Chapter 22: Mom, I Know, I Know!

In the silent corridor, moonlight spilled through the window, casting a glow on the floor. A bear headgear lay quietly on the floor where light and shadow intertwined.

Chi Liu pursed his lips and stood before the man. With a light “smack,” he decisively slapped the other party.

Chu Qi’s pupils contracted in surprise.

After a long while, he extended his pale, slender fingers, tracing Chi Liu’s slightly furrowed brow. His voice was deep and unreal: “Don’t be angry, darling.”

Chi Liu felt a slight chill and a bit of itchiness…

He didn’t avoid the man’s touch, but shifted his gaze, bit his lip, and then, as if making up his mind, leaned forward to hug the man’s waist, burying his face in the other’s broad embrace.

The icy, peculiar fragrance overwhelmed his senses, and Chi Liu’s earlobes turned completely red.

Chu Qi’s body froze in disbelief; he had clearly been exposed. Little Chi was clearly angry, so why was he receiving a hug?

At this moment, the young man’s entire body was in his arms. He could feel how warm and fragrant that body was; even the rhythm of his breathing was captivating.

And, the slightly rounded curve of the young man’s abdomen was pressed against his body through the fabric—inside, was the life they were nurturing together…

Had it grown to this point?

Chu Qi’s pupils dilated with a beast-like excitement. The heart from another world throbbed, on the verge of crashing and exploding. He slowly raised his hand, which was stuttering with excitement, wanting to wrap it around the young man’s waist, to cover him with his scent, and to touch the area where the embryo was located…

But Chi Liu had already released him.

His face flushed, he lightly “ahem”-ed, opened the door, and walked in quickly.

Chu Qi stood outside the door, keeping his arm raised. He followed Chi Liu’s figure with his eyes, tilting his head in confusion: “?”

Chi Liu ignored him, but didn’t shut him out.

He stood by the cleaning sink next to the kitchen bar, routinely washing the apples and strawberries he ate after dinner every day.

Chu Qi recalled the scene just now, smiling excitedly: “Can you slap me again?”

A slap in exchange for a hug, what a bargain.

Chi Liu, who was washing the apple, paused: “…”

Was this person out of his mind?

What if it were hereditary and passed on to the baby?

Chi Liu twitched his lips and said unhappily, “If you’re not coming in, go back to your place across the hall.”

With a soft “thump,” the door closed.

The next second, Chu Qi had already appeared behind Chi Liu.

He reached out and embraced the young man from behind, his hands wrapping around the young man’s waist, his pale, cold palms gently caressing Chi Liu’s slightly protruding abdomen—it had been two months. The soft, warm abdominal muscles had already begun to stretch in response to the shape of the embryo, a sensation that made his scalp tingle with excitement…

He tilted his head curiously, observing the young man’s cute earlobes, still flushed red…

Desire gradually surfaced in his dark eyes, faintly glowing red, wanting more…

In another world, he had missed him so much he was going crazy…

Chi Liu’s movements in washing the fruit paused, his breathing faltering for a moment.

The water flowed, rushing over the back of his hand, where pale blue veins were clearly visible. The bright red strawberries made his hands appear even fairer and more beautiful, and a shadow cast from behind enveloped them, as if branding an indelible mark.

The man’s hand was still caressing his increasingly sensitive abdomen, moving with an ambiguous touch. Chi Liu’s legs weakened, and he almost dropped the strawberries in his hand to support himself against the sink…

He bit his lip in shame—this, bastard…

The living room curtains weren’t even drawn!

Also, didn’t he know that doing this kind of thing now would hurt the baby!

With a soft “thump,” he stomped hard on the man’s instep behind him, then turned off the faucet, put the washed fruit on a plate, and walked past the man towards the sofa.

Rejected, a hint of disappointment surfaced in Chu Qi’s pupils, but a pleasant smile still floated on his face. His affectionate gaze followed Chi Liu: “Will you marry me?”

