Marry by Relying on Favor: Chapter 116 - Take The Initiative to Call Him
Chapter 116: Take The Initiative to Call Him
After He Qingchi returned to Wushan Town, she hadn’t seen Wen Shuchen again for nearly a week.
His movements were always kept confidential to the outside world, rarely appearing in newspapers or on the news, and He Qingchi did not deliberately pay attention to him either. Most of what she knew about Wen Shuchen lately came from the child.
Compared to her, the little one checked on his dad constantly, knowing every detail big and small.
Then, because He Qingchi had taken on another commission, she had been staying in the courtyard in Wushan Town for the past few days, acting as a seamstress again. She was so busy from morning to night that she had no time or energy to think about anything else.
Even so, the people around her—like Yao Jing—still noticed she had begun to show signs of life again.
She no longer shut herself inside a dark room making cheongsams all day, nor stayed awake half the night sitting before the vanity in her nightdress smoking, nor drifted through each day lifelessly with no interest in anything except cheongsams.
Having a child causing chaos around truly made a difference—He Qingchi had to spend at least half her time taking care of the little fellow.
On the weekend, after dinner, it was one of the rare times she didn’t accompany the child for a walk to help digestion, and instead asked the bodyguard to follow him.
Who could have known—while she was in the embroidery room with her grandmother, Yao Jing came in and told her that the child had fallen into the pond.
He Qingchi’s face instantly went pale; she put down her embroidery and walked out quickly.
The bodyguard returned carrying the dripping-wet little boy in one arm, looking deeply guilty.
“The young master wanted to catch a white goose from a nearby household, but ended up being chased into the pond. Luckily, he was pulled out right away!” Yao Jing explained breathlessly, still shaken, while going to fetch a bath towel.
Looking at her son, hunched and afraid to make a sound, He Qingchi didn’t even know what to say.
She took him inside first and asked Yao Jing to bring a basin of hot water. Fortunately, it was still early autumn—otherwise he would definitely have caught a cold.
“Little Sister Xiao Chi…” The little guy tried hard to maintain a calm expression, but his big, blinking eyes betrayed his guilt.
She had told him just two days ago not to go around catching other people’s geese.
And now he had been chased into the pond by one. Thankfully the bodyguard reacted quickly.
Seeing her stern expression and silence, the boy pitifully tried to make sense of it all. In a small, soft voice, he said: “I miss Daddy.”
“……”
When Yao Jing brought the hot water, He Qingchi stripped off his wet clothes, patiently wiped him down, then wrapped him from head to toe in a large bathrobe. Water dripped all over the wooden floor, his discarded clothes lying in a heap.
Only after she had cleaned up this muddy, messy little creature did she lift him onto the chaise longue.
He Qingchi rarely got angry at the child. She always thought for three minutes before speaking, so as not to let her emotions take over. “Your dad tells you not to sneak into the kitchen water jar to play with water—you listen. I tell you not to chase geese—and you ignore it like wind passing by your ears…”
“Mommy, what’s ‘wind passing by your ears’?” The little one blinked his big innocent eyes—kids his age always asked when they didn’t understand something.
He Qingchi: “…”
She paused for two seconds, then said, “If you keep this up, I’m going to call your dad.”
Upon hearing this, the boy immediately panicked. He pouted and complained, “You don’t even want to answer Daddy’s calls. You always pass them to me. And you still have the nerve to use him to scare a kid!”
No one understood the issues between He Qingchi and Wen Shuchen better than their child.
She was choked speechless by that line—she didn’t even know whether to put down her phone or pick it up.
Yao Jing came in with freshly warmed clothes and laughed. “Young master is always the most lively in front of Miss.”
Even at such a young age, he already knew how to behave differently with different people. In front of Wen Shuchen, he was as obedient as a little lamb—everything about Daddy was great. In front of other,s he was polite and well-behaved. Only with He Qingchi did he become talkative and cheeky.
Perhaps he knew that if he acted naughty, Mom wouldn’t really punish him.
After talking back for a bit, the little fellow started clinging to He Qingchi, whining, “Little Sister Xiao Chi, can’t you call Daddy? He’s a poor man who’s almost middle-aged already, so pitiful.”
“Who taught you to say that?” He Qingchi looked down at his fair, tender face.
