Xenia sobbed, “Tell me, did you deliberately make me pregnant? So that you can tie me to you and
give you a baby.”
Dave did do that, but he wouldn’t be so stupid to admit. “How can I? It’s mentioned in the manual that it
won’t be 100% accurate.”
Xenie turned into a lion again, “You lied to me. I took out the rest and filled it with water. They all leaked
and there is more than one hole. Dave Chou, you big liar, big liar. I don’t want to live with you
anymore.”
Dave covered his mouth, thinking about how she was holding those things one by one under the
faucet, and couldn’t help but grinned. But he couldn’t laugh, or the exploded gunpowder would explode
higher.
Okay. He treated it as a pregnant woman with emotional fluctuation.
Xenia continued to accuse him angrily, “You big liar. You think I’m young and know nothing, so you lie
to me… I hate you, I hate you so much.”
He was already exposed, so Dave had to admit his little action, “Baby, I’m wrong. But I truly like you,
my love for you is real. I swear and I’m not lying to you about this. Or, when I go back, you can dig out
my heart to see whether it’s yours. Let’s not throw away the child first, okay?”
“Not okay! I don’t want to turn into faded old woman so early, to wipe the child’s pee and shits every
day and then, my body will change.”
“How about this? You just need to take care of giving birth and I’ll raise the child. I’ll clean up the
diapers and attend the confinement. Don’t we have a postpartum body sculpting coach in our health
club? I promise that within three months after you giving birth, you’ll transform into a pretty lady. When
you go down the street, everyone will 200% stare at you. Everyone will see you as a beautiful young
girl. You can directly drown me with the hardships.”
There was silence on the other end of the phone. Dave felt that she was loosening, so he hurriedly
struck while the iron was still hot and continued, “I’ll be responsible for picking up and dropping our
child to school. I’ll tutor our child. And I like both boy and girl.”
Of course, the best if she could give birth to boy/girl twins. But he could only secretly think about it.
Xenia still said nothing.
“And baby, abortion is actually very harmful to women. If you don’t believe me, go to the hospital and
ask the doctor in the obstetrics and gynecology department. Whichever one says it doesn’t, we don’t
keep it, okay?”
Xenia finally snorted, “You know these and still set me up.”
Dave brazenly said, “Why would I do that? In fact, there are many benefits in having a baby early.
Because you’re young, your body can recover easily. I’ll raise the baby and you can continue doing the
job you love and develop your career. You don’t need to be like those elderly mothers who have
unspeakable danger of having a baby and don’t have the body to recover easily and have a big belly.
Your job isn’t easy to do it splendidly, right? After your maternity leave, some people take a rest. They
take care of their children for two years, then they go out to the society. After they get old, they can’t
keep up with the era anymore. Now they’re called faded old woman. Even if their work is still reserved,
the space for climbing up is small. So, I’m doing it for your good. Hey, where can you find such a good
husband like me? I think of everything for you. I do everything for you.”
“You’re not my husband yet,” Xenia snorted.
Dave laughed, “That’s easy. I’ll go back and propose you immediately.”
Xenia pouted, “I may not say ‘I do’ to your proposal.”
“Baby, do you have the heart to watch our child having an unmarried mother? You may have the heart
to do so, but I don’t. Baby, let’s keep the child and live well, okay?”
“How do I know if what you just said wasn’t a lie? You may trick me to give birth, and then push me
away and not care for me after that.”
“If you don’t believe me, we can make a written statement and ask our friends to come as a testimony.
I, Dave Chou, am willing to be Xenia Boswell’s stay-at-home dad.”
“Sure, you can breast-feed the baby later.”
This…
Dave felt a little embarrassed, “I want to, but I don’t have milk.”
“Milk.”
“Doctors recommend breastfeeding now. It’s good for children. You like Annie, don’t you? She was
breastfeeding since she was little and turns smart now. Besides, there’s too much melamine in milk
nowadays. You don’t want our child drinking poison and becoming fools right after he’s born, right?”
Xenia was silent for a while and finally said, “Sure. Come back and write down everything you said
today to be a proof. You can’t miss one word.”
Dave then realized that he had fallen into this girl’s hole.
She was digging a trap for him to jump, trying every means to get him to sign so many unequal treaties.
She was taking revenge on him who had ever forcibly bullied her. She wanted to turn the table and
became the master, fighting for her status and establishing her authority.
This girl was plotting against him.
Fine. Because she was pregnant, he would turn a blind eye.
A child. Dave Chou also had a child already. He was so happy that he couldn’t close his mouth.
He wanted to fly back to Luo City immediately, but the latest flight had to be after 12.
