Chapter 117: Feelings Closer by a Step

This joyful yet awkward ball was kicked to Meng Shutang.

Xin Xin turned to look at Meng Shutang. "Mama."

Meng Shutang looked at Xin Xin, hesitating and slow to speak, gradually opening her mouth. "Yes, he is your daddy!"

Xin Xin was overjoyed, grabbing Gu Yunci's hand and refusing to let go. "I knew it! You're my daddy. The first time I saw you, I just knew."

Though she had just undergone a cardiac intervention procedure, hearing this news, she still smiled until her eyes curved, her little baby voice soft and wrapped in delight.

Just then, the door creaked open.

Lu Shenyang and Li Xiuyun walked in.

They had both clearly heard Meng Shutang's words.

The old lady's hand tightened slightly.

Lu Shenyang's expression grew even more complicated.

Over the next few days in the hospital, Gu Yunci canceled all work to care for Xin Xin. Afraid he wouldn't do a good job, he even hired a senior care worker.

But he didn't really let her do much—just had her guide him from the side while he did things himself.

The care worker wasn't here at night; it was mainly Gu Yunci and Meng Shutang taking care of her.

The ward was very quiet, with only the faint beeping of the monitor.

Xin Xin slept soundly. Thanks to the children's pain medication and the lingering anesthesia, she barely fussed all night.

Only her little brows were still furrowed, and both hands clutched Gu Yunci's hand tightly, so he could only sit on the small stool by the bed all night, barely closing his eyes.

When Meng Shutang woke, this was the scene she saw.

He had been watching Xin Xin, and hearing her stir, he turned around with exhaustion in his eyes. "You're awake?"

They had agreed beforehand: he would take the first half of the night, and she the second.

Instead, she had slept soundly through the entire night.

"It's fine. The doctor came by and said everything looks good," he reassured her.

He gently pulled his hand from Xin Xin's grasp, intending to get breakfast for Meng Shutang, but only when he stood up did he realize half his body had gone numb, and he stumbled.

Seeing this, Meng Shutang instinctively reached out to steady him.

Her slender fingers had barely touched his arm when the man gave a gentle tug. She pitched forward and crashed squarely into his arms.

In an instant, a warm, soothing cedar fragrance wrapped tightly around her.

She struggled, but the man held her even tighter.

His arms encircled her impossibly slender waist, drawing in little by little—not to confine her, but out of the fear of losing her, or the treasuring of something lost and found again.

The clear heartbeat in his chest, beat after beat, transmitted distinctly to her own heart.

"Don't move… let me hold you for a moment. Just a moment."

He bargained.

Meng Shutang said nothing.

"Thank you for giving birth to Xin Xin."

Meng Shutang's hands pressed against him loosened slightly, then slowly came to rest on him.

"The surgery was very successful. The doctors all said the prognosis for this condition is excellent—she'll be just like any normal child. Don't worry," she consoled him.

Gu Yunci nodded, burying his face in her neck. "I know."

He suddenly remembered breakfast and released Meng Shutang. "Early this morning, Qin Zheng brought breakfast over. Have some."

Saying that, he went to set out the food.

The breakfast was a nutritious spread from a five-star hotel, all the food neatly arranged on clean, hygienic white porcelain plates and bowls.

Meng Shutang didn't have much appetite. She ate a little and was full.

She was still wearing last night's evening gown, her hair casually pinned up, her whole person exuding a somewhat haggard, fragile beauty.

Gu Yunci handed her a bag. "After you eat, you can take a shower in the bathroom and change into this."

Meng Shutang nodded. "Thank you."

She thought Gu Yunci had only bought her outer clothes, but after her shower she discovered there was also underwear inside.

The bra in particular fit perfectly.

She knit her dark brows.

Before marriage, her bust size should have been a C. After marriage she had developed quite a bit and become a D, and after having the child she had indeed grown fuller.

She and he had never done that sort of thing; the two of them had only embraced a few times.

He actually knew her exact size.

