"What are you looking at, old lady?" Butler Su came over and saw Nanny Zhang bending over, secretly peering at something, so he strolled over to join in on the fun.
"You're actually spying on the master and madam kissing!"
Suddenly disturbed, Nanny Zhang snapped irritably, "Shh! Be quiet. If you're not going to watch, then leave."
After watching for quite a while longer, she finally turned around contentedly and nudged Butler Su who was standing beside her, "Old Su, at this rate, don't you think we'll soon have another young miss or young master in the house?"
Butler Su glanced at her, completely unfazed, "Just wait and see."
The young master's child would also be a young master, nothing wrong with that, just wait.
In the back courtyard, halfway through their kiss, Gu Junxing forced himself to stop.
"We can't kiss anymore," Gu Junxing whispered in Nian Suian's ear, "The doctor said I shouldn't get excited recently."
Though phrased diplomatically, Nian Suian instantly understood his meaning.
"Ahem! Then I... I should keep my distance, let you cool down a bit, don't want to make things worse."
The comment made Nian Suian laugh, and soon they were both laughing together.
"It's been so long since the master laughed like this," Nanny Zhang said nostalgically, pretending to wipe her eyes with her sleeve.
Hearing this, Butler Su's eyebrow twitched, "Old Zhang, what books have you been reading lately?"
"'The Cold-Faced CEO's Beloved Sweet Heart' - in the book, that's how the butler talks. You should learn from it."
...
"Suian..." Gu Junxing called out helplessly.
"Hm? What's wrong?"
"There's nothing wrong down there, you don't need to keep staring."
Ever since learning about Gu Junxing's vasectomy today, Nian Suian's eyes kept unconsciously drifting downward, even during dinner while sitting next to him, she couldn't help but glance down after every few bites.
Hearing him say this, Nian Suian laughed awkwardly, "Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to."
That night at the bedroom door, Gu Junxing held Nian Suian back.
"Suian, it's not that I don't want you to look, it's my problem - my self-control isn't good enough."
Nian Suian's face turned bright red, "I really won't look anymore, never again."
"You can look later, when it's better."
"No, no, no..."
"Look at what? What are you two talking about?"
Gu Zhijing had appeared behind them without warning, now staring at them suspiciously with big, confused eyes.
Nian Suian didn't wait to see how Gu Junxing would explain; she went straight into the room. Let him deal with his own son.
"Why are you home so late? Where did you go after school?"
Gu Junxing's years of stern authority meant Gu Zhijing didn't immediately realize his father was changing the subject. He stood straight and stammered, "It was my classmate's birthday, I went to his house."
"Next time you're going to be late, let us know so we don't worry. Alright, go to your room now."
Gu Zhijing felt like he'd been pardoned and ran straight to his room, completely forgetting about his earlier question.
It wasn't until he was halfway through his shower that night that he realized something was off - he had asked the question first, but nobody had answered him.
Saturday night, the Muay Thai training that had been paused for a while was back on schedule.
Unlike Nian Suian's approach of training seriously for ten minutes and resting for thirty, Gu Zhijing trained exceptionally hard, even requesting an extra hour of practice after the regular session ended.
Nian Suian had already showered and was downstairs enjoying Gu Junxing's lovingly prepared fruit platter when Gu Zhijing finally came down, drenched in sweat.
"Don't drip your sweat into my plate." Gu Zhijing was so wet he looked like he'd been pulled from a pool, and when he reached for strawberries from her plate, Nian Suian worried his sweat would run down his fingers.
"Why are you working so hard? Take it easy," Nian Suian took two more strawberries before handing the whole plate to Gu Zhijing.
Gu Zhijing puffed out his chest and shouted, "Real men must sweat!"
Diagnosis complete: teenage syndrome acting up.
Gu Junxing, who had been quiet until now, gave his son a disgusted look, "Could this 'real man' take a shower first, before becoming a smelly man?"
"I'll shower later, I need to talk to you about something."
Gu Zhijing walked over to Gu Junxing, but just as he was about to sit down, he was stopped. "I've already showered. Stay away from me, or I'll have to shower again. Just stand there and say what you need to say."
Since Gu Zhijing needed a favor, he complied, standing where he was told.
"I want you to be a dad!"
Gu Junxing snorted, "So for the past dozen years or so, I've just been your uncle?"
"Hey... let me finish!" Gu Zhijing moved closer to them, crouching in front of them, and rapidly explained everything.
"So you want your dad to be Qi Anlu's father for a day on his birthday?"
Gu Zhijing nodded, impressed by how well his stepmother had summarized it.
"Can you do it, Dad? He even said before that he wished you were his dad."
"From what I'm hearing, you're giving your dad away as a birthday present?"
"Dad, it's just for one day. Don't be stingy - what's the difference who you're being a dad to?"
"Alright, I agree."
"Really? That's great!" Gu Zhijing jumped three feet high, forgetting Gu Junxing's warning, and gave his father a bear hug.
"Gu Zhijing!" Gu Junxing gritted his teeth, "Go take a shower."
"Right away, right away!" Having achieved his goal, Gu Zhijing bounced back to his room to shower.
Gu Junxing sat stiffly, took several deep breaths before saying to Nian Suian, "Entertain yourself for a while, I need another shower."
At the stairs, he turned back and added, "I'll cut you a fresh fruit platter later."
Nian Suian held back her laughter and told him to hurry along.
Gu Zhijing showered quickly; Nian Suian felt like she'd barely read a few chapters of her novel before he came back downstairs.
"Did you clean yourself properly? How are you done so fast?"
"I'm clean, I just work efficiently."
"Alright." Nian Suian didn't want to dwell on whether he was properly clean or not. "When is Qi Anlu's birthday?"
"March 5th."
"That's still a while away. Why did you bring it up with your dad today? I thought it was coming up soon."
"Well, I just thought of it just now, so I mentioned it."
Nian Suian thought to herself how alike father and son were, acting on their thoughts immediately.
"By the way, stepmom, what were you and dad talking about last night? About looking at something?"
Nian Suian was speechless... After a while, she said, "You're still thinking about that?"
"Well, I couldn't help it since I overheard. So what was it?"
"Movies! We were discussing whether to set up a home theater to watch movies." Nian Suian made up the excuse on the spot.
"Oh, just that?" Gu Zhijing was clearly disappointed.
"What else could it be?" Seeing that Gu Zhijing had bought the excuse, Nian Suian felt slightly relieved. She made a mental note to align stories with Gu Junxing later to avoid any amusing contradictions.