Back Then, I Adored You

After all these years, her eyes were still clear and pure. They looked as if they had never been tainted by the sight of anyone with an ulterior motive.

Her face, however, had become more chiseled and was not as round as it had been during her youth, but this added more dimension to her face and made her more beautiful than cute.

She had also become much taller, but her hair was still as long as what he had remembered.

Back when he was in the army, before he had forgotten her, he had always wondered how she would look as an adult, but he had never imagined that she would look so drop-dead gorgeous now that she was a grown woman.

……

Qin Zhi’ai would be leaving the country soon, and she had a lot of things to pack in her Beijing apartment and move back to Hangzhou. Because her pregnancy was affecting her stamina, and he was coincidentally available, she booked a train ticket for Qin Jiayan to come over and help her.

The two siblings packed up her belongings all morning and managed to fill up three large bags. One of the them was full of books, so they decided to have that one couriered back to Hangzhou. The other two were full of clothing and various belongings, so Qin Jiayan took those back with him on the train that afternoon.

Afraid that her mother would worry, Qin Zhi’ai didn’t tell Qin Jiayan that she was pregnant. In fact, her prenatal checkup had originally been scheduled for that morning, but she waited to see her obstetrician until after Qin Jiayan had left.

Fortunately, the obstetrician was a nice person and didn’t admonish her for missing the morning appointment. In fact, he took exceptional care of her and gave her an appointment date for an extra checkup.

This was the first time that she was having an ultrasound as part of her exam since becoming pregnant. At the start of her pregnancy, because Gu Yusheng had drunk alcohol and she had taken some cold medicine, she had asked the doctor if these things would affect her child. The doctor had said that, normally, there would be no impact because she had not taken the medication on a long-term basis.

Yet as she sat down before the doctor at the end of her exam, she couldn’t help but pour out all the questions she had formed after researching pregnancy on the internet.

“Doctor, what’s my condition? Is my baby alright? Is my blood pressure good? Are there any signs of a possible miscarriage? Is my baby developing normally?”

Her anxiousness made the doctor chuckle, and he pointed at a small dot on the scan, explained that it was the fetus, and reassured her that everything was normal. He reminded her to return for frequent checkups and to take note of the fetus’s heartbeat.

Listening to the doctor, Qin Zhi’ai replied with a series of “mm”‘s, and finally she smiled and sweetly thanked the doctor several times.

As she rode the elevator downstairs, she examined the scans, unable to make heads or tails of them. She stared at the soybean-sized dot and gradually her lips curled into a faint smile.

This is the most mysterious emotion I’ve ever experienced…

In the past, she had always feared becoming pregnant and, upon learning that she was, she had been hesitant about keeping the child. Yet the longer this baby had grown inside her, the deeper and stronger her maternal love had become.

Upon exiting the elevator, her steps felt much lighter knowing that her baby was well. As she walked carefully outside so as not to bump into anyone, she put her scans in her purse and then rolled up her checkup report and stuffed it inside, as well. Walking confidently in her flats, she was suddenly stopped in her tracks by Gu Yusheng.

Upon hearing Gu Yusheng’s question, she hurriedly shook her head and said, “No.”

Pausing momentarily, she recalled having picked up her physical checkup reports for her upcoming travel just a few days ago. With some reservation and some degree of honesty, she said, “I just picked up my physical report for Customs & Border Protection.”

Gu Yusheng’s eyes bore into her, making what he was thinking difficult to know.