"Are you sure? Have you been to the hospital for a check-up?" Grandmother Ji still wouldn't give up.
Lu Li walked out of the restroom, and only she herself knew the anxiety and unease she felt at this very moment.
"Xiao Li, are you pregnant?"
Grandmother Ji looked at her belly and asked with delight.
Lu Li smiled faintly and shook her head. "Grandmother, I did go to the hospital for a check-up. It's just a minor stomach issue."
Grandmother Ji looked a little disappointed, though she knew this wasn't something that could be forced. "Take good care of yourself. Be mindful of your diet lately."
Lu Li nodded. As she fed fruit to Grandmother Ji, Ji Zhichen stepped out to take a phone call.
After she finished coaxing Grandmother Ji through the fruit and chatted with the elderly woman for a while longer, she picked up the empty bowl and walked out of the ward.
As she passed the lounge, she happened to overhear Ji Min mocking her.
"Brother, I was just outside the ward and heard Grandmother urging her to have a baby," Ji Min said with great displeasure. "Grandmother really is getting senile. As if she's worthy?"
Ji Zhichen cast a faint glance at Ji Min, one laced with warning.
He didn't mind her talking about Lu Li, but he wouldn't allow her to be disrespectful toward Grandmother.
Ji Min shrank her neck and stuck out her tongue. "Brother, I'm sorry. I just feel wronged on your behalf."
"She won't get pregnant," Ji Zhichen said coolly.
"I knew my brother was a sensible man."
Having gotten her answer, Ji Min left cheerfully.
She opened the door and saw Lu Li standing at the entrance. Raising an eyebrow with contempt, she said, "A woman bought for a hundred million isn't qualified to bear the Ji family's child. Know your place, Lu Li, understand?"
This sister-in-law of hers loved nothing more than mocking her as the "hundred-million bride."
Lu Li lowered her voice and said gently, "Xiao Min, your brother can't perform, so of course there won't be any children. Understand?"
"You!" Ji Min glared at Lu Li. "You disgusting woman, don't you dare spout nonsense."
Lu Li curled her lips into a smile. "Your sister-in-law here isn't spouting nonsense. I speak from personal experience."
Ji Min's expression turned even uglier. "Shameless woman, you're not fit to be my sister-in-law. You can't even compare to Sister Yaoyao with a single finger."
"Mhm mhm mhm, right, I can't compare to your Sister Yaoyao. Yet here I am, as Mrs. Ji." Lu Li smiled.
"You!"
Ji Min raised her hand and swung it viciously at Lu Li's seductive, cheap-looking face.
It was this face—always out there seducing men.
Lu Li reacted swiftly, raising the empty bowl in her hand to block the slap.
Ji Min's delicate palm struck the bowl, and she cried out in pain.
The lounge door opened, and Ji Zhichen appeared at the entrance.
"Brother, she hit me with the bowl! Look, my hand is all red!" Ji Min said with reddened eyes, the first to play the victim.
"She hit the bowl herself," Lu Li said calmly.
Ji Zhichen's indifferent gaze swept toward Lu Li. "Lu Li, mind your place."
"What place?" Lu Li asked flatly.
"Ji Min bears the surname Ji."
The moment his words fell—
Lu Li raised her hand and, without hesitation, slapped herself hard across the right cheek.
The slap rang out loud and clear.
Her cheek flushed red instantly, showing she hadn't held back in the least.
Ji Zhichen was momentarily stunned.
He hadn't expected her to hit herself.
Ji Min cast a smug sidelong glance at Lu Li. "Tsk tsk tsk, brother, I'm off."
She strutted away on her high heels, head held high.
Lu Li picked up the empty bowl and, expressionless, prepared to go wash it.
"Wait." He stopped her.
Ji Zhichen narrowed his sharp eyes, sizing her up.
Lu Li took a nervous step back.
Then he pulled out his phone and made a call.
The moment Lu Li heard what he said into the phone, she knew things were about to take a very bad turn.
He hung up. "Secretary Lu, shall we head to the gynecology outpatient clinic now for a check-up? What do you think?"
For an instant, Lu Li's mind went completely blank.
The suspicion that she'd deliberately hidden a pregnancy to secure her position as Mrs. Ji would likely be pinned directly on her head.
Lu Li had originally planned to secretly get an abortion.
What was she supposed to do now?
She felt her scalp go numb.
Ji Zhichen walked toward the elevator first. Seeing that Lu Li hadn't moved, he called out coolly, "Secretary Lu?"
