The little cub who had been placed beside her slowly widened his eyes.
After staring blankly for several seconds, he answered nervously in a tiny voice,
“…I understand.”
Only then did Lu Yan sit down beside him.
She maintained an aloof and haughty expression on the surface, but inwardly, she was secretly delighted.
Although her method had been a little… less than dignified…
At least she had finally gotten to hold her soft, sweet-smelling little baby!
Lu Yan moved the little cub’s tableware closer to him and watched him eat without looking away, desperately trying to find something to talk about.
“Does Gu Chenyu treat you well?”
The little cub lowered his eyes.
“Daddy is very good to Xinghuai.”
Seeing him lower his head further and further until his little face was almost buried in his bowl, Lu Yan asked,
“Why do you keep your head down?”
Gu Xinghuai pursed his lips. His childish voice was unusually cold.
“Mommy said… you don’t like looking at Xinghuai’s eyes.”
Lu Yan choked.
She was instantly rendered speechless.
She remembered.
Two years ago, Gu Chenyu had once taken Gu Xinghuai back to the Imperial Star to visit her.
He couldn’t get through to her by phone, so he brought the child to wait outside her Star Manor.
That day, however, Lu Yan had been busy going to a hospital in another district to look for Cheng Linzhou. It wasn’t until she returned to the Imperial Star late that night that she learned Gu Chenyu and the child had waited outside her Star Manor for an entire day.
At the time, Lu Yan’s heart was completely occupied by her white-moonlight love, Cheng Linzhou. She hadn’t cared about her husband or child at all.
When she saw the father and son waiting outside her Star Manor, she immediately unleashed a torrent of angry accusations at Gu Chenyu.
“Gu Chenyu, who gave you permission to bring the child here without telling me?”
“Didn’t I tell you that I hate you? And I don’t want to see those eyes of yours in your child either. If there’s nothing important, don’t come here and bother me again!”
At the time, Gu Chenyu had silently listened to everything and nodded.
Without saying a word, he picked up the little cub, whose eyes had filled with frightened tears, and turned around to leave.
Only later did Lu Yan learn that she had forgotten something.
That day had been Gu Xinghuai’s first birthday.
The little one had learned from the servants that the mother who had given birth to him lived on the Imperial Star. He had cried and begged to return to the Imperial Star to see Mommy, pestering Gu Chenyu for more than half a month.
In the end, Gu Chenyu had been unable to refuse him and brought him back.
He had probably thought that, for the sake of the child’s birthday, Lu Yan might be willing to spare a little time and patience for him.
Remembering this, Lu Yan’s heart ached unbearably, and she was so ashamed that she could barely lift her head.
She didn’t know how much psychological trauma she had caused little Gu Xinghuai when he was so young.
Perhaps that was why the little one was so afraid of letting her see his eyes…
But in order to maintain her vicious-woman persona, Lu Yan couldn’t openly comfort the cub just yet.
So, taking advantage of Gu Chenyu’s absence, she could only turn the blame around and say,
“That was because… Gu Chenyu made me angry. I was just saying things without thinking. Besides, no matter what color eyes you were born with, aren’t you still my child? And…”
Lu Yan took the opportunity to reach out and cup her baby’s soft, chubby little face.
Ahhh!
So soft and cuddly!
She couldn’t resist gently rubbing and pinching his cheeks.
She pinched his little mouth into a tiny pout, causing him to look at her in confusion and call out,
“Mommy…?”
Only then did Lu Yan come back to her senses and hurriedly withdraw her hand.
She put her haughty expression back on, raised her chin, and continued,
“And besides, I don’t think white eyes are bad anymore. The baby born to me, Lu Yan, couldn’t possibly be anything less than perfect, right?”
Gu Xinghuai’s round, silver-white eyes moved slightly, as clear as glass beads.
His mother still looked just as unapproachable as before.
But…
It also seemed like something had changed.
The little cub couldn’t figure out what it was, so he could only give a dry little response.
“Oh…”
Perhaps he felt embarrassed being watched by his mother, so he deliberately lowered his little face with an aloof and awkward expression and continued eating quietly.
