Chapter 39 Part 2

The front bangs looked like they’d been blown by a Force 10 gale. Messy, fine baby hairs stood straight up, vertical. The back half had been somewhat suppressed by Ji Nuo’s pre-sleep styling but wasn’t fully down, splitting in two. At a glance, the whole back of his head looked like the wings of a ladybug about to take flight.

Under the follow cameraman’s professional close-up technique, the little dumpling’s fierce hairstyle was displayed in full on screen. The audience, hearts aching for the child, couldn’t help but chuckle:

[Looking at the kid’s pale little face, I really shouldn’t be laughing, but… hahaha, what’s up with this hair?!]

[A Mom Fan is here to answer your questions. Han Cheng blew it dry. Giving our perfect-scoring-cub such an ugly style… I seriously suspect Han Cheng is jealous of our cub’s youthful beauty!]

[I wouldn’t believe it if you said this hairstyle wasn’t intentional!]

[I’m sinning, laughing at a child with a fever, I’m sinning hahahaha…]

[Press 1, Buddha forgives you.]

[I’ll leave a wooden fish here for friends in need. /wooden fish.jpg]

[Forget it, if Han Cheng hadn’t been the first to call the police for the cub, with this hairstyle, I, as an Ao’ao face-fan, would be going to war with Team Orange.]

The brief moment of danmaku joy immediately reverted back to curses against William and Xu Chengyi upon seeing the cub, nestled in Ji Nuo’s arms, wince in pain as the needle went in, his little body jolting.

On screen, the weakened cub was wrapped in Ji Nuo’s jacket, held in Ji Nuo’s arms. Ji Nuo, having rushed over, was still in his pajamas, with a black jacket two sizes too large draped over him.

The owner of that black jacket was none other than Han Cheng. The two sat side by side on a hospital corridor bench. Since the cub refused to switch caregivers, Han Cheng brought over the hot water bottle to warm the IV line for the cub. Occasionally, he uncapped a water bottle for Ji Nuo to drink from, and from time to time, he felt the child’s forehead.

Perhaps because good-looking people are always similar in some way, when Han Cheng and Ji Nuo were first shipped as a CP during “Chasing the Deer,” many felt they had husband-and-wife chemistry.

Now, with the passage of time, both men’s facial features had matured and become clearer compared to four years ago, yet the area around their eyes and brows still held a rare sense of harmony. Especially with a little dumpling nestled between them, resembling each of them by a three-to-seven split.

The danmaku gradually filled with more comments on this scene:

[…Seriously, is this child really not Ji Nuo and Han Cheng’s biological kid? This family of three is way too harmonious. /crying laughing]

[I didn’t think Ao’ao looked much like Ji Nuo before, but with a fever making his little face so pale, damn, he really does look like him.]

[Excuse me, besides Cub’s Mom Fans, Ji Nuo Fans, Han Cheng Fans, and CP Fans, are there any ‘Family of Three’ Fans? Although I really like them individually, my absolute favorite is when the three are together. They look so full of love!]

[+1! Me too! Can we just hope that Nuonuo and Han Cheng get married and then adopt Ao’ao together?! Or else I’ll really cry QAQ…]

[Sigh, but realistically that would be so hard. The adoption requirements now are that you must be thirty. Ji Nuo’s age is too far off. And how many couples announcing a relationship actually make it to the end? Don’t you all think the gap between Ji Nuo and Han Cheng is too wide?]

[Wuwuwu, please don’t discuss such cruel truths, okay!!]

It wasn’t until a hot-tempered doctor on duty scolded them harshly that Ji Nuo and Han Cheng deeply realized how terribly wrong their previous thinking had been.

No matter how impressive the child, a child was still a child. How could they have ever agreed to let him go into the sea alone?

Even though the cub came back safely and caught a lot of seafood, the child still quickly fell ill from overexertion. They should be thankful the typhoon arrived early and forced them to go to the main island, and that the typhoon’s impact nearby wasn’t too severe. If any mishap had occurred at night on the small island, the situation would have been far less controllable.

Luckily, after the IV drip, the cub didn’t have a recurrent fever. It was nearly 3 a.m. by the time they returned to the villa.

