Chapter 162 — Madam Gao Shows Her Backbone, Shocking News (2)

He turned to leave, ignoring his father's rage and the quivering of his mother's lips. He didn't need to look to know that her eyes would be bright with the sheen of tears.

Indeed, those who are pitiful must be hateful. He had a classic example in his mother. He stopped again and turned.

"You, what are you still waiting for? Is it until you're forced to eat something terrible again? I won't be able to accompany you to the hospital this time, so you should take care."

Gao Tingxiu didn't hesitate at all. She pushed the mahogany chair backwards and stood up, walking quickly to her brother's side and holding his arm. Still she muttered, "Bro, your mouth is really poisonous!"

Gao Zhipeng finally found his voice. "Stop right there! Where do you think you're going? I would not tolerate such disregard and disrespect in —"

"Just stop."

Qiao Mingran's voice was almost a whisper, but it stopped her husband in his tracks. He looked at her guiltily, but she didn't notice. Her eyes were fixed on her children.

For the first time ever, Gao Tinghua saw his mother's brown eyes suddenly become vivid, as if she had finally made up her mind to do something for once.

"Yes, blame me and call me foolish. It's my fault after all. Pretending to be ignorant as you called it, hasn't helped much, so I'll tell all of you straightforwardly: No matter what, I have to hold on to this family. There's no other way, because your elder sister must have a family to come back to."

For a few moments, the silence as well as lack of response was deafening.

Then, each family member began to react.

Gao Tingxiu's was the simplest to understand, "Elder sister? What?" she asked incredulously, eyes dilated as widely as she could manage.

Gao Zhipeng's expression was a mixture of guilt and apprehension. "Ran'er, are...are you still looking for her?"

It was rare for Qiao Mingran to look serious. "Zhipeng, she's my daughter, and I have never forgotten her all these years, not even once. Of course I'm looking for her.

"I'm not asking you to do anything. Just make sure that when she eventually returns, she will meet a complete family. I won't ask about whatever you do outside, but I will not tolerate it if your escapades spread all over the internet and embarrass her when she is finally found, so hide your tail well."

It was the first time she was sounding so authoritative in front of her family, like a true matriarch.

Gao Zhipeng had nothing to say. He could only look away, his eyes darting away from her. His shame directly turned into anger and he hurried away after throwing down a sentence, "I have something on at the company. See you later."

Only Gao Tinghua remained truly stunned, unable to say anything. The new information took a few moments to sink in, and when it finally did, he almost reeled with the impact.

He had another sister.

He felt like he had to hold something or risk falling down. The news was extremely shocking to say the least. He didn't know when he sat down again, this time facing his mother.

"Mother, what did you say?"

Qiao Mingran had almost exhausted her bravado, but she persisted in repeating herself. "I said you have an elder sister. I lost her more than 33 years ago. Infact, 34 years have passed now. I've been searching for her since then."

Gao Tinghua could not process his thoughts here. Something kept niggling at the back of his mind, but in his unstable state, he refused to think about it. He felt he needed to get away or he would explode.

As he went out with a blank look on his face, he didn't hear the worry in his mother's voice as she shouted his name.

Qiao Mingran was indeed worried. Seeing how he had treated his younger sister all these years made her realize that his sister was probably the only person he loved in the whole world.

She wasn't sure what kind of impact suddenly telling him he had another sister would have on him. Seeing him go out with such an expression worsened her worry.

She held her hands together tightly as she prayed for his safety, then told the family driver to hurry out after him.

*****

Autumn, with its beautiful sunsets and cool temperatures passed, and City A ushered in the first days of winter.

Because of the freezing temperatures, Jiang Philip made sure Su Qianhua was bundled up from head to toe in the warmest clothes he could buy.

Su Qianhua found his carefulness amusing at first, but as time went on, her stubbornness began to rear its head.

"Huahua, wear this red scarf. It's very beautiful and warm. It would also go with your outfit."

