Luo Qing found her younger cousin's pregnancy deeply unsettling. For the past weeks, a persistent anxiety had settled over her like a winter fog, thick and suffocating. While she had longed for another child of her own, time continued to pass without any sign of conception. Initially, she could console herself with the thought that her cousin hadn't managed it either, but now that reality had shifted so sharply - one woman visibly pregnant while the other remained barren - the truth cut deeper than any blade.

Wang Qinghua sensed his wife's distress through their shared silences at night. One evening he finally broached the subject, though she deflected him with vague reassurances about "female troubles." The unspoken truth lingered between them like a shadow they both avoided touching directly - her cousin's growing belly was an ever-present reminder of her own empty womb.

After days of restless sleep and constant worry, Luo Qing decided to visit her cousin. Despite years in the Wang household, Ruo Yin had always proven more fertile than expected after her initial difficult pregnancy. Now she carried a second child with the same effortless grace that seemed to unsettle everyone around her.

The two women sat side by side at their embroidery frames, needlework offering a familiar excuse for small talk. But Luo Qing's questions soon sharpened into direct comparisons between their reproductive fortunes.

"You've always been blessed," Luo Qing said, voice tinged with bitterness. "You came here to the Wang household and gave birth so easily - first that son of yours, now this second child already taking shape beneath your dress. Meanwhile I've had to wait years just for one child, and even that was only a girl." She reached out, fingers brushing over her own flat stomach. "Now I see you again with good news while my womb remains stubbornly silent."

Ruo Yin winced at the rawness in her cousin's tone but understood the desperation behind it. "Don't push too hard, Qing'er," she said gently. "Conceiving is never simply a matter of willpower. You'll only exhaust yourself further." Her own experience had taught this lesson well - after the first difficult birth that left her bedridden for weeks, even when her health improved there were months of fruitless waiting before any child seemed possible.

But Luo Qing couldn't be consoled so easily. "How can I not worry?" she pleaded. She could already feel the weight of unspoken expectations pressing down on her shoulders - a daughter alone would never satisfy the family's yearning for male heirs. "I know you must have some secret method! You had your first child quickly, now this second one as well... what is it that you're doing differently?"

Ruo Yin choked back an incredulous laugh at the suggestion of "secret methods." The idea was absurd enough to make her want to laugh, yet beneath it all lay a familiar pattern - just like those years ago when she herself had despaired after failing to conceive. Back then she'd spent months visiting physicians and offering incense before the Goddess of Children's altar in town.

As if struck by sudden inspiration, Luo Qing straightened up with renewed determination. "Of course!" she exclaimed brightly. "I remember now - wasn't that how you conceived? After visiting the temple?"

With this revelation sparking her resolve, Luo Qing abandoned all pretense of casual conversation. She hurriedly made excuses about domestic duties and fled back to her home before Ruo Yin could even finish speaking.

Watching her cousin disappear down the lane, Ruo Yin let out a quiet sigh. Memories of her own struggles with fertility came flooding back - the endless months of tending household accounts while waiting for news from distant merchants, the constant need to ask in-laws for every coin just to buy basic supplies... All those hardships now seemed trivial compared to what Luo Qing was facing.

Meanwhile at Wang's home, Wang Qinghua burst through the door with a letter clutched in his hand. "Mother! Brother-in-law!" he called excitedly as he hurried into the courtyard. "Younger Brother has sent word - he passed the preliminary exams and now holds a place to take the regional examination!"

The news sent shockwaves through the household. Wang Youfu, still tending distant fields that morning, was dragged back by his eldest son with such urgency they nearly lost him in the thickening dusk. When finally confronted with the letter, even though he couldn't read a single character, his joy manifested physically - a trembling hands clutching at paper, eyes scanning symbols he'd never recognized before but now seemed divinely significant.

"I'll take it to Old Man," Wang Youfu declared, brandishing the letter like a sacred relic. "This is our family's moment of glory!"

The entire household descended into preparations for celebration. Jugs of rice wine were opened, delicacies hastily prepared. Even Eldest Wife Yangshi joined in with small cups of her own. But when Wang Youfu finally collapsed drunk beneath his usual tree after drinking himself senseless, the joy turned abruptly to practicalities as they carried him inside.

For all their merriment, no one noticed the younger woman's silent retreat to her room. There, in the shadows of her chamber, Luo Qing traced invisible patterns on her stomach - not with a needle this time, but with fingers that prayed for something far more elusive than thread and cloth could provide.