She chuckled a little as she reminisced about their phone call. "By the way, why were you so nervous on the phone? It was so strange of you two. You didn't really think Cen Yang was going to kidnap me, did you? What kind of thought process is that..."
"What if it is?"
Cen Sen suddenly interrupted.
Ji Mingshu: "...?"
Cen Sen looked at the Passat in the rearview mirror, with his bodyguard sitting behind him, and his voice was devoid of much emotion.
“He was kidnapped when he was still with the Cen family. At that time, the Cen family had just learned about his background and wanted to give up in the face of huge ransom demands.”
“He has harbored resentment towards the Cen family for years, so we cannot rule out the possibility that he might kidnap you to take revenge after he has lost all his leverage.”
Cen Yang was kidnapped?
When did this happen?
Ji Mingshu was stunned for a long time before he could process what was happening.
Cen Sen had already looked away and slowly concluded, "Fortunately, he still has some brains."
Actually, he didn't want to tell Ji Mingshu about these old stories from the archives, but Ji Mingshu was too well protected and had never witnessed the evil and coldness of human nature firsthand.
If Cen Yang hadn't truly come to terms with the past today, but instead wanted to take final revenge on the Cen family regardless of the consequences, he could have easily lured Ji Mingshu away with just a phone call, relying on a bit of old affection.
Even if there's only a one in ten thousand chance that they'll both perish and neither of them will have an easy time, he finds it hard to maintain self-control when he thinks about it.
After digesting the information, Ji Mingshu felt no lingering fear or shock, only surprise. "How come I didn't know about this? Why did I give him up back then?"
Cen Sen lowered his eyes and said calmly, "You know too little about the Cen family."
So they don't know that they are inherently indifferent.
On the way to the hospital, Ji Mingshu was processing the fact that Cen Yang had been kidnapped. This distracted her, and all her previous tension disappeared without a trace. Even after the tests were done at the hospital and she was waiting for the results, she was still somewhat lost in thought, half wondering if she was pregnant and half thinking about the past of the Cen family.
While waiting for the test results, Cen Sen was on the phone, listening to Zhou Jiaheng's real-time updates on the work progress.
His expression remained calm as always, but he unconsciously drifted off into thought while staring at the door of the lounge. Zhou Jiaheng called out twice before he finally refocused.
Ji Mingshu's test results were personally delivered to the rest room by the head nurse.
"Mr. Cen, Mrs. Cen, congratulations."
The head nurse handed over the examination form with a smile.
Cen Sen took it and glanced at it, and Ji Mingshu also leaned over to take a look.
In fact, both of them went blank when they heard the "congratulations". As for looking at the test results, it was just an instinctive reaction. No matter how hard they looked at the indicators, they couldn't understand them.
There was a full half-minute of silence before the two of them heard the head nurse give instructions on precautions for early pregnancy.
One remained silent, while the other listened to her instructions and nodded faintly.
Seeing their reactions, the head nurse thought to herself: "Those who have seen the world are different; even pregnant, they remain so calm and composed."
After the head nurse left the break room, there was a moment of silence.
Ji Mingshu snapped out of her reverie and tugged at Cen Sen's sleeve. "I... I'm really pregnant."
Cen Sen twitched his fingertips, said nothing, but slowly turned around and pulled her into his arms.
Ji Mingshu thought she had long been mentally prepared for pregnancy, but when she actually heard the news, it felt like a dream, unreal, and somewhat magical.
She reached out and hugged Cen Sen back, but after a while, she felt that Cen Sen was very silent, so she looked up and asked, half coquettishly and half dissatisfied, "Why aren't you saying anything? Didn't you say you wanted to have a baby? Aren't you happy that I'm pregnant?"
Cen Sen pressed his forehead against hers, gazing into her eyes, before finally uttering in a low, hoarse voice, "I'm very happy."
Ji Mingshu glanced back and, seeing no one was coming in, suddenly lifted her shirt to reveal her flat, white belly, and said unreasonably, "Then kiss your baby to prove you're really happy and really like him."
Cen Sen paused for a moment, then helped her to sit on the sofa. He then leaned down slowly, supporting himself on the edge of the sofa, and placed a kiss on her lower abdomen.
Ji Mingshu couldn't help but curl her lips into a smile, then stood up and hugged him, adding the command, "But after the baby is born, you still have to love me the most!"
