Fu Qianyu’s sudden roar caused Jing Jiaxi’s shoulders to tremble violently.
Pooling tears instantly gathered and brimmed along the rims of his eyes, threatening to spill over at any moment.
“I didn’t…”
Jing Jiaxi weakly managed to squeeze out those two syllables, his voice shaking uncontrollably.
He lifted his head, his eyes entirely consumed by sheer terror.
Fu Qianyu’s chest heaved with heavy breaths a few times before he forced his voice down, delivering his words slowly: “Then why did you go meet my mother? What did you two talk about?”
What on earth did his mother say to cause this boy to waver so foolishly?
If he couldn’t explain himself clearly, he could forget about eating tonight!
Trembling with fear, Jing Jiaxi recounted their entire conversation to him word for word.
“I’m sorry…”
He closed his eyes as a tear escaped from the corner of his eye, tracing a path down his pointed chin and splashing right onto the back of Fu Qianyu’s hand.
It felt chillingly cold.
“…”
Fu Qianyu released his grip on the boy, an incredibly rare, suffocating sense of frustration settling deep in his chest.
“Why didn’t you inform me the very second you received her message?”
There wasn’t anything particularly out of the ordinary regarding Jing Jiaxi’s conversation with his mother; it was nothing more than his mother trying to test Jing Jiaxi’s baseline.
Guilt-ridden and too terrified to formulate a proper response, Jing Jiaxi could only offer a vague summary.
His mother, naturally detecting Jing Jiaxi’s complete lack of guile, had seized the opportunity to tempt the boy with money.
But what Fu Qianyu found most incomprehensible was this:
Wasn’t it just five million?
He actually contemplated leaving him over a mere five million?!
“I… I didn’t think…”
Accustomed to handling absolutely everything on his own, Jing Jiaxi would never think to seek assistance from others unless driven to an absolute dead end, constantly terrified of causing even a single shred of trouble for anyone else.
Fu Qianyu sat back down on the sofa. Noting that the boy was still frozen like a statue by the doorway, looking entirely traumatized by his earlier outburst, he commanded:
“Come here.”
He truly was a certified fool; he hadn’t even done anything severe, yet the boy was already scared out of his wits.
He truly couldn’t handle even a single word of criticism.
Jing Jiaxi walked over to stand right in front of him. At this angle, when he lowered his head, he could look directly at Fu Qianyu sitting on the sofa.
Fu Qianyu leaned back against the cushions, reaching out to grasp the boy’s ice-cold hand.
The freezing texture against his palm caused his brow to lock tight, though he smoothed it out swiftly, keeping his face entirely devoid of emotion.
With a gentle tug, the boy collapsed directly into his embrace.
Finding himself sitting squarely on the man’s lap, Jing Jiaxi shifted his body in sheer astonishment.
But his minor resistance was as insignificant as a feather brushing across the surface of a pond, completely negligible.
Fu Qianyu’s tone turned chillingly cold: “Stop moving around.”
His massive palm enveloped the boy’s hand, transferring a steady stream of warmth right into Jing Jiaxi’s shivering frame.
Staring at his own hand trapped within the man’s grasp, Jing Jiaxi felt a wave of bewilderment.
“I merely asked you two simple questions; what are you crying for?”
Jing Jiaxi wanted to explain that he wasn’t crying on purpose; he simply possessed a crying-prone constitution where his tears would flow automatically whenever his emotions grew too intense.
Yet the moment his lips parted, his voice still shook entirely out of shape: “I’m n—”
Deeply sensing how incredibly embarrassing it was to speak in such a manner, and with his throat aching with bitterness, he simply shut his mouth.
“The next time my mother approaches you, notify me immediately.”
If the chauffeur hadn’t informed him, he would likely still be completely in the dark.
Although he could easily track Jing Jiaxi down no matter where he chose to flee, Fu Qianyu thoroughly detested this sensation of losing absolute control over a situation.
Fu Qianyu was accustomed to dictating every single variable—so much so that even when the boy squirmed slightly in his embrace, attempting to stand up, the response he received was merely a tightening of the arms around him and an increased weight on his hand.
Realizing his resistance was entirely futile, Jing Jiaxi lowered his head and resigned himself to his fate.
Fu Qianyu gripped the boy’s slender waist with immense satisfaction, only releasing his hold once Jing Jiaxi’s freezing hands had been thoroughly toasted warm.
“Go eat.”
Grasping his wrist with an air that brooked no argument, Fu Qianyu guided him over to the dining table.
By now, the table was already blanketed in an array of steaming, incredibly fragrant dishes.
Jing Jiaxi sat down on the chair the man had personally pulled out for him. His chopsticks exclusively targeted the solitary dish positioned directly in front of him as he kept his head low, burying himself in shoveling rice into his mouth.
After observing his behavior for a spell, Fu Qianyu suddenly spoke up: “Do you dislike these dishes?”
If he disliked them, he would simply swap out the chef.
Jing Jiaxi lifted his eyes to steal a glance at him. Holding a mouthful of rice, he shook his head vigorously. It was only after he chewed thoroughly and swallowed the food that he managed to reply: “They are all very delicious.”
“Then why aren’t you eating the rest?”
Jing Jiaxi fell silent for a few seconds. “…At home, they wouldn’t allow me to eat too much. They claimed that gaining too much weight during puberty would hinder my physical development…”
Fu Qianyu’s brow furrowed tightly as his gaze swept over the boy’s frame, which was significantly skinnier than a professional runway model’s. “You? Fat?”
