Tang Wei lowered her gaze, at a complete loss. After weighing her options for a moment, she could only nod. “Fine.”
Seeing that the two were about to leave, Xu An, who had been standing there dumbfounded, suddenly snapped back to reality and called out anxiously, “President Lu…”
“Wait here.”
Xu An instinctively nodded. “Oh, okay.”
The next second, his eyes flew wide open.
“Wait…”
But the two had already walked off into the distance, leaving Xu An with no choice but to swallow all his shock back down.
He now had the feeling of waking up from a long sleep to find that the world had abandoned him.
Last month?
Shengshi Hotel?
A child?
It wasn’t hard to understand, and it was easy enough to piece together into a story.
But what was most incomprehensible was that all of this had something to do with their President Lu.
He’d only taken two days off last month—how could something this important have happened in that time?
He was an idiot too. Lu Jinshi’s behavior had been so out of character, and he’d actually thought the man was just being kind-hearted.
He couldn’t really be blamed though. Given how Lu Jinshi wouldn’t even spare a second glance at women on a normal day, it would’ve been stranger if he’d thought of that.
Wait—had he just indirectly called their President Lu a scumbag who seduced and abandoned women?
Oh no, what now?
He wasn’t going to get his pay docked, was he?
Within two seconds, Xu An’s shock was completely replaced by worry.
It was over, it was over. He still had to earn money for his daughter’s milk powder.
While he was over here worrying himself sick, the atmosphere on the other side was equally tense.
Tang Wei stopped under a tree, took a light breath, and asked directly, “What do you want to talk about?”
She’d made her decision. No matter what Lu Jinshi wanted to discuss, as long as it involved the child, she would deny everything.
She’d already decided to keep the baby, and she wouldn’t let anyone take it away from her.
Lu Jinshi gazed at her deeply, his expression perfectly calm, but the words he spoke hit Tang Wei like a thunderbolt, catching her completely off guard.
He said, “Last month, you ran into my room and slept with me.”
That night at the drinking party, a woman had spilled red wine on his clothes, so he’d taken a shower at the hotel.
Because he’d called someone to bring him fresh clothes, he hadn’t locked the door. Who would’ve thought that just as he came out of the bathroom—
Tang Wei had barged into his room, grabbing him and kissing him, touching him.
Her body was burning hot, her cheeks flushed, and she was already completely dazed. One look at her and he knew she’d been drugged. He’d originally planned to call someone for help.
But watching her suffer and cry, red-eyed as she begged him for help, something inexplicable came over him. He felt a strange heat rising in his own body, and he let things happen.
He should have explained everything to her the next day, but an urgent matter at the overseas branch had come up.
Early in the morning, before she even woke up, he’d left directly.
And that departure had only brought him back this morning.
Coincidentally, before he’d even had the chance to have Xu An track her down, they’d run into each other again at the hospital.
He could see her rejection and resistance, so he’d changed his approach and come at it from this angle instead.
Sure enough, Tang Wei’s mind went completely blank, even forgetting about the child.
Her small face flushed bright red, and she wished she could dig a hole and crawl into it. “I didn’t mean to. I, I that day…”
She couldn’t continue. She felt like any explanation would be futile.
Tang Wei gritted her teeth. “Just say it. How much?”
She glanced at him, then added, “Even though you’re better looking than most, you can’t go overboard. And… and you didn’t exactly lose out either.”
That last sentence came out with noticeably less confidence.
“…”
Lu Jinshi’s face darkened like the bottom of a pot. He let out a laugh of disbelief. “What do you take me for?”
Plenty of women wanted his money, but this was the first time he’d ever heard a woman offering to pay him.
Tang Wei’s confidence shrank even further. She pressed her lips together. “Then what do you want?”
If he didn’t want money…
Could it be that he wanted the child?
Tang Wei protectively covered her belly and took two steps back, extremely wary. “The child is mine.”
Lu Jinshi pinched the bridge of his nose, glanced at her stomach, and said flatly, “I’m not fighting you over the child.”
Tang Wei let out a sigh of relief. “Then what do you want?”
Lu Jinshi: “For you to take responsibility.”
“Huh?” Tang Wei was stunned for a moment, then shook her head. “I don’t need you to take responsibility.”
She’d been hazy that day, but she vaguely remembered that she was the one who’d barged in and made the first move. She couldn’t put all the blame on Lu Jinshi.
Lu Jinshi looked down at her eyes, speaking slowly and deliberately, “You slept with me. You take responsibility for me.”
Tang Wei’s eyes flew wide in astonishment as she stared at him in disbelief.
Something felt off here.
Had she heard him wrong?
Lu Jinshi held her gaze. “You’re not going to pretend it never happened after sleeping with me, are you?”
“I didn’t—I, hey, no…” Tang Wei really hadn’t expected him to say that. Her already blank mind felt like it was filled with paste, so muddled she couldn’t even string together a complete sentence.
“That day was an accident.”
After thinking for a long time, she managed to squeeze out that one line.
Lu Jinshi raised an eyebrow. “You think one word—’accident’—is enough to pretend nothing happened?”
“…”
The way he said it, the tone of it—it made her sound like some heartless woman who refused to acknowledge a man after getting what she wanted.
Tang Wei was left speechless. After a moment, she furrowed her brows slightly, utterly helpless. “You don’t want money, so what do you want me to do to take responsibility?”
Lu Jinshi’s brow twitched slightly. He stared intently at her and finally voiced his thoughts, “Let’s get our marriage certificate. We’ll get married.”
He had already decided this the moment he touched her.
Besides, since they already had a child together, marriage was inevitable.
Tang Wei couldn’t believe what she had just heard.
After a long moment, she lowered her gaze and shook her head. “I don’t want to marry you.”
She didn’t even know him.
Moreover, she didn’t want to get married in this lifetime.
Men were all unreliable—why waste her feelings on them?
“What about the child? I know you want to keep this baby. And don’t bother saying the child isn’t mine—I don’t believe it, and I can find out the truth. If you don’t believe me, you can try.”
“…”
Tang Wei’s urge to retort immediately fizzled out.
Somehow, she felt he was more than capable of doing it.
Lu Jinshi’s dark eyes were deep and unfathomable as he looked seriously at Tang Wei. “A child’s growth can’t be without a father. You don’t want it to be born and be called a fatherless child, do you? Getting married is also taking responsibility for this child.”
“Besides, I won’t allow my child to be left outside without a proper status.”
Tang Wei bit her lip tightly, knowing that what he said was the truth—and that he had even put it quite gently.
She had grown up without parents and had heard the taunt “wild child” from others more times than she could count. She knew all too well how much damage such words could do to a child.
Tang Wei raised her eyes and opened her mouth. She wanted to ask what if she didn’t want the child…
But the words swirled in her throat several times before being swallowed back down.
She simply couldn’t bring herself to say it.
She had struggled for so long before deciding to keep this child—she couldn’t give it up now.
Why hadn’t he shown up earlier? Then she wouldn’t have held any expectations for this child.
Tang Wei lowered her gaze, a tangle of conflicting emotions swirling in her eyes.