Aerial Rain
Translating Web Novel

GNU Ch 103 Part 1 – Appeal (I)

Cheng Yujin was looking for a safe place to hide the book when Li Chengjing’s voice suddenly came behind. She was taken aback and subconsciously hid the book in her sleeve.

The sleeve was wide, which totally concealed the thing in her hand. Cheng Yujin put her hand to the side and calmly closed the wooden box with her other hand. “Your Highness, you are here?”

Li Chengjing was supposed to read the memorials in the east hall, but he suddenly returned. Moreover, no one announced his arrival. Cheng Yujin wondered whether the servants on duty were slacking, but she quickly remembered that every person working inside and outside Ciqing Palace was basically Li Chengjing’s people.

Li Chengjing saw the thing in Cheng Yujin’s hand at a glance. He calmly walked to Cheng Yujin and held out his hand, clearly not allowing rebuttal.

Of course Cheng Yujin refused to give: “Your Highness…”

Out of an obvious guilty conscience, Cheng Yujin almost used a polite speech to him. Li Chengjing gave her a slight glance before leaning in to grab the thing. Cheng Yujin clenched her fingers hard and refused to hand over. Li Chengjing gave her another glance. Under that look, Cheng Yujin had no choice but to loosen her hand. After a slight moment, the thing in her hand was quickly taken away.

Cheng Yujin closed her eyes in despair. Seeing the title of the book, Li Chengjing was startled. After opening it and turning the pages, he became utterly speechless. He turned his head to look at Cheng Yujin. Sure enough, Cheng Yujin had closed her eyes and looked despaired.

Seeing her like this, Li Chengjing was pretty much amused. His lips quivered a little. He then sat on a nearby couch and beckoned: “Sit here.”

Cheng Yujin didn’t move. She tried to explain: “That book is not mine…”

Li Chengjing’s eyebrows were slightly upturned. He stared at Cheng Yujin for a while, as if signaling her to continue. Cheng Yujin opened her mouth, but no words came out. Not to mention Li Chengjing, even she also felt this explanation was too weak. This place was the inner chamber of Eastern Palace. Except for her, who else might be its owner?

Cheng Yujin fell into despair. It was Old Madam Cheng’s one-sided action, but now she had to shoulder the consequence. Which kind of dignified Crown Princess hid this kind of thing in her bedroom?

Seeing Cheng Yujin’s despaired face and watery eyes, Li Chengjing sighed. He threw the not-so-serious book on the table and pulled Cheng Yujin to sit next to him: “I’m not doubting you.”

Li Chengjing took the initiative to step back, and Cheng Yujin would be a fool if she didn’t follow up. She sat down next to Li Chengjing, relaxed her shoulder, and said: “It was grandmother who forced it on me before we left.”

“I know.” However, Li Chengjing was curious, “Why did she give you this?”

Li Chengjing paused, raised an eyebrow, and asked, “How did you tell them about our wedding night?”

“I didn’t!” Cheng Yujin quickly rebut. She was ashamed and annoyed. “Am I that kind of gossiper? How could I tell others?”

Li Chengjing looked at Cheng Yujin’s moist eyes, which were flaming with anger. He couldn’t help but smile: “Okay. Since you didn’t tell them, why are you so angry?”

Cheng Yujin snorted softly. She lowered her eyes and said: “Maybe because some people think I am a boring woman who cannot serve Your Highness well.”

Li Chengjing’s eyes were full of smiles. His black eyes were like obsidian soaked in water. Li Chengjing glanced at Cheng Yujin lightly and smiled: “Then what does Crown Princess think? Does Crown Princess really think that she has no appeal?”

Cheng Yujin still refused to look at Li Chengjing, but the man was not in a hurry. He picked up the book with his long arm and slowly turned two pages: “In my eyes, it’s not that you have no appeal at all. Merely that you have no such intention.”

Cheng Yujin was startled and subconsciously denied: “How can it be?”

“Why not?” Li Chengjing responded, “You always have a clear goal. You know what you want and what you don’t want. Once you have set your goal, you will spare no effort to achieve it, no matter how difficult. Similarly, you never bother to waste energy for the things that you deem not important.”

Cheng Yujin was silent. Li Chengjing spread the book on his lap, held Cheng Yujin’s shoulders with both hands, and turned her around: “You have never regarded your husband as someone with whom you will spend the rest of your life together. He is just a tool for you. Similarly, marriage is just a process you must go through in life. So, you actively looked for husband candidates and actively chose people who are beneficial to you. After all, they are just a tool you need to achieve your life goals.”

