After Rebirth, I Accept The Arranged Marriage-Chapter 141: Bargaining

Lynn Jennings never expected to be eating soup dumplings, soy milk, and fried dough sticks in Finland.

When a call from Jessie Sterling summoned her to the adjacent suite, the aroma of food greeted her the moment she walked in.

Lynn wasn’t particularly surprised to see Victor Morgan in Jessie’s room.

But when Jessie explained that Victor had personally cooked the breakfast spread on the table, Lynn couldn’t hide the surprise in her eyes.

When Victor wasn’t looking, Lynn quickly gave a thumbs-up to her friend, who had threatened to disown her just last night.

"Badass."

To be able to command Victor Morgan to cook for her in a foreign country—and a complicated Chinese breakfast at that—left Lynn utterly impressed with Jessie.

’Looks like even a "grade-schooler" knows how to manage her husband.’

’She had really underestimated Jessie before.’

In truth, even if Victor hadn’t made the trip to Finland yesterday, Lynn and Jessie were already planning to return to their home country.

Lynn had been on leave for too long. Even with Cyrus Sheridan at the research institute, she couldn’t stay away forever.

On the return trip, Lynn looked at the person boarding the plane with her and asked in surprise, "Aren’t you flying back with your President Morgan?"

Jessie replied, "I need to go back to Southaven first for my company’s annual meeting. As for him, I told him not to follow me back."

But that evening, Lynn discovered that Victor Morgan, despite having been told by Jessie not to accompany her to Southaven, had still appeared at the Sterling family’s dinner table.

After having dinner at the Sterling residence, Lynn parted ways with Jessie and returned to her own apartment.

Meanwhile, Jessie watched Victor, who had been chatting and laughing so harmoniously with her parents at the dinner table, and pulled her sister, Quincy Sterling, aside to whisper in her ear.

"Victor’s company’s annual meeting is at the end of the month. I’m planning to stay home until then before I go back," Jessie said.

Quincy was a little surprised. "I thought my brother-in-law had already won you over, and you’d just pop back for the annual meeting on the twenty-fifth."

When Victor had made Jessie angry before, Quincy certainly wouldn’t have called him "brother-in-law." But now that Jessie was no longer giving him a hard time, she wasn’t about to be a stumbling block in her sister’s marriage.

Jessie said, "Of course not! It’s just more comfortable at home!"

Aethelburg was too cold, and she rarely felt like going out on a normal day.

When the cold wind blew outside, it felt like it could pierce straight to her bones.

Quincy shrugged. "As long as you two work it out, Mom, Dad, and I will have no objections."

However, Jessie hadn’t worked it out with Victor.

When it was time to turn in for the night, Director Sterling certainly wasn’t going to make his own son-in-law sleep in the building next door. After all, Victor was already part of the Sterling family.

After following Jessie up to the third floor, Victor heard her announce her plan to stay in Southaven.

"No," Victor said with a frown.

As he said it, his eyes met Jessie’s, and he registered her displeasure. He realized his tone might have been a bit too forceful.

Jessie responded to a soft touch, not a hard hand. Victor was slowly starting to figure that out.

"Think about it. You’ve been away from Aethelburg for so long. If you stay in Southaven right after returning from abroad, what if rumors start to spread?" Victor said.

For a couple like them, who had initially come together through an arranged marriage, their private lives were a subject of intense public interest.

After all, stocks were involved.

But Victor refrained from reminding Jessie that her family’s PR and legal teams were among the best in the country, and such an issue would likely never arise.

Jessie was somewhat swayed by his argument, but she still didn’t want to go back to Aethelburg tomorrow.

"Then I’ll come back after the twenty-fifth?" Jessie asked.

Victor walked up to Jessie, suddenly scooped her up off the floor, and headed toward the bathroom.

His hand rested on her back, kneading suggestively. "Darling, I’ve been sleeping in an empty bed all alone this whole month..."

Jessie was speechless.

"I’ll come back with you on the twenty-fifth, alright?" Victor’s tongue slipped into the shell of her ear, his searing breath inflaming the woman in his arms.

’What does he mean, "sleeping in an empty bed all alone"?’ Jessie wanted to retort. ’Does he have to be so dramatic?’ The night before they returned, he had ravaged her until her entire body was covered in red marks. Her gait was even a little unnatural when she woke up the next morning. How could he possibly claim he’d been sleeping all alone?

But before she could say a word, Victor had already turned on the showerhead above them.

A stream of hot water instantly drenched her.

The bathroom in Jessie’s bedroom was huge, and the bathtub was enormous—large enough for three people to sit in at once without a problem.

So, when Victor carried Jessie into the tub and sat down, they both couldn’t help but sigh in contentment.

Jessie’s sigh was because she had been standing on her tiptoes for so long; sitting down brought sweet relief to her calves and feet.

As for Victor, it was, of course, because this new position allowed for a much smoother entry.

The bathroom door was soundproof. No one outside would ever hear the sounds from within.

Jessie’s screams and sobs were for Victor’s ears alone.

When Victor carried Jessie out of the bathroom, what thought remained in her mind of waiting until the end of the month to return to Aethelburg?

Back in the bathroom, Victor had exploited her weakness, forcing her to "submit."

Suspended in limbo, neither here nor there, it felt as if a million ants were crawling all over her skin—an unbearable itch she didn’t know how to scratch. Jessie could only surrender and admit defeat.

The next day, the husband and wife rushed back to Aethelburg from Southaven.

After a rough night and a long day of travel, Jessie was exhausted. When she got back to the Sixi Courtyard, she washed up briefly, fell into bed, and slept straight through to the evening.

Jessie awoke to the melodious sound of a violin.

The moment she opened her eyes, she thought she was hallucinating.

Although their courtyard home was located in a hutong alley close to the Forbidden City, the Sixi Courtyard had always been quiet. Besides the chirping of birds, she rarely heard any other sounds.

But the thread of violin music now reaching her ears didn’t fade away. Jessie realized it wasn’t a hallucination.

She got out of bed, and the light strip beneath it instantly lit up. Jessie pressed a switch on the headboard, and the curtains on the massive floor-to-ceiling window in the distance slid open.

In the twelfth lunar month in Aethelburg, night fell early. Often, the sky would darken before five o’clock.

At the time Jessie was waking up now, it would usually be pitch-black outside.

But the Sixi Courtyard was not completely dark.

It wasn’t as brightly lit as usual, either. Only the small path lights were on.

Still, this bit of light was enough for Jessie to clearly see the source of the violin music.