Cen Sen hummed in agreement, patted her head, and whispered a promise, "I like you the most."
The head nurse remembered that she hadn't given them a pregnancy check-up booklet yet. She was going to give it to them when she came over, but as she was standing at the door about to knock, she heard a mushy conversation coming from inside.
"..."
Sorry to bother you.
When they first learned they were pregnant, Ji Mingshu and Cen Sen were still in disbelief. On their way home, they discussed it and decided not to tell their parents for the time being.
Cen Sen didn't feel the need to inform his family immediately because he didn't have much affection for them.
Ji Mingshu, on the other hand, was deeply influenced by the plot of concealing pregnancy in palace dramas, and always felt that she should not make a big fuss about it in the first three months.
Back home, the two were still in a surreal, floating state. Although they tried to act normally, they were actually deeply affected by the pregnancy.
Ji Mingshu watched a drama, but after finishing an episode, she still didn't understand what it was about. Cen Sen cooked a dish, but his stir-fried green peppers with pork turned out to be stir-fried green peppers with red peppers, and he even added salt twice.
After showering and lying in bed that evening, they were both engrossed in their books, one on her phone and the other reading. Ji Mingshu's mind wasn't on her phone at all, and seeing Cen Sen so focused on his reading, she didn't know how to start a conversation.
She glanced at it, and then glanced at it again ten minutes later.
Suddenly, as if she had discovered a new continent, she snatched Cen Sen's e-reader and, with a hint of smugness at having caught him red-handed, questioned, "You only turned one page in ten minutes, what are you looking at?"
Cen Sen pressed his brow bone and admitted, "I was thinking about the baby."
Ji Mingshu lay down on his lap, "I'm thinking about it too."
"Um?"
Ji Mingshu sighed, a little melancholy, "It still feels...unreal. I'm not even mature enough myself, and suddenly I have to raise a child. Besides, my mother didn't care about me when I was little, so I don't know how a mother should treat a child."
Cen Sen smoothed her hair, seemingly lost in thought, and didn't respond.
Ji Mingshu suddenly raised her hand and poked his Adam's apple, then hesitated before asking a question she had always been curious about but never had the chance to ask.
"Um, I'm wondering, have you ever met your mother, I mean, your biological mother?"
"I've met him once."
Cen Sen's expression was unclear.
Ji Mingshu: "I saw her many times when I was a child, but suddenly, she and Cen Yang disappeared together."
In fact, Ji Mingshu had never been one to pry into things, partly out of curiosity and partly because she didn't want to get involved. For a long time, she even consciously adhered to the principle of arranged marriages between families, actively giving each other their own space.
She never questioned why he and Cen Yang were switched at birth, nor did she inquire why her respectable mother-in-law had completely disappeared, and she never asked Cen Sen what he had been thinking all these years.
But tonight, she suddenly had an urge to completely step into Cen Sen's past.
This impulse began to brew from the moment he was overly polite to the Cen family but not close enough. It continued until today when he said in the car, "You don't know the Cen family well enough." She suddenly realized that she seemed to have given Cen Yang a lot of sympathy, but had never really thought about why Cen Sen, who clearly had a family, lived with such a sense of loneliness that he didn't recognize his own relatives.
Cen Sen traced circles of her hair with his fingertips, remaining silent for a long time before answering her question, "She passed away a long time ago."
Cen Sen's biological mother came from a prestigious family. Before marrying Cen Yuanchao, she was engaged to her childhood sweetheart, but he died in a car accident before they could get married.
She discovered when Cen Yang was very young that he was not Cen Yuanchao's child, but she never thought that he was not her child either. She subconsciously thought that he was conceived by her childhood sweetheart before marriage, so she tried her best to keep it a secret from the entire Cen family.
It can be said that it was thanks to her that Cen Yang's identity was not revealed until he was seven or eight years old.
She never forgot her childhood sweetheart and poured all her heart and soul into Cen Yang.
Later, Cen Yuanchao unexpectedly discovered that Cen Yang's blood type did not match that of him and his wife. He secretly conducted two paternity tests, and after the results came out, he followed the clues and quickly found out about the An family.
