After A Failed Online Relationship, I’m Pregnant With A Wealthy Tycoon's Child - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Precision Fishing  Little Peach Bites Super Hard

It was New Year’s Eve in Ning City. The rain beat down freezing and relentless against the pavement, and a bone-chilling wind kept forcing its way up people’s sleeves.

Ding-dong

The automatic sensor doors were pushed open by the wind and rain.

“Just these, please.”

A clear, bright voice rang out from the checkout counter.

The cashier kept her head down, quickly scanning the barcodes of a large bag of instant noodles. But when the last pack was done, she habitually looked up, only for her standard “Thank you, come again” to dissolve silently on her lips.

She saw his face.

The youth’s bangs were damp from the rain, a few stray strands clinging to his forehead. Water droplets slid down his sharply defined brow bone, skimming past the bridge of his tall, straight nose. His complexion was a cold, pale white, as if washed by the freezing rain, yet his lips held a breathtaking, vivid splash of red. Under the overly bright lights of the convenience store, he possessed an almost surreal, striking impact.

The cashier stood frozen in a daze until the youth asked again in a slow, leisurely tone, “How much?”

“Fi… Fifty.” The tips of her ears flushed red instantly, and her voice trembled.

How can even his voice sound this good?

She stole a glance at him, not quite daring to lock eyes with him directly.

It wasn’t until his silhouette completely vanished outside the door that the cashier let out a low shriek. She grabbed her phone and excitedly posted on her WeChat Moments: Who understands this?! Working the shift on New Year’s Eve actually brings surprises! I just met a guy who is devastatingly beautiful. I can die happy now!!!

The door to the rental apartment opened. Qiao Yan placed his rain-soaked things in the entryway. Water droplets slid down his collarbone, which looked lean and pale. Since he lived alone in a rented place, he lacked any real sense of privacy; he stripped off his soaked outerwear, then his T-shirt, exposing a large expanse of skin to the air.

With a flying leap, he dove onto the soft sofa, burying his head into the dry cushions. After a few seconds of silence, Qiao Yan struggled to lift his head. His hair stuck up in a few messy, chaotic strands as he fumbled around to pull out his phone—which had also caught some moisture from his pocket. He decided to call his best bud, Cao Jingtong, to vent.

Cao Jingtong picked up pretty quickly, though his opening words weren’t exactly nice: “Yo, Young Master Qiao! Your Eminence actually remembers a nobody like me? Hearing the noise on your end, where are you cosplaying as a melancholic prince now?”

“Cosplaying my ass,” Qiao Yan said testily, his voice still carrying a slight tremor from the cold. “More like a drowned rat. I went out to buy instant noodles without checking the real-time weather and got soaked to the bone.”

Cao Jingtong’s tone turned a bit more serious. “Are things okay on your end? The Qiao family hasn’t caused you any more trouble, have they?”

“They haven’t come looking for me directly,” Qiao Yan sniffled, his tone growing a bit muffled. He pulled up his knees, curling himself into a slightly warmer position. “But ever since I was framed by that Qiao Yunguand and kicked out of the house, not a single thing has gone right. My money is running on empty, and the lease on this crappy apartment is about to expire.”

Cao Jingtong sighed. “That green tea bitch can really act. How exactly did he frame you again?”

“He said I beat him up,” Qiao Yan got angry just thinking about it, furiously punching the sofa a few times to vent his frustration. “He was clearly beaten up by his former online scam victim!”

“In front of our parents, he acted so realistically, saying I envied him and hated him,” Qiao Yan spoke, feeling more and more wronged as he talked, curling himself even tighter. “But back then, when he was getting beaten up, I was the one who went over to break up the fight…”

“How can someone be like this!” Cao Jingtong comforted him. “Don’t just tough it out on your own. If something happens, look for your bro.”

Qiao Yan buried his head into his knees, not responding for a long while.

Falling from being pampered in the palm of someone’s hand to landing below the mud, how could Qiao Yan possibly accept it easily? Yet, he was trying to accept it, slowly adapting to it.

Faced with Cao Jingtong’s inquiry, Qiao Yan felt he answered with a fair amount of ease.

“Got it, hanging up now…”

Before Qiao Yan could finish his sentence, a distinct knocking sound suddenly came from the front door. Thus, he temporarily set his phone aside, dragging himself off the sofa to open the door.

He stood on his tiptoes to peer through the peephole, only to see a pitiful, delicate face.

—The person who came was Qiao Yunguang, the Qiao family’s current true young master.

