"I'm pregnant...."
Chen Jin was taken aback and blurted out instinctively, "Whose?"
Liu Yin looked at him, tears streaming down her face, disbelief painted over her features.
After a moment of silence, "Mine?"
"Get rid of it, I'll make the appointment at the hospital for you," he said coldly, the words jumping out of his mouth.
He used to like children because they seemed cute and warm-hearted.
All he needed was to take some time out now and then, just to play with them and that was enough.
But now, to him, a child symbolized trouble and irritation, especially an unformed embryo that he hadn't been expecting.
Thinking of this, Chen Jin was reminded of the silent calls on his phone.
He was already so far from Su City, and yet Mrs. Chen still called over ten times every day.
If she wasn't complaining about how Doudou cried, was fussy, and not well-behaved, she was lamenting how exhausting and restrictive it was to care for a child...
Even Father Chen had become a subject of her complaints.
"Get rid of it?" Liu Yin repeated the words hesitantly, her figure swaying, taking a step back, her eyes filled with a sense of estrangement from Chen Jin.
The very next second, her expression shifted from resentful to resolute, "I won't get rid of it. You might not want it, but I will... I will raise it on my own..."
"From now on, even if we meet, let's act as if we're strangers."
With that, Liu Yin covered her face and swiftly left, leaving Chen Jin with no time to react.
In just a short moment, as Chen Jin chased after her, Liu Yin had already disappeared from view.
"Damn it...."
----------------------------
Su Li was living quite comfortably with Yaya.
Xi Muqian, with his strong executive ability, had taken the ancient prescription and quickly set in motion a series of research work.
A month later, when Xi Muqian appeared before Su Li looking all grimy and disheveled, she almost didn't recognize the man before her.
The man's face was shadowed by stubble, his eyes hidden behind untrimmed hair that was greasy enough to shine.
"Is that you, Mu Qian?"
Even a composed person like Su Li was so shocked that her facial muscles twitched.
"Are you experiencing what it's like to be a beggar?"
It was hard to imagine that someone who usually cared so much about his appearance would show up looking so unkempt.
Fortunately, not only Su Li, but the others around also recognized the man's identity, or else he would have dominated tomorrow's headlines.
It was only then that Xi Muqian realized, through the clear gaze of Su Li, just how disheveled he currently looked.
He seemed not to have groomed himself properly for a month, his originally white shirt now smeared with an indistinguishable mix of black and yellow stains, wrinkled, and emitting a strange and pungent smell mixed with the scent of herbal medicine.
However, his hard work had paid off, and within just a month, new results had emerged from the lab.
A newly developed anti-tumor drug that could be mass-produced and was highly effective would be a groundbreaking innovation in the world of medical science, and it was set to completely change the current landscape of the pharmaceutical industry.
Xi Muqian had rushed to Su Li's place non-stop as soon as he got the results.
He was eager to share the good news with her.
Su Li didn't feel much surprise; this was an outcome she had already calculated in her mind.
If she had to say, his pace wasn't even the fastest...
"I know," Su Li responded blandly and then, with a look of disgust, shuffled her body to the side, "Your appearance... it's quite an eyesore...."
Xi Muqian, who was not quite satisfied with Su Li's lukewarm attitude, nearly jumped up when he heard her next sentence.
"Ah...."
The sense of embarrassment spread through his body, it was too humiliating.
Xi Muqian arrived like a gust of wind and left even more quickly, like a bolt of lightning, leaving his accompanying assistant dumbfounded.
So the president also has this side.
"You... come over and help me take a look, what do you think of my writing?"
Su Li handed over several pages of her manuscript to Xi Muqian's assistant, "This is the storybook I just finished, what do you think?"
Initially, Su Li planned to fulfill the original owner's regrets, but these past days of brainstorming had gradually drawn her in.
Watching a new world she had created come to life beneath her hands, that rising sense of fulfillment was irreplaceable by anything.
Xi Muqian's capable assistant, a smart cookie himself and with the mind to please the boss's sweetheart, decided that even if what she wrote was crap, he would sincerely praise the novel as if it were unmatched by anything in heaven or on earth.
One must have thick skin...
Perhaps, the president will promote and give him a raise for his hard work, and then he could marry a rich beauty and reach the pinnacle of life.
But why does the beautiful, delicate, and fragile-looking woman in front of him write horror stories?
And it's the kind of horror novel where the atmosphere and setting come vividly to life.
Mommy, help, he was so scared....
It was just the opening, and he was covered in goosebumps, that immersion gave him the creeps.
The manuscript almost slipped from his hands.
And a gentle female voice timely asked, "What, don't you like my writing?"
"Good, it's good-looking...." The assistant had to stiffen his resolve to keep reading, his body temperature slowly dropping.
"Creak...." The door was pushed open.
"Ah...." The assistant, sweating bullets on his forehead, immediately jumped up, emitting a sound of fear.
At this moment, any little sound in the room made him uncomfortable, as if an invisible hand was clutching his heart.
"What are you screaming for?" Xi Muqian reappeared in front of Su Li, completely renewed, glaring at the assistant who made the graceless noise.
All he got in return was a grateful look from his assistant.
Thank goodness for the boss, he finally escaped that weird mood.
Xi Muqian asked curiously, "What are you doing?"
The assistant quickly smiled obsequiously, handing over the manuscript in his hands, "This is a novel written by Miss Su, I find it very good."
Xi Muqian's face remained cold, shooting the other a subtle glare before taking the manuscript.
He was actually not the first person to see the novel written by Su Li.
"Do you think it has investment potential?"
"I want to take it to a publisher and see if it can be published."
As soon as Su Li finished speaking, Xi Muqian's assistant immediately responded: "Absolutely, I can help with that... I happen to know a few editors at major publishing houses."
The assistant thought to himself: If he got a shock, he definitely had to let more people experience it too.
"Mind your own business, can't I handle this myself..." Xi Muqian, without any CEO's burden, hissed at his assistant, flashing a threatening smile.
"Su Li, I haven't seen it yet, you don't mind if I take it home to read today, do you?"
"Of course, you can."
The assistant couldn't help but mentally light a candle for his boss.
Amen, may the Lord bless you...