“I don’t…….”

“Yujin, do you really not have such thoughts?” Li Chengjing looked straight into her eyes. His tone was slow, but his words pierced straight into Cheng Yujin’s heart: “What you need is just a man who meets your requirements. As long as you can accomplish the goal, it doesn’t matter who the man is. Whether it is Huo Changyuan, Lin Qingyuan, or me, we are all the same to you.”

“You don’t care what that man looks like, what character he has, and you never consider him a part of your life. You have to marry, so you put marriage into your life plan. You never think about love, and just care about profit.”

“For example, me…and can only be me. Except for our wedding night where you were still not accustomed yet, you always keep your makeup and hair perfect in every moment, even in our bedchamber. You said you have to look decent in front of outsiders, but you never thought of your living chamber as ‘outside’ before. It is because I am also here, because I am your ‘outsider,’ right?”

At first, Cheng Yujin still wanted to retort, but in the end, she gave up completely because Li Chengjing’s every sentence was correct.

This was how Li Chengjing was. He never failed to notice the subtle and selfish intentions of his surroundings, including relatives and friends, and even his own. He saw everything with a clear, even bordering cold, understanding.

 

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20 thoughts on “GNU Ch 103 Part 1 – Appeal (I)”

    1. Good job for the Crown prince for pointing that out. I have long been annoyed by her acting like a gold digger. She only care about her goal to live a comfortable life, there’s nothing wrong with that actually. However, can’t she be more considerate and care about what others felt? I was tired of her melodramatic pitiful story where she felt she was wronged and lonely, but didn’t consider that other people have feelings too.

      1. I think your judgment is unfair. Yes she’s an egoistic gold digger who only thg think about hersel, but she lives in a environment where she was constantly use by others. She never had a family of her own and even her two trusted servants weren’t with her at the beginning. She had to work real hard for a long time to gain their affection. How in the hell is she’s not supposed to be egoistic and like money is a world where nobody care about her. The strong win and that’s it. To be strong, you need power and money and the easiest way for a woman to do so is to get marry. She only wanted a good life for herself. Why would she care about others if they don’t give a fuck about her. Also, she’s not such a bad person. In the last chapter, she really do her best for example to save that child. Even if it end up as a scheme, half of her intention were still to save that child.

        1. Yes, he has to tell her that. Anyway he understands her very well, can accept her shortcomings and willing to give her time. She can’t find a better husband than him, really…
          That’s the best husband any woman could hope for 😊

      2. She’s being smart, Airhead. Nobody considers her feeling so why does she have to consider theirs. Even crown Prince who likes her very much stated good intention that if need be he will force her, coax her, anything to make her marry him. He did do a good thing, pointing out the respectable distance between them. But give them some time. They are both doing a great job staying in their role, using their heads, planning for their futures, maintaing diplomatic relations and at the same time discovering deep intimacy between a married couple. I think it’s beautiful. I’m sorry but I love patient MLs trying to coax guarded FLs who have been hurt before. My heart just goes boom and hmmm for it

      3. Gold digger? Bc they need to depend on man? Dude it was ancient time. Wherein ancient women lacked opportunities & freedom…they got it hard and she knew it. Arranged marriages without love and concubines…seeing someone fell in love miserably didn’t end well. It’s also part of self-defense mechanism.

        As Old Madam Cheng said, she can’t fault FL for being indifferent, wooden but perfect trophy wife. FL didn’t experience love herself and seeing her adoptive mother & grandmother having bad relationship with their husbands didn’t help. Additionally, her married from 1st life was strictly handled by mother-in-law.

        Furthermore, no one taught her about married life. Even her etiquette and movements were all self-taught and hardwork believing the it will help her to have a comfortable and good life. Gold digger? Bc they need to depend on man? But no, her hardships spoke well and she herself think that she deserved to reach her dream life after pains and hardwork.

      4. I agree. Even after knowing that he has feelings for her she was still calculating what she could get from him. Depending on a man is fine but all she ever cares about are her own benefits. I’m glad the author is slapping her face with her shitty selfish personality. The only female I like in this novel so far is Cheng Min. Though she did get on my nerves this last time bringing her relatives over to have a relationship with Yujin.

      5. I am glad they are having this discussion, however I believe you are viewing her too harshly simply because she doesn’t conform to gender-stereotypes regarding women being the emotional, romantic person in the relationship (either modern or ancient view). ‘Gold Digger’ is a term that can only really be applied to a modern woman who uses her personality/beauty to obtain wealth through marriage instead of using her strengths to obtain it on her own.

