Upon seeing the two of them, Gu Lingyu's expression changed rapidly, and then she dashed into the house.
In contrast, the middle-aged couple standing at the door were much calmer, maintaining a gentle and refined smile the whole time.
Su Yunzhi, who followed closely behind, looked at Gu Lingyu, who was running back in a hurry, and wondered what was going on. She looked up and saw two strangers with distinguished bearing and elegant clothes standing at the door. Although she was puzzled, she still smiled and opened the door: "Who are you looking for? Would you like to come in and have some tea?"
"Excuse me, is this Mr. Shen Xiangle's home?"
"Yes." Hearing that she was looking for her husband, Su Yunzhi's smile widened, and she opened the door a little wider. "Come in, Lao Le is home."
The two middle-aged men at the door exchanged a glance before coming in.
Mr. Shen, who was in the living room, was still reeling from the shocking news that his daughter was pregnant with quadruplets. When he saw Su Yunzhi bringing two strangers into the house, he didn't show his usual hospitality. He frowned and asked, "Who are these two?"
"..." Su Yunzhi was stunned. She looked back at the middle-aged couple, then at him, "They're here to see you..."
"Looking for me?" Mr. Shen frowned even more, looking at the two people. He was sure he didn't recognize them. Then he thought about it. Over the years, he had contracted mountain forest land, and it was common for clients to introduce each other. It was not surprising that strangers would come to his door to discuss business. "Is there something you need?"
The middle-aged man nodded to him. "I have indeed come to bother you this time because I have something important to discuss."
Seeing that both of them were smiling and polite, it seemed that this was not a bad thing.
Su Yunzhi quickly adopted the demeanor of the lady of the house and invited them to sit on the sofa.
The middle-aged couple handed over the gift box they were carrying, saying, "It's our first visit, so please accept this small gift."
"Oh, you're too kind," Su Yunzhi said politely, glancing at the gift box out of the corner of her eye. Although she couldn't see what was inside, the impressive packaging suggested it must contain high-quality items, making her even more enthusiastic towards these two unfamiliar guests.
After inviting them to sit down, Mr. Shen also sat down on the sofa. Once Su Yunzhi served tea, Mr. Shen took the initiative to start the conversation, "May I ask how you two are addressed?"
The middle-aged man looked apologetic. "I was so excited that I forgot to introduce myself. My surname is Gu, Mr. Chen, you can just call me 'Junshan.' This is my wife, Daiying."
Mr. Shen nodded. "I wonder what brings Mr. Gu from all this way to see me?"
Gu Junshan and Daiying exchanged another glance. After a few seconds, Daiying put down her teacup, looked at Father Shen, and said, "To be honest, we came here for the baby in Wuqiu's belly."
Chapter 26 Brother
at the same time.
upstairs.
Gu Lingyu rushed into Shen Wuqiu's room as if she were being chased by a hungry wolf. She quickly closed the door and locked it from the inside.
A flurry of actions forced Shen Wuqiu, who wasn't really interested in talking to her, to perk up. She asked in a cool tone, "Did my dad beat you up?"
Gu Lingyu leaned against the door, her face, which was originally pale from shock, was flushed red from her extreme actions. She raised her hand and pressed it against her chest, trying to calm her heart, which was beating too fast.
A few seconds passed.
She looked up at Shen Wuqiu, swallowed, and said, "My father and mother are here."
Shen Wuqiu's heart seemed to skip a beat. After a few seconds, she lowered her eyes and said calmly, "It seems your runaway can end here."
That's not the point at all, okay?
"They won't care if I run away from home..." The more anxious Gu Lingyu became, the less she knew what to say, and she paced around in circles in her anxiety.
"Then why should they care about you?"
“What they care about is the Pregnancy Fruit.” Gu Lingyu seemed to have finally found a breakthrough. She took three steps at a time and walked up to Shen Wuqiu. “Only one Pregnancy Fruit will ripen every hundred years. For my sake, the entire clan has not touched the Pregnancy Fruit for four hundred years.”
