Gu Tingye for so many years, and she has also learned some secrets from Gu Tingye.

For example, what happened between Gu Tingye and his stepmother.

Man Niang's first thought was to seek cooperation with Xiao Qinshi.

However, Gu Tingye sent people to keep an eye on her at that time, and her identity made it difficult for her to contact Xiao Qinshi.

Man Niang thought about returning home and waiting for an opportunity. Gu Tingye did not do anything extreme, but gave the brother and sister some money and let them return home.

Man Niang's ancestral home is not far from Yangzhou. After returning home, she suddenly remembered that Gu Tingye's grandfather's home was in Yangzhou.

Gu Tingye never told her much about the Bai family's situation, so she didn't know much about it.

I wanted to see if I could find a way to get back to Gu Tingye through the Bai family. After some inquiries, I found out that the Bai family was actually the richest family in Yangzhou and had enormous wealth.

In the end, all these family properties were passed on to Old Master Bai's grandson.

At first, Man Niang thought that Old Master Bai had other daughters, but after asking around, she found out that Old Master Bai only had one daughter.

It goes without saying who the grandson who will inherit the Bai family's property is.

As a result, Man Niang, who was already unwilling to accept the outcome, even became a little crazy.

She didn't know how much wealth the Bai family had, but in a wealthy place like Yangzhou, to be called the richest man, his wealth must be considerable.

Gu Tingye will be able to inherit the title in the future, and with the Bai family's inheritance, he will be so rich.

She could have enjoyed all this wealth, but was driven away by Gu Tingye.

She was unwilling and she hated it!

If Gu Tingye had not pretended to give up his title, if Gu Tingye had told her that he had inherited the Bai family's vast fortune, how could she have done that?
When she thought of this, she couldn't help but want revenge.

When she was inquiring for information, she learned that the second and third branches of the Bai family had a huge conflict with Gu Tingye over the family business, so she wanted to contact them to take revenge on Gu Tingye.

The Bai brothers were also full of resentment towards Gu Tingye, and the two sides hit it off immediately.

However, before they could take any action, news came that Gu Tingye had become a loyal minister.

How dare they retaliate now?

However, this thorough investigation of the salt business did give them an opportunity.

The Bai brothers suddenly received a letter a few days ago, saying that Gu Tingye came to Yangzhou with King Huan to investigate the salt business and had discovered what they had done.

He suggested to King Huan that he should attack them first, and now he was on his way to capture them.

The Bai brothers didn't care about their property anymore and fled in a hurry with their families.

Although the Bai brothers are not very smart, they are not complete idiots.

They knew that smuggling salt was a life-threatening business. If they inherited the Bai family's business, became salt merchants, and had business dealings with those officials, they would not be so afraid.

But now they are just working for others, and the officials they know are only minor ones.

They will help with some small things, but no one cares about this kind of things.

Therefore, he prepared a retreat route early on and bought a farm dozens of miles away from Yangzhou, near the canal.

This manor was unknown to outsiders and they sent their trusted aides to manage it.

I thought that if anything unexpected happened in the future, I could hide there.

Man Niang was also placed here by them.

The two men took their families down the river on a boat and disembarked near Zhuangzi, allowing someone to continue the boat forward to interfere with their vision.

Even though Gu Tingye asked the Cao Gang for help, he was unable to find out where their boats had gone. He only knew that their boats had been drifting downstream, and he was not sure where they had gone.

After Man Niang learned the news, she felt that this was an opportunity to take revenge on Gu Tingye.

Although she was a woman, she had some knowledge and knew that a thorough investigation of the salt business would offend many people.

This is the best opportunity to deal with Gu Tingye.

"Master, do you think he will let me enter the Gu family?" Man Niang asked.

"No." Mr. Bai said sarcastically, "They are a noble family, even our Bai family doesn't look down on them, not to mention... the Gu family married the Bai family's daughter just for money. After his mother died, the Gu family cut off ties with us."

"Since Mr. Bai knows everything, why do you still doubt me?" Man Niang said coldly, "The basis of cooperation is trust. If Mr. Bai doesn't trust me, then I will leave."

"I was just joking, why are you so angry?" Mr. Bai put his hand on Man Niang's and smiled slightly.

"What are you doing?" Man Niang quickly pulled her hand back and glared at Mr. Bai.

(End of this chapter)