“I haven’t been doing anything dangerous. You know me; aside from painting at home all day, I don’t really go out much,” Zhuang Yan fabricated a random excuse. “I just landed a major commercial commission, and the client sent the deposit directly. Didn’t I just take that money to pay off some debts?”
“So that’s how it is. You gave us a real fright,” the two people on the other end of the video call sighed in obvious relief. “You need to make sure you rest, too. Don’t keep staring at that screen all the time; it’s bad for your eyes.”
“I know! Once I get the final payment, I’ll take you both on a trip abroad!”
“Good, good. I’ve never been abroad before. I’ll be basking in your light or rather, the light of that big boss client.”
Chi Xiaocheng took the phone. “See, I told you, Xiao Yan is fine.”
“As long as he’s fine, that’s all that matters. My heart has been fluttering with anxiety these past few days, worrying that something happened to Xiao Yan.” Chi Xiaocheng didn’t move the phone away, so Zhuang Yan’s mother, Zhuang Jinling, and his father, Wang Guoqing, could still be seen on the screen.
“I told you long ago, it’s just painting. Why go so far away? It’s not like you can’t paint at home. You’ve made your mother worry so much.” Wang Guoqing didn’t look any less worried, but he always preferred to act calm and composed.
Knowing Wang Guoqing’s personality, Zhuang Yan just followed along, answering with “mm-hmm” and “yeah,” knowing they couldn’t exactly come there and drag him back anyway.
“I won’t chat anymore; I have to hurry and finish my draft. If I don’t finish it, I’ll have to pay a penalty for breach of contract.” Zhuang Yan was afraid that if the conversation continued, they would notice something was wrong.
“Alright, we won’t disturb you then. We’re hanging up.” Zhuang Jinling slapped Wang Guoqing’s thigh hard. “Honestly, how can you talk to the child like that?”
Chi Xiaocheng ended the video call, and Zhuang Yan collapsed onto the bed, limbs spread out like the character for ‘big’ .
It will all be over soon.
Communicating with others was truly exhausting, even if they were his own parents.
He wondered when Yue Lu would return. He had heard that during pregnancy, a person needed an Alpha’s pheromones.
Yue Lu’s genetics didn’t seem bad, and he wasn’t the rowdy type. Surely his child wouldn’t be too troublesome?
Meanwhile, far away in a foreign country, Yue Lu’s situation was not good at all.
After arriving, he had gone straight to Bai Naixing to collaborate. The two joined forces, intending to build a commercial empire of their own.
But they were still too young after all. They knew they should “leave a way out” for others, but to what extent? If they didn’t grasp the limit correctly, failing to pull up the weeds by the roots would lead to endless trouble.
Clearly, the two of them had failed to find that balance. Ever since their products took off, the interests of several old-line factories and small enterprises had been damaged.
One or two wouldn’t have mattered, but as it happened, a boss of a large enterprise currently the one fighting most fiercely against Bai Naixing and Yue Lu’s company had united these small businesses and old factories to deal with them together.
Aside from business suppression, their personal safety was also under severe threat. Yue Lu was currently lying unconscious in a hospital.
“Doctor, how is he?” The person guarding the ward outside was Bai Naixing’s partner, named Jiang Shuimian.
Bai Naixing was currently at the company, overwhelmed with trouble. This was a hurdle they had to clear.
As long as they made it through, the path ahead would be a broad, smooth road.
But if they couldn’t…
They won’t fail. The opposition didn’t have enough capital flow to hold out for long; otherwise, they wouldn’t have been desperate enough to make a move on Yue Lu.
As long as they endured a bit longer, this would pass, and they would get everything they wanted.
Thinking of this, although he was still very irritable, Bai Naixing didn’t find the various demands from his partners quite so painful to deal with.
His phone rang; the caller was Jiang Shuimian. “Naixing, your friend is awake now. Are you coming over?”
“I’m coming now. Stay safe there. Your Eastern face is quite conspicuous.” Holding his phone in one hand, Bai Naixing hurriedly fished out his car keys with the other and rushed to the hospital without stopping.
In the hospital ward in a foreign land, Yue Lu stared blankly at the ceiling.
Bai Naixing pushed the door open and entered. Jiang Shuimian, who had been sitting by the bed, stood up. “The situation isn’t great. We don’t know yet if his leg will allow him to stand again.”
Bai Naixing looked at Yue Lu lying on the bed: he looked lifeless, his face extremely pale, and one leg was in a cast, hoisted high. He had none of the high spirits he’d shown when they first decided to cooperate.
“Are you planning to just lie here for the rest of your life?” Bai Naixing never made a losing deal. Since things had reached this point, he had no choice but to continue working with Yue Lu.
“What else?” Yue Lu’s voice was terribly hoarse, as if it had been ground down by sandpaper. As soon as he spoke, Bai Naixing was shocked.
“Maybe you should have some water first.” Bai Naixing handed over a glass of water from the side table with a look of pity. Even if it were an enemy reduced to this state, he ought to feel some sympathy.
Yue Lu remained lying on the bed, still staring at the ceiling as if there were something fascinating up there.
“I poured this water just now. He hasn’t had a sip of water or a bite of food since he woke up.” Jiang Shuimian also looked worried.
Bai Naixing grabbed the collar of Yue Lu’s hospital gown and forcibly hauled him up. “Who is this ‘half-dead’ act for?!”
“Naixing!” Bai Naixing moved so fast that Jiang Shuimian had no time to react.
