Chapter 71: If You’ve Got the Guts, Talk Work in Bed Too

Pei Shijin widened her eyes, not expecting Lu Yixue to take such an unexpected approach.

However, Little Mingzhu was still so young and probably wouldn’t notice anything. With that thought, Pei Shijin wasn’t sure whether to feel relieved or a bit disappointed.

Reason and selfishness pulled in opposite directions. Of course, she hoped Lu Yixue belonged only to her, to her alone.

If possible, she even wanted to hide her away so that she could only see herself every day.

Pei Shijin laughed at her own thoughts. Dream on, she told herself. It was just a fantasy, after all.

“After Grandma came today, she asked Little Mingzhu where Mommy was, and Little Mingzhu said she didn’t know.”

…

Listening to Little Mingzhu’s childish voice, Pei Shijin carried the cake into the room, thinking that the little one’s memory was pretty good.

She just wondered if the child might embellish her memories. Pei Shijin had seen many posts from moms sharing that kids didn’t lie, but they did make up stories.

When she reached the dining table and was about to sit down, Little Mingzhu dropped a bombshell. “Grandma said Mommy is lazy. The sun’s already high in the sky and she still won’t get out of bed. She just keeps sleeping. Her tone was so stern, even stricter than the English teacher!”

“I told Grandma that Mommy used to get up really early before. It was because she was tired from doing stuff with Mami last night.”

“Ahem… ahem…” Pei Shijin choked on the cake in her mouth and started coughing.

“Little Mingzhu, what are you saying?” Pei Shijin interrupted the little one.

Little Mingzhu blinked her big, innocent eyes. “Huh? Mommy, why’d you choke? Quick, drink some water!”

She pattered over and handed Pei Shijin a cup of warm water. “Mommy, eat slower. Don’t eat too fast.”

Lu Yixue strode over right behind her and patted Pei Shijin’s back to help her catch her breath. “You okay?”

“I’m fine.”

Pei Shijin drank some water to soothe herself, then looked seriously at Little Mingzhu. “How did you know Mommy was doing stuff?”

Little Mingzhu said proudly, “Because Little Mingzhu woke up in the middle of the night, and Mommy wasn’t there~ She must’ve gone to find Mami~”

Pei Shijin was speechless. How did she wake up at exactly the right moment?

Lu Yixue burst out laughing. “Grandma misunderstood your Mommy. Mami will clear it up with her. Little Mingzhu, next time you need to check the facts first before jumping to conclusions, or you’ll wrongly accuse someone.”

“Mm-hmm!” Little Mingzhu nodded vigorously. Then she looked at Pei Shijin, her little face quite serious. “Mommy, don’t be upset because of what Grandma said, okay~”

“Okay.” Pei Shijin ruffled the little clever girl’s head. How did she come up with these connections?

The three sat down, and Little Mingzhu continued recounting what Grandma had said. But there wasn’t much more after that, and the three quietly continued with the lesson.

“Oh wait, there’s more!” Little Mingzhu smacked her little head. “Grandma and Mommy play on their phones during Little Mingzhu’s lessons too! They’re not serious at all!”

Little Mingzhu huffed. Only she was the most serious.

Lu Yixue had a sudden realization. More than likely, the two had chatted about something on their phones that upset Pei Shijin.

Otherwise, if Gao Ye’an had only called Pei Shijin lazy, she wouldn’t have reacted so strongly.

Everyone had seen how disciplined Pei Shijin was over the years.

Recalling the time Pei Shijin had sent her that moody emoji, Lu Yixue felt even more certain of her guess.

What could the two have said? Probably something related to her.

Lu Yixue stared at Pei Shijin, who was buried in her food, chewing away. In the end, the key was Pei Shijin herself.

The perks of online chatting showed up—strong privacy. She couldn’t just sneak a peek at her phone.

Noticing Lu Yixue’s gaze, Pei Shijin curved her lips and took a big bite of meat.

After lunch, Pei Shijin and Lu Yixue accompanied Little Mingzhu watching cartoons. Not long after, she started yawning.

“Go back to your room for a nap?” Pei Shijin asked softly. “You can finish watching when you wake up.”

“Okay.” Little Mingzhu climbed into Pei Shijin’s lap and wheedled, “Mommy, carry Little Mingzhu to bed.”

“Alright.” Pei Shijin glanced at Lu Yixue, who was sitting ramrod straight, then picked up the child and headed to the bedroom.

When she emerged from the bedroom again, Lu Yixue was still sitting there, staring at the TV screen as if she were engrossed.

As Pei Shijin approached, Lu Yixue rubbed her eyes dramatically. “I’m sleepy too.”

“Mm. Then go back and sleep. It’s too cramped here for two.” Pei Shijin said flatly.

Lu Yixue: “Take me home.”

Pei Shijin: “I’ll see you to the door.”

Lu Yixue: “My front door.”

Pei Shijin stared fixedly at Lu Yixue. After a moment of eye contact, she compromised slightly. “I’ll walk you downstairs.”

“Fine.” Lu Yixue nodded readily.

“Let’s go.” Pei Shijin took two steps and saw Lu Yixue still sitting there, with no intention of getting up. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“My legs are numb.” Lu Yixue stretched out her arms. “Carry me.”

Pei Shijin pulled an acupuncture kit from the storage cabinet. “I’ll give you two needles.”

Lu Yixue’s eyes widened as Pei Shijin took out a golden needle, flicked it, and made the tip glint coldly.

“Not numb anymore.” Failing to get her way, Lu Yixue jumped up nimbly.

Pei Shijin chuckled. “Like a little kid.”

“You finally smiled.” Lu Yixue walked over and poked Pei Shijin’s cheek. “You really don’t need to take Gao Ye’an’s words to heart in the future. Her coming to find you is probably tied to me.”

