Chapter 24: Rib

The river wind outside the terrace whistled. Chi Liu clenched his fist, silently reciting three times that throwing someone into the river was illegal, barely stopping himself from kicking the man out.

Unable to bear being gawked at like a monkey, Chi Liu twitched his lips and dragged Chu Qi into the storage room by his tie.

The storage room was mainly used for storing wine. Without windows, it was dim. Chi Liu, with his back to the man, closed the door, separating this place from the noisy bar into another quiet world. Just as he was about to turn on the light, the man pressed down on him from behind.

Chu Qi’s arm wrapped around the youth’s slender waist, his pale hand pressed against the youth’s slightly bulging abdomen, caressing it ambiguously. The embryo in the youth’s belly quickly fell into a deep sleep…

Chi Liu subconsciously grabbed the doorframe for support, his legs weakening, almost causing him to fall. He cursed inwardly, wondering if this man knew people outside could hear them!

His face was burning hot. Just as he was about to push away this absurd man, the other’s hand hooked around his chin from behind—

Chu Qi looked at him deeply, then his thin, cool lips pressed down.

“Mmm…”

Chi Liu’s eyes suddenly widened…

A possessive, icy tongue forced open his teeth and probed inside, the cold, strange fragrance so intense it made him dizzy…

Chi Liu’s fingers clenched tightly into fists, almost unable to breathe. His body slumped downwards, his legs already numb, but his waist and abdomen were still firmly held in the man’s grasp…

…

After a long while, Chi Liu pushed the man away, turned around, and leaned against the door, panting softly, glaring fiercely at the man.

His eyes were moist, his lips swollen and red, his neck sore and numb from the strange kissing position, and his legs were still weak.

Chi Liu was so angry that he kicked the other man’s shin with great force.

Chu Qi didn’t dodge at all, licking the corner of his bitten lip like a beast, a more restless desire buried deep in his pupils.

He smiled deeply, tilted his head, and asked in confusion, “Why aren’t you happy?”

He had checked; this was one of the steps in the dating process.

Chi Liu: “…”

What to do when it feels like that kick just landed on cotton, making his teeth itch!

Unable to resist, he kicked him again. Only then did Chi Liu angrily say, “Don’t say things like that in front of outsiders in the future, and don’t do things like that to me in places other than private spaces!”

He prided himself on being able to remain calm in any situation, but every time he encountered this man, he couldn’t control his temper.

Chu Qi blinked in surprise, then nodded.

Chi Liu finally breathed a sigh of relief. He crossed his arms and asked, “What are you doing here?”

He would see him at home after work anyway, and they were going to the hospital and on a date together the day after tomorrow. Why did he suddenly come to his workplace to find him?

Chu Qi’s voice suddenly dropped: “Darling, I have to go on a business trip the day after tomorrow… I can’t accompany you to the hospital, nor can I go on our date.”

“You know, my subordinates are all incompetent and stupid. Some work I have to handle myself—”

Chi Liu looked puzzled and hesitated: “?”

He once saw Ying Wang’s recruitment advertisements, which had very high requirements for education and work experience. Those who could enter Ying Wang were definitely social elites!

And Secretary Wen was almost the most capable secretary he had ever seen!

The fact that this man, who seemed to have no common sense, was their leader was already unbelievable enough. Now he was saying they were incompetent and stupid?

Chi Liu twitched his lips, thinking, wasn’t it a good thing? With this kind of boss, Secretary Wen seemed at least ten times easier to poach!

At this moment, Chu Qi unbuttoned the second and third buttons of his suit jacket—the ones that usually corresponded to the position of the heart. He reached his hand into the gap, as if reaching into a bottomless abyss.

Chi Liu’s eyebrows twitched as he watched the other’s strange movements: “What are you doing?”

Was it his imagination? He seemed to have heard a “crack” just now…

Chu Qi took out a section of… a bone half the length of a human arm…

It looked like the shape of a rib.

He smiled and handed the snow-white, strange, slightly curved bone to Chi Liu, like a courting beast, his eyes deep and devout: “Darling, this is for you.”

