淫欲的代价

On the third day of Chen Meili\'s \'pregnancy,\' He Yuan decided it was time to push things along. At exactly 9:00am, he placed the babies in their stroller and used the elevator downstairs to join the Hans for breakfast.

In the dining room, the atmosphere was quite lively with the members of the family exchanging small talk as they ate. Everything was going good until Xu Lifen suddenly walked into the hall.

The liveliness slowly died down and they all exchanged confused looks. Xu Lifen had stopped joining them for breakfast months ago so why did she suddenly appear now?

He Yuan ignored their wary expressions and calmly pushed the stroller over to Xu Lifen\'s spot on the dining table. To accommodate the stroller, he moved Han Tao\'s own chair and placed the stroller there instead.

Fully seated, he gave the Han Madam a perfunctory nod before turning to Min Yanyu and doing the same.

The atmosphere was still awkward and they were all looking at He Yuan with distrustful eyes -expecting him to do something crazy. To break the tension, Fu Lan finally stepped in with a closed mouthed smile. "Xu Lifen, it\'s been so long since you joined us here. How are the babies?"

He Yuan\'s hand automatically went to the stroller. "They\'re good. Just sleeping."

Fu Lan nodded and five seconds later, the already awkward smile on her face turned stiff. She had nothing else to say. Xu Lifen did not interact much with the rest of them and, according to what she was told, the young woman had basically locked the babies up in her room after their birth in order to prevent everyone from interacting with the babies.

Beside Fu Lan, Han Yuanjun\'s eyes moved from his wife to his nephew\'s wife and then to the stroller. He really wanted an explanation from Xu Lifen over the fact that she\'d landed his mother in the hospital but after receiving a detailed explanation of what went down that day from his sister, he didn\'t bother to anymore.

The twins were not just Xu Lifen\'s children but were also the heirs of the Han family and the fact that Xu Lifen was trying to create a divide between them and the babies made him very annoyed.

He\'d also heard of the fact that Xu Lifen wanted a divorce and, honestly, he didn\'t think it was a bad idea.

His only problem here was the fact that although the Han family was considered part of the elites, their riches and reputation came from what had been laid down by their ancestors.

With how far they had deteriorated, their circle of influence was quite small. This meant that it would be a little difficult to influence the verdict of a judge after the divorce and Xu Lifen was most likely going to end up with the twins for a period of time.

This was something that did not sit right with him.

Xu Lifen was not a very reliable person and also, she did not have much home training to speak of. Leaving her all alone with the heirs at their developmental stage was basically the same as setting the twins up to become subpar in the future.

At least, with the babies in the mansion, it could be easy to keep an eye out even if Xu Lifen practically hogged them to herself.

As Han Yuanjun\'s mind came up with all sorts of scenarios about incapable heirs, the rest of the Hans decided to ignore Xu Lifen\'s existence and go back to conversing between themselves.

Next to He Yuan, Chen Meili slowly stirred her food with a pale face and a disinterested demeanor.

Right after answering a question his wife had thrown his way, Gu Longwei turned to look at Chen Meili across the table with a heated but concerned expression. "Meili, are you sure you don\'t want to see a doctor? Your pallor doesn\'t look too good."

Seeing her so down made him testy. The woman of his fantasies should never look sick.

Whilst Gu Longwei reverted into his fantasies, the others turned too. They had noticed Chen Meili was under the weather yesterday but the woman in question had just brushed it off saying it was a slight fever. It was already one day and it didn\'t seem like a simple fever.

Min Yanyu frowned. "Meili, are you really alright? You have to tell us if you\'re not, okay?"

Chen Meili gave everyone a dry but reassuring smile. She also didn\'t know what was wrong. Although she\'d been feeling awful earlily in the day before, it had suddenly stopped later so she had brushed it off. Now the same thing was happening again.

He Yuan side eyed Chen Meili. Not every woman experienced morning sickness during pregnancy and Chen Meili hadn\'t experienced it during the surrogacy so it wasn\'t surprising that she looked genuinely clueless.

Well, it wouldn\'t hurt to help a little. His lips arched as he slipped out a needle in between his fingers, reached over to a fish dish a few inches away, lifted the lid, made sure the steam came in contact with the tip of the needle and then subtly blew the steam in Chen Meili\'s direction.

The woman in question was still lost in her thoughts when she was suddenly hit with a weird odour that smelt like a mixture of raw fish and coffee. Her nose wrinkled as she dry heaved, slapped a hand over her mouth and rushed out of the dining room in search of the nearest sink.

"Cousin Meili!" Han Jiao immediately stood up and sprinted after Chen Meili in concern whilst everyone else looked on in surprise.

Min Yanyu turned to the Han Madam. "Mother, I think we should call a doctor."

The Han Madam slowly moved her eyes away from the door and waved a shaky hand at her daughter-in-law. The Chen\'s had entrusted their daughter to them. If anything untowards happened to Chen Meili then it would be a slap on the face of the Hans.

Min Yuanyu took out her phone after the confirmation and dialled the hospital.

He Yuan watched all these and his mood got even better. He simply released the needle to his storage space, grabbed a ladle and then dished out some soup for himself.