        I would argue she is the opposite of a gold digger in that she doesn’t pretend to be in love or hypocritically play on her husband’s emotions. She has to marry, there is no way around it, so it is reasonable to evaluate potential husbands not by ‘love’ (which is fickle in a society where men are expected to have concubines) but in the same way a new college graduate would evaluate a company they would expect to work at for their entire lives.

        The reason people find Yujin off-putting is because she doesn’t put a romantic gloss on a relationship that is inherently unequal with her expected to sincerely worship a single man as a god who has multiple other women he can (and will) turn to at any point.

        Her husband may have feelings for her NOW, but she has see first hand how men’s emotions can easily change. It will take a lot to convincer her to trust in something as ephemeral and potentially fleeting as feelings.

      6. You’re really living up to your name. Cheng Yujin is not a gold digger because she offers something else in return. Remember when she rejected the duke who wanted her as a second wife. It was because the effort she would put into his family and child would not be compensated. Whoever she marries, whether it be Marquis Huo, Complier Lin, Duke Zhai, or the Crown Prince, she was going to try her best to be the best wife. A great example is her previous life, she did such a good job that the female lead did not have to work so much in managing the household. To her, marriage is a bargain. I’m exchange for a comfortable and wealthy life, Cheng Yukon would take care of her husband’s family. So she is definitely not a gold digger.

  1. This chapter right here – this conversation- is one of the reasons I ADORE this couple. How many fictional characters can just…lay out the other person’s character like that, so bluntly, and clearly with admiration? I can’t wait to see how it all plays out

  2. Many thanks
    Yes. Finally. They’re tallying. Honestly u sometimes feel that our girl is too miserly with her words lol. She just holds grievances :<

  3. Now this. This, I hope, will be the turning point for our beloved couple. Let’s see those two giving out dogfood everywhere! I want to see it! I want to see non-scheming coquettish side of Cheng Yujin with Li Chengjing (≧▽≦) Go, Crown Prince! Go!

  4. Maybe without her knowing it, Cheng Yujin is a traumatised child who grows up subconsciously thinking she has to be the ‘more’ than everyone else, otherwise she is ‘nothing’ and will be abandoned again (by both her moms, formally and mentally).
    On her pursuit of perfection, she has to be extra efficient, disciplined and harsh even to herself, she has no time or energy on unimportant things like feelings and building genuine relationships (like how she flocks to older people in gatherings rather than playing with children of the same age, because children are stupid and messy while older folks have things she could studied), she becomes a boring and self-centered person (well, everyone in that family is self-centered).
    End of essay. I just want to understand this wonderful character, including her flaws. In short, she grows up with abandonment issues.

    1. I completely do not agree with the comment of her acting as a gold digger. A gold digger offerts nothing in return. She spent all her life molding herself into the perfect wife according to the standards of the time. It is only natural that she is “payer” accordingly. As for her rational personnality that is the result of the psychological abuse by her familly. She isn’t perfect because she likes it but because she didn’t have a choice to survive. On top of that she quickly learned that seeking and giving affection was useless and even dangerous. Of course she won’t open up easily. For her whole life she has built a sturdy shield hoding behind it. Actually the crown prince has already started to pierce this shield.

  5. Daaaaang. He knows her so freaking well. She is the epitome of an independent woman during the ancient era tho. She knows what she wants and knows how to get it. 👌 i don’t see these as chains but actually her getting her own power in such a patriarchal society. What he can do is make her feel loved so that she will be comfortable enough to show her vulnerable side to him.
    Thank you for coming to my ted talk. LOL.

    Thanks for the update!

  6. chinesefanreader

    Feeling have never been a benefit to Yujin and are rather a weakness and source of pain. Poor girl knows she can’t rely on a man (3 wives, 4 concubines) and a royal will have even more, so why torment herself by investing her heart. Only thing a woman can rely on is a son. But the wonderful thing is that he chose her anyway and is willing to work to open and revive that dried clamped shut triple locked heart of hers.

    Thanks for the chapter and thanks for including the Next so it’s not a cliffhanger 🙏

  7. Daaaam, he aired it all out in one breath.
    He knows her so well though & instead of trying to change her or wallow in his one sided feelings, Li Chengjing was like “let’s marry her first then work on the rest latter” 😏 🤣

  8. It’s so sad that she has never felt safe enough to have any other goal but security. Once she knows she’s safe and secure I hope she can relax and open up to him more. Want some things that aren’t just part of her goal to protect herself.

  9. She is a gold digger, gold diggers aren’t like you describe they perfect their features and good things a certain target likes just like MC she is no different

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