A song called "The You of the Past" has prompted the entire internet to beg me not to leav

Xinghai City, April.

At 7:30 in the morning, the kitchen of the hillside villa was filled with the aroma of top-quality ingredients being roasted over flames.

Morning light streams through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the entire wall, covering the marble island countertop.

Lin Yan wore a SpongeBob SquarePants apron around his waist, which was extremely incongruous with his net worth of hundreds of billions, and a pair of ten-yuan plastic flip-flops with free shipping.

He twirled a fine Damascus steel kitchen knife in his hand, his movements fluid and graceful as he skillfully sliced ​​the belly of a bluefin tuna that had just been airlifted from Hokkaido that morning.

Next to it, in an expensive clay pot, seafood porridge bubbled and bubbled, made with five-year-old premium fish maw and wild Australian abalone.

"Sprinkle some freshly ground black pepper, all done." Lin Yan snapped his fingers in satisfaction and turned down the stove.

Since getting married, this musical god who once made the Chinese music scene tremble and the North American Grammy Awards bow down and sing "Conquer" has completely shed his disguise and is now comfortably living the life of a full-time househusband in this 5,000-square-meter mansion.

Countless investors outside were waving blank checks, begging him to come out of retirement. Some even offered a reward of tens of millions of dollars on the dark web just for a demo, but he didn't even give them a second glance.

The reasons for refusing were surprisingly consistent: "I don't have time, the ribs in the pot need to reduce the sauce."

A soft slouching sound came from the stairwell.

Shen Qingqiu wore a moon-white silk nightgown, her long hair casually tied up with a jade hairpin, and slowly walked downstairs in wool slippers.

She wore no makeup, and her exquisite features possessed a natural, cool elegance in the morning light. But when she looked up and her gaze fell upon the busy figure in the kitchen, the coolness in her eyes melted away instantly, like spring snow.

"Chef Lin, what dish are you going to choose today?" Shen Qingqiu walked to the central island counter, rested her chin on her hand, and smiled faintly but sweetly.

Lin Yan turned around and pushed the tuna sashimi and secret soy sauce, which were arranged like works of art, in front of her. He then rubbed the back of his hand against her smooth cheek.

"Premium fish maw and seafood congee, with tuna belly. Specially made to nourish your brain." Lin Yan snorted, his tone tinged with a doting complaint, "Last night I saw you in the study having that video conference about some European mergers and acquisitions, staying up until 2 a.m. I was so worried about you I almost called Lao Liang and had him airdropped to Somalia to fight pirates overnight."

While complaining, he grabbed a heat-resistant mat and brought the steaming pot of seafood porridge to the table.

Shen Qingqiu couldn't help but laugh out loud: "Old Liang was so scolded by you yesterday that he didn't dare answer my calls. The acquisition is in its final sprint, a deal worth hundreds of billions of euros, I have to keep an eye on it myself."

"A few hundred billion is nothing." Lin Yan scoffed, ladled out a small bowl of thick, hot porridge, gently stirred it with a spoon to cool it down, and handed it to Shen Qingqiu. "Drink it while it's hot. I spent half an hour just picking out the innards from these abalone. They're pure fresh and have no fishy smell."

Shen Qingqiu obediently picked up the spoon, scooped up a spoonful, and brought it to her lips.

However, the moment the hot air, mixed with the umami flavors of fish maw and abalone, entered her nostrils, Shen Qingqiu's hand, which was about to grab a spoon, suddenly stopped.

In less than half a second, her face turned deathly pale, and an uncontrollable physiological aversion surged in her clear eyes. She pushed away the porcelain bowl in front of her.

"Sizzle—" The bottom of the bowl rubbed violently against the marble tabletop, producing a piercing, sharp sound.

"vomit--"

Shen Qingqiu covered her mouth tightly, her delicate eyebrows furrowed in pain, and she pushed the chair away abruptly, stumbling towards the first-floor restroom.

Lin Yan was wiping the stove with a pure cotton rag when he heard the noise and turned around. He froze instantly like a statue.

"Clang!"

The custom-made kitchen knife worth 180,000 yuan in his hand slammed straight onto the floor tile, chipping a glaring gash.

The richest man in China, who was just a moment ago enjoying tea and reaping profits during the financial crisis, has now completely lost control of his brain.

