Chapter 8

Chapter 8

On the sixth day after the incident, the incessant rain finally stopped.

The dense shrubbery in the distance had changed colors, transitioning from a deep green to a mix of yellow and green, with a few clusters of fiery red, forming a scenic view outside the window.

Once the rain stopped, the sky cleared up, and the sun felt warm.

In Huo Sicheng's memory, the part about Zhong Xi and Huo Xiaobao remained blank.

A neurologist came to re-examine Huo Sicheng, indicating that he needed to continue taking medication. If there was no improvement, an infrared therapy device could be used in conjunction with treatment after some time.

Zhong Xi stood beside the specialist, listening to his instructions.

Huo Sicheng on the bed kept his eyes closed, his brows slightly furrowed, whether because he found it noisy or because of a neural pain attack.

Only after the specialist left did he open his eyes, coldly gazing at Zhong Xi. Zhong Xi noticed that the bandage on Huo Sicheng's forehead had shifted slightly and wanted to reach out to adjust it, but Huo Sicheng immediately turned his head away.

Zhong Xi's hand hovered mid-air, his fingertips slightly curled.

Last night, Zhong Xi's statement of "I don't love you" abruptly pulled Huo Sicheng out of his tender expectations. He lay awake all night, tossing and turning in bed, his eyes filled with hatred towards Zhong Xi. Now, the hatred had faded a bit, turning into disgust.

Zhong Xi quietly pulled his hand back without a word and placed Huo Sicheng's medical report and doctor's instructions into the drawer.

"Do you wish I had died in the helicopter?"

Huo Sicheng's accusatory voice rang in his ears. Zhong Xi silently pushed the drawer closed without answering.

Huo Sicheng, with no outlet for his anger, looked up and saw the photo frames on the wall.

The entire wall was covered in photos, with palm-sized frames arranged in a unique pattern.

He was taken aback by the sheer number of photos in the house. An entire wall of photos was one thing, but above the bed was a giant wedding photo, where Zhong Xi was dressed in a white suit, holding a bouquet, with Huo Sicheng beside him, his arm around Zhong Xi's waist.

Every corner of this room was filled with evidence of Huo Sicheng's love for Zhong Xi, flashy and chaotic. He distinctly remembered that when he bought his first house at eighteen, he specifically instructed the designer to keep the entire house in the simplest black and white tones.

He hated these photos, hated the way he looked at Zhong Xi in every photo, as if bewitched, exuding foolishness.

"Take down the photos on the wall," he said.

Zhong Xi stared directly at him. Huo Sicheng met his gaze and said word by word, "Take down all the photos on the wall, they're giving me a headache, including this wedding photo."

He expected Zhong Xi to act immediately, but Zhong Xi stood still, unmoving.

"You take—"

"If you want them down, get up and do it yourself," Zhong Xi said before leaving the room.

Huo Sicheng was momentarily stunned. He was so angry that his chest hurt, lying in bed, unable to recover for a long time.

Zhong Xi truly was his nemesis.

The greatest calamity in his twenty-eight years of smooth sailing.

.

Huo Xiaobao watched the doctor in a white coat come out of his parents' room, tilting his head curiously, following the doctor's departure until he left.

He glanced at the red berries in his hand, unsure. He wasn't sure if his father still needed the freshly picked berries after the doctor's visit. After a moment's thought, he quickly ran after the doctor.

But the guards at the door stopped him, and Xiao Xu hurried over, "Xiao Bao, don't run off."

Huo Xiaobao could only stare blankly as the doctors got into the car, which drove around the fountain sculpture and disappeared from his sight.

Huo Xiaobao held a fruit in his hand, which he had picked that morning.

After some thought, he decided to give it to his father first.

By the time he climbed upstairs, he was already out of breath, and he took a tumble, but he didn’t cry. He simply rubbed his calf and stumbled into the master bedroom.

Huo Sicheng was about to pick up a document when he caught a glimpse of a small figure out of the corner of his eye.

He instantly tensed up, as if bracing for battle.

No sooner had Zhong Xi left than Huo Xiaobao appeared.

Huo Xiaobao hid by the wardrobe for a while, then sneaked a peek, suddenly realizing that Huo Sicheng was looking at him.

Huo Xiaobao widened his eyes, confirming that his father was indeed looking at him.

