Chapter 39 2/2

The person who tells bedtime stories shot down the previous statement.

He looked at Jiang Li earnestly and said, “The child is the result of your hard work. I promise, regardless of whether my pursuit is successful or not, I will not take the child away from you.”

“Jiang Li, do I have some credit in your heart?” Jiang Li stiffened his face. If he nodded, wouldn’t it mean admitting that the child was his?

“Can I go in and fix the pipes?”

“You can’t take the child away without a blood relationship.” Jiang Li stepped aside, making way.

Cen Lang treated it as if he had a tough mouth, unless a scumbag ex-boyfriend fell from the sky. Perfect, just what he needed.

Cen Lang: “Is it a leak in the bathroom?” “It’s the sink.” Cen Lang crouched down and looked, seeing water seeping slowly from the pipe, with moss growing inside.

He closed his eyes.

Since he entered the building, he had only one thought—how could Jiang Li live in such a small place? There was no good furniture or appliances in the house; everything was randomly assembled from second-hand items from who knows where.

Once he got back, he would settle accounts with those middlemen who had profited along the way. Even if he gave Jiang one hundred thousand in the end, he could rent a better place with an extra fifty thousand.

Despite his heartache, Cen Lang did not show any disdain. His Jiang Li was not a canary; he grew up in an orphanage, and resilience and tenacity were his strengths.

At least the space here was much larger than the one they had in the White Flame battleship.

Cen Lang used tools to deal with the moss first. While scraping, he suddenly thought of the orphanage.

Jiang Li had a difficult time in the orphanage. Cen Lang originally thought Jiang Fu was a psychologically stable, aloof academic overachiever, but Jiang Li’s performance during the defense told him that his psyche was not as calm as he seemed.

He had trauma.

Jiang Li’s life could probably be divided into two stages: the orphanage and his academic pursuits. Jiang Li was an academic overachiever, and there shouldn’t be any difficulties in his academic journey. So, was it during his time in the orphanage that he suffered?

Cen Lang’s gaze darkened. While Jiang Li was out, he removed his gloves and sent a message to his assistant to investigate whether Jiang Li had been bullied in the orphanage. No one who stayed in the orphanage during the same period as Jiang Li should be overlooked.

After fixing the water pipe, Cen Lang cleaned himself up before going out, and he saw Jiang Li sitting on the bed reading a book.

In the laboratory he couldn’t visit, Jiang Li flipped through books like this, calm and serious, making it seem like time stood still.

Cen Lang waited for Jiang Li to lift his head from the book before saying, “Want me to make dinner, Dr. Xiao Jiang?”

Jiang Li replied, “Master Liu doesn’t provide meals.”

Cen Lang asked, “What about me?”

Jiang Li said, “I made mung bean and sweet potato congee.”

Cen Lang opened the rice cooker. Jiang Li only had this one pot and could only make various types of congee, just like how he could only make chaotic stews. This home needed someone to learn how to cook.

Learn right away.

Cen Lang was about to serve the congee when Jiang Li suddenly hesitated and looked at him.

Cen Lang’s first reaction was that Jiang Li could eat a lot, but then he raised his hand and noticed that he had smeared some moss on the sleeve of his elbow. Eating like this would be frowned upon.

He was wearing a black shirt with a vest inside. He just needed to take off the shirt.

Cen Lang covered the rice cooker and said, “Just kidding, I’m not hungry.”

Jiang Li immediately sensed something was wrong. Three months ago, in the cafeteria, Cen Lang’s hand trembled for no reason, claiming it was a minor injury.

Had it not healed yet? Why else would he wear long sleeves in the heat?

“Aren’t you hot?” Jiang Li asked.

Cen Lang replied, “I can withstand the heat; black gives a stable impression.”

Jiang Li took out a coat from the cabinet and threw it to him. Cen Lang saw his missing coat from the dungeon, which was surprisingly well preserved. Jiang Li hadn’t destroyed it, even bringing it with him when moving.

“How did you…”

Jiang Li said indifferently, “Good quality.”

Cen Lang remarked, “Yes, in the future, it can be used as a diaper. It’s too thick.”

Jiang Li said, “Let me see your arm.”

Cen Lang realized he was too good at eating, and then he lifted his sleeve, revealing mossy marks on his elbow. Eating like this would be frowned upon.

Jiang Li said, “Let me see the other arm.” Cen Lang simply took off his shirt and said, “Look.”