Having lived two lives, he had never been afraid of the fierce business battles and the stage of a concert with tens of thousands of people. But when he saw Shen Qingqiu's painful retching back, his heart felt as if it were being tightly gripped by an invisible hand.

Acute gastroenteritis? Food poisoning? Or... a terminal illness?!

The terminal illness scenes from various prime-time Korean dramas played out in his mind at ten times the speed.

"Wife!"

Lin Yan let out a wild, distorted roar, not even bothering to put on his slippers, and rushed into the bathroom barefoot on the cold floor tiles like a madman.

In the restroom, Shen Qingqiu was bracing herself on the sink, violently dry heaving. Because her stomach was empty, she was vomiting only bile. Her eyes were bloodshot, and a fine layer of cold sweat beaded on her forehead.

Lin Yan rushed over, swept her up in his arms, his movements as gentle as if he were carrying a piece of exquisite porcelain, yet his strength carried an undeniable domineering force. Feeling Shen Qingqiu's body trembling slightly, he completely panicked.

"Qingqiu, what's wrong? Does your stomach hurt? Was it because that lousy seafood wasn't clean? Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, I'll take you to the hospital. Even if God comes, he can't take you away!"

Lin Yan was completely incoherent, even the last syllable of his voice was trembling, and his eyes were red with anxiety. He picked up Shen Qingqiu and turned to rush outside.

Shen Qingqiu leaned weakly against his chest, and the faint scent of minty shower gel on his body slightly reduced her nausea.

She wanted to reach out and pat her dramatic husband, telling him that she was probably just having an upset stomach and there was no need to make such a fuss. But a lump formed in her throat, and she could only manage a few weak groans.

These few soft hums sounded to Lin Yan as nothing less than a death notice.

He carried Shen Qingqiu into the living room and roared at the top of his lungs at the empty villa, "David! Where the hell have you been! Get the hell out here in three seconds!"

The three-layered security perimeter surrounding the hillside villa instantly activated its highest-level red alert upon hearing this roar.

Just two and a half seconds.

"Bang!"

The heavy bulletproof door to the living room was kicked open.

David, the former Navy SEAL captain and now the head of security for the Lin family, fully armed and carrying a tactical riot shield in one hand, led twelve top-tier mercenaries, heavily armed and with murderous eyes, into the living room like a black tide.

The intense beams of several tactical flashlights instantly locked onto all the blind spots inside the room.

"Boss! Where are the enemies? Snipers are in position, please provide the target coordinates!" David's muscles were taut, like a polar bear about to pounce, vigilantly searching for even the smallest fly.

The proprietress suffered a terrible mishap while having breakfast; it must have been poisoned by a top-notch ghost assassin hired by a business rival!

"Assassin, you son of a bitch! Prepare the car! To Xinghai City United Family Hospital! Immediately! Right now!"

Lin Yan's eyes were bloodshot, and he stood barefoot on the expensive Persian carpet, his SpongeBob SquarePants apron he wore heaving violently with his heavy breathing.

David looked at the pale-faced landlady, then at the boss who wasn't even wearing shoes, and immediately imagined a tragic drama of "the landlady stepping forward to shield her love from poison."

"Understood! Level 1 escort formation! Group A, lead the way! Group B, provide cover! All units, switch to combat mode!" David roared into his headset.

Thirty seconds later.

A convoy of five all-black, bulletproof Maybachs, like five completely berserk steel beasts, roared and tore apart the tranquility of the winding mountain road. The lead car had its accelerator floored, speeding towards the city in a drifting manner that almost defied the laws of physics.

Inside the second main vehicle.

In the spacious leather seats in the back, Lin Yan carefully held Shen Qingqiu in his arms and dialed a satellite phone with one hand.

"Old Liang, listen up." Lin Yan's voice was sinister and hoarse from extreme tension. "Notify Xinghai United Family Hospital. Within five minutes, I want all the top experts in their gastroenterology, toxicology, and hematology departments to drop everything and line up at the emergency room entrance to wait for me!"

On the other end of the phone, Lao Liang, who was sitting in the conference room on the 66th floor of the group's headquarters preparing to sign a multi-billion dollar merger deal, suddenly trembled and drew a terrible black line on the contract with his pure gold pen.

