Chapter 103: She Loves No One

Chapter 103: Chapter 103: She Loves No One

Shen Tingyu stared at her for a long time before suddenly saying, "You don’t like him."

That wasn’t even a question.

Cui Lingyao froze. She almost wanted to refute him by instinct, but the words died on her lips, and she swallowed them back down.

’He was right. I never liked Xie Jinbai, so what was there to refute?’

Shen Tingyu’s gaze never left her face. He didn’t miss the change in her expression, and the light in his eyes dimmed.

"Yaoyao, don’t do something you’ll regret,"

He raised his arm to pour her a cup of warm tea and said softly, "Ask yourself, if Xie Jinbai really did have his firstborn son with another woman, could you still marry him without any resentment and spend the rest of your life with him?"

’Spend the rest of my life with him...’

The phrase was too foreign to Cui Lingyao.

She furrowed her brow and said, "Let’s not think about the future for now. All I want right now is for him to have a child."

She was truly fixated on the matter of a child. Xie Jinbai himself didn’t even care, yet here she was, not even married to him, already obsessed to this degree.

...It was simply bizarre.

But no matter how brilliant Shen Tingyu was, he would never have conceived of something as outlandish as a ’system task’.

He just assumed her way of thinking was different from most women of their time. After a moment of suspicion, he pushed the thought aside.

Leaning his head a little closer, he asked her in a low voice, "So you really don’t mind at all?"

Cui Lingyao shook her head. "I don’t mind at all. I even brought it up with him, and he said that after I marry him, I could arrange for him to take concubines. He’d listen to my arrangements for continuing the family line. But I always feel like it’s just a stalling tactic to coax me back first."

"..." Shen Tingyu fell silent.

’This couple is truly so strange it’s astonishing.’

"So?" Seeing that he wasn’t saying anything, Cui Lingyao, who had now opened up, urged, "Do you have any good ideas to make him give up on my womb and choose to have a child with another woman?"

If anyone else had heard that, their jaws would have probably dropped.

Shen Tingyu lifted his gaze to glance at her. After confirming that she was, in fact, genuinely asking for a clever plan, he pondered for a long time before saying, "He has experienced your death once. What he undoubtedly fears for most is your health."

Cui Lingyao didn’t understand. "This body of mine is quite healthy."

’If anything, it’s Xie Jinbai himself whose serious injuries haven’t healed yet.’

"..."

Shen Tingyu sighed in exasperation and put it more bluntly.

"Childbirth is a life-and-death struggle for a woman, just like what happened with your close friend, Miss Chen. Xie Jinbai is close with Zhao Shijie, so he should have a deeper understanding of it. You can mention to him that since you’ve already died once, you don’t want to take that risk again and face another life-or-death crisis."

Cui Lingyao was pleasantly surprised. "That’s a great idea!"

’That day at the Duke Zhao Mansion, Xie Jinbai’s so-called offer—that I should just marry him first, and then I could arrange concubines for him and tell him who to sleep with—was probably just to fool me.’

’He was still planning to coax me back, thinking that if the two of us just worked hard at making a baby, we could definitely solve the heir problem.’

’But childbirth is so dangerous in this world.’

’Especially with the living example of Chen Minrou right there. As long as I say I’m afraid of dying in childbirth, given how much Xie Jinbai cares about me, he most likely wouldn’t dare let me take the risk.’

’But given his status, he can’t be without an heir.’

’Then I could logically demand he take a concubine to bear a child, and the pressure to produce an heir would be gone for me.’

’As for getting married?’

’I’m in a mourning period right now, so the marriage isn’t urgent. He could totally have a child first.’

’If Xie Jinbai still stubbornly refused, I could even accuse him of not loving me.’

’He would rather let me, who has already died once, suffer the torment of passing through the gates of hell again.’

The more she thought about it, the more brilliant Cui Lingyao found the plan to be.

She looked at the man across from her and asked for confirmation, "You’re a man too, so you understand Xie Jinbai’s mindset better. Do you think if I say this, he’ll do as I wish?"

Shen Tingyu met her gaze.

A hopeful light burned in the eyes of the young woman before him.

She was so desperate for her own future husband to have a few nights of passion with another woman and produce an heir.

In that instant, Shen Tingyu actually felt a sliver of pity for the man he had once detested so much.

A kind of sympathy born from shared suffering.

It seemed neither of them had won this young woman’s heart.

She loved no one.

Shen Tingyu slowly nodded, his voice strained as he forced out a single word: "Yes."

’If their roles were reversed, if on the eve of their wedding, she said she didn’t dare risk her life again to bear a child and would only agree to marry him after he had a child first...’

’...he would agree too.’

Since Xie Jinbai loved her, of course he would do the same.

Cui Lingyao’s mind was put at ease. She felt that the prospects for her bewildering task, which had seemed so clueless before, had suddenly brightened.

She hadn’t been back in Great Yue for long and was indeed completely unprepared to be recognized by Xie Jinbai.

But he couldn’t forget their past love and was intent on winning her back to rekindle their old flame.

’In that case, I can use this to complete my task.’

...

That night, she kept thinking about what he had said during the day—that he would come over in the evening.

After her bath, Cui Lingyao told Zhiqiu to go rest, saying she didn’t need her to wait on her.

She didn’t bolt the door, so it could be easily pushed open.

She even rested her chin on her hand and waited for a long time.

She was just thinking that as soon as he arrived, she would tell him everything she had prepared.

Her hope was to trick him into returning to the Capital City and immediately fathering a child.

But Xie Jinbai never came.

By the time drowsiness overtook her and she had dozed off several times, Cui Lingyao couldn’t take it anymore and went to bed.

She dreamt of nothing all night.

Nor was she woken up by anyone.

She slept soundly until dawn.

When Cui Lingyao woke up, there was a knock on the door. Before she could even speak, Zhiqiu, using just a bit too much force, knocked the door open.

It opened...

Zhiqiu exclaimed in surprise, "Miss, you didn’t bolt the door last night?"

"..." Cui Lingyao propped herself up on the bed and said, "I must have forgotten."

’Thankfully, our people booked the entire inn last night.’

’There wouldn’t be any criminals lurking about.’

Even so, Zhiqiu was still frightened in hindsight and repeatedly warned her, "You can’t be so careless next time. When we’re away from home, we must be careful and vigilant about everything."

Three years ago, she had followed the madam and the young miss from Pingzhou to the Capital City. The half-month journey had shown her the treachery of the human heart.

Fortunately, they had brought many loyal servants and guards, so nothing happened, and they arrived in the Capital City smoothly.

The conversation between the mistress and her maid drifted through the crack in the door to the adjacent room, reaching the ears of Shen Tingyu, who had just finished getting ready.

After their long, heart-to-heart talk the previous night, their relationship had grown a little closer.

After breakfast, they began the day’s journey.

In the carriage, Shen Tingyu brought up the matter, asking bluntly, "Did you really forget to bolt the door last night, or were you waiting for someone?"

He could tell that this young woman didn’t like to beat around the bush, and she also disliked having to guess if others had hidden meanings in their words.

So, he chose to be direct and forthright.

The man who had said he would come over last night hadn’t appeared. Before getting into the carriage to depart, Cui Lingyao deliberately looked around and saw that the carriage that had been following their procession yesterday was also gone.

With the matter weighing on her mind, she didn’t hide it from him when he asked. She replied immediately, "Yesterday, he said he would come talk to me at night."