"Fu Lin!"
Xia Huaizhi ran to the original location and found that Fu Lin was no longer there. After circling around for a while, she finally saw him on a secluded bench and hurried over.
She asked anxiously, "Why weren't you waiting for me in the original spot? I almost couldn't find you. . ."
"I should have hidden," Fu Lin said self-deprecatingly. "After all, I am the son of a criminal, and it's inevitable that someone with extreme emotions would want to beat me up."
"You. . ." Xia Huaizhi asked tremblingly, "Do you already know?"
"Mm."
Compared to her, Fu Lin's tone was still calm. "I'm not surprised that he's this kind of person, but I didn't expect him to be so crazy."
The sun was obscured by dark clouds, and the wind gradually grew colder.
Xia Huaizhi took Fu Lin's hand and said, "Let's go back. It's cold outside."
"Mm." On the way home, Fu Lin remained silent and showed no emotion on his face. She could sense that something was wrong, but every time she asked, he would just say "I'm fine," and she could only silently accompany him.
Despite saying that he was fine, not long after they arrived home, Fu Lin caught a cold and began to run a fever.
He was already sensitive to the cold, and now he was shivering even more, even when he put on more clothes. Because he was pregnant, he couldn't take fever-reducing medicine, so he had to rely on physical cooling.
Xia Huai Zhi took care of him in every detail, and he would even frown if she didn't ask about something.
After finishing wiping him down, he grabbed Xia Huai Zhi's clothes and weakly said, "You can go now, don't worry about me."
"Go?" Xia Huai Zhi asked in surprise, "Where should I go? To the next door?"
"What I mean is. . . you don't have to take care of me anymore."
"I am the son of a criminal, and in the future, I may have to bear the burden of a lifetime of shame. I don't want you to be involved, your future should be bright."
"What are you talking about?"
Xia Huai Zhi was quite angry, her chest heaving, "Do you think I'm the kind of coward who abandons their family in times of trouble? Who exactly are you looking down on?"
Fu Lin withdrew his hand and said, "I'm sorry."
"This won't happen again," she said fiercely. "If you ever say something like that again, I'll. . ."
She trailed off, unable to come up with a threat, and reluctantly closed her mouth.
Oh well, Fu Lin didn't seem like the type to be threatened anyway, so it was probably pointless to say anything.
She gritted her teeth, wishing she could drag him to the civil affairs bureau right now to get their marriage certificate and stop him from saying such hurtful things.
But he was still running a fever. . .
After tucking him in, Fu Lin slept from the afternoon until evening, and his temperature finally went down a bit.
Xia Huai Zhi cooked him a bowl of rice porridge and brought it to the bedside to feed him, but he snatched the bowl away.
"I can do it myself."
He scooped up a spoonful of porridge, blew on it a few times, and when it was cool enough, he put it in his own mouth. Hearing Xia Huai Zhi's stomach growling, he asked, "Haven't you eaten yet?"
"Hmm, I'll go do my own thing after you finish eating."
Fu Lin lifted the covers and prepared to get out of bed. "I'll go make you some food."
"No, no, no," she quickly pressed him back onto the bed. "How can I let a sick person make food for me? You just lie down and rest."
"Xia Huai Zhi, am I a burden to you?" Fu Lin sighed, looking downcast. "My poor health always causes trouble for those around me."
"No, you've never been a burden to me. And. . . you take care of me just as much, don't you?"
Just as they were enjoying each other's company, there was a sudden, loud knocking at the door of the living room, startling Xia Huai Zhi.
Fu Lin probably knew what was going on and gently pushed her arm, saying, "Go answer the door."
"Oh, okay. . ."
She looked through the peephole and saw several police officers in uniform outside, with the leader holding up his identification.
Following Fu Lin's lead, she didn't think too much and opened the door. Before the police could even ask anything, she voluntarily said, "Fu Lin Yuan isn't here." "Sorry, we have to search this place. Please step aside for a moment."
She reluctantly stepped back and said, "Go ahead, he's really not here."
After the search yielded no results, several police officers went to the bedroom and questioned Fu Lin, "Mr. Fu, do you know the whereabouts of your father?"
"I don't know," Fu Lin said calmly, "Our father-son relationship has been broken for many years, and there's no need to meet normally. We haven't seen each other for seven months."
"When was the last time you contacted him? What did you say?"
"Half a month ago, when I resigned from Therasis, he called and asked about my plans. Other than that, he didn't say anything, let alone about himself."
"Okay."
The police recorded this information and then asked, "Do you know about your father's criminal behavior?"
"I don't know, and he was the victim."
Fu Lin candidly said, "I accidentally took a mandatory gender reassignment drug, which has led to serious health problems. And this drug is the product of an underground drug research institute." "Are you sure you took it 'accidentally'?"
