Qiu Yao caught a glimpse of Xu Yiwen’s stealthy smile, looked at He Xihuan in the driver’s seat, and also smiled with quiet satisfaction.
A year ago, she had bet on the right person.
As long as Xu Yiwen was happy and well, she would have no more regrets left in this lifetime.
Smiling, Qiu Yao covered her mouth and began to cough.
“Grandma,” Xu Yiwen patted her back in a timely manner to help her catch her breath, his expression turning nervous, “Are you feeling uncomfortable again?”
He Xihuan in the driver’s seat also anxiously asked, “Is it serious? Should we head to the hospital first?”
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Qiu Yao hurriedly waved her hand, grabbing Xu Yiwen’s hand as she said, “No hospital. With Xiao Wen accompanying me, cough cough, going home is enough.”
“Alright, no hospital. We’re going home,” Xu Yiwen let Qiu Yao lean against his shoulder. “Grandma, the room on the first floor has been all tidied up for you. Auntie Hong, who is in charge of housekeeping at home, and I are right on either side, both living next door to you.”
“Call buttons have been installed at the head of the bed and in other spots around the room.”
“Pressing the red one calls Auntie Hong, and pressing the blue one means I’ll fly right to your side.”
When alone with Qiu Yao, Xu Yiwen opened his heart even more, his tone carrying a distinct hint of spoiled affection.
Yet Qiu Yao’s expression grew solemn.
Originally, she hadn’t planned to disturb the newlyweds’ honeymoon.
However, after hearing the servants mention that Xu Yiwen had come to pick her up yesterday only to be turned away, and seeing He Xihuan personally arrive today to pick her up alongside Xu Yiwen, she understood that if she refused again, it would be equivalent to turning Xu Yiwen away all over again.
Xu Yiwen had gone to such great lengths to bring her out to relax her mood, and she couldn’t do anything that would make Xu Yiwen sad and disappointed, nor could she let his efforts go to waste.
She accepted all of Xu Yiwen’s kind intentions and filial piety, but she worried that Xu Yiwen might be too filial and neglect He Xihuan.
“Having one person take care of me is enough,” Qiu Yao said once her cough subsided, her speech punctuated by slight gasps for air. “You go back to live in your and Xihuan’s room. Good child, don’t make Grandma feel like she is your burden.”
Just as Xu Yiwen was about to say something, Qiu Yao patted his hand, signaling him to keep listening. “That Auntie Hong, I saw her when you video-called me before. She took the initiative to greet me, and she seems like a very nice person.”
“Just let her take care of me. You and Xihuan should focus on your work these next few days and take a proper honeymoon outside.”
“Grandma,” He Xihuan’s mood brightened because of Qiu Yao’s words, his eye corners carrying a smile, “We’re still going to Chuncheng. Xiao Wen said you like Chuncheng.”
“Ah?” Qiu Yao nodded, slightly puzzled. “Didn’t you say we changed to somewhere else?”
Xu Yiwen raised his eyes calmly and said while looking at the rearview mirror in front, “This guy is quietly wicked. He was just fooling you.”
He Xihuan saying they changed locations was merely a bluff meant for the Xu family.
“The place was chosen by Dad and Mom,” Xu Yiwen said with full confidence. “Even if it were changed, Mom and Dad would ask me first. They wouldn’t let him change it on a whim.”
Qiu Yao laughed so hard the wrinkles on her face folded, and He Xihuan in the driver’s seat also let out a light chuckle.
The atmosphere inside the car was warmer than the heating, allowing both of them to temporarily forget the troubles of the past few days.
Upon returning home, after He Xihuan finished eating with Xu Yiwen and Qiu Yao, he went upstairs, leaving the space entirely to the grandmother and grandson.
About an hour later, when he came down from upstairs, the living room was already quiet.
Before coming down from the second floor, he had deliberately checked Xu Yiwen’s bedroom and study.
Xu Yiwen hadn’t gone back upstairs; he must have gone to Qiu Yao’s room.
He Xihuan quickened his pace and walked toward Qiu Yao’s room.
His hand, prepared to knock, lowered upon hearing the voices inside.
“Grandma, did you let Auntie Hong go back to rest early because you wanted to tell me some secret?”
