Pregnant with My Late Husband’s Child - Chapter 15

“Shameless to the point of being outrageous.”

“However,” Fang Shengwan expressed some concerns, “will Yixing agree to bear a child using Feng Zhao’s genes?”

Both families knew full well that this was merely a political marriage. Li Yixing and Feng Zhao had absolutely no emotional foundation. Furthermore, according to fragmented rumors unknown to the general public, the two were rivals who despised each other and wished they could break the other’s bones.

Under such circumstances, why would Li Yixing be willing to give birth to Feng Zhao’s child?

Luo Taylor, however, was not worried in the least. She held Fang Shengwan’s hand with poise and composure: “You do not need to worry about this. Let Stan talk to him. You just need to focus on recovering your health and wait for Feng Zhao’s child to be born.”

On the other side, Li Yixing’s leave, granted due to his husband’s death, was ended prematurely by him. He went to work for a day, handled confidential documents, monitored the situation between the Alliance and the Oga Empire, and adjusted security protocols accordingly.

The war had now reached a stalemate, with the Great Wall Fortress deep in the flames of conflict. Maintaining the security system was the top priority. The Alliance Great Wall Fortress’s encrypted communication channels were being attacked trillions of times per second by the Imperial Intelligence Agency. Since the beginning of the war, the Security Department had dispatched hundreds of security officers to provide support, ensure the security of communication channels, and counter-attack the Imperial Intelligence Agency’s security systems.

In addition, they had to collect intelligence on interstellar pirates and guard against their strikes. Currently, hundreds of shipping lanes in the Fifth Star System had been requisitioned for military use, and massive amounts of supplies were being transported to the Great Wall Fortress via starships. Interstellar pirates loved to take advantage of such times to commit mischief. While the Empire and the Great Wall Fortress were busy with the war and military resources were strained, they would take pirate fleets to plunder military supplies from both sides, such as soothing agents, nutrient solutions, ammunition, and even mechas, to sell in the lawless zones between the Empire and the Alliance border.

After a day of work, Li Yixing felt slightly exhausted. He had not slept the previous night, having sat in Feng Zhao’s room for the entire night, feigning the role of a devoted, widowed spouse.

This was truly a waste of Minister Li’s precious energy.

However, such fatigue was trivial; Li Yixing quickly cast it to the back of his mind. As he sat in his aircraft and prepared to confirm the flight route, his wrist-mounted computer chimed. Li Yixing answered, and the voice of Stan Davis came from the other side: “Come back tonight. There is something I need to talk to you about.”

Li Yixing did not ask what it was. Anyway, it certainly would not be anything good.

He replied concisely: “Fine.”

Before long, the aircraft landed on the Qingye Peninsula. Li Yixing opened the hatch and soon returned to the villa belonging to the Davis family.

In the living room, Stan Davis leaned against the sofa, with Luo Taylor, elegantly dressed, at his side. Roth was nowhere to be seen; he was not home.

The two examined Li Yixing from head to toe as if appraising merchandise. Finally, Stan Davis spoke to Li Yixing: “Sit.”

Li Yixing sat down compliantly: “Do you have something to discuss?”

“Feng Zhao is dead, but this marriage alliance must continue,” Stan Davis said, skipping the pleasantries and cutting straight to the point. “However, his death makes the alliance unstable.”

Less than three months after the wedding, one of the partners was dead, which meant that the assistance this marriage was originally intended to bring to Feng Zhao had vanished, and Li Yixing had become a free man once again. This indeed weakened the previously solid, intertwined relationship between the two families.

Li Yixing’s expression remained unchanged upon hearing this, maintaining his consistent iciness: “You know that I am a person who keeps my word. Regardless of whether Feng Zhao is dead or alive, I will not betray Feng Zhao for at least twenty years.”

“Not enough,” Stan Davis said. “Far from enough.”

Li Yixing’s heart sank at these words.

Not enough? Then what else do they want? Could it be…

Stan Davis’s voice continued, confirming the faint speculation in Li Yixing’s heart: “We have discussed it. You will use a womb sac to give birth to Feng Zhao’s child. This will help consolidate the alliance.”

“…” Li Yixing did not reply immediately. His face turned as gloomy as if water were about to drip from it.

Having him bear a child was one thing, but using a womb sac to do it. As for why he was made to use a womb sac, Li Yixing caught a glimpse of Luo Taylor’s half-smile out of the corner of his eye, and a fire raged within his chest.

Good, good, good. So this is where they were waiting for me!

The two parties stood in a silent standoff, and the atmosphere plummeted to the freezing point.

“I refuse.” After an unknown amount of time, Li Yixing stood up. “I will not use his genes to give birth to a child.”

Stan Davis was not surprised by Li Yixing’s response. His green eyes, exactly like Roth’s, reflected Li Yixing’s upright figure.