"Boss... what happened? Is our group going to go bankrupt and be liquidated?" Old Liang's voice was trembling.

"Bankruptcy is nothing! Qingqiu's in trouble, she's been dry heaving! I don't care what methods you use, if the experts aren't here in five minutes, I'll throw you and your desk off the 66th floor!"

"Beep beep beep—" The phone was hung up immediately.

Old Liang sprang from his leather chair, a button flying off his suit jacket. Completely ignoring the stunned European consortium representative opposite him, he frantically ordered his assistant outside the door: "Contact the head of United Family Healthcare immediately! Activate the highest priority SS-level medical contingency plan! Enough talk, get there! The sky is falling!"

Inside the carriage, Shen Qingqiu looked at Lin Yan's hand, which was so hard that his knuckles turned white. After the nausea subsided, she managed to force a smile that was both amusing and helpless, and raised her hand to touch Lin Yan's chin, which was covered in cold sweat.

"Lin Yan, watch your step... I'm really not poisoned, it's just that the fishy smell of the porridge makes me feel nauseous. With all this fuss, people who don't know any better will think Xinghai City is about to fight aliens."

"Shut up! Conserve your energy, don't fall asleep!" Lin Yan gripped her hand tightly, his palms slick with cold sweat. He roared at the driver's seat, "Driver, faster! Step on the gas!"

"Boom—" The V12 engine emitted a deafening roar.

Five minutes later, the convoy made a sharp turn, accompanied by the screeching sound of rubber tires, and came to a stop in front of the emergency building of Xinghai City United Family Private Hospital.

The gate was already cordoned off with yellow and black police tape. The 64-year-old dean, accompanied by twelve white-haired department heads and experts, pushed the hospital's most advanced mobile stretcher, their expressions so solemn as if they were about to perform the first human head transplant.

The car door popped open.

Lin Yan, barefoot and wearing that eye-catching apron, carried Shen Qingqiu and charged into the crowd like a cheetah protecting its cubs.

"Doctor! Look at her! She just threw up!" Lin Yan's voice was cracking.

Seeing this, the old hospital director's heart leaped into his throat. Could this "hidden benefactor," who had fully acquired Amcare Medical Group, be in such a panic? Had Chairman Shen contracted some rare, acute, terminal illness, the world's first case of its kind?!

"Quick! Put him on a stretcher! Move him to the top-tier VIP MRI room immediately! Gastroenterology department, prepare a gastric lavage plan; hematology department, draw blood for testing immediately; establish dual intravenous access within two minutes!" With a wave of his hand, the head of the hospital's top-tier medical team sprang into action like a sophisticated war machine, operating frantically and efficiently.

Shen Qingqiu, completely bewildered and utterly dejected, was firmly pressed onto a stretcher and rushed into the deep emergency corridor.

Outside the emergency room, a scarlet warning light illuminated.

Lin Yan paced restlessly barefoot on the cold floor tiles, like a wild beast trapped in a cage. David, with dozens of bodyguards in black, had sealed off the entire floor, preventing even a single unregistered mosquito from getting in.

Time ticked away, each second agonizingly slowing his nerves. Lin Yan stared intently at the door, his fingernails digging into his palms without him even noticing. He even made a solemn vow in his heart: if anything were to happen to Shen Qingqiu, he would give up his entire fortune, even if it meant buying up every life-extending machine in the world, to keep him alive!

"Click".

The door was pushed open. The old dean held a thin report in his hand, his expression extremely strange. He looked like someone who had been constipated for three days and suddenly felt better, wanting to laugh but desperately holding it in, his cheek muscles twitching wildly.

"How is it? Is it a tumor? Malignant or benign? Has the poisoning damaged any internal organs? Use the best medicine! Money is not a problem at all!" Lin Yan rushed forward, gripping the old dean's shoulders with both hands like iron clamps, his eyes filled with terrifying bloodshot veins.

The old dean gasped as he was pinched, quickly raised the lab report above his head, took a deep breath, and dropped a bombshell that was enough to cause a magnitude 10 earthquake in Xinghai City.

"Mr. Lin...please calm down. Chairman Shen is in very good health; she has not been poisoned, nor does she have a tumor."

The old dean finally couldn't help but show a fatherly smile of satisfaction.

"She's just...pregnant."

Lin Yan was instantly struck dumb.