Chapter 177: "Actually, I Can’t Give Birth...
He was followed by Doctor Liu. He had the Imperial Physician wait outside and entered the inner chamber himself.
Cui Lingyao was sitting by the window, brewing tea. At the sound of his arrival, she looked up.
He carried himself with an upright posture, his steps calm and steady, and the sickly pallor of the previous day had vanished from his face.
‘In just one night, his grievous injuries seem to have mostly healed.’
Cui Lingyao felt a wave of relief. She poured him a cup of tea and asked with concern, “You’re back? Did Father Emperor give you any trouble?”
“It was nothing.” Xie Jinbai sat down across from her, picked up the teacup, and downed it in one go. “From now on, if you’re summoned to the palace, I don’t care who it’s from—you are to ignore it.”
Whether it was the Emperor, the Empress, or some favored Imperial Concubine or Princess.
She was to ignore them all.
‘What’s with this? It sounds like he’s ready to throw everything overboard.’
‘…Did his talk with his father go that badly?’
‘Is the Emperor refusing to give up on the Hundred Diseases Pill?’
Cui Lingyao’s brow furrowed slightly. She said in a low voice, “There’s still one Hundred Diseases Pill left. Why don’t we just offer it to the palace?”
Xie Jinbai shot her a glance. “Bring that thing here.”
Thinking he had taken her advice, Cui Lingyao hurried into the inner chamber and quickly returned, placing the jade-green bottle in his hand.
Xie Jinbai toyed with it for a moment before putting it away. “You don’t need to concern yourself with this matter anymore,” he said. “Just remember what I said. You are not to go to the palace if summoned unless I am with you.”
Cui Lingyao was stunned. “You’re not going to offer the pill?”
“Offer what pill?” Xie Jinbai looked at her, feigning surprise. “You have another one?”
Cui Lingyao: “…”
It was the first time she had been played like this, and her expression was a little dazed.
Xie Jinbai chuckled and reached out to pat her head. “There now. You don’t have anything. It doesn’t matter if Father Emperor is thinking about it; even if the King of Heaven himself came, you’d have nothing to give.”
‘She grew up in the lap of luxury and thinks nothing of such treasures, giving them away so casually.’
‘But he couldn’t.’
‘He wasn’t as generous as she was.’
‘He had experienced the effects of the Hundred Diseases Pill firsthand.’
‘There was only one of these precious pills left. No one was going to take it from her.’
‘Even if she never needed it in her life, he had to keep it for her.’
‘This girl was too soft-hearted with her loved ones and not the least bit cunning. Xie Jinbai couldn’t rest easy leaving something so valuable in her hands.’
‘He had to keep it safe for her.’
Cui Lingyao looked conflicted. “Will Father Emperor believe you?”
“Whether he believes it or not, it’s the truth now.”
Xie Jinbai poured himself another cup of tea and downed it. Then he rose, walked around the tea table, and pulled her into his arms. He said softly, “Just listen to me on this, alright?”
“…Alright.”
Cui Lingyao didn’t understand much about court politics and had no intention of an amateur trying to advise an expert. Since he had clearly made up his mind, she didn’t question him further.
She nodded obediently, letting the matter drop. “My parents are back,” she said. “Did you know?”
“I heard,” Xie Jinbai said. “I’ll go back with you later to pay my respects to my father and mother-in-law.”
Neither of them mentioned the unpleasantness from the end of last night.
They held each other tightly, just like a deeply devoted young couple.
After a few moments of tenderness, Xie Jinbai let her go, stood up, and called for Doctor Liu to come in.
His greatest worry was still her health.
Cui Lingyao was used to this scene by now. Without needing to be told, she rolled up her sleeve and held out her wrist.
Doctor Liu took her pulse with great concentration.
For the better part of half an hour, the old physician’s grave expression gradually relaxed. Finally, he nodded with a smile. “The Princess Consort’s pulse is strong and powerful, and her vital energy is abundant. She doesn’t even have the signs of internal cold and stagnation common in most women. This is truly remarkable.”
