HUS Chapter 32: Pregnancy Confirmed
HUS Chapter 32: Pregnancy Confirmed
Dec 16, 2025
Providing help in times of need is what moves people's hearts most.
Of course, Yang Can's opposition to the Suo family, which surprisingly earned him the Clan Head's favor, was also an important reason he could move Leopard Head.
Leopard Head didn't understand why this was so, but he understood that his failure to comprehend was simply because his brain wasn't sharp enough.
Having an inadequate brain didn't matter. He didn't plan to use this rusty brain of his anymore. From now on, Master Yang would do the thinking for him.
Though Leopard Head's mind was indeed quite simple, he had his own survival wisdom.
Yang Can visited Leopard Head. After Sister-in-law Cheng returned to the room holding her daughter, he consoled her again, telling her to come find him if she had any troubles, then took his leave.
Returning to his own residence, Yang Can found Zhang Yunyi, the master of Feng'an Estate, already waiting there for him.
Yang Can didn't pay much attention to this Zhang Yunyi.
In his view, he was just a country landlord.
The manner Zhang Yunyi presented was exactly like the country landlord in Yang Can's impression.
Cunning, scheming, able to lower himself, but that was all. He seemed to lack any grand vision.
Zhang Yunyi gave Yang Can a gift, a small box containing four gold cakes.
This gift wasn't light, but it wasn't particularly valuable either.
The impression he left on Yang Can was: this landlord was quite wealthy and quite generous.
Yang Can was the steward in charge of the six major estates, essentially Master Zhang's direct superior, so naturally he assumed this gift from Master Zhang was the most valuable one.
Yang Can declined politely a few times, accepted the generous gift, saw Master Zhang off, and thus began a period of leisurely and carefree good times.
On the inner residence side, Suo Zhanzhi and her personal maid Qingmei were boldly conducting reorganization and adjustments, striving to completely grasp control of the inner residence.
On the outer estate side, the "deceased young master's faction" stewards remained in the majority. The head of this faction was First Steward Li Youcai.
With First Steward Li present, Yang Can didn't even have the qualification to "follow established precedents." He just needed to "go with the flow."
As for the ledgers of the estates and ranches that Li Youcai had transferred to Yang Can, Yang Can had sought out Li Damu several more times.
Each time, Li Damu wore a worried expression and put him off, claiming he was busy dealing with the ledgers the young mistress needed.
Yang Can wasn't anxious either. After his daily "update requests" to Li Damu, he would walk around to maintain his presence, then return to his study to "read."
Yang Can had only "read" for seven or eight days when he had sorted through several years' worth of accounts from the six major estates and three major ranches.
If it came to composing poetry and songs, playing chess, or painting, Yang Can truly couldn't match the scholars of this era. However, in management abilities related to practical operations and industry, once he became familiar with the basic rules, he was even more capable than they were.
Those accounts were running accounts. The running account bookkeeping method was originally the easiest to tamper with and falsify.
Using backdating and supplementary entries, one could falsify dates. Using late recording of expired transactions, one could conceal shortfalls.
By adding false items or deliberately omitting some items, one could mislead others, thereby fabricating expenditures, embezzling public funds, and withholding differences. However, even without Yang Can's flawless accounting methods, those ledgers were riddled with loopholes and extremely easy to find problems in.
Because Yu Huanhu had turned over these accounts very hastily, without time to manipulate them.
Of course, it was quite possible Yu Huanhu had never intended to manipulate or conceal anything. He probably hoped the eldest branch would find loopholes in the accounts.
Once problems were found, would you manage it or not?
If you didn't manage it, what would you do about these shortfalls from previous years?
If you managed it, right during spring plowing season, you'd throw the estates into chaos. When autumn harvest resulted in greatly reduced yields, how would you answer to the entire clan?
This was an unsolvable problem Yu Huanhu had thrown at the eldest branch. However, Yang Can seemed unconcerned about this.
He marked down all the problems he discovered on his statistical tables, locked the tables in the cabinet, and continued his "daily update requests" to Accountant Li.
Early one morning, Yang Can again brought Wangcai to the small kitchen for breakfast.
As a steward's personal servant, Wangcai's meal treatment was much higher than ordinary servants.
He could see meat in his meals every day, though not much.
Therefore, Wangcai was very enthusiastic about meals. Every morning when Yang Can got up to wash, he would already be waiting in the corridor early, like a puppy waiting to be fed.
Upon entering the dining hall, Yang Can felt the atmosphere was somewhat off. The stewards weren't chatting and laughing as usual. The dining hall was unusually quiet.
Li Youcai was also there today. Seeing Yang Can, he only forced a slight smile.
Yang Can was somewhat puzzled. He sat down beside Li Youcai and said in a low voice, "First Steward, what's happened?"
Li Youcai also lowered his voice, "Early this morning, the Clan Head and Second Master Suo went to the rear residence."
Yang Can was slightly startled, "What happened at the rear residence?"
Li Youcai shook his head, "The Clan Head and Second Master Suo brought three physicians famous throughout Longshang."
Yang Can immediately understood, "They're going to... take the young mistress's pulse?"
