অধ্যায় ১৪১: আমি সারাজীবন তোমasher যত্ন নিতে পারি

দuan Xu-chu backed against Dr. Zhou, his hand clutching the doorknob tightening. His smooth jawline tensed into a resolute curve. "No, keep it from her."

After a long while, he shook his head and said in a deep voice, "It's enough that we know in our hearts. After all, he is her biological younger brother. If she finds out about these things, she will definitely be very sad."

"I understand."

Whether it was helping Nannan and Wei Weiyi slowly learn to accept each other, or handling the matter of Wei Weiyi's younger brother, Duan Xu-chu had put in an immense amount of careful thought.

This was also the aspect of Duan Xu-chu that Dr. Zhou admired the most—his thoroughness, considering every possible angle and consequence.

Just like when he shot Wei Mohua; before doing so, he must have weighed everything carefully. Not only could he exact revenge on Wei Mohua, but he would also ensure that Wei Mohua's actions wouldn't affect the relationship between himself and Wei Weiyi.

Of course, the prerequisite was that Wei Weiyi herself had to be a sensible woman who wouldn't act purely on emotion. Therefore, from any perspective, these two were a match made in heaven.

Duan Xu-chu put away the voice recorder and instructed Dr. Zhou to process the discharge paperwork. Pushing open the door and entering the ward, he found that Wei Weiyi had already woken up. She was staring down at her phone screen in a daze, seeming not to have noticed Duan Xu-chu at all.

Suddenly, Duan Xu-chu leaned his face close to hers. "Weiwei..."

An enlarged, handsome face abruptly appeared in front of Wei Weiyi, startling her so much that she almost cried out. Remembering that Nannan was still sleeping nearby, she glared at Duan Xu-chu and lowered her voice to ask, "What are you doing? You're not a child anymore, why are you still pulling such childish pranks to scare people?"

Duan Xu-chu let out a low chuckle, wrapping both arms around the back of Wei Weiyi's head. His warm, thin lips pressed against her forehead. "You were the one whose soul got carried away by something, yet you blame me for teasing you."

Lowering his gaze, he saw who Wei Weiyi was messaging. The corners of his curved lips instantly sank as his jealousy flared up. "A man or a woman, huh?"

It had been a long time since Wei Weiyi had experienced Duan Xu-chu acting jealous. Thinking about how almost every man who had ever shown even the slightest romantic interest in her had been retaliated against by Duan Xu-chu in one way or another, she truly didn't know what to say.

Wei Weiyi bit her lip in silence for a few seconds. When she spoke again, her tone was tinged with bitterness, "Wei Mohua's behavior today made me too disappointed and heartbroken. If I don't scold him a bit, it would be unfair to you and Nannan. But if I try to reason with him, he won't necessarily listen, and in the end, it will all be my fault. I don't understand how he could have become like this. Are there really cases in medicine where a vegetative patient wakes up and their personality undergoes a drastic change?"

"It's not that Mohua has changed; it's more likely that you never truly understood him in the first place, right?" Duan Xu-chu sat down beside Wei Weiyi, pulling her hand over and habitually stroking the bracelet on her wrist.

It was the one he had given her, and she had worn it ever since, never once taking it off.

Duan Xu-chu's heart melted. He interlocked his fingers with hers and said in a deep voice, "Be a good girl, stop torturing yourself with needless worries. Let him be! You have already fulfilled your responsibilities as an elder sister. I certainly don't want to burden you with any mission to avenge your framed father. That is not something you can accomplish alone."

As he spoke, Duan Xu-chu gently pulled her phone from her hand. At such close range, his dark, deep pupils gazed intently at her, shimmering with brilliance. "Weiwei, I don't need you to accomplish anything grand. I am a man, and I will carry everything on my shoulders. I will cherish you and take care of you. All you need to do is be my wife and bear my children. For me, that is already more than enough."

In this world, the bravest and most touching promise is actually not "I love you," but rather giving the woman you love absolute security. Telling her that even if the sky falls, I will hold it up; that she can remain innocent, carefree, knowing nothing and having to do nothing, because you will pamper her and provide for her for the rest of her life.

Wei Weiyi was stunned for a few seconds before suddenly reaching out to wrap her arms around Duan Xu-chu's neck. She leaned in and pressed a passionate kiss to his lips. In the next second, Duan Xu-chu met her fervor, returning the kiss intensely. The collision of their teeth and the entanglement of their saliva produced faint, delicate sounds.

Duan Xu-chu's breathing grew heavier as his large, warm hands caressed Wei Weiyi's shoulders and back. Just as they were lost in the heat of the moment, the small ball of Nannan's body on the bed suddenly stirred. Frightened, Duan Xu-chu and Wei Weiyi instantly released each other, sitting up straight immediately, composed and completely deadpan.

However, after waiting for a long time without seeing Nannan wake up, the two looked over and realized that Nannan was still fast asleep; she had merely shifted her position.

Wei Weiyi couldn't help but find the situation both funny and exasperating. One of her hands was pulled back into Duan Xu-chu's grasp; his dry fingers brushed against the light sweat beading on her palm. With a raised eyebrow, he asked with a hint of disdain, "We are Nannan's parents, what are you so nervous about?"

Although Nannan called Wei Weiyi "Mom" now, Duan Xu-chu hadn't told the child her true identity yet. He planned to divorce Jiang Qian, free himself from the shackles of the entire Jiang family, and only then tell Nannan the truth.

Wei Weiyi cast a sidelong glance at Duan Xu-chu with her beautiful eyes. "Putting other things aside, we certainly can't teach Nannan bad habits, right? If she asks why adults are kissing each other, how do you suppose we should answer?"

