Chapter 138: Player 10

Tang Shiyu’s brow twitched. Nan Xu quickly stepped forward to smooth things over. “CEO Tang, is there something you needed from me?”

“Come with me.” Tang Shiyu glanced at Yu Liuxue. Her lips curled with a mix of cold indifference, mocking amusement, haughty disdain, and a shamelessness that was off the charts. After taking a deep breath, she turned her head and said coolly to Nan Xu, “I have something to ask you.”

Nan Xu immediately agreed. Yu Liuxue blinked innocently, then chased after Tang Shiyu and asked, “You still haven’t answered me.”

When he ignored her, Yu Liuxue quickly grabbed Nan Xu’s hand and gave a devilish smile. “Woman, as long as you leave her, I’ll give you five million!”

“In Vietnamese dong¹.”

Nan Xu looked at her with a complicated expression. “…” Well, thanks for that, I guess.

Tang Shiyu: “?” A question mark of utter confusion.

After Nan Xu followed Tang Shiyu away, Yu Liuxue stood in place, lost in thought. Mi Rou and Lu Ling watched her from a distance. Mi Rou leaned sideways in her chair with a helpless expression. Her white clothing glowed softly under the bright sunlight, and her striking, delicate face was filled with resignation and frustration. “She’s about to hit the three-month mark. I’m really worried.”

Lu Ling also sat down, resting against the armrest of her chair and lazily propping up her forehead. Her red lips parted slightly. “Shiyu knows her limits.”

“I know that.” Mi Rou couldn’t help sitting up straighter. “I’m not worried about Shiyu. I’m worried about Jian Yin.”

After spending so much time with her, Mi Rou had completely seen through Yu Liuxue. The first three months are the most critical for the baby, and with Mi Rou keeping a close eye on her, even if Yu Liuxue had a million dirty thoughts, she didn’t dare act on them. She could only indulge herself verbally. But once the three-month mark passed, Mi Rou had no doubt Yu Liuxue would go wild, tear the house apart, force herself on Tang Shiyu until he was drained dry, toss him out the door, and then swagger off to enjoy her freedom.

She rubbed her temples in frustration. “You never told me this job was hell-level difficulty.”

Lu Ling couldn’t help but smile, her eyes curving. “Actually, Yin Yin isn’t as bad as you think. If you speak to her seriously, she’ll listen.”

“She’s very obedient.”

Mi Rou looked skeptical. She didn’t quite believe Yu Liuxue could be some sweet, well-behaved little girl. Just then, Yu Liuxue returned with a thoughtful expression. Mi Rou pondered for a moment, then called out to her, “Jian Yin, go back to your room. It’s time for your massage.”

Yu Liuxue paused mid-step, her eyes lighting up instantly. But moments later, her expression dimmed again. “But Sister Mi, every time you massage me, it feels all sore and swollen down there. It’s really uncomfortable, like something foreign is being forced in.”

Mi Rou arched a brow at Lu Ling with a look of utter despair. See? I told you so.

Lu Ling: “…”

Nan Xu had no idea why Tang Shiyu suddenly wanted to see her. Nervous, she followed him into the study and gently closed the door behind her. Tang Shiyu mulled things over for several minutes before finally giving up and blurting out, “Xiao Xu, did something happen between me and Jian Yin after we drank?”

Nan Xu’s heart instantly leapt into her throat. She panicked. Why would he suddenly bring up drunken hookups? Could it be that he’d found something out and was using this as a warning to tell her to back off? She forced a strained smile. “CEO Tang, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Tang Shiyu thought for a moment, then sighed. “Forget it. It’s nothing.”

How could Nan Xu possibly know something so private? She was just his assistant, not his shadow following him around 24/7. Tang Shiyu folded his hands with a serious expression. The more he thought about it, the more convinced he became that what happened between him and Jian Yin must have been the result of her pulling some tricks—like taking advantage of him while he was drunk, or maybe just throwing caution to the wind and forcing herself on him.

Otherwise, given how terrible their relationship usually was, there was no way he would have willingly ended up in bed with her.

Having come up with a logical explanation he could live with, Tang Shiyu looked up and asked Nan Xu, “How’s the company’s business lately? I’ll be back next week. Make sure to introduce me to the team when I return.”

Nan Xu had been drowning in fear that her secret was about to be exposed, so when Tang Shiyu suddenly shifted the topic to work, she let out a breath of relief and immediately smiled. “Of course, CEO Tang. I’ll arrange everything right away.”

She thought to herself, Thank goodness he hasn’t found out.

But she couldn’t keep living in constant fear like this. Nan Xu furrowed her brows, deciding she needed to come up with a perfect solution to eliminate the risk once and for all.

The date of Yu Liuxue’s first prenatal checkup was approaching. Mi Rou, worried something might go wrong, had tightened her supervision over her, making Yu Liuxue utterly miserable. Today was one of the rare days Mi Rou allowed her to go out for a bit of fresh air, so Yu Liuxue grabbed her little purse, ready to go shopping and buy some clothes. Mi Rou had something come up last minute, so she left Yu Liuxue alone.

Yu Liuxue was so excited she practically sprinted out the door. She immediately took Tang Shiyu’s Maserati and happily drove straight to a bar. But just as she parked and walked up to the entrance, she witnessed a dramatic cheating scandal unfolding before her eyes.

