“It’s only a common cold. Don’t over-worry, Mom,” Gu Chenyi said.

“It’s not that I’m over-worrying, it’s you who should be worrying more! She’s bearing your child!” Mrs. Gu chided.

Gu Chenyi avoided the topic and replied, “I’ll go and see her now.”

“Uh-huh, hurry!” Mrs. Gu did not speak further.

When Gu Chenyi entered the room, Lin Qingya was eating her porridge.

When she saw him, her hands tightened around the bowl.

He shut the door behind him, thinking about the night before. Since he had told her the truth in his drunken state, then there was no longer a need for him to hide his disgust. “It’s useless to feign illness!”

Lin Qingya put down the bowl she was holding and smiled bitterly. “I know it’s useless to feign illness.”

“Lin Qingya, I have to take my hat off to you. You tell a lie like it’s the truth. And now that you’ve been exposed, you act like nothing has happened!” Gu Chenyi noticed how steady she was, and more than ever, he felt he’d been blind before. Such a fool he was!

He actually took her to be a gentle and kind girl! And he had doubted Mu Huan!

The more he thought about this, the more he felt like stabbing himself with a knife!

Lin Qingya smiled in self-mockery and said, “Indeed, I’m fine, because what I was trying to hide has now been discovered by you. I no longer need to worry about being found out. I really do feel a lot more relaxed.”

She had thought about it all night. Although she felt ill physically, she couldn’t stop thinking about how she could resolve this matter. She had come this far, she wasn’t going to give up now!

Until finally, she decided, she was going the opposite way!

Since Gu Chenyi had found out the truth, so be it. She wasn’t going to ask to be spared, she wasn’t going to ask to be let off. Let him do what he wanted with her!

In any case, she had the baby in her belly!

She had this bargaining chip, and on top of that, Gu Chenyi’s grandfather was dying. Hence, in the next half a year, even if it were just to please his grandfather, he wouldn’t be too merciless toward her.

In half a year, the child would be due. She would be so heavily pregnant that he wouldn’t be able to do anything to her. After the birth of the child — a new lease on life — she would be the child’s own mother, and this would only serve to deepen their ties, making it even harder to separate.

Hence, there really wasn’t much he could do about her.

If he wanted her to suffer and didn’t want her to have a life of luxury, then she’d pretend to suffer, and she would try to endure poverty for now. It wasn’t as though she had never been poor. As long as she was Madam Gu, the mother of the heir to the Gu family estate, everything that belonged to the Gu family would eventually be hers!

She was best at enduring and waiting!

“You feel that I can’t do anything to you just because you are bearing a child of the Gu family? Is that why you’re so calm and composed?” Gu Chenyi said icily.

“What is a child? If you want a child, there are many women out there who would be willing to bear you one. The Gu family doesn’t lack children. I’m calm because one has to eventually bear the consequences of one’s own actions. Whatever I had feared has now gone. No matter what, I have to bear the punishment, so let it be, then. Do whatever you want to do.

“Even if I ask to be let off, it’ll be useless, right?” Lin Qingya lifted her head to look at him. There was no fear in her eyes, only complete acceptance — since things had come to this, he could do what he wanted, and she would accept it.

Although the baby was her biggest bargaining chip, she made it seem as though it was worthless. Because she knew that although there may be many women out there who could bear the man a child, his grandfather had only half a year left of his life. There would be no time for any other child, only hers would be on time. If his grandfather made a hard enough effort, he could possibly have the opportunity to see the baby.

Hence, even if he could have many children, for now, he would have to keep hers!