I'm sorry, but your fiancé loves me.

Not long after, Zhou Yao confessed his feelings to Yun Muqian.

In the evening, he asked her out to dinner at a quiet Japanese restaurant. They were alone in the private room. He kept trying to find topics to talk about, and Yun Muqian listened, occasionally responding.

Halfway through the meal, Zhou Yao suddenly fell silent. He put down his chopsticks, looked at her, and spoke as if he had mustered up his courage for a long time:

"I...I want to tell you something."

He said seriously:

"I really like you, I'm... really serious about it. Will you be my girlfriend?"

"Zhou Yao, I don't plan to be in a relationship right now."

Zhou Yao was taken aback. "Why?"

"I'm just not in the mood for that." She picked up her teacup, took a sip, and said calmly, "You're a good person, but I'm not thinking about relationships right now."

Zhou Yao said "Oh," then lowered his head and rummaged through his rice a couple of times, as if he didn't know what to say. After a while, he looked up again, his voice lower than before:

"Well...we can talk about it later."

Yun Muqian did not respond.

Looking at the undisguised disappointment on his face, she suddenly found it somewhat amusing.

A few days later, Yun Muqian began to feel that something was wrong.

She felt dizzy when she woke up in the morning and had to stand up slowly to steady herself. She thought it was because she hadn't been sleeping well for the past few days and didn't pay much attention to it.

But in the afternoon, a feeling of nausea suddenly surged up. She was sitting at her workstation typing on the computer when she suddenly felt a churning in her stomach. She covered her mouth and rushed into the bathroom, where she dry-heaved several times at the sink.

She didn't vomit anything, but the taste of stomach acid came back up, making her eyes sting.

She stood leaning against the sink for a while, then looked up at herself in the mirror.

Her face was a little pale, and her lips were a bit lighter in color.

She looked down and counted the days, realizing that during the most dangerous period, she had indeed eaten later than usual.

She was a little worried at the time, but later didn't pay much attention, thinking it couldn't be such a coincidence.

She straightened up, washed her face with cold water, tidied her expression in front of the mirror, and then pushed open the door and went out.

She became very cautious over the next few days.

When eating, try to choose light meals. In the morning, sit on the bed for a while before getting out of bed, and try to avoid any actions that might reveal anything to Qin Qihan.

She plans to buy a pregnancy test herself at some time.

What if I really am pregnant...

It's not that she doesn't want the child—it's just that the child came too early, so early that she wasn't ready to let anyone know, so early that she wasn't sure if the child should be in her current plans.

But she couldn't keep it a secret for long.

That night, Qin Qihan took her to a Chinese restaurant he frequented. She lowered her head, picked up a piece of fish with her chopsticks, put it in her mouth, chewed it a couple of times, and the fishy smell suddenly seemed to be amplified tenfold, rushing straight into her nasal cavity.

She put down her chopsticks, covered her mouth, turned to the side, and gagged.

Qin Qihan's gaze immediately fell upon them.

"What's wrong?" He put down his chopsticks and looked at her, his voice carrying a tension she rarely heard from him.

"It's nothing, the fish was just a little fishy," she said, waving her hand. "I guess I haven't had much of an appetite lately."

Qin Qihan looked at her but didn't reply. He was silent for a few seconds, then said, "Let's go to the hospital tomorrow."

"No need, it's probably just something I ate that upset my stomach these past few days." She picked up her water glass and took a sip, trying to suppress the nausea. "I'll just be careful..."

"You're pregnant, aren't you?" he said.

She didn't look up at him, but simply said, "That's impossible..."

That night, after returning home, Yun Muqian went to the pharmacy and bought a pregnancy test.

She stayed in the bathroom alone for a few minutes, and when she came out, she was holding the pregnancy test in her hand, glancing at it under the light—

A line. A clean, straight line.

She breathed a sigh of relief and handed him the pregnancy test: "See, it's negative."

Qin Qihan took the pregnancy test, glanced at it, then placed it on the coffee table and looked up at her:

"It might not be accurate. Go to the hospital for a check-up tomorrow."

Yun Muqian was taken aback: "The test results are all negative, why go to the hospital? Pregnancy tests are usually quite accurate."

"No."

The next morning, she went to the hospital, registered, queued, had her blood drawn, and waited for the results. She sat on a plastic chair in the waiting area, watching people coming and going in the corridor. Qin Qihan was sitting next to her. For a moment, she felt as if the two of them were husband and wife.

The results came out very quickly.

The doctor glanced at the lab results and said calmly, "You're not pregnant, and all your indicators are normal. It's probably just stomach discomfort caused by irregular eating habits recently; just keep an eye on it."

Yun Muqian took the test report, glanced at the data, and confirmed that the word "negative" was clearly written on the line.

The tension that had been building up inside her finally eased.

On the way back, he drove a little slower than he had come. Yun Muqian leaned back in the passenger seat, looking out the window. She wasn't trying to appear happy, but Qin Qihan still said:

"Why do you seem so happy?"

"No, I didn't," she said, her voice lighthearted. "I just felt there was nothing wrong with it, but you insisted on coming, making a wasted trip."

Qin Qihan did not let go of her hand:

"You said you don't have parents, what do the rest of your family do?"

"Just an ordinary family from a small town, nothing much to say."

"Where is this small place?"

"You wouldn't understand even if I told you," she said casually. "It's quite far from here; I haven't been back in a long time."

Qin Qihan was silent for two seconds before the car slowly came to a stop at the red light. He turned to look at her, his gaze lingering on her face for a moment.

"When will you take me to see it?"

Yun Muqian's heart skipped a beat. She didn't show it on her face, only letting out a soft laugh.

Are you serious?

"Um."

"There's no need for that. I've stopped contacting any of my relatives."

Yun Muqian thought that the topic was over.

But after crossing an intersection, he spoke again: "You don't want people to know about us."

She said, "It's not that I don't want people to know... it's just that I feel it's too early to say these things now."

"Good morning." He repeated the word, then said, "What do you consider to be not early?"

But what is their relationship?

There has never been a formal definition between them, but his posture suggests that he is serious.

"I just feel like I'm not ready yet."

Qin Qihan simply said, "Then tell me when you're ready."