Wen Shuchen was barely in his early thirties—how was that “middle-aged,” let alone “an old man”?
The little guy answered, “Auntie next door said that about her husband—she said her husband is an old man!”
At this moment, He Qingchi couldn’t help but admire Wen Shuchen’s parenting skills. Kids at this age could listen and repeat anything—one moment of carelessness, and they’d pick up who-knows-what.
She even worried that when she returned the child to Wen Shuchen, he might think the product had been swapped.
The boy, unaware of what his mom was thinking, finished putting on his little pants and immediately ran off, shouting for his great-grandmother, wanting roasted sweet potatoes.
He Qingchi watched his little legs scamper out of the room and didn’t stop him.
Yao Jing said, “Kids in the countryside get excited when they see new things. My relatives’ kids are the same.”
These words didn’t quite soothe He Qingchi. She sat on the edge of the chaise longue and tapped her phone screen awake.
After finishing up the cleaning, Yao Jing carried the things out.
The room was very quiet. The curtains hung low, blocking out the light from outside.
He Qingchi lowered her gaze, staring at the call log.
This phone should be Wen Shuchen’s private number. It rarely received any spam calls; most of the records were from him. Wen Shuchen had also applied for a WeChat account for the boy, and father and son usually kept in touch through the app.
He Qingchi never eavesdropped on what they said to each other. After staring at the screen for a long moment, she still didn’t take the initiative to call him.
When she backed out of the contacts, a news notification popped up on her screen.
He Qingchi didn’t think much of it and tapped the notification. The headline that appeared was about the Wen Corporation in Jiangcheng. She scrolled down and read the entire article word for word. A reporter directly reported that a senior executive of the Wen Corporation was suspected of illegal insider trading, causing significant turbulence in the stock market.
Her eyes stopped on the words referring to Wen Shuchen, the man in power. And right after that article was another report: a female hotel worker had approached the media claiming she had been assaulted a month ago. She couldn’t distinguish between Wen Shuchen and Wen Yue and, under police supervision, had identified them twice.
These reports together were enough to impact the Wen Corporation’s business.
He Qingchi searched the news online and quickly pieced things together from several media outlets.
She saw that one reporter had snapped a photo of Wen Shuchen’s side profile. Among a team of well-dressed elites in suits, his presence stood out—tall, composed, wearing a deep-blue suit. His posture was straight and calm. His secretary draped a black coat over his shoulders; he seemed to be coughing, head slightly bowed, one fist lightly covering his lips.
This was likely the first time Wen Shuchen had been exposed online, prompting the media to dig up his and Wen Yue’s old history.
In the internal struggles within the Wen Corporation in recent years, Wen Yue had ignored the company’s interests multiple times, angering many major shareholders. If not for Wen Jingchun leaving him a safeguard before his death, and Qiu Jin attempting to poison Wen Shuchen, Wen Yue wouldn’t have lasted this long.
Having shut out the outside world for four years, this was the first time He Qingchi personally looked into the Wen Corporation’s recent affairs.
She spent half an hour reading. Wen Yue’s attitude—being willing to drag Wen Shuchen down even if it meant destroying himself—left her with mixed feelings.
What exactly caused Qiu Jin’s death?
Everyone present at the Wen residence that day knew the truth: Wen Shuchen was the real victim.
And Wen Yue clearly blamed the Wen Corporation for everything.
Now that a scandal had broken out and Wen Yue was already shifting the blame, the media’s attention naturally turned to the head of the Wen Corporation. No wonder Wen Shuchen had said he would come to Wushan Town in a few days, but never showed up.
Every move he made must be under countless watchful eyes now.
He Qingchi picked up and put down her phone repeatedly—nearly ten times—before she finally hesitated and dialed Wen Shuchen’s number.
When the call connected, the low voices of a few men speaking in the background immediately ceased. They stepped aside, giving Wen Shuchen space to answer this call, which was clearly more important than deals worth billions.
Wen Shuchen’s breathing was low and steady. He waited for her to speak first.
He Qingchi spent a moment trying to think of an opening line but in the end didn’t ask how he was doing. Instead, she softly said, “Your son tried to catch a goose this evening and fell into the pond.”
