Chapter 685: Baby Moving (1)

Zhou Wen took a mental note of Chu Lian’s instructions, before shooting a challenge at Manager Qin with his eyes.

Manager Qin snorted disdainfully.

Chu Lian was watching, but she couldn’t do anything about it.

Although they were both her equally capable assistants, the two men were in the peak of their youth and they both had an area that they specialised in. While they were helping Chu Lian to manage different businesses, they were secretly comparing themselves to each other and working harder to outshine their rival.

Manager Qin paused in thought before asking, “Madam, should I continue depositing the profits from the northern market into the bank?”

He had discovered recently that the money in the bank had all been withdrawn. Manager Qin had found it strange, but he hadn’t asked about it out of tact.

Chu Lian nodded. It wasn’t just the northern market’s profits. Once the tea mountain started normal production, its profits would also be deposited into the same bank account.

Since things hadn’t settled down yet, they would only need more and more money as time passed.

Once the two managers were done with their reports, they both left.

Chu Lian had been becoming less and less mobile these few days, so they didn’t want to disturb their master’s rest.

Chu Lian took another light sip of jasmine tea. Although it was already early autumn, it was still hot outside. She couldn’t drink green tea to curb the heat due to her little one, so she could only drink some flower tea to make do.

She gazed out over the lotus pond and enjoyed the cool breeze blowing over. The ripples and vibrant greenery on the pond soothed the heat of her body a little.

Today, she was wearing a light purple dress with long sleeves and a pink sash draped over her shoulders. The dress was decorated with Albizia flowers. All she had in the way of accessories was a simple plum blossom jade hairpin to secure her bun. She hadn’t even worn earrings.

Her face was glowing from within and she had a healthy blush on her cheeks. She looked even better than before she had gotten pregnant.

Senior Servants Zhong and Gui thought that Chu Lian’s outfit was far too humble, so they had pulled out a box of forehead ornaments for Chu Lian to pick from.

Chu Lian couldn’t get the two senior servants to budge, so she picked out a beautiful golden lotus to paste on her forehead.

As the sunlight streamed through the gaps in the tree canopy above, some rays would shine on Chu Lian’s forehead, lighting up the golden lotus ornament. The reflected sunlight gave the illusion of a golden glow around her.

Just as she was calculating the projected income from the northern market and Dejufeng in her mind, there was a sudden movement from her belly, causing Chu Lian to freeze up.

This was... her baby moving?

He Changdi had just returned from his ministry and had come looking for Chu Lian, only to be met with the sight of Chu Lian all stiff with a weird expression on her face.

His originally calm state turned into tension at once.

He quickly strode over and reached Chu Lian’s side in record time. He immediately wrapped his arm around her thin shoulders in support.

𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

“Lian’er, what’s wrong? Are you feeling uncomfortable anywhere?” He Changdi frowned heavily, afraid that something had gone wrong.

After the four month mark had passed, Chu Lian’s belly had swelled up like a balloon. It was growing by the day.

At first, he had found it strange that Chu Lian’s body had been as slender as before after three months. If she went out in a dress, no one would be able to tell that she was pregnant.

He had even specially gone to seek out Great Doctor Miao to ask him, and had gotten laughed at in return.

However, in the blink of an eye, Chu Lian had suddenly increased in size...

Sometimes, when he looked at her tiny figure and protruding belly, he couldn’t help the urge to follow behind her to help her hold up her belly. He was eternally afraid that she would slip and fall...

He Changdi had heard from Great Doctor Miao that it wasn’t good for women to get pregnant at too young an age.

Seeing how much she was suffering during this pregnancy, He Changdi was especially vexed with himself for not knowing all this common knowledge before. Now he had caused Chu Lian to bear such suffering at a young age.