An incompetent wife

Over the past few years, Chen Yuyin had spent every day beside Meng Yuan, coming to know this young husband she had remarried ever better.

In all fairness, Chen Yuyin felt Meng Yuan was a good husband. He respected and cared for her. Apart from his fondness for talking about his humble origins in bed, which was rather irritating, and his insistence on doing it every single night, he had no other faults.

Moreover, he excelled in both letters and arms. He seemed to know something about everything, and his knowledge of martial arts was especially extensive.

Rarer still was his devotion. Even when someone presented him with beautiful women, he would not spare them another glance, saying something about one couple for one lifetime.

She had not borne him so much as a son or daughter, but he had never complained. Apart from showing her no mercy during their fierce battles every night, he was a good husband at all other times.

As the commander of an army, her young husband might not have done everything to perfection, Chen Yuyin felt, but he always led the charge and ate and slept alongside his soldiers. No one could rival his prestige.

Now he had even laid the foundations for contending for the realm. If he could achieve a major breakthrough, he might very well unite the world.

He was far too capable!

Capable both in bed and out of it!

When Chen Yuyin first thought of marrying him, she had merely clung to a hope of trying to fulfill her father and brother's dying wishes. She had never expected to truly see the first light of dawn today.

But after they pacified Shu, Chen Yuyin, who shared his bed, noticed something was not quite right with her young husband.

He spent all day taking Yang Dayong out to chase rabbits with dogs, as though he had grown fond of ease and riches.

Yet the thing her father and brother had yearned for now had prospects, had hope. They absolutely could not abandon it halfway.

And her husband's prestige was too great. Although half the army belonged to the Chen Household, he alone was its backbone.

If this man threw down his burden and quit, never mind accomplishing their great undertaking-Chen Yuyin did not even have the confidence to win over everyone's hearts.

He was bestowed upon me, Chen, by Heaven. Even if he no longer wants to do it, I must push him onward!

With that thought, Chen Yuyin prepared a meal. At dusk, her young husband finally returned.

"Husband." Seeing that the boy Yang Dayong had followed him back, Chen Yuyin sent him to fetch Chen Huaixian and his brother for dinner before saying, "Husband, you take Yang Dayong out to play every day. Do you want a child too?"

Meng Yuan said nothing.

"Since you wish to contend for the realm, husband, you ought to have more children. I injured my body practicing martial arts in the past and cannot carry on your line." Chen Yuyin's face was filled with sorrow. "Besides, you are in your prime, and there are inconvenient days for me every month. It is only right to have someone new receive your rain and dew."

She looked every bit the virtuous wife.

What injury from practicing martial arts? You simply don't want to bear my children! As if I don't know you use your martial arts to force it out every day!

"I wish only to win one heart and never part until our hair turns white. If you cannot bear children, I would rather have none. Even if Huaixian or Huaiyuan takes my place when the time comes, that would be fine."

Meng Yuan likewise looked every bit the virtuous husband. Holding Chen Yuyin's hand and meeting her eyes, he said earnestly, "Wife, there is nothing in this world more important than you."

"Then why are you troubled, husband?" Chen Yuyin asked.

"They say husband and wife are the closest of kin." Meng Yuan sighed. "You have met my father and elder brother, my sister-in-law, my niece and nephew. You know how I carried a shoulder pole to peddle straw sandals and slippers, and you know my life from childhood onward. I have never hidden anything from you."

Holding her hand and staring into her eyes, Meng Yuan said, "Yet there are so many things about you that I do not know. So much so that whenever we are intimate, even when I am within you and you within me, I still feel I am growing further and further away from you."

What sort of vulgar language was this?

"Whatever you wish to ask, husband, just ask." Chen Yuyin let nothing show on her face and grew gentler still. "I am yours, and I have given you the entire Chen Household. What could I still hide?"

"What are the origins of that great snake and the purple fruit on Twin Dragon Mountain?" Meng Yuan asked at once.

Meng Yuan already knew the answer to this question. It would serve as a sample.

For a moment, Chen Yuyin suddenly felt that this man who shared her bed was like a venomous snake, peering into her thoughts, peering into her schemes.

Otherwise, he would not have chosen this moment to bring it up. Had it been before their marriage, Chen Yuyin would never have said another word; had it been before their uprising, she would not have said more either.

Even before they conquered Shu, Chen Yuyin would not have told him much.

But now the dawn of their great undertaking was in sight. They needed only to take one more step forward...