Ten minutes later, a much more paler Chen Meili walked into the dining hall, assisted by Han Jiao.

Before the Hans could air their concerns, He Yuan quickly stepped in. Mocking a curious expression, he said, "I had read a lot about pregnancy at the onset of the surrogacy."

He took a sip of his soup as he continued, "Chen Meili, You look so pale, tired and you\'re throwing up. If I didn\'t know better, I would think you were experiencing morning sickness, hehe."

Everyone turned to stare at He Yuan\'s joking expression like an idiot but Chen Meili\'s mouth fell open and her eyes widened slightly. These symptoms.... Brother Tao hadn\'t used any contraceptives the night when they... She swallowed. She couldn\'t possibly be pregnant with brother Tao\'s child... Right?

She could barely restrain the excitement that suddenly speared through her heart like a flaming arrow.

Seated at her spot on the table, Han Rong had looked at Xu Lifen with a sneer like the rest but when she glanced over to Chen Meili and saw the young woman\'s shocked, excited and a little overwhelmed expression, she froze.

The image of the marks she\'d seen at the back of Chen Meili\'s neck over a week ago slowly became clearer and clearer.

On the opposite side of the table, Min Yanyu looked to the Han Madam with a worried expression. "Mother, I think it\'s best if we just go to the hospital. It\'s almost time for your weekly check up anyways so we could do that and also have Meili examined."

The Han Madam saw nothing wrong with this and nodded.

At this point, Chen Meili\'s brows furrowed. What if she was truly pregnant? Would everyone hate her for it? Would they be disgusted? On one hand, she didn\'t want to be on the receiving end of the disgust of everyone but on the other hand, she desperately needed to know if she was pregnant.

After hesitating for a while, she nodded her thanks. Brother Tao had already reassured her and told her he would take responsibility. Even if the Hans came to hate her for it, she was sure brother Tao would never do the same!

One by one, everyone stood up to leave and He Yuan also stood up too.

Immediately Han Rong saw this, she panicked. "What are you doing? Why do you want to come with us?!" Her expression turned dodgy. If Chen Meili was truly pregnant with A\'Tao\'s child then they absolutely could not let Xu Lifen find out so soon! 

He Yuan raised a brow. Why would he even join them? Everything was going according to his plan so why on Earth would he ruin it with his presence? He gave Han Rong a once over. Why did the woman look agitated anyways?

A thought suddenly crossed his mind and he chuckled. It appeared Han Rong already had her own suspicions about Chen Meili being \'pregnant\' and the origins of said pregnancy. Ha.

He calmly held the stroller and pushed it past the table. "I had no intentions of joining you. I have much better things to do."

And then he walked out.

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

Almost an hour later, the Hans arrived at the hospital. The Han Madam was taken for check up and so was Chen Meili. Twenty minutes later, they were all seated in the doctor\'s office as they waited for Chen Meili\'s results.

It took another 45 minutes for the doctor to walk into the office.

Staring at the middle aged man in a pristine labcoat, Chen Meili\'s heart shook nervously. She both anticipated and dreaded the results. She really wanted to be pregnant but she also wished Han Tao was here with her. She also feared not being pregnant.

Han Rong\'s eyes keptoving from Chen Meili to the report in the doctor\'s hands nervously.

The doctor walked over to his seat and headed the first report to the Han Madam with a smile. "Mrs. Han, the results came out great, your heart is functioning properly and you just need to focus on reducing your sugar level."

The Han Madam nodded perfunctorily. "And the second one?"

The doctor looked to Chen Meili with a complicated smile. He was somewhat family with the Hans and knew of the fact that Chen Meili\'s husband was dead and yet she chose to remain.

He twiddled with the second report before saying. "Miss Chen you... Well, you seem to be almost two weeks pregnant."

The Han Madam, Min Yanyu, Han Yi and Han Jiao all saw white. Pure shock had blinded them momentarily. On the other hand, Han Rong closed her eyes and sighed, Gu Longwei looked to Chen Meili with wide eyes and a slightly heaving chest whilst the woman if the hour, Chen Meili, lowered her head -barely hiding her tremble.

Whether from excitement or fear, no one knew.

Min Yanyu slowly recovered. "Meili... How?" Now they were all aware that her second son was dead but Chen Meili was the one who had chosen to remain. Suddenly being pregnant...

BAM! 

The Han Madam smacked her walking stick angrily. She had always believed this Chen girl to be a wonderful human being so what was this?!

"Mother!" Han Rong quickly called out before the Han Madam could open her mouth to speak. Next, she turned to Chen Meili with a frustrated expression. "Meili... A\'Tao is responsible for this isn\'t he?"

Everyone single person frowned and even the doctor looked around for an escape. Wasn\'t Mr. Han Tao the brother-in-law to Miss Chen?

On the other hand, Chen Meili looked up at Han Rong, blushed, lowered her head and then slowly nodded.

Once more, pure shock covered the faces of the women and doctor at Chen Meili\'s confirmation but Gu Longwei...

Gu Longwei saw red.

He could handle Chen Meili being pregnant with Han Tao\'s babies through external means but this... this...

He exploded. "What do you mean you\'re pregnant with Han Tao\'s child?! How could you be pregnant with his child?! Why would you even let him touch you?!"