Shen Wuqiu still found her words absurd, her expression remaining indifferent. "So what? Now that I've eaten all four at once, I can't spit them out anymore, since they've already turned into cubs."
Gu Lingyu certainly knew this, but the problem was—
“I’ll tell you the truth, sister.” Gu Lingyu took a deep breath. “I am the only female in our clan for the past three thousand years… so for the past three thousand years, the reproduction of our clan’s offspring has been through intermarriage with women of your human race, allowing you human women…”
"Wait, what do you mean by 'we human women'? We are Han Chinese."
Startled by the sudden interruption, Gu Lingyu paused for two seconds, "What Han ethnicity?"
Even now, Shen Wuqiu still feels that the communication barrier between her and the person in front of her comes from ethnic differences. "I am a Han Chinese woman, not some kind of human being. Don't talk as if you're not human."
She wasn't even human to begin with.
However, Gu Lingyu dared not admit it with confidence when Shen Wuqiu said it so matter-of-factly. Her "one-shot" confession was directly "exhausted after three attempts".
Shen Wuqiu waited with her eyes closed for a while, but when she didn't continue, she couldn't help but open her eyelids again and glance at her, "Are you done?"
Gu Lingyu shook her head, then immediately nodded.
It was clear that he wanted to say something but hesitated.
Shen Wuqiu was getting impatient. "Since your father and mother didn't care that you ran away from home, there must be a reason why they've come looking for you now, right?"
Gu Lingyu licked her lips, then hugged her tightly, clenching her small fists and promising, "Don't worry, sister, no matter what happens, I will protect you."
It's utterly baffling.
Shen Wuqiu tried to push her away, but couldn't. She could only reach out to protect her stomach. "You're pressing on these babies."
Gu Lingyu then quickly released her.
Shen Wuqiu looked up at her, "So your father and mother came for these pregnancy fruits?"
Gu Lingyu hesitated for a moment before nodding.
This inevitably made Shen Wuqiu feel a little guilty. She sat up a little more, her throat inexplicably tightening. "Then... what should we do?"
If she knew what to do, she wouldn't have run away as soon as she saw her parents.
She originally thought that once the babies were born, the deed would be done, and even if her parents were unwilling, they wouldn't be able to be angry with her babies.
After all, the clan hasn't had a baby for five hundred years.
When Gu Lingyu fell silent, she appeared exceptionally mature and profound, which made Shen Wuqiu somewhat uneasy—would he disembowel her...?
The moment this thought crossed my mind, those cruel dreams from last night also came flooding back—could last night's dreams be a harbinger of what's going to happen today?
Shen Wuqiu's eyelids twitched violently. She swallowed hard and asked Gu Lingyu, "You said the child is yours too, so if I give birth to the child, is there any difference between you giving birth to the child and me giving birth to the child?"
From the perspective of personal favoritism, Gu Lingyu felt there was no difference; at most, the child would be tainted with a few traces of her sister's blood essence.
However, the entire clan did not think so. Their lineage originally inherited the bloodline of the ancient divine beast Bai Ze. It was precisely because of the Bai Ze bloodline that their bloodline was impure, making it increasingly difficult for future generations to have offspring.
At first, it was just a little difficult to conceive offspring, but the tribe members could still marry and reproduce on their own. As time went on, the number of females in the tribe gradually decreased, and the tribe members devoted their efforts to raising the fertility tree with the help of the gods.
As a result, for hundreds of years, the tribe intermarried with other demon and god races, and even with the help of the Pregnancy Fruit, they could not conceive. It was not until a tribesman fell in love with a human woman and helped her eat the Pregnancy Fruit and conceive her first child that the tribesmen gradually began to choose human partners.
However, she was different; she was the first female since her people began using the fertility fruit to reproduce.
The entire clan eagerly awaited her coming of age.
For this reason, the clan left the opportunity to have offspring to her, and for four hundred years no one in the clan conceived a child.
