After The Sickly O Was Forced Into Marriage Chapter 13
byChapter 13 You Are My Child
Wang Shu hid under the covers, quietly grieving and wiping away tears.
Jiang Xusheng walked in and lifted a corner of the blanket. Wang Shu felt a little ashamed, almost burying his face in the pillow.
“….” The other person still didn’t speak, just sat on the edge of the bed.
Wang Shu felt the man’s broad, thick hand gently touching the edge of the gauze near his ankle.
It slowly slid up from his calf.
Delicate, pale skin was hidden beneath the thin gauze. The places his fingers traced felt like they were set alight by a torch, burning all the injuries to ash.
He stroked past the wounds, lingered for a moment on his slightly swollen Pregnant Belly, then moved up, and further up.
His arm, his collarbone, and finally, his tear-dampened eyelashes.
“So prone to crying,” he asked.
Wang Shu once thought he was a decent plaything, and carrying a baby would earn him his husband’s affection.
But to Jiang Xusheng, he seemed somewhat cheap.
Wang Shu stubbornly rubbed his face into the pillow to wipe away the tears, speaking nonsense, “No.”
Jiang Xusheng chuckled, leaning down close to him. “I’m not blind.”
His fringe was pushed aside, revealing a smooth forehead and sightless eyes, opened in confusion.
“Puppy, tell me, why are you crying? Is it because of the pain?”
Wang Shu’s hand was held tightly by him. His hand was large, completely enveloping Wang Shu’s, providing a great sense of security.
Wang Shu shook his head. “It doesn’t hurt.”
Jiang Xusheng didn’t like that answer. He released his hand, and even the action of leaning over was withdrawn. The fleeting warmth of his breath disappeared, as if the tenderness just moments ago was Wang Shu’s own imagination, non-existent.
Wang Shu instinctively reached out to grab him, but Jiang Xusheng was already preparing to leave. The indentation on the bedside vanished.
Jiang Xusheng was dissatisfied with his answer and was going to walk away.
Wang Shu’s nose stung terribly. He anxiously tried to sit up, and tears immediately fell, making him whimper from the pain in his arm.
Jiang Xusheng’s departing steps paused. He sat back down and reached out to hold him.
Wang Shu gritted his teeth, his body trembling slightly, his face very pale. He pushed against Jiang Xusheng’s chest, choking out, “Please leave.”
He cried stubbornly and awkwardly, “You don’t want me either…!”
“If you don’t want me, then don’t…!”
The Wang Family went bankrupt, everyone was arrested, and he was just an abandoned chess piece, not anyone’s wife.
If Jiang Xusheng left this room, he would be abandoned.
“Your wound will hurt,” Jiang Xusheng gently wiped his tears. “When did I ever say I didn’t want you?”
Facing this timid, weak, and awkward wife, he didn’t use the control of a superior, instead opting for patience.
Wang Shu mumbled, “You did say it.”
Jiang Xusheng smiled, taking his hand again. “Because I let go of you?”
“Wang Shu, I told you, the crying child gets the candy.” He stroked his wife’s soft hair. “But you said it didn’t hurt, so I shouldn’t be here watching you. I have things to do too.”
“Since you’re not hurting, not sad, and won’t tell me, then I should respect your feelings.”
“If you continue to lie and say things you don’t mean, I will get angry.”
“I have told you time and again that I don’t like lies.”
A child who knowingly disobeys is not a good child.
Wang Shu’s small face turned pale. Sitting up, scolded by him, his lips trembled, and tears fell drop by drop.
A child raised in a dysfunctional environment doesn’t understand subtleties. They can only hurt themselves in an awkward way to test for affection.
“Then what should I do?” Wang Shu wished he could bury his head in the floor so he wouldn’t be embarrassed. His heart was shattered with grievance.
He felt like a puppy locked in a cage for years. When the new owner unlocked the collar, his path ahead was vast and uncertain, and he didn’t know where to go.
He thought unlocking the collar meant abandoning him.
He thought he was about to become a homeless puppy.
But the owner was teaching him how to enjoy freedom, how to gain happiness without having to wag his tail and beg.
Wang Shu sniffled, groping for Jiang Xusheng on the bedsheet. He was still sitting on the edge of the bed.
What should he do?
He was pregnant, yet he deliberately scalded himself with hot water and fell, which was irresponsible to both him and the baby.
Mr. Jiang was truly a little angry, because his Gland already had problems requiring many Inhibitor shots, and getting injections while pregnant would only worsen his health, which was very dangerous.
He was prone to lying, skilled at pretense, weak, and pathetic.
Jiang Xusheng pulled out a tissue to wipe his tears. Seeing the tears increase, his heart softened. He guided Wang Shu, “Let’s start over.”
Wang Shu’s ankle was again held by his hand. The man leaned closer and asked him, “Does it hurt?”
Wang Shu was stunned. Slowly, he nodded obediently. “It hurts…”
“How much does it hurt?”
He whispered, “It hurts so much… my nose stings, and I want to cry.”
Jiang Xusheng kissed his mouth. “Good boy.”
Wang Shu received a reward and suddenly didn’t feel like crying as much. He was acknowledged by Mr. Jiang, like eating a piece of candy, a sweet and sour apple candy.
“Since it hurts so much, as my wife, do you want your husband to hold you?”
