Hello, Heir

Si Zhengting raised his head, only to see Zhuang Nainai with an intrigued expression on her face. She seemed to be considering something.

“What’s up? What are you thinking of?” he asked.

Nainai brought her mind back to the present. Raising her hand to knock her own head, she said, “This man is called Hu Zi? Why does it sound so familiar? But I can’t seem to recall where I’ve heard it before.”

Si Zhengting hurriedly grabbed her hand, fearful that she would knock herself silly. “Once you get pregnant, you’ll turn silly for three years. You’re perfectly normal, so don’t think about it.”

“Okay.” Stunned, Zhuang Nainai assented, still not used to his gentleness. In a moment, she realized… he was indirectly calling her silly?!

So, was he joking with her?

Her eyes widened in shock as she looked at him in disbelief. In the end, she chose not to bicker with him and instead obediently lay down.

—

For another two weeks, Zhuang Nainai stayed in the hospital.

They had intended to have her go home to rest, but the fear of wearing her out during the journey as well as the possibility of accidents made them decide to let her simply stay in the hospital. With that decision made, they upgraded her ward to a suite.

Si Zhengting decidedly brought his work over to the living room in the suite.

With the bedroom door open, they were able to see each other simply by lifting their heads; the atmosphere grew warm and loving even without them talking much.

If the issue of Mother Zhuang weren’t nagging in her heart, Zhuang Nainai would have felt like the happiest pregnant woman in the world.

A week went by in a flash, and she felt as if she was going to grow moldy with all the inactivity. More than that, there still wasn’t any news about Mother Zhuang, which then made her increasingly anxious and restless.

In every moment, she was unable to resist the urge to wonder, “Where is Mother Zhuang? How is she now?”

But Mother Zhuang had seemingly disappeared from the world; there was no news about her from Kentucky nor from Beijing.

Gu Deshou had given up the day before and had just returned to Beijing from Kentucky.

Zhuang Nainai got out of bed, had breakfast, and was just about to toy around with her cell phone when her room door was opened. She watched as Gu Deshou and Li Yufeng walked in.

Gu Deshou seemed to have lost a whole layer of skin. He had become unrecognizably skinny, and his facial expression was one of hopelessness and despondence. He seemed to be a walking corpse, but his muddied eyes still brightened up a little at the sight of Zhuang Nainai.

Even though Gu Deshou had frequently made use of her and had done many things to her, they still shared a father-daughter bond. As a result, Zhuang Nainai was not particularly surprised by his expression. On the other hand, it was Li Yufeng whom she was utterly surprised at.

She had thought that, given Li Yufeng and Gu Deshou’s relationship with her, they would probably just bring some store-bought nutritional supplements for her. Never did she expect Li Yufeng to be carrying a thermos flask.

Just as she was guessing the contents of the flask, she saw Gu Deshou greeting her before going over to chat with Si Zhengting in the living room.

He closed the door as he walked out of the room.

Immediately growing wary, Zhuang Nainai stared at Li Yufeng.

She watched as Li Yufeng, with her cold demeanor, carefully placed the flask onto the coffee table. Li Yufeng then settled herself on the sofa relatively farther away from Zhuang Nainai and pursed her lips together. A few moments passed before she began speaking. “This is probably… the first time that we, as mother and daughter, are talking like this.”

Her voice was cold, but there was a sense of concern in her tone.

Hearing this, Zhuang Nainai was stunned. And then a wave of astonishment hit her.