Although Professor Rofi made that suggestion, she was also well aware of the long-standing rumors that Colonel Gu and Madam had been living separately and were on bad terms.
Therefore, before leaving, she still prescribed a special fever-reducing medication to help ease the Young Master’s discomfort.
The bedroom door closed again.
Gu Chenyu held the still-burning little bundle in his arms and gave him the special fever medicine.
The little cub’s cries finally weakened somewhat.
His feverish little body curled into a limp ball as he lay against Gu Chenyu’s chest.
He restlessly nuzzled around in his father’s arms, like a little animal searching for its missing parent.
Just as Gu Chenyu was about to adjust his hold and make him more comfortable, the little guy seemed to dream of something.
The milky-white lion ears drooping among his short hair trembled faintly.
Then his little hands curled around his own fluffy lion tail, burying his entire face into the soft white fur.
His weak, tearful voice mixed with childish babbling as he murmured intermittently,
“Mommy…”
Gu Chenyu’s heart tightened.
He reached out and gently moved the tip of the tail away from the little cub’s face.
“Baby?”
The high fever made Gu Xinghuai tremble all over.
His normally bright white eyes were half-open, misty with tears as he gazed up at his father, looking obedient and pitiful.
But once he realized that the person holding him wasn’t the parent he had been waiting for, his eyes became even redder.
His little mouth turned down, making him look like a tiny cub who had been completely abandoned by his mother.
He hugged his little tail and began crying and biting at it.
“Liar… Big liar…”
Before long, his mouth was full of fluffy lion-tail fur.
Worried that the little guy would hurt his own tail, Gu Chenyu reached out.
He slipped his hand between the child’s tiny milk teeth and carefully brushed away all the loose fur from his mouth.
Then he gently wiped away the tears continuously rolling down from the delicate corners of his eyes.
His voice was low and calm, giving away almost no emotion.
“Baby, you really miss Lu Yan, don’t you?”
For the first time, Gu Chenyu took the name that had become an unspoken taboo between father and son and brought it up himself—
Lu Yan.
Those two words.
The moment Gu Xinghuai heard the name, his little milk teeth, which had been biting Gu Chenyu’s hand in a daze, suddenly stopped.
Then he burst into even more desperate sobs.
His fluffy little lion tail thrashed wildly against his father’s arm as he whimpered,
“I don’t… I don’t miss her… I don’t, I don’t miss her…”
“I don’t miss her at all…”
Gu Xinghuai cried until his eyes were swollen and red.
His head was burning hot and unbearably heavy, his consciousness becoming increasingly hazy.
Soon, he no longer even had the strength to cry.
He simply curled deeper into Gu Chenyu’s arms, his long lashes damp and clinging to his eyelids.
His tiny body shuddered with each breath as he repeatedly mumbled the same two contradictory phrases—
“I miss her…”
“I don’t…”
Gu Chenyu maintained the same comfortable position for him from beginning to end, holding the little cub without moving.
Until the exhausted little cub finally fell asleep against his chest.
Knowing that the child hadn’t fully calmed down yet and still couldn’t bear to leave his side, Gu Chenyu carried him to the window and pulled open the curtains.
His gaze grew heavy as he looked toward the direction of Imperial Star.
A few seconds later.
Gu Chenyu opened his wrist ring and dialed Lu Yan’s communicator.
However—
Once.
Twice.
Three times…
No one answered.
Only the cold system notification repeated itself again and again.
The light from outside fell across Gu Chenyu’s hard, sharply defined profile, leaving his expression cold and unreadable.
·
Meanwhile, at the Duke’s residence on Imperial Star.
During the six days Lu Yan had been confined there, no matter how much she protested, her father, Duke Lu, remained unmoved.
He was determined to teach her a lesson.
Lu Yan went from her initial restlessness and anxiety to eventually forcing herself to calm down.
Fine.
It was only seven days anyway.
Once her confinement was lifted, she could simply return to Gu Chenyu.
But even so, the longing in her heart grew stronger with every passing day.