Yue Lu’s leg was still in a cast, and he had countless wounds of all sizes on his body. What if his injuries worsened? What if he lost too much blood and fainted again?
“Let him go, he’s still a patient.”
Jiang Shuimian, who was usually indecisive, really didn’t know what to do with these two. “Let’s talk things through properly.”
“How can I talk properly? Look at the state of him! Does he look like someone who can talk properly with me? Refusing to eat or drink are you trying to become an immortal?!”
Yue Lu still didn’t speak. Bai Naixing let go, and Yue Lu slumped back onto the bed, making Jiang Shuimian’s heart leap into his throat.
“The leg isn’t completely hopeless. With plenty of rehabilitation, it can recover, and the wounds on your body will heal sooner or later. Why give up on yourself like this?” Jiang Shuimian tried to console him, even though he had already tried many times before Bai Naixing arrived, and Yue Lu had remained unresponsive.
“Are you really planning to just die?” Bai Naixing stared at the despondent Yue Lu on the bed. “You mentioned before that you spent your rut with the Omega you like, right? How is it I’ve heard that the Young Madam of the Yue family is pregnant?”
“What did you say?” Yue Lu finally spoke, but after saying those words, he coughed for a long time, looking as if he might cough up a lung.
He had never even touched that person; how could she be pregnant?
Where on earth did he get a child from? Did he know about Zhuang Yan’s existence? What would he do to Zhuang Yan?
Bai Naixing sneered. “Now you’re worried? Where was this concern earlier?”
Yue Lu grabbed the nearby water glass and gulped it down. He finally became aware of his hunger and thirst; after finishing the water, he grabbed a piece of bread and stuffed it into his mouth.
“Eat slowly.” Jiang Shuimian hurried to pour another glass of water, afraid that after failing to starve or thirst to death, Yue Lu might just choke to death right here.
“I need to return home immediately.” Yue Lu swallowed the last bite of bread and chugged another glass of water.
“You’ve been starving for so long; your stomach won’t be able to handle eating so much at once.” Jiang Shuimian frowned. “I’ll go get you some medicine to help with digestion.”
“Thank you.”
However, Jiang Shuimian didn’t hear Yue Lu’s “thank you.” Fearing Yue Lu might actually die, he left the ward like a gust of wind.
“Heal your injuries first before saying anything else.” Bai Naixing sat down next to him and casually picked up an apple from the table, taking a bite.
So sour.
Pretending nothing was wrong, he put the bitten apple back into the fruit bowl.
“In this state, do you plan to hop back on one leg to rescue your sweetheart?”
“During my rut, I… I didn’t use protection. My uncle must know that nothing happened between me and the Omega at home. My parents value bloodline very highly and wouldn’t allow someone to confuse the family lineage. So, the person who is pregnant can only be…”
It could only be Zhuang Yan.
Zhuang Yan was now in their hands.
“Are you worried they’ll ‘keep the child and discard the father’? Please, we live in a society ruled by law now. No matter how much power and influence they have, can they really just make a living person die for no reason?”
Yue Lu pursed his lips and remained silent.
Seeing Yue Lu like this, Bai Naixing was greatly shocked. “No way? Really?”
“Are there few people who die silently nowadays? Are there few accidents of all kinds? If they want to make a pregnant Omega disappear, there are plenty of ways. For instance, dying on the operating table during childbirth then they can smoothly keep the child and get rid of the father.”
The more Yue Lu thought about it, the more panicked he became. He wished he could go back immediately to confirm Zhuang Yan’s safety.
“Right, where is my phone? Where did my phone go?”
Jiang Shuimian, who had just returned, happened to overhear him looking for his phone. “It was probably stolen. When you were brought to the hospital, the doctors didn’t see a phone on you. It was a fellow countryman who recognized you, which is how we were contacted.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll get you a new phone as soon as possible,” Bai Naixing comforted him.
“What about my old number? My WeChat?”
Bai Naixing shook his head. “You’ll have to wait until you return to China to go to a service center and get a replacement SIM.”
Yue Lu felt his strength drain away again. With this useless brain of his, why hadn’t he memorized Zhuang Yan’s phone number? He had only thought to save it, but the phone was lost.
He was truly a jinxed piece of work.
“Senior, can you help me bring everything that needs processing to the hospital? I want to settle things here as quickly as possible and return home immediately.”
Lying on the bed in the villa, Zhuang Yan sneezed. Was the air conditioning blowing too cold?
But he didn’t feel cold.
Was the baby inside him feeling cold?
The baby was still just a tiny embryo; what could it know?
It must be someone speaking ill of him. Perhaps it was Yue Lu privately complaining about how ungrateful he was for not signing the divorce papers.
Hmph, he just wouldn’t sign. What could he do about it?
Just now, Zhuang Yan had felt a strange sense of unease. Initially, he thought an accident had happened to someone close to him.
They say that the closer you are to someone, the more you feel a spiritual connection; he had felt a terrible sense of dread when Wang Mengmeng had her accident.
But thinking carefully, his parents and Brother Xiaocheng had just had a video call with him, and the baby in his stomach felt fine without any discomfort.
As for Yue Lu… who knew where he was living it up? What accident could possibly happen to him?
Thinking it over, there was only one possibility.
He had stayed up late too many times, and now that the pregnancy was consuming more energy, his body was starting to struggle.
To be safe, he searched the internet for what to do when your heart flutters with anxiety, then lay quietly on the bed for over an hour until he recovered.
I must pay attention to a regular sleep schedule from now on.