Chapter 43 - Illegitimate Child (1/2)

The next morning, Adrian woke up late.

He took a cold shower in the middle of the night before widening the door of the rabbit’s nest. After his work was done, he started to feel peckish. Thinking about it, all this work was Zhong Yan’s fault to begin with, so he dragged Zhong Yan out of his blanket to have him cook a snack for him, and only fell asleep at dawn.

This directly led to him missing his morning alarm. If Zhong Yan hadn’t come knocking on his door to wake him, he would probably have slept through the first meeting of the year.

Adrian was still struggling to stay awake when he arrived at headquarters. But even so, he still noticed some peculiarities.

The people in the headquarters’ main building were all looking at him strangely today. Adrian walked all the way to the meeting room and was just about to ask what was going on, but unexpectedly, all the high-ranking officers inside were looking at him with inscrutable expressions as soon as he opened the door.

“What’s wrong?” Adrian asked in confusion as he looked towards Fayn.

It was as if Fayn didn’t know him at all; he was looking at him with a brand-new set of eyes.

An officer asked, “Commander, have…have you read the news?”

“No, I was in a hurry this morning so I didn’t get to read it. What happened?”

Before anyone could answer, the door to the conference room was opened. With a frown, Adrian turned around only to see the head of the public relations department, Ping Yan, standing in the doorway with a grumpy face.

Ping Yan was a female officer with a hot body and an even hotter temper. Adrian grumbled, “What’s with you? Don’t you know what level this meeting is for?”

“And what’s your problem?” Ping Yan did not think she was overstepping her boundaries at all, and even snapped back even stronger, “How could you hide such big news from us? We only found out cause it got leaked out in the news so now we don’t have a backup plan at all. Not a single person in the public relations department knows what to do! Come with me now. I have a few key questions prepared that I have to ask you before we can prepare a response.”

“What? What big news am I hiding?” Adrian was beginning to suspect that he was still in a dream. To think a subordinate would actually dare to speak to him like this! “Whatever it is, you can talk to me after the meeting’s over! You can’t just barge into a meeting of the highest level, I could definitely have you…”

“Cough cough, actually, I can also preside over the start of the year meeting,” Fayn suddenly interrupted. “Commander, why don’t you head to the public relations department first? I think things there are a bit more…urgent.”

The rest of the officers nodded in agreement.

Adrian who had not a single idea about what was going on went out with Ping Yan. On the way, he opened his terminal to have a look at what kind of big and shocking “news” everyone was talking about.

The only thing that came to mind was his and Zhong Yan’s outing yesterday. Didn’t they just have a meal, and bought some blankets? Did that count as big news that he was trying to hide from the PR department? What else did they want? Should he have to report all his personal activities to them as well? Adrian was still feeling indignant when the news page loaded.

“Adrian Yate and Zhong Yan have an illegitimate child! The real reason why the refusal of the marriage proposal has been dragging on!”

“Was it unexpected, or was it planned? Analysis of Zhong Yan’s trip to Navi, was the aim to reunite with his son?”

“Blamed for corruption, the Capital’s Institute of Research released an urgent statement: No genetic fusion has been performed for any same-sex partners.”

Adrian was shocked in place. “…”

“Do you see the news now?” Ping Yan had also stopped. She stood akimbo and interrogated him, “You better tell me where you made an artificial baby. Has the evidence been destroyed? How old is the child? Is it male? Female? Where were they born? Navi System or the Capital? Is that guy bringing the child with him when he leaves in a few days? Did he come to Navi to pick up his child to receive education in the capital? Besides you two, has anyone else seen the child? And who else knows about this?”

“I don’t have a child!” Adrian’s head was buzzing as he refuted.

“Then whose child is he? Did he bear a kid with someone else?”

“No, he doesn’t have a child either!”

“You adopted? Is the child not blood-related to either of you? Then that’ll be easy to deal with. We can just issue a statement that-”

“No! There’s no child at all! Where did this child thing come from? Who is pulling this nonsense out their asses?!”

Ping Yan had a face as if she did not believe him in the slightest. She raised a brow. “Last night, you mentioned that the child was still young when you were in the shopping district. That guy said you weren’t good at raising children and even told you to take responsibility. More than just one person heard it. Do you think all these people were just gathering together to lie? And even though some heard more than others, the contents of what they heard still lines up with each other.”

Adrian was speechless, “I did say that, but the subject wasn’t a child at all! Aren’t those sentences just normal?”

“It’s normal if someone else says it, but it’s not normal when it’s you and that guy saying it.” Ping Yan tried to persuade him. “Just admit it, quickly, we still have to write a statement based on the facts.”

“That’s not it, recently, we were raising a…” The words “giant space rabbit” took a detour just as it reached his lips and were shoved back down his throat. From Adrian’s perspective, he would rather admit to having an illegitimate child with Zhong Yan than to admit that he was raising a soft, fluffy, giant space rabbit.

Ping Yan urged him, “Raising a…?”

“Raising a…a pet. Don’t ask me what it is, just know that it’s not a person,” Adrian confessed.