The cat king Du Ni suffered an undeserved disaster. If one were to describe this catastrophe more accurately, it would be the Xiao Qiang Rebellion. In just one evening, its empire, its vast domain, all the territory it could patrol and oversee was invaded by the internal enemy Yan Cheng. It was pitiful, helpless, and weak.
Its only weapon – those sharp cat claws – had been trimmed just the day before the rebellion, when it still fully trusted Yan Cheng. Yan Cheng, that dog traitor, had stripped away everything from it. Without even offering a small dried fish, he delivered the fatal blow. Now it had become a prisoner, confined to the balcony mezzanine, which was four or five meters long and over a meter wide, equipped with a litter box, cream-colored small sofa, green plants, various favorite toys, and a beautiful climbing frame…
“…”
Though there was a slight drop in quality compared to before, honestly, this drop wasn’t enough to make it furious with humiliation.
Du Ni gracefully jumped up and down, familiarizing itself with its short-term small kingdom. It meowed several times, guessing this was the traitor’s preferential treatment of prisoners.
Times were turbulent and extremely unfavorable for it. All it could do was endure the humiliation and wait for a chance to make its comeback!!!
Ah, in the end, that dog Yan Cheng was too good at winning over hearts (of cats). It had let its guard down, and even worse, the female owner was also bewitched.
Choosing a man over a pet – Chen Jinyao, you’ve lost your little darling.
“Aren’t we being too paranoid?” Chen Jinyao bent down, gently tapping the glass window, trying to attract Du Ni’s attention.
Du Ni indeed looked at her, maintained eye contact for two seconds, then started meowing pitifully again.
“Listen how pitiful it sounds.” She felt sympathetic, “Du Ni holds grudges.”
Yan Cheng squatted beside her, holding his phone with the screen showing a Baidu search page. The search title was prominent: ‘Do cats affect pregnant women?’
“Maybe we went too far, our Du Ni’s hygiene habits are beyond question.” Yan Cheng frowned thoughtfully, then opened the door to let it out. The whole process was as casual as playing house, “Just don’t touch its droppings.”
“Its droppings might have toxoplasmosis, which could affect you.” He had wanted to be extra careful, better safe than sorry, but seeing Du Ni now, he felt somewhat sympathetic. Although he had started caring for it halfway, and initially didn’t like small animals much, time had built affection. He had evolved from calling it “little beast” as a stepfather to occasionally praising it on social media as a biological father.
Of course, he couldn’t deny this was partly due to loving everything associated with his wife. Du Ni becoming his ‘son’ was partly thanks to its ‘mother’s’ influence.
“We can let it into this small balcony when we’re not home.” Yan Cheng offered a compromise, then paused, his expression becoming gradually complex, “I’ll take over cleaning its litter from now on.”
Chen Jinyao raised her eyebrows, satisfied with his words.
One was bent over, the other squatting like a little hooligan. With their perfect height difference, Chen Jinyao took the opportunity to ruffle his hair, pressed her lips together, and said with a smile: “Alright.”
“Thank you, Student Yan.”
Yan Cheng waved his hand, “Small matter, don’t be so polite with your husband.”
After speaking, he looked up into her line of sight, his eyes flickering slightly, wearing an expression seeking praise – typical of saying one thing but meaning another. Combined with his now-ruffled hair, he looked like a little puppy, instantly striking a chord in Chen Jinyao’s heart, softening her expression.
She pinched his earlobe, tugged it, and after a moment’s silence, had a sudden realization. She raised her eyebrows, eyes dancing with laughter: “So, last night you were researching these things on your phone?”
Without waiting for his answer, she quickly took his phone, exited the page, clicked the search box again to see a row of searches all related to “pregnancy.”
Chen Jinyao lowered her eyes, her eyelashes trembling, then heard Yan Cheng’s lazy voice in her ear, saying: “Yeah.”
Without any casualness.
Last night’s antics only confirmed that Yan Cheng was still that quirky, childish person. Whenever he did something for Chen Jinyao, it would always end up being both touching and amusing, making her feeling of being moved never last more than three seconds.
The noble and aloof cat king Du Ni finally deigned to step out of its prison. Being magnanimous, it ran to rub against Yan Cheng’s feet.
Yan Cheng lazily snickered, mockingly calling it spineless, yet still reached out to tap its nose in the next second, then stroked the proud cat’s fur. This barely managed to soothe its wounded feelings.
“…” He really hadn’t noticed Du Ni holding grudges.
Yan Cheng patted the silly cat’s head and slowly stood up, supporting himself on his knees.
“Student Yan.” Chen Jinyao suddenly hugged him from behind, closing her eyes. The orange sunset glow crept in from outside, and with the air conditioning on inside, the sunlight didn’t feel too hot. The light spread around them, creating a sense of peaceful contentment.