She extended her slender arms to hug Duan Xu-chu's waist, leaning against his chest while playfully twirling one of his shirt buttons with her fingers. She gave a soft laugh and said, "Besides, I think you were even more nervous than I was!"

With a smile playing on his lips, Duan Xu-chu pulled Wei Weiyi into his embrace, his palm resting on the nape of her neck. He rested his chin on the top of her head, adopting a lazy and relaxed posture. "If Nannan saw, we'd just tell her that Mom's lip rouge tastes very good, and Dad was eating the rouge."

"Besides, your mindset is far too conservative. I've already talked to Nannan about the relationship between men and women, and where she came from... things like that. Educating children about these matters early on isn't a bad thing at all."

Wei Weiyi was utterly speechless.

When it came to family upbringing, she had been influenced by her mother and leaned toward a more conservative mindset, whereas Duan Xu-chu belonged to the overly open-minded faction.

Communication between the two of them on this was difficult, and reaching a consensus was even harder. However, seeing Nannan's current healthy growth state, Wei Weiyi was very satisfied, so she simply left her education entirely up to Duan Xu-chu.

***

In the afternoon, Duan Xu-chu and Wei Weiyi together took Nannan to Chi Beiche's estate. Along the way, Duan Xu-chu stroked Nannan's head and gently instructed her, "When you get there, Nannan must listen to Uncle Chi, understand? Mom and Dad will come pick you up very soon."

Nannan pouted all the way, looking extremely unhappy. Hearing this, she angrily used sign language to ask, "Soon, how long is 'soon' exactly?"

"One month." Wei Weiyi scooped Nannan onto her lap, wrapping her arms around the child. She looked down at Nannan with eyes full of tenderness and asked, "What's wrong, Nannan? Do you not like staying at Uncle Chi's house? There are a lot of grapes at his place. Every day Nannan can pick grapes together with the uncle and auntie, and you can eat as many as you want... And there's also a little younger brother at his house that Nannan can play with."

Nannan's delicate face remained furrowed as she gestured to Wei Weiyi, "But Nannan likes being with Mom and Dad much more! Why are you sending Nannan away to someone else's place? I saw on TV that after adults send their children away to other people, they never come back to pick them up. Are you lying to Nannan too?"

Even though she usually spent most of her time alone at home, at least it was her own home. Being sent away by her dad to someone else's place felt completely different, making her feel as if her dad no longer wanted her.

Nannan was heartbroken and terrified. Tears spilled from her dark eyes, rolling down one by one. With a mixture of agitation and grievance, she signed, "Are you abandoning Nannan because I can't speak? Is Dad planning to have another younger brother with Mom?"

A sharp pain stabbed at Wei Weiyi's heart, leaving her momentarily unsure of how to respond. It broke her heart that Nannan couldn't speak, and seeing the child cry so bitterly made her own tears well up. She turned her head to ask Duan Xu-chu, "If you're too busy to manage this, why don't you let Nannan live with me?"

Protecting one person or two people required the same effort anyway. At that moment, Wei Weiyi couldn't understand why Duan Xu-chu insisted on temporarily handing Nannan over to Chi Beiche.

Duan Xu-chu shook his head in refusal. Reaching out, he pulled Nannan closer to him and held her by the shoulders, speaking to her in a very gentle tone. "Mom and Dad don't dislike Nannan. Otherwise, would all the kindness we've shown Nannan up to now be fake? Nannan, if you wrong Dad like this, Dad will be very sad."

Nannan cried quietly, staring unblinkingly at Duan Xu-chu.

Duan Xu-chu gently wiped away Nannan's tears. "The reason Dad is temporarily sending you to Uncle Chi's house is because Uncle Chi is a very skilled doctor. He can cure Nannan's illness and help you learn to speak."

Using this opportunity to have Chi Beiche provide psychological counseling and treatment for Nannan was one of the reasons.

On the other hand, Chi Beiche not only had powerful influence—meaning ordinary people wouldn't dare provoke him—but more importantly, Chi Beiche lived a life detached from worldly disputes. No matter how fiercely the rest of them fought, Chi Beiche would never get involved. He could definitely guarantee Nannan's safety much better than her biological father could.

Filled with affection, Duan Xu-chu patiently asked Nannan, "Does Nannan want to be able to speak like other normal children?"

These words struck a chord with Nannan. She immediately stopped crying and nodded vigorously.

"Then Nannan must listen to Uncle Chi and cooperate with his treatment, okay?"

Nannan nodded continuously.

Wei Weiyi truly admired Duan Xu-chu's method of coaxing children. Unlike her, whenever Nannan cried and made a fuss, she would instantly want to grant her every wish.

"That's a good girl." Duan Xu-chu raised his index finger and gently flicked the tip of Nannan's nose. "Mom and Dad will come pick Nannan up in a month. We're looking forward to hearing Nannan call us Mom and Dad!"

Nannan nodded and extended her little finger, wanting to make a pinky swear with Duan Xu-chu.

Duan Xu-chu curved his lips into a smile and locked pinkies with her, then added, "Mom gave Nannan a new name: Duan Youxuan."

Nannan immediately signed happily, "How do you write it?"

"The explanation for the two characters 'Youxuan' is 'outstanding' and 'fine jade'. Our little baby deserves a name like this." Wei Weiyi had already taken out her phone, typed the two characters into a web browser, and handed the screen to Nannan. "When we get to Uncle Chi's house later, Mom will teach you how to write them, okay?"