It was a close call, but Yan Huan’s child was strong, just like her mother. He might only be a fetus, but he was Yan Huan and Lu Yi’s child all right.
Yan Huan picked up a pair of chopsticks and began devouring the shrimp dumplings Lu Yi had brought her. With a prodigious appetite, Yan Huan finished most of the dumplings. The leftovers were given to Lu Yi to not waste food.
She felt a lot more comfortable with a full stomach.
Ye Shuyun came over at night, bringing with her a tub of soup that had been simmered for hours. Yan Huan drank a large bowl of it.
“Has she been eating like this lately?” asked Ye Shuyun, incredulous. Back when Yan Huan stayed with her, she ate pathetically little compared to now.
“Yes,” nodded Lu Yi. “I imagined it was because she had finally realized the goodness of food.”
Ye Shuyun wanted to slap him. Didn’t it strike him as strange that someone who usually ate extremely little suddenly became a glutton?
Frankly, it didn’t. Even if he did suspect something, he would never have related it to pregnancy. He had long given up hope on that. No hope meant no disappointment.
Yet the heavens had decided on giving them a (scary) surprise. Even now, he could not believe he was going to be a father. It wasn’t that he didn’t care about the child; but he still found himself loving and worrying way more about Yan Huan than their child.
Yan Huan fell asleep soon after eating, so she didn’t remember much of their exchange. When He Yibin came over at night, Ye Shuyun pulled him aside and interrogated him until he repeatedly promised that the child would be fine. Without his assurance, she was sure she wouldn’t get any sleep that night. I better bring more soup here tomorrow, she thought.
Meanwhile, Ye Chuji was having a stare-off with Ye Jianguo.
“How could you lay a hand on her, Dad?”
Ye Chuji was distraught when he learned that his father and niece had caused Yan Huan’s hospitalization.
How could they have hit her? To the extent of hospitalization, no less. How could they hit someone from the Lu Family? Not to mention it was Yan Huan, Ye Xinyu’s savior.
He had done a fair share of coercion, but that was all talk. It wasn’t as if he would actually hurt her.
“Uncle, it was Yan Huan who…”
Sun Yuhan rushed to explain, but Ye Chuji gave her a cold look.
“Keep your mouth shut. I wasn’t talking to you.”
“Ye Chuji!” Ye Jianguo sprang to his feet, all ready to mollycoddle his granddaughter. “Is that the way to talk to your niece? She’s a grown woman now, but have you ever taken care of her or contributed to her raising? It’s bad enough that you aren’t taking her side after she got bullied, but to think you would go as far as to reprimand her. Do you not feel guilty toward your sister and mother? Have you forgotten about your promise to her at her deathbed?”
He hadn’t, of course. In life, his mother had always been worried about Ye Rong, and that had been so even at her death. She made Ye Chuji promise to keep on looking for her, and to treat her well and protect her if she was found someday.
He did make that promise, but that didn’t make it okay for them to hit Yan Huan to the point of hospitalization, and for no reason at all! Ye Shuyun had rejected all his calls, and Lu Jin had told him to expect a visit from him and his father.
Filled with fear and indignation, Sun Yuhan hid behind Ye Jianguo. So what if she hit Yan Huan? Wasn’t Yan Huan the one who hit her first? Wasn’t she allowed to fight back?
“Dad, you…”
Ye Chuji stood up as well. He knew how much his grandfather dotes Sun Yuhan, but was there really a need to go that far? Yan Huan was hospitalized because of it! He turned to Sun Yuhan. At this point, being angry was pointless.
“Where exactly did you hit her?”
Sun Yuhan shrunk behind Ye Jianguo again. She didn’t remember where she hit her. In her fury, she had hauled Yan Huan’s hair and kicked her, but surely it wasn’t enough to cause her to be hospitalized, right?
No, that couldn’t have been it.
“She’s acting, Uncle,” blurted Sun Yuhan. That was the only explanation she could arrive at. Yan Huan must have staged the whole thing to scare them.
“Are you certain?” demanded Ye Chuji. “Let’s hope that is the case. If something happens to her, you’ll be the one held responsible.”
Sun Yuhan gaped and said nothing.
Held responsible? Her? What could she do? If it was a concussion, or cerebral hemorrhage… Must she offer them her own head as apology?
“Grandpa…” Sun Yuhan tugged at Ye Jianguo’s sleeves.
“Don’t worry, it’ll be fine,” Ye Jianguo shot his son a look. “You talk needlessly.”
He turned and gave Sun Yuhan a smile and a pat on her hand.
“Your uncle’s only scaring you. Go back to your room. I have more to discuss with your uncle.”
“Okay,” said Sun Yuhan, eager at the prospect of returning to her room. She found Ye Chuji a huge bother, always nagging about this and that when her grandfather didn’t. “I’ll be heading back to my room, Grandpa.”
With that, she made a hasty retreat to her room, leaving the mess to them.
“You are pampering her too much, Dad,” said Ye Chuji sternly, a scowl on his face. Why wasn’t he this good to his grandson? For him he only had scolding and beatings, which made Ye Xinyu reluctant to come home these days.
Or could it be that he was actually adopted? Like how Lu Jin suspected his own identity back then(just that it was real this time)?
“What’s with the look?” said Ye Jianguo, noting the indignation in Ye Chuji’s eyes. “She’s your sister’s daughter. I have spent years looking for her. Your niece has been separated from you for 20 years. Not only do you not treat her well, you side with an outsider to bully her. Do you not feel guilty toward your sister and mother?”