The Cold Side Character from a Male-Lead Novel is Pregnant - Chapter 24.2

Yan Yu’s ears burned instantly, and a thin flush spread all the way down his neck.

“Mhm. It doesn’t hurt much. Continue.”

“A little lower.”

“A bit to the left.”

“It’s a little sore; do that spot again.”

Yan Yu was not at all polite about making demands whenever and wherever he pleased. Chen Kan satisfied every single one of them. The look in Chen Kan’s eyes, which had originally held a hint of awkwardness, was now tinged with a warm, tender smile. Following the techniques of several “teachers” from instructional videos he had watched in advance, he cleared Yan Yu’s blockages by massaging along the meridians.

In truth, facing each other would have been more convenient.

However, fearing that Yan Yu might feel embarrassed if he remembered this later, Chen Kan felt it was best to minimize the potential for awkwardness as much as possible.

Yet, something felt strange to Chen Kan. He clearly remembered that the protagonist of the novel Seven Cubs in Hand, the World is Mine: Survival Records of a Cold Prince Consort was a proud individual, but his attitude toward the various emperors was primarily one of pleasing, supplemented by seduction. Even his style in bed was submissive; after all, his several “attackers” were exceptionally decadent and prone to beheading people at the drop of a hat.

So why was Yan Yu like this?

He didn’t seem afraid of him at all. Instead, he acted like a king, bossing him around and telling him how to do things at every turn.

From behind, Chen Kan meticulously observed Yan Yu’s state.

Yan Yu bit his lower lip so hard that the metallic taste of blood almost reached his tongue, just to keep any sound from escaping his throat. Yan Yu’s face was narrow, which made his features appear large. His eyes were stunning peach-blossom eyes; since he rarely smiled, he usually looked cold, possessing a certain unapproachable ferocity. Now, however, they were unmistakably misty, narrowed in a state of satisfied enjoyment. Yet his face remained expressionless, save for the slight, trembling shadow his lashes cast on his pale cheeks as they fluttered downward.

The corners of Yan Yu’s eyes were very red.

The faint reddish-brown mole under his right eye had somehow turned a vivid crimson. When he shot someone a cold glance, it looked less like anger and more like a sulky reproach.

Chen Kan thought to himself that he had already angered Yan Yu with the questions about “Fu Guanqi,” so he didn’t want to ask anything else right now. He didn’t want Yan Yu to wake up one day and have his memory of this moment filled only with “Fu Guanqi.” Consequently, he remained professionally silent, though his breathing was perhaps a fraction heavier than before.

His left hand rested on Yan Yu’s shoulder, the heat of his palm searing through the fabric onto the skin like a support, yet also like an inescapable restraint to steady Yan Yu’s softening body. His right hand was dexterous and powerful as it pressed into the acupoints, kneading and pushing. He actually looked like he knew what he was doing; after all, during his time practicing Taoism, Chen Kan had truly studied some Traditional Chinese Medicine.

After an unknown amount of time, Yan Yu said as if suddenly remembering something, “Chen Kan, mhm, why don’t you just pump it out? The cubs…”

Chen Kan interrupted him: “No need to pump. They aren’t hungry; they have pet formula.”

“What if we just let the King of Liangguang drink?”

“The King of Liangguang won’t drink it either.”

“The King of Liangguang isn’t a month old yet. It’s better to have breast milk.”

Chen Kan’s voice was somewhat hoarse as he gave a blunt denial: “The others aren’t drinking it, so why should he? Just because he’s the King of Liangguang?”

At that moment, Chen Kan’s movements finally stopped.

He withdrew his hands, quickly rinsed them with warm water, then picked up a dry towel and gently wiped the damp skin on Yan Yu’s chest.

“All done.”

Chen Kan stuffed a set of dry, soft pajamas into Yan Yu’s arms. “Change into these and come out to drink some water.”

With that, he turned and left the bathroom immediately, the door clicking softly shut behind him.

Yan Yu was left standing alone under the dim wall light, clutching the pajamas, the lingering heat of the oil and the sensation of the man’s fingers still ghosting over his skin.

The heavy, burning ache in his chest had indeed lessened significantly, but another more chaotic, restless emotion was quietly spreading.

Yan Yu slowly tightened his fingers, the fabric making a slight rustling sound in his palm. The lingering touch on his chest refused to fade.

For reasons he couldn’t explain, Yan Yu looked at his reflection in the mirror with cold loathing, as if looking at a monster. He stared for a long time until Chen Kan called him from outside. Only then did he sluggishly put on the new pajamas and return to his room to rest.

However, for the next several days, no one in the house rested well.