Wang Shu suddenly felt that Mr. Jiang was being too much. His nose stung again, and his lips trembled as he answered, “Yes… I want to.”
Jiang Xusheng reached out and gently picked him up. One hand passed under his knees, like holding a child, lifting him into his arms without touching the wound. The other hand patted his back.
The man’s chest was firm, solid, and safe, like a wall enveloping him.
It was warm and comfortable. Wang Shu rested his head against his chest, listening to the powerful heartbeat, and his own heart slowly matched the rhythm.
“Do you want another rewarding kiss?”
Wang Shu looked up blankly. He wasn’t sure if he was a good boy deserving of a reward right now. “Can I?”
“If you want one, you can.”
Wang Shu blinked, nodded, and said a little timidly, “I want one.”
As soon as he spoke, Jiang Xusheng’s kiss followed.
Their lips met, and he slowly tasted a faint mint flavor. Jiang Xusheng kissed him very gently, then gradually more fiercely, pressing his nose against Wang Shu’s until Wang Shu whimpered, saying he couldn’t breathe.
Jiang Xusheng bit his lip, still stealing his air. “If you’re uncomfortable, command me to stop.”
“Please… please stop,” Wang Shu’s mouth was shiny from the kissing, delicately red and swollen.
Jiang Xusheng stopped, rubbing his nose against Wang Shu’s. “You did it.”
“You can express your thoughts. That’s great.”
He kissed Wang Shu’s smooth forehead. “Puppy learns quickly. You are a very smart child, aren’t you?”
Wang Shu’s tone became cheerful after being praised. “Yes, I am.”
It was as if being guided by Jiang Xusheng to say it made him truly the smartest and bravest person in the world.
“Alright, now can you tell me what you were crying about when I first walked in?”
Wang Shu didn’t dare to speak again.
Jiang Xusheng said, “Tell me, and tonight I’ll read you a story and tuck you in.”
Wang Shu felt he must be a very useless person.
He wasn’t the bravest after all.
Reading a story—
This was such an ordinary thing, yet to him, it was like a treasure of gold and silver mountains, something he had never received.
When he was little, he saw his uncle playing games and reading with his cousins. He was locked in a small laboratory, listening enviously.
His cousins had a father, and he had a father too, but coincidentally, no one loved him.
At this moment, Jiang Xusheng was like his father, using reading a story to trick him into speaking his true feelings.
His eyes, which had just stopped crying, suddenly stung again. Wang Shu buried his head in Jiang Xusheng’s shoulder and cried unrestrainedly. “I’m afraid you don’t want me…”
“Dad didn’t like me, Uncle didn’t like me, and I feel like you’re going to abandon me again…”
“No one likes Puppy… everyone hates me,”
“I thought if I was injured, you wouldn’t drive me away. Mr. Jiang, don’t drive me away, please don’t drive me away—”
“I beg you, I have the baby, I don’t want to leave you…”
Jiang Xusheng took a deep breath. Wang Shu was hugging his neck tightly. He gently patted Wang Shu’s back.
He said, “I won’t abandon Puppy.”
Wang Shu thought that sentence sounded truly wonderful.
“From now on, you are not a child of the Wang Family, you are my child.”
This sentence was like the thunder that follows lightning in a summer downpour. It kept repeating in Wang Shu’s mind.
‘You are my child.’
He belonged to Mr. Jiang.
To Jiang Xusheng.
The Wang Family had fallen. From now on, in Shen City, Jing City, and the pharmaceutical industry, there would be no mention of Wang Shu.
The past that Wang Shu feared, the pain and the dark history, were all burned to ash. No one would know the embarrassing memories.
Jiang Xusheng would give Wang Shu a new life.
“Really?” Wang Shu sniffled and sobbed, his face red from crying, unable to stop choking up.
“I don’t make promises, but you can believe in yourself.”
Wang Shu was foolish and didn’t understand. “Believe in myself about what?”
“Believe that you are a lovable treasure, someone who will captivate people, someone who will keep me tied down.”
Wang Shu didn’t believe it. He never thought he could be likable.
“Do you want to get down from my arms?”
Wang Shu shook his head, blushing. His slender arms tightly hugged the man’s neck. He rubbed his nose against the skin there and softly asked, “Can I hold you a little longer, Mr. Jiang?”
Jiang Xusheng patted his back, truly like comforting a child, with a half-smile. “Of course you can.”
Wang Shu felt he was quite naughty. The baby in his belly hadn’t done anything wrong, and neither had Mr. Jiang.
“I thought, without Uncle, you wouldn’t like me anymore,” Wang Shu whispered into Jiang Xusheng’s ear.
“That was business,” Jiang Xusheng told him. “It has nothing to do with you.”
“You need to know that the world is always full of conflict. The marketplace is like a battlefield, without smoke, but there must be a winner. I am the winner.”
“I don’t understand these things, I only know… it seems I have nothing that can make you like me, except the baby.” Wang Shu blinked, his eyelashes brushing against the man’s neck, making Jiang Xusheng feel slightly ticklish, causing his Adam’s apple to silently bob.
The omega didn’t know that this posture was very dangerous.
Jiang Xusheng was also thankful at this moment that he was a Beta, otherwise, smelling his Pheromone might cause him to lose control.
The little wife in his arms was so soft, so obedient.
Even during pregnancy, his waist was so slender it could almost be snapped easily.