淫欲的代价

Once again, He Yuan joined the Han family breakfast table. This time though, he wore a gray dress, a white shawl and let Xu Lifen\'s hair down to give himself a repentant outlook.

For extra measure, he applied medicine to make it look like he\'d been crying all night. Looking at the final result in the mirror, He Yuan smiled. If this appearance didn\'t bring the desired outcome then he might as well give up on this task.

"888, what do you think?"

The system hesitated for a few seconds before sighing helplessly. [Apply a little foundation on your lips.]

"Hm?" He Yuan did as he was told and then sighed in satisfaction. The pale lips gave him an even more wretched appearance. He nodded in satisfaction. "Good thinking."

The system was silent but He Yuan didn\'t bother about that. The twins were awake and staring at him curiously so he wriggled his fingers at them and laughed happily.

Xu Cai gave a toothless smile whilst Xu Xiaoli simply closed his eyes and dozed off.

\'...\'

He Yuan shook his head at the eldest and transferred both babies into the stroller.

In the dining room;

 Min Yanyu kept piling Chen Meili\'s bowl with healthy vegetables whilst the others looked on with amused smiles. At one end of the table, Han Yuanjun kept glancing at the special one from time to time.

Although he was very happy that there was another Han child coming, the source disturbed him a lot. He liked to believe that he\'d raised his nephew right so he never would have believed that the young man would get another woman pregnant whilst he was still married!

Yes, Xu Lifen was hard to deal with but all the same, she was still his nephew\'s wife. Even if they both wanted a divorce, it hadn\'t happened yet so he just did not like this situation. Another thing that put him off was the fact that Chen Meili had remained in the Han home due to her undying love for Han Jinhai so what was this?

Han Yuanjun stabbed a radish and shoved it into his mouth before chewing excruciatingly slow. As he did this, he tried to picture all the times he\'d seen Han Tao and Chen Meili together and the more he pictured, the more twisted his face became. Had they all overlooked something?

When Han Tao treated Chen Meili well in the past, he\'d thought that his nephew was doing it because of the babies and he\'d approved. Now though... Han Yuanjun sighed. It seemed he had overlooked a lot of things.

Did that not mean that... Xu Lifen had been paranoid for good reason?

The vegetable in Han Yuanjun\'s mouth suddenly became tasteless and he took out a napkin to spit into.

"Husband are you okay?" Fu Lan placed a hand on her husband\'s and asked with concerned eyes. "Is the food not to your liking?"

Han Yuanjun tried to give her a reassuring smile but what came out instead was a bitter and constipated expression. Seeing as the concern in his wife\'s eyes increased, he gave up smiling and directly said, "I like it."

Fu Lan did not believe that but the breakfast table was not the place to discuss deep worries so she rubbed her husband\'s hand and smile softly.

At that moment, He Yuan pushed the stroller into the hall with hunched shoulders and a crestfallen expression. No one paid any attention to him until he suddenly walked over to stand beside the Han Madam.

Then they all turned to him with confused frowns. The Han Madam sighed inwardly and shakily cleaned her mouth with a napkin. "What is it now?" 

He Yuan lowered his head even more and took deep breaths to keep himself from laughing at himself. "I.." He cleared his throat. "..I have been thinking a lot about my behaviour lately and I\'ve come to realize that I was wrong. The babies are Hans afterall and preventing you all from making life decisions for them was selfish and ignorant on my part."

He raised his head and when they all took a proper look at his expression and wretched state, they froze. Xu Lifen was being serious?

He Yuan sniffed. "I had married Han Tao for a reason and that is because I love him. I no longer want a divorce and from now onwards, I promise to be a good wife, daughter-in-law and.." He turned to Chen Meili with a soft smile. "Sister-in-law."

The Han Madam looked around to make sure she wasn\'t hearing things. Seeing the dumbfoundment on the faces of everyone, she frowned. She wasn\'t hearing things... Looking back at He Yuan, she asked. "What made you realize this all of a sudden?"

He Yuan looked into the stroller with a soft smile. "I had grown up without a family. The closest thing I ever felt to one was..." He looked up at everyone. "...When I married into the Han home and met all of you wonderful souls.

