His Sunday Substitute - Chapter 52

Qin Wangxuan didn’t know whether Su Yinuo was truly pregnant or just acting. If she really was pregnant, the child could only be Qin Cangye’s. The thought made Qin Wangxuan’s heart ache. He pushed past the security guards, walked over, and picked up Su Yinuo from the floor.

Su Yinuo trembled like a frightened rabbit in Qin Wangxuan’s arms, her voice quivering as she said, “I… I don’t know. It could be Qin Cangye’s… or maybe Wangxuan’s.”

“Huh?” Qin Wangxuan looked down at Su Yinuo in his arms, so shocked he forgot to maintain his usual facade.

Qin Weishu also questioned, “How long has Wangxuan been back in the country? How long have you even known him?”

Su Yinuo clutched Qin Wangxuan’s clothes, raising her pitiful, tear-filled eyes as hot tears rolled down her cheeks. “Don’t you remember? We met during your first few days back.”

“Ah, right!” Qin Wangxuan immediately nodded, turning to Qin Weishu. “Grandfather, the child must be mine!”

He sat down on a chair, settling Su Yinuo on his lap, cradling her face as he wiped her tears and comforted her gently. “Why didn’t you tell me you were pregnant? Last night, I was so rough, did I hurt the baby? And just now, when you fell, are you feeling unwell anywhere?”

He then touched her belly, the picture of a doting husband.

“I… I wasn’t sure whose it was. I didn’t dare say,” Su Yinuo murmured fearfully, her eyes red.

Qin Wangxuan chuckled, hugging her and patting her back reassuringly. “Whether it’s my son or my nephew, it’s still a Qin family child. Why would I blame you?”

Their intimate, lovey-dovey display left Qin Weishu both speechless and furious.

“Enough!” he barked, then turned to the butler, Li Guogang, and ordered, “Have the kitchen prepare a nutritious meal for Miss Su and send it to Wangxuan’s room when it’s ready.”

Then, he looked at Qin Wangxuan. “Wangxuan, take Miss Su back to your room. Tomorrow, take her for a prenatal checkup. Come down later, I have something to discuss with you!”

“Yes, Grandfather.”

After responding respectfully, Qin Wangxuan carried Su Yinuo upstairs to the bedroom.

The entire way, the woman in his arms maintained her fragile, panicked demeanor, her fair face flushed from crying, her lips glistening more than usual, making Qin Wangxuan’s thoughts wander. He could hardly resist the urge to pull her close and kiss her right then.

But the moment they entered the bedroom and the door closed behind them, the delicate figure in his arms nimbly jumped down.

Startled, he quickly reached out to steady her. “Hey, sister-in-law, be careful, don’t jostle the baby.”

“Jostle what baby? I’m not pregnant,” Su Yinuo snapped irritably.

Qin Wangxuan froze, then grinned and pulled her onto the sofa with him, wrapping an arm around her waist. “So, you’re not pregnant? That means I still have a chance. But what about tomorrow’s prenatal checkup?”

Su Yinuo fell into thought. Faking a pregnancy was completely unplanned, she had no preparation for this. As she racked her brain for a solution, she completely missed Qin Wangxuan’s tightening embrace or the way he buried his nose against the nape of her neck, inhaling deeply.

Qin Wangxuan wasn’t overly anxious. It wouldn’t be difficult to bribe a doctor and produce a fake prenatal checkup report to deal with the situation. What troubled him now was that after just a few days of intimate contact with Su Yinuo, he found himself increasingly unable to control his desire to possess her. The scent of her body wafting from the collar of her clothes had already triggered a fierce physical reaction in him.

“It’s fine. Tomorrow, we’ll go to the largest maternal and child hospital in the city. I have a plan,” Su Yinuo said, having already thought of a solution.

Qin Wangxuan was surprised that Su Yinuo actually had a way to resolve this troublesome matter, but his mind was too clouded with desire to ask further. His hand pressed against her flat stomach as he whispered hoarsely in her ear, “Sister-in-law, even if the hospital can solve this, what if your belly doesn’t grow bigger over time? How about… I get you pregnant for real?”

