After the door closed, Jiaming looked through the peephole, spying on Xu Mo’s reactions outside. Then Yahan shoved him aside. She looked for a while. Finally, she sighed: “This is just great. You’ve ruined my reputation.”
“I beg your pardon. You came here by yourself ok? It’s not as if I dragged you over.” Jiaming stared back at her. “Besides, you don’t need to worry about that.”
“Why?”
“Because you can’t ruin what was never there.”
“What was never there….” Yahan was baffled for a second, then laughed as she aimed a kick. Jiaming promptly retreated to a safe distance: “Settle down, settle down, it’s so late already. What was your purpose in coming over?”
“Don’t say you can’t sleep, don’t say you can’t sleep, don’t say you can’t sleep……”, he beseeched silently as he invited Yahan to sit on the chair. Jiaming glimpsed the two malevolent glares coming from within the bathroom doorway so he quickly put back on his innocent face. Then Yahan gave another sigh: “I can’t sleep……”
“Uh, you can’t sleep……it’s not as if I can cure insomnia. I already told you guys not to watch horror movies……”
“Actually……I kept thinking about what you said earlier on the deck but I didn’t know how to ask.”
“On the deck?”
When the ship lost power, you said it was going to sink……”
“Ah, hehe……” Jiaming laughed, “That was purely me joking, did you think it was for real?”
“But how can there be such a coincidence? One mention from you and the power went off. Granted it’s a new ship, but something like that is still implausible. Also you……” Yahan can be considered someone who knew exactly what kind of person Jiaming was. Afraid that she was about to ask if there were some kind of sinister goings on happening behind the scenes, Jiaming hastily interrupted. He looked at her sincerely: “Of course it’s a coincidence, haha… really, there’s no mistake, believe me.”
The back of the chair was obstructing Lingjing and Shasha’s view from the bathroom. Jiaming and Yahan faced each other for what seemed like an eternity. Yahan hesitantly: “Your voice……there’s something odd……”
“Eh, what’s odd about it? Anyway, that was just me running my mouth off. In any case……uh……”He gave a yawn, ”Don’t worry, how can there be such a coincidence? If I was that good at predictions, I would’ve become a fortune teller long ago. Don’t think too much, go back and sleep. You just got spooked after watching that horror movie. I already told you not to watch……”
“……” Yahan stared at him for a while, then laughed, looking around. Lingjing and Shasha were scared into moving deeper into the bathroom. “You aren’t being honest ah, trying to chase me out. Can it be you’re hiding a girl here? Lingjing or Shasha?”
Jiaming rolled his eyes: “It’s that Natalie, daughter of the Duke of Annis. I just picked her up. Right now, she’s sleeping inside. It’s fine if you want to look, but please don’t disturb her and wake her up. As you know, being a duke’s daughter, she’s likely somewhat temperamental. Of course, she wouldn’t dare act that way with me, but as for you, I’m not able to say.”
“Tssk, keep on blowing hot air.” Yahan peered inside the bedroom, then took stock of Jiaming’s tired looking face. “Ok, you already said it’s going to be fine. I’m going, you rest well”.
“The way you say it, it seems if something does happen, it’ll be my responsibility.”
“If you don’t take responsibility, who will!” Yahan’s face turned a bit red for some reason. She looked outside through the peephole. Since she hadn’t been inside that long, she had to check that Xu Mo wasn’t still there. After a moment, she opened the door, said good bye and scurried out.
That was a close call. It was a good thing she didn’t let out anything about his unusual abilities and the activities he was involved in. Letting out a deep breath, he smiled and went over to the two girls inside: “Well? Now do you believe I’m innocent?”
“How are you innocent?” Lingjing laughed, returning with Shasha to the bed. “We heard everything. You’re hiding that girl called Natalie. Sister Yahan also wants you to take responsibility. Hmmph, how can you say you’re innocent!”
“That’s right.” Shasha had her body halfway out of the blanket. She was about to shake her fist when Jiaming charged into the bed. The two girls shrieked and dived like two meek little sheep inside the blanket. The sheets turned over and over, becoming a battlefield full of passion and warmth….
After the tempest came darkness and tranquility……snuggled inside the blankets, the two girls, satiated, were lazing in the afterglow, rubbing their cheeks like puppies against Jiaming’s chest. Shasha murmured: ”Jiaming, don’t forget to bring us back so that sister Yahan doesn’t find out. Also, I want some seasickness medication tomorrow….”
Cuddled in Jiaming’s other arm, Lingjing blearily opened her eyes after hearing Shasha’s word: “Seasickness medicine? Shasha, you’re seasick?”
“Uh, yeah……feel like throwing up sometimes, I……”
Following these words, Lingjing suddenly sat up. Jiaming also sensed something wrong, opening his mouth. Shasha, originally still a bit groggy, seeing Lingjing’s reaction, opened her eyes wide. All the sleepiness was gone. The three exchanged looks with each other. In the end it was Shasha who, hesitantly, spoke first: “No way, can it be……I’m pregnant?”
**************************************************************
The next morning, with big circles under their eyes, Lingjing and Shasha came out of their respective rooms. Only Jiaming seemed relatively normal. Last night, regarding the pregnancy, the three discussed it for half the night. Yes or no, if yes, keep it or not, the two girls were especially anxious about this matter. Even though it was still too early to know for sure, but it was something that they were always wary of. Now that there were slight symptoms, the two girls couldn’t help but feel that it was very likely.
As far as Jiaming was concerned, having any girl carrying his child was an unfathomable feeling. If it were his previous life, he probably wouldn’t give a damn. In order to avoid undue influence on himself because of sentiment, he might even personally kill the woman. However, the situation was different now. He already had deep feelings towards Shasha.
Logically he knew that it was too early to jump to conclusions. However, he really liked this feeling, this warmth. He wanted to have this child. Consequently……he gave no outward indication of what he preferred. He felt it would be too selfish.
Of course, the easiest solution is to have an abortion. At their age, being pregnant was really rare, something usually seen only on remote villages. However, when Shasha mentioned it, Lingjing objected: “Let’s just leave this area.”
This idea was rather impetuous. Jiaming could cast away his background as a member of the Huang family anytime, but how could Lingjing leave her parents? And even though Shasha did not spend that much time with her father on a day to day basis, it was also impossible for her to just leave. After their discussion, Shasha cried while holding on to Jiaming. Eventually Lingjing started crying too. Jiaming could only try comforting them, saying, it’s nothing, or, it’s really just seasickness. However, it had no effect.
After the crying spell was over, the three huddled up in the blanket and started discussing the consequences of having a child. They imagined what it would be like as a small family, what roles each one would have, what to name the child, etc. This feeling of closeness was actually very heartwarming. However deep down they all understood that if Shasha was really pregnant, it would be the biggest test to date that the three of them would have to face.
The two exhausted girls finally fell asleep at around 3 am. Jiaming dressed them in their pajamas and brought them back to their rooms. He also felt troubled. This was the first time in the past few years that he felt powerless. Even if this time was a false alarm, he also knew that in life there were many things that one can only be helpless against. If there was a child, their best choice might still be to abort……
Hopefully it was only a simple case of seasickness……After having breakfast, he immediately went to the ship’s clinic.