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Yanqing had been acting differently lately, claiming to be sick and always keeping to himself in his room. Jing Yuan had no idea what might have caused this shift.
He could remember a recent conversation with Yanqing over dinner.
“General, what was it like to raise me as a baby?” Yanqing asked.
It was a normal enough question. Who wasn’t curious about their youth before they could remember it?
“Well, there were certainly difficult moments. I wasn’t prepared to take you in at all. I’d never learned any of this, though I did have Yukong to help me since she had raised Qingni. You weren’t exactly an easy baby. You were a good eater, for sure, but it was hard to put you to sleep,” Jing Yuan said. “But still, the joyous moments were worth it. You had the most adorable toothless smile and chubby little feet.”
“Hm, okay,” Yanqing said.
“What are you thinking about, little bird?” Jing Yuan asked.
Yanqing shrugged, “Nothing much. I was just curious.”
Jing Yuan’s suspicions only worsened when he happened to see some things Yanqing had bought one day. Yanqing had been very quick coming home with a bag of things, rushing to drop them off in his room. But Jing Yuan could still see the items in there, if only briefly.
Small clothes. Small enough for a baby.
Was this what Yanqing was hiding from him? That he was… expecting a child?
It only made Jing Yuan’s worries grow. Yanqing was too young. Who was the father? Why did Yanqing not trust Jing Yuan enough to tell him about this? Even if he didn’t approve, he would obviously support his apprentice through this.
Going through this alone was the last thing Jing Yuan wanted for Yanqing. Though Jing Yuan wasn’t sure how to approach the topic with him.
If he was too forward, Yanqing might view him as judgmental. However, beating around the bush would get him nowhere.
In the end, he decided to silently support Yanqing from the sidelines. The last thing he would want was to force Yanqing into confessing something he wasn’t ready to share.
On the days that Yanqing did not feel sick, he would train like normal. But training like normal wasn’t what he was supposed to be doing at all! He was being far too careless with his body, and that kind of strain was not good for the baby.
Jing Yuan had tried to politely tell him to rest, but Yanqing had given him an offended look and told him that he knew what he was doing. Clearly, he didn’t if he thought throwing himself into intense sparring with soldiers twice his size was a wise idea. There was a difference between light exercise and full-blown recklessness.
“Are you craving any particular food tonight? I’ll make you whatever you like,” Jing Yuan said one night. He didn’t often cook, but he wasn’t busy, and he figured he could try to treat Yanqing and whatever pregnancy cravings he might have.
Yanqing gave him a weird look, “General… When was the last time you made something that wasn’t a one-pot meal?”
“Hey now, I’m just trying to be nice,” Jing Yuan chuckled.
“Why? Are you trying to ask me for something?” Yanqing cheekily said.
“Please, I’m not a child being nice to his parent so they’d do something for me,” Jing Yuan said.
“Hmm, I want some mapo tofu then. That shouldn’t be too hard for you, right?” Yanqing asked.
Jing Yuan nodded, “It’s within my capabilities. I won’t make it too spicy though, okay?”
He knew Yanqing liked spicy food, and the spice wouldn’t harm the baby at all. But too much spice would likely give a pregnant person heartburn or indigestion.
“What? But I love spicy mapo tofu!” Yanqing pouted.
“But too much spiciness isn’t exactly easy on your stomach,” Jing Yuan tried to counter,
“I’ve never had that problem before,” Yanqing said. Which, yes, was true. But before, Yanqing hadn’t been pregnant!
Jing Yuan tried to make some excuse, “But I don’t really want anything too spicy tonight…”
Yanqing sighed, “Okay, okay, if you don’t want spicy food, then you don’t have to make it super spicy. You’re the one cooking it after all.”
Jing Yuan nodded, glad that they could reach a resolution. And so, he began to prepare dinner.
It was true that Jing Yuan wasn’t much of a cook. It wasn’t like he was raised in a household where he had to cook for himself.
When it came to Yanqing’s childhood, he had often felt guilty about having to get takeout or do easy meals. It had made him worry about Yanqing’s nutrition, as well as whether he’d have an expansive palate for food.
Thankfully, Yanqing grew up to be a healthy boy and an adventurous eater.
Of the two of them, Yanqing was the chef of their household. His baby would be lucky to have a parent like Yanqing, always wanting to try new recipes and cook various foods.
Of course, Jing Yuan would always be willing to help him out. But that wasn’t exactly guaranteed, was it? What if Yanqing was planning to marry and move out with whoever had fathered the child?
Yet where was the father now? Why was it Jing Yuan supporting Yanqing and not him? The idea of some bastard abandoning Yanqing when he was in such a vulnerable time made Jing Yuan’s blood boil.
But there was something else bothering him. The idea that any random man had been intimate with his Yanqing made him feel frustrated, and he didn’t know where this anger was coming from.
How had he never noticed someone sneaking into the estate? Or noticed Yanqing sneaking out? But maybe it had never been a hushed and secret night escapade.
Jing Yuan’s mind conjured images of Yanqing in the barracks after long and tiring days. In the soldiers’ showers, washing up with one of his comrades, their bodies getting closer-
“General! The tofu is burning!” Yanqing said.
Oh. He looked down at the pan below him. The tofu was already blackened and charred amid the fragrant sauces. He wasn’t sure if this would be salvageable.
Jing Yuan chuckled, “Ah… Maybe we should just order something instead.”
Yanqing sighed, “This is why you never cook.”