First, there was Chen Kan.

Since that night, the images had been haunting his mind. Over the past few days, he had been asking Yan Yu about “Fu Guanqi” in a roundabout, indirect way.

It wasn’t jealousy.

He wasn’t jealous at all.

He simply felt that this figure, “Fu Guanqi,” was likely linked to Yan Yu’s current “inner demon.”

But Yan Yu’s answers were vague, as if he didn’t want to elaborate.

Chen Kan asked: “What does Fu Guanqi look like?”

Yan Yu replied: “Similar to Yuyuan.”

Wasn’t that a dog?

Chen Kan asked again: “How tall is Fu Guanqi?”

Yan Yu answered casually: “About the same as a telephone pole.”

Wasn’t that total nonsense?

Chen Kan continued: “Fu Guanqi is your crush, but were you his?”

Yan Yu finally lost his patience: “I’m your father. Are you ever going to stop annoying me?”

Chen Kan’s cold, calm expression finally twitched.

At the same time, he realized that in this “inner demon” state, Yan Yu’s memories were a blend of the demon’s fiction and his real self, and his personality followed the same logic—perhaps Yan Yu’s original personality was even more dominant now?

But why was his temper so explosive?

Maybe he’d make some loofah soup for him tomorrow to clear the “heat.”

Chen Kan felt that he might not get much more out of the possessed Yan Yu. Asking aimlessly like this without a breakthrough was not a viable plan.

Thus, with the self-awareness of an excellent ex-boyfriend, Chen Kan fully mobilized his initiative. The next day, he took the “character traits” Yan Yu had provided and returned to their shared alma mater:

Middle School No. 58.

Yan Yu was three years older than him, in the senior class. When Chen Kan was a freshman, Yan Yu had just graduated. The two had never even brushed shoulders on the same campus.

But that didn’t stop Chen Kan from using his investigative skills to “solve the case.”

Using his status as a criminal investigation captain, he easily accessed the archives for Yan Yu’s graduating class. Yet, after flipping through every name in the entire grade, he couldn’t find a single person named “Fu Guanqi.”

Chen Kan even worried the person might have changed names or transferred, so he checked the records for every major exam from freshman to senior year. Without exception, there were zero leads.

He could only place his hopes on the elderly school staff. After asking around with several of the older groundskeepers, he still had no harvest.

By this point, Chen Kan was almost disheartened. He no longer held any expectations as he drove home. He began to re-evaluate his deductions, constructing a “Supposing B” mind map in his brain:

Is it possible that “Fu Guanqi” was made up by Yan Yu’s inner demon, and that in Yan Yu’s actual life, there was never a person named “Fu Guanqi”?

Just as Chen Kan was gathering evidence to flesh out Supposing B, Long Zhanye’s call came in.

The man’s boisterous, booming voice immediately interrupted his thoughts:

“Dammit, Chen Kan, you’re not trying to flake on me, are you? You said before that as long as I made your wife happy that day, you’d spar with me. You’re not chickening out, right?”

Long Zhanye hadn’t been quiet for days. Chen Kan didn’t share his intense thirst for battle, nor did he have time to play with him.

“I told you, when I’m free.”

“Then when the hell are you going to be free? You’re just a precinct captain, can you really be busier than the President of the United States?”

“He’s probably busier; who can be busier than him?” Chen Kan had been annoyed to death by this man lately. He remembered that Yan Yu had even wanted to message him that night, and a flare of anger rose in his chest. His tone wasn’t great.

He actually did feel like getting into a fight.

So, he asked casually: “Where are you now?”

Long Zhanye heard an opportunity: “I’m at home, but say the word and your brother is willing to fly over immediately.”

If it was just one match, it probably wouldn’t take much time.

“Then fly,” Chen Kan said. “But I have one more question to ask.”

“Yeah, what question? Ask now.”

Chen Kan had intended to ask in person, but Long Zhanye was impatient and blunt. Since the conversation had reached this point, he just went ahead and asked:

“Have you ever heard of someone named ‘Fu Guanqi’? Or rather, have you ever used that name yourself, like a former name?”

The voice on Long Zhanye’s end paused.

Then, his originally playful and excited tone went stone-cold.

Long Zhanye said: “Why are you suddenly asking about that?”

Chen Kan’s breath hitched, even his vocal cords tightening: “You know him?”

Long Zhanye replied: “Of course. Did you forget?”

Chen Kan’s heart sank halfway. His voice grew colder: “I’m supposed to remember?”