Chi Liu sat down, raised an eyebrow, and looked over: “We can date first.”

Marriage wasn’t something as casual as buying cabbage at the market!

Chu Qi tilted his head: “What is dating?”

Chi Liu: “…” How was he supposed to answer that?

A feeling of nausea surged up again—it seemed that every time he was around Chu Qi, the embryo in his stomach was unusually active…

Chi Liu got up, his face pale, and strode towards the bathroom, leaving behind a disgruntled, “Look it up yourself.”

Chu Qi watched the young man’s uncomfortable appearance, the smile on his face slowly disappearing, replaced by a kind of heartache…

His thin lips tightened into a straight line, and he dialed a phone number.

…

Recently, the morning sickness had become more intense. Chi Liu spent a long time in the bathroom. When he finally emerged after tidying himself up, he was astonished. The air outside was filled with the alluring aroma of food.

It wouldn’t be this quick for takeout to arrive, so does that mean that man cooked?

No way… Two weeks ago, he had blown up the kitchen making braised fish!

Could it be that he actually went to culinary school for further study over the past two weeks?

His stomach rumbled, tempted. Chi Liu simply stopped thinking about it and strode toward the dining room, his eyes shining with a light he wasn’t even aware of.

The table was set with a lavish spread of sumptuous dishes, nutritious, steaming hot, and enticingly colorful. The aroma was ready to tantalize his taste buds.

Chu Qi smiled affectionately, gentlemanly and elegantly pulling out a chair for him. Chi Liu looked at the man in surprise for a long time before clearing his throat and sitting down, pointing at the dishes and saying, “Where did all this come from?”

It couldn’t possibly be this man who did it!

Had the household waste turned into a fairy in half a month?

Chu Qi sat down across from Chi Liu, still smiling: “Purchased through legal and reasonable channels.”

Completely legal, entirely reasonable.

He had scattered several handfuls of paper money before taking these dishes!

Chi Liu noticed something off about what he said but couldn’t quite pinpoint any faults.

He simply stopped thinking about it and smiled at the man for once: “Okay. Then I’ll eat.”

Chu Qi was as affectionately handsome as the most perfect lover: “Please, enjoy.”

After a pause, he slid a glass of freshly squeezed strawberry juice over to the young man and then said, “This Saturday, I will accompany you to that hospital for a check-up. And I have already purchased two tickets for the holographic amusement park this Sunday, as well as movie tickets for that night—for the science fiction movie you’ve been wanting to see recently.”

Chi Liu’s eyes widened in complete shock: What had happened in the short twenty minutes he was in the bathroom!

How did this person suddenly become so enlightened?

But—Chi Liu put a piece of tender and delicious stewed perch in his mouth, looked at the handsome man across from him, and blinked—he seemed to be enjoying it?

Agreeing wasn’t impossible…

He hadn’t dated before, and was even a little excited…

…

“So, while I was negotiating business for you and the client—”

Early the next morning, in the CEO’s office at Yingwang Tower, Secretary Wen heavily emphasized the words “for you,” and then said in a breakdown, “Can you please not call or control my brain at will!”

As the secretary, he found it quite challenging to manage Yingwang’s business in the vacation world for the boss.

Just when he was speaking to people at a crucial moment, the boss, who was accustomed to being a hands-off manager, kept calling one after another, and he couldn’t even hang up.

When he turned off his phone, the boss directly and domineeringly stuffed his consciousness into his brain and spammed it! He couldn’t even say a complete sentence to the client!

His brain wasn’t a public cafeteria where others could come and go as they pleased, ahhh!

He could only set aside the distinguished client to address the boss’s personal love problems!

Heaven knows what the client thought of him and Yingwang behind his back!

This job was impossible to do!

Chu Qi, immersed in the sweet cohabitation life of last night, raised his head at that moment, his smile perfect and irritating: “What did you say?”

He really hasn’t been listening just now.

