When Ye Yunyi went downstairs, he happened to see Su Chengning curled up on the sofa, looking utterly bored while watching television.
What was even more infuriating was that his beloved ragdoll plushie was being used as a seat cushion; it looked limp and sagging, having lost every bit of its former pure and lovely charm.
“With so many throw pillows available, did you really have to ruin my little darling?”
He rushed over aggressively, intending to rescue his precious plushie, only to be jolted by Su Chengning’s lukewarm, indifferent gaze.
“You, you, you—” It seemed as though shadows from his childhood had been triggered, causing Ye Yunyi to start stuttering. “Brother, my dear brother—”
“Shut up.”
Su Chengning casually hurled a throw pillow at him. Lately, he didn’t want to hear the word “brother” at all.
“Even so, you can’t mistreat it like this! Look, it’s been squashed out of shape by you!”
Ye Yunyi looked on with a desire to weep but no tears, watching his “little darling” suffer such ravages without being able to save it from the den of iniquity. He could only bitterly use his hands to fluff it back up, bit by bit.
Su Chengning looked at those small movements with a hint of disdain and said mockingly, “How old are you now? Still using a child’s doll.”
Ye Yunyi curled his lip. “My first love gave me that. It has special commemorative value.”
“Your first love has already been married off to someone else, it seems,” Su Chengning sneered with sarcasm. “This ‘commemorative value’ of yours is truly excessive.”
Ye Yunyi: “…”
He felt that he was simply asking for trouble by looking for a scolding. Hmph, he didn’t want to talk anymore.
Su Chengning watched the dull television for a while before glancing sideways at him. He noticed that Ye Yunyi was dressed formally in a white shirt and a silver-gray suit, wearing a pair of gold-rimmed glasses. He looked quite deceptive the very image of a “refined scoundrel.”
Ye Yunyi heard a few faint snorts of laughter but didn’t dare to direct any harsh words toward Su Chengning.
In the end, he could only half-beg for the other man to let his “little darling” go.
To be a younger brother to this extent he was likely the only one.
Mourning for himself in his heart several times over, Ye Yunyi clutched the hard-won rescued plushie and went straight upstairs to lock it back in his room.
By the time he came back down, he saw Su Chengning swaying as he tried to climb up from the sofa. Failing to steady himself, Su Chengning fell right back down.
Ye Yunyi wanted to laugh, but he didn’t dare.
“Brother, are you feeling unwell today?”
Ye Yunyi stepped forward to show concern, only to be met with a sharp glare from Su Chengning.
His expression turned sheepish as he pushed up his glasses. “I thought just now that your complexion looked a bit off.”
An abnormal flush had risen over his originally fair skin; it was far more than just “a bit off.”
Ye Yunyi reached out to check his forehead. His voice grew anxious as he said, “You have a fever. Can’t you feel it yourself?”
He shouted, yet Su Chengning remained lazily nestled on the sofa. As if finding the pillows uncomfortable, he wrapped himself in a small wool blanket and closed his eyes.
Ye Yunyi went over to pull him up. “Get up, I’m taking you to the hospital.”
“Not going.” Su Chengning’s voice was low and carried a slight nasal tone.
“A fever can be a big or small matter. How old are you? Surely you aren’t afraid of the hospital?” Ye Yunyi intentionally provoked him. “You’ve been holed up at my place for several days; you’ve managed to fall ill from just sitting around.”
“You shouldn’t hide your illness from the doctor. If something really happens, Auntie Juan will definitely come over to beat me up.”
Su Chengning lazily lifted an eyelid to peek at him. “My mother isn’t that idle. She wouldn’t sit on a plane for over ten hours just to come here and give you a beating.”
“Then couldn’t she be coming to see a son who can’t take care of himself?” Ye Yunyi was fuming.
“It’s you who didn’t take care of me,” Su Chengning countered, shifting the blame directly.
Ye Yunyi: “…”
“Clearly, you were the one who came here on a business trip and insisted on staying with me. How does that translate to me not taking care of you?”
“I am the younger brother. It is only right that you take care of me.”
Su Chengning gave him a look that said, “How can you have the nerve to say that?” and let him interpret it for himself.
“I feel nauseous just talking to you now. Forget it, don’t open your mouth.”
He waved his hand as if shooing away a fly, his face full of loathing.
“That’s the fever talking. Come to the hospital with me.” Ye Yunyi helplessly leaned over to lift the wool blanket, only to see Su Chengning’s eyes snap open as he leaned over the side of the sofa and dry-heaved several times.
Ye Yunyi frowned. “Something is not right with your situation.”
Su Chengning lay back down, his chest feeling stiflingly uncomfortable. “Maybe I ate something bad.”
He had been feeling a bit off for the past few days and hadn’t eaten much. This morning, he had felt a bit hungry and simply cooked something to eat.
Ye Yunyi knit his brows. “Could it be a bacterial infection?”
He thought about it and, feeling uneasy, called the hospital.
By the time he finished the call, Su Chengning had drifted into a daze and fallen asleep. Even when pushed, he didn’t wake up.
When Su Chengning opened his eyes again, he found himself lying on a hospital bed.
