Chapter 249: Maybe I Should Just Have the Surgery

Pei Ling paused, looking down at her smiling eyes and brows.

Every time she spoke of the child in her belly, she wore an expression of tenderness and overflowing maternal love, even though she was still just a child herself.

Yet she loved the unborn child in her belly.

His mother left the Pei Family when he was very young.

Later, one day, that person suddenly showed mercy, ordered someone to let him out of the dog cage, took him to have a hot bath, and gave him a full meal.

He thought he would never have to go back to the dog cage again.

He thought his life of darkness had ended.

Afterward, a servant led him to that person's room.

He looked at the woman he hadn't seen for many years lying on the bed; back then, in order to escape that person's control and fearing that he, a burden, would drag her down, the woman had lied and said she would come back to pick him up.

The word "Mom" was wrapped in festering sores in his heart; he dared not touch it.

That person sat by the bed, turned his head, and smiled at him: "Xiao Ling, come over and see your mother."

He stood where he was, motionless, not daring to go over.

The servant pushed him forward; how could a malnourished child not even ten years old be a match for the servant?

He was pushed forward, getting closer and closer.

He saw that the color of the woman's hand, held by that person, was very different—a grayish-white.

A little closer.

The woman on the bed was too quiet, so quiet that it seemed she had even stopped breathing.

Walking closer, what met his eyes was not the woman's face, of which he had only a blurred impression, but the torn, bloody gunshot wound on her chest.

She was dead.

Killed by that person's own hands.

He fainted on the ground, and when he woke up, he was back in the dog cage.

At the time, he didn't think of anything, as if it were all a dream.

He was someone abandoned and forgotten.

Maternal love?

Does such a thing really exist in this world?

Pei Ling snapped back to reality before Zhu Yuan could notice anything amiss and scoffed: "Both are gluttons reincarnated, but I can still afford to feed them."

"As expected of Second Master Pei, truly a man of great wealth and status." Zhu Yuan looked down and touched her belly, which had not yet begun to show.

She had told Pei Ling about her plan to abort the child, and afterward, she had taken a nap.

She had a dream, and in the dream, a little boy was hugging her neck tightly and crying.

She asked the little boy worriedly what had happened.

The little boy just kept crying, his tears and snot smearing all over her.

After waking up, she always felt that it wasn't just a dream, but a connection between her and the child.

The child didn't want to leave.

She regretted it, and when she went to find Pei Ling to tell him she didn't want to give up the child, Pei Ling discovered the Positioning Chip on her.

Since Sheng Yu had installed a tracker on her, he would surely come after her soon, and Sheng Hongyao, lurking in the shadows, along with other forces, would certainly act in secret.

Thus, she played along, pretending to have the child aborted, while actually having the chip removed in the operating room; that was why she was in a wheelchair when she left the operating room.

This child was not anyone else's.

It was Zhu Yuan's child.

Haunted by the fruit and vegetable juice Zhu Yuan had juiced for him last night, Pei Ling ate a little more for lunch today.

Seeing this, Pei Li quietly gave Zhu Yuan a thumbs-up.

Yet Zhu Yuan couldn't stop sighing in her heart: just how bad-tasting was the juice she had made?

After the meal, Pei Ling walked Zhu Yuan to her door; she had a fixed time for a nap every day.

Watching her close the door, Pei Ling's brows suddenly furrowed, completely losing the nonchalance and ease he had shown in front of Zhu Yuan.

He turned and returned to his room, strode toward the bathroom, and turned on the faucet; the sound of rushing water masked the sound of his vomiting.

He had vomited up his entire lunch.

Bright red blood slid down the inner wall of the sink, and Pei Ling's brows knit together fiercely.

He cupped water to wash his face and rinse his mouth, then turned and walked out of the bathroom.

In the room, Pei Li was holding a cup of warm water.

"Second Master, if you're feeling unwell, please tell us. Don't force yourself, especially with Miss Zhu; I can see she truly cares about you."

Pei Ling took the water cup and took a sip, "She cares about you, too."

Being told this, Pei Li had no way to refute it.

Zhu Yuan was beautiful and kind-hearted; before, when he hadn't fully recovered from a gunshot wound, she had even taken the initiative to ask about him when she saw him and told people to prepare some supplements for his health. He had said several times that his body was fine and he didn't need any supplements, but he couldn't resist Zhu Yuan's concern—it was hard to refuse such kindness.

Pei Ling sat on the sofa, drinking water.

She was a kind, sunny person.

To him, and to Pei Li, there was no essential difference.

She treated him as a friend, perhaps a friend closer than she was to Pei Li, someone with whom she could talk about anything.

Yet he wanted more and more.

All that "I like you is my own business, you should just be how you are"—it's all fucking bullshit!

Pei Ling pulled open a drawer, took out a bottle of Medicine, and poured out two pills.

"Second Master, let's go have the surgery."

Pei Ling swallowed the pill, "The success rate is only five percent."

Pei Li felt a tightness in his chest, but without the surgery, the mortality rate was ninety-five percent.

After Pei Li went out, Pei Ling leaned against the back of the sofa, his gaze fixed on the items on the coffee table; in the spacious room, his silhouette appeared somewhat lonely.

A Sun Wukong keychain, a mobile phone with a blue case, and two pairs of cufflinks.

For the first time in over twenty years, he had the urge to live well.

He wanted to live, to stay with her.

But that ninety-five percent failure rate was too high.

If he were to die, what would she do?

Sheng Yu bullied her and kept her under house arrest, and those people wanted her life; who would protect her?

Could she rely on that brother of hers who harbored improper thoughts about her?

Not long after he settled Zhu Yuan here, he made a trip back to Jingdu City.

It was no surprise that Sheng Yu found him while severely injured.

A fierce battle was inevitable.

Sheng Yu was like a mad dog, biting anyone he could get his hands on.

If he hadn't deployed everything in advance, given Sheng Yu's crazy and paranoid state, he feared he would never have seen her again.

Of course, he wouldn't tell her any of this.

He wouldn't tell her that he was injured, nor would he tell her that Sheng Yu had also been slashed on the arm by his blade.

He returned to the Pei Family Bank to clean up the mess left behind by Pei Shaoshen.

The next day, someone said that Zhu Yuan's brother, Zhu Jingyao, was looking for him.

As soon as Zhu Jingyao entered the door, he felt the aura emanating from him.

He also liked Zhu Yuan.

At that moment, Pei Ling felt a sense of resentment; why was she so easy to like?

Zhu Jingyao pressed him for Zhu Yuan's whereabouts, but naturally, he did not tell him.

Zhu Jingyao was a natural-born genius, but his failure lay in his background.

No matter how smart he was, he was still just an ordinary person.

Unlike them, the powerful elite who played with influence, he could not fight them.

A lifetime of effort could not reach the family legacy they had accumulated over generations.

If Zhu Yuan returned to Zhu Jingyao's side, Zhu Jingyao would be unable to protect her at all.

He had gone to such lengths to snatch her to his side; how could he allow anyone else to take her away from him?

Pei Ling leaned against the back of his chair and closed his eyes, the image of the two of them walking side by side on the Ancient Street flashing through his mind.

"Yuan... Yuanyuan."

Zhu Yuan looked at him, her eyes calm and without a single ripple.