spring bite mark

Chapter 134 The Difficulties of Being a Father

Jiang Manman was angry.

Normally, this scoundrel would cause trouble every few days, and she had become quite accustomed to his antics. But she never imagined that this man would actually do something like secretly hiding their biological child as an illegitimate child from the light of day. Was he even human?
My mind keeps drifting to the image of my child, who just walked out of my bedroom looking dejected.

Was that actually her child?

She had just given him so many cold looks and indifference...

Jiang Manman looked at Yan Changye, who showed no remorse, and was furious: "Yan Changye, he's six years old! You've hidden him for six years. Have you ever seen a man deliberately hide his child to amuse his wife?"

Yan Changye's gaze fell on her, a faint smile playing on his lips, his tone filled with resentment:

"So it's my fault now? Yes, those months of getting pregnant and giving birth were a blur for you, but I wasn't much better off. I had a terrible time too, experiencing the most miserable days of my life."

Jiang Manman retorted, "You look disheveled? Are you pregnant or have you just gone through the pain of childbirth?"

"Madam, you can't say that."

Yan Changye was genuinely reluctant to mention that painful memory:
"That year, I was only twenty-three years old, fresh out of school, and had never even been in a relationship. In my life plan, let alone having children, I even felt like I was still a child myself. But under such circumstances, I was suddenly knocked unconscious by two children. Madam, you are confused, but I am even more confused."

Jiang Manman glared at him: "You don't like them?"

Yan Changye chuckled sarcastically, "You talk as if you like it. I heard you ran yourself ragged trying to get the abortion paperwork done, and you only accepted them because you had no other choice."

Jiang Manman was silent for a moment.

Yan Changye wasn't intentionally making sarcastic remarks or embarrassing her. He quickly changed the subject to himself:

"To be honest, I didn't really like them at the time. You could grab one with one hand. I've never seen them so small and ugly, like hairless red frogs... I wanted to turn around and leave several times, but I held back when I thought about how they were my children."

Jiang Manman: "..."

Yan Changye didn't notice Jiang Manman's face turning black with anger. He was lost in his own memories of that time, his voice slow and deliberate:
“Those few months were particularly tough when I went to the port city. Most fathers are hands-off, but I was forced to put aside a lot of work and spend all my time in the incubator watching over them. They were so small, with tubes inserted into their bodies all over them. I was notified of their critical condition almost every few days. The thing I did most often was sign the resuscitation consent form. I also signed two death notices during that time.”

Jiang Manman's eyes welled up with tears of heartache: "You didn't tell me? I could have taken over watching over them. I didn't know they were still alive and suffering so much."

Yan Changye's gaze fell on her, and he said matter-of-factly, "No matter how ugly or weak my son is, I won't tolerate him being disliked. You say you don't want them, and I still come all the way here to talk to you about them? That would be too humiliating for me."

Jiang Manman suppressed the urge to curse. Yes, the man in front of her was none other than the most arrogant and noble Crown Prince of Yanjing in the capital, notoriously petty.

In his eyes, self-esteem is more important than the truth...

She took a deep breath: "How long have they endured this kind of suffering?"

"Six months." Yan Changye clearly remembered the key points of that period very well. "At first, we were being resuscitated every three to five days, then every seven or eight days, and then every half month or so. When the children were six months old, their condition stabilized, and that painful period finally ended. But even at six months old, they didn't look as big as newborns, and before the age of three, they were frequently hospitalized, making their physical condition much worse than others."

His gaze softened slightly: "They're still ugly, of course, but I'm not so disgusted with them anymore, after all, I've put so much effort into them. And when they're occasionally lucid, they'll smile at me, babble to me like babies, stare at me with their adorable, silly eyes, and even scratch my fingers with their matchstick-like claws..." Jiang Manman sensed the doting in his tone and looked at him with complicated emotions.

Yan Changye's voice was so soft it was almost ethereal: "It was around that time that I realized I had fallen in love with them."

Jiang Manman didn't know what expression to make, feeling both angry and sad: "You fell in love with them, but I was still kept in the dark. I can understand that you didn't care about me during the six months of rescue, but then we got married! Yan Changye, we've been sharing a bed, and you're still hiding it for the sake of your ridiculous pride. How can you be so unreliable?"

Yan Changye coughed lightly: "I actually confessed to you twice—"

The first time was after the child had just been sent to the port city and was temporarily stable, Yan Changye thought of the mother of his child in the capital.

Given Jiang Manman's delicate and pampered nature, she probably wouldn't tell the Jiang family about this and would choose to bear it all alone.

Hearing that a poor postpartum period could lead to lifelong health problems, Yan Changye couldn't bear to leave and hurriedly returned to the capital.

As he expected, Jiang Manman was immersed in grief, eating cold food and being exposed to the cold wind, living a miserable life.

She was frail, but her children came and went quickly, and her figure hardly changed. Her face was so thin that only her pointed chin remained, which made the sorrow in her round almond-shaped eyes even more obvious.

It was then that he learned that the woman had no memory of what happened that night, and could even mistake the child's biological father.

He tried to tell her the truth: "Is it possible that it was actually me that night?"

"It's you?" Jiang Manman's reply was so disgusting it could make someone want to vomit. "You're a womanizer, and even if it's you, I still can't accept it."

Yan Changye was really angry! He had become a father out of nowhere and taken on two hot potatoes, and he was already full of resentment. Now, he was being disliked by Jiang Manman. He had lost all face and had no intention of telling the truth.
Anyway, even after telling the truth, he was still rejected. When has Yan Changye ever been rejected by a woman like this?

Furthermore, the child's condition is not optimistic, and he could leave this world at any time. Telling her about the child at this time, regardless of whether she would be disgusted or not, even if she were willing to accept it, she might still end up facing death...

Several thoughts flashed through Yan Changye's mind, but in the end he couldn't say anything. He simply arranged for a top-notch caregiver to take good care of him.

Meanwhile, back in the port city, the child's condition became urgent again, and he couldn't care less about Jiang Manman; he immediately rushed back...

Later, after months of rescue efforts, the child was finally pulled back from the brink of death, and he once again considered confessing to Jiang Manman.

My mind keeps replaying Jiang Manman's words in the hospital, "I don't want children," and her words during her postpartum confinement, "Even you and I couldn't accept it..."

So this time, when he went to the capital, in addition to bringing documents for Xie Yuheng, he also brought the "Divorce Agreement" and the "Custody Agreement".

If Xie Yunxi and Jiang Manman's marriage was a mistake, he chose to end that mistake.

As for the kids…

He never even considered returning the child he had painstakingly rescued.

(End of this chapter)