Blooming even in the mud - Chapter 96

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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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Side Story Episode 1: Blooming Even in the Mud

The child who had caused her mother so much suffering while in the womb was very healthy, as if trying to make amends for her wrongdoing. Without any of the fevers that newborns usually suffer from, she grew well day by day and nursed eagerly.
“Have you had your fill, little lady? Now, you must burp.”
The Wet Nurse, who had finished nursing, adjusted her clothes and held the child up against her shoulder. She then lightly patted and rubbed the baby’s back.
Watching the child show signs of a small burp, Yoo Seo-hwa found herself smiling. She looked just like a kitten.
Yoo Seo-hwa took the well-fed child from the Wet Nurse and held her. As if knowing she was in her mother’s arms, the child burst into a giggle and waved her hands.
Yoo Seo-hwa squeezed the child’s tiny, warm hand and smiled tenderly.
“Su-yeon, was it delicious?”
“Maa!”
The first child of Yoo Seo-hwa and Gyeong Won-ui, named Gyeong Su-yeon, looked purely joyful.
She had wanted to breastfeed the child herself, but it became difficult as her health had been compromised due to labor pains. The Doctor also diagnosed that her constitution naturally produced little breast milk, making it difficult to sustain breastfeeding until the end.
‘Still, I want to feed the second child myself.’
Yoo Seo-hwa, who did not yet know that the second children she would conceive years later would be twins, harbored this simple wish.
Gyeong Won-yeong, who had been watching from the side with a warm gaze as if the child were her own, smiled.
“When Dong-i was Su-yeon’s size, we really suffered a lot because of a cold.”
“Oh dear. Did such a thing happen?”
“I can speak of it with a smile now, but back then, I really lost my mind and everything looked dark.”
As if it was fine now, Gyeong Won-yeong waved her hand.
“I’m glad Su-yeon is healthy. Is there anything more blessed than a child being healthy?”
Yoo Seo-hwa was also truly grateful for that. Although the child had made things very difficult for her while in the womb, seeing her grow so healthily made her feel that she would gladly fall ill in her stead as many times as it took.
“By the way, don’t you think Su-yeon looks exactly like you, Princess?”
“Doesn’t she resemble him more than me?”
“Hmm, they say a firstborn daughter takes after her father a lot, but…”
Gyeong Won-yeong, who had been playfully poking the child’s chubby cheek with her fingertip, suddenly let out a low laugh. She then spoke playfully to Yoo Seo-hwa, who was looking at her with a puzzled gaze.
“I mean my elder brother, isn’t it hard to imagine what he looked like when he was young?”
“I was also young when I first met the young master, you know?”
“I mean even younger than that. Like, exactly Su-yeon’s size, my elder brother’s days as a newborn baby?”
Hearing those words and thinking about it carefully, it really was hard to picture Gyeong Won-ui as a newborn. Needless to say about now, even the teenage Gyeong Won-ui she had first come to know had been mature beyond his years.
To think that Gyeong Won-ui also had a babyhood when he nursed on his mother’s milk, crawled around, and just put anything into his mouth.
When she found herself nodding in agreement, Gyeong Won-yeong’s playful smile grew deeper.
“Don’t you think my elder brother wouldn’t even have cried ‘wah-wah’ when he was born, but would have come out with that exact same solemn face?”
Although she knew it was logically impossible, it was such a plausible story that Yoo Seo-hwa ultimately burst into a clear laugh as well.
A pleasant conversation blossomed from that. The childhood of Gyeong Won-ui that Gyeong Won-yeong remembered, the past days of her beloved that had not changed since he was a small boy, warmly enveloped the surroundings.
There were stories she had heard in the past and stories she was hearing for the first time. All of it was a fresh and enjoyable topic.
Yoo Seo-hwa first met the 15-year-old Gyeong Won-ui when she was 13. Falling in love with his character at first sight and nurturing a fresh, deep affection during those days remained a tender memory even looking back now.
However, a longing mixed with a bit of regret lingered, wishing she could have met the even younger Gyeong Won-ui of those days.

