Callum sat down while Guang Ying walked around as he took a look. He did not leave the living room as that would be extremely rude. However, when he saw the pull-up bar that was placed at the small entrance between the living room and the stairs, he went over to have a look.
He was looking at it when Zhi Hao came running down the stairs. The boy had changed out of his school uniform and was now donning a simple black long sleeve cotton shirt and an old pair of cutoff jeans that reached just slightly above his knees.
Given that the boy was obviously uncomfortable with how tight the jeans were around his thigh, Guang Ying noted that the boy probably wore the pair of jeans for the first time in a long while. He was wondering how long had it been since the boy came home when he heard a small voice asking, "Mr. Luo?"
Guang Ying looked at the boy.
"Do you want to play?" asked Zhi Hao politely as he looked up at the pull-up bar.
"No, go ahead. I'm just looking."
Zhi Hao shrugged and jumped lightly. Once he caught the bar, he started to do some chin-up. As Zhi Hao was exercising on the bar, Guang Ying leaned against the wall as he observed. With his arms folded, he asked, "Your dad taught you how to use it?"
"Yeah," Zhi Hao said without any difficulty. His breathing remained constant the whole time.
As Guang Ying watched the boy went up and down, he said, "I bet your mum can do it as well."
Zhi Hao glanced at him as he counted under his breathe, "19,20."
He then dropped down on his feet and turned to Guang Ying with a smirk on his face.
Waving his hand nonchalantly, he said, "My mum? No way. She can't even do one chin up. Well, dad used to lift her up just to humor her, but that's just games."
Guang Ying noted that the kid did not even break a sweat after 20 chin up, and he did it quite effortlessly as well. Just with that, he figured that the kid probably exercised quite often.
"Good physical genes..." thought Guang Ying. Then again, as an Elite Scholarship winner, he should have good physical strength.
"Oh yeah, don't you have to pay me?" asked Zhi Hao suddenly as he looked at the man in front of him with a greedy pair of eyes. When Guang Ying raised an eyebrow at him, Zhi Hao whispered, "You know, for knocking me over."
"Xiao Zhi Hao!" Xiao Lei's voice startled the boy so much that he jumped a little.
"I don't know how she can hear it from here..." muttered Zhi Hao under his breath.
Guang Ying chuckled at the boy's words as he replied, "Mothers can hear things from miles away..."
The boy sighed before he said loudly to his mother who was standing in the living room, "Come on, Mum! We need the money!"
"You need a backbone. Sit here quietly and don't say stupid stuff," said Xiao Lei as she looked at the floor.
Zhi Hao muttered under his breath again, "Backbone can't feed you."
"What now?" asked his mother with a warning glare.
"Nothing." Zhi Hao smiled nervously before he sat down on the floor.
Xiao Lei sighed before she looked at Guang Ying and said, "Let's sit. I'm sure there's something you want from me. Let's get it out of the way."
"What do you mean?" asked Guang Ying as he sat down next to Callum.
Xiao Lei continued to smile but she dropped the weak voice from earlier as she said, "Someone like you won't come into the house of someone like me unless you need some sort of help. Let's talk now."
Guang Ying and Callum exchanged glances when she went back to the kitchen to bring out the sugar for tea. Honestly, they were surprised by her sudden change of behavior. They had a feeling that she was not a normal woman. Instead of being worried, they were intrigued by her.
Guang Ying looked at Xiao Lei who was sitting on a plastic red chair while her son sat on the floor quietly, munching away on snacks.
"So, what is it that you guys want?" asked Xiao Lei when the men did not say anything despite her having sat down for a while.
Guang Ying smiled warmly at her. He then took Callum's hand and interlinked his fingers with Callum's. When the man looked at him in surprise, Guang Ying then turned to Xiao Lei and said, "Actually… We're looking for a surrogate mother… and I've taken a liking to you."
At first, Guang Ying decided to wait until Callum got his report. But after looking around the house, he figured that Callum would have a hard time with the background checks. Thus, he decided to just be upfront about it.
"What?!" Xiao Lei looked at their hands before she glanced at her son who by now, was staring agape at the men.
After a few seconds of confusion, she asked, "Wait… You want me? Someone you just met? To be the mother of your child? Haven't I told you earlier that I have a husband?"
"Yes, we're aware of that, but as you said, he's not here at the moment. Of course, we've not decided on you at the moment. I just like the idea of you being the mother of our child. To be upfront, if you agree to this, there are certain things that we'd need from you. Your name, address, and so on.
"Before we begin, we'd provide you with more appropriate accommodation while we go through the necessary process, and everything you need would be provided as well. Health inspection, background checks, etc. If everything goes through, we'll set out an agreement--"
Xiao Lei frowned and interrupted him. "No, my womb is not for sale. And even if I'm dirt poor, I'd never sell my babies like that! Never! Please leave!"
She seemed affronted by them thinking that her child was a thing that they could just buy.
"It's not selling your baby, Ms. Xiao Lei…" said Callum. He wanted to explain more but Guang Ying stopped him by placing a hand on his thigh.
Instead, Callum watched as his "wife" slipped his hand into his (Callum's) breast pocket and took out his cardholder.
Guang Ying took out a name card and wrote something on it. Once he placed it on the small coffee table, Guang Ying said, "This is his name card. If you're interested, do give him a call. There's also the phone number of his assistant there. If you can't get Callum, you can call his assistant, Mr. Han."
He then stood up and took a glance at Zhi Hao who was playing with the sugar cubes in his tea. The boy seemed to be deep in thought about something as he stirred the sugar cubes, not even realizing that he was spilling droplets of tea over the table.
"I hope you can consider this. This would be good for your son as well. I'm sure that those bruises on his body did not come from the accident earlier…" said Guang Ying with a calm expression as he turned back to her. When the boy was doing chin-ups at the bar, he accidentally saw signs of bruises from when the boy's shirt lifted up slightly.
Xiao Lei glanced at her son who froze when he heard what Guang Ying said.
Guang Ying then walked away, but before he walked out of the house, he said, "I hope we can hear from you soon."
After they left the house, Xiao Lei narrowed her eyes at her son who was trying to run off.