Chapter 127 Xie Chen pinched his chin
Xie Chen took a tissue, squatted down, and wiped away his tears: "What's wrong? Is it because of the error message?"
Mu Yan, her eyes red from crying, looked at him and nodded.
Xie Chen looked at the screen full of error messages and was somewhat at a loss.
Xie Chen's understanding of computer knowledge should be limited to shutting down and restarting when a bug occurs. However, logically speaking, the workload and difficulty of the jobs Mu Yan is currently taking on should be far less than when he worked at a large company.
"When do you need to go out for a walk and get some sunshine? You haven't left the house for over a week."
Mu Yan shook his head, then suddenly leaned down, burying his face in his arms, as if refusing to communicate.
His shoulders were trembling slightly; he was still crying.
Xie Chen's hand, which was about to land on his head, remained suspended in mid-air and ultimately did not actually fall.
He silently picked up his phone, typed a message to the psychologist, and quickly put his phone away after receiving a reply.
“Mu Yan,” Xie Chen rarely called Mu Yan by her full name in such a stern tone, “It’s not right for you to stay at home like this. The less you go out, the worse your mood will become.”
He went to the closet and got a hoodie and pants for Mu Yan, which he then draped over the back of the chair behind Mu Yan.
"Sweetie, change your clothes," Xie Chen softened his voice a little. "We'll go for a walk around the neighborhood and soak up some sun before we come back. There aren't many people in the neighborhood. We won't bring Tangyuan; it'll just be the two of us."
Xie Chen and Mu Yan are both unsociable people. The few neighbors they know are people they met while walking their dogs. They basically only know Tang Yuan and will only greet them when they bring Tang Yuan out.
"Can we go tomorrow...?" Mu Yan finally responded, "I... don't really want to go out today."
Xie Chen looked at him silently without saying a word.
Several times before, when he asked Mu Yan to go out, Mu Yan had made the same excuse.
Xie Chen hardened his heart, reached out and wrapped his arms around Mu Yan's waist from behind, and with his other hand supporting his thighs, he lifted him up from the chair.
Mu Yan let out a soft cry, and then Xie Chen quickly reached out and unbuttoned the first button on the collar of his loungewear.
“…Xie Chen!” Mu Yan was terrified, her voice trembling as she struggled to shrink back, but Xie Chen grabbed her waist.
Xie Chen's strength was truly terrifying. Mu Yan had no way to resist. Buttons were undone one by one, and the loose-fitting house clothes were stripped off and thrown on the ground.
Mu Yan instinctively wanted to shrink back, her skin exposed to the cool air, causing a slight shiver to run through her.
Xie Chen picked up a hoodie from the side and promptly put it over his head.
"Raise your hand."
Mu Yan remained motionless, staring at him with red-rimmed eyes. Xie Chen grabbed his wrist directly and forcefully pulled it through his sleeve.
"I don't want to wear this..." The hem of the hoodie was actually looser than loungewear, but Mu Yan resisted so much that her voice trembled as she cried, almost unable to control herself. "I don't want to go out."
Xie Chen ignored him and picked up Mu Yan's unlocked phone from the table.
Mu Yan suddenly looked up: "What are you doing...?"
Xie Chen restrained his struggling movements with one hand and coldly said into the phone, "Hello, I'm his brother. He's not in good health. You should find someone else to do this project. I'll compensate you three times the project budget..."
"Xie Chen!" Mu Yan lunged forward to grab the phone, tears welling up in her eyes. "How dare you touch my phone..."
Xie Chen didn't resist too much this time, letting him take the phone. Mu Yan stared blankly at the call log on the screen between himself and the client he was dealing with three days ago.
The call was never answered.
Mu Yan was stunned, tears still hanging on his chin. He looked up and stared blankly at Xie Chen.
Xie Chen didn't touch his phone; he was just trying to scare him.
Xie Chen suddenly picked him up and made him straddle his lap like a large doll.
Mu Yan struggled to get down, but Xie Chen grabbed the back of her neck and pressed her against his shoulder: "Why don't you wear this? Why don't you go out? If you don't want to talk about it now, you can cry it out first."
Mu Yan was trembling with sobs. Xie Chen's hand stroked his back repeatedly. Although Mu Yan had gained weight recently, he seemed thinner than before. You could clearly feel his spine when you touched him, like a malnourished kitten.
Xie Chen waited quietly for him to finish crying. Mu Yan seemed to realize that he had been very harsh and rude to Xie Chen just now, and said "I'm sorry" in a very soft voice.
Xie Chen patted him and said softly that it was nothing.
