Li Li’s smile stiffened. She pouted. “Ningning, why are you so harsh?”

Yan Yunning let out a cold smile. “Li Li, weren’t you always taking little digs at me and Xiaxia back in university? What happened — you’ve forgotten all that? And now you want us to go have a meal together.”

Li Li shook her head in denial. “Ningning, we were young then, I didn’t know any better. Why are you still bringing up things from the past?”

Yan Yunning smiled at her. “You’re a grown adult now, and you still want to use being young and not knowing better as a shield?”

“And don’t try to act flustered and innocent. Even if you were legally an adult back then, if you’re saying you were less mature than the average person — fine, I won’t argue that.”

Yan Yunning paused for half a beat and then continued, “But what about now — are you still not mature enough? Setting aside what happened yesterday, today you deliberately brought up me and Lulu in front of my fiancé, implying we would end up together. Is that what a mature person does?”

“Li Li, you are exactly the same as before. Still someone people find difficult to stand.”

Li Li’s cheeks flushed, and her expression went rigid.

Ye An stepped forward to spare Li Li further embarrassment. “Miss Li, didn’t you say your car was coming soon? You should go check whether it’s arrived.”

He had no particular motive — it was just that Li Li was President Wu’s secretary, and the two companies had only just partnered. If Li Li was made to look bad, wasn’t that the same as making President Wu look bad?

“Thank you, Mr. Ye.” Li Li glanced timidly at Yan Yunning, pressed her lips together as though she wanted to say something.

Xuan Yanyu’s icy gaze swept toward Ye An and he spoke first. “You talk too much.”

Ye An tugged at the corner of his mouth and lowered his head in acknowledgment. “I’m sorry, Little President Xuan. It won’t happen again.”

Li Li gripped her handbag tightly. After a moment’s hesitation, she turned and left the parking area, the awkwardness driving her away.

Xuan Yanyu moved a couple of slow steps closer to Yan Yunning, his voice instinctively softening. “Have you eaten? What happened yesterday? Let me see your hand.”

He closed his hand around the girl’s hand where it hung at her side and saw that her palm was faintly red. His expression darkened. “What happened?”

Yan Yunning didn’t answer any of the three questions he’d asked. Instead she said, “Xuan Yanyu, I’ve thought it over. If you insist on no child within the first year after we’re married, then we’re not getting married.”

The man reached out with one long arm and hooked it around her waist, saying through gritted teeth, “That determined to give birth to the child in your belly?”

Yan Yunning froze where she stood. Hearing Xuan Yanyu’s words, she finally understood why he had been acting as though she didn’t exist and been so furious.

He had misunderstood. He believed the child she was carrying belonged to someone else.

Xuan Yanyu hadn’t missed the shock in Yan Yunning’s eyes. “What’s the matter? Haven’t figured out how to explain it yet?”

Yan Yunning grabbed his lapel and enunciated clearly, “This child is yours.”

“Ha.” The man looked as though he had just heard the most laughable thing imaginable. “Yan Yunning, the baby is three and a half months along.”

Yan Yunning’s voice caught in her throat. “Every word Shiyao said to you — that person wasn’t Shiyao. It was me!”

Xuan Yanyu’s voice was very low. “Yan Yunning, even if it was you — I remember clearly. That child was lost.”

“Yes, but…”

Xuan Yanyu cut in abruptly. “What, are you going to tell me it came back? You want me to raise it without any reservations that much?”

Yan Yunning bit down on her lip. The rim of her eyes reddened. She hadn’t told him the first chance she got precisely because she knew she could never explain it properly. If she were Xuan Yanyu, she wouldn’t believe it either.

The more she said, the more he would think she was deceiving him.

Xuan Yanyu frowned and wiped her tears away, his voice rough and low. “What are you crying for?”

Yan Yunning’s lips barely moved, and the tears slipped uncontrollably down her face.

Xuan Yanyu pressed down the overwhelming urge to comfort her and relented. “Forget it. It’s just one child — it’s not as though I can’t support one.”

