Chapter 1199 Speak Your Mind
Long Jinjing was sitting on the windowsill and looking at the night sky outside while listening to her best friend talking on the phone. She couldn't fully concentrate on what Chen Fei was saying but her best friend didn't seem to mind. It was because Long Jinjing was a quiet person to begin with. This wasn't too unusual for her. Nevertheless, she still did her best to reply at the right moments so that Chen Fei wouldn't notice her distracted state and question her about it.
She heard the sound of the bathroom door opening. From the reflection on the glass of the window, she saw Lu Zihao walking out of the bathroom with just a towel wrapped around his waist. She turned her head to take a good look at him when she saw the items he was holding.
The phone in her hand dropped to the floor.
Her body went cold. Her heart was beating so fast and so hard inside her chest that it felt like it would explode. All she could do was watch Lu Zihao walk with deliberate steps to the seating area and toss the pregnancy test kits and their torn packaging to the coffee table. Then he sat down on the couch.
"Explain," he said while looking at her with dark eyes.
She couldn't speak.
He waited. The more seconds ticked by, the colder and tenser the atmosphere became.
She still didn't speak. No words could come out of her mouth.
The silence was interrupted when her phone rang again. She almost jumped out of her skin.
"Turn your fucking phone off. We need to talk, Jinjing."
She nodded and quickly picked up her phone from the floor. It was Chen Fei who was calling her again, most likely to ask her what happened. Long Jinjing had no time to provide an explanation to her best friend. Lu Zihao's gaze was like a mountain of pressure pressing down on her right now. She needed to deal with him first before anything else. She cancelled the incoming call and sent a "Sorry, I'm busy. Talk to you tomorrow" text to Chen Fei instead.
After that, she had no choice but to face Lu Zihao. He wasn't showing any emotion but this was much scarier to her than if he openly expressed his anger or whatever he was feeling. At least, she would know how to approach him based on his expression.
"Come here, Jinjing."
There was no use procrastinating. She sighed and walked with heavy steps to sit on the couch opposite him. The pregnancy test kits on the coffee table were between them.
"You think you're pregnant?" he asked. "You're having pregnancy symptoms?"
She shook her head. "It's not that I think I'm pregnant…."
Then she explained to him how she found her oral contraceptive pills in her kitchen when she dropped by her condo earlier today.
"I stopped taking the pills after we broke up. I hid it in the cupboard because seeing it…reminded me of y-you. I was hurting so much when we broke up, Nikolai. Then when we got together again after you woke up from coma, I completely, uh, f-forgot about it. I only took the pills for…less than three weeks, I think, before we broke up so the habit hasn't really been ingrained in me yet. Maybe that's why it was so easy for me to forget about it."
He was silent.
She panicked when he didn't react. "Believe me, Nikolai. I didn't do it on purpose! Really! Yes, I admit that…I want to marry you and give birth to your children but…I'll never force you to be with me by using this kind of underhanded methods!"
He sighed. "I know that you're not like that, Jinjing."
She sighed in relief but the nervousness didn't leave her. Her eyes were watery and she was shaking in her seat, especially with the evidence that she tried to hide from him now laid out in front of her.
"D-did Bacon tell you….?"
Bacon's child's voice interjected, "Aunt Jinjing, please don't suspect that Bacon told Uncle Zihao about your secret. I promised you not to tell him so I didn't even when he tried to bribe me so many times. Bacon is not a corrupt child. My parents raised me to live a life of integrity and to follow my own principles. Please don't think that I'll betray a promise I made just like that. It hurts Bacon's feelings."
"N-no, Bacon! I don't think that way at all. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I trust you. Really, I do!"
"If Aunt Jinjing is really sorry, then Bacon will accept another red packet as compensation for the emotional distress this conversation has caused me."
"Yes! I'll give you a red packet. I'll give it to you now, Bacon. Don't worry." She grabbed her phone and really sent a red packet to her AI nephew.
"Bacon thanks Aunt Jinjing."
Lu Zihao watched everything just now. "You done?"
"Y-yes…." She placed her phone face-down on the coffee table.
"Go play with your sister, kid. Don't disturb your aunt and I. We have something very important to talk about right now."
"Understood, Uncle Zihao. Bacon will leave now. Oh, before I go, Aunt Jinjing."
"Yes?"
"Please don't be scared to speak your mind to Uncle Zihao. Mother and Father say that communication between lovers is important to avoid any misunderstanding. Uncle Zihao may be a scumbag but he's not an impulsive man who'll react without understanding the situation first. Well, most of the time. Also, please don't worry. If he hurts you, you can always tell Bacon. I'll help you ask Father to demand heavy compensation from Uncle Zihao for any emotional distress he causes you."
Tears flowed down Long Jinjing's face. She wiped them with her long sleeves and smiled. Her AI nephew's words might be biting—too biting most of the time—but he cared especially to those he considered his family.
"Thank you, Bacon."
Lu Zihao didn't look happy at being called a scumbag once again but he didn't scold Bacon because the kid still spoke up for him in a way. "Now go, kid."
"Bacon will really leave now."
Finally, the couple was alone in the bedroom. They looked at each other before glancing at the pregnancy test kits on the coffee table between them.