Having always taken safety precautions, he was puzzled to hear that she was pregnant. Well, contraception is indeed never a hundred percent safe, after all.

Everything had turned out to be contrary to his expectations.

Mei Yangyang and Long Tianze arrived at the hospital only to see that An Xiaoning was resting on the hospital bed after her surgery while Jin Qingyan sat by the bedside.

Jin Qingyan was the only one left accompanying her in the hospital ward after the Gu family took their leave.

Jin Qingyan stood up upon sight of their arrival. Long Tianze gave him a pat on his shoulder while Mei Yangyang glanced towards the bed. She felt like she had not seen An Xiaoning in a long time, although she had just met her a while ago. To her astonishment, the rosy and chubby cheeks An Xiaoning used to have had become sunken and hollow as she appeared as pale as a sheet.

"Has she not come to?"

"She hasn't."

Long Tianze and Mei Yangyang stayed for a while before leaving, after which the ward was filled with silence once again.

Jin Qingyan caressed her hand while holding it in his, feeling her existence strongly.

"She was stabbed in the stomach and even had a miscarriage? Does she have nine lives or something? I can't believe she managed to survive even after all that," Chi Rui'er said in surprise.

"Mind your words, it's a good thing she managed to stay alive," Gu Beicheng chided while glaring at her.

"No… what I meant was that others would have died long ago if they were put in her position. She must be really lucky. It's a blessing she had managed to survive," Chi Rui'er explained in embarrassment, putting on a pretentious smile.

"I've been constantly worried ever since she had met with the mishap. I can finally sleep in peace now. I reckon the Jin family's tyrannical ways would be all over the news soon. They actually tied us up, damn it! Fortunately, Xiaoning is alright, otherwise, it'd definitely be a great blow to the Jins," said Gu Dongcheng as he lifted the duvet and laid down in bed.

Leaning closer towards him, Chi Rui'er asked, "Dongcheng, you'll be turning 28 this year, have you never thought of getting married and settling down?"

"Why? You want to marry me?" he asked, running his fingers through her hair.

"Yes," she answered, nodding.

"I don't plan on getting married just yet, I'll think about it in the future," he said with a smile.

With a look of disappointment in her eyes, Chi Rui'er threw her arms around him and said, "I'm in lesser of a hurry to get married than you. I'm five years younger than you anyway."

Actually, Gu Dongcheng had no intentions of making her his wife at all. Even if he wanted to get married, he would marry a woman who was compatible with him in terms of social and economic status. A promiscuous woman like Chi Rui'er was, in fact, nothing more than an object for him to toy with.

Little did he know, the scheming Chi Rui'er had already hatched a plan to make him hers.

Seeing that he was going to bed, Chi Rui'er got up and proceeded to the kitchen to get herself some food. However, she began feeling queasy and zoomed towards the washroom to throw up as soon as she ate.

After she was done puking, she continued to eat, before throwing up again.

The entire cycle repeated itself over and over again.

Finally, it came to a halt, and she received a call from her mother.

"Hello."

"Are you really not going to come home ever again?" asked Mrs. Chi.

"Yes, I'm never going to again. Tell me when you run out of money, I'll transfer some to you," she said coldly, bent on never stepping foot into the house again.

"You don't have to, I still have enough to spend. Rui'er, you're the only daughter I have, must you really treat me like this?" Mrs. Chi said with a long sigh.

"Mother, if my intentions were really to treat you in such a way, I would've left that home long ago. You're in poor health and you're plagued with disease, just stay at home since you're willing to live there. I'm currently living together with my boyfriend, just give me a call if you'd like to meet," Chi Rui'er answered slowly.

Chi Rui'er could not bear to cut off ties with Mrs. Chi completely. After all, she was still her biological mother.

"Okay, let's hang up."

Chi Rui'er felt unusually upset after hanging up the phone.

The fetus would grow bigger and bigger, day by day. After making the calculations, she realized that she had to quickly seize the chance before her baby bump begins to show in no time.

Chi Rui'er stood by the basin and stared at her reflection in the mirror. She gave the matter some thought and decided to execute her plan a few days earlier.

She then came out of the washroom to see that Gu Dongcheng had already fallen asleep.

She retrieved the rigged ultrasound report from her bag and wrote today's date on the bottom with a pen.

She sat quietly by the bed, not wanting to wake Gu Dongcheng up. Instead, she laid down beside him and began pondering carefully over how she should make her plan seamless.

After a good night's sleep, Gu Dongcheng sat up straight in bed, only to see that Chi Rui'er had an exceptionally gleeful smile on her face.

"You seem to be in a really good mood, what's the occasion?"

"I planned to tell you about it last night but you were already asleep by the time I returned from the kitchen, so I decided not to disturb your sleep. Dongcheng, do you know why I asked you if you had ever thought about settling down, before you slept last night?" asked Chi Rui'er, facing him while sitting cross-legged on the bed.

Gu Dongcheng had an ominous feeling about how unusually happy she had seemed. "Why?" he asked.

"Because you're going to become a father very soon."

"What?" Gu Beicheng gasped in disbelief of what he just heard.

"Are you too happy to react? I said, you're going to be a father. I'm pregnant! I went for a checkup this morning, have a look," she said, handing him the ultrasound report.

Gu Beicheng took the report and scrutinized the information on it, which gave him the shock of his life.

"How did you even get pregnant? We use protection every single time," he said apprehensively.

"How would I know? Maybe we were too vigorous and ruptured the condom in the process. That's very likely to happen. I can't believe I'm pregnant, Dongcheng, I'm really over the moon right now," Chi Rui'er exclaimed, jumping for joy. "I won't blame you if you don't plan on marrying me and giving our child a legitimate status. Just make sure the media doesn't find out about it. But there were a lot of people who saw me when I went for the checkup at the hospital this morning. I wonder if they'll spread it online," she continued.

Gu Dongcheng was speechless and at a complete loss of what to do. He has had intimate relationships with plenty of women in the past, but never once had he ever gotten them pregnant. He could not help but suspect that she had done it on purpose.

"Don't tell me you poked a hole in the condom with a needle," he blurted.

Chi Rui'er's face stiffened in astonishment. "What do you mean? Do you really see me as such a scheming woman?" she retorted defensively.

"We can't have this child, go get an abortion," Gu Beicheng said bluntly.

"The doctor mentioned that it's difficult for me to get pregnant and I may not get to bear another child again, if I choose to abort it. Dongcheng, I'd like to keep it. It's the very testament of our love. Don't you wanna know what the child will look like?"

Gu Dongcheng felt terribly upset upon hearing her words. "Seems like you're really bent on marrying me."

Chi Rui'er fell silent upon noticing how upset he looked. She gazed at him longingly with tears welling up in her eyes. "Since you're so insistent on not wanting this child, I'll just raise it myself, you may stay out of it," she said in between sobs.