Chapter 51

"No." Chen Jue said to him naturally.

Logically speaking, Huo Jilin's question was quite infuriating. If it were the original Chen Jue, he would have hit him long ago, because it involved his reputation—doubting that your own husband's child was yours meant you didn't trust him.

But Chen Jue wasn't the original Chen Jue, so he answered very naturally.

Thus, Huo Jilin's expression changed abruptly.

He had said that to emphasize their relationship—that there was a tie that bound them. Although he didn't think a child was necessarily what held a couple together, Chen Jue had now directly severed it and dealt him a heavy blow.

This blow left Huo Jilin stunned for a moment. His gaze kept lingering on Chen Jue's belly, and his reason was slowly slipping.

He had originally felt that Chen Jue's belly was a bit small—

Jiang Xinhe's belly hadn't been this small at seven months.

Chen Jue was now over seven months along, but his belly looked only about six months.

Huo Jilin's time on the battlefield was, at most, seven months in total.

The more he thought about it, the more wrong it seemed!

Huo Jilin walked toward him: "If the child isn't mine, whose is it?"

Chen Jue snapped back to reality. Huo Jilin was having one of his fits.

That autocratic, dictatorial streak of his.

His voice turned cold: "It has nothing to do with you."

It wasn't his to begin with. The child was Huo Lin's. Huo Jilin had no claim on it.

Perhaps the man now inhabiting Huo Jilin's body was the biological father of the child, but both of them knew very well that the child had nothing to do with him.

Huo Jilin felt like steam was coming out of his ears—green steam, at that.

He hadn't taken his own words seriously.

He thought, if the child isn't mine, then whose is it?

Previously, Jiang Xinhe's child wasn't his, but this child definitely was. Even when Zhou Shuyao had provoked him earlier, showing concern for Chen Jue over and over, he hadn't taken it to heart.

Even if Chen Jue's belly was slightly smaller than others, he'd chalked it up to Chen Jue being thin...

But he never expected Chen Jue to flat-out deny it.

Chen Jue was always against him. Whatever he said, Chen Jue would always shoot him down.

Huo Jilin closed his eyes. He knew that feeling in his chest was back—the one that screamed at him to put Chen Jue in his place.

He hadn't cared about this child at all initially, but being told this by Chen Jue twisted something in his chest.

His mind started racing.

Could Chen Jue have found someone else to have a child with after coming to this world?

The original Chen Jue would never have betrayed his husband.

Although he felt that Chen Jue wasn't the type to just pick up a husband either, if Chen Jue knew that Huo Lin looked exactly like him, then who knows... he might.

He took a deep breath and asked, "I'm asking you one more time—whose child is it?"

Chen Jue was angry now, sneering as he shot back, "What does it have to do with you?"

Huo Jilin drew a deep breath: "I am... his husband!"

Huo Jilin wanted to say he was Chen Jue's husband, but thinking of all the times they'd butted heads, he felt the words wouldn't sound right—Chen Jue would laugh his head off.

He had even said before that he would never consider someone like Chen Jue as a mate.

But it was what it was. He had come to this world; he couldn't control what happened before, but he didn't want to be wearing a green hat the moment he got here.

If Chen Jue was still technically his husband, shouldn't he stay faithful?

Huo Jilin didn't realize how hypocritical his thinking was. Even if he did, he couldn't change it overnight.

He'd been used to having his way for too long.

Chen Jue was so mad he laughed. This person was as controlling as ever. Not only had he taken over Huo Lin's body, but he also wanted to claim the man's wife, and even expected Huo Lin's wife to stay loyal to him?

How could this guy be so sure of himself?

Did he think he was back in his old world?

Chen Jue looked at that arrogant face and felt like he was the crazy one for even talking to him.

He gave Huo Jilin a long, hard look, then turned and walked away.

He didn't care what kind of fit Huo Jilin was throwing.

He knew very well that Huo Jilin didn't like children. You could tell right away whether someone liked kids.

From the 520 embryo plan in Huo Jilin's past life, it was clear he didn't like them—or more accurately, he didn't care about children.

He didn't care what those lab-grown embryos turned into.