He glanced at his hand; there was a slight stinging sensation on the back of it where a mark remained from a blood draw.
The ward was empty; he was the only one there.
Frowning, Su Chengning tried to find his phone. After reaching for it several times, he found it was out of reach.
He could only struggle to sit up.
There were several unread messages on his phone from Tang Mo. He didn’t need to look to know what the content would be.
His brow furrowed tightly. He hesitated for a long while but still didn’t click on the messages.
The sound of Ye Yunyi opening the door interrupted his brief lapse of concentration.
Su Chengning put the phone down. Seeing the other man’s brow locked in a deep frown, he asked, “Did I really eat something bad?”
His cooking skills were a bit poor, but surely not to the point of landing himself in the hospital.
For once, Su Chengning began to doubt himself.
Ye Yunyi held a report in his hand, his expression somewhat grave.
Su Chengning stared at that furrowed brow so deep it could practically crush a mosquito and his heart sank a few notches.
Fine, he admitted it; his cooking skills were terrible, and he had trapped himself in a hospital.
Feeling a bit of a headache, Su Chengning lay back on the bed and waited for him to explain the condition.
To his surprise, Ye Yunyi tucked the report away, pulled over a chair with a serious face, and opened with a question that made his jaw drop: “When do you plan on marrying Tang Chen?”
At the mention of Tang Chen’s name, Su Chengning’s face turned cold. He retorted, “Why should I marry him?”
“The two of you have been engaged for so many years. Do you usually not pay attention to safety measures?”
Ye Yunyi asked with a lack of understanding, “A human life has been created; do you really not intend to marry him?”
Seeing him looking at himself with an expression reserved for a “scumbag,” Su Chengning was completely bewildered.
“What human life?” With a look of total confusion, he picked up the report to read. The moment he saw the diagnosis on the final line, Su Chengning instinctively threw the report away.
Seeing him pull the covers over his head in a gesture of refusal to believe and escapist denial, Ye Yunyi laughed unkindly.
He patted the blanket, his voice full of mirth. “I should congratulate you. I just have one question: should I be an uncle on the father’s side or the mother’s side?”
“You were frowning with such a serious expression just now were you actually thinking about that question?” Su Chengning’s voice muffled from under the blanket, carrying a hint of gnashing resentment.
“Yeah,” Ye Yunyi nodded. “After all, it’s my first time. I have to find my identity and position first.”
Su Chengning swung a pillow and smashed it toward him. His mind was a chaotic mess, and the force in his hand was a bit heavy; the soft pillow was swung with the momentum of someone beating a scoundrel.
Fortunately, there were only the two of them in the room.
Once Su Chengning was tired of swinging, he tossed the pillow aside and angrily picked up the report to look at it again.
This damn novel world. He had actually forgotten that this was a “mpreg” (male pregnancy) story.
He didn’t know if Jiang Baiyu was pregnant, but he himself had unexpectedly ended up pregnant first.
“I really didn’t expect Tang Chen to have such capability, to actually be able to—”
“It has nothing to do with him.”
Su Chengning interrupted Ye Yunyi’s words succinctly. “I’ve already broken off the engagement with him. This child isn’t his.”
“Huh!?”
Ye Yunyi stared at him dumbfounded, clearly not expecting such a reversal.
He looked at the calm Su Chengning, then at the diagnostic report, and finally moved his gaze to Su Chengning’s stomach, which showed not the slightest sign of anything unusual.
“What kind of look is that?” Su Chengning glared at him. His hand was pressed against his stomach, his heart filled with a sense of loss and bewilderment.
But his voice and expression remained too steady.
Ye Yunyi was currently busy imagining that Su Chengning had had a fling with some “wild man” and had thus kicked Tang Chen to the curb, when he was jolted by Su Chengning’s glare.
Su Chengning spoke truthfully: “Tang Chen kept a little lover.”
He briefly explained the matter between Tang Chen and Jiang Baiyu to prevent this stupid cousin of his from imagining things that weren’t there.
“So you found a backup—”
“What backup? Stop talking nonsense.” Su Chengning was somewhat angry.
He didn’t like the word “backup,” and he had never treated Tang Mo as one.
However, the relationship between him and Tang Mo was something Su Chengning couldn’t find the words to explain to Ye Yunyi at the moment.
Seeing that he refused to talk, Ye Yunyi was extremely surprised.
He couldn’t help but press further: “Then who is this person? Do I know him?”
“You’ve met him.”
“Eh?”
He met many people every day; saying “you’ve met him” was far too vague.
Ye Yunyi pursed his lips, his curiosity like a cat scratching and clawing away without any release.
“When are you going to introduce him to me?” He probed sideways, only to receive an even more dismissive “Mm” from Su Chengning.
Feeling that it was a bit boring, Ye Yunyi clicked his tongue. Seeing Su Chengning bowing his head to fiddle with his phone, he assumed he was messaging someone.
Just as he poked his head over, he saw Su Chengning skillfully block a person with practiced motions.
“…” From Su Chengning’s somewhat indignant gaze, Ye Yunyi detected a terrifying truth.
“You couldn’t have—” blocked the other party.
When he thought about it carefully, the WeChat nickname he had just seen seemed to be Little Idiot.