To Chen Caozhi's overwhelming delight, Xiao Chan was pregnant too!
Xiao Chan stood beside Ding Youwei as she told Chen Caozhi about the pregnancy. The astonished expressions of the two ladies, Lu and Xie, and Chen Caozhi's dumbfounded look left Xiao Chan too embarrassed to raise her head. She had become pregnant after just one time-how mortifying!
Only then did Chen Xian, Chen Man, and the other elders learn of Xiao Chan's pregnancy. Everyone beamed with joy. Xiao Chan truly had the look of a woman blessed with sons. The Qiantang Chen Clan would soon have another descendant-two blessings had arrived at their door.
The talented Xie Daoyun felt rather disappointed. Though her mind brimmed with poetry and learning, without a child she always felt she lacked a firm footing. After the family banquet that evening, she washed and read Liu Xiang's Garden of Stories in her bedroom for diversion, thinking about the outrageous things Chen Caozhi had said in the carriage. He actually wanted her and Wei Rui to serve him together again, as they had on their wedding night. That night, she had momentarily lost her senses and composure and let him do as he pleased. How could she agree to such a thing again now?
-At the time, Lu Weiwei had merely smiled, neither agreeing nor refusing, while she had declined with shy, gentle reproach. Surely Master Chen would not be displeased over that?
Then Xie Daoyun thought, If that displeases Master Chen, I would rather let him be displeased. How can I indulge and flatter him like that? Still, he will be sleeping in Sister Wei Rui's room tonight. With Sister Wei Rui carrying a child, who knows how happy he must be?
Listlessly, Xie Daoyun finished "Upright Remonstrance," the eighth scroll of Garden of Stories.