RWWAI 21

Chapter 21: You've Been Lying to Me From the Very Beginning!

"The person Qi Lu loves most in this world is himself!"

Luo Fan blurted out, sounding like he had finally reached his absolute limit.

I blinked, momentarily speechless.

Did he think I was an absolute idiot?

Of course I already knew Qi Lu's internal ranking went: himself > Qin Miaomiao > Liang Jingjing.

Was there any need to announce something I'd figured out ages ago with such dramatic emotional intensity?

"His true regret had zero to do with Qin Miaomiao's child!"

Alright, that statement genuinely caught me off guard.

In order to clear my mission, I had always approached things from Liang Jingjing's perspective, trying to understand her bitterness so I could figure out a way to resolve it.

Because of that, once Luo Fan showed up, I subconsciously assumed he was operating under the same logic.

Yet I had overlooked the most fundamental detail of all: Luo Fan wasn't actually Qi Lu.

Putting aside whether Qi Lu even had the privilege of choosing his respawn timeframe, if the text prompts Luo Fan saw only mentioned the regret of "Qin Miaomiao's child having concubine status," then when I originally proposed a divorce and suggested he elevate Qin Miaomiao to primary wife, he would have had zero reason to object.

After all, he didn't need to stress over what public opinion would say about Qi Lu later—once the mission was cleared, he could just bounce straight back home.

Of course, judging by how he used to stammer and fumble through his words back then, this golden retriever probably hadn't even considered what kind of backlash elevating a concubine would bring down on Qi Lu's head.

The only reason he dug his heels in and refused a divorce was because it proved the mission conditions he saw weren't pinned on Qin Miaomiao's kids at all, but were firmly locked onto one specific requirement: "Liang Jingjing cannot leave."

My face frosted over as I demanded:

"What else have you been lying to me about? Why can't Qi Lu and Liang Jingjing get a divorce?"

Luo Fan's eyelashes fluttered as he answered:

"My mission wasn't about whitewashing Qin Miaomiao's kid from a concubine's offspring into a legitimate heir... from start to finish, the only thing Qi Lu cared about was the long-term prosperity of his own bloodline, so what he actually needed was a legitimate heir born directly from Liang Jingjing."

In the previous life, Qin Miaomiao had indeed given birth to a son and a daughter, but after Liang Jingjing died, she never had any more children.

Given the historical backdrop of that era, those two kids still held the legal status of concubine-born children.

Thus, Qi Lu died without a single legitimate heir to his name.

After his death, the collateral branches of the Qi family seized upon that exact vulnerability and stripped away everything Qi Lu owned.

His children ultimately died in destitution and poverty, and Qi Lu's bloodline terminated right there with that generation.

His rebirth was never about Qin Miaomiao—it was entirely, selfishly about himself.

I hurriedly chimed in:

"Hold on! Why must it be born from me? Can't we just adopt? Can't we get a divorce and then elevate Qin Miaomiao?"

Luo Fan shook his head and said:

"A few years down the line, Liang Jingjing's father is going to be promoted to Minister of Agriculture. What Qi Lu wanted wasn't just any ordinary legitimate heir, but an heir backed by a powerful maternal family. And besides..."

Following Liang Jingjing's death, Qin Miaomiao—who didn't come from a prominent or influential background to begin with—was utterly incapable of managing a massive commandant's estate.

Devoid of any personal connections or backing, her maiden family couldn't offer Qi Lu a shred of assistance, nor did Qin Miaomiao have the slightest clue how to navigate the complex social etiquette required to maintain the Qi family's standing in high society.

Before long, Qi Lu realized that aside from taking care of her two kids' basic daily needs, Qin Miaomiao couldn't even handle a minor task like recruiting a decent private tutor, leaving the inner courtyard running like an absolute, chaotic circus.

To make matters worse, his stunt of elevating a concubine deeply alienated the Liang family; while they didn't resort to petty, deliberate sabotage, all the political and social benefits the Liang family used to provide vanished overnight.

His career trajectory in his later years was absolute night-and-day compared to when Liang Jingjing was still alive.

Until the day he died, he never received another promotion, remaining stuck as a mid-level commandant forever.

"As for why he couldn't let go of Qin Miaomiao either,"

Luo Fan said with an expression of intense conflict,

"it's because back in the day, Qin Miaomiao's father took an arrow to the chest to save his life. If Qin Miaomiao hadn't loved him, her old man wouldn't have risked his neck to save his daughter's supposed happiness, and Qi Lu probably would've kicked the bucket at the Xiazi Pass ages ago."

My eyes widened in disbelief:

"Holy crap! So he genuinely hand-picked the absolute most mathematically perfect timing to respawn?"

Luo Fan nodded, then added with a reddening face:

"Originally, my mission... was supposed to involve making babies with you... but your sudden stroke of chaotic genius accidentally saved my life."

What the actual fuck!

Why is it that my side felt like a classic transmigration power-fantasy web novel, while his read like a sketchy adult romance text?

Though on second thought... whatever, I suppose if you look at it through the lens of a typical male reader, adult fiction is the ultimate power-fantasy.

Right as I finished internally roasting him, a sudden realization hit me like a truck.

"So your mission, strictly speaking, is to stop me from completing my mission?! Because Qi Lu wants to chain Liang Jingjing down and refuse to let her go!" I hollered.

Luo Fan gave a guilty nod, then hurriedly explained:

"Not necessarily... maybe there's a win-win solution? What if we tell the outside world the kids are yours, fake your death so you can pull a cicada's golden shell escape, and I stubbornly refuse to elevate Qin Miaomiao? Could an ending like that work?"

I glared daggers at him and roared:

"Then what are you going to do about your inner courtyard?! Did you forget? Qin Miaomiao only knows how to breastfeed babies!"

Biting his lower lip, Luo Fan put on a pitiful, pathetic expression and pleaded:

"Look, didn't I just lay all the cards on the table for you? If the two of us put our heads together, maybe we can brainstorm an even better workaround?"

"But you've been lying to me right from the very beginning! Why on earth should I trust you?!" I raged, losing my mind.

"For all I know, you probably knew how to clear my mission this whole time and just kept your mouth shut!"

Luo Fan immediately hoisted three fingers in the air and swore with absolute solemnity:

"I swear to the heavens, I do not possess a single shred of intel regarding your mission! Everything I know right now, you're the one who told me; the system only validated my guess that you were a transmigrator. If I'm lying, may I never be able to go back home!"

"Who gives a damn whether you make it back home or not!" I shrieked in a total mental breakdown.

If I'd known this was how it would turn out, I should have demanded a divorce right at the opening scene!

Jumping around on TikTok for a living on the streets would still be miles better than this nonsense!

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