Chapter 129: Yan Xi, I Beg You

At this question from Ji Yanxi, Yu Qingqing’s heart sank violently. She did not know when he had arrived, nor how much he had overheard.

"Of course—what else would it be?" she replied, forcing herself to maintain a facade.

Upon hearing this, Yang Dezhi couldn't help but chuckle. Yu Qingqing glared at him immediately.

"But I heard him say that my child is his?"

Ji Yanxi raised his eyes as he spoke, his gaze dark and abyssal. No wonder the dates hadn't added up; even though it had been ten months, the baby was born like a premature infant. It turned out the child wasn't his after all.

Hearing this, Yu Qingqing’s face drained of color. She scrambled off the bed and reached out toward him. "Yanxi, listen to me, let me explain. It isn’t what you think—"

Before her hand could even touch him, he flung it away. Yu Qingqing resorted to her usual tactic, letting herself collapse to the floor and putting on a fragile, pitiful display. But Yang Dezhi, who was in the room, knew her true nature all too well and was not fooled in the slightest.

From her reaction, Ji Yanxi felt he had seen through it all. He looked down at her from his height, his eyes filled with dead silence.

"Yu Qingqing, you are truly detestable. You used my weaknesses to carry out these wretched schemes. Do you believe I could kill you right now?"

His voice was laced with such chilling intent that Yu Qingqing shivered uncontrollably. She reached out again to touch his hand, only to be shoved away without hesitation.

"Don't touch me. You disgust me."

Ji Yanxi took a deep breath and closed his eyes, overcome with agony. "Yu Qingqing, I will have a paternity test done. If I find out that child is not mine, you’d better prepare to be thrown out on the street! I will expose everything you’ve done to the public and turn you into a pariah, someone everyone will despise."

With that, he turned and left, ignoring her desperate cries.

Seeing that the charade was crumbling, Yu Qingqing glared venomously at Yang Dezhi. "What good does it do you to have this exposed? Are you only satisfied if you ruin me?"

"It was your own vanity. I only want my son." With that final word, Yang Dezhi turned and walked away.

He encountered Ji Yanxi again outside the intensive care unit. Ji Yanxi was standing there, looking utterly hollow, as if he were wrestling with a monumental decision.

Yang Dezhi sighed, walked over, and patted him on the shoulder. "Brother, there’s no need for a test. That child is mine..."

Ji Yanxi gave him a cold, sharp look and spat out two words: "Get lost."

How could people be so shameless? This man had an affair with his wife, impregnated her, and now had the audacity to act as if he were offering consolation.

"I didn't know Yu Qingqing was married at the time. She didn't tell me," Yang Dezhi said, scratching his head in honest admission. "Otherwise, I would never have touched her! I still have morals."

Yu Qingqing had tried to hide the pregnancy from him, only coming clean when it was discovered. Yang Dezhi’s first reaction had been to refuse to raise a child for another man, but he couldn't withstand her threats of suicide and had eventually relented.

"Get out!" Ji Yanxi roared.

He had been hesitant before, but now his resolve had hardened. Seeing him move to enter the room, Yang Dezhi instinctively reached out to block him, fearing he might harm the boy. To his surprise, Ji Yanxi struck him with a heavy blow.

Ji Yanxi’s hands clenched into fists as he bellowed, "I am still married to Yu Qingqing, and the boy lying in there is still my son!"

"Are you insane?" Yang Dezhi wiped a smudge of blood from his lip. "The facts are right in front of you. What are you still struggling with? Is there any need to take it out on the child?" Thinking of the boy’s critical condition, his heart twisted with pain. "He’s hanging on by a thread—what more do you want?"

"Is he hanging by a thread because of me?" Ji Yanxi stabbed a finger at his own chest. "Besides, if he isn’t my son, why should I feel any heartache for him? I, Ji Yanxi, am not in the habit of feeling sorry for other people’s children!"

"Regardless, you are not going in there." Yang Dezhi insisted on blocking his path.

Ji Yanxi was already overflowing with rage, and with Yang Dezhi’s relentless interference, he struck him again with a heavy punch. Yang Dezhi, who also had a temper, fought back, and the two were soon locked in a violent scuffle. By the time Ye Yaoyao arrived with Yu Wanqing, both men were bruised and bloodied.

Ji Yanxi went through with the paternity test. When the results confirmed the child was not his, he felt as if he had fallen into an icy abyss. However, the matter was kept quiet—the reputation of the Ji family was at stake.

With the report in hand, Ji Yanxi walked into Yu Qingqing’s room with a face as dark as a thunderstorm.

"I know you’re awake."

He walked over and slammed the paternity report against her face. "You are truly disgusting. How could you force me to raise a child that belongs to you and someone else?"

Yu Qingqing slowly opened her eyes. She lunged forward, falling to her knees and clutching his pant leg. "Yanxi, I... I didn't want this either. I didn't know the diagnosis of my pregnancy was a mistake, and I wanted a child of ours so badly..."

The Ji family was her entire world; she had to find a way to stay. "Yanxi, the child is ours. Didn't you love him before? You used to hold him every day, grinning from ear to ear..." She tried to bluff her way through it. "Besides, the Ji family is so powerful—if you wanted to, couldn't you just take the child and make him your own? And... and since you have difficulty conceiving your own children, why not just continue raising this one?"

Ji Yanxi suffered from low sperm count, a consequence of his earlier years of reckless, debauched living. It was precisely because he wanted to hide this condition that he had fallen deeper into a cycle of indulgence, trapped in a dead-end spiral.

"So that’s why you deceived me?" Ji Yanxi grabbed her chin roughly, his nails digging into her skin, his eyes filled with resentment. "Yu Qingqing, you should know that you were never the one I wanted."

"If you hadn't been so shameless as to crawl into my bed and lie to me about being pregnant, I never would have married you. Truly, there is always a reason to hate those who are pathetic. It’s no wonder the Yu family doesn't care for you. Who could ever love a bitch like you?"

He twisted the knife in her heart, but Yu Qingqing had become immune to his cruelty. Her mind held only one thought: she had to stay by his side and protect her status as the young mistress of the Ji family.

"Yanxi, I know I was wrong. Please forgive me this one time. I promise it will never happen again."

"Next time? You expect a next time?" He shoved her away. "Divorce. A woman like you is not fit to remain in the Ji family!"

With that, he turned to leave, but Yu Qingqing crawled across the floor to grab his legs. "Yanxi, you can't! I can't survive without you... I really know I was wrong. Please, forgive me this once, Yanxi, I beg you."