Since the cub still refused to let go of Ji Nuo, the sleeping arrangement on the bed reverted to the cub in the middle. Han Cheng let Ji Nuo hold the cub and sleep peacefully while he set a vibrating alarm for every half hour to continuously monitor if the cub’s fever returned.

Ji Nuo woke at seven. Han Cheng’s alarm went off again. Ji Nuo reached out to shut it off, his hand bumping into Han Cheng’s as it lifted.

Han Cheng subconsciously grasped Ji Nuo’s hand to press him down, his other hand turning off the alarm. When he opened his eyes after turning it off and sensed something was amiss, their hands were already clasped.

Ji Nuo, afraid of pressing down on the cub sleeping between them, was suspended in action, his face tense. He froze for a moment before saying in a barely audible whisper, “You… keep sleeping for a while. I’ll go start the congee first.”

The morning light was mostly blocked by the gauze curtains. The room was dim, but it was enough for Han Cheng to clearly see Ji Nuo’s exquisitely handsome face and the rapid shift in his eyes from dazed bewilderment to feigned composure.

Han Cheng found it somewhat cute. Perhaps more than cute. Ji Nuo always showed him, his idol layered in filters, a look as innocent and obedient as a lamb.

Maybe it stemmed from a wickedness inherent in human nature, but every time this happened, he wanted to prolong the moment.

Han Cheng murmured an assent: “Okay.” But his hand holding Ji Nuo’s didn’t loosen in the slightest.

Compared to the warm, soft waistline, the temperature of Ji Nuo’s hand was much lower. The warmth from Han Cheng’s palm continuously transferred to the cool back of his hand, and the temperature on Ji Nuo’s face began to rise bit by bit.

“Um… keep sleeping then, I’ll go cook the congee,” Ji Nuo repeated, trying to pull his hand away.

But Han Cheng held on tightly, as if oblivious to Ji Nuo’s desire to leave, and asked with an air of serious, thoughtful concern: “Your hand is very cold. Did you get chilled last night?”

The blush on Ji Nuo’s face deepened, his eyes starting to dart. He nervously licked his lips, the pale color gaining a vivid sheen of moisture. “I…”

“What are you two doing?” A hoarse little voice suddenly piped up.

Ji Nuo looked down, Han Cheng looked up. They both saw the small head that had popped up between them at some unknown point, its round, wide eyes staring at them with an unfriendly expression.

Han Cheng let go. Ji Nuo swiftly pulled his hand back. Embarrassment redoubled at being caught by the child, he quickly lowered his head and murmured an apology: “Sorry, did we wake you? Are you still feeling bad?”

Lu Aotian bore a pale little face, but the look in his eyes was a fierce, sharp gaze utterly contrasting with his sickly weak state. Like a protective little wolf cub, he glared fiercely at Han Cheng once, as if to say: I saw you bullying him, watch yourself!

Ji Nuo waited a moment but didn’t get a reply from the cub. When he looked up at the child again, Lu Aotian had reverted to his wilted, pitiful little appearance.

He covered his chest and coughed once, saying listlessly, “A bit. I need to go to the bathroom.”

Ji Nuo immediately scooped the cub into his arms and swiftly delivered him to the bathroom.

Usually, Lu Aotian would walk back on his own after washing his hands. Today, though, after pushing open the bathroom door, he stretched out his short little arms toward Ji Nuo.

Seeing the child’s pale little face, Ji Nuo’s heart ached with tenderness. He immediately gathered the child into his embrace.

Lu Aotian nestled his face into the crook of the young man’s neck. He was silent for a moment, then still asked in a barely audible whisper, “…Am I not being strong enough?”

In the past, Lu Aotian would have looked down on such a weak version of himself. But when a person is sick, they are easily infected by amplified negative emotions. Perhaps due to the lack of warmth in his childhood, at this moment, he truly, deeply craved Ji Nuo’s warm embrace.

Ji Nuo paused his movements at this, looking down at the cub in his arms. “Why would Aotian think that? You’re just a little kid. You never need to force yourself to be strong, not for any reason.”

