Chapter 5：The Contract

"Aren't the terms for your contract beneficial enough already? A baby boy for a life of luxury, what else could you possibly ask for?" Lin Kang did not even bother to hide the note of annoyance in his voice.

Indeed, such was the deal of the contract between Lin Kang and Xiu Ling. She was to give Lin family an heir to continue the family's bloodline and she could live the rest of her life wreathed in jewels and luxury in the identity of Mrs. Lin.

As previously mentioned, the contract came with a bet on Xiu Ling's part because the contract was made at the early stage of her pregnancy, way before the gender of her child was known.

Several months ago, when Xiu Ling discovered her pregnancy, she approached Lin Kang with the news. She assumed she would be shut down or chased away but instead she was offered a contract.

This was because Lin Kang was a man of business and he approached Xiu Ling's pregnancy the way he would a business prospect, with a multi-tiered contract.

First Xiu Ling was offered the choice of either abortion or giving birth to the baby. If she choose the former, the payment of the operation and the clinic would be arranged by Lin family and after the operation, she would be paid a certain amount of money for her to move away from the city to start a new life elsewhere; if she choose the latter, there would be two outcome and this was where the risk part came in.

If it was a baby boy, then she would be welcomed into the Lin family as an attachment to their future heir, but if it was a girl, the pair of mother and daughter would be "taken care" of by the Lin family in details that Lin Kang had thankfully spared Xiu Ling.

This practice might seem misogynistic but it was how the great families operated, only the male could carry on the family name, while the female would bring in outsider to share part of the pie via way of marriage and inheritance, so only baby boy was valued and thus the unlucky baby girl would be abandoned.

Lin Kang had put it rather succinctly, the conditions of Xiu Ling's contract, she was to trade her baby for a life of ease for herself.

On top of that, her terms were considered beneficial because she volunteered the information of her pregnancy to Lin family. She was not found out or exposed to Lin family. She was thus rewarded for her forthcoming-ness and honesty. The same could not be said of other girls in her situation.

Yes, there were other girls being offered the same contract in the past as well. Like many other men of his stature, Lin Kang had a fatal flaw to his character, a womanizing tendency. Thankfully, this was not a problem that could not be solved by money.

However, Xiu Ling was the only one who was lucky enough and viewed her dignity with such little importance that she managed to persevere so far into the contract, other women were either unlucky with the baby's gender, hid the pregnancy from Lin family to begin with, renege on the terms of the contract or… demanded far more than what was decided in the contract. These women were all "taken care" of by Lin family already, silencing a few women and their family members could not have been easier for a party as powerful and as influential as Lin family.

Xiu Ling knew she was threading a thin line here, one careless misstep and she would end up in the same state as the women that came before her, unknown and unheard of ever again.

The mention of the contract hit Xiu Ling like a physical blow but she did not let it show on her face. She opted into this contract out of her own volition and she knew better than to complain about it.

She forced a smile and said, "No, it has nothing to do with the major clauses of the contract. It is about my mother. Do you mind if we fetch her here from my hometown? She wishes to keep me company until my due date and that won't be that far away now.

"As you know, I am my mother's only daughter and this is going to be her first grandchild. She wishes to join in the celebration. It is only fair…"

"Xiu Ling, I only have one question to ask you," Lin Kang turned his face towards Xiu Ling and cut her off mid-sentence, "Are you trying to tell me my mother and Auntie Sun have not been taking good care of you that you need your mother to do that?"

"No, no, no. Of course, I do not mean it that way," Xiu Ling backpedaled immediately, "Both mother and Auntie Su have been nothing but kind and attentive to my needs, I cannot be more appreciative of their concern."

"In that case, this discussion is over. We do not need an extra stranger wandering around the house. I am going to take a bath and I do not want to hear about this topic again," Lin Kang said as he stood up to walk into the bathroom.

"But…" Before Xiu Ling could say anything, the door to the bathroom closed. Her lips hung open but no words came out. She eventually turned her head away and sighed despondently, wondering how she was going to break this news to her mother. She understood once Lin Kang's mind had been made, there was no way she was going to change it, so she better focused her energy on figuring out a way to console her poor mother.

Outside their bedroom door stood Auntie Sun who had not left. She stayed listening to Xiu Ling and Lin Kang's every words until she heard the sound of water from the bathroom. Then, she left with a hard-to-read expression on her face.