Sure enough, there were marks on the other side.

Jiang Li frowned. “These are minor electric shock injuries. Were you captured by aliens and subjected to anti-human electric shock experiments?”

Cen Lang joked, “I’m quite anti-Alpha.” Unable to deceive Jiang Li, Cen Lang could only tell the truth, after all, being captured and all wasn’t Alpha.

“I can’t control the release of pheromones towards you, but I’m afraid of hurting you. So, I made a device to detect the amount of pheromones released. It alerts me if it exceeds the threshold.”

Jiang Li pursed his lips. No wonder he felt that Cen Lang’s pheromone concentration was higher today. It turned out that Cen Lang found out he was immune and stopped suppressing himself so much.

Cen Lang endured the pain of electric shocks while still being able to chat with him. In the end, it was the result of not telling him the truth.

Jiang Li remembered what Professor Yu had said—Cen Lang endured twenty years of pheromone storms, which was somewhat “abnormal.”

This abnormality might not be what he thought; it referred to Cen Lang being accustomed to suppressing pain under high pressure, so he used electric shocks to alert himself.

He didn’t think it was a big deal, but Jiang Li felt it was wrong.

Medicine aims to alleviate human suffering, not intensify it.

Jiang Li didn’t want Cen Lang to solve problems this way.

In a place he didn’t know about, what dangerous things had Cen Lang done?

If he flatly denied the father-son relationship between Cen Lang and the kid, would Cen Lang feel upset privately, go crazy, and then use some inhuman means to restrain jealousy without letting him notice?

Alpha’s possessiveness was written about in textbooks.

After finally treating the storm syndrome, meeting him made it worse.

Jiang Li was in a dilemma. Seeing Cen Lang casually putting on the thick coat as if he didn’t want him to see the discomfort, Jiang Li, with quick eyes and quick hands, grabbed the sleeve of the coat, preventing him from putting it on. “Let me handle it for you.”

Jiang Li had a medical kit. He crushed a pill and dissolved it in distilled water, then lightly applied it with a cotton swab.

Cen Lang looked down at Jiang Li attentively. The slightly numb skin in those two places suddenly felt tingling, as if new flesh was about to grow. Playing the victim was effective, but it was indeed shameful.

“Does it hurt?”

“Not at all.”

Jiang Li’s dark eyelashes trembled slightly. “Can you promise me one thing?”

“Depends on what it is.” Cen Lang was very cautious; if it was about never seeing each other again, that wouldn’t work.

Jiang Li said, “I’ll tell you something, and you have to promise me.”

“Will I lose out?”

“Then forget it.”

“Tell me, I’m listening.”

Jiang Li said seriously, “If you encounter difficulties, find a doctor. Don’t use crude methods to solve them yourself. Promise me not to forcefully suppress them in a way that causes you pain.”

Cen Lang was stunned. It was so simple. “Okay.”

Sometimes, Jiang Li’s compassion was purely that of a healer. He suddenly thought of the increasingly emotional caregiver rhetoric after several layers of outsourcing. Was Jiang Li’s selection of him also influenced by some of those factors?

Outsourcing wasn’t entirely without merit; he would be a bit more lenient when settling scores.

Jiang Li took a deep breath, not noticing that his hand had become heavier. When he realized this, he looked up at Cen Lang’s expression, but Cen Lang’s eyebrows didn’t even wrinkle.

It had to be resolved; things were getting serious. Cen Lang said he wouldn’t compete for the child with him, and he was willing to believe that.

“The child is indeed yours.”

Cen Lang’s heart skipped a beat. He didn’t know how he came to this conclusion. He wished he could save every moment of what just happened and replay it later.

Jiang Li admitted it!

The process of pregnancy… He and Jiang Li… The words he used to tease Jiang Li might all be true. Cen Lang felt a bit insane for a moment because of his ignorance and wild imagination.

Jiang Li continued, “I want a child, but because of my cleanliness, I don’t want to… um, be with people. So, you were in your sensitive period, and I took your sperm back for artificial insemination. My roommate is in reproductive medicine, and I know a bit too.”

“Sorry, I treated your condition and charged you fifty thousand beyond that, so I wanted to take some extra compensation privately.”

The child could be acknowledged, but he didn’t want to admit that they had a relationship, or else things would be weird.

Cen Lang’s mood was neither good nor bad.

So, he was still innocent.