Su Yinuo was startled and immediately felt the unusual hardness against her leg. She sprang to her feet and turned around, slapping Qin Wangxuan across the face.

The sharp smack and the sting on his face snapped Qin Wangxuan back to his senses. Covering his cheek, he looked up at Su Yinuo, but instead of anger, an excited grin spread across his face. “Sister-in-law, I really… I like you more and more. What should I do?”

Furious, Su Yinuo grabbed a glass of water from the nearby coffee table and splashed the cold liquid onto Qin Wangxuan’s face. “Snap out of it! Did you bring what I asked for?”

Wiping his face, Qin Wangxuan chuckled bitterly. “I brought everything. It’s still in the car, I didn’t have time to bring it up yet. How could I forget something you asked me to do?”

He stood up, his heart burning with both heat and bitterness. At the door, he paused and turned back to apologize. “I’m sorry. I came back late today. It won’t happen again. I won’t let you face Qin Weishu alone anymore.”

With that, he left the bedroom.

Returning to the dining room on the first floor, Qin Wangxuan noticed Qin Weishu’s puzzled expression. Glancing down at his soaked suit and shirt, he smiled. “She took out her frustration on me a little. Don’t worry about it, Grandfather.”

Qin Weishu nodded solemnly. “Whether the child is yours or Qin Cangye’s, whether it’s a boy or a girl, I’ll acknowledge it. After all, in all of Chaoyang Mountain, few families can boast four generations under one roof. But I will never allow her to enter the Qin family. I hope you understand that.”

“Of course,” Qin Wangxuan replied with a smile. “I don’t need a woman with no background as my wife either. But I can’t help myself, and she suits my tastes quite well.” His grin grew increasingly twisted. “Just imagining her moaning beneath me with a swollen belly excites me beyond words. And the thought that the child might be my brother’s… ah, it makes it even more thrilling. Ah, forgive me, Grandfather.”

Qin Weishu’s face darkened. “What the hell did you learn abroad?!”

“I’m sorry, Grandfather,” Qin Wangxuan apologized again.

Despite the scolding, Qin Weishu was actually quite satisfied with Qin Wangxuan’s attitude. He had initially feared that once the woman became pregnant, Qin Wangxuan would insist on marrying her. Now, even that concern had vanished. He gave Qin Wangxuan an approving glance before shifting the topic to business. “Focus on the company. If you perform well, I can retire sooner. There are a few recent projects.”

After dinner, Qin Wangxuan didn’t dare return to the bedroom, afraid he wouldn’t be able to control his urges and start getting handsy with Su Yinuo again. It wasn’t that he feared being hit by her, what he truly feared was angering her to the point where she wouldn’t even let him hold her hand in the future.

Feeling thoroughly frustrated, he invited a few young masters and ladies he’d recently befriended at Chaoyang Mountain and headed to a bar.

The moment he stepped into the private room, he spotted a face that was both familiar and unfamiliar, familiar because she looked strikingly like Su Yinuo, yet unfamiliar because their auras were completely different. She wasn’t on his guest list; she had come uninvited. Qin Wangxuan immediately approached her and, after exchanging a few pleasantries, learned that she was Li Jinmiao, the sole heiress of the Li Group. Instantly, he recalled the ties between the Li Group and Ronghua Capital, as well as the fact that this Li Jinmiao had once been Qin Cangye’s fiancée.

“I heard something happened to Qin Cangye?” After a long while of drinking and chatting, Li Jinmiao swirled her glass and leaned in, whispering the question.

“Oh? Ex-sister-in-law, don’t tell me you still have feelings for my brother?” Qin Wangxuan teased.

“None of your damn business!” Li Jinmiao snapped.

The corner of Qin Wangxuan’s mouth twitched. He immediately grasped just how fiery his ex-sister-in-law’s temper was and thought to himself: My current sister-in-law is so much better, even when she scolds me, it feels like she’s flirting.

“What I wanted to ask,” Li Jinmiao hesitated for a moment, her mood visibly dampened, “is how Su Yinuo is doing. You must know her, right? Qin Cangye’s girlfriend. I haven’t been able to have a proper conversation with her for days. She won’t answer my calls, and her text replies are so half-hearted. I don’t know if something’s happened to her.”