“You’ll be a good father in the future.” Her voice was soft, like feathers, tickling Yan Cheng’s ears.
Yan Cheng seemed frozen in place, stiff for a long while, unable to even respond with an “mm.” He just narrowed his eyes, gazing toward the distant horizon blocked by high-rises. He couldn’t imagine what lay beyond those buildings. In fact, he just blanked out for a moment before his mind wandered.
The word “father” was both familiar and strange to him. At least, it felt strange when suddenly applied to himself.
Actually, it wasn’t sudden, since they had planned for it, but even so, Yan Cheng didn’t know how to describe it. When discussing it calmly, he could vaguely feel a strange emotion pulling at him.
He was prepared, but somehow also not at all prepared. Even though there was deliberately time set aside for him to prepare.
Yan Cheng gently pried away the hands that had nearly broken his waist, then turned to face Chen Jinyao. He looked directly at her, lips pressed together, not knowing what to say in the moment, suddenly feeling awkward and flustered.
Almost without thinking, he caught Chen Jinyao’s waist, holding her in return, feeling better once he didn’t have to see her half-mocking, teasing gaze.
In the near future, there would be a little one, looking like him or Chen Jinyao, looking up with a small face and calling him “daddy” with unclear pronunciation.
He would accompany them learning to speak, guide and protect them when they took their first wobbly steps, and occasionally let them fall, then tell them not to cry but to bravely get up by themselves…
Through all these processes, slowly accompanying their growth.
“…”
His thoughts scattered, unconsciously thinking quite far ahead.
Yan Cheng suddenly came back to his senses, his face reddening.
He never thought there would come a day when he would fuss over so many things internally.
It was too strange. Not like himself at all!
Suppressing these inexplicable emotions and the unease they brought, before long, Yan Cheng’s lips lifted lazily again, returning to his usual playful manner, looking every bit like a little rascal.
At this moment, Yan Cheng was thinking and pondering randomly, thinking to himself: this little rascal still felt like a half-grown troublemaker himself, yet now he was going to be a father. Tsk, this was truly incredible.
Chen Jinyao quietly listened to the man’s strong heartbeat, staying silent with him for a while. She blinked, thinking she could probably guess Yan Cheng’s current state of mind. Her arms around his waist moved up slightly, patting his back gently as if comforting a child.
Looking up, she asked him: “Are you confident about being a good father to the child?”
Yan Cheng immediately put aside all his internal musings, straightened his back, his voice rising, saying decisively: “Yes, absolutely.”
His palm rested on her flat abdomen, trying to feel the so-called existence and power of life though seemingly feeling nothing, but Yan Cheng still pretended he could feel it, “In the future, he’ll enjoy the good life with me.”
Chen Jinyao: “…”
Yan Cheng: “With me looking after him, think about it, he’ll be so impressive.”
Chen Jinyao: “……”
His current words, and the tone he used to say them, seemed to define the unformed baby in her belly as a boy.
Chen Jinyao couldn’t help but raise her eyebrows, guessing it was probably because of her earlier friendly reminder of “don’t you care about having a son,” which had elevated his thinking, almost equivalent to a qualitative change. As a result, he was no longer solely calling for a daughter repeatedly.
Respecting gender equality in thought.
But there were problems with his parenting ideas.
According to what he said, although there was an element of joking, undeniably, his stated vision of what he considered wonderful, upon careful examination, was simply a case of a big troublemaker raising a little troublemaker.
Chen Jinyao lifted her eyelids, “Never mind.”
Yan Cheng: “Hm????”
Chen Jinyao looked up and gave him a sidelong glance, “I’ll raise the child myself, it has nothing to do with you.”
Although the joking element in this statement was easy to hear, Yan Cheng was still shocked and couldn’t help but ignore this ‘joking’ component.
“No, no, no.” He pulled back their distance slightly, bent down a bit to look at Chen Jinyao, thought for a moment, organized his words, and spoke very seriously: “Your thinking is wrong, too conservative. Although throughout history most situations have been men working outside and women inside, men earning money while women take care of children and housework, this is really wrong, very outdated. Look at you, you have a stable job, earn money too, and I’m now handling more than half the housework, so naturally, I have the obligation to help take care of the child in the future.”
“We help each other, share the burden.” Honestly, his current ideological awareness was impressively high, “I’ll give you one second to take back what you just said.”
“…” She was really gratified by his initiative.
But, “I refuse.” Chen Jinyao spoke righteously with a stern face.
She tilted her head and smiled: “I don’t deny you have the heart to be a good father, but compared to that, I’d rather have a good child.”
Yan Cheng couldn’t believe it: “You’re afraid I’ll be a bad influence on the child?”
“Yes.” Chen Jinyao nodded without hesitation.
Yan Cheng: “……”
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