Chapter 1288 - Looks for a Shadow on You

Bai Beibei’s eyes misted up. To be able to receive such favour from him, what was there to hesitate about?

“Gong Yi, I like you,” she said, allowing her words to roll smoothly off her tongue.

Gong Yi’s eyes lit up, and his chest filled up with an indescribable warmth. He always knew that she liked him but to receive confirmation from her lips... It made him happy. The fact that it was her first time addressing him by his name was simply icing on the cake.

Gong Yi closed his eyes and collapsed.

...

At the hospital.

Gong Yi’s eyes fluttered open. His surroundings were bleached perfectly, and the sharp smell of disinfectant hung in the air like a noxious cloud.

His head pounded with the telltale signs of a headache. He tried moving and immediately frowned.

“Don’t move!” At this moment, a small hand pressed down on his head, and Bai Beibei’s small, beautiful face appeared in his sight.

“How many fingers am I holding up?” Bai Beibei’s nose was red, and her eyes were puffy. Nervously, she raised a slender finger, prompting him for a response.

Gong Yi...

“Two,” he replied.

A crushing weight descended, smashing her hopes to pieces. It was over. She had clearly raised a finger, but he responded by saying there were two.

“Do you know who I am?”

“Beibei.”

“Who is Beibei to you?”

“I used to raise a kitten at home called Beibei.”

“Wah!” Bai Beibei burst into tears. He actually thought she was some cat he once kept. It was a gut-wrenching blow against her psyche.

She cupped his large hands in her smaller ones. “It’s alright. Even if you’ve become a vegetable, I will always remain by your side.”

Seeing how cute she was, Gong Yi deliberately teased her.

“Ahem,” the doctor coughed. “Young Master Gong, please stop teasing Miss Bai. You’ve really given her a good scare.”

... Teasing?

Bai Beibei looked at Gong Yi with tear-filled eyes.”You... A-are you teasing me?”

Gong Yi smirked. “Weren’t you trying to see if I had become a vegetable? I just played along so as not to disappoint you.”

This person...

Bai Beibei clenched her fists and punched him. “You had me worried to death! Have you had your fun? Did you enjoy teasing me?”

Gong Yi drew her fists into his hands and kissed them. With a cheeky grin, he said, “That was me punishing you for how cruel you’ve been to me. You should treat me better in the future.”

Bai Beibei’s pale face burned crimson. It felt like her face was on fire. Pulling her hands away from his lips, she muttered, “Stop fooling around.”

“Say it again.”

“Hm?”

“Say it. Say, ‘Gong Yi, I like you’.”

Bai Beibei...

He was not being serious at all!

“Enough! Gong Yi, are you done fooling around?” Just then, Gong Yi’s father, who had been waylaid by the side, finally couldn’t help but speak up. He was already an old man, and the way the young couple was flirting gave him goosebumps all over his body.

Things had really changed since the time of his youth. Young couples, then, had a different sense of propriety. Youngsters these days were truly frivolous by comparison.

Gong Yi released Bai Beibei when he heard the reprimanding voice of his father. Grateful for the distraction, Bai Beibei retreated to the side.

“Young Master Gong, It’s time for your checkup.” The doctor said, motioning for the nurse at his side to follow.

Old Man Gong stared at Bai Beibei. “Bai Beibei, if you would, I would like to have a word with you. Perhaps, we should discuss the details outside.”

Startled, though not unwilling, Bai Beibei nodded. “Okay.”

“Father, what is it you want to say to her?” Gong Yi growled discontentedly.

Old Man Gong glared at his son. “Can’t an old man ask when he might expect a grandson? I, for one, would like a grandson as soon as possible.”

“Of course!” Gong Yi replied.

...n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

In the corridor.

Old Man Gong placed his hands behind his back and sighed heavily.

Bai Beibei’s small hands were nervously twisting her clothes like a child who had made a mistake.

“You’re quite young,” Old Man Gong was the first to speak. “To be honest, the matter of you dating my son was too sudden. I didn’t even have the time to mentally prepare myself. At first, you were just Bai Qi’s sister. Later, when I saw you in the apartment, my son told me you were just a nanny. Somewhere along the line, you ended up becoming Xiyang’s girlfriend. I’m not even sure you’ve ended your relationship with him. Now, you’re dating my son. Your identity is too big of a mess.”

“I’m not Li Xiyang’s girlfriend. There’s nothing between us. He’s the one who made it up,” Bai Beibei explained in a panicked voice.

Old Man Gong regarded Bai Beibei with a steely look. She was so nervous that her small face resembled a cherry. Although she did not meet his eyes, he could tell that she was still pure.

Gong Yi’s love life had always worried him. He worried that his son would remain a bachelor all his life. Old Man Gong’s deepest wish was to have a grandson he could dote on. It was a miracle, really, that Gong Yi finally had a girlfriend of his own. He simply prayed the relationship would last.

Bai Beibei’s talent in mental arithmetics was already impressive in itself. Coupled by her youthful beauty and laudable purity, she was certainly a woman worthy of his son.

As someone of the older generation who had received tertiary education, Old Man Gong was fairly open-minded. He had no compunctions against a match of unequal status. So long as his son truly loved her, he would accept whomever his son chose for a wife.

He knew that his son had a good eye.

Yet, for some inexplicable reason, he could not help but feel a faint sense of disapproval for Bai Beibei.

“I won’t pry into your relationship with Li Xiyang or what you did with him in the past. However, you are now my son’s girlfriend. Our Gong family and the Li family are on friendly terms so to speak. Gong Yi and Xiyang even call each other brothers. Now, the two of them have turned against each other because of you. I hope you won’t tear our two families apart by playing on their feelings for you. I believe it only right that you distance yourself from Xiyang.”

“Yes.” Bai Beibei nodded vigorously. “Uncle Gong, I understand.”

Bai Beibei’s obedience pleased him greatly. After a moment’s pause, Old Man Gong continued, “Bai Beibei, there’s something I should tell you in advance.”

“What is it?”

“Gong Yi has always liked Ye Xiaotao. He has liked her for a whole 20 years. It hasn’t even been four months since she got married, and yet he has fallen in love with you. Don’t you think it’s strange?”

Bai Beibei froze.

“Everyone says that the best way to forget a previous relationship is to quickly start a new one. I also urged him to hurry up so that I might have a grandchild. All these reasons combined make me suspect that he sees a shadow of her in you.”

A shadow of Ye Xiaotao in her?

Old Man Gong had put it very tactfully, but it was obvious what he was trying to convey. Gong Yi was, in all likelihood, using her as a substitute for Ye Xiaotao.

Bai Beibei understood the implication in Old Man Gong’s words. Though he did not object to her being with Gong Yi, if Gong Yi broke up with her one day, he would not help her in any way either.

Old Man Gong’s stance on their relationship rang loud and clear. It left a bad taste in her mouth.

She was just an ordinary girl who wanted to gain the recognition and affection of his family.

Bai Beibei did not know what she had done wrong, but it was clear his family held no love for her.

Bai Beibei bit her lower lip with her white teeth and said softly, “No matter the reason for his liking me, I like him and want to be with him – that is enough. Even if we don’t end up together in the future, I won’t hate him for it. Uncle, please don’t worry. If there comes a day when he decides he no longer loves me, I won’t pester him over bygones. I won’t bring any trouble to your family.”

He didn’t expect the girl to be so shrewd. It made Old Man Gong feel bad for saying the words that he did.

“Uncle, if there’s nothing else, please excuse me.”

She turned around and left.