Qiao Yan’s facial expression twisted instantly. His hands clenched into tight fists as he slammed the door open, letting out a cold sneer at Qiao Yunguang. “What, did you make a special trip on New Year’s Eve just to laugh at me?”

Qiao Yunguang was wearing an expensive cashmere coat today, making his small face look exceptionally clean and innocent. He blinked his large eyes, which always seemed watery. “Brother doesn’t seem to be doing very well right now.”

Isn’t that all thanks to you!

Qiao Yan’s chest flared with anger. He placed his hand on the doorknob again, making a move to shut the door. “Is there anything else? If not, I’m closing the door.”

“Don’t be like that, Brother.” Qiao Yunguang covered his mouth with a giggle. He took a step back, and surprisingly, a lawyer dressed in black popped out from beside him, a large bundle of documents tucked under his arm.

Qiao Yan swallowed hard, hit by a bad premonition.

Sure enough, it manifested in the very next second.

“Mr. Qiao Yan?” The man spoke, his voice completely flat and monotone. “I am a lawyer from the legal department of the He Group. The property you are currently renting belongs to the He Group. Upon investigation, the original tenant did not obtain legal authorization from the property owner when subletting to you; therefore, this sublease contract has been invalid from the very beginning. The He Group now needs to reclaim this property. These are the relevant notices and documents, please look them over.”

Qiao Yan was completely bewildered. He waved the transfer records between him and the landlord on his phone in front of the lawyer. “I’ve already paid the rent! What you’re doing is illegal! All my stuff is inside, don’t even think about making me leave.”

The lawyer remained strictly professional. “Your landlord is suspected of defrauding you of rent under circumstances where they had no right to sublet. This constitutes an economic dispute; it is recommended that you report it to the police.”

Qiao Yan was expressionless. “Then what about my apartment?”

Lawyer: “My apologies. Please cooperate with our clearing operations; otherwise, we will report it to the police as illegal encroachment on another’s property.”

Looking at Qiao Yunguang’s smug, triumphant eyes from the side, Qiao Yan felt his blood run entirely cold. He looked at Qiao Yunguang. “Did you pull the strings behind this?”

“How can Brother say that,” Qiao Yunguang looked completely innocent. “I only found out by chance that you rented this place, and just happened to know this apartment was under the He name, so I mentioned it to Daddy. Who knew the people below would handle matters so efficiently?”

Qiao Yunguang looked at Qiao Yan with no shortage of malice. He knew that this brother of his, who was utterly useless except for being beautiful, wouldn’t amount to anything. Leaving the Qiao family, he could really only live like a drowned rat in a dilapidated rented apartment. But being beautiful alone was enough to make people envious. If it could be ruined… that would be even better.

Daddy? Could it be that “Yan” he met online again?

Qiao Yan recalled that when Qiao Yunguang’s cross-dressing online scam blew up in his face before, it was trouble caused on that app called Moyu. Later, he seemed to have used a female account to hook up with someone new, and had even bragged that the other party wielded quite a bit of influence in Ning City.

Could it really be the CEO of the He Group, He Yanzhou?

Refusing to believe his bad luck, Qiao Yan tried to find a loophole. “When did the Qiao family climb into bed with the He Group?”

“It’s not the Qiao family, it’s me,” Qiao Yunguang smiled sweeter and sweeter, carrying a gleeful sense of showing off. “It’s because Daddy and I have a good relationship. Brother, times have changed. Sometimes, connections are much more useful than bloodlines.”

He waved his phone. Qiao Yan’s sharp eyes caught a fleeting glimpse of the chat interface, and that nickname was indeed a simple “Yan.”

The lawyer spoke rigidly, “Our company belongs to the Ning City He Group. We hope it’s best if you can move out by tomorrow.”

Qiao Yan’s teeth itched with rage. If He Yanzhou was the one taking action, let alone this crappy apartment, even if the other party wanted him to completely vanish from Ning City, it probably wouldn’t be a difficult task.

He snatched the contract from the lawyer’s hand, and seeing the four words “He Group” printed on it, his vision swam.

Right at this moment, the sound of a car engine smoothly shutting down came from outside the window.

Qiao Yunguang’s eyes lit up as he looked out the window. “Oh, I won’t say anymore. My daddy has come to pick me up. Bye-bye~”

He smugly said goodbye to Qiao Yan, then turned around and skipped down towards the stairwell.

On this cold, dark New Year’s Eve, even the streetlights looked dim and murky. A luxurious black sedan sat quietly at the mouth of the alley, forming a sharp, jarring contrast with the surrounding run-down environment.