A young girl stood nearby. Yu Liuxue blinked curiously. “Hey, little sister, who’s the main girlfriend and who’s the mistress?”

The girl enthusiastically pointed at a woman. “Ha! Actually, both of them are mistresses!”

“That guy’s my boss. Everyone at the company knows he’s juggling dozens of women at the same time.” The girl looked like she’d seen it all. “The taller one in the egg-yellow dress is Mistress Sixteen. The shorter one with the fluffy hair is Mistress Twenty-Three.”

“Boss insisted on meeting up with Mistress Twenty-Three today, but Mistress Sixteen happened to be hanging out here with some friends. So of course, the three of them ran into each other. Mistress Sixteen’s no pushover—she slapped both of them right on the spot. Then when Mistress Twenty-Three started crying, Boss turned on Mistress Sixteen and started fighting with her.”

Yu Liuxue listened, dumbfounded. She couldn’t help but marvel, “So this is how dramatic stories in the world of drama actually play out. Fascinating.”

As the girl spoke, Mistress Sixteen, exhausted, was shoved to the ground by the scumbag man. Just then, a pale-skinned, delicate-looking young woman rushed over to her, crouching down with a worried expression. “Sister, are you okay?”

Before Mistress Sixteen could respond, the young woman turned to the man, eyes brimming with tears, and scolded him angrily. “President Lei, how could you push her? She’s bleeding!”

Yu Liuxue blinked. “Isn’t that Mistress Twenty-Three?”

The girl beside her was stunned too. “Unless my eyes are playing tricks on me, that’s definitely her.”

“Then they…?” Yu Liuxue pointed at the two women, completely confused. Mistress Sixteen seemed just as bewildered. The person she had just slapped was now rushing over to care for her and even helping her confront the scumbag man? She stared at her for a long moment, then suddenly grabbed Mistress Twenty-Three’s hand. “Girl, leave him. Come with me instead.”

“What do you want? A house? A car? Money? I’ll give you everything. I’ll even give you my life.”

Yu Liuxue was full of question marks. “???” What kind of plot twist is this?

Just then, a police car pulled up. The onlookers scattered in a flash, leaving only the people involved—and Yu Liuxue, who hadn’t had time to leave. A veteran officer took off his sunglasses and looked at her without a hint of surprise. “Take them all in.”

Yu Liuxue instinctively raised her hand. “Officer, I’m pregnant!”

The old policeman: “?”

“My babies are fighting inside my belly right now!” What she meant was that she wasn’t feeling well and needed to rest. But the old policeman glanced up at the bar’s sign, then said with a half-smile, “Brawling in a public place?”

“Take her away.”

Yu Liuxue couldn’t help but feel utterly wronged. She was just a curious bystander, drawn in by a dramatic cheating scandal before she even set foot inside the bar. All she wanted was a chance encounter with a pretty girl!

Tang Shiyu and Mi Rou arrived with dark expressions to bring Yu Liuxue home. She obediently sat in the back seat, not daring to make a sound. The atmosphere in the car was suffocating—so stifling that Yu Liuxue felt like she might miscarry on the spot. She couldn’t help but try to explain, “I really didn’t go clubbing. I was just standing at the entrance watching the commotion.”

“Didn’t those three people also vouch for me?”

Mi Rou kept her eyes on the road, not even blinking at her words. Tang Shiyu turned his head with a blank expression. “So should I assign someone to follow you around 24/7? Maybe even bring you a sofa so you can sit comfortably while watching the next spectacle?”

Yu Liuxue immediately brightened and relaxed her brows. “Thank you! Please also prepare a bag of sunflower seeds, some popcorn, and a cold Coke.”

The air pressure around Tang Shiyu visibly dropped. Yu Liuxue quickly shut her mouth in defeat, then tried to change the subject. “Listen, my babies are fighting again!”

The two of them: “……”

Tang Shiyu’s mind was filled with company matters. At her words, he merely lifted his eyelids slightly, then returned to focusing on work. Bored out of her mind, Yu Liuxue ended up talking to her babies for a long while. After this incident, both Mi Rou and Tang Shiyu subconsciously tightened their supervision over her. Sitting at the edge of her bed, Yu Liuxue sighed, “Why does being pregnant feel like I’m serving a prison sentence?”

The System gently offered, “Perhaps they’re just too concerned about your safety.”

Yu Liuxue thought for a moment. “Fair point.”

Her prenatal checkup was scheduled for the next morning. In addition to Mi Rou, Tang Shiyu had even taken time off work to accompany her to the hospital. Yu Liuxue felt both nervous and excited. “I heard that some doctors will subtly hint at the baby’s gender during the ultrasound. I wonder if the one doing my checkup will be that considerate.”

She had specifically looked it up on Baidu². Some pregnant women would deliberately say to the doctor, “There’s so much pressure having a boy these days—worrying about education, then later about buying a house, a car, and getting married.” At that point, if the baby was indeed a boy, the doctor would often respond, “True, but at least you’ll be taken care of in your old age.”

Yu Liuxue figured, with how clever she was, she wouldn’t just be able to coax the baby’s gender out of the doctor—she might even get them to reveal how many babies were in her belly.

After finishing all the tests, Yu Liuxue eagerly leaned in toward the doctor. “Sigh, it’s so stressful being pregnant these days. I don’t even know how many biological mothers this child has.”

The doctor looked up in utter disbelief: “?!”

Translator’s Notes