"Crack!" The report in her hand fell to the ground. Leng Zhiruo felt as if she had been struck a heavy blow. She collapsed onto the bed, utterly devastated.
Her mother-in-law remained silent. After all, any normal woman, unless she was an avid boxer or had a deliberate choice to remain childless, would struggle to accept this outcome. Especially since Leng Zhiruo was a very traditional young woman.
After a good half hour of silence, Leng Zhiruo finally stirred, rising like a ghost. In a voice filled with unbearable fragility, she whispered, "Mom, I don't know what to do. Please, tell me."
"Alright, I'll tell you." Her mother-in-law wasn't the type to break down and cry with her daughter. Having raised six children and endured all sorts of hardships in this world, she was a remarkably intelligent, resilient, rational, and, at times, cunning woman.
To borrow from Lu Xun's description, she was like a slender compass, brimming with petty-bourgeois wisdom.
Thus, the mother-in-law began to analyze the situation for Leng Zhiruo.
"You have three choices now. The first, and the most secure, is to pretend you know nothing and go ahead with the marriage. Hehe will never find out. It's perfectly normal not to conceive for two or three years, so you'll be safe for at least that long!" her mother-in-law said.
"No, I can't lie to my brother-in-law. I know how much he loves children. And with his vast empire, who will it go to if he has no heir? Will it all be donated to the state?" Leng Zhiruo gave a mournful smile.
"Precisely, child. You are very smart. We absolutely cannot choose this option."
"It seems very stable, allowing everything to proceed smoothly, but the hidden dangers are immense. I've already spoken to the doctor. While this condition isn't completely incurable, it will require at least seven or eight years of meticulous care for even a slight chance of pregnancy. Hehe can't possibly not notice your problem for seven or eight years, can he?"
"Not to mention you'll have to drink Chinese medicine every day, and the smell is impossible to hide."
"As you said, Hehe loves children, and his empire requires an heir even more. He must desperately want a son. If he discovers your infertility, all his previous fantasies will shatter instantly. The more he loves you now, the more he will hate you then. You are no match for him, and your future would be so tragic, even I dare not imagine."
"Therefore, we must not choose this option. To do so would be mutual destruction!" the mother-in-law declared.
"Then what's the second option?" Leng Zhiruo sighed and asked.
"When Hehe returns shortly, you tell him about this matter personally and let him decide. This is the best option!" Her mother-in-law sighed deeply. "From what I know of Hehe, even if he learns of this, he won't abandon you. You can still get married, and there won't be this hidden landmine between you. You can still grow old together affectionately. This is truly the best option, but..."
"But what?" Leng Zhiruo countered.
"But you will have to work harder in the future and endure a lot of humiliation?" her mother-in-law sighed.
"Endure humiliation? Mom, what do you mean?" Leng Zhiruo asked, confused.
"Good child, didn't Mom tell you? You know yourself that Hehe likes children. More importantly, Hehe currently controls a vast commercial empire worth billions. If you work hard together for a few more decades, this empire could easily grow to be worth tens of billions." xxs
"With such a massive commercial empire, what will happen to all this wealth if you don't have children?"
"If Hehe and I get married, and if Hehe dies first, then all the assets will be mine. Afterward, this wealth will be inherited by my younger sisters."
"But if I die first, then all the assets will belong to Hehe. However, Hehe has no direct heirs."
"According to our country's law, if there are no direct heirs, then the property will be inherited by collateral heirs."
"Hehe has no siblings, and neither does his father. Only his grandfather apparently had a few brothers, but they had a falling out long ago and have had no contact. I heard they were coveting Hehe's family's fortune, which led to the estrangement. I suspect they will try to claim the inheritance then." Leng Zhiruo said. She wouldn't have understood this before, but after years of social experience, she was quite clear about such matters now.
"That's right. Although these assets might eventually go to your sisters and their descendants, I'm not someone who would do something as unethical as snatching someone else's inheritance. This is all Hehe's hard-earned wealth; what does it have to do with your sisters?"
"Moreover, your sisters will eventually get married, and their children will have different surnames. Then, this wealth will still end up benefiting outsiders, which is even more unacceptable!" Her mother-in-law gritted her teeth. It seemed this was what she found most unacceptable.