Even unmarried young ladies rarely possess such overflowing vitality.
She didn’t even require medicinal tonics.
Doctor Liu was one of Xie Jinbai’s trusted men; he wouldn’t waste time on empty pleasantries.
He always spoke his mind.
Xie Jinbai could finally put his worries to rest.
After the Imperial Physician left, he once again scooped her into his arms, a genuine smile gracing his lips. “This constitution of yours… was it the doing of that thing behind the scenes?”
“Mm,” Cui Lingyao admitted honestly. “It used up the last of its energy to save me. It’s exhausted and has fallen into a dormant state.”
‘…So it finally did one good thing,’ Xie Jinbai thought.
He leaned down, his gaze intense as he met hers. “Tell me, are you so determined to complete the mission to repay it for saving your life, or is it because you want to go back?”
“For its sake,” Cui Lingyao answered without hesitation. “I do care for you, and I’m willing to spend the rest of my life with you in this world. It’s just that I don’t want…”
“Good. I believe you.” Xie Jinbai cut off the rest of her explanation with a smile. “I believe you. I believe that when you complete your mission and it wakes up, you won’t abandon me and go back.”
Cui Lingyao: “…”
She couldn’t help but feel he was being sarcastic.
“Will you really die?” Xie Jinbai asked, still smiling at her. “As you said, it’s already in a deep slumber. If you fail the mission, would it have enough energy left to obliterate you?”
“Of course.”
Cui Lingyao explained, “Its origins are a mystery. When we formed the contract, it placed a restriction on me and set a time limit for the mission. If I don’t complete it, the restriction will activate, and I’ll be obliterated.”
Her explanation was perfectly logical.
Xie Jinbai had feared as much, but hearing her confirm the worst-case scenario with her own lips still made his expression darken.
“How long?” he asked, his voice hoarse.
Cui Lingyao froze, then forced herself to make up a number. “Two years.”
‘Two years.’
‘And she’d already wasted almost half a year on Pei Shuyao.’
‘In the time she had left, he had to try his hardest to have a child with her.’
‘Otherwise, she would die.’
Xie Jinbai was silent for a long time.
He felt utterly powerless.
He—a master strategist, decisive and ruthless, a man who always had everything under his control and had never been constrained by anything—was, in this moment, completely without a solution.
He didn’t dare gamble with her life.
And so, there was only one choice left.
Cui Lingyao looked up from his embrace, about to say something, but the words died on her lips when she saw the redness rimming his eyes.
“Don’t look at me…”
Xie Jinbai wiped a hand over his face. “Let’s go,” he said, his voice rough. “I’ll go with you to see your parents.”
He released her and strode out of the room.
His posture was as straight and tall as ever, but…
Cui Lingyao felt a sting in her nose.
…
「In the carriage.」
The two of them sat facing each other.
Xie Jinbai was slumped against the carriage wall, his eyes gently closed. He was expressionless, lost in thought, and the air was thick with silence.
After a long hesitation, Cui Lingyao leaned forward and took his hand. “Do you think I’m cruel? That I’m just clinging to life, afraid to die, so I’m unwilling to have a child and keep insisting that you take a concubine?”
“The truth is, I can’t get pregnant…” she confessed in a small voice. “On the very night I married you, I had the system make this body unable to conceive.”
‘She had never felt the so-called pressure to produce an heir.’
‘He was the only one who had ever shouldered that burden.’
‘They had been married for three years, and he was still without a son or daughter, much to the displeasure of the Emperor and Empress.’
‘The Empress had pressured him to take Li Wanrong as a concubine, while his household ministers and advisors were equally desperate for him to produce an heir.’
‘While he remained steadfast, bearing all that pressure and trying day after day to get her pregnant, she was having the system prevent it.’
‘She had never once considered their future together, focused only on returning home.’
‘It was truly…’
Cui Lingyao never thought she would one day confess this to him.
But now, she had.
As her words faded, the man resting with his eyes closed suddenly snapped them open, his gaze fixed directly on her.