Shen Meng’s body stiffened for a moment, then she embraced her husband and gently patted his back to comfort him: “If you feel uncomfortable, just cry it out. Holding it in isn’t good for your health.”

She wasn’t very good at comforting people, and Liang Jue’s father wasn’t her own father, so it was a bit difficult for her to empathize with him.

In her memory, the timing of father Liang passing seemed similar to this life, but the only difference was that in the previous life, she didn’t care about Liang Jue at all, and didn’t even know he was carrying her child.

Thinking of this, her eyes softened slightly, and she coaxed, “You still have a child in your belly, you should also think about her.”

Liang Jue wasn’t unreasonable, but when Shen Meng mentioned the child at this time, he felt even sadder. Burying his face in her embrace, he sobbed, wetting her thin clothes: “Is your heart only for the child and not for me?”

“How could you think that?” Shen Meng felt her clothes getting wet, feeling a bit uncomfortable due to her slight germophobia. But seeing Liang Jue so distressed, she softened her voice: “You’re just too upset. Why think about these things? Without you, where would the child in your belly come from? Naturally, you are more important.”

She almost forgot, her husband was quite jealous. In the previous life, they didn’t have the fate to have that child, but in this life, when the child was born, Liang Jue might get jealous.

“Is that really the case?” Liang Jue’s voice was somewhat muffled, although Shen Meng’s words comforted him, his heart was still uncertain, so he asked again, hoping for a definite answer.

“I’m not lying to you.” Shen Meng’s words were very reassuring, at least to Liang Jue.

His heart gradually settled down, but he still murmured, “I won’t have a father anymore…”

He sought Shen Meng’s affirmation not because he was jealous. As long as his father was still around, he felt like he always had a way out, no matter what harm he faced. In front of his father, he would always be a child.

But now that his father was gone, even though his mother and sister were still alive, the father who cared for him to the bone was different from everyone else.

In her memory, Liang Jue had always been calm and composed, except when they separated in the previous life or when he was jealous. But now, he seemed like a pitiful creature, injured, weak, and very dependent on her.

Even a heart of stone had to soften a bit at this moment. Shen Meng couldn’t help but feel a little more pity and gently comforted him for quite some time: “I’ll always be with you, you still have me.”

In the end, perhaps these days of mental exhaustion were too much. With his father gone, Liang Jue suffered a particularly large shock. After calming down, his whole body softened, and he fainted directly. Shen Meng quickly sent servants from the mansion to fetch a doctor.

The old doctor with gray hair carefully examined his pulse and relaxed his furrowed brows: “Lord Liang is fine, it’s just that he’s been overworked and overwhelmed with grief these days, coupled with being pregnant, he fainted for a while. Just rest and recuperate these days, and his body will naturally recover.”

After the doctor left, Shen Meng sat down beside Liang Jue for a while, examining him with her fingers before getting up to tuck him in and leave.

Liang Jue woke up from a nightmare, finding two people by his side, but Shen Meng wasn’t among them.

The servant attending to him asked, “Lord Liang, you kept calling for the madam and shedding tears in your sleep. We couldn’t wake you up, it seemed like you were in a nightmare.”

Liang Jue wiped his eyes, indeed finding them damp. He shook his head, “I just had a somewhat scary dream, but I can’t remember the details.”

The dream was blurry, too vague to recall specifics. He vaguely remembered dreaming of losing his child and Shen Meng being cold to him, even marrying someone else.

He couldn’t recall the face of the new person, just the overwhelming sadness he felt in the dream, which made him unable to stop crying.

Thinking of the child, he hurriedly touched his abdomen and anxiously asked the servant, “Has the doctor arrived? Is my child…?”

“Don’t worry, when you fainted, the mistress had someone fetch the doctor. I’m sure the young lady is safe and sound.”

It’s good that everything is fine. Dreams are always the opposite; he shouldn’t have scared himself.

The servant added, “But the doctor also said, Lord Liang, you’ve been overworking yourself lately, so you need to rest well during this period, otherwise, the fetus…”

He couldn’t finish the sentence as it was taboo. As a servant, he naturally didn’t dare to say it all. Liang Jue wasn’t a fool; he naturally understood the implication. He gently rubbed his stomach, with a somewhat frightened expression. He had lost his father and couldn’t afford to lose his child too.

He softly massaged his belly, hoping to comfort the little life inside. When his stomach felt a bit better, he asked about Shen Meng, “What time is it now? Where has the Mistress gone?”

“It’s almost midday; you’ve been asleep for nearly a day and night. The Madam has already gone to the morning court, but before she left, she specifically instructed us to take care of you.” Perhaps seeing Liang Jue’s distressed expression, the servant added a few more words cleverly, “Yesterday, when you fainted, the madam was really anxious. She really cares about you.”

Liang Jue’s lips curved slightly upwards. Whether the servant was exaggerating or not, these words still made him feel much better.

When Liang Jue woke up, Shen Meng had already attended the morning court. Because the Empress was unwell, she didn’t even attend the morning court today.

The Empress was already past middle age, among many Empress who didn’t live past their thirties, she had already lived a long life. However, with several princesses growing stronger, the Empress still firmly held onto power and even her daughters deeply feared her.

In this deadlock, the sudden illness of the Empress, and apparently a serious one at that, meant that the sky over the capital was about to change, according to most people’s views.

In such times, choosing sides became a difficult decision. In the previous life, Shen Meng chose the third princess, but in this life, she decided to support the seriously ill Empress.