She had no idea how Gu Chenyu and her baby were doing…
Would they think she’d lied to them again?
Then, in the middle of another sleepless night, she suddenly heard a faint noise.
Lu Yan immediately sat upright in bed.
She stared in astonishment as the balcony door, which had been completely sealed by the security system, slowly opened from the outside.
A small cloaked aircraft was hovering beyond the balcony.
The hatch opened.
Lu Chi’s cold, pale, gloomy face appeared.
He sat casually beside the window and gave her a lazy glance.
“Not leaving?”
Lu Yan’s eyebrows immediately shot up.
She jumped aboard.
“Looks like you still have a little conscience!”
Her trip back to Imperial Star hadn’t been in vain if she could save this annoying little brother of hers.
Lu Chi started the engines and flew away from the Duke’s residence.
Hearing her words, he merely scoffed, clearly refusing to accept her gratitude.
“Spare me. I’m only worried that once you get out, you’ll turn around and bite me, then expose what happened between me and Teacher Chen.”
At the mention of this, Lu Yan immediately became serious again.
“Lu Chi, I’m telling you one more time. Stay away from Chen Ziyi from now on!”
Lu Chi sneered.
“Lu Yan, don’t you think that’s hilarious coming from you? You spend every day chasing after that bastard Cheng Linzhou, and you still have time to worry about me?”
Lu Yan had probably been expected to get angry and argue back.
Instead, she nodded in complete agreement.
She even muttered to herself in bewilderment,
“That’s true. Was I blind before? Gu Chenyu is handsome, treats people so well, and even raised our baby so wonderfully. How could I have never noticed? Why did I spend every day running around after that bastard Cheng Linzhou?”
The more Lu Chi listened, the stranger his expression became.
He held himself back for a while before finally asking,
“…Do you need me to take you to the hospital to get your brain checked?”
Lu Yan smacked him on the head.
“Take me to my Star Manor!”
The spaceship she had used earlier was still parked at the Duke’s residence. She needed to return to her Star Manor, switch to another ship, and then hurry back to the frontier overnight to find her husband and child.
Lu Yan had originally wanted to argue with Lu Chi a little more about Chen Ziyi.
But this kid was far too rebellious.
He assumed she was up to no good and refused to listen to her at all.
After dropping her off at her Star Manor, he immediately sped away in his spaceship without another word.
Lu Yan had no choice but to let it go.
She reconnected her star ring’s signal while walking toward the entrance.
The Star Manor’s main gate detected her presence and slowly opened.
Just as Lu Yan was about to step inside, a dark figure suddenly appeared behind her and grabbed her wrist.
Lu Yan frowned and immediately drove her elbow backward.
The other person let out a muffled groan, but tightened his grip on her wrist.
“Lu Yan, it’s me!”
Lu Yan looked up.
Cheng Linzhou was wearing a white lab coat.
Taking advantage of his height, he pinned her firmly against the outer wall of the Star Manor.
Once Lu Yan got a clear look at him, she grabbed his arm in return.
Seeing Lu Yan react in that familiar way—the way she used to cling to him and refuse to let go—Cheng Linzhou finally relaxed slightly, his earlier confusion fading.
He maintained his usual cool, restrained tone.
“Lu Yan, I already know that you and your brother kidnapped Ziyi. I came here to tell you that if you have a problem with me in the future, come after me, all right? Can you stop hurting…”
Before he could finish, Lu Yan coldly grabbed him and began dragging him away.
“You show up outside my house in the middle of the night, follow me, and launch a sneak attack. Just wait. I’m calling the Star Patrol Bureau right now and having them arrest you!”
Cheng Linzhou froze.
He immediately reached out to stop her.
“Lu Yan, what nonsense are you talking about…”
However, just as the two of them were locked in a struggle, a starship with a cold blue exterior slowly descended from the sky.
Lu Yan looked up at the sound.
She immediately recognized the distinctive emblem on the starship.
It was Gu Chenyu’s personal starship!