The call ended.
Gu Xinghuai immediately turned his little head away stiffly, though the tips of his ears couldn’t help turning slightly red.
He had heard everything clearly. When Mommy had been talking to Daddy just now, she had called him “baby,” instead of addressing him by his full name as she usually did.
But the little cub only allowed himself to be secretly happy for a few seconds.
Lu Yan suddenly pulled her hand out of his grasp, then reached over and ruffled his short hair, calling him somewhat seriously.
“Gu Xinghuai.”
Gu Xinghuai froze and quickly turned his head.
His crystal-clear white eyes widened, filled with confusion as he looked at her.
Lu Yan arrogantly issued an instruction to her little baby.
“From now on, aside from your father, don’t listen to a single word anyone else from the Gu family says. Got it?”
Gu Xinghuai slowly shifted his white eyes, lightly pursed his lips, and answered softly.
“Mm. Daddy taught Xinghuai that too.”
Lu Yan’s expression darkened.
“Then how could you just let her say all those things to you? As my, Lu Yan’s, son, you should be the center of attention wherever you go!”
“If anyone from the Gu family dares say anything unpleasant to you again, immediately ask your teacher to call me. Understand?”
Gu Xinghuai, however, thought Mommy was still angry because he had embarrassed her noble family.
After remaining silent for a while, he lowered his white eyes even further, his self-esteem sinking.
“I’m sorry. Xinghuai embarrassed Mommy.”
Lu Yan hadn’t expected her little one to interpret things that way.
She immediately bit her lip in frustration, then could only grit her teeth and continue.
“So… from now on, you need to spend more time with Mommy. That way, I can teach you how to be a proper little nobleman. Understand?”
Gu Xinghuai’s eyes trembled slightly.
“Can I?”
“Why wouldn’t you be able to?”
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Lu Yan formally announced to her son,
“I’ve already decided that I’m not going to divorce your father.”
Gu Xinghuai was completely stunned.
He stared at her blankly before cautiously confirming again.
“Mommy… isn’t going to divorce Daddy?”
Lu Yan gave an arrogant little “Mm.”
Just then, a familiar silver spacecraft swept low over the spaceport’s designated flight path and steadily came to a stop in the designated area.
Before long, Lu Yan spotted Gu Chenyu’s tall, straight figure among the crowds.
He approached from the other end of the terminal, his dark military uniform making his already tall frame look even more long and imposing.
His cool gaze swept over them and lingered for several seconds on the hands she and Gu Xinghuai were tightly holding before he lowered his eyes and spoke.
“Why didn’t you ask the residence to send someone to pick you up?”
Lu Yan casually tossed the backpack she was carrying at him and gave him an imperious glance.
“I’m not stupid. If I have a husband to pick me up, of course I’ll make use of my own husband first!”
Gu Chenyu caught the backpack she threw at him with ease.
But the moment he heard her personally call him “husband,” his long fingers unconsciously tightened around the straps.
He silently stared coldly at Lu Yan’s lips.
Soft, tender, and rosy, with the curve of her cupid’s bow slightly raised. They were as beautiful and brazen as ever.
Those rose-like, delicate lips had always been used to spit out nothing but harsh and vicious words at him.
Even now, her tone remained as commanding and unpleasant as it had always been toward him.
And yet, she had genuinely called him “husband.”
When Lu Yan saw that he remained silent for so long, she stepped half a pace closer and lifted her chin, putting on an interrogative expression.
“Gu Chenyu, what do you mean? You didn’t want to come pick me up?”
Gu Chenyu answered, “No.”
“Good. It better be no.”
Lu Yan snorted, tightened her grip on the little cub who was still standing there in a daze, and headed straight toward the spacecraft.
Gu Chenyu remained where he was for several seconds before finally following after them.
More than half an hour later, Gu Chenyu personally piloted the spacecraft and brought his wife and child back to the residence.
It was the first time Butler Chen had ever seen the Colonel’s family of three return home together.
While he was utterly surprised, he immediately had everyone at the residence prepare themselves.
The kitchen system was instructed to prepare dinner with the utmost care, determined to make sure their rarely visiting Colonel’s wife from Imperial Star found nothing to criticize.