Fu Lin reflexively curled his fingers, but fortunately he was covered by the blanket, so the small movement was not obvious.
"In my opinion, yes."
In order to shift the focus, he took the initiative to provide information, "Officer, I know several places where he has residences in other provinces. Maybe you can go there and take a look. He also seems to have a base abroad, but I don't know which country specifically, so I can't give more clues."
He orally stated those locations, then weakly coughed a few times, indicating that he was recuperating.
"Thank you for providing valuable clues. I wish you a speedy recovery. Goodbye."
After the police left, Xia Huaizhi breathed a sigh of relief and leaned against Fu Lin, still in shock.
"I was so scared. I saw them all around you and thought they were going to take you away. . ."
"I'm not the criminal, so don't worry." Fu Lin rubbed her hair to comfort her.
"Sigh, this is really. . ." She said with hatred, "I really hope he can be caught soon, so you don't have to be interrogated." "Hopefully."
Fu Lin didn't have high expectations, "But with his methods, it's not easy to find him. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to evade the law for so many years."
"That's true," Xia Huai Zhi hugged Fu Lin tightly, "Let's just live our lives well. Let's pretend that he has nothing to do with us."
"It wasn't a big deal to begin with."
She looked up and met his gaze, "Is that really what you think?"
"Mm."
"But what I care about more is that I was able to get to where I am today because of his wealth and accumulation. If his money was ill-gotten, then I am also. . . benefiting from it."
Xia Huai Zhi wanted to argue, but she also felt that this idea made sense and didn't know what to say for a moment.
After a long silence, she finally found a way to break through, "But you got the position of Therasis CEO from him, and you didn't profit from his underground business."
"Therasis is currently under investigation. Let's wait for the results of the investigation."
Fu Lin lay back on the bed, "You're right, let's focus on living our own lives well for now and not torture ourselves with other people's mistakes."
"It's good that you understand."
Her stomach growled again, Xia Huai Zhi got up from the bed, ready to go to the kitchen to make something to eat. If she didn't eat something soon, she would really starve.
These past few days have been too tumultuous, she has been neglecting to contact her family, several messages have piled up without a reply.
In the interval while waiting for the food to cook, she replied to her sister and Li Qing, explaining her situation.
As for her parents. . . she felt that she should also mention Fu Lin's situation, she couldn't just let them find out after the child was born.
She sent this message in the family group chat -
[A Rabbit Branch]: I have something to tell everyone, I have a boyfriend, and he's pregnant.
[A Rabbit Branch]: Surprised or not? Unexpected or not?
[Xia Chunxi]: ?????
[Xia Chunxi]: Why did you wait until now to tell me such a big thing? Is your boyfriend the one you saw before?
[Zui Ai Xia Chunxi]: Huai Zhi, why don't you bring him home to meet us?
[Yi Zhi Tu Zhi]: Because it was an unexpected pregnancy. . . things happened suddenly. . . so. . .
[Yi Zhi Tu Zhi]: He's in trouble now, and he's also sick, so he can't come home with me for now / cries
[Xia Chunxi]: Oh, right, he's Fu Linyuan's son, right? Then I probably know what happened to him.
[Yi Zhi Tu Zhi]: Yes, but he's definitely not like Fu Linyuan. You can trust my judgment~
[Mu Chun]: I agree with this!
[Zui Ai Xia Chunxi]: Well, since they're already pregnant, they're part of our family now.
[Xia Chunxi]: Yeah, if you have any difficulties, bring him home and we'll all figure it out together.
[Yi Zhi Tu Zhi]: Okay, thank you everyone.
She wiped the corners of her slightly moist eyes, put down her phone, and served herself some food. With the support of her family, she felt more empowered.
It will get better, it definitely will.
A few days later, the investigation results of Therasis Group were released.
After sampling, all products of the group were qualified and met the standards, and the group did not engage in any illegal operations. Everything was legal and compliant.
However, even so, during these days of public outrage, the public had developed a serious psychological resistance to Therasis' products.
With the massive loss of middle and lower-level employees, Therasis had almost become an empty shell, with production and operations almost at a standstill.
The stock price continued to fall, and the board of directors had to make the decision to delist, and even faced the possibility of bankruptcy.
Thus, a huge commercial conglomerate collapsed in just a few days.
However, the mastermind behind all of this was still at large, as if evaporated from the face of the earth, and could not be found no matter what.
Until a rainy night -
A police officer in Beihuai City received a report from a gentle-sounding woman, but what she said surprised him.
"Hello, officer. I want to turn myself in."
". . . I killed Fu Linyuan."
Author's note:
Note: Revised