For several days, his father had finally looked at him!

Huo Xiaobao’s face immediately brightened, his eyes sparkled. He flashed a gap-toothed grin and eagerly ran over, breathlessly throwing himself at Huo Sicheng’s bedside.

Huo Sicheng saw the little tuft of hair on his head bobbing.

"Dad!" he exclaimed with all his might.

Huo Sicheng was so startled he froze.

Huo Xiaobao remembered that his father’s leg was injured, so he didn’t request a hug. Instead, he stood obediently by the bed and cooed, "Dad, hand."

Huo Xiaobao carried a scent of milk, mingled faintly with Zhong Xi’s. Huo Sicheng couldn’t quite describe what kind of scent it was—soft and delicate, like a hint of lavender, something you had to sniff carefully to detect.

The little boy blinked up at Huo Sicheng, his long, curved lashes just like Zhong Xi’s.

Huo Sicheng thought he would dislike Huo Xiaobao, especially since Zhong Xi had just upset him five minutes ago, causing a pain in his chest. But when Huo Xiaobao said again, "Dad, give me your hand," he instinctively held out his hand and placed it in front of Huo Xiaobao.

Huo Xiaobao, a little shy and secretive, took out a berry from his little pocket.

He’d picked it first thing in the morning, right after finishing his milk and before breakfast, dragging Zhong Xi to the yard to get it.

But when he placed it in Huo Sicheng’s palm, he realized the berry had already gone bad.

Perhaps it was because he had fallen while climbing the stairs—the red berry had turned into a squishy mess in his pocket.

Huo Sicheng was silent for two seconds, and immediately, he heard sniffling.

"It’s ruined... wuwu... my berry..."

Huo Xiaobao sniffled, and Huo Sicheng thought he was about to cry. Just as he was about to call Xiao Xu in a panic, Huo Xiaobao suddenly looked up and said, "Dad, Xiao Bao will pick another one."

He wanted to pick a new one for Huo Sicheng.

Even though the sun was out, the ground was surely still wet, and the botanical garden was quite far from the house. Most importantly, how would he get downstairs alone?

The moment Huo Xiaobao turned around, Huo Sicheng reached out, his right hand grabbing the boy’s crossed suspenders and his left hand supporting his bottom. Without thinking, he lifted him straight onto the bed.

Huo Xiaobao felt dizzy, and by the time he realized what had happened, he was already sitting on Huo Sicheng’s waist.

He blinked, gazing at his father who was right in front of him, and couldn’t help but pout in distress.

Huo Sicheng couldn’t bear to see him like this.

Before he could speak, Huo Xiaobao leaned down, wrapping his arms tightly around Huo Sicheng’s neck, his sobs even more pitiful than when he saw the burst fruit. "Daddy... I missed you..."

Huo Sicheng was surprised by the child’s soft cheeks, soft and smooth, like perfectly risen dough.

They even had a faint milky scent.

He thought he’d dislike this feeling. In his memory, when the family’s children came to the governor’s mansion for parties, he’d never show up, and even if he did, he’d keep his distance.

Even though Huo Xiaobao cried too, and even let his tears flow onto his collar, making his neck damp and sticky, which felt uncomfortable, he couldn’t bring himself to scold him.

He tentatively patted Huo Xiaobao’s back.

The child’s body was warmer, and the soft, warm little body nestled against Huo Sicheng’s chest. Huo Sicheng held his breath instinctively, afraid that his heartbeat would startle Huo Xiaobao.

He couldn’t resist reaching out to pinch Huo Xiaobao’s cheek, something he often saw Zhong Xi do.

It was his first time, and he didn’t control his strength well, pulling the corner of Huo Xiaobao’s mouth, but Huo Xiaobao didn’t complain. Instead, he tilted his head and pressed his face against Huo Sicheng’s palm.

"Daddy, rub it for me."

Huo Sicheng rubbed his face, and he immediately grinned.

Huo Sicheng’s heart melted.

Huo Xiaobao waited but Huo Sicheng didn’t rub his face, so he nuzzled his face against Huo Sicheng’s palm.

"Daddy, I missed you."

Huo Xiaobao started whining again, just about to hug Huo Sicheng when Huo Sicheng gently pressed his little shoulders.

