“Get out!”
Fu Qianyu’s words shattered Lu Zhili’s heart far more than his slap ever could.
Weeping with streaming tears and a runny nose, he cut an utterly wretched figure. Breaking free from the loosened grip of the bodyguards, he dashed frantically out of the hospital ward.
Following Lu Zhili’s exit, Jing Jiaxi didn’t dare lift his head to look at Fu Qianyu, choosing instead to look down and pick at his fingers.
Even though he hadn’t done anything wrong, Jing Jiaxi’s heart beat rapidly, looking for all the world as if the person who had just been taught a lesson was him rather than Lu Zhili.
“Frightened?”
After Lu Zhili departed, Fu Qianyu drew some distance between himself and the boy.
Sitting down on a chair adjacent to the balcony, he picked up a folder and flipped through it. “Come here.”
Jing Jiaxi shuffled over, keeping his head lowered as before, completely at a loss for words.
“Raise your head and look at me.”
Like an exquisite puppet, Jing Jiaxi mechanically followed Fu Qianyu’s command and raised his head to look at him. A stray tuft of hair on the crown of his head trembled slightly, the boy’s strands shimmering under the illumination of the sunlight.
Fu Qianyu found his dazed look rather amusing. “Sit.”
“Why aren’t you speaking? Did that scare you just now?” His tone was tranquil, making him seem like a completely different person from the stern and intimidating figure of a moment ago.
Yet Jing Jiaxi possessed the intuition of a small animal, sensing that the man before him was ten thousand times more terrifying than the bared-fangs, claw-waving, assaultive Lu Zhili.
“No.” Jing Jiaxi sat down obediently and shook his head, the baby fat on his face swaying slightly with the motion.
Delivering a dry, two-word response made Jing Jiaxi feel a bit awkward. After a moment’s thought, he supplemented: “I just feel… a bit unaccustomed to it.”
Unaccustomed to having someone stand up for him.
Jing Jiaxi tugged at his trousers; in truth, he was highly nervous.
Clinging to the man’s arm and playing the victim to act coquettishly just now had already been the maximum limit of provocation he could manage.
Now that the enemy had departed, the sheer pressure emanating from Fu Qianyu caused his little heart to thump wildly all over again.
“Thank you for just now.” If the man hadn’t intervened on his behalf, Lu Zhili would have likely torn him to shreds.
Jing Jiaxi still understood the principle of returning gratitude for kindness, so he earnestly offered a slight bow toward Fu Qianyu.
“It’s nothing, only what should be done.” After all, Jing Jiaxi was carrying his child; on that single premise alone, Lu Zhili had targeted the wrong person.
Fu Qianyu swept a glance over his abdomen, attributing his defense of the boy to this fact.
Only then did Jing Jiaxi accept Fu Qianyu’s assistance with a clear conscience.
Ah, right. We are both doing this to protect the child.
Jing Jiaxi couldn’t help but offer a shallow smile, a tiny dimple surfacing at the corner of his mouth: Little cub, both of your fathers love you very much, you know. Furthermore, your other father is extremely powerful and can protect you exceptionally well.
Watching the boy smile for no apparent reason, Fu Qianyu’s index finger twitched slightly.
Having dissolved his nervous emotions, Jing Jiaxi lifted his head to look squarely at Fu Qianyu with a smile.
Fu Qianyu glanced across his relaxed frame and handed the folder over to him.
“Take a look.”
“What is this?” Jing Jiaxi accepted it, guessing that this was the contract for their joint upbringing of the child.
“You’ll know once you finish reading it.”
Before he could even finish reading, Jing Jiaxi was so shocked he nearly failed to hold onto the document. The topmost line of text, “Prenuptial Agreement,” already made him lose the courage to read further.
Steadying his mind, Jing Jiaxi swiftly read through the document carefully. To someone like him who only possessed a rudimentary understanding of marriage law, not a single clause within the contract was disadvantageous to him; it appeared to be a perfectly normal prenuptial agreement.
His fingers began to tremble from cold sweat: Is he… going to marry me?
The boy’s expressions of amazement and shock flickered continuously before him. Fu Qianyu found it highly intriguing; very few people laid bare their emotions so completely on their faces like he did.
Jing Jiaxi set the contract down, his hands tightly clasped beneath the table. “Mr… Mr. Fu, are you being serious?”
