Blooming even in the mud - Chapter 94

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Yoo Seo-hwa slowly moved her eyebrows. Her vision, which had been darkly blurred, sluggishly regained its original shapes.
‘Where is this?’
Her mind was completely blank. Where she was, what she had been doing, or why she was here—not a single thing came to mind.
As she stared up at the ceiling like that for a moment, a low, hoarse voice drifted over like a groan.
“Are you awake?”
It was Gyeong Won-ui.
‘What could have happened to make his voice sound so terribly rough?’
Anxious for him, she tried to reach out her hand, but strangely, she could not muster a single shred of strength. Barely twitching her fingertips was her absolute limit.
As if reading her heart, Gyeong Won-ui gently took Yoo Seo-hwa’s hand and brought it to his cheek. With her trembling hand, Yoo Seo-hwa caressed Gyeong Won-ui’s cheek.
His skin was exceedingly rough. Looking at his pale, frozen face, Yoo Seo-hwa finally remembered.
“…….”
It was a strange thing. She opened her lips, but her voice would not come out properly. As she parted them helplessly, Gyeong Won-ui scooped up some warm water and gave it to her.
The warm water flowed down her scratchy, dry throat like sweet dew. Her throat finally opened up ever so slightly. As soon as she drank the water, she asked.
“I don’t even remember hearing a cry……. Did the baby enter the world safely?”
“She is a very beautiful daughter who takes right after you. The wet nurse just came by to inform me that she fell asleep.”
“I want to see our baby right away, but if we bring her in she might wake up, so I suppose I must endure a little longer.”
It had been Labor Pains as terrifying as a nightmare, but the mere fact that the child was safe made it feel as though everything was fully compensated.
Even while speaking of the baby, Gyeong Won-ui’s frozen expression remained unchanged. Just as she was about to ask if perhaps there was some illness with their daughter that he could not bring himself to mention.
Yoo Seo-hwa’s palm, which was cradling Gyeong Won-ui’s cheek, gradually grew wet. As if it were the sole proof of life, Gyeong Won-ui desperately overlapped his hand on the back of Yoo Seo-hwa’s, and his hot torrent of emotion poured down.
“……It has been three days. You have opened your eyes after three full days.”
Gyeong Won-ui’s shoulders trembled faintly.
“I was so terrified, so frightened…… that I might lose you again like this…….”
She could see the layered anxiety and dread that had crushed him during the long, agonizing labor, and even after she gave birth to the child without waking up.
Yoo Seo-hwa brought a gentle smile, faint as it was, to the corners of her lips.
“I promised you, didn’t I? That I would live out my life together with you. I will not die.”
“My Princess…….”
“Please call my name.”
Yoo Seo-hwa, Yoo Seo-hwa, Yoo Seo-hwa.
Hearing her own name, which sounded no different from a sob, Yoo Seo-hwa slowly caressed the tears of the man she loved. As always, his voice was the ultimate proof of absolute trust and affection.

