After much persuasion, Gong Ze finally managed to get his silly little wife into the car.
Once seated, the young master still tried to bargain. “Then tonight, you have to cook dinner for me with your own hands.”
Gong Ze got into the car from the other side and replied casually, “Fine. As long as you can last a full day at the company today without leaving early, not only will I cook for you, but if you don’t miss a single day for a whole month, I’ll take you out for three days at the end of the month.”
Sang You: “Huh? Only three days? What’s that good for?”
Seeing how greedy he was, Gong Ze teased him. “Be grateful, little young master. The company is busy right now, and I just finished my leave. Finding three days is already pretty good.”
With that, he looked up at the driver’s seat. “Let’s go.”
But when he saw who was in the driver’s seat, Gong Ze’s smile gradually faded. “Wang Liben? Where’s the chauffeur? Didn’t I tell you not to do this kind of work anymore and go be busy at the company?”
The tall, heavy, gloomy man’s eyes peeked at them through the rearview mirror, which made Gong Ze very uncomfortable.
Seeing Gong Ze looking at him, Wang Liben lowered his gaze evasively and answered, “I haven’t seen you at the company for several days. They said you’d taken annual leave. I was a little worried, so I came to check on you…”
“Is that so,” said Gong Ze impassively. He didn’t comment further, only said flatly, “Let’s go.”
Sang You, seeing that the driver was that tall, gloomy man under Gong Ze’s command who always gave off an unpleasant feeling, grew a little scared and leaned closer to Gong Ze.
Especially since Wang Liben had once been insubordinate and targeted Sang You — Sang You really didn’t like him.
“It’s okay.” Sensing Sang You’s fear, Gong Ze pulled him close and lowered his head to soothe him in a small voice. “I’m here.”
With Gong Ze’s reassurance, Sang You felt a bit more at ease. Soon enough, he regained his liveliness. Leaning on Gong Ze’s shoulder, he covered his mouth and whispered secrets to him.
“Gong Ze, do you think we should still have a baby later, the way Dad wanted us to?”
Hearing this, Gong Ze shifted his gaze from Wang Liben to Sang You. He looked at him with a half-smile. “You want me to give birth for you?”
“No!” Sang You bit his lip, looked at Gong Ze, and whispered shyly, “I’ll give birth for you.”
Gong Ze’s smile faded. After a moment of silence, he pinched Sang You’s cheek and said seriously:
“I advise you to drop that idea immediately, Sang You.”
“Remember this: just because you’re in a relationship with a man doesn’t mean you’ve turned into a woman. Unless you truly, desperately want offspring, there is no man in this world worth having a child for.”
Sang You hadn’t expected Gong Ze to be unhappy after hearing his words, let alone to frown and scold him. He pressed his lips together, and the playful smile on his face disappeared as well.
Feeling a bit humiliated, he muttered, “I don’t think of myself as a woman. I was just joking. Why do you have to talk to me like that? Besides, plenty of men have had the childbirth surgery…”
“Have they ever told you that the pain of childbirth for men is four times higher than for women? Women have estrogen to help their bodies adapt to pregnancy and childbirth. What do men have?”
Gong Ze had, in fact, been to worlds where male pregnancy existed.
Unless it was a special world like ABO, wasn’t it all extremely painful?
“You’ll leak urine and feces. Your endocrine system will go haywire — you won’t be able to control your moods at all. Your belly will be covered in stretch marks like tree bark. The skin on your entire abdomen will become loose and saggy, hanging down darkly to your thighs.”
“Do you think having a child is just — get pregnant, give birth, and everyone lives happily ever after?”
For the first time in days, Gong Ze didn’t coddle the young master just because he was upset.
The man pinched the young master’s chin, forcing the impulsive, flighty boy to lift his head and look at him.
He warned him seriously: “Sang You, how old are you, hmm? You’re only nineteen! You’ve slept with me a few times and now you want to have my child? Do you know what that kind of behavior is called? It’s called being a lovestruck fool!”
Even as Sang You’s eyes reddened from the scolding, Gong Ze didn’t let up.
“Sang You, do you think having a child is a joke? You’re more delicate and less pain-tolerant than the average person. Just because someone else can handle it doesn’t mean you can. Don’t bring this up again in the future — don’t even think about it.”