“Of course.” Fu Qianyu never made insincere promises; this contract was his sincerity.
“May I ask you a few questions?” “Ask.”
“Did you break up with your fiancé because of me?” He refused to be a homewrecker. Despite the repeated insults from Fu Qianyu’s fiancé, even if they weren’t factual, he refused to leave himself open to gossip.
“No. When you were with me, the engagement hadn’t even been prepared yet. Now that the engagement is canceled, you are being properly and legally wed.”
Hearing the phrase “properly and legally wed,” the tips of Jing Jiaxi’s ears flushed crimson.
“You are marrying me because of the child, right?” Jing Jiaxi lowered his gaze, his hand tracing the slight curvature of his abdomen.
“Mm.” Fu Qianyu didn’t deny this point. Without this child, it would have been impossible for him to marry the boy.
The boy was only eighteen years old, a mere freshman in college, and was going to bear his child before even reaching the legal marriage age. Fu Qianyu believed he ought to take responsibility. Furthermore, it was impossible to allow the lineage of a prominent clan to wander outside; marriage was the most logical arrangement.
“I understand. Then, Mr. Fu, could you grant me some time to consider it?”
Jing Jiaxi’s clear, black-and-white eyes shone brightly, yet they caused Fu Qianyu to knit his brows.
It had always been a matter of people exhausting every scheme to marry him; this was the very first time someone, faced with the temptation of marrying him, stated they needed to consider it.
The first time the boy sought him out, he had demanded ten million right off the bat.
Just moments ago, Jing Jiaxi had naturally clung to his arm to act coquettishly and feign weakness, an act that precisely and effectively triggered Lu Zhili.
Fu Qianyu felt that Jing Jiaxi’s personality didn’t seem aloof enough to abandon such astronomical benefits.
Or perhaps, he harbored a greater scheme?
At this thought, Fu Qianyu’s heart cooled by several degrees.
He said coldly, “Suit yourself.”
Fu Qianyu left the contract behind for him to read over slowly.
“If there’s anything you don’t understand, you can consult the lawyer.”
With that, he exited the ward.
“Thank you.”
Holding the lawyer’s business card provided by Fu Qianyu, Jing Jiaxi carefully perused the document once more.
The contents of the prenuptial agreement extended beyond marriage; a substantial portion pertained to the child.
Jing Jiaxi read the child-related sections thoroughly multiple times, searching online and consulting the lawyer for anything unclear. By evening, he understood about seventy to eighty percent of the entire contract.
Jing Jiaxi stretched his back and massaged his aching shoulders.
Recalling his few interactions with Fu Qianyu, he rested his chin in his hands and gazed out the window at the fiery crimson sunset.
The golden rays of the setting sun spilled across his body. The boy looked as beautiful and radiant as a porcelain doll, yet a trace of melancholy leaked out despite the upward curve of his lips.
Lu Zhili returned home weeping. The moment Mother Lu saw her son’s swollen face and eyes thoroughly ruined from crying, her heart ached terribly.
“Zhili, who struck you? What on earth happened?”
Mother Lu held her son’s face, inspecting it over and over.
Nestling in his mother’s embrace, Lu Zhili retained none of his overbearing insolence from before Jing Jiaxi. He choked with sobs: “Mom… Qianyu… Qianyu wants to break up with me. Go and beg Aunt Lang, alright… I don’t want to separate from Qianyu, I don’t want him to marry someone else…”
“Alright, alright, alright. First tell your mother what happened. What happened to your face?”
“It’s that homewrecker! That homewrecker seduced Qianyu! He instigated him to strike me! That slut wanted to hit me! Qianyu even wants to marry him! Qianyu is being deceived by someone!…”
Lu Zhili added oil and vinegar to the narrative as he relayed to Mother Lu how aggressively and manipulatively Jing Jiaxi had acted inside the ward.
The more Mother Lu listened, the more her brows knitted together. The son who was pampered like a precious gem by the entire household had actually been struck.
She had told Zhili to go and apologize, but she certainly hadn’t intended for Zhili to be bullied at will.
Having comforted Lu Zhili, Mother Lu dialed Lang Youyuan’s number. “Hello, Youyuan, there are some matters I absolutely must discuss with you…”