“During the days I’m away, you can put it on your bedside table. Seeing it will make you think of me.”

The internet said that long-distance relationships were especially prone to cracks. He had to find a way to make the youth think of him at all times to maintain his attraction!

After a pause, Chu Qi suddenly emphasized meaningfully, “Darling, you can also look at the peephole more often.”

Chi Liu was dumbfounded: “…”

Was he acting out a horror love story?

In a flash of lightning, his eyes suddenly widened: “Ah, you’re that hateful guy!”

The culprit who threw bones and mimosa flowers at his door, forcing him to clean up for half a day while wearing a mask, was right in front of him!

Chu Qi, still holding out the bone: “?”

Chi Liu twitched his lips and still took the rib, which was still warm—he still couldn’t tell what kind of bone it was.

Then, grinding his teeth, he kicked the other man again.

Chu Qi didn’t dodge, and a doting look that even he didn’t notice surfaced in his eyes. He looked at his watch and blinked: “Can you slap me?”

Chi Liu’s eyebrows twitched: “Why?”

He didn’t understand why someone would ask another person to slap them. Could it be that his child’s father was a masochist?

Chu Qi still looked at him deeply, his dark eyes filled with light spots like a silent, boundless, deep universe. His voice was tinged with disappointment: “I should go. I want to exchange it for a hug.”

Chi Liu’s pupils shrank.

An unspeakable emotion surged in his heart, mixed with scalding sourness and sweetness.

Chi Liu lowered his eyes and smiled, leaning forward to hug the man, pressing the tip of his nose against the man’s broad chest.

Chu Qi’s eyes widened, and his arms lifted stiffly, covering the young man’s lower back—this time, the young man didn’t leave.

Chi Liu’s nose was filled with the cold, strange fragrance. He complained a little helplessly in a muffled voice: “…I’m not some pervert who likes to slap people.”

One hand gently stroked his slightly bulging abdomen. Chi Liu’s slender eyelashes trembled in Chu Qi’s arms: “Have a smooth trip. I—” he said, stumbling over the words he wasn’t good at: “We’ll wait for you to come back.”

In the storage room with the lights on, the shadows of various ornaments surged quietly like crazy. Chu Qi leaned slightly and placed a kiss on the youth’s hair.

…

“The matter between you and the boss has spread among all of us. So, are you really dating now?”

Secretary Wen, who had come to pick up Xiang Xiang and Chi Liu from work, gossiped on the descending stairs of the Yunzhong Building.

After he went back and handed over the plastic surgery man with bandages all over his face to Old Zheng at the police station, the boss’s demonic voice poured straight into his head like it was a public cafeteria—he ordered him and Xiang Xiang to continue staying at Little Chi’s house.

It was only then that he realized the boss had gone on another emergency business trip.

Then, he opened the chat software, and their night-time employee group, which only lacked the boss, exploded in the afternoon!

Everyone was discussing this matter!

Even Xiang Xiang, who never spoke in any group, sent a flower-scattering emoji!

Chi Liu was carrying a briefcase, a rare sight. Inside was the heavy, strange bone. He twitched his lips, his ears turning red, but he didn’t deny it: “Yeah.”

Secretary Wen gave a thumbs up: “Amazing!”

Chi Liu smiled slightly: “…”

He didn’t want to ask what kind of “amazing” it was at all!

The elevator “dinged” and arrived at the first-floor lobby. Chi Liu stepped out of the elevator and picked up a music player right at his feet.

He looked in surprise at the cartoon player in his palm. There was a small label on the back that read: Chunming Special Elementary School · Shang Mingming.

This should be the child’s music player from today. It seems he accidentally dropped it here after leaving the bar with his father.

Chi Liu’s gaze scanned the elementary school: upon learning that he was about to have a child, he had researched most of the kindergartens and elementary schools in Qiuhai.

This special elementary school was right next to Chunming Community, and most of the students lived in that community.

Chi Liu didn’t think much about it. After carefully putting it away, he sent a text message to the manager and left the building with Secretary Wen and Xiang Xiang.

…

Back home, they quickly finished dinner, and it was time for the three of them to relax and watch TV again.