In the end, they ordered some noodle dishes from a nearby restaurant. Much to Jing Yuan’s chagrin, Yanqing had ordered one of the spiciest dishes on the menu, but there was no way for him to protest without seeming too obvious that he knew about Yanqing’s pregnancy. If Yanqing wanted the heartburn, then he might as well let him have it.
Then, one day, Jing Yuan couldn’t take the suspense of dancing around a secret anymore, and it seemed like Yanqing had reached a similar conclusion.
It had been a lazy Saturday morning when Yanqing had come up to him.
“General,” Yanqing began. He had an earnest look in his eyes, “Can I… talk to you about something? Please, don’t be mad at me.”
Jing Yuan nodded, “Yes, of course you can always talk to me. I promise, I won’t be mad. In fact, I think I already know what you want to talk about.”
Yanqing looked surprised, “Oh, really? That’s… good. Then, can you help me take care of-”
“Obviously, I will,” Jing Yuan rushed to say. “I will absolutely help you raise your child. Just, please, I want to know. Who’s the father?”
Yanqing blinked, “Uh… father? Well, I don’t know. It’s kind of hard to figure that out.”
“What do you mean it’s hard to figure out? Surely you would know who got you pregnant?” Jing Yuan asked, shocked. Not that Yanqing’s sexuality was much of his business, but the idea that his ward had been with enough men that he couldn’t figure out who the father of his child was made Jing Yuan’s heart flip.
Yanqing just stared at him, confused. “Pregnant…?” He echoed.
And it was at this moment that it slowly dawned on Jing Yuan that he might have jumped to extremely wrong conclusions about Yanqing. “I… thought that was what you came to me to talk about,” Jing Yuan dumbly said.
Yanqing looked down at his own stomach, which Jing Yuan should have noticed was still flat despite his two months of suspicion. “Do I… Do I look pregnant?” Yanqing asked. “I exercise every day. I eat well. I…??”
“No, no, Yanqing, you don’t look pregnant at all, little bird. I thought it might have been a cryptic pregnancy?” Jing Yuan scrambled to say.
“What made you think I was pregnant then?” Yanqing asked.
“Ah, well you would suddenly get sick and stay in your room, I thought that could have been pregnancy nausea? Then the time you asked about what it was like raising you as a baby, and then, well, I saw you with baby clothes once,” Jing Yuan explained, “Are the baby clothes not damning evidence? What else could you possibly need those for?”
Yanqing sighed, “I think I should just show you what’s been going on. Come to my room.”
And so, Jing Yuan followed the young man to his room in the estate. Yanqing had carefully opened the door and warned Jing Yuan to be quiet as he entered.
“Abundance Wrecker, come out. I have a new friend who wants to meet you!” Yanqing cooed.
From underneath Yanqing’s bed, a kitten cautiously crawled out. It was small and had gray fur, and it didn’t seem to be more than two months old. Looking around the room, Jing Yuan now also noticed several cat care items.
Yanqing leaned down to pet Abundance Wrecker, who then hesitantly let Yanqing scoop it up into his arms.
“He’s the only baby I have, General,” Yanqing said. “I found him alone on the streets two months ago. His mother wasn’t alive, and I’m not sure what happened to the rest of the litter… So I took him in. Seeing him alone and abandoned, I couldn’t help but want to keep him already. I just didn’t know how to broach the subject to you. This is your estate after all, and you have the final say on who gets to live here. But I just, I just couldn’t leave him. So I’ve hidden him here in the meantime.”
“The ‘sickness’ I had was so I could spend more time taking care of him since he’s so young. Asking you about what I was like as a baby was probably something random, I don’t even remember it. And the ‘baby clothes’ are actually cat clothes for when he gets bigger and I can dress him up,” Yanqing explained.
“Ah, I… see,” Jing Yuan mumbled, a bit embarrassed at the wild conclusion he had jumped to. “Did you ever notice that I was treating you like you were pregnant? Telling you to not fight so hard or to be careful around spicy food.”
“Is that what that was? I thought it was odd, but I never thought it was because you thought I was pregnant. But gosh, I can’t believe you thought I was pregnant,” Yanqing said.
“I apologize,” Jing Yuan said.
Yanqing sighed, “It’s alright. But maybe instead of assuming something for months, you could just talk to me about it. Hah, not like I’m much better, waiting for months to tell you about my cat.”
“I can’t believe I didn’t notice you had a cat. How could Mimi not detect another feline in the household?” Jing Yuan asked.
“Oh, Mimi did. But I bribed him with food,” Yanqing said.
Jing Yuan chuckled, “Ah, you’re quite the negotiator then.”
“Yeah. So, I was going to ask you earlier, but now that you know about Abundance Wrecker, will you help me take care of him? Even though I’ve been able to take care of him for two months, it’s not easy. And I always feel guilty leaving him alone. I know we’re both busy, but two people are still better than one, right?” Yanqing asked.
“Of course I’ll help you take care of Abundance Wrecker. You don’t have to go through this alone. I couldn’t have taken care of you alone, so I will gladly help you raise this kitten,” Jing Yuan said.
“Do you want to try and hold him?” Yanqing asked.
Jing Yuan nodded, and Yanqing directed him to sit down. Carefully, the kitten was transferred into Jing Yuan’s hands. Abundance Wrecker was still so small that he felt fragile in Jing Yuan’s strong hands. He could remember many years before when Yanqing was still so small and Jing Yuan had treated him so delicately, afraid to hurt the baby.
“What made you decide on the name Abundance Wrecker?” Jing Yuan asked, curious.
Yanqing shrugged, “I thought it was cool.”
Abundance Wrecker purred as Jing Yuan lightly petted his fur, welcoming the newest member into his household.