A/N Suggested look of the manor

Xin's view

I saw our home and could not stand staying at the same pace as everyone else, especially when my home was within sight. I could see someone sitting in front of the house, which reminded me of Xinye when I first saw her. Seeing her, I galloped as fast as possible, jumping off and throwing my helmet towards the tools, for that was all my helmet meant to me at that moment.

My vision had turned into a tunnel. My objective was Xinye. My tunnel vision was interrupted by a hand grabbing me, pulling me to face the person who stopped me from getting to my objective. I was furious at that moment and wanted to kill the person controlling me. I did not, though. Seeing that it was Fergus who stopped me. His own anger from worry for his mother was on his face.

My anger caused him to let go of me and step backward as he apologised to me, bowing, "Sorry, I did not recognise you." It was then I realised I might not be recognisable to my wife. After all, I did do a hard ride from the battlefield with my brothers and Maelgwyn, not stopping for any reason.

I turned and faced my wife, drinking in the sight of her, hoping against hopes that she would recognise and welcome me home. She did not look well, and her stomach was swollen, clearly causing her pain. I wished I could take that pain from her, but I knew it was impossible.

After what seemed an eternity of waiting, she eventually smiled at me, opened her arms, and said, "Xin!"

I sobbed in relief, "Xinye!" and covered the remaining distance in the blink of an eye, kneeling in front of her and burying my face in her neck. I decided this was not enough for me, I wanted all of her, so I picked her up and headed inside, meaning to take her to the main bedroom, but as I entered, I ground to a halt. The entire inside of the house had changed!

Xinye must have sensed my confusion as she pointed out where to go, and I went. I placed her gently on the bed and began stripping, my eyes never leaving her for a moment. I knew she would have let me take her, but I could see the illness written all over her body. I did not think taking her to fulfill my want and longing for her was the best idea I ever had, so instead, I lay down beside her hugging her gently.

"Xinye, I missed you so much," I said, stroking her face with my free hand, " I could not stop thinking of you. Training Maelgwyn only made it worse as he often would have your expressions on his face when he was learning everything.

"I missed you too," she said, smiling fondly at me. I could feel her love for me in her gaze, but it was clouded as if she was swimming in pain.

"Are you ok?" I asked her, worried at how much she had deteriorated from when I last saw her.

"Today I am, but most days I am thinking I am dying lately," she replied, alarming me more with how calm she was.

"Dying?" I sat up alarmed, looking into her eyes, "What do you mean dying? Why did you not tell us?"

"I trusted you would be back in time. There was no need to alarm you," she replied calmly, clearly trying to calm me down, "you said you would be home; we still have time. I am very sick, and although I feel like I am dying, I do not feel death approaching yet."

"Well, it is good, Maelgwyn, and my brothers came," I said, relieved we had come home, even if it were for a little while, "You did not get to meet them as they were fighting with Dorgon to take the what you know as Korea. They were sent to me by Dorgon as he thought they were Taiji's spies. In reality, they were trying to give him sound council."

"How many brothers do you have?" she asked; strangely enough, it was not something we had discussed.

"Eight, not that you would know by the way my mother carries on," I replied with a grimace, "You would think I was the only son my father had. When I am, in reality, her only son, my father had three wives. I am to his first wife, and they are to his second and third wives."

She nodded and rolled over, facing away from me, "Sorry, Xin, I need to rest now. I feel my sickness coming back. You're welcome to stay or go. It is up to you. Fergus should be able to catch you up."

"I will stay until you fall asleep then. I really missed you," I said and hugged her tightly to me, spooning her.

I stayed with her till she fell asleep and some time past, just holding her thinking. When I felt I had enough skin contact, I got up, dressed, and went out to Fergus. By then, all who had come with me had arrived.

"Fergus," I said, ignoring all the people, "How long has my wife been like this?"

"Dizzy and vomiting?" he asked guilelessly and, to my curt nod, replied, "ever since Harjol left, and she left a month after you dropped us here."

"And why did you not send word to me? Did you not think I would want to know?"

"I did. I wanted to," he said, stuttering, my glare scaring him, "B-but m-mum would not let me."

I was about to react, but Maelgwyn stopped me by putting his calming hand on my shoulder, "If mum said no, there would be no way he could have done any different. You know this. Do not take your anger out on the boy."