As part of her daily routine, she had to walk around for at least thirty minutes. She loved walking around normally, but since the pregnancy, she easily ran out of energy and even walking was now a chore.

To encourage her, Jiang Philip made sure to accompany everyday without fail.

"I've told you that I really hate this color. It's too gaudy. And I've told you to stop calling me Huahua." Su Qianhua said in slight irritation. She didn't know why her closest people liked calling her such a weird name.

Jiang Philip was already used to her temperamental nature. "Fine, I'm sorry Baby. Still, you need something warm. What about this muffler?"

Baby? Su Qianhua thought about it and decided she liked the sound of that. Anyway it was better than calling her plain old Qianhua and much more pleasing to the ears compared to Huahua.

His voice also made the address sound more intimate. If only...

She sighed subconsciously.

Her new husband was a dream gentleman. He had everything she didn't even know she was looking for. Her only complaint was that his self-control was simply too good!

She could not believe that she had been married for more than a month and nothing, *ahem* had happened between them.

It was unbelievable. Am I no longer attractive? Or have I lost my charm? She wondered, her eyes subconsciously boring a hole into Jiang Philip's face.

It didn't make sense that as much as he claimed to love her, he was uninterested.

No, she had to do something. Her title of "Qianhua the Bulldozer" was at stake!

As if he felt her determination, Jiang Philip looked up and caught her predatory stare. He shuddered.

She had been giving him more and more of those stares lately. At first he didn't understand, but the day she came into his room to sleep, he suddenly got the hint.

Unfortunately, he was too concerned about her to try anything. The postcoital bleeding Doctor Zhong spoke about had scared him very much, so he only hugged her to sleep that night, much to Su Qianhua's annoyance.

Despite the fact that their entanglement by the next morning made him blush seriously, he resisted with all his might, manually reciting codes in his mind as he gently removed one hand from his abs and the other, from inside his pajama trousers.

Regardless of all the advances she had been making, he just pretended not to see, even as he cried inwardly.

He too wanted to do so many things with his newly wedded wife, of course he wanted to. But he could not put her life in danger for the sake of mere pleasure.

Alright, he knew it would be earthshaking, mind-blowing, toe-curling pleasure, but he tried very hard not to focus on that.

He shook his head to clear the sudden pictures that flooded his mind and took her hand gently, leading her outside.

Outside, snow had stopped falling, and the ground was a sea of white. Winter used to be very harsh in City A, but in recent years, it had been much milder.

In spite of the recent snowfall, the air was only slightly cool.

The snow wasn't even much—less than an inch, so Su Qianhua couldn't hear the crunch under her feet as she would have liked.

As they walked around slowly, Su Qianhua went back to the matter at hand began strategizing on how to get her husband on his back.

First, she was going to go shopping. Oh, she also needed to get written proof from Doctor Zhong that the baby was stable. Next, she planned to research —

"Baby, are you listening?" Jiang Philip asked.

Su Qianhua's strategic planning was interrupted. She turned to the culprit, only to begin admiring his face again. Wow, how can one man be so—

Jiang Philip waved his hand in front of her eyes, "Ba-baby? Are you okay?" Her intense look was truly scary.

She finally responded, "I'm sorry, what were you saying?"

"I was telling you that Mum and Auntie have discussed and finally agreed on they when they would come. We should be expecting them in about a month, in time for your maternity leave. They plan to stay a while after you give birth, to help with the baby and to prepare for our wedding."

They had spoken to Mother Su after the events of that day and informed her about the scare. Coupled with the news that they had gotten married, Mother Su, who had been unable to eat well because of the fight with her daughter forgave them instantly.

Jiang Philip's mother, Kathy was terrified when she heard the news. Jiang Philip laughed at the memory.

When he told her that Su Qianhua almost lost the baby, she began to wail on the phone, "Oh, my poor daughter-in-law and grandchild. What did you do wrong to have such an irresponsible man and father? Philip, I have told you several times to do the right thing. Don't you know it could have been disastrous? You this child, I—"

"We got married Mum."