Two days later, He Yuan left the Han mansion long before the others woke up. The wet nurse had arrived the night before and presently, she was in the room he'd prepared for her. He'd also told her to remain in there till he returned with the babies.
He couldn't have the Hans seeing her and sending her away in his absence.
It was some time before dawn so the skies were still dark. In the back seat of Xu Lifen's car, He Yuan watched as trees and objects flashed past as the car drove to the hospital.
Thirty minutes later, the car slowly pulled into the hospital parking lot. The nightshift driver swiftly got out of the car and opened the door of the back seat. "Mistress Xu, we're here."
He Yuan slowly blinked. He'd been a little absentminded just now. He nodded at the driver in thanks before stepping out of the car and straightening Xu Lifen's orange dress a bit. "I'll be out in a while," He dropped and directly walked into the hospital.
The hospital reception was silent with the occasional janitor or nurse walking past. It also smelled heavily of disinfectant. No surprise there.
He Yuan walked past the reception and headed straight to the elevator. In another five minutes, he arrived at the doctor's office.
The doctor was just stepping out of his office when a familiar young lady appeared before him. He looked quite tired but he smiled politely anyways. "Mrs. Xu."
He Yuan nodded in return. "Good day, doctor. I'm here to check out my babies."
The doctor's brows furrowed. It was quite early. The surrogate and the babies still had a few hours left. Oh well, they were all fit enough to return anyways and this was the biological mother of the twins. He knew how excited new parents could get when it came to being close to their babies so he had no reason to refuse her.
With a yawn, the doctor invited He Yuan into his office. As soon as they were both seated, he hesitated a bit before saying, "Mr. Han and Miss Chen are both asleep. Should they be woken up?"
He Yuan waved with a small smile. "I'm just here for my babies. The surrogate would check out with Mr. Han after she's had enough rest." When the doctor nodded in understanding, he continued, "The DNA test result?"
The doctor picked up the landline and nodded. "The result is ready." And then he spoke into the landline. "Nurse Wang, have the DNA test result for Mrs. Xu delivered to my office. Also, contact nurse Bing to bring a discharge form to my office."
Twenty minutes later, He Yuan walked out of the hospital with a brown envelope in one hand and a baby carrier containing the soundly sleeping twins in the other. He shook his head with a chuckle as he entered the car.
Back in the nursery, he'd discovered three nurses armed with feeding bottles. It turned out that Chen Meili hadn't been directly breastfeeding the babies because, according to Han Tao, she'd just given birth and couldn't handle lifting the babies whether one at a time or not.
This was good. Han Tao should better keep that same energy once they all realize he'd taken the twins.
45 minutes later, He Yuan was comfortablly seated on the bed in his room, legs crossed, and scrolling through Xu Lifen's phone whilst the sleeping babies were transferred into their cot. On the bedside table was a warmer holding four feeding bottles containing freshly filled breast milk.
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At 7:00am, the Han household became lively.
"Mother, we have to hurry, we're almost late!" Han Jiao said with a tug on her mother's arm.
Han Rong laughed and Min Yanyu shook her head with a bright smile. "Silly girl, just hold on a while more. We would be on our way as soon as the preparations are completed."
The others laughed happily and the Han Madam watched everything with a warm smile. It was too bad her son, Han Yuanjun, had to leave the day before for a business deal and Fu Lan had gone with him.
She sighed. Anyways, things weren't so bad. Since the newborns were stepping into the Han home for the first time, Min Yanyu had come up with the idea of setting up a small get together for both the babies and Chen Meili.
The Chens were the only ones invited this time. Afterall, their daughter had done a really admirable feat for the Han family.
In another thirty minutes, everything was set up and the Hans all left the mansion in great fanfare. Up in Xu Lifen's room, 888 stood in front of the window, watching them go with an amused chuckle.
In the hospital:
Han Tao slowly stirred. He opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was a sleeping Chen Meili a few feet away from him on a different bed.
The morning light seeped through the curtain and gave her face an ethereal glow. Her lashes fluttered and she pouted sleepily. His lips arched in a warm smile.
After staring to his satisfaction, he got out of bed and looked to the wall clock. 7:30am. He'd slept quite late as he was too busy watching over Chen Meili so he'd woken up a later than usual. His family members were going to be arriving soon.
He also remembered something then and his mood plummeted. Xu Lifen was probably coming too. He hadn't spoken to his wife since the night of the labour and he honestly didn't know how to face her. On one hand, he felt guilty for trying to hit her but on the other hand, she'd been acting unreasonably.
He ran a hand through his hair in distress. He didn't want to be on bad terms with his wife but Xu Lifen constantly made life difficult for him. She had a very narrow minded view of the world and reacted to everything without looking at the bigger picture and that was something he did not like.