The soft, comfortable sofa was filled with pillows, and the coffee table was topped with fruits, cookies, and snacks.

Secretary Wen held a large bag of potato chips while watching his favorite show, “Stubborn Sweetheart and Campus F4 Love Story,” occasionally glancing toward the door with a face full of hesitation and suspicion.

Chi Liu ate a strawberry and raised an eyebrow, asking, “Something on your mind?”

Usually, when they watched 8 PM soap operas together, this was the most invested person!

Secretary Wen wiped his hands clean, grabbed a small blanket, wrapped himself tightly, and twitched his lips: “…I’m a little cold.”

In fact, he was terrified.

The Boss put an eyeball in the peephole of Little Chi’s house!

That eyeball was now rotating 360°, surveying everything inside and outside the door…

And that section of finger bone and rib…

The Boss had simply transformed Little Chi’s home into his own organ museum!

Too perverted!

Chi Liu didn’t feel cold, but he still turned up the air conditioner and put a small blanket over Xiang Xiang.

Xiang Xiang was tilting his head obediently, looking curiously at Chi Liu’s abdomen.

Chi Liu smiled and joked, “Did you hear the baby talking again?”

Xiang Xiang stared blankly at Chi Liu’s abdomen. Just as he was about to answer, Chi Liu’s phone buzzed.

Chi Liu smiled reassuringly at Xiang Xiang and answered the phone. Secretary Wen quickly turned down the TV volume.

Manager Shang’s voice came out: “Thank you so much, Little Chi! Mingming is obsessive about his things. He can’t lose them. He’s been crying all night. It’s great that you found it! Sigh, he originally had two, and he gave one to that friend.”

Chi Liu: “I can send it to Mingming in the same city now.”

Before hanging up the phone, Manager Shang thanked him again.

After Chi Liu called for an express delivery service, Xiang Xiang answered Chi Liu’s question: “I didn’t hear the baby talking.” After a pause, he looked at Chi Liu’s abdomen with some worry and said, “I don’t know why, but the baby has been sleeping all night…”

Chi Liu: “?”

What did that mean?

…

The next day, at the hospital, after completing various examinations, the female doctor reviewed the results and stated that the baby was very healthy.

Chi Liu finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The female doctor indicated the tiny embryo on the film and smiled: “Look, his facial features have already begun to differentiate. He should be a very beautiful child.”

Chi Liu sat across from the doctor, lowered his eyes gently, and lightly stroked the tiny ball in the film with his finger. His heart was filled with a mix of sour and soft feelings. He curved his eyes and said to the doctor, “Thank you.”

The female doctor sighed, glanced at Xiang Xiang and Secretary Wen beside her, then looked at Chi Liu and said with concern: “Your friends are with you again, huh? The baby’s father is away again, huh?”

Tsk, what a scumbag.

Chi Liu smiled: “He went on a business trip.”

The female doctor complained inwardly that a business trip was no excuse for neglecting one’s partner and picked up another examination sheet. She said, “This is how it is. At this stage, the embryo is developing and growing rapidly in all aspects. Based on my previous experience—”

Based on her previous experience in examining pregnant Them—

“At this stage, the embryo is very likely to experience an overflow of power. But it doesn’t matter. Children are naughty. At most, they’ll play with water or something with their exuberant energy—”

Since arriving at this hospital, she naturally assumed that Chi Liu was aware of those things.

Chi Liu was stunned and frowned in confusion: “I’m sorry, what are you saying?”

He didn’t understand at all.

Secretary Wen’s eyes widened, and he stood up with a “shua,” desperately winking at the female doctor, his tongue tied: “This, that, aba aba—”

Little Chi didn’t know anything yet!

But he didn’t know how to say it now!

Just then, there was a “whoosh” sound.

The two glasses of plain water on the table floated into the air and splashed onto the ground with a “pa,” splashing onto Secretary Wen’s trouser legs.

Secretary Wen: “…”

Chi Liu’s eyes suddenly widened.

The little child who slept too much yesterday because of his father was particularly energetic today and enthusiastically answered his mother’s question: “Mommy, I can be even more awesome!”