The car doors did not open.

A pure black, long-handled umbrella opened up within the curtain of rain. The canopy was wide, and rainwater rolled off the edges of the umbrella, stringing into a curtain of pearls.

A man stood under the umbrella.

The man was very tall, towering slightly over the driver who stood waiting with a bowed back beside him. He wore a heavy, textured black cashmere coat. The coat’s tailoring was extremely meticulous, perfectly fitting his broad, steady shoulders and lean waist.

The fine rain drifted diagonally under the dim yellow light, outlining the sharp, cold silhouette of his profile his nose bridge was high, his thin lips pressed tight. He Yanzhou turned his head slightly, his gaze seemingly brushing past Qiao Yan’s direction, though it happened so fast it felt like an illusion. Afterward, he carelessly looked toward the direction of the stairwell, clearly waiting for someone.

Sure enough, in the next second, Qiao Yunguang hunched his shoulders and swooshed right into his umbrella.

The man seemed to nod slightly, the rim of the umbrella naturally tilting an inch toward Qiao Yunguang’s direction, completely shielding him from the wind and rain. Then, he turned around and opened the rear passenger door for Qiao Yunguang.

The car door finally shut, and the vehicle slid silently into the rainy night, leaving behind the completely empty, dilapidated alleyway.

Barf! Dog-couple!

Qiao Yan looked disdainfully at the departing backs of the dog-couple acting all lovey-dovey, then turned his head to stare blankly at the lawyer who was still holding the contract. After a moment, forced by the authority of the He Group, he miserably signed the contract anyway.

Maintaining his last shred of dignity, Qiao Yan elegantly and gracefully saw the lawyer out. Then, he stuffed himself onto the bed without moving an inch, entering a state of total autism.

“What am I going to do…”

Call the police? The landlord ran off with the rent; establishing a case and investigating such matters took time.

Find an apartment? The money he had left couldn’t possibly cover the standard deposit plus three months’ rent.

Look for a friend? Cao Jingtong relied on his own family; he could help for a moment but not for a lifetime.

What to do, what to do, what to do?

Was he really going to end up sleeping on the streets?

No way!!! Absolutely not!

Thinking it over back and forth, it was still all Qiao Yunguang’s fault, along with that old man!

What a fine pair of bastards. Qiao Yunguang truly lived up to being an online scam master; the way he looked at He Yanzhou, his eyes practically overflowed with water. No wonder he could twist men around his finger.

Qiao Yan recalled Qiao Yunguang’s disgusting chat logs again. To be mixed up with someone like him, what kind of good thing could this He Yanzhou be? He was just a hypocrite who looked decent on the outside but was a filthy, wretched old pervert within!

Qiao Yan frantically thrashed against the bed, his mind filled with nothing but “How can I take revenge on this dog-couple?” Suddenly, a flash of inspiration hit him, and he snapped his head up.

Given: Qiao Yunguang frequently fishes for men on an app called Moyu.

Therefore, it can be deduced: He Yanzhou has a Moyu account. Based on Qiao Yunguang’s display just now, there is a high probability he goes by “Yan,” and because he is a sex-maniac, he is bound to bite the bait easily.

In that case… Qiao Yan clasped his hands together. As long as he managed to fish He Yanzhou on Moyu, not only could he scoop up some gold coins so he wouldn’t starve, but he could also disgust Qiao Yunguang and punish that sex-maniac He Yanzhou.

He was simply a genius!

Qiao Yan swiftly downloaded the Moyu app from the application store and registered a female account for himself.

His inspiration exploded as he wrote furiously in his personal bio section.

• Nickname: Little Peach Bites Super Hard

Next, getting goosebumps all over his body, Qiao Yan typed out a few large characters as his status profile:

“Winter is really so cold, ying-ying-ying. Is there any daddy willing to take in a homeless little kitty? QAQ”

He scrutinized his masterpiece. Then, he lazily tugged open his collar, revealing a stretch of fair, white neck. He fetched an already opened bottle of red wine from the cabinet and poured it down his neckline without the slightest hesitation. The crimson liquid snaked down his distinct collarbone, slowly submerging deep into his clothes.

Qiao Yan snapped nine photos of his neck with his phone, selected the most satisfying one to set as his avatar, and specially tagged his location as Ning City for precision fishing.

Very quickly, harassing messages poured in like a tidal wave.

Although he had long anticipated the vulgarity of these people, actually facing a screen full of greasy middle-aged men’s belly shots and an endless stream of foul, filthy words still made Qiao Yan feel nauseous.

