Chapter 306: It's All in the Past

Watching him like that, Zhu Yuan thought it was truly possible he might keep holding out.

She was just about to walk forward.

Pei Ling reached out a long arm to block her path, tilted his head slightly to glance at the person on the bed, and said, "Since it has nothing to do with you, then keep holding out. You're only twenty-six; you can afford to hold out."

Zhu Yuan had originally thought Sheng Yu would surely be unhappy hearing this, but to her surprise, he suddenly said to her in an understanding tone, "Go back and rest. Get some sleep, and come see me again tomorrow."

As he spoke, he pursed his bloodless lips again and reached out to grab the cup on the nightstand, but whether it was because this movement pulled at his wound or not, he frowned slightly, his outstretched hand clenching into a fist, and veins bulged and spread from his wrist upward.

"Stop moving." Zhu Yuan pushed Pei Ling's hand aside and walked forward.

She sat by the bedside, then picked up the water cup and held it to his lips, "Drink."

Sheng Yu looked at the slender, fair hand holding the cup in front of him, the corners of his mouth curled slightly, and he lowered his head to drink. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a black figure leaving the room.

After finishing the water, he leaned back against the headboard, his gaze lingering wantonly on Zhu Yuan's face, gentle and completely unrestrained.

Zhu Yuan felt completely uncomfortable under his stare; she tugged at her pajamas, touched the cup, and then checked the wound on his waist again.

"Hiss..."

Sheng Yu suddenly pressed down on her wrist, his palm burning hot. He raised his eyes to meet Zhu Yuan's puzzled gaze, took a rough breath, and smiled helplessly, "You're pregnant now, and I'm afraid I won't be able to control myself. Don't tease me."

Zhu Yuan felt the temperature of his palm, and her whole body felt like it was being scorched red.

She instinctively tried to pull her hand away, but Sheng Yu gripped it tighter, saying in a low, hoarse voice, "Didn't you come here to sleep with me?"

"Lie up here."

Once Zhu Yuan had taken off her shoes and was lying on her side next to him, he naturally reached out an arm for her to rest her head on.

Zhu Yuan was pulled into his embrace by his arm. Even though she was over five months pregnant, she didn't look like she had gained much weight; apart from her protruding belly, her figure was as slim as before.

"Is your hand not hurting anymore?"

Zhu Yuan asked leisurely.

Sheng Yu lifted his lips silently, "It's good one moment and bad the next."

"I don't believe a word of it."

"Since you don't believe me, why did you stay?" Sheng Yu looked down at her in his arms. Holding her like this was a scene he hadn't even dared to dream of over the past few months.

He tightened his arm again, circling her entire body into his embrace, and lowered his head to smell the familiar scent of body wash on her neck and her faint, natural fragrance.

It was all a scent he was familiar with.

Zhu Yuan felt his nose tip lightly brush against her neck, sending a tingling sensation that was very itchy. She shrank her neck while saying, "Don't tell me I should keep watching you pretend to be weak and make a fool of yourself?"

"Think I'm embarrassing?"

A muffled laugh came from her neck. Sheng Yu buried his face in the crook of her shoulder, his body trembling with his low laughter. That tingling sensation spread from her heart to her brain, and Zhu Yuan felt as if her whole body had been electrified.

Her cheeks flushed, but she laughed along with him and raised her hand to gently stroke his head.

After being "smoothed out" by her, Sheng Yu felt much more at ease. He temporarily set aside his jealousy over Pei Ling's phone case and charms, kissed Zhu Yuan's brow, and asked her, "Do you know how I found this place back then?"

At the mention of this, Zhu Yuan's face instantly heated up, "I—I don't want to know."

Seeing her like this, Sheng Yu knew Pei Ling had already told her. Looking at her flushed cheeks, his heart softened into a pool of water.

He said in a low voice, "After we go back to Kyoto City, I'll teach you slowly. Becoming a calligrapher might be a bit difficult, but making it presentable is absolutely no problem."

Zhu Yuan was annoyed, "You think my handwriting now isn't presentable?"