-Somewhere along the line, I had felt I didn\'t fit in so I began lashing out thinking that maybe.. just maybe, I would get noticed." He lowered his head once more. "I don\'t want to do that anymore. I love my husband and even more than that, I love my kids. I don\'t want them to grow up in the same loneliness I did."

At the end of his speech, the women looked on with touched eyes. The Han Madam was especially so. She was old and her emotions were easily touched.

Thinking of it now, when the Xu girl had married in, although she was from a very low status, she had a shy and reserved demeanor and didn\'t cause any problems.

Thinking of the fact that all this was because the Xu girl was lonely.... Ah... She looked to the stroller. "Let me see the babies."

He Yuan gave a well behaved smile and eagerly pushed the stroller closer for the Han Madam to take a look.

Xu Xiaoli was still asleep but Xu Cai was awake and at that moment, he chose to give another toothless smile and make gurgling sounds.

The Han Madam\'s heart melted. What she loved the most was Han family babies. What did she love more than that? Well... Han family babies that were male.

Min Yanyu sighed, Fu Lan smiled whilst Han Rong, Han Yi and Han Jiao remained neutral. They still did not like Xu Lifen but the fact that she had admitted their wrongs stoked their egos and made them acknowledge her a bit.

At his end of the table, Han Yuanjun felt guilt pool into his heart. It was easy to swallow what Han Tao and Chen Meili had done when Xu Lifen was being strong-headed and unbearable but what about now? The young woman had lashed out due to loneliness and who could blame her for that?

It was very true that his Han family hadn\'t been very accommodating of the orphaned lady. He looked over to Chen Meili and disappointment filled his heart. This situation was truly unsavoury.

Seated besides Min Yanyu, Chen Meili felt uneasiness creep into her heart. What was Xu Lifen doing trying to right her wrongs now?! What did she mean by she loved brother Tao? That wasn\'t true!

Seeing as Xu Lifen effortlessly held the attention of everyone, Chen Meili trembled. Since Xu Lifen had decided to be a good wife, what if brother Tao returned and had his heart stolen by her?

Afterall, the two of them had gotten married so it would be too farfetched for her to say that there wasn\'t the slightest bit of goodwill between the two. Also.... Chen Meili eyed Xu Lifen\'s figure and her throat constricted. Xu Lifen\'s body wasn\'t so bad. In fact, It wasn\'t bad at all!

Chen Meili\'s thoughts spiralled and spiralled until her stomach made a soft grumble and she froze. She suddenly looked down at her stomach and chuckled at herself. What was she thinking? She was currently pregnant with brother Tao\'s son. 

There was no way he would leave her for Xu Lifen. And the Hans would do nothing about it because her child was clearly the better option. The Han Madam was smiling at the twins now but when her own child came, the case would be different.

After reassuring herself, Chen Meili looked up at He Yuan with a benevolent smile. "Sister-in-law, I\'m so glad you\'ve finally become reasonable. Now everyone would be at peace."

He Yuan lowered his head with an obedient nod and the Han Madam smiled at Chen Meili before turning back to carry Xu Cai.

Min Yanyu and Fu Lan had conflicted expressions. Now that Xu Lifen was willing to change, what was the situation with Han Tao? Would he choose to remain in marriage with Xu Lifen or would he divorce her anyways?

Looking at Chen Meili, their expressions be ame even more conflicted. This did not seem to fair to the young lady.

On the other hand, Han Rong and her daughters did not care for if Xu Lifen truly changed or not. To them, Chen Meili was still a much better option. It could clearly be seen from the fact that even though she was carrying Han Tao\'s child\'s, she still chose to place the happiness of Han Tao and Xu Lifen over her own.

One could not get more magnanimous than that.

Whilst everyone were caught up in their thoughts, Han Yuanjun looked at Chen Meili\'s kind and warm expression in discomfort. The fact that this woman was pregnant with Han Tao\'s child but was still able to put up a warm and benevolent front before Xu Lifen made his blood run cold.

He felt like he was truly seeing Chen Meili for the first time in almost three years.