This was why, when he learned Huo Lin was Huo Jilin, he had never worried about Huo Jilin trying to take the child from him.

So Chen Jue never expected Huo Jilin to have a fit at this moment. The way he was acting like he'd been cheated on was ridiculous.

Chen Jue ignored him and walked past him without even looking back.

Huo Jilin, who'd been bumped aside, watched Chen Jue's cold, dismissive back and couldn't figure out what he was feeling. He turned and shouted after Chen Jue: "Whose child is it?!"

The door was opened by Chen Jue, and Zhou Qingzhu, standing in the yard, was frozen. Had he just heard something he shouldn't have?

He looked at Chen Jue's face and got even more flustered. Chen Jue's face clearly said 'the kid's whoever's, just not yours,' with a look of 'are you insane?'

Oh no, the child really wasn't Brother Huo Lin's.

He'd never faced anything this big, so he stammered: "Ch... Brother Chen, I... I brought you some chestnuts,"

Chen Jue took a deep breath, pushing down the anger Huo Jilin had stirred up, then took the basket and said to Zhou Qingzhu, who was still looking into the house worriedly: "Don't mind him."

Zhou Qingzhu let out another dazed "Ah."

Seeing Zhou Qingzhu totally spaced out, Chen Jue waved him off: "It's getting late, you should get home soon. Don't worry about him."

This... how can I just ignore it?

Zhou Qingzhu didn't dare to ask either, so he could only leave, glancing back every few steps.

He wondered what he'd even gone back to his family home for. How had things gotten to the point where they were questioning whose child it was?

Was the child really Brother Dalin's?

Oh no! This is a disaster!

Zhou Qingzhu had a ton of things he wanted to say, but after getting home, he didn't say a single word. He knew this couldn't be shared with others. If what Brother Chen said was true, then it was better to just keep it all bottled up inside.

As for Brother Dalin... as long as they had a child of their own later, that would be fine.

Zhou Qingzhu tossed and turned on the kang all night and came up with this perfect idea.

If Huo Jilin knew, he'd probably be furious enough to have his soul leave his body.

Huo Jilin was sulking at this moment, though he didn't know where the anger came from.

The moment he saw Chen Jue's face that said 'you deserve to wear the green hat,' he felt like he couldn't get over this hurdle.

He hadn't cared before, had he? He hadn't even cared about Jiang Xinhe's child.

He was gay himself, so marrying Jiang Xinhe who already had a child worked out just fine.

So why couldn't he apply the same logic to Chen Jue?

He couldn't calm down the whole evening.

Especially when he saw Chen Jue not taking him seriously at all.

Huo Jilin was well aware that he was just bored out of his skull, stirring up trouble for no reason.

If he were sitting on the emperor's throne right now, with a harem of seventy-two concubines, he wouldn't care at all about the child in Chen Jue's belly.

If he were on the battlefield, with a vast empire waiting for him to conquer, he wouldn't be here arguing with someone like Chen Jue who was always going against him.

At the root of it all, he was too poor.

Too poor to have any real ambition, so he could only obsess over the petty things right in front of him.

Huo Jilin thought this through very clearly, but that didn't mean he could let it go.

Even by nightfall, he still hadn't let it go.

Even the glorious prospect of a harem with seventy-two concubines couldn't calm him down. He just couldn't get over this one thing.

He had never imagined he could be so bored, spending an entire afternoon just staring at Chen Jue.

In the past, he'd been decisive—he fired anyone who didn't fit, and sent back anything that didn't meet his standards.

His past self was a workaholic, putting all his energy into work, never sparing any for other matters.

Yet today, he'd been picking at Chen Jue several times in a single afternoon.

Chen Jue sat on the edge of the kang soaking his feet. Huo Jilin took away his foot towel and interrogated him: "While I was fighting for my life on the battlefield, you were hooking up with someone else. How could you face me?"

Chen Jue splashed the water in the wooden basin with his foot: "Well, you didn't die, did you?"

"Sounds to me like you were hoping I'd die."

Chen Jue nodded: "You're asking a question you already know the answer to."

Huo Jilin let out a cold laugh: "Then I'm really sorry to disappoint you."

Chen Jue smiled too: "Next time, you might not come back at all."