"It's passable if you bear with it," Sheng Yu said with a half-smile. "It doesn't look good posted here. When we go back to the Hot Spring Villa, how about we post the characters you write on all the doors and corridors inside and out to ward off evil?"

"Sheng Yu!"

The person in his arms gave him a punch, but it was only a light one, with her strength restrained.

Sheng Yu smiled and hugged her tighter, almost forgetting there was a child in her belly the moment he touched her protruding abdomen.

He placed his hand gently over it and said softly to Zhu Yuan, "Don't be too violent, mind the prenatal education."

The little one should be sleeping right now and not moving around.

Zhu Yuan leaned quietly against his chest.

Sheng Yu thought about how she was in her first trimester when she left his side, a time prone to morning sickness; during that period at the Hot Spring Villa, she had often vomited and couldn't eat.

"Was it hard during the first three months?"

Zhu Yuan shook her head lightly, "After I left Kyoto City, I had a good appetite."

She spoke the truth, not wanting to make him blame himself, but the hands holding her stiffened slightly.

Sheng Yu lowered his head against her face, feelings of remorse spreading in his chest, "I'm sorry."

If it weren't for those messy people and things, she wouldn't have had to suffer so much.

Of course, there was also his own fault in it.

But at that time, how could he bear to let go?

"It's all in the past. From now on, no matter what happens, even if it's for my own good, you are not allowed to hide anything from me again." Zhu Yuan wrapped her arms around his neck, leaned in, and kissed the corner of his mouth, "Besides, I didn't suffer or endure any hardship afterward."

But Sheng Yu thought of the pain of childbirth. Before she was pregnant, he had wanted a child that belonged to the two of them, but he didn't know much about pregnancy and childbirth. It wasn't until after she became pregnant that he looked up a lot of materials and books and realized that giving birth was the truly painful part.

He felt a moment of regret, but it was too late now. He could only hold her tightly, and when they returned to Kyoto City, he would have Qiao Mai gather obstetric experts to come up with the best possible plan.

However, before taking her back to Kyoto City, there was still one major trouble to resolve first.

Speaking of that person, Sheng Yu remembered three years ago when Zhu Yuan accidentally entered his room. He remembered that the hotel elevators were floor-controlled; to enter the floor he was staying on, one needed a card unless someone happened to be going up.

Ning Huaiqing went to Sheng Hongyao's room because she was the daughter of the Ning Family and used her connections, but she didn't know his specific room number, which led to her finding the wrong room.

Then what about Yuanyuan?

According to her, that night three years ago, she attended a class reunion and was sending a drunken classmate back to their room to rest. She clearly saw the elevator going down, but once she got in, she discovered it was going up. She had no choice but to follow the people in the elevator up, but after she stepped out, the elevator malfunctioned.

Afterward, she heard a woman's scream from one of the rooms; that must have been when Ning Huaiqing was being assaulted by Sheng Hongyao.

Yuanyuan said she was scared at the time and fled in a panic, accidentally bumping into his door, and then those things happened.

Now it seems that the person who brought Yuanyuan to his floor that day was one of Yu Weixiong's people. The secret Shen Yijing revealed to provoke Sheng Hongyao into killing her was the truth of that night.

It all makes sense now.

It is a pity that all the clues from that time were destroyed.

Sheng Hongyao, Yu Weixiong, and Zhu Jingyao are none of them easy to deal with.

Without each other's knowledge, the three of them turned a matter full of loopholes into something seamless.

Sheng Yu grabbed Zhu Yuan's hand and kissed it, saying, "I will give you an explanation for what happened three years ago."

Zhu Yuan's eyes turned slightly red, and she nodded, but then she suddenly thought of something, "The news said your life or death was uncertain; what was that about?"

Sheng Yu held her tighter and kissed her hand again to soothe her emotions, a coldness spreading in the depths of his eyes, "If I didn't do that, how could I make those jackals show their true colors?"

Zhu Yuan looked at him, her eyes calm and devoid of any ripples.