Chapter 341: Chapter 341: Cooperate with Her Performance
After all, Huo Tingdong has already done so much for her.
Her displeasure stemmed from seeing how pleased Huo Tingdong seemed to be. So, why was he looking so happy?
Could it be that he had reached some kind of agreement with Song Shuyan?
She furrowed her brows but immediately dismissed her doubts, as she did not want to speculate about him in this way.
Upon hearing this, Huo Tingdong felt an inexplicable warmth in his heart.
She was actually willing to put herself in his shoes and consider his perspective.
He had originally thought that, upon hearing his words, she would become angry and give him the cold shoulder, but surprisingly, she was showing such “magnanimity.”
Huo Tingdong said, “Legally speaking, I indeed have no right to force her to terminate the pregnancy. However, I have now seen her true colors and understand that she only wants to use the child to coerce me. The reason I’ve allowed her to go through with it is because I’ve uncovered something.”
Lin Qi asked spiritedly, “What is it?”
Huo Tingdong said, “The previous administrator of the gene bank told me that there had indeed been an illicit transaction between him and Song Shuyan. He truly intended to sell my genetic material to her for two million. However, you know that frozen sperm have high temperature requirements. There was a problem with his storage method, which led to diminished viability, so he took the donation from someone else in the public bank and gave that to Song Shuyan.”
Lin Qi: “…”
She couldn’t help but suppress a chuckle, somewhat at a loss for words: “What kind of donor was it?”
Huo Tingdong said, “I’m not sure, it’s the first time I’ve heard that sperm can be donated, and that there’s a subsidy for it. According to him, the donor is not a local, in his forties, a bachelor, and it seems he works on a construction site.”
Lin Qi raised an eyebrow, surprised: “You didn’t know? Some men do donate sperm. Some do it for the subsidy, others can’t find a wife and want their genes to continue somehow, hoping that if their sperm are used, at least they’ll have a descendant in some form.”
It’s in human nature to reproduce, after all!
Especially for men.
There are sperm donors abroad too. She had read a news story about a man who had fathered dozens of children through donations and, in a way, could be considered a “winner in life.”
Huo Tingdong said, “I don’t believe that’s human nature, and if it is, it’s a lower nature.”
It is only animals that are bound by the instinct to reproduce.
Even though humans are advanced animals, due to the difference in thinking, some people with rigid ideas and regressive thinking will have such inferior nature.
Lin Qi said, “So… the reason you’re so happy today is because of this?”
Huo Tingdong uttered a sound of agreement.
Lin Qi asked again, “Then… have you told her about this?”
Huo Tingdong leisurely retorted, “Why should I bother explaining this to her specifically?”
He didn’t feel it was his duty.
If she wants to have the baby, then so be it.
As long as the child isn’t his.
Wanting to have the baby is her freedom.
Upon hearing this, Lin Qi couldn’t help but laugh: “I’ve just realized that sometimes you can be quite scheming!”
He knew all too well, that if the child was born, how utterly devastated and hopeless Song Shuyan would be upon discovering the real father of the child was someone else, yet he deliberately kept it a secret.
Huo Tingdong said, “Aren’t you curious, if she gives birth to the child, only to find out that the child’s father is a man in his forties, how desperate she would be?”
Lin Qi said, “So, you’re taking revenge on her!”
Huo Tingdong smiled, “Yes, I am taking revenge on her.”
He spoke as if he were completely justified.
Lin Qi held back a laugh, “That’s why I thought you were so scheming! Momo’s craftiness, it turns out, was inherited from you!”
Huo Tingdong gave her a glancing look.
Lin Qi immediately stopped laughing and didn’t make fun of him anymore!
Huo Tingdong said, “If she hadn’t harbored such filthy intentions towards me, I would not have gone this far. But I truly despise her tactics, and this affair can serve as a lesson for her! Didn’t she claim to love any child of hers unconditionally? Even if the child turns out not to be mine, would she no longer love it? If so, what does that say about her supposed maternal instinct—is it genuine, or just empty rhetoric aimed at me?”
Lin Qi said, “It’s all good. In the end, it was her insistence on giving birth to the child. Nobody else is to blame.”
This matter has thus come to a satisfying resolution, settling one of her worries.
However, what she didn’t expect was that the very next day, Song Shuyan couldn’t wait to come and flaunt her power to Lin Qi.
At noon, Song Shuyan suddenly called her, asking to meet at a café.
Initially, she didn’t want to go, but she was curious about what Song Shuyan intended by requesting this meeting.
Therefore, she agreed to it.
For safety, and to avoid trouble, Lin Qi secretly called Mo Ke, explained her intentions, and asked him to drive her to the café entrance and wait for her in the car.
Lin Qi entered the café and approached the private room door, then pushed it open; Song Shuyan was already there waiting for her.
She went into the room and sat down opposite her, noticed Song Shuyan’s belly was already quite large.
Then, looking at her own slightly protruding belly, she thought to herself that in a little while, her belly would probably look like hers, unsure if she would still be able to fit into a wedding dress.
Last night, Huo Tingdong told her that he had made an appointment with a wedding dress designer to tailor-make a wedding dress for her, and she was a bit worried. Tailoring a wedding dress takes time, but her belly would keep growing. She hesitated, wondering whether to hold the wedding now or wait until after the baby is born.
While Lin Qi was lost in thought, seeing her looking so preoccupied, Shuyan’s lips curled up, and she got straight to the point: “Has Huo Tingdong told you about my situation?”
Lin Qi feigned ignorance: “What situation?”
Song Shuyan said, “He told me that he’ll let me have the child! Do you understand what that means?”
Lin Qi still played the naive, sweet girl: “What does it mean?”
Song Shuyan said, “His attitude is different from before. He must have weighed it for a long time and feels that, no matter what means I used to conceive the child, his child is his child, and as long as it is born, he will acknowledge it! Lin Qi, from now on, we can compete on equal footing!”
Lin Qi suppressed a laugh, showing a pained expression, “Did he really say that? How could he agree for you to have the child?”
She looked utterly incredulous and unable to accept it.
Seeing this, Song Shuyan became even more complacent: “You didn’t expect this, did you! The truth is, for a man, since it’s the woman who gives birth, given his status and background, having a few more children is of little concern! They’re all his children, and even if he can’t treat them completely equally, as long as my child is more outstanding than yours, in the future, my child will also have the qualifications and the right to inherit the Huo Family!”
Lin Qi immediately acted “heartbroken and enraged”: “How could he do this?! He had promised me before that he would force you to abort the child! What is he trying to do now? Has he considered how I feel? I can’t accept this!”