A distinct trace of fury actually crept into his tone.
In truth, Jing Jiaxi understood perfectly well that it had merely been a convenient excuse; it was only now, having blurted it out loud, that he realized just how incredibly clumsy and absurd the excuse actually sounded.
Jing Jiaxi placed a single strand of green vegetable into his bowl, returning to lowering his head to consume his rice.
During his pregnancy, his appetite was highly volatile—one second he would be vomiting so severely he couldn’t keep a thing down, and the next he would be absolutely ravenous.
Seizing this window where he actually possessed an appetite, Jing Jiaxi desperately needed to eat a bit more; otherwise, even the most skilled nutritionist wouldn’t be able to salvage his state of malnutrition.
While Jing Jiaxi was focused entirely on devouring his food, a fresh serving of dishes suddenly materialized inside his bowl.
Fu Qianyu plated some food for him before ladling out a bowl of soup.
Engaging in the act of serving soup to someone for the absolute first time in his life, his movements were slow, deliberate, and exceptionally elegant as he placed the warm seafood broth right by the boy’s hand.
“Eat more. Don’t starve the child.”
Registering Fu Qianyu’s sudden display of concern for the fetus in his womb, Jing Jiaxi nodded gratefully: “Thank you, Mr. Fu.”
After draining the single bowl of rice and the bowl of soup, he found himself completely unable to manage another bite.
“That’s all you’re eating?”
Could an adult male truly feel full after consuming nothing more than a single tiny portion of rice?
However, Jing Jiaxi had long since grown accustomed to starvation in his past; a portion of this size already constituted a lavish meal for him.
Jing Jiaxi shook his head. “I am truly full. I can’t eat another bite.”
If he forced himself to consume any more, he would likely trigger his nausea.
Fu Qianyu made a mental note to instruct the nutritionist to formulate more nourishing, energy-dense meals for him. Eating such a microscopic amount, he refused to believe Jing Jiaxi’s health wouldn’t run into severe complications.
He summoned the domestic staff to clear the dishes away, restoring the dining table to absolute pristine order.
Fu Qianyu observed him sitting there following the meal, looking exactly like an exceptionally obedient student quietly awaiting further instructions.
Thus, he opened his mouth: “Finished eating? Then let us resume discussing the issues plaguing our relationship.”
Jing Jiaxi’s large, perfectly clear eyes went completely round. The skin surrounding his eyelids remained flushed pink from his earlier weeping, making him look incredibly pitiful.
He had genuinely believed that since Mr. Fu had already held him in his arms, the man’s fury had fully dissipated. Did they truly have to dissect the matter further?
The emotions flashing across the boy’s face were far too easy to read.
Fu Qianyu locked his gaze onto his eyes. “Our conversation wasn’t concluded just now.”
The moment the dialogue drifted right back into deep, serious territory, Jing Jiaxi’s nerves instantly tightened once more.
Fu Qianyu sat before him with an immense aura of pure oppression, causing Jing Jiaxi to cast a subtle glance toward the door: he wanted nothing more than to flee this room immediately.
“Do you have any inkling of how much this apartment costs?”
Jing Jiaxi had no idea why the man had suddenly altered the trajectory of the conversation, yet he still cast a sweeping look across the property.
The residential complex was serene and secluded, the interior design was low-key yet extraordinarily luxurious, and the location was absolute prime real estate.
“It should… it should be worth over ten million?” He boldly ventured a figure that he personally deemed to be a staggering amount.
Fu Qianyu let out a sharp scoff. “And here I thought you were entirely clueless.”
Five million. Compared to tens of millions, which number was larger? Was he completely incapable of performing basic arithmetic?
“This apartment costs twenty-four million.”
The moment Fu Qianyu delivered the raw value of the property, Jing Jiaxi sucked in a sharp breath of cold air.
He had believed the ten million he posited was already a staggering sum.
Twenty-four million was an amount he didn’t even dare to conceptualize.
“Five million? What on earth were you thinking?”
Fu Qianyu made no effort to mask the blatant mockery in his tone, causing a crimson flush to spread across Jing Jiaxi’s face.
He had zero idea how to explain that his brain had gone completely foggy at the time, leaving him entirely incapable of rational thought.
Furthermore… he had genuinely been tempted.
He had reasoned that taking the money and vanishing permanently would yield the best outcome for absolutely everyone involved.
But now that he was fully lucid, he remembered that the child in his womb didn’t belong exclusively to him.
It was Fu Qianyu’s as well.
Five million was an astronomical sum to an ordinary citizen like him, but to the genuinely wealthy, it was a laughable amount that couldn’t even secure a high-end luxury vehicle.
The child’s father was the direct heir to the Fu Corporation; how could he possibly tolerate his own flesh and blood scraping by on a mere five million alongside him?
Jing Jiaxi felt a profound wave of contrition over his incredibly muddled reasoning.
“I am sorry… Mr. Fu…”
Jing Jiaxi lowered his head to proffer his deepest apologies. The chasm separating him from Mr. Fu was far too massive; it was only natural that Mr. Fu would feel intensely provoked by his foolish attempt to whisk his child away to lead a life of hardship.
“Save your breath.”
Fu Qianyu’s cold, detached voice drifted over, causing the weight of guilt in Jing Jiaxi’s heart to grow increasingly heavy.
What he failed to notice, however, was Fu Qianyu retrieving a checkbook, smoothly signing his name across a string of digits.
In the next fraction of a second, a slip of paper was slapped flat right before Jing Jiaxi’s eyes.
“The exact figure you requested initially.”