Li Youcai nodded and gave a long sigh, "Let's hope the young mistress lives up to everyone's hopes."
Yang Can touched his nose. Everyone being so concerned about whether Suo Zhanzhi was pregnant made Yang Can's pressure multiply.
After all, he was the one who had broken the ground and sown the seeds.
Frankly speaking, after learning of this, Yang Can also lost some appetite.
For others, having no heart to eat at this moment was worrying about the eldest branch's future, because the eldest branch's future directly affected their own futures.
For Yang Can, this moment was even more important. It would determine whether Yang Can would henceforth walk on knife's edge to gamble for a wealthy future.
After breakfast, the stewards all headed without prior arrangement toward where the front and rear residences connected. There were also some buildings there.
The architectural layout of wealthy households emphasized distinction between inner and outer areas.
Therefore, the part where the front and rear residences connected wasn't just a high wall, but rather various buildings constructed against the wall, both inside and outside.
Doing so both created separation between front and rear, maintaining good privacy, and in feng shui terms, had the effect of gathering favorable energy.
Therefore, at this connecting point of the Yu family eldest branch's front and rear residences, on the inner side, across from the hanging flower gate on both sides were the inner study and the women's kitchen courtyard.
On the outer wall side were the accounting office and the stewards' hall.
Li Youcai, Accountant Li, and other major and minor stewards of the front residence all, without prior arrangement, came to this area today.
Of course, they each had excuses, respectively going to different rooms, pretending to do various things, but their full attention was on the rear residence.
Later, they stopped being circumspect. They gathered in small groups, sitting absentmindedly drinking tea, just waiting for news from the inner residence.
"Steward Niu, our Second Steward really can keep his composure. Everyone's here waiting for news, yet he hasn't come to listen."
Seeing that only Yang Can hadn't come, Accountant Li said this to Steward Niu with some emotion.
Steward Niu shook his head, stroking his beard, "Master Li, our Steward Yang is extremely out of favor with the young mistress. If the young mistress isn't pregnant, our eldest branch will be dismantled sooner or later, and he'll have to find another way out. But if the young mistress is pregnant, heh! Then the young mistress will hold great power. At that time, she'll still kick him out, and he'll still have to find his own way. Tell me, what would he come here for?"
Accountant Li laughed helplessly, "That's true. Among everyone in our eldest branch, the one who cares least about whether the young mistress is pregnant should be our Steward Yang."
Yang Can indeed hadn't gone to the rear residence entrance to wait for news. First, everyone knew he was out of favor with the Suo family, so it wasn't appropriate for him to wait there.
On the other hand, it was also because he was more nervous than anyone.
The nervousness about becoming a father, the nervousness about this deciding the path he would take from now on...
He had lived two lifetimes, and this was still the first time he faced such a significant change and choice.
Finally, Yang Can still couldn't restrain himself and sent Wangcai out.
He had Wangcai wait outside the inner residence, ready to hear the news at any moment.
As for himself, he opened a book and sat in the study.
He tried hard to calm himself, but though the doors and windows were all open, he still felt burning hot all over.
...
In the orchid chamber of the rear residence, an elderly physician over seventy with completely white hair and beard was using the "three positions and nine indicators" method, steadily placing two fingers on Suo Zhanzhi's pale wrist.
Four inner residence matrons, two pretty maids Qingmei and Qiaoshe, plus the old physician's assistant, his daughter-in-law over fifty, all stood to the side, watching intently.
Suo Zhanzhi was very nervous, her heart pounding wildly, so that her pulse also became intense.
She tried hard to make her breathing steady, but the more she thought about it, the more rapid her breathing became.
The old physician naturally noticed Suo Zhanzhi's nervous mood, but in his view, this was all very normal.
Whether the eldest branch could still exist, how the eldest branch young mistress's future would unfold, all depended on this matter. How could the young mistress not be nervous?
For this reason, the old physician became especially cautious. Although with his medical skills he already had certainty, he still repeatedly checked her pulse several more times.
Finally, the old physician withdrew his fingers, smiled, and cupped his hands, "Congratulations, young mistress. The young mistress is with child."
As soon as these words left his mouth, all the maids and matrons in the room showed joy.
The Clan Head and Second Master Suo had each invited people, together bringing three physicians extremely famous throughout the northwest region.
This one before them was the last of the three physicians to make a diagnosis, and also the one with the greatest reputation among them.
The previous two physicians had already confirmed the young mistress was pregnant. Now that this old physician also said so, the heavy stone in their hearts finally settled.
The old physician stood up and cupped his hands, "young mistress, this old one will go meet with the two colleagues, then together go report to the Clan Head. This old one takes his leave."
"Thank you for your trouble, sir."
Suo Zhanzhi expressed her thanks, her mind still in a daze.
These past days she had hoped day and night, only hoping she could conceive a child.
Now that she had finally gotten her wish, there was no sudden sense of relaxed joy in her heart. Instead, she felt even more nervous.
Her palm gently caressed her lower abdomen. Suo Zhanzhi seemed to already sense that a small life was being nurtured there...
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