"... though miles stretch past horizon's thread,
Your whisper stirs the dreams I've bred..."
Lv Weihao recited the poem passionately staring at his wife with love filled eyes. His wife, a beautiful beta mirrored the same expression. As they sat across from each other in the carriage,they stared into each other's eyes as if they were the only ones in the world.
Lv Weihao and Xie Xiaomei were a couple of alpha and beta scholars, soulmates, explorers and definitely nature lovers. Once in every month they would go around for a trip to enjoy the beauty of nature and gain inspiration and ideas for their poems , paintings and other kinds of arts.
The lovely couple was brought out of their trance when the carriage suddenly came to a halt causing their bodies to lurch forward almost bumping into each other.
"Honey, it must be bandits right?"Mrs Lv asked nervously,fear gripping her. It was around the Xu hour almost approaching the Hai hour and it was probably not the best time to travel especially on a deserted road.
Lv Weihao engulfed his wife protectively as he himself cautiously lifted the curtain and looked outside scanning the surrounding for possible lurking enemies but nothing seemed unusual except for sounds of a baby crying more like wailing from a distance.
"It's a baby,"Xie Xiaomei gasped picking up the sound as well. She detached herself from her husband and peeked outside as well.
"What is going on?"Lv Weihao finally asked .
"Your Lordship, there's a baby nearby," the coachman/servant informed.
"Let's check it out,"Mrs Lv suggested,her motherly instincts kicking in. The three of them followed the cries till they reached a small bush where a baby wrapped in a white silk sheet was lying crying its lungs out. Mrs Lv stepped forward and stooped ,picking up the baby and began swinging it making cute sounds to pacify the baby .
"Who in their right mind leaves their baby in such a place?"Lv Weihao spoke up infuriated by whoever had left the baby.
"My Lord, should we take her with us?" Mrs Lv asked not withdrawing her attention from the little angel in her arms.
"Do you want to adopt her ?"
"Why not?"
"Sure let's take the baby."
They headed back to the carriage where the beta wrapped the infants with her shawls to keep it warmer.
"Have you verified the gender?"
"It's an alpha girl,"she confirmed.
"That's rare,"her husband responded sounding surprised.
"Yeah it is. She's so beautiful ,so ethereal," she complimented staring at the beautiful alpha girl.
Lv Weihao watched at his wife with a tender gaze; a smile of satisfaction tugging at his lips.He had never seen her so happy before. Mrs Lv was incapable of having children though she yearned to have children of her own one day. Encountering the stranded baby sure felt like a blessing. At least she would have someone to call her mother even if she wasn't the biological mother. She had already imagined how fun it would be having a toddler around them in the future.
"I'm suddenly feeling nervous. I don't know if I'll be able to raise her well,"she admitted feeling overwhelmed.
"Don't worry you'll be a good mother just like how you're a good wife,"her husband said genuinely though in a teasing tone that turned her into a blushing mess.
"We'll shower her with all the love in the world,"she uttered softly,her seraphic smile adorning her beautiful face.
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A few weeks passed and each day Madam Chen's condition got worse. The pain of losing her child was unbearable.
She refused to eat at most times,she never left her room,her clothes were dishevelled,her room was untidy her sickly aura evident in how she conducted herself.
"Mother please you have to be strong, Father is going to appoint Consort Li to be in charge of the household. Come on mother you have stay strong so you can defend us,"her eldest daughter Yingtao Xinran pleaded shaking her mother desperately, tears rolling down her round beautiful face but still she got no reaction like all the other days before.
Madam Chen had turned into a zombie, with dark circles under her once bright eyes,sunken eyes ,messy hair,her face expressionless a typical example of a living dead or more like a soul deprived puppet.
Yingtao Xinran sobbed hard as she knelt beside her mother's bed.
"It's all that stupid baby's fault that you're like this. If it wasn't her you wouldn't be like this,"Yingtao Xinran spoke with so much abhorrence.
"Don't you dare insult my angel,"Madam Chen growled furiously as she lunged forward to attack her daughter,her palm connecting with the girl's neck.
"Mother what...are ...you"Yingtao Xinran choked struggling hard to form a sentence with her mother hand squeezing her throat. She tried freeing herself but the woman's grip was surprisingly too strong but to Yingtao Xinran's luck Madam Chen's maid and younger sister Yingtao Hua happened to walk right in.
"Jie!
"Madam!
Both the girl and the maid shouted simultaneously as they rushed to the mother and daughter duo. The maid tried her best and finally Madam Chen let go of the elder daughter.
"Jie are you alright?"Yingtao Hua asked rubbing her sister's back who was coughing vigorously after a near death experience.
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A week later , at dawn ,Yingtao Wei's third wife, Zhang Xiaoling went into labour and successfully delivered.
"Congratulations Madam Zhang you have delivered an omega boy,"the midwife announced
Madam Zhang's eyes widened in horror, she felt her limbs becoming weaker than before,her face became pale.
"What will I do? Master will kill me.He will do to me what he did to Madam Chen? People cannot know I gave birth to a male omega I'll definitely become a laughingstock in the Imperial Capital,"Madam Zhang rambled in a panic stricken voice.
Including her personal maid in the room,the three stared at each other like deers caught in headlights. A knock at the door jolted them awake from their daze. The hearts pounded hard in their chests.
"Has Madam Zhang delivered?"Butler Gu's impatient voice came from the other side.
"Yes it's an alpha boy ,"the midwife blurted out in response and the other two in the room had their eyes wide like saucers.