Dragon Palace Home #10.
For the remainder of the day, Long Jinjing was distracted. There were many times that she failed to respond when Robin tried to speak to her. Once they arrived at the mansion, she immediately headed to the bedroom she shared with Lu Zihao. He hadn’t arrived yet.
She triple-checked that she was alone in the room. Ignoring the small suitcase that she packed earlier in her condo, she fished out the medicine bottle from her handbag. Her hand trembled before tossing the small bottle back into her bag as if it burned her.
Next, she dumped all the items she purchased from the convenience store. She didn’t care about the magazines and all the junk food. When she saw the three packages, she immediately separated them from the rest of the items.
Then she checked her phone. It was now late in the afternoon, just before dusk. She still had some time before dinner. However, she wasn’t sure what time Lu Zihao would be coming home.
“Bacon?”
Her phone screen flickered and an image of a bored-looking black cat appeared. Bacon was grooming himself, looking like an idle little cat prince.
“Bacon is here, Aunt Jinjing.”
“Do you know what time your Uncle Zihao will be arriving home?”
“Uncle Zihao is already on his way home and will be arriving in approximately thirty-two minutes. Does Aunt Jinjing want to talk to him again?”
“No! I mean, I can wait until he comes home. No need to keep on disturbing him.”
“Understood, Aunt Jinjing.” Bacon continued grooming himself.
Long Jinjing’s mind was already racing with so many thoughts about her current situation.
“Aunt Jinjing,” her AI nephew called.
“H-huh?” She was still distracted so her response was a little delayed.
“Does Aunt Jinjing suspect that you are pregnant like Mother?”
She paled and was unable to respond in time.
Bacon tilted his fluffy little head to the side and stared at his dumbfounded aunt with his golden eyes. “Aunt Jinjing bought three pregnancy test kits at the convenience store. Mother has a lot of them stored that she was unable to use up when she became pregnant. You could have just asked Mother for some. Isn’t Mother your sister? I’m sure that Mother will give you as much pregnancy test kits as you want.”
Long Jinjing clutched her tightening chest. She could feel the thundering of her heart inside. “Y-you know that I bought the…test kits?”
“Of course. Didn’t Bacon already tell Aunt Jinjing before that I am keeping an eye on you?”
“Then do others also k-know about what I…bought?”
“No. Only Bacon knows. For now.”
Relief filled Long Jinjing before she gripped her phone and pleaded, “Bacon, please don’t tell anyone else. Especially not your Uncle Zihao! Okay, Bacon? Can you keep this a secret for Aunt Jinjing for now?”
Bacon tilted his head to the other side and blinked his golden eyes, contemplating about it. “Why won’t Aunt Jinjing tell Uncle Zihao? Isn’t he the father?”
“Y-yes, of course! But we still don’t know that I’m pregnant, right? What if I’m not? Then I’d have bothered your Uncle Zihao for nothing. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Besides…your uncle…he’s not even sure yet whether he wants to be with me or not. I’m sure that he’ll be, uhm, very upset if I become pregnant now. Our relationship right now…it’s, uh, complicated.”
“Uncle Zihao is indeed a scumbag. Bacon is still young so I don’t yet fully understand all this complicatedness.” Then the black cat AI concluded, “Being human is such a hassle. It’s so much easier being a cat.”
Despite her current agitated emotional state, she couldn’t help but laugh at what her AI nephew said. He even looked so serious while saying it.
“You’re right,” she said, sighing. “Being human is such a hassle.”
Then she pleaded again, “Bacon, please? Can you just keep this a secret for now? I’ll…uh, give you a red packet.”
“Bacon thanks Aunt Jinjing for the red packet.”
“You’ll keep it a secret?”
“Yes, Aunt Jinjing.”
“Thank you, Bacon!”
Long Jinjing almost cried tears of relief but this wasn’t the time for that. She had more urgent matters to do before Lu Zihao arrived. After getting reassurance from Bacon, she headed straight to the bathroom with the three pregnancy test kits. Fortunately, she didn’t have any trouble peeing.
The process was quick but the wait was torture. She paced back and forth inside the bathroom while waiting for her phone’s timer to ring. When it rang, she almost slipped on the floor from her startled nerves. It took a few seconds for her to barely calm herself down.
The moment of truth had come.
Taking a few deep breaths, she looked at the first pregnancy test kit.
Negative.
“Oh.” Relief flooded her.
The second test kit—negative as well.
She felt even more relieved.
The third test kit—huh?
She did a double take. “Why is it like this?”
She grabbed the test kit’s original packaging and re-read the instructions. There was no mistake. The third test kit’s results showed that she might be pregnant.
“Is this is a faulty test kit? The first two said negative but this one says positive.”
Confusion filled her. She was still trying to figure everything out when her phone rang.
“Ah!”
The test kit and the torn packaging flew out of her hands from the shock. With her current emotional state, any sudden sound might send her into heart attack. She pressed on her chest before hurrying to look at her phone.
It was a phone call from Grandpa Lu.
The conversation was short. Grandpa Lu wanted her to join him and the others for a pre-dinner gathering to chat with each other.
Although she didn’t feel like joining them, she didn’t want them to worry about her and ask too many questions. So she agreed.
She didn’t want them to wait too long for her so she just shoved all the pregnancy test kits and their torn packaging in the least used bottom drawer of the bathroom sink. She planned on disposing them properly when the opportunity arose. After quickly changing out of her office clothes, she hurried to join the others while doing her best to appear normal and not suspicious at all.
Hopefully.