Lu Aotian looked up, pursing his dry little mouth. “…And if I wasn’t a little kid?”

The prolonged loss of contact with the system had confirmed that he was going to grow up again in this four-year-old body. Even so, he wasn’t a real child.

Ji Nuo assumed this cub just had high self-expectations. He leaned down and gently touched their foreheads together, cooing softly, “Uncle is seventeen years older than you. Aotian can always be a little kid with Uncle.”

Lu Aotian blinked, saying nothing. He lowered his head again, leaning into Ji Nuo’s neck, deciding to believe him just a little, for now.

Although he’d always considered Ji Nuo a younger brother worth grooming, after seeing too many two-faced people, it was hard for him to trust others anymore, especially now that he was a four-year-old.

But Lu Aotian also had to admit… Ji Nuo’s attitude—consistent inside and out, and even more attentive after he fell ill—had almost perfectly neutralized the vulnerability and sensitivity brought on by sickness. Lu Aotian began considering telling the other about his plan to seek his family ahead of time.

As long as Ji Nuo could smoothly return him to the Lu Family, he wouldn’t need to toil as some little broken celebrity who got scolded every day. He would give Ji Nuo a reward that would allow him to instantly achieve financial freedom.

Thinking this, Lu Aotian shot another deeply profound look toward the not-so-distant Han Cheng.

Although Han Cheng had also accompanied Lu Aotian to the hospital and worked hard for most of the night, due to the inherent disadvantage of having the same character model, Lu Aotian simply couldn’t stand him, no matter what.

Compared to pulling Han Cheng into his camp and trusting him, Lu Aotian far preferred that the two break up as soon as possible.

If Ji Nuo was willing to stay abroad with him, he would provide Ji Nuo with a well-paying sinecure. But either way, Han Cheng was a superfluous existence…

Because the post had fermented so late, Xu Chengyi never imagined William’s earlier phone call could have been recorded.

So when he woke up the next day wanting to manage the situation, the original German audio recording, accompanied by detailed gossip analysis, had already spread like wildfire.

Furthermore, with the entertainment industry recently calm, the William incident from the kid variety show was practically the biggest trending topic right now. Opening Weibo in the morning, the hot search was already dominated by related hashtags. Countless comments were @’ing relevant departments, demanding an investigation into the call records between William and Xu Chengyi.

Xu Chengyi didn’t know German. The call hadn’t even been to him; it was to his secretary. But if the police actually accepted this recording as evidence, it was only a matter of time before they traced it to him.

For the first time, Xu Chengyi felt a chill at the back of his head. The sudden ring of the phone startled him so much his body lurched, nearly falling off his chair.

Seeing it wasn’t an unfamiliar number, he sighed in relief. Upon answering, he immediately called out for help with a tearful voice: “Dad, I was wrong. You have to help me one more time…”

After using the bathroom, Lu Aotian, very un-stoically, burrowed back into the covers and slept another round. An hour later, he was woken by the aroma of egg and spinach congee.

Food carefully cooked by Ji Nuo never disappointed him, even a simple, easily digestible vegetable congee specifically for invalids.

Having slept enough, Lu Aotian felt mostly recovered. After downing a huge bowl of vegetable congee, he felt practically cured.

But it was also his first time tasting the sweetness of being ill. So, when Ji Nuo asked him if his head was still dizzy, Lu Aotian’s tiny body went limp. He very sincerely leaned into Ji Nuo’s arms.

Closing his eyes, he replied in a weak little voice, “A little bit.”

Ji Nuo immediately gathered him into his embrace, pressing the slightly cool pads of his fingers onto the cub’s temples and massaging with gentle, slow circular motions.

Lu Aotian, full and warm, leaning against the sweet-smelling, soft Ji Nuo, getting this massage—instantly felt so comfortable he wanted to kick up his little feet and tap his leg.

Right up until Han Cheng brought over a bowl of pitch-black medicinal brew.

One second earlier, Lu Aotian was as weak as a melted little rice cake. The next instant, his Long Aotian true colors re-emerged: “Taking medicine for a mere cold? Absolutely impossible!”