“How could that possibly be a small effort? If it weren’t for Miss Su, I wouldn’t have found my own flesh and blood even though he was standing right in front of me.”
Recalling the events of that day, Jun Hao could still break out into a cold sweat even now.
Just a little bit more—just a hair’s breadth away—and he would never have seen his son again.
A man middle-aged, having a son with such great difficulty… was it easy for him?!
Those damned human traffickers!
“It is President Jun and Lady Cheng who are blessed with good fortune.”
A polite, flawless smile hung at the corner of Su Mu’s lips. Cheng Yun gave Jun Hao a gentle pat on the arm.
“Look at us, standing around talking like this! Mumu, quickly sit down. And don’t be so distant with us—just call me Auntie Cheng, and call him Uncle Jun.”
Cheng Yun ushered them to sit down. Sitting to the side, Yin Wenbo was completely dumbfounded.
He had heard that Jun Hao was a notoriously difficult man to deal with. For today’s collaboration, he had spent ages preparing; could someone please explain to him why on earth his own Vice President was already acquainted with the man?
And with such a massive debt of gratitude between them, no less?!
“Alright then, Auntie Cheng, Uncle Jun.”
The smile on Su Mu’s face remained impeccably polite, as though she hadn’t come today to negotiate a corporate alliance, but rather to attend a family reunion.
What followed was a relaxed dinner filled with pleasant conversation, and the contract negotiations proceeded extraordinarily smoothly. The Su Corporation had maintained a great reputation recently, and coupled with this personal debt of gratitude, the partnership between the two houses fell naturally into place like water flowing into a canal.
Having successfully secured this exclusive channel with the Jun Corporation, Su Mu exhaled a quiet sigh of relief.
From now on, the Su Corporation’s overseas expansion would finally no longer be a lonely, unsupported battle.
“Come, Xuanxuan, let Auntie give you a hug!”
Cheng Yun picked up the baby and shoved him directly into Su Mu’s arms. Su Mu—who had never held a baby before in her entire life—instantly froze rigid.
“Aun… Auntie…”
The milk-baby’s soft, gooey voice made Su Mu’s arms abruptly tighten, terrified that she might accidentally drop the child.
Such a tiny little creature… if she applied just a fraction of her strength, she could…
Bah, bite your tongue!
Su Mu hurriedly tossed the erratic thought out of her head, feeling entirely speechless inside. What on earth was she thinking?!
Gently tapping the baby’s tiny, chubby hand, its white, plump, adorable appearance caused Su Mu’s heart to soften a fraction.
“Auntie Cheng, he’s really cute.”
The smile on Su Mu’s face was somewhat stiff, her mind constantly worried about dropping the child.
Observing Su Mu’s rigid, nervous posture, Cheng Yun burst out laughing.
“Look at you! Little Mu has never handled a child before, so naturally she’s nervous.”
Jun Hao chuckled heartily with genuine warmth. It was hard to imagine that this gentle man was the notoriously venomous snake of the business world.
A perfectly good business dinner had turned into a casual chat about parenting, leaving Yin Wenbo sitting to the side, still entirely unable to adapt.
Accustomed to his CEO’s swift, ruthless style of conducting business, he truly wasn’t used to seeing the Vice President in such a warm, domestic scene.
Watching Su Mu grow increasingly tense, the smile at the corner of Cheng Yun’s lips widened further. Just as she was about to reach out and take the child back, she noticed Su Mu’s expression suddenly change as she sniffed lightly near her son’s body.
Cheng Yun’s hand froze in midair. Remembering how her husband had mentioned that it was this very girl who had smelled that something was off six months ago, Cheng Yun abruptly grew nervous.
“Mumu, what is it?”
By now, Su Mu’s brows were knit tight.
“On his body… there seems to be a faint scent of Luohua leaves. It’s similar to tea leaves, yet carries a faint, raw milky undertone. It’s extremely subtle, but… it shouldn’t be that either.”
Su Mu couldn’t say for sure. Luohua leaf was a cold-type toxin she had encountered in another world. If administered to a infant—even just a tiny trace—that child’s constitution would be rendered completely ruined for life.