"You can see this clearly yourself, let alone Hehe. He certainly won't accept his entire inheritance going to outsiders. So, he will undoubtedly try every way to have his own biological child."
"And for a man, you can trust his feelings, but you absolutely cannot trust his lower half, especially when there's a reason to continue the ancestral line and find an heir for his commercial empire."
"Therefore, he will inevitably cheat. He will have a son with a woman of questionable background, and then all this wealth will belong to that woman's son. Even if you are still his nominal wife, you will only be that in name! When you're past your prime, I fear Hehe will just cast you aside."
"Of course, I believe Hehe isn't that heartless. But what about that bastard? When Hehe dies, how will he treat you, his wife?"
"..." Leng Zhiruo was stunned by what she heard and instinctively asked, "Then what should I do?"
"Mom once heard a story from a performance of 'The Seven Heroes and Five Gallants.' It's about an emperor of the Song Dynasty who doted on an Empress named Liu, but this Empress couldn't bear sons."
"Later, a concubine named Li became pregnant. So, Empress Liu also pretended to be pregnant and even arranged for them to give birth on the same day."
"After the concubine Li gave birth to a son, Empress Liu secretly swapped the infant with a skinned wild cat and raised the child as her own."
"Later, this biological son became the Crown Prince, then the Emperor of the Song Dynasty, and always believed Empress Liu was his birth mother, until someone brought this case to Bao Qingtian. Bao Qingtian then resolutely exposed the case, allowing the emperor to know who his real mother was."
"This is the famous 'Wild Cat for the Crown Prince' story."
"Although this story sounds somewhat absurd, and their family wasn't royalty, this story can still be applied to reality!"
"After you get married, you can use the excuse of continuing the royal lineage to voluntarily arrange for other women for Huang He to have sons. Afterward, you can dismiss that woman and raise this son as your own child. As long as you and Huang He don't reveal the secret, this child will believe you are his parents his entire life. Then you won't have to worry about anything else and can live a good life until you die!" her mother-in-law said calmly.
This was the best solution her mother-in-law had come up with after spending an entire afternoon.
"Child, this is indeed the best method. Firstly, you'll have confessed everything, and Hehe won't hold any grudges against you. Secondly, you'll willingly let an outside woman bear a child for lineage, which will make Hehe feel deeply indebted to you, immensely so. He will remember this his entire life and treat you well."
"Then, you will not only have a good life but also respected status, your husband's love, and lively, adorable children. You can have all of this, so this is the best way."
"Of course, there will be regrets. You might have to endure unbearable pain and love a child with whom you have no blood relation. These things will cause you suffering, but compared to what you will gain, they are bearable!"
"However, the specifics are for you to decide. Mom is just presenting this suggestion to you!" her mother-in-law said.
In truth, her mother-in-law hadn't explicitly stated that the woman who bore the child didn't have to be an "outside woman." She could be someone from within the family, in which case the child would still have a blood relation to Leng Zhiruo.
However, saying such a thing at this moment would be too devastating for Leng Zhiruo, so her mother-in-law chose not to mention it, planning to arrange and persuade her later.
Her mother-in-law had expected Leng Zhiruo to accept her proposal, as it was the most beneficial option. However, after ten minutes of contemplation, Leng Zhiruo shook her head. "No. I don't want a good life built on deceiving a child and hurting another woman."
"And once I carry such a burden, I will never feel happy in my life. This is also not what I want!"
"What do you want then? Are you not going through with the marriage?" her mother-in-law asked angrily.
"Mom, this is the third option you haven't voiced yet, isn't it!" Leng Zhiruo smiled sadly. "That's right, your daughter intends to use this method. I'm not getting married!"
"Are you crazy? Do you want all of Mom's efforts over the past few months to become a joke?" Her mother-in-law was somewhat frantic. She had put in so much effort for this marriage over the last three months, and now Leng Zhiruo was simply refusing to go through with it.
If the marriage didn't happen, then the son-in-law who had been painstakingly brought back, along with his billions in business empire, would completely fall into the hands of other women.
For example, the secretary named Hu Jing, whom she had met once, was very dangerous!
"Mom, your efforts will not be in vain. Your daughter can still get married, but it won't be me!" Leng Zhiruo said with a mournful smile. "Zhiwen should be back soon, shouldn't she? Leave this matter to her!"