Chapter 173: "Tell Me, Will You Still Go Back?

Chapter 173: Chapter 173: "Tell Me, Will You Still Go Back?

He was born into the Royal Family, publicly known as the Empress’s legitimate son. He was deeply valued by the old Emperor and was taught the ways of an Emperor from a young age.

He had always seen the lands and people of Great Yue as his own responsibility.

At around ten, he entered the military barracks, and soon after, he was on the battlefield.

He ascended the throne smoothly, excelling in both civil and military affairs.

He swiftly crushed the budding ambitions of the Alien Clans.

While he lived, the people of Great Yue were prosperous, and the borders were as stable as a mountain.

Could such a man, upon learning that his dynasty would face utter devastation and his people would be nearly wiped out after his death, truly continue to be so... willful, only pursuing carnal pleasures?

But perhaps because the impression of his madness was too deeply ingrained in her, Cui Lingyao didn’t dare to be certain that he would simply and cleanly ’consider the bigger picture.’

As expected.

She said everything she could, but Xie Jinbai didn’t react for a long time.

His eyes, still tinged with red, watched her intently, his expression focused, not missing the slightest change on her face.

It was as if he were judging the truth of her words, or perhaps contemplating something else.

After a long while, his lips moved. The first question he asked was, "What is your real name?"

Cui Lingyao was stunned, finding the situation absurd. ’I’ve said so much, and that’s the only thing you’re curious about?’

Utter devastation, the crisis facing so many of his people—he wasn’t worried about any of it.

He...

"The rest can wait. Let’s take this one step at a time,"

Xie Jinbai explained briefly, then asked, "That thing behind the scenes that sent you here, what did it give you in return?"

Judging by her words and actions, and the meaning between the lines of what she’d just revealed, she was also just a mortal.

She’d come to Great Yue twice. It couldn’t possibly be just to do a good deed, coming to accumulate merit because she saw how miserable the Yue people were, could it?

More than the ’course of history’ decades from now, what Xie Jinbai wanted to know most was everything about the young woman before him.

In that world without him, what was her name, her background, her age—her entire life story.

What benefits had the ’thing’ behind the scenes promised her that would make a delicate young woman like her willing to come to Great Yue and get close to him?

To marry him even without loving him!

During their three years of intimate entanglement, she was always eager to return home.

What in that godforsaken world was she so attached to?

Was it her parents, or... a lover?

Had she been married?

Was there someone she loved?

Xie Jinbai wanted to know all of it.

Their eyes met.

Cui Lingyao was taken aback by the stubbornness in his gaze.

After a moment’s thought, she decided there was nothing to hide and told him everything.

"In my own world, I have the same name. There is no imperial authority, no Marquis or Duke Mansions, and no masters and servants. Everyone is just an ordinary person. I lost my parents when I was young and was adopted and raised by a family who were good friends of theirs..."

Cui Lingyao had truly never known hardship.

In her youth, in her own home, she was the apple of her parents’ eye.

After her parents died in an accident, she was taken in by the Lu Family.

The Lu Family’s business was very successful, so they weren’t short on money. With Lu Chen as their only child, Mr. and Mrs. Lu had always wanted a daughter and treated her as their own.

As her older brother, Lu Chen was also very good to her, loving and protecting her since childhood.

Her academic life went smoothly as well; she attended a top university.

The only setback was the accident that befell her beloved brother.

His legs were paralyzed, and he could no longer stand.

Cui Lingyao said frankly, "I came to Great Yue to get the Hundred Diseases Pill to save my brother."

She spoke in detail, and Xie Jinbai listened with immense patience, his expression unchanging.

When she finished, his eyes curved slightly as he looked at her and asked, "Are you in love with him?"

His voice was surprisingly gentle.

A particularly strange gentleness.

Cui Lingyao’s heart skipped a beat. She answered cautiously, "He’s my brother."

He was her brother.

Therefore, for even the slightest hope of helping him stand again, she was willing—even if it meant coming to a strange world, getting close to an Emperor famous in the annals of history.

Tricking him into loving her.

Marrying him.

Being intimate with him.

She was willing to do it all.

Because he was her brother.

An unbearable sourness churned in his chest. Xie Jinbai forced it down and looked at her. "He’s your adoptive brother. You’re not related by blood, nor do you share the same surname."

Everything he said was true, but hearing it from his lips, Cui Lingyao found it grating.

She frowned. "In my eyes, he is my real brother, just like Cui Mingrui, my actual blood brother."

Cui Mingrui. The same.

Xie Jinbai’s eyes darkened slightly. He scoffed, "If they’re the same, then how could you so cleanly abandon your family here to go back?"

He was self-aware enough not to even count himself among them.

But what about the Cui Family?

She herself had said she was only ten when she came to the Cui Family.

She had truly grown up under the care of her parents and brother.

The bonds of blood and family—she could just walk away from them like that?

Cui Lingyao explained, "One must have priorities. My brother was waiting for the Hundred Diseases Pill to save his legs. My family here, on the other hand, is healthy and extremely wealthy. They don’t need me to worry about them."

That was why she was so set on going back.

Xie Jinbai nodded lightly, as if he accepted her logic.

Cui Lingyao breathed a sigh of relief. Just as she was about to speak, she heard him ask, "Last time it was to save your adoptive brother. This time, who are you here to save?"

He was certain she wouldn’t show up without a reason.

It definitely wasn’t because she couldn’t bear to leave him, or because she felt guilty and heartbroken seeing him torture himself for three years.

Cui Lingyao felt a little ashamed because he was exactly right.

She lowered her head. "For myself."

She had already revealed most of her background; this last bit didn’t matter.

Cui Lingyao also told him about how she had been diagnosed with ALS and was waiting to die, and how she was informed that something had gone wrong in Great Yue, requiring her to come back again.

Xie Jinbai listened quietly, then smiled. "So this time, there’s no ’brother’ in that world waiting for the Hundred Diseases Pill to save his legs, and your relatives are all healthy, is that right?"

"..." Cui Lingyao opened her mouth but was speechless.

The counter-attack came too quickly, using her own reasoning against her.

Caught off guard, she couldn’t even find the words to argue.

Xie Jinbai looked at her. "You’ve admitted you have feelings for me. You also said you see the Cui family as your own parents and that Cui Mingrui is as important to you as your ’adoptive brother.’ Great Yue is no longer a strange place to you, and you’re not a rootless drifter anymore, are you?"

...That was true.

Great Yue had the man she loved, her family in the Cui Family, and close friends like Chen Minrou.

Cui Lingyao couldn’t bring herself to deny it. Under his gaze, she nodded lightly.

The smile in Xie Jinbai’s eyes became more genuine. He asked her softly, "Tell me, under these circumstances, are you still planning to ’complete the mission’ and go back?"

"..." Cui Lingyao forced a stiff smile. "Whether I go back or not, you still need to have an heir."

She didn’t think the two things were mutually exclusive.

But Xie Jinbai didn’t see it that way.

His expression turned serious as he pressed on stubbornly, "Tell me, will you still go back?"

What a question. Even someone as fearless as Cui Lingyao knew there were some things she shouldn’t say.

She wrapped her arms around him, burying her head in his chest, and said softly, "Our misunderstanding is resolved. After facing death together several times, I’ve finally confessed my feelings to you. And with so many family and friends here, how could I still be thinking about going back?"