It was too intimate, and Huo Sicheng couldn’t accept it for the moment.

Huo Xiaobao, failing to get a hug, felt a bit aggrieved.

His little hands fidgeted nervously.

He remembered his father’s injury, that his father was in pain all over now, so he immediately climbed out of Huo Sicheng’s arms, crawled to Huo Sicheng’s left side, and sat in the spot where Zhong Xi usually slept.

His eyes were tightly fixed on Huo Sicheng, even when he turned around, as if afraid his father would leave.

Huo Sicheng deliberately avoided looking at him.

After sitting down, Huo Xiaobao remembered something.

Huo Sicheng watched as he quickly got off the bed, ran to the children’s room to fetch his teddy bear and picture book, then ran back just as quickly, like a wound-up toy, not getting tired at all.

He huffed and puffed as he climbed onto the bed, found a spot in Huo Sicheng’s arm, leaned back, and fell into Huo Sicheng’s embrace, lifting his two little feet and happily swaying them.

Whenever he looked at Huo Sicheng, he would smile, his teeth not fully grown, his speech always a bit slurred, and his saliva sounds unclear, but Huo Sicheng could tell how happy he was.

"Daddy, read this," he pointed to the picture book.

Huo Sicheng was speechless. Everything Huo Xiaobao did was repeatedly crossing his psychological defense line, and his head started to ache again, a strange sense of irritation welling up. He didn’t respond to Huo Xiaobao’s expectant gaze, just said, "I... I’m working."

He grabbed the blue folder and flipped through the official documents inside.

Huo Xiaobao clung to Huo Sicheng's arm, craning his neck to look for a while, only to find that it was all stuff he couldn’t understand.

He felt a brief pang of disappointment but quickly perked up.

He tapped the picture book and declared, "Xiao Bao, I’ll read it myself."

He smiled at Huo Sicheng, his hands still stained with red juice. Huo Sicheng couldn’t bear it and pulled out a tissue to wipe it off. Huo Sicheng wasn’t accustomed to caring for a child, and his movements were rough, but Huo Xiaobao cooperated without moving, not complaining at all.

As he turned a page in the picture book, he suddenly looked at Huo Sicheng again and said solemnly, "I love you, Dad."

Huo Sicheng felt like his heart had been hit with a blunt force. The blood bond held an unimaginable strength, and the love embedded in his genes awakened deep emotions within him, spreading a tingling pain throughout his body.

He looked at Huo Xiaobao's little face, which resembled his own. Huo Xiaobao smiled like him, but when he was upset, he looked like Zhong Xi. How could such a child come from someone as deceitful as Zhong Xi?

Last night, Zhong Xi had suddenly confessed, "I don’t love you," which shocked Huo Sicheng so much that he sat up straight. He demanded, incredulous, "So you’d actually marry and have a child with someone you don’t love, just for the money?"

Zhong Xi was silent for a moment, then gave a light "Hmm."

Huo Sicheng lay awake for the entire first half of the night. He considered kicking Zhong Xi out multiple times but decided against it.

Zhong Xi’s lack of love for him, oddly enough, brought him a sense of relief.

He’d been anxious that he and Zhong Xi were genuinely in love, but now that this burden was gone, he didn’t need to hold back.

He looked at Huo Xiaobao and thought: What a tragedy, having a mother like that is worse than having no mother at all.

Unaware of the turmoil in Huo Sicheng’s heart, Huo Xiaobao grinned up at him, clueless, and pointed to the pig in the picture book, saying, "Dad, look, a puppy."

"That's a piglet."

Huo Xiaobao tilted his head, "Oh, a piglet."

As Zhong Xi stepped in, he was greeted by this sight: on the wide bed, Huo Sicheng and Huo Xiaobao were squeezed together, one holding a folder, the other holding a picture book.

The former looked serious, while the latter's picture book was about to fall.

Huo Xiaobao was already asleep with his head tilted back. He had originally been sleeping on top of the blanket, but Huo Sicheng, afraid he might catch a cold, had flipped his own blanket over to cover him, leaving his leg with the cast exposed.

Zhong Xi stared in disbelief, wondering if he was dreaming, momentarily unsure if he had returned to the past or if Huo Sicheng had regained his memory, until Huo Sicheng coldly said, "Take him away."