This was the first time he had ever sat beside Mommy for so long without being chased away.
Mommy’s scent was fresh and faintly sweet, so close that he could easily smell it.
Following the instinctive nature of his young lion Beastman genes, Gu Xinghuai subconsciously wanted to move closer to his blood relative.
But he didn’t dare act spoiled and clingy like he did around Daddy, pestering her to hold him.
He simply pursed his little lips and cautiously, almost imperceptibly, sniffed at the familiar scent of his family member beside him.
He was still too young to learn how to control or suppress these emotions.
Two small, semicircular lion cub ears quietly emerged from either side of his fluffy short hair.
They were soft and furry, standing adorably among his hair and twitching ever so slightly.
Lu Yan immediately spotted the milky-white little beast ears poking out from the top of his head.
She found them so adorable that, without thinking, she reached out and rubbed them.
But in the very next second, that familiar, excruciating electric-shock pain suddenly shot through her entire body.
Her fingers instinctively tightened, and she accidentally grabbed Gu Xinghuai’s ear hard enough to hurt him.
Although Lu Yan immediately withdrew her hand, Gu Xinghuai was still startled into letting out a pained little,
“Yow!”
The little cub thought that his accidentally revealed beast ears had made Mommy angry again.
Panicking, he covered the little ears on his head with both hands.
His eyes instantly turned red.
“I… I didn’t mean to show my beast ears…”
Afraid that Mommy would become even angrier if she looked at him any longer, he didn’t even have time to remember the aristocratic etiquette Butler Chen had taught him.
He hurriedly climbed down from his chair and ran upstairs.
Lu Yan was left standing there, filled with immense regret. She lightly thumped herself.
How could she possibly have such poor control over her own hands?!
Worried that she might accidentally violate her character again, Lu Yan had no choice but to suppress the urge to chase after her child and comfort him.
She was just wondering whether she should find an excuse to have Butler Chen go upstairs and check whether her baby’s ears were all right.
Butler Chen had already gone upstairs to check on the child himself.
A short while later, he came back down and told her,
“Madam, the Young Master is fine. I explained to him that you didn’t mean to hurt him just now.”
Lu Yan’s worried heart finally relaxed a little.
On the surface, however, she deliberately snorted indifferently.
Butler Chen tactfully asked,
“By the way, Madam, are you… planning to stay here tonight?”
Lu Yan glanced sideways at him.
“What? Gu Chenyu won’t let me stay?”
“Of course not…” Butler Chen hurriedly replied before cautiously asking, “Then, Madam, will you be sleeping in the master bedroom, or…?”
Lu Yan raised an eyebrow.
“What did you call me?”
“Madam…”
“Then tell me. Where should I sleep?”
This time, Butler Chen immediately understood.
Meanwhile.
A fleet returned from the northern frontier after completing its reorganization.
That evening, it arrived back at the core military base of the fortress, where a deployment meeting lasting nearly half an hour was held.
Gu Chenyu’s gaze swept across the holographic display.
His voice was cold, steady, and devoid of any unnecessary emotion.
“Proceed with the outer defensive fortifications in the Guangbiao Star Sector according to the construction schedule. There must be no delays.”
“Also, have the equipped spaceport at the northern star-belt outpost of the fortress undergo its secondary inspection as soon as possible. Make sure there is no repeat of the warning-system oversight we encountered this time.”
“Yes, Colonel!”
After the meeting ended, Gu Chenyu walked steadily out of the command tower’s conference hall.
Several officers standing guard in the corridor immediately straightened and saluted.
“Colonel.”
Gu Chenyu gave a slight nod.
Just then, Zeng Wei, who had been waiting outside the conference hall, hurried over.
His expression was solemn as he reported,
“Colonel, Madam… came to the base looking for you today.”
Gu Chenyu stopped mid-step.
His cold brows furrowed slightly, as though he hadn’t heard correctly.
“Lu Yan?”
“Yes… Madam also specifically asked about the Young Master’s residence…”
Before he could finish speaking, Gu Chenyu’s eyes suddenly turned icy.
He immediately activated his wristband and called the official residence’s star communicator, then strode toward the docking area.