Once grown, neither male nor female victims would ever be able to sire or bear children.
However, these were two completely different worlds. Even if the medicinal effects were identical, the name should be different. Furthermore, this subtle aroma… didn’t quite match either.
“Luohua leaf is a plant I once encountered in the past. Small amounts pose no real problem for adults, but in larger doses, it causes severe fertility issues. If administered to a infant, that child will never be able to produce offspring when they grow up.”
“WHAT?!”
Jun Hao’s face darkened in an instant. He leaned down, meticulously sniffing the scent on the child’s body, while Cheng Yun hurriedly drew close to smell as well.
This boy was currently the only direct great-grandson of the entire Jun family—they couldn’t afford to be careless about a single detail.
“Uncle Jun, Auntie Cheng, it’s also possible I misheard or mis-smelled something. But just to be safe, you should head back and check if there’s anything inappropriate near him.”
Even if this stuff wasn’t Luohua leaf, it certainly wasn’t anything good either.
“Alright. Mumu, Auntie will make plans with you another time—we’ll head back first!”
With their only son at stake, neither of them dared to take any chances. After a hasty farewell, they rushed straight out of the private room.
Watching the pair hurry off, Yin Wenbo stood frozen in surprise.
What on earth was the Vice President talking about? He constantly felt like she was pulling people’s legs, yet she had spooked them so thoroughly.
“Vice President… does such a thing really exist?”
Contraceptive pills on the market carried so many side effects nowadays; if something with such potent effects ever surfaced, women everywhere would probably fight tooth and nail for it.
“It exists. And what I described was putting it lightly—if a woman ingests too much of it, not only will she be rendered completely infertile, but her very lifespan will be cut short as well.”
Su Mu spoke with a cold face.
If her guess was correct, that stuff had likely been administered to Jun Hao himself.
“Pull up the records regarding Jun Hao’s lineage again and take a closer look.”
Hearing her instruction, Yin Wenbo hastily combed through the information on Jun Hao’s direct family line once more, yet found nothing out of the ordinary.
“Look closer. Although Jun Hao’s father only had Jun Hao as his sole son, over ten years ago he continuously added quite a few daughters to the family. Yet Jun Hao, aside from having a daughter twenty years ago, never had another child since.”
Jun Hao’s father was pushing nearly seventy now, with eight documented illegitimate daughters outside and three born to his legal wife.
Yet Jun Hao himself was already forty-five; aside from the daughter born two decades ago, he had only managed to gain a son a little over a year ago.
It wasn’t as if Jun Hao lacked women on the outside, but not a single one of those women had ever gotten pregnant.
Unless strict precautions had been taken every single time, there was definitely something wrong with Jun Hao himself.
“Then… could Lady Cheng’s child not belong to Jun Hao?!” Yin Wenbo blurted out in utter shock.
Su Mu rolled her eyes at him. “What nonsense are you talking about? Jun Hao had been residing abroad until returning three years ago—he must have gradually nursed his body back to health.”
Or perhaps, he had unwittingly consumed something that neutralized part of the toxicity.
Without going into further detail, Su Mu returned to the villa, where Nanny Liu had already prepared some light, soothing porridge.
Su Mu drank a few mouthfuls before heading back upstairs. After freshening up, she lay on the bed feeling an uncomfortable restlessness lingering within her. After a long moment of hesitation, she finally dialed a video call to Su Chen.
The call rang for a long time before it was finally answered. Su Chen’s cold, indifferent face appeared on the screen; his eyes held not a single trace of joy, filled only with… astonishment and a fleeting flicker of confusion.
Furthermore, the clothes he wore looked suspiciously like a hospital gown.
“Are you sick?”
Su Mu knit her brows, but the man on the screen kept his lips tightly pressed together.
“Is there something you need? If it’s regarding company matters, you can consult Assistant Yin.”
A trace of complex confusion lurked within Su Chen’s eyes, and he didn’t even look directly at Su Mu.
Su Mu froze for a second, then suddenly let out a laugh born of sheer exasperation.
“Su Chen—who am I to you?!”
What on earth? Before he left, he was talking about marrying her, yet after just a few days, he was acting like he didn’t even recognize her?!