“Mom, don’t ever bring up that matter again.”
Leaving his mother with those final words, Fu Qianyu walked out of the villa. He drove aimlessly, his mind constantly flashing back to the person with that brilliant smile from nine years ago.
An overwhelming wave of irritation surged in his chest. Fu Qianyu pulled his car over randomly outside a bar and went inside to drink.
As the bitter, burning alcohol traveled down his throat, that familiar face refused to fade from his vision.
After finishing his drinks, a slightly tipsy Fu Qianyu sat in his car and smoked for a long while, the swirling wreaths of smoke obscuring his expression.
He called his chauffeur to pick him up. It was only when they reached the destination that he realized the address he had blurted out on a whim was the hospital.
Remembering the pure and innocent Jing Jiaxi, he shoved his hands into his pockets and strode in the direction of the boy’s room.
“Mr. Fu, what are you doing here?”
“Suddenly… I missed you a little.”
Fu Qianyu reeked of alcohol and didn’t seem entirely sober.
“Are you… talking to me?”
Words of longing like that shouldn’t be directed at someone he had only known for a short while.
Jing Jiaxi could faintly sense that Fu Qianyu was in a terrible mood. Was he drunk?
Who was he looking at through him?
A dull ache suddenly throbbed in Jing Jiaxi’s chest. He rubbed his sternum, utterly baffled as to why he was experiencing such an emotion.
“…” Fu Qianyu bypassed him completely, walking over to sit on the hospital bed before stretching his long limbs out and lying back. “Come here.”
Fu Qianyu’s tall, long-limbed frame lay sprawled there, occupying more than half of Jing Jiaxi’s small bed.
“Would you like a glass of water?”
Jing Jiaxi walked to his side, noticing how he was frowning with his hand draped over his forehead. “Let me ask the nurse to bring you some sobriety medication.”
“No need.”
Just as Jing Jiaxi turned around to pour him a glass of warm water, an arm shot out from behind, dragging him down into a chest thick with a masculine scent.
Jing Jiaxi instantly held his breath, his entire body going rigid. The man’s arm wrapped around his waist, caressing it aggressively. The innocent boy, completely inexperienced in matters of intimacy, blushed furiously to the tips of his ears.
“You… you’re drunk…” Jing Jiaxi pushed against the man’s arm, but it was solid, muscular, and completely unyielding.
“I only drank a little. I’m not drunk,” Fu Qianyu spoke right against his neck, his hot breath fanning across the boy’s flushed, soft earlobe.
Jing Jiaxi’s eyes brimmed with tears. “Then… please don’t do this…”
Like a little rabbit dropped straight into a tiger’s den, he was too terrified to move, capable only of whispering pleas for mercy.
The boy’s tearful voice caused Fu Qianyu to freeze slightly. He slackened his grip, looping his arms loosely around him.
“I’m a bit tired today. I’m sleeping here.”
But a predator’s mercy is never moved by a prey’s begging. The man imperiously commandeered his bed and locked him in an embrace, leaving him zero room for retreat.
Jing Jiaxi had no choice but to lie perfectly still, waiting for the man to fall asleep.
He didn’t dare turn around, capable only of feeling the slight rise and fall of the warm chest pressed flat against his back.
The thumping of a heartbeat echoed loudly in the room, though it was impossible to tell whose it belonged to. The man’s powerful presence was something Jing Jiaxi simply couldn’t ignore.
This was the first time in his entire life sharing a bed with someone. The very first time, he hadn’t even gotten a clear look at the man’s face; this time, he simply didn’t dare look.
As the night deepened and the man’s breathing turned even and steady, Jing Jiaxi finally began to carefully shift his rigid body, which had remained frozen for hours.
He struggled to distance himself from the man’s warm breath, managing to extract himself from the embrace with great difficulty.
In the next instant, Fu Qianyu’s long arm swept out, hauling him right back into his chest. “Behave yourself. Stop moving around.”
This time, the little rabbit was pinned securely in his arms. Fu Qianyu tightened his grip with immense satisfaction, slipping into a deep sleep a moment later.
Staring at the man’s face, Jing Jiaxi wanted to cry but had no tears left. Having been caught red-handed trying to escape, he didn’t dare move another inch.