“No kidding, of course you should remember,” Long Zhanye said as if it were obvious. “Back when we were in elementary school, wasn’t that the name you wrote on the title page of your textbooks every single day? And on your scratch paper, it was nothing but that name. Isn’t that your first love? You really forgot?”

“?”

“I was so curious back then who this Fu Guanqi was. I asked the whole school and even the school next door, and I couldn’t find a single ‘Fu Guanqi.’ I asked you every day and you wouldn’t tell me. Oh? You don’t remember now? You can even forget your first love?”

“???”

What the hell was this?

The more Chen Kan listened, the more bewildered he became.

Wasn’t Fu Guanqi Yan Yu’s crush? How did he become Chen Kan’s own object of secret affection?

Even if he really was, why did Yan Yu say he met “Fu Guanqi” in high school?

It couldn’t be that this person had hooked up with Chen Kan in elementary school and then moved on to Yan Yu in high school?

Long Zhanye’s chatterbox was open and wouldn’t shut. He continued:

“Oh, but when you were 12, you got really sick and had a concussion with some partial memory loss. You probably forgot about that along with everything else. But what does it matter? If you forgot, you forgot. That was ages ago. Don’t you have a wife now? Look on the bright side.”

“Mhm.”

“And your wife is so beautiful, are you still thinking about someone else?”

The corners of Chen Kan’s mouth, which were already pressed tight, sank even lower. He instinctively defended himself: “I’m not thinking about anyone else.”

Long Zhanye said mockingly: “Oh, I see. Then your wife must have seen me and fallen for me, and now she doesn’t want to live with you anymore. That’s why you’re looking for a backup plan. Tee-hee.”

Chen Kan rolled his eyes, far too lazy to argue with his nonsense.

He thought for a moment and did one final check with Long Zhanye: “Are you sure ‘Fu Guanqi’ isn’t some movie star? Or some fictional character? What were my hobbies when I was a kid?”

“Movie star my foot. You never watched movies as a kid. Your hobbies were studying and working out. You were boring as hell,” Long Zhanye’s noisy voice continued to pour from the receiver, getting louder with every word.

“Damn you, why are you asking all these weird questions today? You’re not trying to back out of our fight, are you? Are we fighting or not?

“Hello? Chen Kan? Are you listening? Hello? Hello-bi-ba-bu?”

The phone emitted constant, monkey-like chattering. Chen Kan flipped his hand and cut the call with Long Zhanye. In the rearview mirror, there were only a pair of deep, brooding eyes.

Chen Kan turned the car around and drove straight home.

His originally steady footsteps became even heavier.

Since he couldn’t beat the “White Moonlight,” then he would simply have to attract Yan Yu all over again.

Upon arriving home, he prepared a four-course meal and a soup for Yan Yu. He took off his apron to shower, dried his hair, and ate some pineapple he had just ordered via delivery.

Then, Chen Kan even did a skincare routine, sprayed on the perfume Yan Yu liked, and put on a suit in the style Yan Yu preferred. He sat quietly waiting for Yan Yu to return.

It wasn’t until after ten o’clock that the “overworked corporate slave” Yan Yu finally walked through the door, dragging his exhausted body. Chen Kan was subtly radiating the charm of a mature man, sitting on the sofa with one leg crossed over the other, petting a cat while flipping through a newspaper.

When Yan Yu looked at him, Chen Kan kicked his foot—the one wearing a red-bottomed leather shoe—and sat up even straighter.

“You’re back.”

I have something to ask you.

Before the second half of the sentence could leave his mouth, Yan Yu had already walked up to him.

Chen Kan felt his tie being snatched up by a force that was neither heavy nor light.

Following that hand, he saw Yan Yu’s clear and beautiful face. There were faint dark circles under his eyes and a hint of redness in the sockets. He was “lifting” Chen Kan up with a look that was half-angry, half-reproachful.

Yan Yu toyed with the silk tie as if weighing an insignificant object, his gaze fixed on Chen Kan’s face.

The next second.

Yan Yu leaned over and half-knelt on top of Chen Kan.

His attitude was bad, but his movements were wild.

Yan Yu’s white shirt was buttoned all the way to the top. From Chen Kan’s perspective, as Yan Yu knelt astride his waist, he could just see the faint marks left by shirt stays on Yan Yu’s plump, athletic thighs.

Chen Kan involuntarily put his hands around Yan Yu’s waist, looking up with a touch of intimacy and caution.

Chen Kan thought Yan Yu had gained a bit of interest after seeing his careful preparations for today. However, Yan Yu looked down at him for a while with a blank expression, his eyebrows slightly furrowed.

“You’re going to help me like this in a moment,” Yan Yu said.

“Today, can we use your mouth?”

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