Lu Qin couldn’t resist pushing his luck. If Pei Rong could sit on his lap while eating, just like that time in the manor when he was persuading him to drink…
He’d originally planned to take Pei Rong to the manor tonight anyway.
Two grown men quickly finished the pancake in a few bites. Meanwhile, Pei Dundun, full and content, slid off the couch and ran over to Lu Qin. “Daddy, come look at my new toy!”
“What kind of toy has you so excited?” Lu Qin asked, intrigued. Madam Jiang sent Dundun new toys almost every day, but he rarely got this enthusiastic.
When it came to giving toys, it was still Pei Rong who had the magic touch, Lu Qin thought. 'Clearly, they weren’t spending enough time with Dundun.'
Lu Qin let himself be dragged to the base of the stairs, where he saw what looked like a cleaning cart for supermarkets or malls. It swept and mopped in one go, and you could even sit on it to operate it, looking down on everyone else while it roared noisily as it moved.
Lu Qin: "…"
He finally remembered. The large wooden delivery box by the staircase last time was probably used to store this massive supermarket floor-cleaning machine.
When the package arrived last time, Uncle Zhang and the others were preparing to return to their hometown and didn’t have time to unpack the wooden crate, so they left it inside the house.
"Dad, do you know how to operate it?" Pei Dundun pulled a folded instruction manual out of his pocket. "Dad told me to read the manual myself."
He scratched his cheek. "But there are so many words I don’t know."
Lu Qin: What do you mean by letting the little kid read the manual himself? Isn’t it just waiting for him to operate it instead?
Lu Qin took the manual, scanned the buttons, and was forced to master a new skill.
He went up to test it, successfully started it, and the fan began to roar. The front suction rollers started spinning, and a wave of warm air blew out from the back.
Pei Dundun reached out eagerly. "Dad, hurry up and carry me onto it!"
Lu Qin paused the power, bent down to pick up the little kid, and placed him in the middle of his legs. He patiently explained the functions of each button and how to steer the wheel.
Pei Dundun declared, "With this, we won’t have to worry about the cat shedding fur anymore."
The father and son began operating the machine around their 300-square-meter villa.
Amid the deafening noise of the vacuum, Pei Rong sat down on the sofa. "What nonsense did you say to President Lu?"
Jiang Yan, astonished, replied, "It’s the first time I’ve seen President Lu taking care of his kid in person. I don’t know if I should admire your skill or how charming Dundun is."
Pei Rong: "I’m asking you."
Jiang Yan, looking innocent, said, "I didn’t say anything."
Pei Rong frowned. "Then why does he look so upset? I didn’t even offend him."
"Oh, that." Jiang Yan seemed to suddenly remember. "I told him about how rudimentary the operating room was when Dundun was born. To keep it confidential, we couldn’t even gather a full team of licensed doctors and nurses. It was just me and my senior fumbling through it. We couldn’t find an experienced anesthesiologist either, so your anesthesia wore off for days before you woke up. I just suggested that, for Dundun’s sake, maybe President Lu could invest in our hospital for new equipment."
Pei Rong’s breath hitched. "You call that not spouting nonsense?! It’s all in the past—what’s the point of bringing it up now, other than scaring him? Do you want to see me get into trouble?"
No wonder Lu Qin looked so upset. He didn’t even dare get in the car when he saw him at the sanatorium entrance.
Jiang Yan raised an eyebrow. "Everything I said was true. If you’d informed President Lu earlier, wouldn’t we now have the most advanced operating rooms? Wouldn’t we be able to hire the top anesthesiologists? Didn’t your anesthesia really wear off before you woke up?"
Obstetricians can only manage up to the cesarean delivery itself. If complications arise, the patient must be transferred to another department for emergency care.
As for this "other department," neither Jiang Yan nor Pei Rong had the resources to ensure it was the very best.
Pei Rong: “...” Fine.
Who would’ve thought that the upright and serious Dr. Jiang would resort to such creative wording?
Is there really such a thing as perfection in this world? Does insisting on having the very best in everything always guarantee the best outcomes?
At Jiang Yan’s hospital, at least, he was in the best mood.
Pei Rong: “Isn’t Dr. Wen a top-tier obstetrician? She just slept a bit longer than usual after the surgery, that’s all.”
Jiang Yan: “Go explain that to President Lu. I was terrified, to be honest.”
Pei Rong fell silent. Ah, explaining things to Lu Qin would only come across as making excuses. Fortunately, Lu Qin’s attention had been diverted by Dundun.
At least the little kid wasn’t born in vain.
Jiang Yan stretched lazily, smiling slyly like a fox: “I’ll stay overnight at the sanatorium to keep watch. You get a good night’s sleep.”
Pei Rong’s reaction amused him enough to laugh for three days straight.
It was hilarious. As the lead surgeon, who in their right mind would immediately face President Lu and say, "Your wife was unconscious for a full day after surgery." How many lives would it cost to stir up that level of trouble?
But if Pei Rong were the one to explain, it wouldn’t be Jiang Yan’s responsibility anymore. Lu Qin needed to understand Pei Rong’s struggles, and Pei Rong needed to learn to open up.
Jiang Yan truly worried himself to death over Pei Rong’s family happiness!
Meanwhile, Pei Dundun displayed an extraordinary level of focus. He and his dad cleaned every inch of the 300-square-meter villa before reluctantly getting out of the car.
With his hands behind his back, his big eyes wide, and his chubby little face full of innocence, Dundun said sweetly, “Dundun’s done the work, so Daddy doesn’t have to do chores anymore.”
If only he had bought it earlier, his dad wouldn’t have gotten mad at him for keeping pet mice.
Uncle Zhang had said that there were plenty of mice in supermarkets.
When Pei Dundun saw a rideable floor-cleaning robot at the supermarket, he immediately asked Uncle Jiang to place an order.
“Does your dad even clean anything other than the bedroom floor?”
Obviously, this was just an excuse to play.
Pei Dundun: “Hmm, that might be true!”
Lu Qin felt conflicted. Who could’ve guessed that his fate this evening would be reduced to being the family’s cleaning service?
How could a villa cleaner dare to get angry with such a beauty?
Whenever he said a few words, Pei Rong would recall his awkward appearance on the little electric scooter and the robotic vacuum cleaner—utterly devoid of any elegance or charisma.
He should find a day to bring Pei Rong to the Lu Corporation building, let him see how cold and commanding he could be in meetings while scolding people, or how he dominated at the negotiation table with zero-sum strategies. Afterward, he’d bring him to the office and teach him a lesson—he could flatten or reshape him however he wanted, even tiger-head shoes wouldn’t help him.
Lu Qin gave both himself and the little one a bath, dried their hair, and gently pushed open the bedroom door.
Since the beauty had gone to bed alone first, he was lying in the middle of the large bed.
Lu Qin placed the little one on the side shielded by a vertical board, then wrapped his arms around Pei Rong from behind.
Pei Rong’s fingers twitched slightly, pretending to be asleep. He had no intention of being dragged into a discussion about the surgical matter.
Lu Qin paused for a moment. No one understood better than him whether Pei Rong was pretending to sleep. He could even sense that it wasn’t about avoiding further intimacy but about dodging a specific issue.
Even though the issue Pei Rong was avoiding was frustrating, it at least proved one thing: his anger had been effective.
If Pei Rong didn’t care about him, he wouldn’t bother paying attention to his mood at all.
Husbandly authority restored, 1%!