Back then, the An family was also a scholarly family in the capital. They happened to give birth in the same hospital as the Cen family, but due to a careless mistake by the nurses, the two families' babies were switched at birth.
After his daughter-in-law Chen Biqing gave birth, the old man of the An family retired due to some sensitive issues, and the whole family moved to Xingcheng, where life gradually returned to normal.
Later, Cen Yuanchao confirmed Cen Sen's identity and wanted to bring him back.
Cen Yuanchao was originally determined to keep Cen Yang and raise him together, but after learning about the baby swap incident, his wife inexplicably broke down. The reason for her breakdown was not the baby swap, but that the child she had wholeheartedly cared for was not the fruit of her love.
When Cen Yuanchao learned the truth, he was furious and even developed a sense of disgust towards Cen Yang. Despite the kidnappers' threat to kill Cen Yang, he immediately called the police. Fortunately, Cen Yang was lucky and was rescued by the police.
Later, Cen Sen said that if he were to leave, Cen Yang would not exist, so Cen Yuanchao took the opportunity to send Cen Yang back to the An family.
Cen Sen's biological mother was devastated from that moment on. When he returned to the Cen family, the two met once, and her gaze towards him was not only unfamiliar but also mixed with disgust.
At that time, she and Cen Yuanchao began the divorce process. The day after Cen Sen returned to the Cen family, she left the Cen family without any hesitation.
The Cen family only claimed to the outside world that she accompanied Cen Yang to study abroad. She died of illness the following year, and her ashes were buried in the western suburbs cemetery. From then on, she, like Cen Yang, became a taboo in the Cen family.
A light rain was falling outside, the floor lamp cast a warm yellow glow, and Cen Sen's voice was flat and low. The whole story he told sounded completely detached from his own life.
Ji Mingshu was stunned for a long time after hearing this.
So, this is the complete version of the story.
She had met his biological mother when she was a child, but at that time she was still Cen Yang's mother.
In my memory, she was a very gentle, quiet, and well-educated woman. I never expected her to be so indifferent to her own child, not even saying a word during their only meeting.
For some reason, she felt extremely uncomfortable whenever she thought of the kind aunt from her childhood who had looked at Cen Sen with such disgust.
The room was silent for a long time. Suddenly, she hugged Cen Sen's waist, then got up and wrapped her arms around his neck, lightly pecking his lips once, twice, three times.
"Honey, don't be sad. The baby and I will treat you well from now on."
Chapter 88
Whether the baby will treat Cen Sen well is still unknown, but after that night, Ji Mingshu did visibly become a little gentler towards Cen Sen.
Two months passed by at a leisurely pace, and by the end of November, the capital city was beginning to show signs of winter.
Ji Mingshu successfully navigated the safe period of concealing her pregnancy, just like in palace dramas, and most of her relatives and friends already knew about her pregnancy.
Her pregnancy garnered so much attention and importance from the elders of both the Cen and Ji families that it was entirely befitting of the joke that "there's a throne to inherit in the family."
Both Chinese and Western chefs, pastry chefs, and nutritionists were provided, so whatever she wanted to eat could be freshly made immediately. Ji Mingshu didn't stand on ceremony; today she ordered boiled cabbage, tomorrow she ordered Wensi tofu.
The Cen family somehow managed to hire a prenatal education teacher. While other families might just tell stories or play DVDs for prenatal education, the Cen family went to extremes, even going so far as to invite a professional to their home to play music for the little embryo and cultivate its temperament, in accordance with the teacher's request.
Fortunately, Ji Mingshu was born to enjoy life; anyone else would probably have shortened their lifespan by making such a big fuss.
In addition, Ji Mingshu received many gifts from her elders, including jewelry, luxury cars, antiques, and calligraphy and paintings. The most noteworthy gifts were the credit card from Grandpa Cen and the two priceless gardens that Cen Yuanchao transferred to her name.
This matter was spread by some gossipy person, and everyone in the circle sighed that Ji Mingshu was lucky. They said that the treatment she received for being pregnant with an heir was different. The most important thing was that this was just a pregnancy. What would happen if she gave birth safely? This was a modern-day version of a mother gaining status through her son.
Ji Mingshu himself was particularly indifferent to these things, and he scoffed at the saying "a mother's status depends on her son."
In fact, a week after confirming her pregnancy, Cen Sen had given her a document to sign.