Gyeong Won-ui and Yoo Seo-hwa named their daughter Su-yeon.
Su-yeon, whose crying had been weak since birth and had caused those around her to worry, thankfully grew up healthy without suffering from a single minor ailment. She was a lively and spirited child. She possessed just as much mischievousness to match.
“Don’t you sometimes get confused about whether the young lady is actually a boy?”
That was what Hong Ok-geum had subtly whispered to Gyeong Won-yeong when the child had passed her second birthday.
‘As long as no accident happens and Su-yeon doesn’t get hurt, it’s perfectly fine.’
Yoo Seo-hwa felt nothing but immense pride in her mischievous daughter. Lately, Yoo Seo-hwa’s worries lay elsewhere. It was a concern that could be considered trivial on one hand, yet deeply important on the other.
‘Su-yeon will be lonely if she’s by herself, so I would like to have a younger sibling for her…….’
The problem was Gyeong Won-ui.
‘For some reason, it seems like he doesn’t want to have any more children?’
As men usually did, it was a relief that he was a man who did not pressure her to give birth to a son to succeed the clan. However, it was baffling since he showed signs of not wanting a second child at all.
What was the use of agonizing over it alone? Yoo Seo-hwa decided to solve it directly instead of suffering over it any further.
She stopped by the Banbitgan to pick up some refreshments herself instead of a maidservant, and visited Gyeong Won-ui.
“Leave it there.”
Gyeong Won-ui spoke without even lifting his eyes from the book he was reading. Setting the refreshment tray down, Yoo Seo-hwa stealthily embraced Gyeong Won-ui from behind.
“Ah, is it you?”
“What on earth are you reading that you didn’t even notice my arrival?”
“It is a tedious military text.”
Indeed, it looked thoroughly uninteresting to Yoo Seo-hwa as well.
Closing the book, Gyeong Won-ui smiled softly and kissed Yoo Seo-hwa’s cheek. As he pulled her by the waist into an embrace, she naturally came to sit upon his lap.
Even though they were a married couple who had lived together sharing their skin for several years, the shyness of their clumsy, early days still remained. Yoo Seo-hwa leaned against Gyeong Won-ui, her face flushing a faint crimson.
It would be lovely to just eat refreshments side by side and play around like this, but Yoo Seo-hwa did not forget the purpose of her visit.
“There is something I am curious about, so may I ask you point-blank?”
“You may tell me anything.”
“Do you not want to have a second child?”
“…….”
Gyeong Won-ui, who had been stroking Yoo Seo-hwa’s hair, suddenly froze. It seemed she had struck a nerve.
Feigning a sigh, she toyed with Gyeong Won-ui’s collar.
“You dislike children, don’t you?”
“How could that be? I simply think having only our Su-yeon under our care is more than enough.”
“I want to have a boy who looks exactly like you, too.”
“But…….”
“But what?”
Gyeong Won-ui’s lips tightly clamped shut just as he was about to answer. He had been utterly unable to open his mouth, but when Yoo Seo-hwa put on a needlessly upset expression, he flinched and continued speaking.
“The truth is, I am still terrified that I might lose you. Those three days when you were unconscious were the longest and most horrific three days of my life.”
Yoo Seo-hwa also dropped her playful demeanor from earlier and looked straight at Gyeong Won-ui. Two years of time had passed, and the daughter they had struggled to bring into the world was growing up without a hitch. Even so, the memory of that time seemed vivid to Gyeong Won-ui.
‘It’s no wonder. This person has agonizingly experienced what the pain of losing a loved one feels like.’
Yoo Seo-hwa had also experienced that exact same pain.
Therefore, the only person who could console his agony and embrace him was Yoo Seo-hwa alone.
“To be completely honest, I also thought I might die when I was giving birth to Su-yeon.”
“Weren’t you in a great deal of pain even when you carried Su-yeon in your womb?”
“Yes, I was. If you hadn’t fetched Yaksu from Beopjisa, I wouldn’t have been able to eat a thing for quite a while.”
“Compared to your hardship, my toil was absolutely nothing. If you go through that again, it will severely damage your health.”
“Perhaps it might.”
Yoo Seo-hwa smiled radiantly.
“But then again, perhaps it won’t. Since Su-yeon caused so much trouble, there is a chance the second child might be gentle. Do you truly not want a child?”
“Of course I want one. I also wish to see a child belonging to you and me. However, I do not wish to risk your suffering.”
Gyeong Won-ui let out a heavy breath and buried his forehead against Yoo Seo-hwa’s shoulder. The arms holding her waist trembled faintly.
“If only I could take all of it upon myself instead…….”
“I understand your heart perfectly.”
As if to comfort and soothe him, Yoo Seo-hwa placed her hand upon his shoulder.
His frame, built with solid muscles, was distinct even through the fabric of his clothes. It was the body of a martial warrior stronger than anyone else. Yet, Yoo Seo-hwa knew of the days when his soul had been fragile and wailing.
“I once saw a vision in the past.”
In the burning pavilion, where she had intended to accept death all alone. Yoo Seo-hwa had seen a vision of her beloved husband’s children cackling with laughter and running around inside the pavilion.
“They were your children and mine.”
It was a vision because it could not be achieved. Because it was a vision, she had tried to cast it out from her heart. The vision that she ultimately could not cast out had now become Yoo Seo-hwa’s wish.
“We both know the sorrow of losing the people we love.”
It was only natural that Gyeong Won-ui feared having a child.
Precisely because of that, Yoo Seo-hwa wished to gift him a family, to gift him loved ones.
“Therefore, I want to love to my heart’s content so that I will have no regrets. You, and our family as well.”
“But, Seo-hwa.”
“Can you not trust my promise that I will live out my life together with you?”
“……I trust you.”
“Then there is no problem, is there?”
At Yoo Seo-hwa’s bold conclusion, Gyeong Won-ui finally flashed a bitter smile.
“I can never truly win against you.”
“Then you agree to a second child, right?”
“Instead, how about we leave it to destiny rather than intentionally seeking out a good date for our Consummation Night?”
“……Yes, let’s do that.”
Yoo Seo-hwa decided she must keep it a complete secret that she had already received a favorable Consummation Night date for conceiving a child from the Gwanseongam.

Destiny soon bestowed a second and third child upon the two of them. They were twins.
“When I heard that you almost ate one more apple in young lady Su-yeon’s Conception Dream, I knew it! I predicted you would surely have twin masters next time.”
It was Kkot-bun’s congratulatory greeting.
Unlike their older sister, the twin boys entered the world safely without causing their mother any hardship.

* * *

“Argh, the kite got stuck in the tree again!”
“It’s because of you again, Sister…….”
Su-ho’s cheeks puffed up red, looking as though he might burst into tears at any moment. Having been born as the younger of the twins, Su-ho was weak-hearted and easily moved to tears.
“Hey, don’t cry. I’ll get it down for you.”
Su-min acted like the reliable older brother since he was born slightly earlier, and composedly soothed his younger brother.
“If we pull the kite like this and shake it……!”
He groaned as he gripped the reel, but the kite caught on the tree branch would not budge an inch. Today alone, it was already the second time the kite had ended up stuck in a tree because Su-yeon was playing pranks.
“Wahh…….”
Just before Su-ho’s waterworks fully erupted, Su-yeon, the root of all evil, rolled up her sleeves and stepped forward.
“Move aside, shorties. Why are you trying to cry over something like this?”
“It’s all because of you, Sister!”
“Alright, I get it, I’m sorry, sorry. I will go get the kite.”
“How? The kite string is completely tangled up in the branches.”
“I just have to climb up the tree and untangle it.”
The twins were completely shocked.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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