Qin Yanzhou was the first to react.
“What pregnancy? What first child?”
He understood each word separately, but put together, he suddenly couldn’t make sense of it.
How was Tao Xiaohong pregnant? And already having pregnancy symptoms?
The doctor had just seen him help Tao Xiaohong and assumed he was the child’s father. With a stern face, he scolded him:
“What kind of husband are you? Your wife is vomiting like this and you’re still asking questions. Hurry and get her a cup of hot water.”
The doctor was very attentive and quickly checked on Tao Xiaohong.
But Tao Xiaohong could no longer vomit. Right now, she just wanted to sew the doctor’s mouth shut.
Xie Yulan cried out in shock, “Xiaohong is pregnant!”
The Tao family panicked completely. Tao Dazhuang and Li Juhua were in total chaos, not knowing what to do.
“No, you heard wrong, that’s not it…” Li Juhua kept denying.
Tao Xiaohong instinctively wanted to deny it too, but quickly realized it was useless.
It couldn’t be hidden anymore!
“Heard wrong? The four of us—eight ears—heard it clearly,” Xie Yulan said.
Even Mianbao counted as one.
Xie Yulan looked at the Tao family with a complicated expression.
Why were they hiding Tao Xiaohong’s pregnancy?
Who was the father?
She glanced at her son.
Qin Yanzhou immediately understood her meaning and almost jumped in fright.
“The child is not mine!”
Xie Yulan let out a sigh of relief. At least her son, though troublesome, hadn’t gone so far as to get an unmarried woman pregnant.
The doctor glanced at Qin Yanzhou’s head as if imagining a green hat on it.
Qin Yanzhou almost exploded. “What kind of look is that? The child in her belly isn’t mine, and I’m not her husband!”
“Doctor Liu, come quickly!”
Hearing someone call him, the doctor hurried away.
Outside the ward, the atmosphere turned extremely tense.
All eyes from the Qin family fell on Tao Xiaohong.
Her mind was in chaos. She had never expected her pregnancy to be exposed.
She was completely unprepared.
The next second, she swayed and suddenly fainted.
“Xiaohong!” Li Juhua screamed as she rushed forward to catch her.
At the same time, Li Mushuan in the ward had already had his stomach pumped, but he hadn’t woken up yet. The Tao family was in such disorder that they had no energy to care about him.
Qin Yanzhou went in to ask the doctor about Li Mushuan’s condition.
Night had fully fallen. The moon was hidden behind clouds, and cold wind howled. On the road, the Qin family walked quickly home with flashlights.
They hadn’t eaten dinner. All four of them were so hungry their stomachs growled.
Xie Yulan didn’t have time to cook properly, so she made four bowls of noodles, each topped with an egg—Mianbao got two.
At the table, Qin Shanhai and Xie Yulan asked Qin Yanzhou about what happened during the day.
Qin Yanzhou slurped down half a bowl of noodles, warmth spreading through his body, then recounted everything that happened at the Tao house.
“You all heard it at the hospital. Li Mushuan fainted after drinking sugar water mixed with drugs. That bowl of sugar water was most likely meant for me.”
Qin Shanhai frowned. “But by accident, it ended up being drunk by Li Mushuan.”
An accident?
Qin Yanzhou glanced at Mianbao, who was drinking soup.
Her face was smaller than the bowl. Holding it with her little hands, her face almost dipped into it as she drank, like a little greedy kitten.
Xie Yulan asked in confusion, “Why would they do this?”
In their eyes, the Tao family had always been honest and decent. Tao Xiaojun had even died saving Qin Yanzhou. She simply couldn’t understand why they would drug him.
Qin Shanhai snorted. “Looks like they wanted Yanzhou to take the blame.”
Xie Yulan immediately understood.
Tao Xiaohong wasn’t yet married. What pregnancy meant—everyone knew.
Before this, the Tao family had been eager for Qin Yanzhou to marry her, yet they never mentioned her pregnancy.
Clearly, they intended to make things a done deal first, then naturally pin the child on the Qin family.
Xie Yulan suddenly stood up.
“I’m going to confront them! For five years, our Qin family has treated them with complete sincerity to repay the debt, and this is how they scheme against my son!”
Qin Shanhai stopped her.
“It’s already late. Tomorrow won’t be too late.”
Xie Yulan thought about it—she still had to put Mianbao to sleep. That mattered more for now.
After dinner, Xie Yulan went to wash the dishes. Qin Shanhai sat at the desk reviewing factory production plans. At the dining table, Qin Yanzhou and Mianbao stared at each other.
Qin Yanzhou narrowed his eyes.
“Little radish, did you deliberately switch that drugged sugar water for Li Mushuan?”
He clearly remembered that she had handed his bowl of sugar water to Li Mushuan.
And the one he drank was the bowl Tao Xiaohong had prepared for Mianbao.
Thinking about her strange behavior today, he grew more suspicious that she had known in advance and intentionally switched the bowls.
Mianbao shook her head like a rattle drum.
“I don’t know, I don’t know… I really don’t know…”
Then she pushed the malted milk drink Xie Yulan had made for her toward Qin Yanzhou.
“Uncle, drink.”
Looking at her clear, innocent eyes, Qin Yanzhou felt that staying with her too long must have made him stupid to even suspect such a thing.
“Dummy.” He flicked her forehead lightly with a slender finger.
When others had something good, they kept it for themselves. But this little radish—she always offered it to others first.
Just like earlier when she gave the sugar water to Li Mushuan.
Qin Yanzhou stood up and went back to his room to sleep.
Mianbao touched her forehead, pouting sadly.
She just thought the malted milk was delicious and wanted Uncle to drink it so he would like her.
But he called her a dummy.
She wasn’t a dummy!
At the hospital, Li Mushuan had woken up, though still weak.
Tao Xiaohong urgently asked, “Uncle, after you drank the sugar water, how did you end up in my room?”
Li Mushuan’s head was still spinning. Thinking about it made him angry.
“What kind of sugar water was that? As soon as I finished it, I felt dizzy. I just had to find a room to sleep.”
He had freeloaded at his sister’s house many times, but ending up in the hospital was a first.
“I got hurt in your house—you have to take responsibility.”
Li Juhua immediately agreed. “Of course, of course. Mushuan, do you feel uncomfortable anywhere else?”
Li Mushuan’s eyes rolled. “My head is dizzy, my stomach hurts, my legs hurt…”
To get more compensation, he groaned for quite a while.
Tao Dazhuang stood to the side, his face as dark as a stone from a latrine.
Tao Xiaohong finally understood everything. She shouted angrily:
“Uncle! From now on, you’re not allowed to enter my room casually!”
Li Mushuan was stunned.
He still didn’t understand what had happened. All he cared about now was squeezing more benefits out of the Tao family—preferably money.
The next day, before Xie Yulan could go to the Tao family, they came knocking themselves.
“Thud—”
The moment they entered, Tao Xiaohong knelt down.