Aided by the dim night light, he could see the man’s furrowed brow. A sudden urge to smooth away that frown bubbled up within him, but he suppressed the thought.
It was only in the dead of night that Jing Jiaxi, who had always maintained a highly disciplined sleep schedule, finally drifted off to sleep.
In his dream, he accepted the man’s marriage proposal. Everyone envied him for marrying into such a family. At the wedding, he smiled sweetly, heavily pregnant as he held the soft, tiny hand of their child.
The master of ceremonies built up the atmosphere beautifully, and the entire audience began chanting for him and the man to kiss.
He closed his eyes and lifted his chin, waiting for the man’s lips to descend. Yet, after waiting for what felt like an eternity, the anticipated kiss never came. Instead, a bucket of ice-cold water was violently dashed over him.
Lu Zhili stood there with a twisted, monstrous expression, screaming at him, calling him a homewrecker and a third party.
The guests swarmed around, pointing fingers and whispering at him. Meanwhile, the man who had been cradling him so tenderly just a moment ago now wrapped his arm around a complete stranger, turning on his heel to walk away.
Clad in his intricate, pure white wedding suit, he collapsed heavily to the floor. He wanted to scream, to beg the man to come back, but the man merely walked further and further away, hand-in-hand with someone else.
His child began to wail at the top of its lungs as blood pooled out from beneath him, and he plummeted into an infinite, bottomless abyss…
“Ah!” Jing Jiaxi woke up drenched in a cold sweat. He had finally managed to scream out loud, jarring Fu Qianyu awake in the process.
“What’s wrong? A nightmare?”
Fu Qianyu patted his back gently, but for a long moment, Jing Jiaxi couldn’t distinguish between the dream and reality.
The face right before his eyes overlapped perfectly with the face that had abandoned him in the nightmare, causing massive teardrops to roll uncontrollably down his cheeks.
Fu Qianyu wiped the tears away with his thumb. “Dreams are all fake. Don’t cry.”
It took a while for Jing Jiaxi to steady his ragged breathing and shake off the horrific residual emotions of the nightmare. Now that he was fully conscious, he felt a wave of embarrassment for weeping without a valid cause.
He sat up, moving a short distance away from Fu Qianyu. “I don’t know what came over me… It was a nightmare, but it felt so real…”
“What did you dream about?”
“…” Jing Jiaxi offered no reply, merely slipping out of bed to pour himself a glass of water, draining it completely.
Fu Qianyu recalled how he had stubbornly insisted on holding the boy to sleep the previous night. “Was it because of me?”
Jing Jiaxi’s eyes flickered slightly, his index finger tracing the rim of the glass.
“I’m spiritless.” Fu Qianyu had slept fully clothed, but he had held him in an iron grip; the boy had undoubtedly spent a highly uncomfortable night.
“…It’s fine,” Jing Jiaxi explained. “Emotions tend to fluctuate wildly during pregnancy anyway. I just needed a quick cry, I’m perfectly fine now.”
“Mmh…”
Remembering the vivid image of his miscarriage in the dream, Jing Jiaxi still felt a lingering sense of terror.
He mapped the pads of his fingers across his lower abdomen, only calming down once he felt the tiny, subtle curve beneath his touch.
“Can I feel it?” Witnessing the boy stroke his stomach, his frame radiating the soft, gentle aura of paternal affection, Fu Qianyu felt an involuntary stir in his heart.
“Ah… Yes, you can.”
Jing Jiaxi nodded his consent without a single shred of hesitation.
In truth, Fu Qianyu had merely intended to feel the baby the previous night. However, the moment his palm made contact with the smooth, delicate skin of the boy’s abdomen, he had completely lost track of his original purpose, caressing it mindlessly instead.
Fortunately, the boy was highly open-minded, putting the incident entirely behind him after a single night’s sleep, and even consenting to let him feel the child now. Harboring a deep trace of contrition, Fu Qianyu focused fully on registering the child’s presence.
Fu Qianyu’s gaze turned deep and heavy: This is the child linked to him by blood…
Staring at Fu Qianyu’s hand resting against his lower abdomen, Jing Jiaxi’s heart began to flutter erratically.
Click.
A camera concealed inside a residential building several hundred meters away captured the image perfectly.
“Boss, we got the shot.”