Did his recently useful subordinate have any more helpful suggestions?

Secretary Wen, his molars about to grind to dust: “…”

Chu Qi then opened the drawer, grabbed a large handful of large-denomination bills at random, and elegantly threw them in front of Secretary Wen: “Go buy some books related to dating precautions, pregnancy precautions, and recipes. I want the most expensive and best. Go now.”

Secretary Wen: “…”

Before his molars were ground to dust, he grabbed the bills over there, gritted his teeth, and said “Yes,” then left the office.

Chu Qi was eagerly anticipating the wonderful time he would spend with the young man over the next two days when his phone, which no one dared to call, buzzed and rang.

He answered the call with a rare good mood: “Hello?”

The signal was quite poor, and the voice on the other end was intermittent—after all, it involved communication between two worlds, and establishing it was already a very challenging project.

“President Chu,” the voice on the other end was cold and stern: “We need you to come back again. We predict that larger and more space sinkholes are about to appear! We have received news that they have created even more terrifying monsters!”

Chu Qi’s smile disappeared, and his eyes narrowed dangerously: “When?”

The other end said: “Now.”

Chu Qi pressed down hard with his pale fingers, and a hole was dented in the phone, with electric current crackling and sparks flying.

Before the voice on the other end completely disappeared intermittently, Chu Qi’s cold voice rang out: “I understand.”

…

In the descending elevator, Secretary Wen squeezed the handful of banknotes in his hand hard—

He was going to resign now! Immediately! Immediately!

Stepping out of Yingwang with large strides, Secretary Wen walked toward the bookstore like a fool under the scorching sun.

When he paid with those paper bills, he didn’t dare to face the strange eyes of the sales lady!

Didn’t his boss know that everyone uses electronic payment methods now? Using so many large-denomination bills is really tacky, okay!

Carrying a hefty stack of books and struggling to walk, Secretary Wen halted as he approached the glass wall of the bookstore:

There sat a thin man in a black hooded sweatshirt, reading a book on how to disguise himself.

It was a face covered in bandages, slightly oozing blood, as if he had just had some major plastic surgery.

Secretary Wen couldn’t recognize what this face looked like, but he inexplicably felt that he was very familiar…

…

“Hahaha,” at lunchtime, Wen Xi swiped through a news article on her phone and laughed without any ladylike restraint, slapping the table. “I’m dying of laughter, how could this person be so unlucky.”

Curiously, Chi Liu leaned over to take a look and saw a post featuring a picture of a table covered with thick paper money. The title, filled with exclamation points, appeared very collapsed:

[Ahhh, damn it! My food has been robbed again!!]

[This is how it happened: I invited my girlfriend to my house for dinner. I specifically asked my aunt, who is particularly good at cooking, to prepare a full table of nutritious and delicious dishes. I swear I saw my aunt bring the dishes to the table with my own eyes.]

[But! I opened the door! When I returned with the girl, the dishes were gone! There was only a table full of money! The girl slapped me when she saw it and left in a fit of anger overnight!]

[My meal vanished like that last time. Damn food thief! Don’t let me catch you! How can I save my girlfriend, ahhhhh!]

The comment section was discussing how unlucky this guy was, and Qi Teng leaned over to look at the photo, drooling pitifully: “I don’t want to eat the dishes, I want that money!”

That money looked like it could pay off a lot of his debts to Yingwang!

Wen Xi glanced at him: “It’s wrong to get something for nothing.”

Qi Teng immediately shut up.

Chi Liu bent his eyebrows and couldn’t help but sigh: “I don’t know who’s so immoral to do that kind of thing.”

“Mom, I know, I know! It’s Dad who’s so immoral, oh~”

An extremely weak and childishly soft voice rang in his mind. Chi Liu suddenly widened his eyes: What was that…

Wen Xi, Qi Teng, and Xiang Xiang suddenly raised their heads and looked at Chi Liu at the same time.