Yan Yunning’s crying stopped abruptly. She asked in disbelief, “You… what did you say?”

Not only Yan Yunning found it hard to believe she had heard right — Ye An and Ye Chen behind Xuan Yanyu, and Ye Jian emerging from the restroom, were all equally stunned.

None of them could have imagined those words would ever come from Xuan Yanyu.

Xuan Yanyu said with awkward stiffness, “If you want to keep it, then give birth — I’ll do my best to treat the child as my own.”

“Not ‘do your best to treat as your own’ — he is your own.” Yan Yunning hiccupped.

Xuan Yanyu slowly furrowed his brow. His deep eyes grew heavier. “Fine. I’ll do that.”

Yan Yunning could no longer keep her voice steady. She tried to stay calm, but her voice still came out louder than intended. “We are going to get a paternity test.”

“Yan Yunning.” The man’s fingers gently brushed the tears from her cheeks. “He will be our child from now on. There is no need for a test.”

He would not go for a paternity test. If his parents found out about this, their wedding would never go smoothly.

A child of three and a half months — there was no possible way it was his.

And that other child of theirs — he remembered. That child had been lost.

Yan Yunning’s shoulders trembled faintly, her eyes brimming with the hurt of being misunderstood. She pushed Xuan Yanyu away, both hands balled into fists. “Xuan Yanyu, why would I lie to you about this?”

Xuan Yanyu pinched the bridge of his nose. “All right. You’re not lying to me.”

“Xuan Yanyu!” Yan Yunning stepped back two paces, sobbing. “I’m not joking with you.”

She knew she couldn’t really blame him — he didn’t remember, and saying he would treat the child as his own, given his temperament, was already a significant concession.

“How am I supposed to believe you?” Xuan Yanyu asked as calmly as he could manage.

Yan Yunning closed her eyes. Before she could say anything, her phone rang. She drew a deep breath, steadied herself, and picked up.

“Little Ningning, where are you? Still in Chaxi City?” From the other end of the line came Yan Yuran’s breezy, smiling voice.

“Mm.”

“Then it looks like Old Wu didn’t misjudge after all — you’re at Jue Ye?”

Yan Yunning pressed her lips together and let out a muffled “Mm.”

“Oh my.” A single syllable told Yan Yuran all she needed to know — Yan Yunning was in low spirits. She asked gently, “What happened? Who upset you?”

“Did Xuan Yanyu make you angry?”

Yan Yunning shook her head and sniffled, “No.”

She didn’t want to add complications and have her sister hold a grudge against Xuan Yanyu again.

“Where are you right now? Send me your location. Be good and wait there — your older sister will come pick you up.”

“Mm.” Without asking Yan Yuran how she happened to be in this city, Yan Yunning sent her the hotel address.

After hanging up, Yan Yunning lifted her red-rimmed eyes to look at Xuan Yanyu, who was standing neither close nor far, and said quietly, “Let’s both calm down for a couple of days. Then we’ll talk about the child’s situation. I’m going back to the hotel first.”

“I’ll take you.”

Yan Yunning didn’t object. She let Xuan Yanyu take her hand and got into the car.

Throughout the ride, the car was entirely silent. Yan Yunning turned her head and watched the scenery recede past the window. Xuan Yanyu, seated beside her, let his gaze fall on her without tiring of it, unable to look away.

The quiet lasted until they reached the hotel entrance. Xuan Yanyu called out to Yan Yunning just as she was about to get out, his voice dropping low. “Ningning, I’ve been thinking the whole way here. I don’t need to calm down anymore. As long as you don’t leave me — your child is my child.”

“You…” Yan Yunning breathed out. Half exasperated, half amused, she said, “Xuan Yanyu, aren’t you supposed to be clever? Two days — take those two days and think carefully about everything I said today. Am I an idiot? Or do I think you’re an idiot? Why would I insist that a child who isn’t yours is yours???”