Transmigration; Married to My Ex-Fiancé's Uncle-Chapter 289; Lu Yuze & Shuyin 1
Before she could protest further, he leaned in and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips, soft, reverent, full of the tenderness and fear and relief of someone who had nearly lost something precious.
When he pulled back, his dark eyes were serious. "You scared me," he said quietly. "Watching you nearly die, seeing all that blood... I thought I was going to lose you. Cleaning you, taking care of you, it wasn’t about seeing your body. It was about ensuring your safety. Comfortable and cared for."
Shuyin’s anger melted away, replaced by something softer.
She could see it in his eyes, the lingering fear, the exhaustion, the dark circles that spoke of a sleepless night spent watching over her.
"I’m sorry," she whispered. "I didn’t mean to scare you. I just... I had to save her. I couldn’t let my mother die."
"I know." Lu Yuze’s hand came up to cup her face, his thumb brushing gently across her cheek. "And that’s one of the things I love about you, your fierce loyalty, your strength, your refusal to give up on the people you love. But..." His voice cracked slightly. "Please don’t sacrifice yourself like that again. I can’t... I can’t watch you die. I already lost one wife. I can’t lose another."
The raw pain in his voice made Shuyin’s chest tighten.
She’d known he was a widower, that Yuyan’s mother had died, but hearing the fear in his voice now made her realize just how deeply that loss still affected him.
"I’m not going anywhere," she said firmly, covering his hand with hers. "I’m stronger than I look. It takes more than a little Soul-Severing Poison to kill me."
"A little?" Lu Yuze’s eyebrow rose. "You expelled enough poison to fill a bucket. Your mother said it was a lethal dose."
"Well, I’m still here, aren’t I?" Shuyin managed a small smile. "Stubborn runs in the family."
Lu Yuze pulled her closer, tucking her head under his chin. "Yes, you are. Stubborn, reckless, powerful, beautiful, and mine. My stubborn, reckless wife who gives me heart attacks regularly."
"I’ll try to be more careful," Shuyin mumbled against his chest, breathing in his familiar scent. "For you. For Yuyan. For our family."
"Our family," Lu Yuze repeated softly, and she could hear the smile in his voice. "I like the sound of that."
They lay there in comfortable silence for a few moments, just holding each other, both of them processing the trauma of this morning and the relief of survival.
Then Shuyin stirred slightly. "Mother... how is she? Is she awake? I should check on her...."
"Still sleeping," Lu Yuze said, his arm tightening slightly to keep her in place. "Mei is watching over her. She’s stable, breathing normally. The crisis has passed. Let her rest."
"But....."
"Rest," Lu Yuze repeated firmly. "Both of you nearly died this morning. You need to recover, and so does she. The world can wait a few more hours."
Shuyin wanted to argue, but the exhaustion pulling at her limbs made a compelling case for staying exactly where she was, warm, safe, held.
"Fine," she conceded. "But only for a little while longer. Then I need to see her. I need to make sure she’s really okay."
"Agreed," Lu Yuze said. "A little while longer. Then we’ll check on her together."
He pressed a kiss to the top of her head, and Shuyin let herself relax into his embrace, her eyes drifting closed again despite her best intentions to stay awake.
Just a few more minutes, she told herself.
Just a few more minutes of peace before facing whatever came next.
"Honey, how about we have two kids?" Lu Yuze asked softly, his hand absently stroking her hair.
The fear from last night was still fresh in his mind, watching her nearly die, the blood, the helplessness.
His first wife had at least left him Yuyan, a beautiful daughter who was her spitting image, a piece of her that would live on.
But if something happened to Shuyin...
"I’m infertile and I don’t like kids," Shuyin mumbled sleepily, burrowing deeper into his embrace, clearly not fully processing the conversation.
Lu Yuze went still. "What?"
"Mmm... celestial beings don’t reproduce easily with mortals, and it’s not possible..." she murmured, her words slurred with exhaustion. "The bloodlines are too different. It’s rare. Nearly impossible. So don’t worry about it..."
Lu Yuze’s chest tightened with an emotion he couldn’t quite name, disappointment? Relief? Sadness?
He hadn’t realized how much he’d been unconsciously hoping for children with her until she’d dismissed the possibility so casually.
"But there are doctors," he said carefully, his mind already working through solutions the way it always did when faced with a problem. "Fertility specialists, treatments, IVF technology. We have the resources to try anything....."
"No." Shuyin’s voice was firmer now, more awake, and there was an edge to it that made him pause.
She shifted in his arms, pulling back slightly so she could look at him. "I can’t go through all that pain just to have kids. If you want more children, we can adopt. There are plenty of children who need homes, who need love. But if you thought marrying me was finding yourself a birthing machine, you should kill that idea right now."
The bluntness of her words hit him like a slap.
"I don’t want kids," she continued, her voice steady but with something hard underneath. "I can’t have them, and I won’t go through that hassle. The treatments, the hormones, the procedures, the pain, the risk, I won’t do it. So if that’s what you expected from this marriage, you should know now that it’s not happening."
Lu Yuze studied her face, seeing something in her eyes that he hadn’t noticed before, a shadow, a depth of feeling that went beyond simple preference.
There was something else there, something she wasn’t saying, but her expression made it clear she wouldn’t elaborate. And he wasn’t going to force it.
