Chapter 137

An ZhiXian and Pei Jing were just outside the door and hadn't gone far. He rarely smoked, but at this moment, facing this former elder who was now his brother-in-law, he still wanted to smoke a cigarette to calm his mood.

Who knew that as soon as he took out the cigarette case, Pei Jing said, "Smoke away from me. Pregnant women can't smell smoke, you know."

An ZhiXian's hand reaching for the cigarette paused. He resignedly put it back.

"No wonder I haven't seen you touch one these days. You're quite self-aware," An ZhiXian said to him, "Uncle, do you mind telling me what exactly is going on between you and ZhiXia?"

An ZhiXian's switch back to this form of address represented his sincerity.

Pei Jing smiled. "After spending a few days in the barracks, I thought you'd already asked your big brother."

This meant their eldest brother definitely knew. "I did ask, but big brother..." he said not to speak ill of others behind their backs, especially his own sister and brother-in-law, so he shouldn't pry too much.

But people were naturally curious. Knowing only half the truth was sometimes worse than not knowing at all. Not understanding clearly was like a fishbone stuck in his throat, extremely uncomfortable.

Also, wasn't the reason why the grandparents asked the sisters to come over because they were no longer trying to keep it from them? Or to be more precise, they wanted the sisters to see clearly the harm ZhiXia had suffered before. It wasn't that simple now that she had returned.

They had specifically asked Granny Zhou to come over to supervise Zhou Nan, so she wouldn't do anything foolish again. Of course, 'they' didn't include An ZhiXian. But who could have predicted that he would be injured and have to stay here for several more days?

"Brother-in-law, this concerns my sister. I still hope I can know the truth myself, rather than finding out one day from others and causing unnecessary misunderstandings. You know I'm very discreet, and I have no need to cover up anything for my family. Isn't that right?" An ZhiXian said gently, "Besides, you know the fourth brother's temper. The family doesn't even dare let him know about you and ZhiXia yet. If you don't tell me the truth, how can I help conceal it for you?"

An ZhiAng was the most uncontrollable existence in the An family. He had been fierce since he was little, unlike his three older brothers. An ZhiRen and An ZhiXian were becoming more and more inconspicuous at home, but he had never suffered at Gao MeiYun's hands thanks to his ferocity.

It had been like this since childhood. Whoever dared to discipline him a little on Gao MeiYun's behalf, he would discipline Gao MeiYun tenfold in return.

Even when the three older brothers finally united, it was An ZhiAng who had brought them together. This could be seen from the indulgent attitude An ZhiRen and An ZhiXian had towards him.

This reason seemed quite convincing, leaving Pei Jing apparently with no reason to keep hiding the truth.

Rather than letting him speculate, it was better to just tell him directly.

"Did your family thoroughly investigate ZhiXia's experiences before she returned?" Pei Jing asked him. "That Mid-Autumn Festival last year, also the day she was sold, I was hurrying back to have the family reunion dinner. But halfway there, something happened, and I ended up chasing someone into the mountains. In the dead of night, I ran into her after she had escaped... "

Of course the An family had investigated, but it had all been done by An JingZhi. At that time, they didn't seem to have any special feelings towards this sister who was about to return, so they hadn't asked too many questions.

In fact, he and his second brother had even discussed privately that no matter what this newly returned sister was like, as long as she didn't interfere with their lives, she had nothing to do with them.

Such an attitude was a bit cold, but it was only when the fourth brother had asked them for money for ZhiXia that they became a little curious about this sister. Over time, they realized that having an obedient, well-behaved sister didn't seem so bad after all.

If it hadn't been for Gao MeiYun's misdeeds in their childhood, ZhiXia would have completely fulfilled their fantasies of a little sister. But their childhood experiences meant he and his second brother didn't have many good feelings towards the term "younger sister", and subconsciously were unwilling to invest much emotionally.

"Uncle doesn't seem like the kind of person who could be seduced by beauty?" Moreover, at that time, it seemed ZhiXia could not even be described as beautiful, and was even a little ugly.

But her transformation had also been astonishing. Or rather, her innate good looks were outstanding. In just one short month, she was like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly, with no visible traces remaining of when she had first returned.

"She escaped, and had been drugged. When she encountered me, she was already delirious..." Pei Jing didn't say the rest. After all, being pounced on by a woman wasn't exactly glorious.

This was also a nice misunderstanding to let An ZhiXian think that Pei Jing only had to touch her because he was trying to save her.

After all, they were deep in the mountains with no time to get to a hospital. With that kind of drug, resisting the urge would not have been easy if the dose was too high. It seemed there was only that one solution available. When ZhiXia walked out of the room, she saw that the door of the other room was shut tight, and she could vaguely hear Granny Zhou and Zhou Nan talking inside. Pei Jing and An ZhiXian hadn't come back yet.

The door of the room opened and Granny Zhou and Zhou Nan came out. Granny Zhou asked her, "ZhiXia, have you discussed with Little Jing how you'll sleep tonight? Otherwise, let your mother take care of you. Have Little Jing squeeze in with your third brother first."

These past few nights, Zhou Nan had been taking care of her, though there wasn't much to take care of, just keeping an eye on her in case anything happened.

ZhiXia would tell Pei Jing that she couldn't sleep or felt uncomfortable, but she wouldn't say that to Zhou Nan.

In fact, compared to being with Granny Zhou, ZhiXia felt more comfortable with her grandmother.

Their relationship was already like this. What had happened could not simply be written off as if it had never existed just by saying sorry once.

Zhou Nan also noticed ZhiXia's attitude towards her, but she no longer had the standing or right to complain. She could only be concerned about taking good care of her, using the approach of less talk and more action, hoping to mend things as much as possible.

"No need, Granny. Mom is tired from taking care of me these past few nights. Now that Pei Jing is here, let him do it. And the third brother is injured, it wouldn't be good to squeeze him." In fact, An ZhiXian's wounds had already had the stitches removed and he could be careful, so it wasn't a big problem.

But Granny Zhou understood there were still unresolved issues in ZhiXia's heart.

She could only sigh helplessly and agree to the arrangement.

But ZhiXia didn't know if she was overthinking things. She always felt Zhou Nan looked at her strangely, with distress, and seemingly some other indescribable emotions.

The baby in her belly seemed to be moving around even more vigorously than before, even deforming her stomach.

ZhiXia mentioned it briefly, then went back to the room to lie down.

Just after entering the room, she felt a faint pain. She didn't know if this was a sign of impending labor, so she endured it for a while.

She knew there would be labor pains when giving birth soon, and this wave of pain lasted about 1-2 minutes before stopping. She waited a while but there was no more pain. When Pei Jing lay down after coming back, ZhiXia, who hadn't seen him for days, immediately snuggled up to him.

He skillfully placed his hand on her belly to greet the child, and discovered her stomach was distorted at a strange angle.