Iris wanted the driver to stop and to return near the hotel where her husband was in danger of being contaminated by the desperate woman, Rose Young. This time, however, the driver hesitated in obeying her order. He glanced at Dom instead, silently asking him what to do.
Dom gestured for him to continue driving before facing Iris to explain the situation. “Boss, I called your doctor when you fainted. The doctor said to bring you to the nearest hospital and she’ll follow us as soon as possible. I think that she already left the mansion and on the way to the hospital using sir boss’ helicopter.”
“What else did she say? Why do I need to go to the hospital? I can just have her examine me at home.”
“Boss, the doctor is beginning to worry about your tendency to faint. If it’s once or twice, it will still be okay since you have a history of fainting even before you got pregnant. But you’re now collapsing too many times than she’s comfortable with it—than we’re all comfortable with. She says that frequent fainting episodes during the first trimester might have negative effects.”
Iris paled, her hand immediately touching her stomach. “Negative effects? What negative effects? Be more specific!” Her voice had become high-pitched and her eyes quivered with worry.
“Please calm down, boss. Don’t stress yourself. It’s bad for the—”
“Tell me!”
Dom became even more worried seeing her starting to freak out but he still told her what the doctor said. “Like increasing the risk of you delivering earlier than your expected due date.”
She relaxed a little but not completely. “That’s still okay. I already expect to give birth earlier than my expected due date anyway because I’m carrying twins. Multiple babies tend to arrive early, I’m told.”
“Twins?!” Jin Chonglin exclaimed. His shocked voice sounded almost like a shriek. “Y-you’re having…twins? Twins?!!!”
“Ah.” Iris forgot that her brother-in-law was still with them inside the vehicle. “Forget that I said that.”
“How can I forget something like that?!” Jin Chonglin’s eyes dropped to her still flat tummy. His shock was turning into amazement and excitement. “That small belly is really carrying twins? Like seriously? Whoa! Big Bro is really capable! Twins in one go. Wow. Holy shit. I’m going to be an uncle to twins. Twins! That’s two babies! Wait till Mom and Grandma hear about this. They’re going to treat you like their ancestor for giving our Jin family two heirs in one go. Oh, I almost forgot about the old man. Grandpa Lu will surely act more excited than Mom and Grandma Li.”
She threw him a warning look. “Don’t tell them! Not yet. Liwei and I want to keep it a surprise. You’re not supposed to know it this early either.” She started squeezing Little Liwei in her embrace while sighing. “Not only that, you aren’t supposed to know about Ketchup and Bacon’s existence either. If you get kidnapped and tortured someday because of your knowledge about my AI children, I’ll feel guilty.”
Jin Chonglin became dazed. “Kidnapped…t-tortured….”
She reached out and patted him on the shoulder. “It’ll be fine. Liwei and I will surely do our best to save you.”
Now Jin Chonglin felt like it was his turn to faint. He got a hold of himself but still shivered as several imaginary scenes of him being abducted by villains and torturing him in a dark place for days, maybe even months, to get information about his AI niece and nephew out of him played inside his mind. His head whipped to the dashboard monitor where the white and black cat AIs were staring back at him.
“Can you make me forget about the two of you?” he asked in a panic.
“Meow?” Ketchup tilted her head to the side and looked at her Uncle Lin Lin in confusion.
In contrast, Bacon threw his uncle a look filled with disdain. He didn’t speak to him directly, turning his furry little head to his mother and asking her instead, “Mother, is Bacon’s paternal uncle stupid? Does he think that Bacon and Big Sister Ketchup have the ability to make him forget about us? Father is so smart and yet his younger brother asks dumb questions like this. It’s not classy.”
“Y-you…” Jin Chonglin sputtered but was unable to say anything coherent as he was too taken aback by his AI nephew’s poisonous tongue.
Bacon wasn’t done yet. “Doesn’t he also realize that his words are insensitive? He wants to forget about Bacon and Big Sister Ketchup the day he learned about us so that must mean that he doesn’t like us. Bacon will ask Father later to help me demand compensation from this paternal uncle for emotional distress.”
“Gasp! You’re right, Bacon! Oh no! Now Ketchup feels so sad! Uncle Lin Lin doesn’t like us little kitty babies even though the cute and mighty Ketchup and my little kitty brother Bacon are his niece and nephew! We are one big happy family but he doesn’t want us! Wuwuwu! Ketchup will tell Daddy later that Uncle Lin Lin is such a big meanie to us kitty babies. Meowuwuwu!”
Seeing his nephew refusing to even look at him and his niece literally crying a river on the dashboard monitor, Jin Chonglin immediately felt guilty about his thoughtless words. Bacon’s poisonous tongue was intimidating so he chose to comfort the sobbing Ketchup first. The problem was that he was helpless and had no idea how to deal with a crying AI kitten.
If it was Little Jun who was crying, Jin Chonglin could coax the little guy with some treats. How to coax virtual kittens? Virtual candies? He didn’t have any!
“Uhm…I…uh.” In the end, he could only turn to Iris in defeat and ask her for help.
She sighed at him and shook her head before murmuring comforting words to both Ketchup and Bacon.
Jin Chonglin could sense that she wasn’t too pleased with him at the moment for upsetting her two AI children, making him feel even guiltier. Then his eyes caught Dom at the backseat staring daggers at him.
“Hmph! Making the babies cry! Are you still human?!” Dom turned his face away, also refusing to look at him.
