I Died the Day His Love Value Maxed Out

Chapter 150: Chapter 150: My Cover Is Blown! My Cover Is Blown

Other than genuine, overwhelming love, Xie Jinbai could not find a second reason for her actions.

And so, as his love for her grew deeper with each passing day, he discovered that she had perhaps never truly had feelings for him.

The sheer letdown in that moment was more than he could bear.

A rage born of deception and manipulation scorched his senses.

He was seething, absolutely livid.

After his attempts to test her all failed, his hatred turned vicious until he finally lost all reason and committed those foolish acts.

And in the end, she died.

Her death was so sudden it caught him completely off guard, leaving him utterly shattered. He lived like a walking corpse for three years, in no state of mind to delve into the contradictions surrounding her.

Three years later, she appeared again. He was overjoyed, wanting to thank the heavens, and focused only on coaxing her back.

In just a few short months, so much had happened that he still hadn’t been able to spare a thought for the past.

Until now...

Xie Jinbai felt he was on the verge of grasping the answer.

After all, she had always made her purpose very clear.

—She wanted him to have an heir.

So, when he proposed taking a concubine, she readily agreed without the slightest objection.

The day after he took the concubine, she fell into the water and died under bizarre circumstances.

’...Did she really die?’

’Or, did she believe that since he’d taken a concubine and an heir was now a possibility, she could leave him without a second thought?’

’But against all expectations, he still had no heir.’

’So, three years later, she returned in Pei Shuyao’s body.’

’Having to go to the trouble of coming back again... she must be so annoyed.’

Remembering the words he’d overheard outside the carriage—’I’ll help you take care of him’—Xie Jinbai’s jaw clenched.

’As soon as she returned, all she thought about was finding him a woman to bear his children.’

’Children!’

Xie Jinbai forced a chilling smile. ”If you want my child, make sure you come back for me. Otherwise...”

The darkness swirling in his eyes was enough to drown someone, sending a chill down Cui Lingyao’s spine and making her want to flee in terror.

Her eyelashes fluttered frantically as she avoided his gaze, screaming at the System in her mind, ’My cover’s blown! My cover’s blown! This isn’t my fault! Who could’ve possibly guessed he was this crazy!’

’Crazy enough that, based on a mere guess—the idea that he could see souls when on the brink of death—he didn’t hesitate to stab right through his own freshly healed wound.’

’And he succeeded. He saw her in this bizarre outfit.’

’And he saw her completely different face.’

’He’s so smart. The only reason I could fool him before was by exploiting the fact that people in this world aren’t imaginative enough to consider the supernatural.’

’But now, he’s seen all my cards!’

’Laid bare for him to see.’

The System was awake.

It had witnessed the whole thing.

It, too, was a little stunned.

It had never expected things to develop this way.

This was already beyond its control, and it didn’t know what to do either.

Xie Jinbai waited patiently for a while. Seeing that she remained silent, a guilty, flustered look on her face, he sighed softly.

”Don’t be afraid,” he said. ”I won’t press you on the rest. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. For now, I just want one honest answer from you.”

His voice was laced with pain, sounding as if he were at his wit’s end with her.

Hearing this, Cui Lingyao felt a pang of unease and finally dared to meet his gaze.

”Go ahead.”

Xie Jinbai leaned closer, so subtly it was almost imperceptible, internally regretting that he couldn’t hold her. His pale lips moved as he asked, ”Yesterday on the boat... when you said you liked me, you weren’t just humoring me, were you?”

”No! My feelings for you are real, and I meant it when I promised to come back to you.” Perhaps driven by intense guilt, Cui Lingyao promised without hesitation, ”This time, if I can come back to life, I’ll rush back to your side immediately.”

”Good.” A smile graced Xie Jinbai’s features. ”I believe you.”

’I believe that you like me.’

’And I believe you don’t want to leave me.’

’Everything that happened before... whether she was using me or approaching me with an ulterior motive, I’ll just consider it all a catalyst for our love.’

’Without those hardships, she might never have realized her true feelings.’

’As long as she likes me too, nothing else matters.’

Cui Lingyao let out a long sigh of relief. The domineering, tyrannical man had suddenly become so understanding.

’It was truly unexpected.’

She tilted her head up, wanting to kiss him.

The kiss met empty air.

Both of them were stunned.

Xie Jinbai pressed his thin lips together, looking a little hurt. ”I can’t kiss you.”

Cui Lingyao: ”...”

She...

[Wait!]

Before the sorrow of their separation by life and death could even set in, the System, long silent in her mind, suddenly spoke up.

[I remember, before I went into hibernation, your original body hadn’t been buried yet, right?]

After it sent her into Pei Shuyao’s body, it had entered hibernation.

At that time, her body as Princess Consort Yu had indeed not yet been buried.

’It’s been three or four months...’

”I don’t think it was,” Cui Lingyao thought for a moment, then communicated mentally, ”But that body has been dead for three years. Can I still use it?”

[Of course,] the System said. [You have no idea how much effort Xie Jinbai went through to preserve that body of yours.]

In fact, he never gave up on the idea of bringing her soul back.

Over the years, his campaigns had all been about either capturing powerful and strange people or seizing treasures that could keep a corpse from decaying.

The thousand-year-old Xuan Ice from the Far North was just the beginning.

From what the System knew of those three years, there was also the priceless Blood Jade he’d snatched from the High Priest of the Qiang Clan.

The treasures in her mouth, on her body, covering her, and lying beneath her...

In short, every detail was handled with the utmost care.

If Xie Jinbai didn’t command a powerful army, if he weren’t so ruthless and decisive, if he weren’t a madman who stops at nothing—if he were anyone else, even His Majesty the Emperor, he would never have been able to collect so many treasures just to preserve a single corpse.

The System said: [That body also belongs to the Cui family, shares your exact name, and is compatible with your soul—your destinies are deeply intertwined. Your last ’death’ wasn’t a true drowning; your internal organs weren’t damaged. As long as the body has been well-preserved, I can try to send you back.]

That was the body Cui Lingyao had used for ten years. When she first came to Great Yue, she was only a few years old.

The body’s original owner had been a late bloomer, unable to even speak in her early years.

Mr. and Mrs. Cui, and her brother Cui Mingrui, never looked down on her; they treated her like a precious treasure.

After Cui Lingyao arrived, she felt their familial love day after day, and slowly began to return their affection.

In Cui Lingyao’s heart, the Cui Family and the Lu Family who had adopted her were one and the same—they were her real family.

Cui Mingrui and Lu Chen were both her brothers.

If she hadn’t been worried about her brother back in the modern world—who was paralyzed and waiting for the Hundred Diseases Pill to heal him—she would never have left so decisively.

Now, hearing that she could go back, Cui Lingyao was overjoyed. ”Then what are we waiting for?” she urged. ”Hurry up and try!”

[...]

The System seemed to lag for a moment before saying, [I need to build up my energy first. You should finish handling things on your end.]

The voice in her head was hesitant and stammering. Cui Lingyao instantly felt that something was wrong and instinctively looked up.

Her gaze collided with a pair of intensely scrutinizing eyes.

Cui Lingyao blinked, forcing a strained smile. ”What is it?”