Wen Shuchen’s calm, deep voice came through: “Were you frightened?”
Using the child as an opening always worked well.
He Qingchi expected him to be concerned about the child’s safety. She didn’t expect that to be his first question.
She froze for a few seconds before saying, “I wasn’t scared. Your son was the one who got scared—said he missed his dad.”
She hadn’t lied. The little guy really had said that.
He Qingchi recounted it confidently, quietly giving herself an excuse.
There was a brief pause on his side before he said, “It’s not convenient for me to come to Wushan Town recently. I’ll pick you both up when things settle.”
He Qingchi replied indifferently, “Suit yourself.”
They only exchanged a few sentences before she ran out of things to say.
Wen Shuchen, however, continued asking about her daily life—her sleep, her rest.
She answered simply. Several times she almost asked about his situation, but swallowed the words each time.
After about ten minutes, she heard his secretary reminding him that people were waiting for him. So she took the initiative to say, “I’m going to rest now.”
Wen Shuchen followed her lead and said quietly, “Good timing. I have something to attend to as well.”
He Qingchi made a soft sound of acknowledgment and held the phone to her ear, expecting him to hang up first.
But Wen Shuchen seemed to be thinking the same thing—neither hung up for several dozen seconds.
Hearing his breathing through the speaker, she finally realized this and quickly ended the call.
Her ears warmed unconsciously as she tossed the phone onto the chaise longue.
A call of less than fifteen minutes, yet she didn’t actually learn anything.
For the next two days, He Qingchi paid subtle attention to the news. Even if she could fool others, she couldn’t fool herself—whenever something involving Wen Shuchen appeared before her eyes, she simply couldn’t ignore it.
That afternoon, Wen Shuchen sent two bodyguards to Wushan Town.
They had brought two fluffy yellow ducklings for the child.
The little one was ecstatic, holding the ducklings that flapped in his arms and telling everyone in a soft baby voice that Daddy gave them to him.
Good thing this was the countryside—raising two ducklings would be easy.
Seeing how much he loved them, He Qingchi told the bodyguards to build a little pen in the courtyard.
“Ahhh—I love Daddy so much!”
The little guy grinned from ear to ear. He ran to his mother asking for her phone so he could send Daddy a voice message.
He Qingchi shook her head, handed him the phone, and reminded him, “You cannot kiss the ducklings on their beaks, alright?”
The boy had tried earlier, and the bodyguard had barely stopped him in time.
Hearing his mother say the same, he nodded obediently.
Only then did He Qingchi let him continue playing with the ducklings. She turned around and went back inside.
She didn’t listen to what the boy said to Wen Shuchen. She walked to the windowsill, picked up the half-finished qipao lying there, and used her needle to embroider delicate trim onto the sleeve. Her profile was lowered, expression calm.
At first, the lively sounds of the child playing came from the courtyard, but gradually, it grew quiet.
Until suddenly, a loud cry burst out—calling for “Mom.”
He Qingchi immediately pricked her finger with the fine needle, a bead of blood forming.
But hearing the little one crying for her, she had no time to worry about that. She stood up and went outside.
There were bodyguards and Yao Jing in the courtyard, so the only thing He Qingchi could think of was that the child had fallen or bumped into something. But when she stepped out, she saw a thin, unfamiliar woman standing at the gate—and the little boy was running toward her on his short legs, hugging her leg tightly and tearfully complaining, “Mommy, Mommy… that auntie tried to grab me!”
He Qingchi first looked down to make sure the boy wasn’t physically hurt. Once she was certain, she frowned and looked at the unfamiliar visitor.
Yao Jing hurried forward. “Just now, the young master was holding the ducklings and said he wanted to go play by the pond. He ran too fast, and I couldn’t catch up. Then he suddenly ran back, saying a strange aunt was trying to grab him.”
Clearly, it was the woman standing at the gate.
He Qingchi soothed the little boy for a while. Once his emotions calmed slightly, she asked Yao Jing to take him inside.
“No!” The boy’s soft, chubby hands clung tightly around her neck, his tear-streaked face pressed against her. His childish voice was low and trembling with grievance: “I want to stay with you!”
He Qingchi gave Yao Jing a look. Yao Jing understood and turned to question the woman who frightened the child: “Who are you looking for?”