I nodded and took a few deep breaths to calm myself down. When I had calmed down, I spoke, "I can't leave things like this. Fergus, can you find that apothecary that saved my life and bring him and that old man here?"

"I can," Fergus said with a smile, but he seemed hesitant for some reason.

"I can go with him, brother," my eldest younger brother Muchen said, "I would rather be doing something than stay with a sick person."

I nodded, "You have my thanks. But go tomorrow, it is too late tonight, and it would not be fair on the horses." I looked at Fergus, "Can you ride?"

"I can," he answered, "But I am not very good."

"That's ok, take my horse. He's pretty good so long as you have some riding experience," I knew he would get there faster if he took my horse. My horse would return to me if, for some reason, someone else other than Angus took him, "You will need to arrange a wheeled carriage to get them here, so take this," giving him a silver liǎng, which was more than any ride would be worth. Still, I wanted them here as soon as possible, and that would ensure the carriage driver's cooperation, "If that does not work, use this," and handed them the imperial requisition seal.

"You seem pretty serious, brother," Muchen said, looking at the seal, "Do you love her that much?"

"I do," I said, "I thought you would have figured that out by now with me always talking about her."

"Wait, so she is the one who healed you?" Muchen asked the wén dropping.

"Yes, with the help of the people I am sending you to get," I nodded.

"You can count on me!" my brother banged his chest proudly and put his arm around Fergus, "Us even! I will get you there safely, Young'un! You just have to find the apothecary quickly when you do!"

"That is no problem!" Fergus looked equally determined, and when Ying came in with our food and drinks to eat, his eyes fell on her fondly, "Xin, I have something to ask you."

"Go on," I nodded with my arms folded on my chest. I had a feeling he was going to ask about Ying.

"I would like to marry Ying," he said, "Mother suggested it, but she said to ask you as she did not know of the laws here. Where we are from, we do not have a class system. Everyone is considered equal."

"I see," I knew people were uptight about such things, and by rights, Ying should not have been considered since Fergus was considered my son now, "I will see what I can do. You might be removed from the Fang family succession, but it should be ok."

"Why would you say such a thing, Xin?" Yichen, another of my brothers, said, "That is just cruel."

"I said it because you know how mother is," I reminded him, "It has nothing to do with my feelings on the matter, and you should know this since my wife is considered a white devil."

"Talking of your wife," Yize said, "When are you going to introduce us all?"

"Yeah, brother!" the rest of them chimed, "She must be really beautiful for you to fall in love with her."

I rolled my eyes, Xinye was pleasant looking, but her beauty came from her nature, not her looks. Her heart was what I loved and was reliant on. "I am going to bed as soon as I have eaten and bathed. Fergus, I see the tank outside. Where is the bathroom set up?"

"Through that door over there," he indicated to the paper door that could be seen in the kitchen through the entrance to the kitchen. "Toilet is there too, but mum has been using the commode in her room as she is too sick to make it all the way there and back. Do you want to use that too?"

"No, I will use the bathroom like everyone else," I decided, "But commode, what is that? I have never heard that term before."

"It is a chair with a bucket under it. You sit on the chair to do your business, and afterward, Ying or I take it to the sewer pit to mix with the other animal's droppings. I am still arguing with Ying over this, though. I feel we should bury our bodily fluids, not mix them with the animals used for fertilizer."

"I can see you have both valid reasons," I agreed partly with Ying, but I knew that had Xinye been well, she would have stopped the practice, "From now on, dig a deep hole and bury the human fluids, use only the animals and kitchen waste as fertilizer."

"Brother, why?" a bewildered Yize asked, "You know it is common practice to use our fluids in fertilizer."

"I do, but Xinye believes it can cause diseases, and I trust her, and I am not taking any chances. She is sick enough as it is," I explained as I finished the meal up, "Anyway, I am going to have a bath. You can argue amongst yourselves who the three following me are. Fergus, you and Ying can have the first bath this time of each new bath poured. My brothers can fight it out afterward."

I bathed and went to bed, curling back into Xinye in our room, not knowing anything more till morning. Fergus and Muchen had already left by the time I had surfaced and come out to the breakfast Ying had prepared for us all.

🍀A/N If you enjoyed this chapter, please take the time to vote by pressing the star. Please let me know if you see any errors, as this is unedited.