“You know my current sister-in-law?” Qin Wangxuan asked, surprised.

“Yeah, we’re good friends.” Li Jinmiao was thoroughly disgusted by the frivolous look on Qin Wangxuan’s face, but for the sake of learning about Su Yinuo’s situation, she held back.

“Oh, my current sister-in-law?” Qin Wangxuan grinned, his expression growing even more rakish. “She’s pregnant. The baby’s mine.”

“What?!” Li Jinmiao shrieked in shock, then froze for half a minute as she tried to process and accept his words. How could Su Yinuo be pregnant? And with his child? If he and Su Yinuo were together, why would he still call her his sister-in-law?

Li Jinmiao couldn’t make sense of it. Her mind spun into chaos before snatching up a few fragmented pieces of information: Qin Cangye and Qin Wangxuan are fighting over the family fortune… Qin Cangye has gone missing… Su Yinuo is pregnant with Qin Wangxuan’s child…

So… so…

Fury blazed through Li Jinmiao as she settled on one conclusion: Su Yinuo must have been tricked by Qin Wangxuan, hell, he might’ve even forced himself on her!

She immediately raised her glass and hurled it at Qin Wangxuan, roaring, “What the hell did you do to Su Yinuo?! Where is she now?! You fucking scumbag!”

Qin Wangxuan flinched, dodging the attack. The others in the room, who had been playing a board game, were startled and rushed over to restrain Li Jinmiao, stepping between the two.

Li Jinmiao kept throwing bottles at Qin Wangxuan, screaming, “Where is Su Yinuo?! Tell me!”

“The Qin family mansion!” Qin Wangxuan also lost his temper and shouted back, “She’s carrying the Qin family’s heir now! Go ask my grandfather for her yourself if you want her!”

Li Jinmiao froze. The bottle in her hand slipped and shattered on the floor.

The peacemaker asked curiously, “Who is Su Yinuo? Calm down, both of you. Stop fighting, stop fighting.”

“Su Yinuo is…” Qin Wangxuan roared, pausing for a moment before continuing, “My woman!!”

After shouting, he turned and stormed out of the bar.

Li Jinmiao slowly crouched down, holding his head and muttering to himself, “It’s over… Nuonuo.”

The dark gray Lamborghini sped through the pitch-black night. Qin Wangxuan had the designated driver roll down the window, letting the cold wind rush in, dispersing the alcohol fumes and the fury that filled his body.

By the time he returned to the Qin family mansion, it was already late at night. Qin Wangxuan tiptoed back to the bedroom and quietly knelt by the bed. Leaning against the edge, he gazed at Su Yinuo’s sleeping face, gently touching her cheek with his hand as he murmured, “How wonderful it would be if you were mine. Why can’t you be mine? What do I have to do to make you belong to me?”

After a while, his phone vibrated. Qin Wangxuan opened it to see a message from Qin Cangye’s attending physician: “Apologies, Mr. Qin. Mr. Qin Cangye’s condition was somewhat unstable this evening. We spent a long time providing him with psychological counseling, so we only now have the chance to report on his recovery progress today.

“During the day, his overall condition was good, and his mood was very stable. Our team guided him through a series of…

“Nighttime still triggers psychological fear for him, but there’s no need to worry. The team will monitor his condition and vital signs around the clock.”

Finally, the doctor sent a video of Qin Cangye. In the clip, dressed in a hospital gown, Qin Cangye was playing with a golden retriever in the rehabilitation center’s pet area. Though his face was expressionless, his eyes were gentle. At one point, a reckless patient bumped into him, yet he didn’t even frown, there wasn’t a trace of anger on his face.

Qin Wangxuan could tell this wasn’t the forced calm Qin Cangye used to suppress his temper in the past. He genuinely wasn’t angry at all. The treatment had shown remarkable results in just a few days, meaning Qin Cangye would likely return to the public eye within a month.

And that meant he would return to Su Yinuo’s side.

Qin Wangxuan clenched his phone tightly, his heart aching unbearably. He looked at Su Yinuo again and whispered:

“Tomorrow, I’ll use this video to ask for a little reward from you. Will you give it to me?”