Chapter 1

Chapter 1

“Six weeks pregnant. Are you keeping it?”

The doctor asked the question as a matter of routine, then lowered her head to look over the form as she waited for my answer.

I lowered my eyes and gently laid a hand over my still-flat stomach, unable to stop myself from trembling.

I had no way to answer right away. I reached for the bag beside me, thanked the doctor, and walked out.

When fate’s gifts arrive at the right time, they are blessings.

But when they come at the wrong time, they become burdens.

This child’s arrival was like time splitting open a crack, grinding twelve years of love and hatred to pieces, then colluding with the biting wind to bring me to my knees.

Once, the child Fu Chi had dreamed of with all his heart had now become a burden.

Back then, we were young, our hair still dark, and no one thought to measure how much of life remained.

Only Fu Chi, eighteen years old, stood with his back straight, glowing in the slanting sunlight.

I tilted my head up and asked him, “What are you thinking about? You’re so lost in thought.”

He lowered his head, his thick lashes trembling slightly. “My wish.”

“What wish?”

He let out an exaggerated gasp. “Xu Man, I only have one wish in this life, and you can’t even remember it?”

“How could anyone only have one wish in their whole life? Stop trying to fool me.”

It was not until he was twenty-two that I finally learned the lifelong wish Fu Chi had made at eighteen.

In that old, shabby rental apartment filled with cold drafts, before a simple, cheap cake, he said softly, “Xu Man and Fu Chi will grow old together, surrounded by children and grandchildren.”

“Manman, let’s have a daughter someday. It would be best if she looked like you, with big eyes and fair skin. She’ll wave her chubby little hands and call me Daddy…”

Children and grandchildren… all around us. I clutched the test report as my tears fell with a soft patter.

Almost instinctively, I picked up my phone and called Fu Chi.

Ever since our falling-out four years ago, this was the first time I had called him on my own initiative.

But the next second, after the phone rang only twice, someone hung up.

I froze for a moment, staring blankly at the screen.

Just then, a news alert popped up on my phone. The headline was exaggerated and eye-catching: Zhao Sisi Appears with Wealthy Boyfriend in Villa District, Intimate as Ever.

Suppressing the discomfort in my chest, I tapped it open with trembling fingers.

Zhao Sisi did not dare post anything related to Fu Chi on public platforms. On the rare occasions she did, she only let him appear in the frame in vague, suggestive ways.

The media dared even less to publish a clear photo of Fu Chi’s face. In the photo before me, Zhao Sisi’s face was perfectly clear, while the man showed only half of his back.

No one was more familiar with Fu Chi than I was. Not to mention, the hand in the photo wore a ring on its ring finger.

Compared to the expensive, immaculate clothes he wore, that ring was so plain and cheap it was barely worth mentioning.

But that unremarkable ring was one I had bought during my first year of work, after scrimping and saving for a full six months.

Even when we got married, after Fu Chi was already worth over a hundred million and owned countless listed companies, we still used that pair of rings to exchange our vows.

“Mr. Fu Chi, do you take Xu Man to be your wife… to be faithful to her, to love and cherish her, whether in poverty or wealth, in sickness or in health, until you leave this world?”

“I do.”

…

Sitting on the cold iron chair outside the consultation room, I gave a mocking smile, but I could not stop the ache from spreading through my heart.

The ridiculous thing was that, just now, because of this unexpected child, I had actually hesitated for a moment.

I opened my phone and sent Fu Chi a message: Come home when you have time. I need to talk to you.

Unexpectedly, he replied the very next second: Busy lately. If you need anything, contact my secretary first.