Chapter 69 -
Chapter 69: Chapter
Su Yueqing walked toward the boy slowly, her leather riding boots making a muffled thud against the heavy carpets. On the outside, she kept her chin tilted up, her expression one of cold, haughty disdain as if she were inspecting something entirely beneath her.
"So this is the hidden young master," she muttered aloud, her voice smooth and dripping with mock disappointment. "He looks more like a fragile porcelain doll than a future pillar of the Xi family. A single gust of wind could probably blow him away."
But the absolute second her eyes landed on the small, pale face of the sleeping child, her inner mind completely short-circuited with a mixture of rage and overwhelming pity.
[LOOK AT HIM! HE IS SO TINY!] Su Yueqing’s inner voice wailed, her thoughts practically vibrating with motherly panic.
[His face is completely washed out, and he has dark circles under his eyes! Seven? He looks barely five! And what is with this mountain of blankets?! He’s practically suffocating under there! Nine, run a quick structural scan on his breathing pattern right now! Is it a standard respiratory infection or something chronic? If they keep baking him alive in this stagnant room without any airflow, his lungs are going to collapse! I swear, these ancient medical practices are going to be the death of me!]
She stopped right at the edge of the large bed, looming over the frail boy. Little Mingyu let out a soft, raspy wheeze in his sleep, his tiny brow furrowing as if even resting was an exhausting chore.
The faint, raspy sound of his breathing shifted, and little Mingyu’s eyelashes fluttered. Slowly, his large, sunken eyes opened.
But the moment he woke, his tiny face didn’t twist in fear at the sight of the strange woman looming over him. Instead, his eyes widened slightly as a sudden influx of loud, chaotic, and incredibly warm thoughts echoed directly inside his head.
...LOOK AT HIM! HE IS SO TINY!... I want to give him a mountain of sweets... I swear, these ancient medical practices are going to be the death of me!
Mingyu blinked, a wave of profound comfort washing over him from those frantic, protective mental screams. A soft, genuine smile instantly broke through his pale, sickly expression. He looked up at Su Yueqing’s frosty face, entirely unfazed by her outward glare.
"Are you... my new sister-in-law?" Mingyu asked, his voice a tiny, breathless wheeze. "The one Anran told me about?"
Su Yueqing, completely caught off guard by the kid’s peaceful smile under her terrifying villain glare, stiffened and gave a rigid, haughty nod. "I am."
"You are very beautiful," Mingyu murmured softly, his small smile widening. "Anran wasn’t wrong at all."
Outwardly, Su Yueqing’s lips twitched, and a rare, genuine smile broke through her mask for just a split second before she caught herself. But inside her mind, her internal voice completely lost its sanity.
[OH MY GOD, HE IS A LITERAL ANGEL! HE CALLS ME BEAUTIFUL WHIILE I’M STANDING HERE LOOKING LIKE THE GRIM REAPER!] her thoughts exploded into a flurry of panicked affection.
[My heart! My villain points! Everything is melting! Nine, cancel the villain persona, I want to adopt him right now! Why is this family full of adorable little marshmallows?!]
The room was deathly quiet, yet a loud, high-pitched feminine voice was currently echoing inside all of their minds, screaming about marshmallows and adopting the young master.
Mingyu’s smile lingered, though his small brow furrowed slightly as he tried to comprehend the bizarre phenomenon of hearing his sister-in-law’s secret thoughts.
Su Yueqing cleared her throat sharply, quickly burying her smile beneath a cold, demanding expression. She looked down at the boy. "Tell me, boy. Can you pronounce your own name?"
Lanyin looked utterly confused, stepping forward with a defensive frown. "Sister-in-law, what kind of question is that? Of course he knows his own name!"
"I am not asking you," Su Yueqing snapped coldly, cutting Lanyin off without even looking back at her. She kept her sharp eyes locked onto the frail child. "I am asking him. Can you pronounce your name?"
Mingyu stared at Su Yueqing, still trying to process the warm, frantic voice ringing in his head that was so drastically different from her icy tone. After a moment, he slowly nodded. Opening his small mouth, he forced the air from his congested lungs, speaking low but remarkably loud enough for all of them to hear clearly.
"Xi... Ming... yu."
Hearing the boy speak his own name with such clear effort, Su Yueqing’s lips curved into a sharp, confident smirk. She let out a long, deliberate sigh and crossed her arms, leaning slightly closer to the bed.
"Very well," Su Yueqing said, her voice dropping into an intense, unyielding whisper that demanded an honest answer. "Since you can pronounce your own name, then you have the strength to answer this next question. Look at me, Xi Mingyu. Do you want to live?"
Su Yueqing leaned in a fraction closer, her dark eyes pinning the young boy to his pillows. "Because let me make one thing entirely clear to you, brat," she said, her voice dropping into a razor-sharp, chilling tone.
"If your answer is no, I will turn around right now, walk out those doors, and never step foot into this pathetic, gloomy room again. I will leave you entirely in the hands of your family to let them bake you in this dark tomb until you wither away. But if you say yes... if you look me in the eye and tell me you want to live, then I—"
"Yes."
The word left Mingyu’s lips before she could even finish her sentence. It was a breathless, raspy syllable, but it carried an uncharacteristic weight that cut right through her speech.
Su Yueqing froze mid-sentence, her jaw locking as she stared down at the sickly child in sheer disbelief.
Inside her head, her inner mind completely lost its grip on reality, entering a state of absolute, frantic chaos.
[WHAT?! INTRUDER ALERT! SYSTEM, DID THIS KID JUST INTERRUPT MY EPID MONOLOGUE?!]
Su Yueqing’s internal voice shrieked, her thoughts echoing like a fire alarm inside the minds of everyone in the room.
[I didn’t even get to the cool part! I was supposed to lay out my villainous, demanding conditions! Why did he answer so fast?! Is he a mind reader?! Wait... no, he’s just a desperate little angel who wants to survive! Ahhh, my heart strings! Nine, give me the medical blueprints right now! We are saving this baby whether the plot likes it or not!]
Xi Lanyin stood completely paralyzed by the bedside, her hands trembling. Her eyes darted frantically between her sickly little brother and Su Yueqing. Her ears were still ringing with the loud, high-pitched mental screaming about "epic monologues" and "saving the baby," making her question if she had suddenly contracted the same fever as her brother.
Little Anran, however, didn’t care about the weird voices in her head. She just looked at her brother, a tiny ray of hope shining in her tear-stained eyes.
"Sister Lanyin.. I think there is hope for Little brother after all."