"..."

At this, Yu Wenye fell silent. He took another sip of tea, savored it for a moment, as if tasting both its sweetness and its hint of bitterness, and only after a long while did he lift his eyes to glance at Shang Ruyi and say, "Don’t you already know?"

Shang Ruyi said, "I only thought of it... but I truly don’t dare hope she’ll step forward."

Yu Wenye gave a faint smile. "She will."

When he said this, his tone wasn’t exactly firm and unyielding, yet the way he spoke and the look in his eyes were exactly the same as when he had been so certain that Chu Ruoyan would never "poison" him. Shang Ruyi couldn’t help asking, "You trust her that much?"

This was also what she had asked that day, but Yu Wenye hadn’t had the chance to answer.

Hearing the same question again, Yu Wenye seemed to have a thought stir in his heart. He turned to look at her, then said, "Of course."

"Why?"

Yu Wenye said, "I trust her because I’ve watched her grow up all these years, and I also trust the Empress Dowager."

Shang Ruyi looked at him. "...Oh?"

Speaking of it, the two of them rarely mentioned Empress Dowager Jiang anymore. On the one hand, there was some taboo to it; on the other, she didn’t want to keep entangled in the past. She hadn’t expected Yu Wenye to bring her up of his own accord at this moment, and what’s more, to speak of her in such a resolute tone.

She herself didn’t know whether it was irritation or something else that rose in her heart; she deliberately arched a brow and said, "Why?"

Yu Wenye glanced at her again, and seemed to see that she was a bit annoyed. His lips pressed lightly together, but a flash of light passed through the depths of his eyes as he spoke slowly, "Before she passed, my mother once told me that for a child, upbringing is the most important thing. And upbringing—do you know where it comes from?"

Shang Ruyi thought for a moment, then said, "The mother raises, the father teaches?"

Yu Wenye said, "Exactly."

"..."

"My mother said, a child is born of the father’s essence and the mother’s blood, but after the child is born, all the duties of raising and teaching fall on the mother alone. That’s unfair. Men enjoy one night of pleasure, then wash their hands of it. If the child grows into a dragon, they say ’a tiger never sires a weakling dog’; if the child turns into a worm, they blame the mother’s poor upbringing. That’s not fair."

Hearing this, Shang Ruyi immediately said, "That makes sense!"

Yu Wenye laughed. "Anything that works in your favor, you say it makes sense, is that it?"

Shang Ruyi said, "This isn’t about working in my favor, it’s about fairness!"

"..."

"If the child is not taught, the mother bears responsibility, but the father is at fault."

Yu Wenye shook his head with a smile and said nothing. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Just then, people from the Food Bureau brought over lunch. Tushere led them in setting out the table and dishes, busy and bustling. Yu Wenye stopped talking as well. Once the dishes were all set out, the two of them went over and sat down to eat. Shang Ruyi still had his earlier words on her mind, so she asked again, "What else did Mother say?"

Though the rule says one shouldn’t speak at table or in bed, the two of them never ran out of things to say when they were together, and they had long since stopped observing such rules. Yu Wenye picked some dishes for her as he said, "She told me that in a family, the father decides whether a child can become a dragon, while the mother decides whether that child will not become a worm. Because most mothers don’t have a broad view; they’re confined to the inner courtyard of their own household. The best they can do is shape the child’s disposition. If a child has a good nature, no matter how bad he is, he’ll still have some redeeming points."

"..."

"As for the father, his view is broader, and he has more ways to instruct a child. So a child’s abilities are shaped by the one who is the father."

As he spoke, Yu Wenye said, "Whether it’s Ruoyan or Chu Chengfei, look at their dispositions. And their abilities—what do you think?"

"..."

Hearing this, Shang Ruyi did not reply.

She could hear that although Yu Wenye hadn’t uttered the name Chu Yang even once, he was talking about Chu Yang in every word. Yet she truly did not want to hear Yu Wenye speak ill of Chu Yang. Still, there were some things she couldn’t refute. For example, even before she had met Princess Xinyue, she’d already heard that because Chu Yang doted on this daughter, he had once carried her in his arms to court, and when she cried, he directly dismissed the court—this rumor. As a father, that was indeed not a good way to teach a child.

As for Chu Chengfei, as the Young Emperor, he had absolutely no ability to govern the realm.

The incompetence of these brother and sister could not, in all fairness, be said to have nothing to do with Chu Yang as their father.

Yet this brother and sister had lived through the fall of their dynasty and the ruin of their family, upheavals enough to make many people collapse, and still they had not turned to evil. Even when they had stood against her in court back then, they had done so standing openly in their own position, facing her aboveboard, without resorting to any despicable means.

In that respect alone, they surpassed many people by far.

Yu Wenye said, "So, I do not trust Chu Yang, but I trust Empress Dowager Jiang."

Shang Ruyi responded perfunctorily, "Oh."

Seeing her so lacking in enthusiasm, Yu Wenye pointed his chopsticks at her belly and said, "When this child is born in the future, whether it’s a boy or a girl, we mustn’t hand them over to others. The two of us will raise and teach them ourselves."

"...Huh?"

Shang Ruyi looked up at him, and suddenly realized what he meant—so this was what he’d been leading up to.

She couldn’t help laughing. "Back when you were still the second young master, you were never home from morning to night. Now that you’re King Qin, you’re off running around every few days. Once the child is born, will you even have that much free time?"

Yu Wenye laughed as well. "Free time is something you can always find if you squeeze it out."

Then he added, "Besides, what do you think I’m doing, handing all the business of attacking Song State over to Shen Tu Tai?"

At those words, Shang Ruyi’s eyes flickered slightly.

Just now in Liangyi Hall, when she heard that Yu Wenye had long ago petitioned Yu Wenquan to send his own subordinates to attack Song State, Xuzhou and other places, she had understood the strategic importance of it, yet she had indeed had some doubts in her heart—why hadn’t Yu Wenye requested to lead the troops himself?

After all, he had dealt with the Songzhou Governor Fan Cheng’en before. If he were to take charge personally, perhaps matters could be resolved even more smoothly.

It turned out he wanted to stay by the side of her, who was pregnant, and keep her company.

Realizing this, warmth suddenly surged through Shang Ruyi’s heart, as if a current of heat had rushed up and filled her entire chest in one instant, making her whole being brim with joy. When she looked at Yu Wenye again, no matter how she tried to hold it back, the corners of her lips still couldn’t help lifting slightly.

She said, "Oh."

After that, she lowered her head and focused on eating.

Watching the corners of her mouth curve upward even as she was eating, Yu Wenye also began to smile, but he didn’t expose her. He simply ate on his own while picking dishes into her bowl. After a moment of silence, he murmured in a low voice, as if speaking to himself, yet also as if speaking to her, "This is our first child. Everything, the very best of everything, I want to give to him!"