Listen to him—does that sound like something a human being would say?

Huo Jilin took a deep breath, dying to chuck the foot towel right into the basin.

But he clenched his fist and, instead of throwing it, he roughly wiped Chen Jue's feet with it.

After he finished, he realized it had become a habit—these past few days, wiping Chen Jue's feet had become second nature.

He slowly looked at Chen Jue. Surely being this devoted a husband was more than enough?

In his previous life, Huo Jilin had never done this kind of work, and no one would have dared to make him do it.

Chen Jue paused too, lifting his foot. He hadn't asked Huo Jilin to wipe his feet—Huo Jilin had grabbed his towel, so he'd planned to just let his feet air-dry.

While Chen Jue stood there stunned, Huo Jilin picked up the wooden basin and walked out. He heard the sound of him pouring out the water.

This guy's got a screw loose, doesn't he?

He thought Chen Jue had cheated on him, and yet he was still dumping out his foot-washing water?

Masochist—anyone in the world could be one, but not Huo Jilin.

Huo Jilin had been off all day. Chen Jue even suspected he'd been body-snatched.

Chen Jue couldn't figure it out, and he didn't want to keep trying. He lifted his feet onto the kang, not wanting to face Huo Jilin, who was acting like a bitter, nagging wife. He closed his eyes and went to sleep.

Huo Jilin, after pouring out the foot-washing water, stood at the door for a while. The cold wind sobered him up before he went back inside.

He glanced at Chen Jue, who was already fast asleep.

This time, Chen Jue was sleeping turned away from him, as if he couldn't stand the sight of him. Lying on his side like that, Huo Jilin couldn't see Chen Jue's belly. Chen Jue was curled up around his belly, guarding it from view. Under the thin blanket, only his slender frame was visible.

The tall, upright Chen Jue of the daytime curled up at night, looking more like the eighteen- or nineteen-year-old he was.

Of course, Huo Jilin didn't know what the real Chen Jue looked like at eighteen. He had only met Chen Jue five years ago when he invested in Zhonghai Hospital.

Back then, Chen Jue was the son of Dean Chen. At just twenty-five, he was hailed as a genius of the new generation—extraordinarily talented and fiercely principled. Naturally, he only gave Huo Jilin headaches, never any cause for concern.

Huo Jilin silently watched Chen Jue. After all this drama, he now realized that Chen Jue had been provoked by him and was just being contrary on purpose.

The child in his belly was his own.

And the fuss he'd made all afternoon over the child was because Chen Jue had gotten under his skin.

He'd been blindsided when Chen Jue unilaterally drew a line between them. Then he'd been set off by Chen Jue's casual, offhand 'no.'

Getting riled up by someone's provocation was completely unlike him.

At the root of it all, he and Chen Jue had never been in sync. Chen Jue thought the worst of him, and he hadn't thought well of Chen Jue either.

Given their history of butting heads, whatever Chen Jue said must have meant the opposite.

Let's not even get into when Chen Jue crossed over. If he hadn't already been pregnant when he arrived, he definitely wouldn't have gone looking for a man to have a child with—not even the original Huo Lin would've been on the table.

If the child was already there, then it meant the original body's owner had conceived it while still alive, which meant it was Huo Lin's kid.

Honestly, whether it was Huo Lin's or some other guy's didn't matter.

What mattered was that the current Chen Jue couldn't be cuckolding Huo Jilin.

That was the thing that was eating at him.

That was exactly why he'd started a fight with Chen Jue.

Why did he trust Chen Jue so much? Why did it have to be him, of all people?

Was it because he and Chen Jue were the only two people in this world who were the same?

He completely ignored the three poor subordinates who'd crossed over with him.

Because there were so few people in this world he cared about—only Chen Jue was left.

That was the conclusion he'd come to after standing out in the cold wind for a long while.

It was a conclusion he'd never considered, never confronted head-on, which was why he'd been so out of character all afternoon.

Huo Jilin lay on the kang, and when his back grew stiff from lying flat, he turned over to face Chen Jue's side. He watched for a while longer before drifting off to sleep at some point.

Perhaps it was the steady rhythm of Chen Jue's breathing that lulled him to sleep.