CHAPTER 76: CHAPTER 76; MRS LU TAKEN HOSTAGE 3

Just thinking about them made her chest ache. She wished she could hold them right now, could see their faces, could tell them that Mama was coming back for them.

"Oooh..." Shuyin withdrew her hand and leaned back against the seat, closing her eyes as if processing this information. "You give me one of them."

The words hung in the air like a death sentence.

"No... No... I can’t... I can’t..." Chen Wan’s voice rose with panic, her hands instinctively crossing over her chest as if to protect children who weren’t even there. How could she give away her baby? Was this woman insane?

"Aaaahh? Don’t be stingy!" Shuyin’s aura immediately shifted, the temperature in the car dropping several degrees. Her voice took on that flat, emotionless quality that was somehow more terrifying than anger. "If you don’t give me one, I will kick you out of this car right now."

Why would she want someone’s child? What kind of person demanded a child as payment?

"No... No... No..." Chen Wan shook her head frantically, backing against the car door. "Don’t!"

"I can’t separate them. Please..." She begged, tears starting to form. Her children were all she had left. The only good things in her miserable life. The only reason she kept fighting was that. "They’re triplets. They’ve never been apart. It would destroy them."

"You should decide which kid you will give me," Shuyin interrupted coldly, her eyes still closed, her decision clearly made. "I won’t help you if you won’t be generous enough, you know... You can just disappear. I don’t need complications."

The temperature dropped even further, frost beginning to form on the car windows despite the afternoon warmth outside.

"You are just a human!" Shuyin’s voice cracked like some ice breaking. "And you dare decline my request? How dare you?" Her hatred towards humans surfaced once again.

She turned suddenly, her hand shooting out to grip Chen Wan’s throat with inhuman strength. Everything changed in an instant, the gentle woman who’d caressed her face was gone, replaced by something cold and merciless and utterly other.

Chen Wan gasped, clawing at Shuyin’s fingers, but it was like trying to move steel. The pressure increased, cutting off her air, stars beginning to dance at the edges of her vision.

"Madam," Ah-Ling’s calm voice cut through the violence from the driver’s seat. He kept his eyes on the road, his tone carefully neutral, as if mediating a business dispute rather than preventing a murder. "You can have your own kids with Sixth Master Lu. There’s no need to take someone else’s child."

"Who told you that I want to give birth to humans for a human?" Shuyin’s voice dripped with disdain. "Tsk! Are you stupid? I want her kid! Why would I go through the trouble of pregnancy and childbirth when there are perfectly good children already existing?"

Did she want kids? Absolutely not. The idea of going through nine months of human pregnancy, of giving birth like humans did, was revolting. But having a child already raised past infancy? That was different. That was... practical.

Chen Wan felt like she was being choked to death. At this rate, she would die right here in this car, never having saved her children or the others who were depending on her. Black spots were spreading across her vision.

The woman beside her was definitely crueler than her husband.

"All right... All right..." she managed to gasp out, her survival instinct overriding her maternal one. "I will give you one... I will give you..."

She had to give in. If she died here, who would rescue everyone else in that mansion? Apart from her children, there were other women and children in that house, all suffering under the same men, all hoping she would somehow find a way to free them.

"You are really a good woman... A beautiful one," Shuyin said, immediately releasing her grip like she hadn’t tried to kill her. She settled back in her seat and closed her eyes as if nothing had happened, as if she hadn’t just been strangling someone seconds ago.

Chen Wan gasped for air, her hands going to her bruised throat, tears streaming down her face. Not from pain, but from the impossible choice she’d just been forced to make. She would have to give away one of her babies. Would have to choose which child to sacrifice.

But what confused her more was Shuyin’s phrasing. She kept speaking as if she weren’t human herself. "I don’t want to give birth to humans for a human." "You’re just a human." As if she were something else entirely.

Then what was she?

And what were the possibilities?

In the driver’s seat, Ah-Ling kept his expression carefully neutral, but his mind was racing. Why didn’t the Madam want to give birth to children with Master Lu? They were legally married. It was expected, even desirable from a business and inheritance standpoint.

But again, he thought of his master, who probably couldn’t want a kid with any other woman, but if he had failed to keep his promise of never marrying another woman and giving her daughter a stepmother, then anything else was possible.

Unless...

Unless she never intended to stay. Unless this marriage was even more temporary than Master Lu realized. Unless whatever she truly was, she had her own plans that didn’t include a permanent place in the human world.

The thought chilled his heart; it would be really terrible if she were to one day go away after getting used to her existence.

Meanwhile, in the sedan behind them, Yuyan was pressed against her father’s side, her small hand clutching his suit jacket.

"Daddy... Will mommy be okay?" Her voice was small, worried. Despite only knowing Shuyin for a few hours, despite the woman’s coldness and strange eyes, Yuyan had already started thinking of her as family. As someone important who needed protection.

"She will be fine, don’t worry," Lu Yuze assured her, stroking her silver hair gently. "Ah-Ling is accompanying her. And your stepmother is... she’s more capable than she looks, so, nothing to be worried about."