Seeing the resolve in the eyes of the man who shared her bed, Chen Yuyin felt as though he had seized her by a snake's vulnerable seven-inch point.

She pondered for a moment before saying, "I did not mean to conceal it from you, husband. That Black Serpent was actually raised by my ancestors, nearly two hundred years ago now. As for that purple fruit, it is called a Red Flame Fruit. It bears fruit once every thirty to sixty years, at no fixed interval."

"Was the Red Flame Fruit the secret medicine taken by successive generations of Pear Blossom Chen? Did my father-in-law take it?" Meng Yuan asked again.

"That is right." Chen Yuyin nodded. "The Red Flame Fruit is supremely forceful and supremely yang. An ordinary person would die upon taking it. Only by swallowing the snake's gallbladder can its effects be balanced. Father suppressed it with medicines for years, and that was why..."

She sighed, then continued, "This one should have gone to my elder brother, but the fruiting time was uncertain. He waited bitterly, yet never obtained it. But Heaven favored you, husband. You happened to arrive when it bore fruit, allowing your martial power to increase greatly."

So that old snake was almost two hundred years old. No wonder it was close to growing horns.

Meng Yuan finally understood why successive generations of Chen ancestors had not killed the snake for its gallbladder. Black Serpents were hard to come by, and the Chen Household could not bear to do it.

"Where did the Chen ancestors obtain the Black Serpent? How did they learn to grow the Red Flame Fruit?" Meng Yuan asked again.

Chen Yuyin said nothing. Only after a long while did she say, "Our Chen ancestors headed the Eighty-One Kingdoms in those days and left behind some secret manuals, covering things such as martial arts and raising Black Serpents, as well as Red Flame Fruit seeds. Only two hundred years ago did an ancestor find a place to raise the Black Serpent and grow the Red Flame Fruit. As for where the Black Serpent came from, I do not know either."

She was definitely holding something back.

"I see." Meng Yuan released Chen Yuyin's hand and asked again, "After you married Lü Yinglong, you left for distant lands, and later your elder brother followed you there. But why did he die away from home?"

Chen Yuyin sighed. "Father forced me to marry Lü Yinglong. I was unwilling, so..."

"Wife." Meng Yuan raised his hand and gently covered Chen Yuyin's lips. "Brother Lü once said our old father-in-law had mentioned to him that the Chen ancestors had dealings with the Pei Clan of Mount Xiyi and the Bai Clan of Snow Mountain."

Meng Yuan withdrew his hand and said earnestly, "I am willing to do anything for you, and I have never hidden anything from you. I ask only that my sincerity not be betrayed, and hope you will treat me with sincerity too."

"..." Chen Yuyin frowned slightly, looking anew at the man who shared her bed.

Only then did Chen Yuyin recall that this man had lavished her with every tenderness and affection, mentioning his mat-weaving and sandal-peddling every night during their lovemaking. He had actually made her lower her guard and forget that he was not merely a farmer by birth, but a widely read man who could charge into battle and devise grand strategies.

How could anyone easily see through such a man's thoughts? How could he possibly let her manipulate him so easily?

Only now did Chen Yuyin understand that she had never seen this man clearly, much less known that he even knew about the Pei Clan and Bai Clan.

And he had chosen such a critical juncture to bring it up!

Her father and brother were gone, the support of Pear Blossom Chen was gone, her clanspeople had all joined the uprising, and even treasures capable of bringing prosperity to the Lineage, such as the Black Serpent and Red Flame Fruit, were gone!

Now, today, there was actually no road back.

Chen Yuyin realized that her present predicament was like that of a gambler driven red-eyed by losses, who had staked her entire fortune on the gaming table and already glimpsed the hope of victory.

Yet at this very moment, the other party could decide whether she won or lost.

Could I leave him? If I left him, who would lead? Could we fight our way back to what we have achieved today?

Not only could she not leave him, she could not even poison or otherwise kill him. Instead, she had to protect and support him.

I am truly useless, she regretted inwardly. I should have realized long ago that once I decided to borrow his strength, I would suffer his backlash. He is the Red Flame Fruit. Used correctly, he can increase one's martial power; used wrongly, he can make one explode and die.

Thinking of Lü Yinglong's death and the timing of this man's appearance, Chen Yuyin now understood that before she had staked herself in the game, he had already staked himself in it.

Time to negotiate terms. Chen Yuyin clenched her small hands into fists, so angry inside that she wanted to overturn the table, yet her face grew calmer still.

She knew she could no longer play dead like a pig as she did in bed. She had to give some response, whether in bed or out of it.