When Ivy came to pick him up, he just got the first-hand information from Simon, “Finn Meyer is a
freaking murderer. If Alan hasn’t sent him to the jail, I really want to stab him straight.”
“That’s enough. He won’t be able to escape the trial anyway. You’re almost becoming a father now, so
stop saying these bloody things. You have to be a role model for your child.” Ivy looked him in the eyes,
hiding something complex in his eyes which flashed by.
Speaking of his child, Dave’s sullen face immediately softened down, “What time is it? Have you
booked a ticket for me?”
“Let’s go or you have to catch on another flight,” Ivy urged and exchanged a look with Simon, “Officer
Ace, thanks for your hard work. We’ll be going.”
Simon smiled and said to Dave, “Congratulations for becoming a father. When you get married, don’t
forget to treat me a drink.”
“Of course.”
Dave happily left the police station, singing all the way.
Ivy frowned, “Stop singing. You even sing out of tune. If you’re like this to Xenia’s stomach. Your son
must be thinking who is this? So noisy.”
“You’re so jealous, jealous of my success,” Dave laughed loudly against the wind coming in from the
window.
“Yeah, yeah. I envy you, I’m jealous, and I hate you.” He hated why he was like a brother when he was
the son of an enemy.
Dave didn’t even know that his heart was churning with contradictions at the moment, burning him like
lava from a volcano. He still laughed, “Don’t be jealous of this brother. I’m not just saying this, but your
spring is coming.”
“Summer has only begun, spring won’t come soon. But, I still have to say congratulations to you. The
hatred over the years is gone and you’ll be a man who has wife and a child. Don’t bring the previous
stuffs into the present anymore.” Ivy’s words were actually meant to tell himself.
When Olive asked him, he didn’t tell the truth, but answered her vaguely. Everyone would only think
that Finn Meyer was the culprit, but his father’s death had another secret. But Finn Meyer was indeed
the cause.
Sending Dave to the airport and watching him get on the plane, Ivy took out his phone and called
Simon.
“Office Ace, thank you!”
Simon laughed and said, “You don’t have to thank me. You figured it out yourself and let go of the
hatred. In fact, I like an open-minded person like you. It’s Dave Chou’s blessing to have a friend like
you.”
Ivy said, “He helped me a lot when I was in the most difficult time. I think people can’t be ungrateful.
Perhaps Alan Hoyle is right. Hatred can only change our life worse. Let the hatreds from the previous
generation end there.”
“It’s good that you can think it through. If there’s anything I can help in the future, just tell me.”
“Then I’ll thank you first. If there is, I definitely will take that offer.”
At dusk, Ivy drove to the cemetery, where his father’s portrait smiled at him on the tombstone.
He brought white chrysanthemum, poured alcohol, and leaned against the tombstone to toast with his
father and drank a glass by himself.
“Father, will you blame me? You don’t want me to continue to hate, right? Dave is really a good man. It
was his father who did the bad things, not him. So, I can’t seek revenge from him, right? Zhou Wannian
is already dead and it’s also a bad ending, not a good one…”
Ivy said a lot of things to his father until the dusk turned dark. Then he fell asleep when he was drunk.
The mountains and forests were very quiet and few people came in the cemetery. Even the sound of
the wind could be heard. When looking up at the sky, you would find many stars spreading in front of
you.
Ivy smiled, “Father, do you remember when I were a kid, you took me to see the stars in the country?
You said the stars in the city were polluted, and only the stars in the country are the clearest…”
The night of his chattering was the most he had talked with his father over the years, as if he wanted to
tell him everything in his heart.
He talked about his experience over the past few years, about the woman he liked was someone else’s
wife, about the child who called him godfather, about his improving sophisticated bartending skills,
about what happened in the bar, about some people he had hacked into and tricked them…
He talked all he could think of and there was no order. He said what he thought. It was unorganized
and incoherent. In the end, he fell asleep. When he woke up, it was already morning with birds were
singing and the sky was bright.
And Mrs. Hoyle, after spending a day with Annie, she realized that she really liked the child. It was
lively at the residence to have a child. The servants who usually only immersed themselves in work
also teased the child from time to time. The residence became livelier.
In the afternoon, Mrs. Hoyle tentatively asked Annie, “Do you want to stay at grandma’s house
tonight?”
Annie said in a troubled manner, “I need to take a bath, but I don’t bring any clothes.”
Mrs. Hoyle smiled and said, “That’s easy. Grandma will take you to buy beautiful new clothes later.”
Annie shook her head, “Daddy has bought me a lot of new clothes. Mommy said, I’m growing up now
and it’ll be a waste to buy too much.”
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