Xia Lei had just gone downstairs when Jiang Ruyi ran into his arms. She was in her policewoman uniform, and this police officer caught his heart in her softness, and her familiar smell.

“I missed you so much, my little Lei Lei.” Jiang Ruyi pressed her body against Xia Lei. This was not enough for her. After she spoke, she drew close and gave Xia Lei a sweet kiss.

“Ahem.” Jiang Ruyi’s mother, Yang Lan, appeared in the doorway and coughed dryly.

Jiang Ruyi did not seem to have heard her mother’s cough. She bit at Xia Lei’s lip, not willing to let him go.

Xia Lei was very embarrassed. “Hrrllo Aunndee.”

He wanted to do a polite greeting, but Jiang Ruyi stuck her tongue into his mouth as soon as he opened it to talk. He could not talk properly.

“Ahem!” Yang Lan increased her volume.

Jiang Ruyi responded then, and let go of Xia Lei reluctantly. She turned around and rolled her eyes at Yang Lan. “Ma, did you say that you were going to the supermarket? Why haven’t you gone yet?”

“You...” Yang Lan was barely keeping her anger under control, and she was just barely holding back from giving Jiang Ruyi a slap. This girl had forgotten about her mother because she got a man – this unfilial daughter! She had raised her for nothing!

Xia Lei quickly put his various bags of gifts in Yang Lan’s hands, and filled his face with smiles. “Aunty, there are gifts I bought for you and Uncle. Please accept them.”

“Oh my, Lei’s come to visit. Come in, come in. Look at you, ay, you can just come over – why buy gifts?” A smile bloomed on Yang Lan’s face and she welcomed Xia Lei warmly into her home.

Jiang Shuqing was home too, and he walked over to envelop Xia Lei in a bear hug, then laugh heartily, “Good that you’re back, good that you’re back. Don’t work too hard either, eh? What’s the use of earning more money? Health is most important.”

Xia Lei nodded. “Nn, you’re right, Uncle. I’ll be careful.”

Jiang Shuqing released Xia Lei, and smiled. “You know what, Lei? A certain someone was grumbling to us day after day, asking when you’d be back. Looked to me like that certain someone was going mad.”

“Da! I’m going to ignore you if you keep talking. Don’t think I don’t mean it. I’ll ignore you for three days!” Jiang Ruyi rolled her eyes at Jiang Shuqing, and was as temperamental as can be.

Jiang Shuqing raised his hands in surrender. “Okay, okay, I won’t say anymore, all right?”

“How’re you feeling, Uncle?” said Xia Lei.

“I’m all right. The doctor said that I’m recovering well. This is all thanks to you,” said Jiang Shuqing.

“Why say that, Uncle? We’re family. There’s no need to thank me,” said Xia Lei.

They chatted for a bit, and Jiang Ruyi narrowed her eyes at Yang Lan.

Yang Lan knew what her daughter meant by that, and she said, “Shuqing, dear, didn’t we agree to go to the supermarket and have a look around? Let’s go right now and get from groceries. I’ll make a good meal tonight, and you can have a few drinks with Lei.”

“Yes, yes, yes, we’ll go right now. Right away.” Jiang Shuqing went along with the whole thing too.

The husband and wife had watched Xia Lei grow up, and they like him very much too. If it hadn’t been for Xia Lei’s intervention, Jiang Shuqing might have been dead by now. This debt of gratitude, and their like of Xia Lei, made it such that they could only quietly approve of their own daughter being the mistress. They knew about it and acknowledged it, but the fact was not made public.

The couple were quite open-minded too. It was fine as long as Ruyi was happy, and they did not care about statuses at all.

As soon as Jiang Shuqing and Yang Lan left, Jiang Ruyi pounced atop Xia Lei and gave him a hot kiss. Xia Lei enjoyed it, of course, and he knew what she wanted too. He was a newlywed man, but he still had no lack of women by his side. Jiang Ruyi, on the other hand, had just one man - him. How could she miss the opportunity to get hot kisses when he came by so rarely?

“Did our girl find anything suspicious?” asked Jiang Ruyi after their passionate kiss ended.

“Our girl?”

“Her. Shentu Tianyin, dummy.”

Xia Lei was tickled by her calling him a dummy and he held her in his arms. “What, you want to get discovered by her?”

“I’m not an idiot. Why would I get discovered by her? She’s strong. I can’t win against her.”

“Relax. She doesn’t know,” said Xia Lei.

“What if she finds out? What do we do?”

“If she found out, I...” Xia Lei wanted to say something, but no words came out. He didn’t know what he’d do what that time came. With Shentu Tianyin’s character, she was definitely not going to be willing to share her husband with Jiang Ruyi. She would either seek revenge on Jiang Ruyi, or ask for a divorce. However, the relationship between himself and Shentu Tianyin would surely come to an end, no matter what the result was.

Jiang Ruyi stared intensely at Xia Lei. “Say it.”

Xia Lei smiled wryly. “I don’t know. I’ll just let it all play out on its own.”

“That’s true. You won’t know how this sort of thing will end for sure, so why not let it be.” Jiang Ruyi pursed her lips and smiled. “I am happy as long as I’m with you. Shentu Tianyin already got you, so she’s a fool if she’s still not satisfied. I’ll take you if she doesn’t want you.”

