RWWAI 7

Chapter 7: Is This Something a Human Being Can Actually Do?

"No way! I can't accept this!" I roared. "What did Liang Jingjing do wrong? Even if Qi Lu was forced into marrying her, didn't Liang Jingjing give her all and pour her heart and soul into the Qi family?"

Luo Fan hurriedly put down his chopsticks and tried to placate me, saying, "I know..."

"You don't know shit!" I pointed right at his nose and cursed out, "Let me ask you, what kind of decent human being of a husband goes out to fight a war and returns home with a whole extra set of a wife and kids?! Is this something a human being can actually do?"

Luo Fan lowered his head and muttered under his breath, "Xue Pinggui..."

"Shut your trap! Since when is reading too many books something to brag about?!" I bellowed.

"I know that from a modern perspective, this doesn't make sense..." Luo Fan kept his head down, only daring to peek at me through his eyelashes, "But this world clearly isn't a novel written by a modern person; it's the actual, lived life of someone from the past..."

Hearing that, I froze for a moment.

Luo Fan let out a sigh and continued explaining, "Given the environment and mindset back then, a woman was simply expected to follow her husband no matter what [lit. marry a chicken, follow a chicken]. No matter how well Liang Jingjing handled things, it was nothing more than her duty. Even if you and I don't agree with it, that's still how Qi Lu saw it—which is why he dared to have regrets."

The moment he said that, I got even angrier!

Because Qi Lu himself had no idea where he had kicked the bucket by now! Even if I wanted to beat some sense into him, I couldn't even find his corpse to whip it!

Yet, after only a few seconds of dejection, my brilliant brain broke through the bottleneck.

"Hold on!" I spoke up. "Ask your system—isn't it true that as long as we achieve our rebirth objectives, we can go home?"

Luo Fan obediently nodded.

"Well, then that makes it simple!" I declared. "My task is to live a fabulous, flourishing life, and your task is to make Qin Miaomiao's child a legitimate heir. Those two things don't conflict at all, right?"

Luo Fan: "Huh?"

I elaborated, "You give me some money, we stay married, and then before Qin Miaomiao gives birth, you elevate her status. That way, the kid counts as legitimate, doesn't it? And I get to use the money you give me to keep living a pampered life outside—isn't that a win-win?"

I expected Luo Fan to marvel at my peerless intelligence, but to my utter shock, he reacted with extreme agitation: "We can't stay married!"

I asked in confusion, "Why not?"

Luo Fan lowered his head, looking thoroughly wronged as he whimpered, "The system says so. My clearance condition is that without divorcing Liang Jingjing, I have to let Qin Miaomiao live out the rest of her life with zero regrets."

I asked with even greater perplexity, "What on earth for?!"

Luo Fan shook his head in panic, clearly indicating that the system hadn't bothered to explain beyond that.

Yet I could pretty much piece it together myself.

Because Qi Lu was a total piece of trash, the details of his mission parameters were bound to be packed with infuriatingly selfish clauses. As I'd mentioned before, if Qi Lu divorced Liang Jingjing, he would be slapping his own face in front of high society. Even if his rebirth was meant for Qin Miaomiao, Qi Lu would never sacrifice himself to achieve it. He would only ever sacrifice other people.

What else could be done, then?

Suddenly, a wicked thought popped into my head. Why should I stress over all that? Shouldn't I just focus on nailing my own mission? I had only met Luo Fan today—why should I give a damn whether his mission succeeded or not? Especially since he still looked so easy to push around.

Right at that moment, Luo Fan tentatively piped up, "Um... your clearance mission... it didn't explicitly state that you have to get a divorce, right?"

I: "Huh?"

Luo Fan lowered his head once again and muttered, "Because... if getting a divorce was really that simple, wouldn't you have divorced him ages ago, even before I transmigrated?"

Right on cue, the bullet comments even helpfully replayed the "prior context" from when I had first transmigrated: [If there is a next life, I, Liang Jingjing, will never repeat the same mistakes] [This time, I am living strictly for myself!]

Sure enough, the word "divorce" hadn't appeared anywhere from start to finish! No wonder when I realized Liang Jingjing couldn't survive independently, I had been able to make the choice to lie flat and enjoy the luxury without a second thought.

At that point, Luo Fan chimed in with yet another surprisingly logical point.

"Look... even though using Liang Jingjing's status as the legal wife to 'gild' Qin Miaomiao's child sounds pretty shameless, the only reason this trick is so vicious is because Liang Jingjing actually liked Qi Lu, right? You don't love me, and I don't genuinely love Qin Miaomiao either. Even if we do this, it's not like you'll be heartbroken over it, will you?"

He wasn't wrong, but I still felt like something was deeply off.

So I stated, "The adoption is fine and dandy, but I'm definitely not raising the kid! You can make the biological mother take care of her own spawn!"

Luo Fan nodded hurriedly in agreement.

I pressed on with my conditions: "And furthermore, you're going to handle Qin Miaomiao yourself. Don't dump that headache on me!"

Luo Fan nodded once again.

Looking at his submissive, obedient demeanor, I suddenly realized where the catch was.

That whole motto of “I am living strictly for myself!” Everything I was agreeing to right now was basically just doing him favors! How was that any different from the original Liang Jingjing compromising herself for Qi Lu's sake?

No way! I needed to inject a self-serving element directly into this master plan!

So I declared, "I feel like mere adoption isn't enough to give the kid proper 'gilding'."

Luo Fan: "Huh?"

"Let's just tell the outside world that I gave birth to the child!"

Luo Fan shrieked in absolute shock, "What?!"

"To make sure no word leaks out, you're going to spend a boatload of cash to invite Doctor Zhou over. And until the baby is born, we're putting him under house arrest so he can't leave!" I said righteously.

"What?!" Luo Fan was completely and utterly flabbergasted.

I broke into a happy grin.

That way, I could get my kid-gilding perks while simultaneously indulging in my hobbies of looking at handsome hunks and romancing whoever I wanted, all at the exact same time!

This time around, I am living strictly for myself!!

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