Just a Wet Nurse, Just a Plaything? Everyone Wept After My Death - Chapter 59

Chapter 59

A warm fragrance drifted through Tingfeng Courtyard.

Today, Liu Ruyan wore a flowing mauve dress, her face lightly powdered. Carrying a bowl of freshly stewed bird’s nest porridge, she entered with graceful steps.

“Cousin, I heard that Sister Shen scalded her hand. I feel simply awful about it.”

She walked over to Huo Xiao and glanced at Shen Yingyue, who was clumsily cradling Huzi with her left arm. A trace of barely perceptible disdain flashed through her eyes, though her expression remained gentle and gracious.

“Aunt is getting on in years, and her eyesight isn’t what it used to be. She certainly didn’t do it on purpose. Since Sister Shen is injured, why not let me help shoulder the responsibility of looking after my little nephew? That way, Sister Shen can focus on recovering.”

Huo Xiao had been worried that Shen Yingyue’s injured hand made it difficult for her to hold the baby. Seeing his cousin behave with such thoughtfulness and consideration, setting aside their past grievances, he was deeply gratified.

“Ruyan, that’s very thoughtful of you.”

Huo Xiao nodded, then turned to Shen Yingyue.

“Yingyue, let Ruyan hold Huzi. Your hand is swollen like a steamed bun. You might drop him.”

Shen Yingyue looked into Liu Ruyan’s shrewd, calculating eyes and instinctively wanted to refuse. But Huo Xiao had already spoken. If she disobeyed, she would only be accused of not knowing her place yet again.

She had no choice but to endure the searing pain in the back of her hand as she carefully passed Huzi over.

“Young Master, I’m your auntie…”

Liu Ruyan accepted him with a smile.

However, the heavy scent of cosmetics clinging to her was nothing short of a disaster for an infant’s sensitive nose.

The moment Huzi left Shen Yingyue’s milk-scented embrace and entered those fragrant yet unfamiliar arms, his little mouth puckered, and he immediately began to protest.

“Waaah!”

His earthshaking wail erupted through the room.

Huzi thrashed desperately in Liu Ruyan’s arms, flailing his tiny hands. He even smacked her carefully made-up face.

“Oh!”

Liu Ruyan froze in shock and nearly dropped him.

“What’s going on? Why did he start crying as soon as you held him?” Huo Xiao frowned.

A little embarrassed, Liu Ruyan forced a smile and tried to soothe him. “Perhaps he’s afraid of strangers… There, there. Don’t cry. Auntie adores you…”

But Huzi only cried louder. His little face turned bright red as he stared fixedly at Shen Yingyue, stretching both hands toward her as though he had suffered the most terrible injustice in the world.

“Let me take him.”

Ignoring the injury to her hand, Shen Yingyue hurried forward and snatched the baby back from Liu Ruyan’s arms.

Miraculously, the instant Huzi returned to Shen Yingyue’s embrace, his crying stopped as abruptly as if it had been cut off. Still sniffling, he buried his face in the crook of her neck and tightly clutched her collar, finally settling down.

The contrast could not have been more brutal.

Watching them, Huo Xiao could not help remarking, “It seems this boy still can’t bear to be apart from Yingyue. Ruyan, when it comes to looking after a child, I suppose no one can compare to the person who raised him herself. You’re still an unmarried young lady, after all. You wouldn’t understand such things.”

He had spoken without thinking, but Liu Ruyan took every word to heart.

She stood rooted to the spot, the smile nearly slipping from her face.

She was the esteemed young lady of the Minister’s Estate. She had lowered herself to hold this motherless little brat, only to be rejected? Worse, Huo Xiao had compared her to a lowly wet nurse!

Jealousy and hatred surged within her, coiling like a venomous snake in her heart.

“You’re right, Cousin.”

Liu Ruyan lowered her head to conceal the malice in her eyes and said softly, “I was too clumsy and upset my little nephew.”
Just then, a personal guard called from outside the door:

“General! An urgent report has arrived from the barracks!”

Huo Xiao’s expression sharpened, and he immediately rose to his feet. “I’ll be right back. Ruyan, if you have nothing else to do, go keep Mother company at Songhe Hall. Stop making trouble here.”

With that, he strode out.

Only Shen Yingyue, Liu Ruyan, and a few young maids remained in the room.

Shen Yingyue had no desire to deal with Liu Ruyan. Holding the baby, she turned toward the inner room to change his diaper.

“Sister Shen, wait.”

Liu Ruyan suddenly called out to her. A smile curved her lips, but her eyes were cold as ice.

“Now that Cousin is gone, there’s no need to keep up the act.

“Give me the child.”

Shen Yingyue took a wary step back. “What are you planning to do?”

“What could I possibly do?” Liu Ruyan advanced on her one step at a time and lowered her voice. “I merely want to see just how precious this Young Master, who supposedly can’t live without you, really is.”

She hated this child.

If not for him, why would her cousin have brought this temptress into the manor? The motherless brat had already taken this woman’s side. Once he grew up, wouldn’t he protect that wretch too?

Since the child refused to acknowledge her as his aunt, he couldn’t blame her for being ruthless!

Catching Shen Yingyue off guard, she suddenly lunged forward and snatched Huzi from her arms.

“Waaah!” Huzi burst into tears again.

“Shut up!”

With her back to the maids, Liu Ruyan used her wide sleeve to conceal her movements. She extended two long-nailed fingers and viciously pinched the tender inside of Huzi’s thigh.

It was the softest, most delicate spot. A single pinch would leave a purple bruise.

Then, with deliberate cruelty, she twisted the flesh.

“Waaaaah!”

Huzi let out a bloodcurdling scream so shrill it made everyone’s scalp prickle. His entire body convulsed violently within his swaddling clothes.

“What are you doing?!”

Shen Yingyue went white with shock and lunged forward like a madwoman to seize the child back.

At that moment, Huo Xiao returned, perhaps because he had forgotten something. Hearing his son’s agonized scream, he shoved the door open and charged inside.

“What’s going on?!”

Liu Ruyan reacted instantly.

The moment Huo Xiao entered, she released her grip and replaced her expression with one of utter terror. Pointing at Shen Yingyue, who had just wrested the child back, she shrieked, “Cousin! Cousin, look!”

“Sister Shen… She’s gone mad!”

Liu Ruyan threw herself at Huo Xiao, trembling as she “sobbed.”

“I just saw… I saw Sister Shen taking out her anger on your son because the pain in her hand had put her in a foul mood!

“She… she pinched him as hard as she could!

“Heavens, he’s your own flesh and blood! How could she bring herself to hurt him?”

Huo Xiao’s expression changed. He strode over to Shen Yingyue and yanked Huzi’s swaddling clothes aside.

There, on the inside of the baby’s soft, pale thigh, was a livid purplish-red pinch mark, with tiny beads of blood welling from the broken skin.

Against his snow-white skin, the injury was horrifying.

“Shen. Ying. Yue.”

Huo Xiao’s eyes instantly turned bloodshot with the fury of a wild beast whose most vulnerable spot had been struck.

His head snapped up, and he glared at Shen Yingyue as she stood there clutching the baby, stunned and at a loss. His voice was as cold and murderous as a demon risen from hell.

“You have a death wish!”