I Became the Mother of His Child

Xu Jingjing confidently took on the task of cooking from Song Yuanhuan, pounding her chest to assure him. Both Xu Xiuxiu and Song Yuanhuan clearly had their doubts about her capabilities, yet the young girl managed to cook quite impressively. The stir-fried greens were tender and fresh, making Xu Xiuxiu very tempted, and she ended up eating quite a bit along with the white rice.

Xu Jingjing instantly felt a bit proud. After the meal, she took it upon herself to do the dishes and other chores, and then urged Xu Xiuxiu to take a nap.

Xu Xiuxiu, being urged on multiple times by Xu Jingjing and seeing that it was indeed nearly one o'clock in the afternoon, nodded and took Song Chengguang to take a nap. Since Xu Jingjing's arrival, Xu Xiuxiu, as a mother, hadn't been able to spend time with her little one for a while, so Song Chengguang was quite excited. The little guy lay on the big bed, kicking his little short legs about for a long time before he managed to climb up onto it, and then he snuggled into the covers all by himself.

It had been a long time since Xu Xiuxiu had held her little one during a nap, and she missed it quite a bit. Once they were in bed, mother and son held each other and slowly drifted off to sleep.

The weather was shifting from early spring to summer, bright sunlight outside, making it the perfect time for an afternoon nap.

Having tidied up the kitchen after her "baptism" of cleaning, Xu Jingjing began to prepare chicken soup. While she knew how to cook some dishes, she actually had no idea how to perform the preceding step of slaughtering the chicken!

Even after lunchtime had passed by more than an hour and her third elder sister, along with Song Chengguang, had completely entered dreamland, she was still in the kitchen, anxiously gripping the kitchen knife and hesitantly holding the live chicken's neck, not daring to chop down. Every time the young girl thought about the image of blood splattering as the knife hit the chicken's neck, Xu Jingjing's legs couldn't help but tremble. Watching the once lively chicken now become dispirited due to her repeated mishandling, Xu Jingjing tried to reason with it, using all sorts of wasted breath, not caring whether the chicken understood her reluctance.

As time slipped away, the task her brother-in-law had entrusted to her seemed doomed to fail. In a moment of frustration, Xu Jingjing gritted her teeth, put down the knife, and went out to seek reinforcements.

"Brother Chu, I'm really sorry to bother you." Half an hour later, the front door that had been closed from the outside opened again. Xu Jingjing, standing sideways next to a military-clad Chu Tiangu, spoke with a hint of embarrassment and shyness on her face.

"It's no problem. Slaughtering a chicken is indeed not quite suitable for you girls." Chu Tiangu's face was full of smiles: "The fact that you thought to ask for my help doesn't bother me at all; on the contrary, I'm happy. I'm truly glad that there's something within my power to help you with." As Chu Tiangu said this, his eyes, filled with deep affection, were intently fixed upon Xu Jingjing, and his tone almost sounded like a declaration of love.

"Thank you, Brother Chu." Xu Jingjing's face instantly turned red as she lowered her gaze.

As for Xu Xiuxiu, she was quite sleepy due to her pregnancy but was a light sleeper as well. The slightest noise would wake her up. Although the voices outside were lowered, Xu Xiuxiu could still hear them, and realizing that they did not match Song Yuanhuan's deep, magnetic voice, she knew that the person outside was not Song Yuanhuan.

Resisting the urge to succumb to drowsiness, Xu Xiuxiu became a bit more alert. She walked out of the bedroom in her thin nightgown to check things out.

"Si Ya? Who are you talking to?" Xu Xiuxiu asked as she slowly made her way towards the kitchen.

In the kitchen, Xu Jingjing had already finished butchering the chicken with the help of Chu Tiangu and was now plucking its feathers. Hearing Xu Xiuxiu's question, she immediately put the chicken down, washed her hands in the sink, and said, "Sister, haven't you been feeling unwell lately? My brother-in-law asked me to buy a chicken to stew for you before he left. I didn't dare butcher it myself, so I called Brother Chu over to help." Xu Jingjing confessed to Xu Xiuxiu with eyes slightly downcast, feeling a bit ashamed, "Did our talking wake you up? We forgot to keep our voices down just now, sorry sis!" recalling that her sister was a light sleeper, Xu Xiuxiu also felt a bit embarrassed and lifted her head to apologize again.

"It's okay. I was about to wake up anyway," Xu Xiuxiu replied to Xu Jingjing with a gentle shake of her head, then turned her gaze to Chu Tiangu whom Xu Jingjing had just mentioned.

Chu Tiangu was from Fujian and was not considered tall compared to the men in Z city, standing at a height just short of six feet. However, his fair complexion set him apart from the local men. With his neatly cropped hair and dressed in combat training military attire, he somehow managed to exude the refined air of a scholar, a complete contrast to the overtly masculine aura of someone like Song Yuanhuan.

"Hello, I'm Jingjing's sister. Thank you for helping out today. Jingjing told me your name is Chu Tiangu, right?" Xu Xiuxiu, though curious and guarded against Chu Tiangu, still managed to make his eyes light up with her typically gentle way of speaking.

"No trouble at all, just lending a helping hand," Chu Tiangu replied, somewhat awkwardly thrusting his hand forward as he stared, dumbfounded, at the unadorned Xu Xiuxiu in her nightgown whose natural elegance could not be concealed.

Freshly awoken, Xu Xiuxiu's face was blooming like a peach blossom, cheeks faintly tinged with pink, looking ethereally beautiful. She was even more stunning than the ridiculously beautiful TV stars Chu Tiangu had in mind. He originally thought Xu Jingjing was quite pretty and delicate, so different from the rough military wives in the barracks, possessing the gentleness and shyness of southern girls paired with the boldness and cheerfulness specific to northern girls.

Unexpectedly, Xu Jingjing's sister was even more captivatingly beautiful. Just one glance was enough to make him fall head over heels. He felt his heart thumping in a way he never had before, the thrill and rush of love at first sight. Unfortunately, she was already married. Thinking this, Chu Tiangu's excited expression subdued slightly, but he couldn't quite keep it under complete control.

"Jingjing, you really shouldn't have. If you're scared of killing a chicken, you could have waited for your brother-in-law to come home and take care of it. How could you inconvenience someone else?" Xu Xiuxiu saw Chu Tiangu staring at her, eyes wide open, and unconsciously furrowed her eyebrows, clearly not pleased with the impression he made at their first meeting. He was obviously interested in Si Ya, Xu Jingjing, but still had the audacity to gawk at her, which to Xu Xiuxiu signified a man who was superficial and unreliable, the kind who judged by appearances.

Mentally criticizing him, Xu Xiuxiu lifted her gaze and pretended to scold Xu Jingjing with a stern look.

"Sis, I did it to give my brother-in-law a break! He's busy all day, and then he'd have to come home and stew the chicken for you—how tiring that would be! Plus, if the soup is started early, you could have some at dinner time! Haven't you been lacking an appetite recently?" Xu Jingjing argued faintly in her defense, her hands unconsciously twisting together as she pouted her red lips.

Quite clearly, Xu Jingjing's intentions were all for Xu Xiuxiu's benefit, although one couldn't exclude the possibility that a big part of the reason the young girl had called Chu Tiangu was with the hope of spending some time with him.