Lu Li used the excuse of stomach discomfort and needing to use the restroom to stall for time.
Clutching her stomach, she hurried into the restroom, racking her brain for how to resolve this.
In the end, Lu Li decided to try a desperate gamble and sent a text message.
[Miss Xiao, Zhichen is accompanying me to the gynecology outpatient clinic for a check-up. We're preparing for IVF.]
After sending the message, Lu Li put her phone away with a blank expression.
She refused to believe Xiao Yaoyao could stay indifferent.
Lu Li crouched in the restroom, dawdling for fifteen minutes.
During that time, Ji Zhichen called to urge her along.
Lu Li clutched her stomach, her voice weak. "My stomach's been acting up these past few days. Everything I eat, well, that thing—"
She awkwardly changed "diarrhea" to "that thing."
Ji Zhichen furrowed his brow, narrowing his cool eyes. "Lu Li, you'd better not be playing any tricks."
When Lu Li judged that enough time had passed, she washed her hands, walked out of the restroom, and took the elevator to the gynecology outpatient clinic.
Ji Zhichen was already waiting for her outside the gynecology clinic.
"Let's go in."
Xiao Yaoyao didn't come.
Lu Li was nervous and helpless.
She gradually calmed herself down—when the boat reaches the bridge, it will go straight. If she got found out, so be it.
Just as they opened the door to the doctor's office and were about to step inside, Ji Zhichen's phone rang.
"Yaoyao, speak slowly, what happened… Okay, I'll be right there."
As he took the call, Ji Zhichen's deep, dark eyes glanced at Lu Li.
His gaze landed on her still-swollen right cheek, paused for a moment, then he turned and left without hesitation.
Lu Li interpreted that look from Ji Zhichen as a warning.
She walked out of the hospital and only learned from the entertainment news that Xiao Yaoyao had encountered a crazed fan. She had been tackled by the male fan and suffered a fractured hand.
No wonder Ji Zhichen had rushed over so anxiously.
**
Lu Li ran into the man she had bumped into the night before in the hotel elevator again.
He was holding a cup of coffee in his hand once more.
She noticed his gaze resting on her still-swollen right cheek, with no intention of looking away.
She felt a bit embarrassed, but she didn't avoid his eyes either. With a wooden expression, she said, "I know I'm a great beauty."
Qin Zhi's lips curved upward, a hint of a smile spilling out. He took a sip of his coffee, his prominent Adam's apple sliding sensually as he swallowed.
He said, "You look familiar."
Lu Li glanced at the rising floor numbers on the elevator. "…That kind of pickup line is pretty outdated now."
"I've never needed to pick anyone up," Qin Zhi said with an ambiguous smile. "I'm just stating the truth."
His voice was leisurely and lazy.
Puzzled, Lu Li looked at the man on her left through the mirror-smooth elevator walls. She had no memory of this man at all.
She didn't know him.
Suddenly, the man walked toward her.
His presence was overwhelming.
Lu Li, a little startled, took a few steps back.
"Something wrong?" she asked stiffly, looking into his deep, dark eyes.
He looked into her eyes, pulled down his mask, and revealed a pair of exquisitely handsome features.
Lu Li held her breath. They were too close—she could smell a faint scent of pine on him.
"You really don't recognize me?"
"No, I don't."
Qin Zhi straightened up and gave her a sidelong glance.
When the elevator doors opened on the tenth floor, he stepped aside, and Lu Li quickly hurried out.
She felt a bit puzzled. She truly didn't know that man, but he seemed to know her?
Lu Li had just finished showering when she heard someone ring the doorbell.
It was a hotel staff member.
"A gentleman on the twelfth floor asked us to deliver this ointment for the face to Miss Lu."
"Thank you."
Lu Li took the ointment, even more confused.
She didn't use the ointment on her face—after all, they weren't familiar with each other.
That night, Lu Li had a dream.
She dreamed of that night two months ago.
In the dream, the hotel suite seemed to have no air conditioning on; she only felt scorching hot.
Her body was drenched in sweat from the exertion.
The man gripped her waist, shifting through several positions.
He thrust into her, hard and deep.
Lu Li was so soft she had no strength left, her alcohol-fogged mind growing even more hazy.
When she woke up…
Lu Li rubbed her forehead.
The dream she had tonight was a bit unsettling.
It had started with Ji Zhichen's face, but for some reason, it suddenly changed to that man she met in the elevator.