“Let me guess—she wants me to give up on winning you back and wisely return to her side?”

This time, it was Pei Shijin’s eyes that widened. She hadn’t expected Lu Yixue to guess even that.

When Lu Yixue put her mind to it, nothing escaped her eyes.

“Looks like I got it right.” Lu Yixue carefully extracted the golden needle from Pei Shijin’s hand, put it back in the kit, and shoved the kit into the cabinet. “Let’s go.”

Pei Shijin walked out the door in silence.

“My relationship with her is just so-so. My feelings for her are like they were for my wife before—ninety percent out of duty.”

Lu Yixue walked side by side with Pei Shijin, laying her heart bare. “She and Lu Lingjiang had an arranged marriage, and their relationship was terrible before they wed. She had me just to fulfill obligations and didn’t like me, so she dumped me on my grandma and great-aunts to raise. Then, who knows what got into her, she suddenly awakened her maternal instincts and wanted to make it up to me.”

“Deep down, she’s extremely self-centered. Everything she does follows her own whims, just to make herself happy.”

“I never planned on getting married before. Live or die, whatever. But she needed a daughter and didn’t want to have another kid with Lu Lingjiang, so she went around looking for someone.”

Lu Yixue looked at Pei Shijin. “You just need to balance her out—be a bit more selfish, think more about yourself. I’m telling you all this because I don’t care about her, and you don’t need to either. She won’t dare force anything.”

Pei Shijin didn’t know what to say. She just felt stifled, a knot of pent-up frustration in her chest that wouldn’t dissolve.

Why did fate have to toy with her like this? Letting her meet such a wonderful Lu Yixue, yet she couldn’t hold her recklessly in her arms.

“I’m not caring about her because of you,” Pei Shijin said coldly, brushing off Lu Yixue’s forced connection—even though deep down that’s exactly what she thought, she wouldn’t admit it.

“Whatever her intentions, she helped me when I had nowhere else to turn. I’m grateful for that.”

Lu Yixue wanted to say more but shut her mouth when she saw Pei Shijin’s sour expression.

She sighed inwardly.

Once out of the building, Pei Shijin turned back instead of continuing.

Lu Yixue watched her retreating figure, pondering her next move. She’d hit a bottleneck; progress was stuck here.

She knew Pei Shijin liked her, cared about her, and indulged her getting close.

But that was about the limit. Lu Yixue even felt that if she kept hanging around for a few more days, Pei Shijin would retreat further, maybe even flee somewhere else.

The issues between them were obvious, but they couldn’t be resolved so quickly.

She needed to sort out her own problems fast. Lu Yixue rubbed her forehead.

On her way home, she contacted the private investigator who’d first tracked down Bai Mingsong and the others, asking them to keep tabs on Gao Ye’an.

She didn’t know if Gao Ye’an would notice, but if she did, so be it. It was just a bit of concern from a daughter.

Just as she finished the instructions and wired the deposit, Lu Yixue’s phone rang again.

It was Guan Yueying. As soon as Lu Yixue picked up, she heard her whispering conspiratorially. “Security at the Manor got tighter. It seems Bai Mingsong and that redhead we saw last night got rescued.”

“Something feels off. You don’t think Bai Mingsong really climbed to the top of some evil organization, do you?”

Lu Yixue frowned. “Go to the room I slept in last night and mail the password box from my suitcase to the Research Institute.”

“Huh?” Guan Yueying didn’t get the sudden shift to science talk. “What’s that?”

“The blood and gland samples I drew from Bai Mingsong yesterday.” Lu Yixue had studied herself, but it might’ve been too long since her differentiation, or maybe she had a genetic condition—either way, she hadn’t found anything.

Bai Mingsong had clearly just undergone artificial secondary differentiation. If conditions had allowed, Lu Yixue would’ve drawn her bone marrow last night.

“You’re really committed to that mad scientist persona. Even in that situation last night, you were thinking about research.” What more could Guan Yueying say besides admiring her?

Lu Yixue brushed it off with a vague “mm.”

“And then?” Guan Yueying couldn’t help pressing. “What do we do next?”

An evil organization—how exciting!

“Do whatever you normally do. Pretend it never happened.” Lu Yixue planned to head back to Yancheng the day after tomorrow to find Lu Lingjiang.

If she’d known all this would crop up, she wouldn’t have buried herself in research and ignored the world. Now, facing trouble, she had to go home and ask Mom for help.

As for why the day after tomorrow—one part was giving Lu Lingjiang time, the other was reluctance to leave Pei Shijin.

She’d only been in Yancheng a few days and already a pile of messes had cropped up. Even emotionally steady Lu Yixue was starting to get irritable.

“What? No way! How can you just brush off something this huge!” Guan Yueying shrieked.

“If you’re bored, go find something to do.” Lu Yixue said coolly.

Guan Yueying, ruthlessly hung up on, let out an angry roar. Damn it, next time you need my help, I’ll make you beg!

Still fuming, she called Pei Shijin to sync the news.

“You got nothing to say?” Seeing Pei Shijin stay silent, Guan Yueying prodded.

“Don’t stick your nose in where it doesn’t belong. You could get hurt—or worse, killed,” Pei Shijin warned earnestly.

“Relax, I’m not going to the front lines. I’ll just gossip from the back.” The pain of being beaten while disguised last time was etched in Guan Yueying’s memory forever. She wouldn’t go feed the enemy again.

Pei Shijin was speechless, a vein throbbing on her forehead. “Why are you so idle? Don’t you have any work?”

“Is work all you two ever talk about?” Guan Yueying griped. “Work, work, always work! No wonder you’re stuck together—you’re made for each other!”

“If you’ve got the guts, talk work in bed too!”