淫欲的代价

From the next morning, when the Hans returned with Chen Meili, Han Tao began acting strange. He voluntarily moved out of the matrimonial bedroom to one of the bedrooms on the first floor of the family wing and whenever he encountered He Yuan, all he did was stare coldly with a conflicted expression.

With Chen Meili\'s due date steadily approaching, Han Tao had been granted an early five months paternity leave from the police department and he spent every waking second following behind Chen Meili and pandering to her needs like a worker bee to its queen.

On the other hand, He Yuan went back to his routine of ignoring everything and anything human with the Han name. Whilst he patiently waited for the babies to be born, he turned all his focus to the flower shop. In another month, the shop was successfully opened.

He had planned the opening on the same day as a popular festival in city Y so the cost of advertisment had been minimized by a lot. Long story short, the flower shop had a great start and the future prospects were looking good.

A month later....

BOOM!

He Yuan opened his eyes with a start. He\'d spent the entirety of the day before going through the finance spreadsheets for the shop and had gone to bed earlier than normal.

He\'d just sat up on the bed and yawned tiredly with outstretched arms when,

BOOM!

His eyes finally moved to the window. It was raining heavily and the loud sounds were the calls of thunder after successive flashes of lightning.

"Ahem." He Yuan cleared his throat as he stood up from the bed and walked towards the door. He felt really thirsty. His eyes briefly darted to the digital clock before he opened the door. The time was 1:30am.

The entire house was eerily silent but he paid no mind to it. It was only after he got to the living room that he suddenly frowned in confusion. It was so late so why were all the lights on?

BOOM!

The call of thunder came again and He Yuan yawned again before calling, "888?"

The system\'s lazy reply came instantly, [En? What\'s wrong?]

He Yuan shook his head. "Nothing. Just wanted to make sure I wasn\'t in some kind of messed up dream."

At that moment the door leading to the kitchen opened up and an older servant lady walked out. She froze when she saw He Yuan. "Ah? Mistress Xu, why are you here?"

The smell of medicine hit He Yuan then and he wrinkled his nose slightly before replying, "Thirsty."

The lady frowned. She didn\'t understand. She eyed Mistress Xu\'s nightwear in confusion before saying, "...You\'re not going to the hospital?"

He Yuan frowned in confusion. "The hospital?" Why would he go to the hospital?

The lady looked to the door. "Miss Chen is in labour. Everybody left a few minutes ago. The Han Madam had instructed me to prepare the Han family ancestral post partum medicine before leaving."

BOOM!

Thunder called again but this time, He Yuan felt the strike of lightning in his chest. In the original timeline, Chen Meili had given birth in the Tenth month. This was only the ninth month so he had pushed that thought away.

Moving to the more important matter, Chen Meili, the surrogate, was in labor and no one had thought to inform the biological mother of the babies? They\'d had enough time to wake the old lady up to cook medicine but did not have time to inform Xu Lifen?!

In the mind space, 888 ran his fingers through Xu Lifen\'s stirring soul thread with a cold look in his eyes. The Hans had absolutely no excuse for this. Even if they couldn\'t go up to the room, what happened to a simple phone call?

He Yuan nodded at the old lady before turning around and sprinting up the stairs. No matter how pissed he felt, now was not the time. Whatever memories Xu Lifen would have in this timeline would come from his experiences now. He couldn\'t afford to have her miss the birth of her babies!

-----------------------

"Breathe, breathe, take deep breaths..." Min Yanyu said softly as she gently rubbed Chen Meili\'s stomach.

At the driver\'s seat, Han Tao eyed them briefly through the rearview mirror. His forehead was dotted with sweat -despite the cold weather- as he turned his focus back to the wet road and activated the wiper to swipe the droplets of rain from his windshield.

Chen Meili stared at the back of the driver\'s seat with a wronged expression before groaning, "It hurts~"

Han Rong held her hand tightly and comforted, "Meili dear, just bear with it a little more. It would be over soon. You\'re doing good."

Han Tao had been too impatient to wait for the driver so this car only had the four of them whilst the rest of the Hans were following behind in a separate car.

In another five minutes, Han Tao expertly drifted the car into the hospital\'s parking lot and dashed out to carry Chen Meili.

"Mr. Han!"

A couple of nurses were already on standby and came forward to help but Han Tao nudged them away and held Chen Meili tighter with a possessive look in his eyes. "Lead the way!"