“Baby, is daddy big?”

“Little sister, want to go out and hook up?”

“Show me your tits.”

Holy crap, what kind of trash are these guys!

The more Qiao Yan looked, the more he felt his decision was absolutely correct. This kind of old man who went into heat everywhere deserved to be fleeced heavily. Seeing that the majority of their profiles indicated they were at a married age, he curled his lips in disdain and started flipping through the users nearby.

Suddenly, his finger paused.

His gaze landed on a homepage named “Yan.”

Same city, no personal bio, only a single photo.

In the photo, the man wore a finely tailored black shirt, the collar meticulously buttoned up to the very top. The crisp fabric smoothly covered his broad shoulders and firm chest, cutting down sharply at the waist to form an alluring V-taper line.

It’s you.

He Yanzhou’s silhouette instantly flashed through Qiao Yan’s mind. He hooked his lips into a malicious smile, typing out his friend request word by word:

“New Year’s Eve is so lonely. What is daddy doing? Can you keep poor little Tao-tao company and talk to her? >_<“

Author’s Note:

They are not lovers [Dog head holding a rose]. It will be explained later.

Plugging the pre-order story: When the Weak, Pampered Drama Queen Mistakes His Childhood Friend for His Husband

Sheng Yuan, the five-year-old golden darling of the Sheng family, was sickly but showered with a wealth of love.

One day he awakened and realized he was a drama queen cannon fodder in a wealthy family melodrama. The original plot told him: You will have a nouveau riche husband in the future, but you will reject him early on due to snobbery, and then you will end up killing yourself with your own drama.

Sheng Yuan tilted his little head and thought for a long time, finally understanding! Husband = Golden Thigh!

Thus, one day, Sheng Yuan disappeared, leaving behind only a crayon drawing: a small stick figure pulling another large stick figure, with a caption written next to it: “zhǎo lǎo gōng qù la!” (Going to find my husband!)

The entire Sheng family rushed to the poor town, only to watch with their own eyes as their exquisitely dressed little toddler stuffed his most precious gold pocket watch into the hands of a young wolf-cub wearing patched clothes and possessing dark, piercing eyes.

The surroundings filled with murmurs and pointing fingers. No one stood up to say a word for the young wolf-cub, except for a little toddler who fiercely blocked the way in front of him, coughing excitedly: “He is not some poor kid! He is my husband! The number one richest person in the world in the future! None of you are allowed to badmouth him!”

Sheng Family: “…” They almost fainted.

*

Unable to sway the young master, the Sheng family brought the wolf-cub named Lu Zhi back home to act as his little servant. The Sheng family watched their own delicate cabbage clinging to Lu Zhi day in and day out, either demanding hugs or ordering Lu Zhi around to do this and that, their eyes practically bleeding from staring.

The outside world also laughed at the young master for having no taste, arranging such a country bumpkin child-groom for himself.

However, years later, the little wolf-cub actually became a business legend, building an empire from scratch at a speed so fast it felt like he was using a cheat code.

Meanwhile, the sickly little toddler of the past had long grown into a lofty, icy beauty. One day, he was lazily lounging on the sofa in Lu Zhi’s office, counting his dividends and feeling smug about his sharp eye.

An older, balding man suddenly appeared, holding a bouquet of roses and shouting passionately, “Yuan-yuan! I have money now! I’ve come to marry you!!”

Sheng Yuan: “…” Uh oh.

It seemed this balding man was the canon husband from the original book, and Lu Zhi was just a passerby. All these years, he had recognized the wrong husband?!

* [Mini Theater]

On the night his escape plan failed, Sheng Yuan accidentally knocked down an old journal in Lu Zhi’s study. The yellowed pages scattered open, and inside were packed tightly with photos of him—from when he was five, ten, up to the present; smiling, sleeping, performing on stage… densely packed, as if he had been watched his entire life.

And at the very bottom of every single page, written so forcefully it almost tore the paper, was the exact same word—”Mine.”

Not a name, not a date. Just “Mine.”

Over and over again, declaring ownership in a crazed, silent manner.

Sheng Yuan took a step back in fright, a chill running down his spine, coughing violently as if he was truly meeting this childhood friend he grew up with for the first time. Lu Zhi… actually dared to stalk him?!

His wrists were gently bound by velvet, and he fell into Lu Zhi’s burning embrace. The man gently wiped away the tears from the corners of his eyes, though his voice made him tremble uncontrollably.

“Yuan-yuan, what are you looking at?”