Long Jinjing tried to turn around and look at her husband but Lu Zihao tightened their embrace, preventing her from moving. The man rarely showed any of his true emotions. Even now, she still found it difficult to read his expressions.
As usual, she could only depend on her intuition. It was telling her that her husband must be going through something serious.
She didn't know if it was somehow related to the grim atmosphere at home today due to Iris falling sick all of a sudden.
Once a home's mistress became sick, the entire family would be affected. Long Jinjing hoped that her sister would recover soon from her fever or whatever sickness Iris was suffering.
Although Long Jinjing wanted to ask her husband about whatever was bothering him, she wasn't going to force him into telling her if he didn't want to. There must be a valid reason why he continued to refuse telling her anything.
The only reason that she could think of was that it would somehow put her in danger if she ever came to know about it. As to what it was or how it would put her in danger, she had no idea.
It was only because she knew about Shadow Winds that she had to get used to not knowing every single thing about her husband's daily life.
She patted his thick, muscled arms that were hugging her. "Alright, I won't ask you anymore. Just take care of yourself, okay? I don't want you to get sick like little sister."
"I won't get sick," Lu Zihao replied. "You should be the one to be careful."
She sighed and nodded. "The doctor won't allow me to visit Xiulan to prevent me from catching anything that might make me sick."
"Listen to the doctor."
"How's Xiulan, Nikolai? Is her condition serious?"
Since he was hugging her from the back, she couldn't see his expression right now. Worry flashed in his eyes but only for a moment.
"Her fever has already broken but is not completely gone yet. The doctor is still monitoring her condition. At least, she didn't fall into another coma. Thank fuck for that."
"You're right. I'm glad that she didn't fall into coma again." Long Jinjing released a sigh of relief.
Her sister's health had really not been the best ever since she woke from her one-year coma after her deadly car crash back then. Long Jinjing once again felt ashamed that she envied her sister's consistently beautiful appearance during and after pregnancy.
Chen Fei was right. Iris might have maintained her physical beauty all throughout her pregnancy and after childbirth but she suffered and continue to suffer so many health issues.
Long Jinjing now felt thankful that her pregnancy was very smooth so far despite gaining a lot of weight. Hopefully, her smooth pregnancy would continue until childbirth.
While she was deep in her thoughts, Lu Zihao's mind was in chaos. He shouldn't have told Jin Liwei anything. This wasn't how Nikolai Vetrov should have acted.
Ever since becoming reborn as Lu Zihao, his emotional control had become so much worse. He wasn't like this before in his past life.
It might be due to his desire for revenge, making him more prone to losing control compared to how he lived as Nikolai Vetrov in the past.
Or maybe it was because the original Lu Zihao's remnant still remained in this body. The original Lu Zihao was a happy-go-lucky guy who lived by acting on his impulses and ignoring consequences.
Perhaps the original Lu Zihao's personality was affecting him in a way that he hadn't noticed yet.
Wait.
Now that he thought about it, his current personality was no longer the same as when he was Nikolai Vetrov. It wasn't the same as the original Lu Zihao's personality either.
His current personality might really be a combination of the two, although the dominant one was still Nikolai's.
He was very unhappy upon reaching this conclusion.
However, he didn't want to think about all this right now. After what happened at the hospital wing last night with his sister and brother-in-law, he felt extremely weary of everything.
He rested his chin on top of his wife's head and hugged her more tightly while making sure that he wasn't hurting her. Long Jinjing's scent wafted to his nose and started to calm him down slowly but surely.
Most of the time, he would get the urge to fuck Long Jinjing whenever the two of them stuck close together like this. He would only suppress his lust when it was clear that she wanted to just cuddle with him.
Now, he felt the same as her and just wanted to cuddle.
He only wanted to stay like this and hug her. It wasn't like he stopped desiring her. Not at all.
He felt…no.
The moment he realized the direction of his thoughts, he immediately stopped it. This wasn't the time to lose himself in that kind of dangerous emotion.
"Nikolai?" Long Jinjing's soft voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Let me stay like this for a bit longer, hm?"
She hesitated before nodding. Then he felt her leaning back and relaxing on him.
He inhaled her delicate fragrance and focused on that scent. It slowly cleansed away the chaos in his mind.
Long Jinjing must have sensed that he was now calmer. When she turned around to face him, he didn't stop her. She stuck her side close to him to accommodate her huge, swollen belly without completely separating their embrace.
"Feeling better now?" she asked.
"Hm."
"I'm glad." She smiled and caressed his cheek before tracing the long, jagged scar on his face. "I may not know what you're going through but I hope that you'll always do this whenever something is bugging you—come to me until you feel better. I'm your wife now, Nikolai. I may not have the power to help you solve your problems but…at least I can give you a warm home and loving family to return to after a hard day."
Lu Zihao's dark, stormy eyes saw through her sincerity. "You're too fucking good for someone like me, Long Jinjing."
"Don't say that. I just love you, that's all."
"Love, huh."
Lu Zihao felt his chest tighten from an emotion that he would rather not explore.