The rough, sturdy hand of a man who held a sword and disciplined his martial arts delicately combed her long hair. The touch of his left hand arranging the hair and his right hand combing down with a fine-tooth comb was infinitely gentle.
Yoo Seo-hwa truly loved the feeling of her hair rustling and scattering within Gyeong Won-ui’s hands.
“How was your day?”
“Won-yeong came by to chat so it wouldn’t be lonely. Su-yeon also nursed well.”
And best of all was right now, exchanging affectionate conversation with Gyeong Won-ui in the Sewing Room like this.
Before changing into indoor robes and falling asleep, the time spent with Gyeong Won-ui gently combing her long hair and conversing quietly had already become an important routine for the two lovers.
Gyeong Won-ui was still busy with public duties. As the time they spent apart during the day was long, it felt like the day was finally complete only when they shared the time they had accumulated in places unknown to each other.
Gyeong Won-ui’s time that Yoo Seo-hwa did not see, and Yoo Seo-hwa’s time that Gyeong Won-ui did not see, became each other’s in this way.
Suddenly, Yoo Seo-hwa smiled with her eyes. Gyeong Won-ui leaned over her head as if puzzled.
“What is the matter?”
“It’s nothing else… I heard stories about your childhood from Won-yeong today. I think you must have been exactly the same when you were a little child. Because the teenage years I remember were just like that too.”
At those words, Gyeong Won-ui also wore a faint smile.
“I was also an immature brat when I was young. I even threw tantrums when side dishes I didn’t want to eat were served.”
“Oh my, really? I can’t imagine you as a child who threw tantrums at all. What other stubbornness did you show?”
She had imagined that perhaps he threw a tantrum because martial arts practice was grueling, but Gyeong Won-ui’s answer was beyond that.
“I threw a tantrum to my father, saying I wanted to see the palace princess who was rumored to be beautiful and gentle just once.”
His calm tone made it sound not like he was telling a joke, but like he was reciting an official report.
Forgetting that it was late at night, Yoo Seo-hwa ended up bursting into laughter. My goodness, even when this man joked, he was so very Gyeong Won-ui.
“A gentle princess, who on earth is that? It couldn’t have been me, so didn’t you fall for another princess?”
Who were the princesses around the same age? When Yoo Seo-hwa purposely counted on her fingers and recited her half-sisters one by one, only then did a soft smile appear on Gyeong Won-ui’s lips.
“Then and now, there is only one princess I have fallen for.”
Gyeong Won-ui slightly supported her cascading long hair and kissed it.
The place his breath touched was her hair, but for some reason, Yoo Seo-hwa’s cheeks turned red. Even though they were a proper married couple who had shared their bodies and even given birth to a child, her heart still fluttered like a young girl’s at his touch.
Did a boy like himself also hide inside him?
Yoo Seo-hwa quietly leaned her body against her husband behind her back. Through the thin indoor robe, she could feel his firm chest. And the familiar thumping felt quietly.
The pounding pulsation felt as if it were echoing inside her own chest, and it was just like the boy whose cheeks flushed in front of a young girl over a decade ago.
Yoo Seo-hwa was exceedingly happy about that.
They had suffered a lot of pain in their respective places. At one time, because of that pain, each other’s paths had almost twisted away forever.
However, they stood here as each other’s complete lovers. And inside them, the boy and girl of those days who had blossomed their affection still hid a shy smile.
“I am truly glad that you are by my side.”
The boy, who had now become the father of a child, left a tender kiss on the girl he loved.
The kiss, which had started freshly like a boy and a girl, soon became that of lovers. Yoo Seo-hwa, leaning in her husband’s arms, embraced the heat swimming passionately inside her mouth.
The sensation of heat starting from her lips flowed tinglingly through her body and warmed her lower abdomen. This, too, remained invariably ecstatic despite having shared countless nights.
Yoo Seo-hwa threw her arms around Gyeong Won-ui’s shoulders and whispered with ragged breaths.
“According to the Doctor… he said it wouldn’t strain my body anymore…”
Buried in her shoulder, Gyeong Won-ui’s breath grew even hotter. Engraving red marks on her skin as white as jade, Gyeong Won-ui groaned lowly.
“Will you really be alright?”
In his eyes, the fear caused by her arduous labor pains was engraved. Yoo Seo-hwa wanted to erase that stain.
Slowly reaching out, she cradled his cheek and gently kissed his eyelids.
And she whispered to her beloved partner.
“As long as I have you, I am always alright.”

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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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