She never tried to understand him or view things from his own perspective. Rather, she always wanted things to go her own way at all times.
Besides...
His mind drifted to that night two months ago. Xu Lifen had never returned late after then neither had she left the house much so maybe she wasn't cheating on him.
"Brother Tao?"
Han Tao was pulled out of his thoughts at that call. He looked over to Chen Meili. Her black shiny hair of great volume framed her face in a way that made her look so small, defenseless, clueness and very innocent. His smile returned to his face.
Chen Meili blushed shyly. "What time is it?" She looked to the time and her eyes widened in distress. "I can't believe I slept so much! I should go check up on the little ones." She said and tried to stand up.
"Don't stress yourself." Han Tao said as he walked over and laid her back down. "The babies have the nurses watching over them. Let's just freshen up before everyone arrives."
Chen Meili shook her head stubbornly, stared at the curtain blocking the glass demarcation and pouted. "But I miss them! What if they're being bullied by the nurses, hm?"
Han Tao couldn't stop himself from laughing. This woman. Why did she always overthink? But... Even when she overthought, why was she so cute? He flicked her nose gently with his fingers. "The babies are fine. How could they allow themselves to be bullied?"
Chen Meili rubbed her nose and smacked Han Tao softly on his arm with a pout. "They're babies! They can't defend themselves!"
Han Tao raised his chin arrogantly. "They carry my blood do they not? They have to learn to be tough, if not, how could they take over the Han family in the future?"
Outside the room, a passing janitor could hear laughter coming from the room.
By 8:00am, the Hans arrived at the hospital. The Han Madam walked with Min Yanyu and Han Rong at her sides whilst the rest gingerly followed behind as they all went up to the VIP area of the hospital.
As soon as they stepped into the hallway, they ran into Han Tao and Chen Meili walking out of Chen Meili's recuperation room.
"Grandmother!" Chen Meili called out happily and rushed forward to hug the Han Madam. Right before she moved a couple of steps, she was held back.
Han Tao placed a hand on Chen Meili's shoulder and scolded gently. "You just gave birth, don't move so fast, what if you slip?"
Chen Meili pouted at Han Tao and looked to everyone else with a wronged expression. "He won't let me do anything!"
The rest of them laughed and Min Yanyu spoke up. "As should be, we can't have you stressing yourself."
After that, they all proceeded to the nursery. At the very back of the group, Gu Longwei had his fists clenched. Shameless! Did Han Tao forget he was married? What was with that doting expression when he looked at Meili?!
His eyes trailed to Chen Meili, who was walking side by side with Han Tao, and lust pooled in his eyes. Even when she just gave birth, she was still as beautiful as ever. He'd conquered many but one of his most desired was right before him... but untouchable.
Chen Meili had effortlessly clawed her way into his fantasies the very moment he set eyes on her. He had imagined himself countless times using her as he pleased. With her legs up in the air, gagged and bound by his contraptions as he handled her the same way he handled his submissives.
Too bad the opportunity hadn't presented itself yet and the dammed Han Tao was busy trying to headbutt his way in when he was already married.
At that moment, Han Tao opened the door of the nursery and walked in with the rest.
"The babies are so silent. How well behaved," Han Rong was saying when she noticed Han Tao and Chen Meili both freeze with wide eyes. She frowned. "What's wrong?"
Chen Meili slowly turned to the others. "The babies. They're gone."
"AH!" The Han Madam let out a brief scream, dropped her cane and limped forward to check the cot herself. After seeing the empty cot, she raised her wrinkled hands to grab Han Tao. "The heirs?! Where are the heirs?!"
"What's going on?" Asked nurse Bing, who just walked in with another nurse carrying cleaning supplies.
Han Tao pinned both nurses with a fierce glare. "Where are my sons?"
Tears welled up in Chen Meili's eyes at that moment. "WHERE ARE THEY?!" She suddenly screamed. "Where are my babies?!"
The Hans joined in one after the other,
"Quick tell, us where you've kept the twins!"
"What sort of management does your hospital have?!"
Nurse Bing just stared at all of them like they were speaking a different language. Was this a joke? "Why would you ask me where the twins are? Mrs. Xu already discharged them hours ago!"
Everyone froze in surprise.
Chen Meili quickly grabbed Han Tao's phone from his pocket and began dialing Xu Lifen's number in tears. Of course, the call did not connect. She looked to others in alarm. "It's not going through! I need to know if my babies are alright!"
A semblance of calm had already settled on everyone after the nurse's words but staring at the panicking Chen Meili, Han Tao cleched his fists. Chen Meili was in a very delicate period after giving birth. How could Xu Lifen be so inconsiderate and take the babies without informing anyone?!
"Let's go home." He said with voice dripping ice blocks, grabbed Chen Meili's hand and directly walked out of the nursery.