“You do not have the opportunity to refuse. This is not a discussion; it is a notification,” Stan Davis said firmly. “Our Davis family has raised you for so many years, providing you with countless resources and cultivating you from an orphan into an outstanding elite of the Alliance, not for you to defy my decisions.”

“If we had not given you these opportunities, you would never have reached where you are today. Yixing, one must be grateful,” Stan Davis said. “If you refuse…”

Stan Davis paused meaningfully for a moment: “You must think clearly about what price you will have to pay. Your future, your ideals and ambitions. Well, the feeling of climbing to a tall building and then falling into the dust is very unpleasant.”

“Are you going to throw away thirty years of hard work just to avoid bearing a child?”

These words were an undisguised threat.

Li Yixing: “…”

A suffocating atmosphere permeated the living room. Stan Davis smiled, his green eyes curving.

He gave a slap and then offered a sweet date, acting with feigned mercy: “It is just bearing a child, which will take you at most a year. For a person, a year is nothing; it will pass quickly. Furthermore, you do not need to worry about raising the child after birth. The Feng family will escort the child’s growth, and they will also contribute to your future. Calculate it for yourself. What a profitable deal this is.”

Stan Davis’s sanctimonious face and words made Li Yixing feel like vomiting.

He could not help but recall the purpose for which Stan Davis and his wife adopted him more than a decade ago; it was merely to display the image of a commander with selfless love.

At that time, the Oga Empire and the Alliance had just finished a six-month-long campaign. The Great Wall Fortress had sacrificed many people, and many children had become orphans, being sent to planet Nuwa together. To ensure the growth of these children, the Alliance encouraged citizens to adopt them. Stan Davis and his wife adopted Li Yixing to build their own image.

Li Yixing originally thought he was very lucky, but later he understood that every piece of “luck” had already been marked with a price, waiting for him to pay.

He was a tool used to showcase that Stan Davis cared for children, missed his comrades-in-arms, and selflessly cared for orphans. The Davis couple only provided him with rations to survive; any care and protection were non-existent. Otherwise, he would not have been treated with cold eyes by Luo Taylor during his youth, nor would he have been ordered around like a servant by Roth. He lacked the soil to grow freely in the Davis family; he could not study courses he was interested in, could not express his emotions, and had to strictly obey the instructions of the Davis couple. Even the bed he slept on and the quilt he covered himself with were inferior to those in the orphanage.

All the opportunities he obtained had to be exchanged for his future to repay this debt of gratitude.

He became an outstanding elite of the Alliance as Stan Davis had wished, married a high-level official of the Alliance, and helped him win over influence; this could be considered even.

Now, they were actually shamelessly demanding that Li Yixing bear a child.

If he did not, they would go after Li Yixing’s hard-won position and future, which he had almost exchanged his life to obtain.

This was shameless; it was shameless to the point of being outrageous.

In their eyes, Li Yixing was a tool, and this child, still ethereal and non-existent, was also just a tool. Its birth would originate from hypocrisy and calculation, receiving no parental blessing or love from elders; it would have nothing but endless utilization.

Moreover, conceiving a child meant that Li Yixing would be unable to participate in work for at least seven months.

Both womb sacs and external incubators required maternity leave. This was because from the moment these two birth methods were born, whether using a womb sac or natural uterine birth, pregnant women or men were required to take maternity leave, while those using external incubators, on the contrary, did not need to physically carry the child, so employers did not need to give them leave.

This led to the majority of employers in the Alliance’s five major star systems favoring employees who used external cultivation at that time. Employees who used womb sacs and uteruses were excluded.

But not everyone was willing to use external cultivation to conceive life. With so many people in the five major star systems, opinions on the concept of reproduction varied. Therefore, this maternity leave issue eventually triggered strong protests from the Natural Birth Faction, demanding that the Alliance issue relevant laws to regulate maternity leave and eliminate implicit discrimination against natural birth and womb sac birth.

Finally, after many discussions by the Alliance Council, the final Alliance Fertility Act stipulated that regardless of natural birth or assisted reproductive means, both partners must take at least seven months of maternity leave. For personnel who must remain on duty due to special positions, such as Great Wall Fortress officers, high-level Alliance officials, Alliance Administrators, Star System Directors, etc., special approval could be granted to waive maternity leave.

If I really got pregnant and took maternity leave, Li Yixing smiled coldly, who knows whose hands the position of Minister of the Security Department would fall into.

By the time the child was born, he would likely be transferred. As for their empty promise of contributing to your future, it would become nothing but hollow words. Li Yixing thought that the promises of these people were like a fart, illusory and foul-smelling simultaneously. They attempted to disguise themselves as the fragrance of flowers under the wrapping of sugar-coated bullets, but they could not change their nature: they had no possibility of being fulfilled.

But if he did not agree, those annoying threats would definitely come true.

Stan Davis looked at Li Yixing with a smile, as if he were understanding: “Yixing, I will give you time to consider it.”

“Do not let us wait too long.”

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