Because the bloodline of offspring born from human women is more chaotic, both their divine and spiritual power become very weak, and they cannot even maintain human form during their infancy, becoming no different from ordinary cats.
Before there were any females left in the tribe, in order to ensure the continuation of their spirit cat clan, there was no choice but to have human women.
But with Gu Lingyu, the clansmen began to have endless expectations.
However, this expectation was devoured by her older sister in just a few bites.
The clansmen had saved up four hundred years' worth of fertility fruits, and my sister ate them all in one go!!!
They didn't leave her a single one.
She could genuinely accept that her child didn't have such excellent bloodline, but she couldn't guarantee that her clansmen and her parents would accept such a disparity.
Of course, Gu Lingyu couldn't directly point out the difference in front of Shen Wuqiu, so she could only vaguely nod and say, "Hmm, maybe."
Seeing her lifeless state, Shen Wuqiu felt that things weren't so simple. Just as she was about to ask more questions, Su Yunzhi knocked on the door. "Wuqiu, you should go downstairs and take a look..."
Shen Wuqiu was about to ask what was wrong when she caught a glimpse of Gu Lingyu out of the corner of her eye, and she didn't bother to ask anymore. "Okay, I'm coming down."
Upon hearing this, Gu Lingyu immediately stood in front of the door.
Shen Wuqiu got out of bed, walked up to her, glanced at her, and Gu Lingyu obediently stepped aside again. "Don't worry, sister, I definitely won't let Father and Mother skin you alive."
I don't know whether to comfort myself or cheer myself up.
Shen Wuqiu's heart clenched as she listened.
downstairs.
Mr. Shen pursed his lips and remained silent.
The middle-aged couple sitting on the sofa had tea on their faces and tea leaves hanging from their hair. Although they looked a little disheveled, their smiles remained, and their calm demeanor made them appear very relaxed.
The story begins with Daiying's words ten minutes earlier: "To be honest, we came here for Wuqiu's unborn child."
Having been bombarded with the word "child" all morning, Mr. Shen was particularly sensitive to it, especially since it was accompanied by the qualifier "in Wuqiu's belly".
So this one sentence was like a spark igniting a lit gasoline flare, instantly setting Dad on fire:
"Who do you think you are, interfering in my daughter's affairs when it comes to disciplining your own children?"
For Mr. and Mrs. Gu Junshan, although Mr. Shen's reaction was somewhat unexpected, they were still able to maintain polite and courteous smiles in the face of his rudeness.
“It is true that the two children did something wrong by acting first and asking questions later, and I can understand your feelings very well. However, whether you are willing to face it or not, the child in Wuqiu’s belly is also a member of the Gu family.”
"Who is my daughter to your Gu family? How did her child become part of your Gu family's bloodline? You shameless old man."
"Shameless old man"—that's a rather harsh insult, especially directed at Daiying, an elegant female cat who has been refined for five thousand years.
They are a family of civets, and elegance and poise are like a brand etched into their very bones.
Of course, Gu Lingyu is an exception.
A fleeting hint of displeasure crossed Dai Ying's face, but she quickly concealed it. "Mr. Shen, we've all been through this before. The children are still young, and when feelings run deep, they're like dry wood meeting a raging fire. Now that it's happened, blaming won't solve anything..."
Before he could finish speaking, Mr. Shen unceremoniously splashed the tea in front of them onto their faces, saying, "What a waste of such good tea leaves of mine."
This was truly unexpected.
After a few seconds of stunned silence, Daiying raised her hand to wipe her face. The tea that had been splashed on her had completely ruined her elegance. If it had been anyone else, Daiying wouldn't have minded letting them experience her lack of elegance.
Unfortunately, the person who spilled her tea was none other than her granddaughters' maternal grandfather and her daughter's father-in-law.
Now, she is the one who needs someone's help.
Daiying could only take a deep breath and continue to maintain her elegance.
So, when Shen Wuqiu came down, this strange scene was what she saw.