Chapter 54: Going on a Picnic

Jiang Zhiyun squatted down and asked gently, her eyes filled with heartache.

Niannian shook her head, then nodded again. She leaned against Chen Yu's leg, clutching his trousers tightly with her small hands, and spoke with a heavily nasal voice:

"I... I was really scared at first. Those bad guys were so fierce... But then Daddy came! Just like Ultraman, with a 'swoosh', he beat up all the bad guys! Daddy protected me, so I'm not scared anymore!"

She tilted her small face upward to look at Chen Yu.

"Daddy is my big hero!"

Hearing this, Chen Yu felt no pride at all; instead, a surge of intense self-blame washed over him.

A hero?

If he had arrived a second later, if that knife had deviated even a little bit, if...

He didn't even dare to imagine the consequences.

He squatted down, pulling his daughter's tiny body into his arms, his voice somewhat hoarse: "I'm sorry, Niannian... It's Daddy's fault."

Jiang Zhiyun and Niannian were both stunned.

Chen Yu tightened his arms around her and lowered his voice: "It's because Daddy has been too... too high-profile lately, which is why those bad ones set their sights on you."

"If Daddy had kept a lower profile, you wouldn't have encountered this kind of danger. It's all Daddy's fault."

"No, it's not!" Jiang Zhiyun immediately retorted, "How can you blame yourself? Those out-of-their-minds kidnappers are the ones who deserve to die! What does this have to do with you?"

She looked at the undisguised self-blame on Chen Yu's face, her heart tightening.

"Starting tomorrow, the home security personnel will be doubled! No, tripled! I will hire the best security team in the country to protect Niannian twenty-four hours a day!"

Jiang Zhiyun said decisively, once again radiating that take-charge CEO aura.

Chen Yu didn't speak; he just hugged his daughter a little tighter.

The little person in his arms seemed to sense the heavy atmosphere between her mom and dad. She shifted, extending her small hands to wrap one around Chen Yu's neck while grabbing Jiang Zhiyun's hand with the other.

"Daddy, Mommy, please don't argue..."

Niannian whispered, "I... I want to sleep with Daddy and Mommy tonight, okay?"

The air instantly froze.

Chen Yu's body stiffened.

Jiang Zhiyun's expression froze as well.

Sleep together?

The three of them... in the same bed?

They were in a fake marriage!

They hadn't even held hands more than a couple of times in private!

Countless thoughts flashed through Chen Yu's mind, so awkward that his toes practically curled enough to dig out a three-bedroom apartment on the floor.

Jiang Zhiyun's cheeks also began to heat up at a visible rate, turning from fair to a faint pink, which then spread all the way to the tips of her ears.

This... how could this work!

[Gasp—! What did I just hear?! Niannian, you are truly the divine wingman for your parents' romance!]

[Hhahahaha! Look at the awkward expressions on God Yu and President Jiang's faces, I'm dying! They're literally petrified on the spot!]

[High-energy warning ahead! A large-scale scene of "same bed, different dreams" (?) is about to unfold! Are my shipmates about to get some sugar?!]

[Wait, their reaction... isn't it a bit too exaggerated? Shouldn't a real married couple agree instantly? Could it be... they usually sleep in separate rooms?!]

[Holy crap! Upstairs, you've spotted the crucial point! This marriage... is there really something wrong with it?]

Niannian looked at her parents' strange expressions, tilting her little head, her big eyes filled with puzzlement: "Can't we? Why? The little rabbit family in the cartoons all sleep together..."

Faced with her daughter's innocent questioning, Jiang Zhiyun fell silent.

Looking at her daughter's small face, made exceptionally fragile by shock, how could she possibly utter a refusal?

Jiang Zhiyun took a deep breath, as if making a momentous decision. She bit her lower lip and finally nodded, her voice as faint as a mosquito's hum: "...Okay."

"Yay! That's wonderful!"

Niannian cheered immediately, the gloom from just now instantly swept away.

She happily ran to fetch her little pillow and rabbit plushie, preparing to move into the master bedroom.

In the living room, only Chen Yu and Jiang Zhiyun were left, the atmosphere awkward to the extreme.

Jiang Zhiyun didn't even dare to look into Chen Yu's eyes. She stood up, smoothed down the hem of her dress, and walked briskly toward the master bedroom.

As she passed Chen Yu, she paused, lowered her voice, and spoke in an embarrassed, irritated tone:

"You... you behave yourself when you sleep tonight! Don't... don't go making wild moves in front of the child!"

With that, she slipped into the bedroom with a "swoosh" without looking back, closing the door behind her.

Chen Yu was left standing alone in place, caught between laughter and tears.

Wild moves?

Am I that kind of person in your heart?

Besides, even if I had the desire, I wouldn't have the guts...

There's a little darling right in the middle!

[Hhahahahahaha! President Jiang is shy! She's shy! "Don't go making wild moves in front of the child"—what kind of wild remark is that!]

[I declare the production team's studio as my home tonight! Nobody is driving me away!]

[A delusional fan's heart shatters into pieces... My husband is going to sleep in the same bed with another woman tonight... Even though there's a daughter in between, I'm still so mad!]

[Is there any possibility that President Jiang said this because God Yu is usually... well... rather robust in his demands? That's why she had to give a special reminder? (Dog-head self-preservation)]

[Hey upstairs, have you got a death wish? But... it's not entirely impossible either. After all, with God Yu's stamina, tsk tsk tsk...]

Deep in the night.

On the enormous bed.

Niannian slept with absolute contentment right in the exact center, with Mommy on her left and Daddy on her right.

In one hand, she clutched the sleeve of Jiang Zhiyun's pajamas, and in the other, the hem of Chen Yu's T-shirt. A sweet smile rested on her small face, and her breathing was even and steady—she had clearly entered dreamland.

However, the adults on either side of her were completely devoid of sleep.

Chen Yu's body was tense as a rock. Lying flat on his back, his eyes stared straight up at the ceiling, and he even deliberately softened his breathing.

The air was permeated with the faint, pleasant fragrance radiating from Jiang Zhiyun.

Jiang Zhiyun on the other side was not faring any better.

She lay on her side, her back to Chen Yu, but the muscles all along her back were rigidly stiff.

She could clearly feel the body heat and breathing of a man coming from behind her.

The massive bed, due to the presence of the little person in the middle, had unconsciously shortened the distance between the two of them.

Time ticked by second by second. As Niannian fell into a deeper sleep, the tense nerves of the two finally relaxed just a fraction.

Perhaps the events of the day had been too mentally draining, and sleepiness washed over them like a tide.

Chen Yu's eyelids began to droop, and his consciousness gradually blurred.

Jiang Zhiyun also slowly relaxed her body, sinking into dreamland.

However, accidents always happen inadvertently.

Jiang Zhiyun in her sleep was clearly not a well-behaved sleeper.

Seeming to feel a bit warm, she unconsciously kicked off the thin quilt covering her.

Then, with a turn of her body, her long, slender leg clad in silk pajama pants crossed the middle boundary—meaning Niannian's body—and landed without warning, with pinpoint precision, right across Chen Yu.