Gong Ze pinched his chin, not allowing him to look away. “Do you remember it or not?!”
“I only mentioned it, and you’re already talking to me like this…” Sang You’s eyes reddened. He held back his tears, refusing to admit he was wrong, and glared at Gong Ze defiantly. “If you don’t want me to give birth, then I’ll give birth! You don’t get to control me! I’m a lovestruck fool. If you won’t have a baby with me, I’ll have one with someone else, mmph—”
Before the young master could say something that would genuinely anger him, Gong Ze gritted his teeth, covered his mouth, and manually shut him up.
Two large teardrops had welled up in Sang You’s eyes — just as stubborn as their owner, refusing to fall — making him look exactly like that crying cat meme that was popular online.
Gong Ze, who had been angry, couldn’t help but laugh again.
He lowered his head, nibbled the corner of the little ancestor’s eye, sighed, and patiently explained, “Idiot. Your health is poor. I’ve been holding back, trying not to let you suffer, unwilling to really push you hard. More than having a child, I want you to be healthy and well.”
Gong Ze’s nose touched his. Even his cold, dark eyes softened.
His voice was barely a whisper. “How could I bear to put you through that kind of suffering?”
“If you were a girl — if you could give birth without needing surgery to install some artificial womb — I’d be happy with whatever you gave me, even if you gave birth to a ball.”
Sang You’s resentment vanished when he heard Gong Ze’s hoarse voice saying he couldn’t bear it. His face had already turned red. Then, upon hearing the last part, he burst into a “pfft” laugh.
“Go away. I’m not giving birth to a ball.”
Seeing him smile, Gong Ze lifted him onto his lap, settled his head on his shoulder, and kissed the little ancestor’s hair whorl, teasing him, “Earlier you said you’d turned from a proud young master into my little caged canary. You’re not a canary — you’re a little peacock who’s out for my life.”
Beautiful and silly, and with a bite.
Sang You was embarrassed by his words.
Gong Ze draped his coat over him. “It’s still an hour until we get there. Get some sleep first.”
“Why is it so far…”
“The city’s central business district is naturally far.”
Sang You closed his eyes, nestling against the man’s neck and murmuring softly, “I still remember when our family’s company wasn’t in the central district. It was in some mediocre old building. Then one day, my dad came home and talked with my mom in the study for a long time. Not long after that, our company moved into that beautiful new office building.”
As sleep crept in, Sang You’s voice grew fuzzy.
“That building before seemed to belong to another pharmaceutical company in Black City… mm… what was the name… the Wen family?”
Gong Ze’s hand, which had been tucking the coat around the young man, suddenly stopped.
Sang You didn’t notice the change in the man’s expression above him, nor the darkness that instantly sank into his eyes. The young master furrowed his beautiful brows, thinking hard.
“That was sixteen years ago, I think. I wasn’t even three yet. I have a very early memory — I remember exactly what my dad looked like back then. It’s strange.”
Now, other childhood memories had grown fuzzy, but this one alone was still vivid in Sang You’s mind.
Sang You talked for a while. When he didn’t hear a response from Gong Ze, he turned over on the man’s lap and looked up in confusion, meeting Gong Ze’s dark, heavy eyes.
“Gong Ze?”
“Hmm?” Gong Ze snapped back to the present, a smile touching his lips as he patted Sang You’s shoulder. “Nothing. I was just distracted. Go to sleep now.”
“Oh…”
Taking it at face value, Sang You hugged Gong Ze’s arm and closed his eyes, intertwining their fingers. Even in sleep, the corners of his mouth curved up in a happy arc.
Meanwhile, Gong Ze, as if sensing something, looked up expressionlessly and met the probing eyes in the rearview mirror.
“Drive properly.”
His voice betrayed no emotion, yet seemed to carry a hint of a warning.
Wang Liben nodded dully, but his large hands gripping the steering wheel creaked, his knuckles turning white.
Those bear-like eyes — the kind of eerily silent eyes that only enormous beasts possess — stared fixedly through the rearview mirror at Sang You, who had drifted peacefully into dreams.
Sang You… on what basis?
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