Less than ten minutes later, Chen Meili was wheeled into the delivery room with a doctor and three nurses. Another doctor and two additional nurses were outside the delivery room, on standby. This was something that Han Tao had specially requested.

"AAAAHHHH!!!"

"IT HURTS~"

For the next few minutes, all that was heard in the hallway were the wails and groans of Chen Meili in the VIP labour room.

Outside the door, Han Tao placed about restlessly and the rest of the Hans were not much better. The Han Madam kept striking her cane on the ground rhthymitically. It had been twenty years since the Han family welcomed new life. Excitement was coursing through her old bones.

Seated beside the Han Madam was Min Yanyu. Looking at how worried her son was, a nostalgic look crossed her features. Her late husband had been so worried during each of her pregnancy with her two boys that he\'d caused a fuss at the hospital and refused to let her be alone.

Tears welled up in her eyes. Han Shen had always wanted what was best for the Han family and the lack of male heirs had bothered him a lot. He would be so happy wherever he was. Her eyes trailed to door of the labour room. It was all thanks to Chen Meili for selflessly taking it upon herself to give them this opportunity...

At the side, Han Yuanjun held Fu Lan in his arms. After finding out that he was impotent all those years ago, he\'d been devastated but with the death of his younger brother, he had to quickly overcame his devastation and try to be a good father figure for Han Tao and Han Jinhai.

Han Jinhai\'s death had torn him apart but now.. now was a pivotal moment. Those twins were more than just his grand nephews. They felt more like his own grandchildren.

At the other end of the hall were Gu Longwei, Han Rong, Han Yi and Han Jiao. The third triplet, Han Wen, was in her college. The three women were all nervous wrecks, especially Han Rong.

She\'d tried so hard to give birth to a son but fate hadn\'t agreed with her wishes and had given her six daughters instead. She loved her daughters and knowing that the Han family would finally have not one but two male heirs to carry on the family made her emotional to the point of tears.

Whilst everyone was up in their feelings and aching for Chen Meili, Gu Longwei was discreetly glaring daggers at Han Tao. Hearing the painful cries coming from the labour room made him quite angry. Chen Meili wouldn\'t be in so much pain if Han Tao did not marry a useless wife that couldn\'t give birth to their own children!

At that moment, the sound of hurried footsteps came from down the hall and every single person turned to see a completely soaked Xu Lifen walking towards them with a furious expression.

He Yuan\'s chest heaved slightly in an effort to curb his anger. Xu Lifen\'s car had suddenly broken down a few streets away from the hospital so he had to run over here under the heavy rain.

Han Tao\'s movement slowly came to a stop when he registered his wife\'s anger. Truthfully, he hadn\'t forgotten about Xu Lifen. He only didn\'t send a servant to get her because he was mad at her. Now though.... Why did he feel guilty?

"AAAHHH!"

At that moment, Chen Meili\'s scream tore through the hallway again and Han Tao clenched his fists. His mind drifted to the words Chen Meili had unintentionally said out loud when he\'d taken her to the hospital that one night two months ago and he turned away.

Why should he feel guilty? It wasn\'t as if Xu Lifen cared about Chen Meili or the children anyways. What time would she have to care about her own unborn babies if she was more busy creating coverups for her lies and shady dealings?!

Under the eyes of the apprehensive Hans, He Yuan slowly moved to stand by the wall. He could berate them fiercely but now was not the time. The babies were finally on their way and soon enough, neither him nor the leaser would have to waste their time with these stuck ups ever again.

Less than thirty minutes later...

The Hans were still a fine mixture of excitement, anxiousness and worry. Chen Meili had been screaming a lot but there was no sign of progress. They were all aware that it was too soon for any kind of development but that did nothing to ease them.

A nurse walked out of the labour room then with a grumpy expression and everyone gave her their undivided attention. "What\'s happening?!" The Han Madam asked anxiously.

The nurse let out a frustrated breath. "The patient has refused to push. She kept requesting for a brother Tao? I\'m assuming this is the father of the babies? The doctor asked me to fetch this Mr. Tao."

The Han Madam looked to Han Tao anxiously. "A\'Tao, quick, quick, get in there!"

With a mixture of distress and excitement in his heart, Han Tao nodded to the nurse and walked to the door of the labour room. Right before he opened the door,

He Yuan tiptoed and effortlessly dragged Han Tao backwards by his collar before asking in a deathly cold voice, "What are you doing?"