Chapter 313: Chapter 313: She Felt Like a Street Rat
Maeve said, “I’m just sighing, after all, these days, there are plenty of women willing to be stepmothers, but men willing to be stepfathers and raise someone else’s son are not that common!”
Lin Qi smiled and teased, “Doesn’t that mean I’m extremely lucky? To have encountered such an incredible man.”
A few male colleagues across the room could not hold back and whispered snidely, “No idea what her husband is thinking. If it were me, if I could afford a multimillion-dollar mansion, how rich would I have to be?”
“Yeah, if I were that rich, I’d marry a big star for a wife!”
Lin Qi responded, “Try harder, guys. Who knows, maybe you’ll have the chance to be a kept man in this lifetime?”
The group of men gritted their teeth and protested, “It’s all about gender equality these days! Aren’t you also a kept woman? What, women can be kept but we can’t?”
Lin Qi half-jokingly half-seriously retorted, “You need certain attributes to be a kept man. Either be young and handsome, or extremely good at sweet-talking. Which one do you have? Let’s hear it.”
The male colleagues’ faces turned an even deeper shade of green.
Han Na tugged at Lin Qi’s sleeve, speechless, “Lin Qi, you’re too easy-going! If it were me and people joked about me like that, saying such cold things behind my back, I’d definitely get angry!”
Lin Qi replied, “Why lower yourself to their level? Women shouldn’t get angry too easily; otherwise, it’s too easy to develop wrinkles and become an old lady!”
Maeve touched her own cheek, picked up her phone and took a look at herself. A few days ago, she discovered a few crow’s feet at the corner of her eyes and felt anxious for a while.
She always felt like Lin Qi’s remark was a roundabout way of calling her an old lady!
Little did she know, a narrow-minded person always tends to think the worst of others.
Lin Qi never even paid attention to her, let alone scrutinized her face with a magnifying glass.
In any case, Maeve secretly added this to her tally of grievances.
Before you know it.
Saturday.
Lin Qi took advantage of the weekend to visit the sales office with Huo Tingdong.
Now that the wedding house was decided, it was time to handle the housing contract.
Huo Tingdong paid in full for a 1200 square meter unit at the Xiangxie Palace, filling in both his and Lin Qi’s names on the contract.
The initial payment was two hundred million, with the balance due within seven days. Since it was ready-made housing on sale, they could directly process the property title as soon as the balance was cleared.
Morning was spent buying the house; in the afternoon, Huo Tingdong took Lin Qi to the interior design company, handed over the floor plan to the designer, and confirmed the decoration plan.
After seeing a few cases, Lin Qi was deeply attracted to the French light luxury style.
She asked for Huo Tingdong’s opinion, “Husband, how about we decorate in French light luxury style?”
Huo Tingdong said, “I’ll follow your lead.”
The previous style of Huo Mansion was more traditional Chinese, and then he bought another villa, decorated in a luxurious American style. Given the grand atmosphere and high ceilings of this villa, the light luxury style, especially one with French palace elements, is particularly suitable, both impressive and beautiful.
After signing the contract for the decoration, Huo Tingdong set a date for the house inspection. Next Saturday, after paying the final installment, they could directly inspect the house.
On the way home, Huo Tingdong asked, “Did you announce to your colleagues about your marriage?”
Lin Qi replied, “No.”
Huo Tingdong frowned, “Why not say anything?”
Lin Qi said teasingly, “Don’t worry, everyone in the office knows I’m married, they just don’t know that I’m married to you.”
She figured it out.
Huo Tingdong was worried she was hiding her married status, attracting unwanted attention from male colleagues!
She hadn’t purposely kept it a secret, but she also hadn’t made a point to bring it up.
She planned to wait until she had chosen the wedding candy, then look for an opportunity to make it public while distributing it!
Huo Tingdong said, “The wedding candy, I’ve already asked Mo Ke to pick it out.”
Lin Qi responded, “You’ve started picking out wedding candy so soon?”
She thought that wedding candies and invitations came together as a set.
Huo Tingdong said, “It’s not the same. The wedding candies I’m buying now are for distribution to the staff, and every employee at the headquarters will get some. Once we nail down the wedding date, the wedding candies for relatives and friends will be a separate set.”
Lin Qi suddenly realized: “So that’s how it is!”
She suddenly thought of something, her face turning red as she stubbornly said: “You haven’t proposed to me yet!”
Implicitly, he still owed her a proposal ceremony!
Huo Tingdong smiled softly with a curl of his lips: “Don’t worry, I’m already preparing the proposal ceremony.”
Lin Qi couldn’t help becoming curious: “You’re already preparing for it?”
Huo Tingdong: “Hmm!”
He didn’t rush to reveal the specifics of the ceremony; after all, he wanted to give her an unexpected surprise!
Sunday.
Huo Tingdong got up very early in the morning and took Lin Qi to the hospital.
It was time for a pregnancy checkup.
This was his first time accompanying her to a pregnancy checkup.
When they got to the hospital, Lin Qi was solely in charge of bossing him around.
He registered for them, collected the paperwork, went for blood tests, and an ultrasound. After completing the ultrasound, Huo Tingdong accompanied her as they waited at the report printer.
The ultrasound report would take an hour before they could retrieve it.
Lin Qi leaned on him playing with her phone; she had recently become obsessed with the game “I’m a Sheep,” and played a few rounds when bored.
After she had cleared a few levels several times, Huo Tingdong’s brain was nearly washed by the game’s addictive background music, “Stop playing.”
Lin Qi uttered an “Oh,” but her hands didn’t stop for a moment.
At the escalator entrance.
Song Shuyan had just taken her paperwork and was heading toward the ultrasound room when, from a distance, she saw Huo Tingdong and Lin Qi sitting on the bench. Her expression dimmed slightly.
Only after confirming multiple times did she recognize that the two people sitting in front of the first row at the report printer were Huo Tingdong and Lin Qi. Her face turned ashen, feeling both heartache and grievance!
She hadn’t expected that Huo Tingdong would actually accompany Lin Qi personally for the pregnancy checkup, despite his busy schedule, he still had that patience.
And then she thought about herself!
She had come alone to do a series of pregnancy checkups, and now, bumping into them directly, she didn’t dare to show her face!
She was afraid that if Huo Tingdong saw her, his look would be dark, and she felt guilty about it.
Song Shuyan hid in a corner, silently observing, and for a moment felt like herself to be like a rat crossing the street who dared not see the light!
Even though what she carried in her womb was also his child, he was unwilling to acknowledge it, hell-bent only on forcing her to abort!
She had heard about the recent events; the Old Lady had mentioned them. Huo Tingdong had already transferred most of his transferable shares and assets into Lin Qi’s name. The rest, he had entrusted to several notary organizations to certify in the names of Momo and Han!
Yet the child in her womb got nothing!
It’s said…
He had already obtained a marriage certificate with Lin Qi.
From then on, they were husband and wife, and the child in her womb became an indisputable extra-marital child!
What vexed her even more was that Huo Tingdong had already drawn up a will, claiming in the will: An extra-marital child does not deserve any inheritance rights to his assets!
She suddenly felt lost!
She didn’t know what was the point of scheming to bear his child!