Xu Yiwen blinked with a smile, speaking the words meant for a secret even louder than his normal voice.
Qiu Yao simply gently stroked the hair of Xu Yiwen, who was sitting on the carpet by her feet, her heart caught in a web of tangled conflicts.
Xu Baoan had returned to the Xu family, and Xu Yiwen’s true birth background had also been exposed.
Xu Yiwen was an orphan, but not an orphan abandoned by his parents.
Only Xu Fengying and Qiu Yao knew about this matter.
In fact, on the day Xu Yiwen learned of his background and returned to the Xu family, Qiu Yao had been pondering whether she should tell him these things.
It was just that back then she had been pushed back into her room, and Xu Yiwen had left very quickly, so she hadn’t managed to speak out.
Things couldn’t be explained clearly over the phone, which was why it had dragged on until today.
“Xiao Wen,” Qiu Yao’s voice trembled slightly. “Do you want to know about your biological parents?”
Xu Yiwen’s lips instantly tightened into a straight line as he lowered his gaze and shook his head. “Grandma, let’s not talk about this.”
Seeing this, Qiu Yao could guess that Xu Yiwen had misunderstood his biological parents.
She leaned forward slightly, her voice anxious yet solemn. “Xiao Wen, you need to know these things.”
“Your parents didn’t abandon you. They loved you very much.”
Xu Yiwen suddenly raised his head, his eye sockets tinged with a faint red.
Qiu Yao gently caressed Xu Yiwen’s face, let out a soft sigh, and spoke with a tone full of self-reproach, “We are the ones who failed your mother and failed to protect you.”
Back then, the Xu family’s factory had run into trouble, its capital chain completely snapped, leaving it on the verge of bankruptcy. In search of a glimmer of survival, she and Xu Fengying had traveled everywhere looking for investment.
They had gone to a resort in Changyou City to meet an investor. After being rejected and feeling utterly hopeless, they sat by the lake dry-chewing steamed buns they hadn’t finished that morning.
Suddenly, someone grabbed them from behind and hauled them away, dragging them far from the lake.
“Uncle, Auntie,” a woman with delicate facial features and an elegant demeanor sat on a stone stool inside a pavilion, “The lakeside is hardly a good place to eat.”
“May I invite you to join me for lunch?” She glanced at the food on the stone table and then lowered her gaze to gently stroke her belly. “Only I keep the child company when eating every day; otherwise, he loses his appetite.”
The bodyguards had already let go of the two of them.
They realized that this woman had assumed they were going to commit suicide, which was why she had hauled them over.
After explaining the misunderstanding, Qiu Yao stepped forward a few steps and covered her mouth in mild astonishment. “Your face is so petite, yet you’re already so far along. You really couldn’t tell.”
“Mm,” the woman smiled openly, two sweet dimples appearing at the corners of her mouth. “My due date is next month.”
“Oh my, that’s soon then. Where is your Alpha?”
As soon as Qiu Yao finished speaking, the woman simply continued to smile, only saying that her Alpha was very good to her and was already on the way.
As they ate and chatted, the woman learned that the two of them were looking for investment, so she left them her business card.
Two days later, the couple, who hadn’t yet left Changyou City, received a call from the woman and hurriedly rushed to the hospital.
They arrived at the hospital almost simultaneously with the woman, who was covered in crimson blood on a stretcher.
A bright red scratch marked the woman’s forehead, and her hair stuck to cheeks overflowing with sweat and blood. Biting her bloodless lips, she took off the ring from her left ring finger and handed it to Qiu Yao.
“Give, give it to the child.”
While Qiu Yao and Xu Fengying stood guard outside the operating room waiting, they received the items handed over by the nurse.
The nurse said the woman had been in a car accident and had instructed in the ambulance that all her belongings be handed over to them.
Inside a designer bag stained with dirt, aside from items like tissues, there was also a necklace worth tens of millions.
Qiu Yao had once been fortunate enough to see that necklace at an exhibition; rumor had it that it had been bought by a mysterious person.
Looking at that intact necklace, Qiu Yao finally understood the woman’s hesitation during their meal that day.
The woman had been unwilling to reveal her name and background, yet in every word of their conversation, she had tested the character and personality of the couple, presumably because she had long known she might meet with an accident and was forging a path of survival for the unborn child in her womb.