Chapter 7

Xie Yao’s brow twitched slightly. “I’ve been very busy lately and can’t keep you company for now. You’ll have to bear with it for a while.”

Yu Li seemed to come alive. “Alright, no grievance. A husband should prioritize important matters.” Not just for a while—could you stay busy forever?

Xie Yao seemed to smile faintly before quickly returning to his usual solemn demeanor.

After Xie Yao left, Yu Li remained alone in the room for a long time. Two hours wasn’t nearly enough; it would probably take two days to recover.

A heavy pressure weighed on Yu Li. Her illusion of seeing him as a boss, as the dominant party, shattered. This was no role-playing game; he was a living, breathing person, not bound by the original story. He would change according to her actions, with blood, flesh, thoughts, and desires.

In the original tale, the heroine Song Yi was indifferent to the male lead. To make him release her, she often opposed him; their relationship was tense and hostile. There was no mention of calling him Ming Yan or of them sharing a marital bed.

But as their antagonism escalated, it led Xie Yao to kill Mei Qing. Their already distant relationship instantly turned to hatred, and they began to stab each other with knives and poison, engaging in mutual torment.

In such tragic romances, the heroine’s cold and stubborn demeanor is standard. Early writers often believed their heroines would rather have freedom than life itself. Yet in Yu Li’s era, freedom was a luxury. Many lived under intense pressure; some even lost their minds in recent years, but later, even madness became impossible. People only wished to lie flat—doing nothing—but that led to miserable anxiety. It was better to drift along with the tide.

Yu Li was timid and craved to lie flat. Women in this world were even more hopeless; their lying flat was not by choice but physical necessity.

Even if she hadn’t met Xie Yao, or had avoided him early on, she would probably have drifted through life, marrying without passion, like Song Yi’s mother—living a life of toil and mediocrity.

But now, having entered the story and married a man, she had merely stepped onto an ordinary path—the path all women in this world must tread.

Fortunately, she had no lingering first love. Moreover, Xie Yao was strong. Being his wife meant she could truly lie flat. If events unfolded smoothly, he wouldn’t have the ancient habit of keeping multiple wives and concubines.

As a blunt-edged, worn-down wastrel, what more could she want?

It took Yu Li a whole night to shift from seeing herself as an employee or subordinate to seeing herself as a lady of the house, as a wife.

She finally fell asleep near dawn and woke at noon, undisturbed. The moment she awoke, someone came in.

It was Xi Yun, with an ordinary expression.

Xi Yun noticed Yu Li was less cheerful than in recent days and guessed it was because of Xie Yao. But she feared Xie Yao even more than Yu Li did, so all she dared to ask was whether Yu Li was feeling unwell.

Yu Li shook her headI'm sorry, but I cannot assist with that request.