The stranger stared at He Qingchi first, then slowly shifted her gaze to the child. “I didn’t mean to scare him.”
Yao Jing glanced back at He Qingchi, then asked again, “Do you need something?”
“My name is Fei Ying.”
She wouldn’t look away from He Qingchi. After introducing herself, she continued, “I can’t get in touch with Wen Shuchen or Wen Yue, so I could only come to you.”
The moment she heard the name Fei Ying, He Qingchi understood who she was.
There were no photos of Fei Ying online, but the name had spread throughout Jiangcheng.
She was the hotel server—
He Qingchi was calmer than Fei Ying expected. She continued gently soothing the boy while saying slowly, “Whatever it is, wait a moment.”
The child didn’t want to leave her side yet—she needed to comfort him.
And she definitely didn’t want to talk about scandalous topics in front of him.
Fei Ying bit her lip. She had been maliciously judged by everyone these days, insulted online as scheming, and accused of trying to climb the social ladder. She’d been cornered by the media until she practically had no home left. Her thin body looked as fragile as paper, her face extremely pale. She wanted several times to explain herself to He Qingchi.
Yao Jing, maintaining a neutral, professional attitude, said, “Miss Fei Ying, if I were you, I would choose to wait.”
He Qingchi could tolerate many things, but she would absolutely not tolerate her child hearing such matters.
Fei Ying, reminded, could only stand in the courtyard and wait.
He Qingchi carried the boy inside. By the time she finished calming him from the fright, an entire hour had passed.
She sat at the bedside, watching the sleeping child for a long moment, then looked toward Yao Jing. “She’s still here?”
“Still standing in the courtyard.” Yao Jing, aware of the online situation, looked conflicted.
He Qingchi stood up and draped a shawl over her shoulders. “Bring her to the side hall. Don’t disturb Grandma.”
“Understood—”
When Fei Ying was invited to the side hall, it was already dark outside.
No one knew how she had found this place. She kept her head slightly lowered; her chin looked sharp, her posture stubborn.
Ten minutes later, He Qingchi finally appeared.
She didn’t have much fondness for this woman. After sitting down and taking a sip of tea, she asked directly, “Whether you want money or a person, I can’t give you either.”
“I’m pregnant.”
With that one sentence, Fei Ying cut off every possible response.
She passed the hospital’s diagnosis report to He Qingchi and said, “I’m twenty. I haven’t graduated from university. I only worked part-time at the hotel. I’ve never been in a relationship, and I’ve never gotten a room with a male classmate. That night a month ago was my first time… I’m pregnant. The baby carries the Wen family’s blood.”
But which young master of the Wen family was the father—that was unclear.
He Qingchi read through the pregnancy diagnosis from start to finish. She understood everything—she’d gone through prenatal checkups once herself.
With nowhere else to go, Fei Ying lowered herself completely. “Can you let me meet…”
“Meet who?” He Qingchi set the report down, her voice calm.
Fei Ying froze, clearly conflicted.
As the wife of Wen Shuchen, He Qingchi could easily help her meet him with a single call.
But if she wanted to meet Wen Yue, then He Qingchi was merely a sister-in-law.
Fei Ying’s pale lips trembled before she finally decided: “I’ll meet Wen Shuchen first.”
He Qingchi didn’t agree immediately. Instead, she asked, “If the child you carry is Wen Shuchen’s, then meeting him would make sense. Can you guarantee that?”
Fei Ying couldn’t. She had mild face-blindness; all she remembered from that night was that the man was ‘Mr. Wen’ and a few vague features.
If the Wen Corporation had only one ‘Mr. Wen,’ that would have been fine. But unfortunately, Wen Shuchen and Wen Yue were brothers—similar height, similar build, and aura—easy enough to confuse her completely.
“Mrs. Wen… I’m not the kind of woman the media says I am—I didn’t seduce anyone or try to climb the social ladder. It’s because they both refused to acknowledge what happened that I exposed it. Can you help me? They won’t see me. Wen Yue told me to go find Wen Shuchen. He said many humiliating things… said someone like me would dirty his body if he touched me…”
After being humiliated by Wen Yue, Fei Ying subconsciously believed Wen Shuchen would be easier to talk to—at least he wouldn’t insult her.
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