Regardless, such a small detail moved Meng Shutang deeply.

She came out after changing. A Chanel beige tweed knit dress wrapped her perfectly proportioned figure, making her look gentle and elegant.

Gu Yunci stared for a moment, then turned his head back to eat.

In between, Xin Xin woke briefly.

Thanks to the children's pain medication and children's naturally low pain sensitivity, she couldn't feel the pain and didn't fuss.

Pain medication couldn't be administered in large amounts for long periods. After that one bag finished, they stopped letting her use it.

The wound hadn't healed yet, and Xin Xin twisted and turned on the bed in pain.

The nurse, afraid she would move around and pull out the tubes on her body, suggested Meng Shutang go buy restraints.

"The kind for children—you tie the child's hands and feet to the bed. That way, even if she struggles, it'll be fine."

Gu Yunci felt it was too cruel, but Meng Shutang agreed to buy them, so he said nothing.

But when Xin Xin was truly bound to the bed as if "drawn and quartered," Gu Yunci's heart ached so much he immediately had Meng Shutang take them off.

He flew into a thunderous rage for quite a while, saying the medical staff didn't treat the child like a human being, and even had Qin Zheng call the hospital director over and gave him a dressing-down.

It was also because of what Xin Xin had been through that Gu Yunci had the hospital director improve their services and produce a practical plan to hand to him in two days.

He himself sat on the bed, staying awake for three days and three nights, holding Xin Xin.

Xin Xin fussed for a while at first because her body hurt too much, but once coaxed to sleep, she never fussed again.

The three hardest days passed just like that.

Li Xiuyun and Lu Shenyang came and offered to spell them, but both of them politely declined.

They had to keep watch themselves to feel at ease.

Before discharge, Li Xiuyun came to deliver some things. In the ward, Gu Yunci and Meng Shutang were chatting and laughing, looking every bit a married couple.

She stepped out for a moment, and when she came back in, she again caught Gu Yunci holding Meng Shutang.

Her temple throbbed. She called Meng Shutang outside, "You and Gu Yunci are together again?"

Meng Shutang: "We…"

Grandma didn't beat around the bush. "At the door just now, I saw him holding you."

Meng Shutang's cheeks flushed hot. "We're not together. These past few days I was just too tired, too afraid.

He was the only one who stood by my side. I just… let my guard down for a second."

Grandma didn't see it that way. In the four years Meng Shutang had been with Lu Shenyang, she had never once seen Lu Shenyang overstep bounds.

With Gu Yunci, on the other hand, the very first time she saw them in the same frame, they were embracing under an umbrella downstairs.

Meng Shutang wouldn't admit it, but she could see that Meng Shutang was deeply in love with Gu Yunci — the one in the game is blind.

In her heart, Li Xiuyun held some prejudice against Gu Yunci, because he had cheated and asked for a divorce back then.

She also ached for Meng Shutang and didn't want her to get hurt again.

After all, she had witnessed firsthand how her cheating son-in-law Meng Zhibang had hurt Zhou Xingfan.

"If you don't want to be together, then make things clear.

Xin Xin is his child, and we can't stop him from seeing her. As for anything else, forget it."

Meng Shutang nodded. "I know."

Grandma finished speaking and left.

That evening, Meng Shutang saw that Gu Yunci, Qin Zheng, and the others were all there. Xin Xin's stitches had been removed, and she would be discharged tomorrow.

To avoid the awkwardness of being in the same room as Gu Yunci, she suggested going home.

It was pouring outside. Gu Yunci urged her to stay: "You'll be discharged tomorrow morning, and it's raining — why make the trip back and forth!"

Meng Shutang stepped back, as if afraid of his touch. "It's fine, it's not far."

After she finished speaking, she kissed Xin Xin on the forehead and left.

Gu Yunci's heart sank. All day, she had been avoiding him. The moment he raised his hand, she tensed up — yet just a few days ago, they had been so close.

Watching her walk out, Gu Yunci also rushed into the rain.