After the grand wedding, Lu Jiaxin and Nie Zhan went to Europe for their honeymoon and returned to Hong Kong after half a month to celebrate the New Year.
Right after the New Year, the Gulf War broke out, with over 30 countries joining the non-binding anti-Iraq coalition. As the war raged on, crude oil prices soared rapidly. Nie Zhan’s principal of one billion greenbacks had now turned into more than 11.6 billion greenbacks.
Nie Zhan said to Lu Jiaxin, "Jiaxin, I plan to continue buying, what do you think?"
Petroleum is a strategic commodity, and as soon as the situation escalates, prices shoot up. Given the current circumstances, they are bound to rise further.
Lu Jiaxin, having no impression of the Gulf War, thought for a moment and opposed his decision: "We’ve already made tenfold profits, it’s time to cash out at a good point, let’s not go any further."
In the past, she gambled to accumulate more capital, but now it’s unnecessary, seeing it as a short-term investment. It’s better to withdraw after making a profit rather than hoping to sell at the peak. Unless the peak can be predicted, one should pull out after reasonable gains; excessive greed could lead to losing everything.
The reason for consulting Lu Jiaxin was that Nie Zhan acknowledged her reputation for good fortune. Of course, it wasn’t just following blindly, but previous investments had proven her intuition was very accurate.
Nie Zhan, being a decisive person, immediately stated upon hearing this: "Alright, we’ll do as you say, clear the stocks."
Once the contract expired, he cleared his stocks and called Nie Jingwen to inform him of this.
Nie Jingwen was quite perplexed: "The war has only been going for over twenty days, it’s just started, isn’t it too early to clear the stocks now!"
Nie Zhan didn’t mention that he was following Jiaxin’s advice, finding it unnecessary: "Brother, you previously said to let you know if I decided to clear the stocks; I have done so now."
He had promised Nie Jingwen this request before and naturally had to keep his word. Whether Nie Jingwen continued to buy or cleared his stocks was his own decision, and Nie Zhan wouldn’t interfere.
Nie Jingwen paused for a moment, then said, "Ah Zhan, do you and your sister-in-law have time on Sunday? If so, could you come back to the old mansion for a meal?"
Since it was the first year of their marriage, Lu Jiaxin and Nie Zhan went to the Nie Family Old Mansion to celebrate the New Year, including the Lantern Festival. Although not favored, since she had married Nie Zhan and the Nie family members were all very kind, she certainly had to give them this face.
Nie Zhan declined, indicating he needed to go on a business trip in a few days and would be back after a week. As for where he was going, it was not mentioned since the itinerary needed to be kept confidential.
That day he finished work relatively early and wanted to pick up Lu Jiaxin, but when he called, she said she was already home. Upon reaching home, he saw Lu Jiaxin with her eyes closed, leaning on the sofa in the living room. He initially thought she was resting her eyes, but to his surprise, she didn’t respond to his calls three times.
Nie Zhan quickly reached out to touch her forehead, but her temperature was normal. After waking her up, he asked, "Did you not take a nap?"
Lu Jiaxin yawned and said, "I probably didn’t sleep well last night, let’s have them set the table!"
After dinner, the two went for a walk outside, and after a while, Lu Jiaxin started to nod off again. She didn’t force herself and went back to the room to sleep.
The next day during a meeting, Lu Jiaxin felt drowsy again. Yawning in front of her subordinates didn’t look good, so she found an excuse to let the general manager lead the work and returned to her office.
In her office, Lu Jiaxin said to Yan Yijun, "In ten minutes, let’s go to the hospital."
She hadn’t been through childbirth herself, but she knew what it entailed, having seen many of her close friends go through pregnancy and childbirth. Now, with drowsiness and a delayed period by ten days, following the experiences they had shared, it was highly likely she was pregnant; but she didn’t want to announce anything before confirming, to avoid getting Nie Zhan excited prematurely.
Even though Nie Zhan hadn’t expressed it outright, every time he saw Su Heyuan and Tao Yong’s son, it was hard not to notice the envy in his eyes.
At Recuperate Hospital, a check-up confirmed her expectations, she was indeed pregnant. She was in good health with no issues, and the doctor advised her to rest well and not tire herself, without needing additional supplements.
Once back in the car, Lu Jiaxin said with a joyful face, "Let’s go to Wansheng Group."
Nie Zhan had already integrated his companies into a group. According to the plan, Lu Jiaxin was also supposed to merge her companies this year, but now that she was pregnant, it might need to be postponed.
When they arrived at Wansheng Group, Nie Zhan was in a meeting. Lu Jiaxin didn’t disturb him and lay on the sofa to rest. When Nie Zhan finished the meeting and returned, he found her asleep leaning against the sofa.
Waking her up, Nie Zhan expressed concern: "Jiaxin, you’ve been drowsy these past two days, this never happened before. I’ll accompany you to the hospital to find out the reason."
She went to bed around seven last night and only woke this morning after more than eleven hours of sleep. However, she was drowsy again, which was clearly a problem.
Lu Jiaxin took out the test report from her bag and handed it to him, saying, "I just came back from the hospital, this is the test result, take a look."
Nie Zhan quickly took it, and after reading it, was both surprised and delighted: "Jia... Jiaxin, am I going to be a dad?"
Lu Jiaxin’s face was also full of smiles: "It’s already been five weeks, and by the looks, it happened during the honeymoon."
After their marriage, they stopped using contraception; since both were healthy, conceiving was expected.
Nie Zhan was very happy and hugged Lu Jiaxin gently, saying in a voice as soft as water, "Wife, thank you."
Lu Jiaxin patted his back and said with a smile: "We have a custom, not to let anyone know in the first three months, otherwise it’s not good for the baby. Let’s tell our family and friends after the baby is three months old."
Anything not good for the baby was strictly prohibited. After Nie Zhan agreed, he rested his head against her belly. After being patted by Lu Jiaxin, he softly said, "Let me listen."
It was the first time Lu Jiaxin saw him being silly, and she couldn’t help but laugh, "The baby is only as big as a green bean now, what can you hear?"
Nie Zhan wasn’t bothered by her teasing and said to the belly, "Baby, I am daddy, we’ll meet in nine months."
Seeing how serious he was, Lu Jiaxin didn’t tease him anymore.
After a few words, Nie Zhan got up and said, "Let’s go home."
Lu Jiaxin was feeling drowsy again, and it was uncomfortable to sleep outside, the bed at home was much better. As soon as the couple got home, Nie Zhan asked the cook to stew some fish maw.
Lu Jiaxin expressed that she had no appetite at the moment. After going upstairs returning to their room and sitting down, Lu Jiaxin finally said: "Ah Zhan, in the early stages of pregnancy, a normal diet is sufficient, wait until the later stages to eat smaller, frequent meals. If we start supplementing now, by the time of the birth, I’d be as fat as a pig, and the baby could turn into a giant baby. That could lead to conditions like gestational hypertension and make delivery very dangerous."
Nie Zhan was greatly startled; he only knew that one needed to supplement during pregnancy without realizing so many intricacies were involved. After Lu Jiaxin fell asleep, he immediately called the family doctor.
Since there were many precautions to take, Nie Zhan asked the family doctor to organize the information into materials. Several copies of the materials were printed, one for himself, and one for each of the three chefs and the housekeeper.