It was also the first time, aside from major royal palace banquets, that Lu Yan had truly sat down to dinner with Gu Chenyu and their child.
However…
The dining table was unusually quiet.
The father and son ate their meal in complete silence, sitting properly the entire time as though they were afraid of disturbing her.
After dinner, a servant came to take Gu Xinghuai away for his bath.
With no excuse left, Lu Yan could only temporarily follow Gu Chenyu back to the master bedroom.
As usual, Gu Chenyu walked into the bathroom first and adjusted the water temperature for her.
Lu Yan leaned against the table, staring intently at the tall figure behind the frosted bathroom door as she pondered something.
Out of the corner of her eye, she suddenly noticed an empty transparent syringe lying beside the drawer on the left.
Lu Yan paused.
She picked it up and examined it from every angle, but couldn’t make heads or tails of it.
So she simply carried it over to the bathroom door and held it up toward the man inside.
“Gu Chenyu, what’s this?”
Gu Chenyu turned and glanced at the syringe in her hand. He reached out and took it from her, answering calmly.
“Some medication for Beastmen.”
Lu Yan froze.
In the past, she had hated his identity as a Beastman so much that she couldn’t stand looking at him for even a second, let alone voluntarily learning about or touching the injections Beastmen needed…
Because of that, Lu Yan didn’t know what to say for a moment.
All she could manage was a dry little response.
“Oh.”
Gu Chenyu slipped the empty syringe into his pocket.
After a few seconds of silence, he raised his eyes and deliberately changed the subject.
“Lu Yan, why did you go to the training center?”
The question caught Lu Yan off guard.
Once she realized what he meant, she immediately glared back at him fiercely.
“What kind of question is that? I missed my child, so I went to see him. What’s wrong with that?”
Gu Chenyu’s thin lips parted, his voice calm and clear.
“Lu Yan, if you’re still worried that the child will get in your way and embarrass your noble family, I can tell you clearly that whether we divorce or not, what I promised you three years ago still stands.”
“You don’t have to force yourself to come here and be with me and the child because of that…”
His deep eyes fixed on her, his tone still low and detached as he continued.
“I’m irrelevant, but Xinghuai is still young. He’ll take you seriously. If you’re kind to him now and then leave a few days later, it’ll only hurt him more.”
After hearing Gu Chenyu’s words, the guilt and uneasiness buried deep inside Lu Yan surged up once again.
She desperately wanted to throw herself into his arms and solemnly promise him that she would never casually let go of him or their baby again.
But because she was trapped by the constraints of the vicious-woman persona, she couldn’t explain herself.
Nor could she.
In a moment of desperation, Lu Yan suddenly rushed forward and shoved Gu Chenyu hard toward the bathtub filled with water.
“Splash!”
Water sprayed everywhere.
Taking advantage of the momentum, she straddled his strong, solid waist.
Water droplets clung to Lu Yan’s lashes, and her beautiful purple eyes glistened with moisture. She lowered her gaze arrogantly, looking down at the man beneath her, now soaked through.
“Stop acting pitiful. Do your duty as my husband and take good care of me. Do you really think I’d leave you and go find some other wild man?”
Gu Chenyu’s sharp features paused slightly.
“…”
The bones in his hand tensed as he firmly grasped Lu Yan’s lower leg where it pressed against his waist.
He let out a low grunt, his voice cold and hoarse.
“Lu Yan, get up.”
Lu Yan made a little protesting sound.
“No.”
Her wet fingertips were cool as they lightly touched his taut, moving Adam’s apple, tracing around it almost teasingly.
Her little face slowly lowered as well.
Her soft, warm breath gradually fell across his face.
Closer.
And closer.
Just as Gu Chenyu was about to lose his composure and touch those soft, rosy lips—
Without warning, the star ring around Lu Yan’s wrist suddenly lit up.
Because Lu Yan’s slender hand happened to be resting beside Gu Chenyu’s neck, he only had to lower his eyes slightly to clearly see the caller’s name displayed on the star ring’s glowing screen.
[Linzhou]
Gu Chenyu stared at those two glaring words.
Two seconds later, he indifferently turned his head away and coldly tugged at his thin lips.
“Not going to answer?”