After several minutes, Min Yanyu stepped in, "Xu Lifen, we\'ve heard you. Now we would wait until A\'Tao returns to hear what he has to say."

He Yuan looked up with a lovelorn smile. "Okay." And then he lowered his head shyly and walked over to seat next to Chen Meili.

The others ignored Xu Lifen\'s \'in love\' look and returned to their food whilst the Han Madam completely ignored her food and focused on the twins.

When He Yuan was fully seated, he eyed Chen Meili\'s bowl and laughed softly. "Sister-in-law, you were only sick for some days and mother-in-law had piled your bowl full off the same vegetables taken to supplement a pregnancy."

Everyone froze and Chen Meili\'s eyes widened slightly. She eyed Min Yanyu briefly before laughing dryly. "Sister-in-law Lifen, you\'re overthinking things."

He Yuan laughed softly too. "It was just a joke. There is no way you\'re pregnant. You had only been sick for a few days. Morning sickness does not just appear at the onset of pregnancy and mysteriously end in six days. Besides, look at how rosy your complexion is!"

The shoulders of everyone relaxed at that. Although Chen Meili did look quite well and much better than she\'d been the day before, they just assumed she used make up to cover it up. As for why she wasn\'t feeling sick and throwing up, maybe she was just holding it in so as not to alert Xu Lifen.

Eating resumed around the table once more but Chen Meili lost her appetite. She could not help the seed of doubt that had been planted in her heart. It was true that she was feeling very fine. So fine in fact that it felt surreal. She\'d been pregnant once and although she hadn\'t experienced morning sickness then, she somehow felt something.

Maybe it was because she was aware that the babies had been inseminated in her. Chen Meili shook her head and subtly rubbed her stomach. There was no need to overthink. She was very much pregnant and her baby was steadily growing in her womb.

------------------------

Chen Meili was not settled.

After breakfast, she went up to her room and personally drew out her blood into sample bottles before sending them out to three different hospitals to be tested.

Feeling like that wasn\'t enough, she got dressed and went out of the Han home -without anyone\'s knowledge- to a hospital.

On the way, she constantly reassured herself. She was definitely pregnant. She was just doing this to prove to the loud mouthed Xu Lifen that she was -even though Xu Lifen would never get to see the results.

Chen Meili soon arrived at the hospital -a different one from the one the Hans had taken her to of course. The procedures were carried out quickly and as she waited for the results in the doctor\'s office, she couldn\'t help fidgeting, tapping her feet and constantly rubbing her damp palms down her dress.

She soon began to stop herself from acting nervously only to go back to being nervous a second later which just ended up making her angry. This was ridiculous! Why would she let Xu Lifen\'s random rambling get to her? She was clearly pregnant with brother Tao\'s child!

Thirty minutes later, a doctor walked into the office and Chen Meili sprang up form her chair anxiously. The doctor took a step back. One of the issues about breaking the news of pregnancy status to people was not knowing whether they wanted the baby or not.

It could be said that the young lady before him was anxious because she feared she was pregnant but... it could also be said that the woman before him was anxious because she hoped she was pregnant.

The doctor shrugged and got to the point, "Miss, the results are negative"

Chen Meili\'s heart stopped and she slowly fell back on her chair.

Impossible.

How could she not be pregnant?! She quickly stood up and rushed over to the grab the doctor\'s arms with a desperate look in her eyes. "What do you mean?!"

The doctor squirmed uncomfortably. "Well it means you\'re not preg-"

"I KNOW WHAT IT MEANS!" Chen Meili screamed and waved her arms in the air. "How could this be?! How could I not be pregnant?! It was clearly positive three days ago!"

The doctor grimaced and took a few steps away from the weird patient. "It\'s not the end of the world. You and your partner can keep trying. The medical examination showed you\'re very fertile. Just a few more tries would do the trick."

Chen Meili slowly sat back on the chair with a blank look and glistening eyes. Just a few more tries would do the trick.... Ha... Xu Lifen was trying to fix her relationship with Han Tao and if the Hans found out she wasn\'t pregnant then they would make sure Han Tao doesn\'t divorce Xu Lifen.

Where would she get the opportunity to have a few more tries?!