"Why don't you want to go out? Why don't you want to wear this? Can you tell your brother now?"
“...This looks ugly,” Mu Yan said softly, avoiding his gaze. “It’s strange...I don’t want to wear this dress, and I don’t want to go out.”
"What's strange about it?" Xie Chen asked.
Mu Yan lowered his head and did not answer immediately. His current posture made it seem as if he was the one who had taken the initiative to rest his chin on Xie Chen's shoulder and act coquettishly.
“…stomach.” He answered after a while.
Xie Chen had a rough idea, but he was still slightly taken aback when he received the answer.
Mu Yan himself is still a child, so getting pregnant is something that is already very difficult for him to accept.
Actually, his belly wasn't that big now. The hoodie Xie Chen found was even a little looser than his usual loungewear.
"My stomach feels strange," Mu Yan repeated softly, glancing at Xie Chen again with her red, tear-filled eyes. "So please don't go out, okay?"
Xie Chen didn't answer immediately. He was always easily swayed by Mu Yan. Mu Yan thought she had his tacit approval, so she felt a little relieved and wanted to get off Xie Chen's lap to go to the living room to get a glass of water.
Xie Chen suddenly stood up, holding him by the thighs like he was holding a child. Mu Yan struggled, but he was much weaker than Xie Chen and had almost no chance of resisting.
The arm holding him was strong, which lessened the feeling of weightlessness from being suspended in the air. Xie Chen did not take him out of the room, but stopped in front of the full-length mirror in the bedroom.
The full-length mirror was completely covered by a cloth, which Mu Yan had bought online. Xie Chen didn't know why he bought it at first, but now he realized it was used to cover the full-length mirror.
Xie Chen held Mu Yan in one arm, and with the other hand, he unhesitatingly tore off the cloth covering the full-length mirror.
The fabric slipped, and the mirror was exposed to the light again, reflecting Mu Yan's pale face and swollen eyes. Mu Yan subconsciously wanted to avoid looking at her.
"Don't close your eyes." Xie Chen pinched his chin, forcing him to look up. "Is it strange?"
The person in the mirror had messy hair, and the hem of the loose hoodie bulged out in an almost invisible arc. Mu Yan turned her face away, but Xie Chen forcefully pulled her back.
“I don’t find it strange at all. No matter what you look like, I think you’re adorable.”
"You should be the one who loves yourself the most." Xie Chen's tone was stern, with a hint of accusation. "Why do you feel that your body is strange?"
Mu Yan sobbed, her tears falling onto Xie Chen's hand.
“I don’t hate babies… I just think it’s weird of me to be like this.”
“Not surprising at all,” Xie Chen put him down, still in the same position as before, and through the thick fabric of the hoodie, he took Mu Yan’s hand and gently stroked his slightly protruding belly. “If you don’t hate the baby, why would you hate yourself?”
Mu Yan was completely encircled in his arms, and his hand was gently stroked on his lower abdomen.
“You need to go out for a walk.” Xie Chen’s voice softened a bit. “You can’t continue like this. You really have an emotional problem. Staying at home will only make it worse.”
"Go change your pants, we're going out," Xie Chen said. "Or do you want me to help you change your pants too?"
With red eyes, Mu Yan picked up the casual pants Xie Chen had hung on the back of the chair and waited for Xie Chen to leave his room.
Xie Chen didn't move, but walked to the computer desk and sat down, with his back to him: "Change it like this."
"Get out..."
“After I leave, you dawdle for a long time, and then when I come back to urge you, you say you don’t want to change, you don’t want to go out.” Xie Chen didn’t turn his head, his tone as calm as if stating a fact, “Just change like this.”
Mu Yan stood frozen in place, tears silently streaming down her face.
"Xie Chen..." he choked back tears, "You bullied me..."
Xie Chen didn't say anything, but silently tapped the keyboard without turning his head, saved the project code that Mu Yan was working on, and then closed the page and the computer.
"I want a divorce..." After a long while, Mu Yan, who was crying so hard she was almost out of breath, finally came up with the only thing she could use to threaten Xie Chen.
“Even if we’re divorced, I’ll still be your brother,” Xie Chen said calmly, not at all angered by the threat. “Even if we’re divorced, I’ll continue to take care of you like this.”
“I’ve never made love to you, never done anything that couples do, and I never forbade you from dating other people,” Xie Chen noticed that Mu Yan wasn’t changing his pants at all. He turned his chair around and stared at Mu Yan calmly with his dark eyes. “If you want a divorce, you can do it anytime.”
"But I will continue to take care of you, and nothing will change."
The room was quiet, with only the rustling of clothes and the occasional sob.
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