Even if Shentu Tianyin didn’t want Xia Lei, there was a long queue of woman waiting for Xia Lei, not just Jiang Ruyi. This was the truth.

“Come with me. I’ll show you something.” Jiang Ruyi didn’t want to think about what would happen if she were discovered by Shentu Tianyin anymore. She pulled Xia Lei’s hand, leading him to her room.

“What do you want to show me?”

“Don’t ask. I want to give you a surprise,” replied Jiang Ruyi. Her eyes were filled with a gentle charm.

Xia Lei suddenly had a thought. ‘Did she prepare some new kinky thing?’

Xia Lei was struck dumb when he entered the room. He’d gone into her room plenty of times and was very familiar with it, but the room had had a complete makeover today. All the furniture in the room had been changed, and the single bed had been swapped out for a double. The bed was covered in red bed sheets, and there was even a dragon-and-phoenix print on them. Pictures of plump babies hung on the walls, smiling innocently and looking so very cute. There were several toys for children in the room too, like Transformers toys, mini front-loaders, Barbie dolls and so on. It felt to Xia Lei like he had just entered the bedroom of a newlywed couple, and that the wife was pregnant.

All these references to children make Xia Lei come to a conclusion, and he grabbed Jiang Ruyi by her shoulders, saying excitedly, “Ruyi, are, are you pregnant?”

Jiang Ruyi’s face turned red, and she nodded gently. “Mm.”

“Hahaha!” Xia Lei danced for joy. “I’m going to be a father! I’m going to be a father!”

He was more anxious than anyone else about having a child, and this was not without reason. He had consumed the AE capsules, and his body had evolved. First was his left eye, then his brain. This seemed to be just the beginning, and his body was continuously evolving subtly. He had no clue what his final form would be. He was worried about the changes in his body affecting his ability to reproduce, and stopping him from having children, so he wanted a son and a daughter at least, before he became unable to produce children. This was also his duty as a son of the Xia family, to pass on the responsibility to continue the family line to his own son.

Another reason was that he had put in a lot of hard work into making Thunder Horse Military Factory successful, so he had to have a successor, right? He was facing the double threat of the CIA and the FA, and had no idea when he would be killed. Wouldn’t all his efforts have gone to waste if he didn’t have a successor when he was killed?

The values of carrying on the family line and family inheritance ran in the blood of every Chinese person, and these were deep-rooted. Xia Lei was a traditional Chinese man in that aspect, and he was no exception to these values.

Jiang Ruyi suddenly swung her hand and spanked Xia Lei on the backside. “Lower your voice. Rumours will spread if the neighbours on either side hear you. I’m not married but pregnant – I don’t want to be the subject of gossip.”

“Yep, I’ll listen to you. Let me see my son.” Xia Lei removed the jacket of her uniform eagerly, then unbuttoned her shirt to reveal her tummy.

Jiang Ruyi’s tummy was as pale as jade, and her skin delicate and tender, like a cake slathered in cream. Xia Lei wanted to kiss it. Her bellybutton was adorable too, like a little sprite who could talk. It seemed like it would laugh if he reached out to touch it. However, Jiang Ruyi’s tummy was still flat, and showed no signs of pregnancy.

Xia Lei left eye twitched, and he looked into her womb. He saw several images. It was like the bottom of the sea in there, full of liquid and velvety tissue, like some underwater forest. He didn’t see anything other than these.

Xia Lei stopped using his X-ray vision. He squatted and put his ear to Jiang Ruyi’s tummy. Her tummy was smooth and warm, and quite comfortable to his ear.

“I hear some rumbling. Is it our child moving?” Xia Lei knew it was the sound of Jiang Ruyi’s insides, but he didn’t want to be a wet blanket. He said nice words to make her happy.

Jiang Ruyi pressed a finger on him and said coquettishly, “Silly, my period was only late for a week. The little one must still be a bunch of cells. What can you hear at this stage?”

A bunch of cells. No wonder he didn’t see anything with his X-ray vision.

Xia Lei kissed her tummy, his heart full of bliss and excitement. “Don’t go to work anymore, Ruyi. The work of a police officer is dangerous. You should quit, for the good of our child. Stay home and take care of our unborn child.”

“No way. I like my job. Besides, I’m Chief. I don’t need to go to the scene myself to solve the cases, so there’s no danger,” said Jiang Ruyi.

“But...”

Jiang Ruyi covered Xia Lei’s mouth and gave him a smouldering look. “I’ve missed you.”

Her gaze made Xia Lei realise something, and he got nervous. “No. You’re pregnant. We can’t do those sorts of things anymore. It’ll hurt the baby.”

“Why don’t you just be gentler?”

“Nope, no way.”

Jiang Ruyi glared at Xia Lei. “Are you going to have sex with me, or not? If you don’t show me love, then I’ll tell our son that his father is a bad guy. I’ll tell him to ignore you.”

Xia Lei was speechless.

Jiang Ruyi had him by the short and curlies now, so how could he go against her?

Gently, gently, he went, slipping into softness and warmth.

The eyes of a plump baby watched smilingly as the room filled with bliss and happiness.