Chapter 465: Shrinking in Size
“When Wen Jing arrives, just say—”
Clap clap clap!
“Daddy! Daddy! Little brother’s crying…” Zhuang Aiyi’s anxious voice interrupted Zhuang Mingxu.
“I’ll go.” Lu Weiyi was the first to rush out.
Taotao, who had been sleeping peacefully in bed, was still asleep, no tears on his face—but the sound of soft sobbing filled the air. The increasingly babyish tone of his cries instantly melted Lu Weiyi’s heart. He stepped forward and gently picked him up.
“What’s wrong, Taotao? Are you feeling unwell?” Lu Weiyi asked softly.
Taotao didn’t respond. His small, trembling hand reached out and clutched the collar of Lu Weiyi’s robe tightly in his little fist. His crying gradually subsided, leaving only occasional hiccups.
“Little Dad,” Zhuang Aiyi looked up at Lu Weiyi, “can we ask Uncle Xu to come?”
“He’s really good—last time I fell and scraped my knee, Uncle Xu just touched it and it stopped hurting. Not even a little.”
Lu Weiyi pressed his lips together and stared silently at the child in his arms for a moment, then nodded firmly.
“Don’t say it’s anything serious—just tell him someone’s not feeling well.”
“Okay!” Zhuang Aiyi darted out the door like a bullet, shouting loudly,
“Uncle Xu! Uncle Xu! Where are you?”
“Over here. Why are you yelling like that this early?” came Xu Yi’s lazy voice.
“Hey—hey, don’t pull me! Where are we going?”
“Let go—I’m going to step on you… You can’t go into bedrooms—it’s rude…”
He was dragged into the room and the door shut behind him. Zhuang Aiyi immediately urged,
“Uncle Xu, come quick—my little brother is sick!”
Xu Yi looked up and was greeted by a chaotic room. He clicked his tongue in displeasure.
“You people really have no sense—don’t even care for a child properly…”
“They weren’t here last night,” Lu Weiyi said, lifting the fully wrapped child in his arms toward Xu Yi. “Come take a look.”
“What is this? You wrapped him up like it’s winter—it’s 30 or 40 degrees! Aren’t you afraid he’ll get heatstroke?” Xu Yi frowned and reached out to lift the blanket.
But Lu Weiyi caught his wrist and looked him in the eye.
“Just check like this.”
Zhuang Mingxu, freshly out of the bathroom, glanced over and backed him up.
“Taotao has a bit of a problem. Just check him this way for now.”
Xu Yi didn’t know what was going on, but since it came from Zhuang Mingxu—who was known for being especially attentive to the kids—he trusted that there must be a reason.
He looked around at the four people in the room, expression growing serious, then placed his hand on the small hand Lu Weiyi had exposed.
His ability surged through Taotao’s body. After one full circuit, he did it again to double-check.
“He…” Xu Yi’s face was filled with confusion. His unusual expression made even Zhuang Mingxu stop tidying and look over, holding his breath.
“He’s extremely healthy,” Xu Yi said in disbelief, scanning Taotao’s body again with his power.
“Ever since I awakened my ability, I’ve checked many people. Every single person has some kind of issue in their body, big or small. But him… he has none. Not even a trace. It’s like…”
Xu Yi thought for a moment, then said, “He’s in an absolutely ideal, perfect state. Do you understand what I mean? Even Qin Nian, when he was just born, wasn’t this healthy.”
Zhuang Mingxu and Lu Weiyi exchanged a glance. They both understood that relying solely on supernatural powers might not yield any real results—it seemed they still needed to turn to metaphysics.
“This is impossible… This kind of situation absolutely shouldn’t happen, right?” Xu Yi was still baffled and even reached out to double-check, but Zhuang Mingxu found an excuse to usher him out of the room.
“You go wash up. I’ll take him and make arrangements,” Zhuang Mingxu quickly tidied himself up and reached out to take Taotao, while reminding Zhuang Aiyi to eat and take care of himself.
As soon as Taotao was transferred to his arms, the little boy’s lips quivered, and a pitiful whimpering began again. His tiny body shook with sobs, making him look so fragile it seemed like he might die at any moment.
For the first time, Lu Weiyi understood what it meant to desperately wish he could take someone’s place.
“I’ll hold him. It might have something to do with the space ability being with me,” Lu Weiyi gave up on washing up without hesitation.
Zhuang Mingxu couldn’t bear to argue. While helping him clean up, he called Lu Xiao to ask for help finding someone.
Lu Xiao didn’t say anything dismissive like “superstitious nonsense.” At their age—and especially for people constantly walking the line between life and death—they held a respectful awe for many things. He readily agreed and asked what had happened.
“Yesterday someone suddenly appeared in front of Xiaoyi, saying something was wrong with Taotao. Then today, Taotao had an incident,” Zhuang Mingxu gave a brief explanation. “We’re already trying to find that person, and meanwhile also looking for other experts to check, just in case we get scammed.”
“What happened to the child?” Lu Xiao gestured to his subordinates to start looking.
“It’s not something that can be explained in one sentence. We’ll try to come over early so you can take a look,” Zhuang Mingxu estimated the time they’d finish dealing with Wen Jing and hung up.
In the villa, the rest of the team had already heard about Taotao being ill and all turned their attention toward them.
Xu Sa walked over in big strides, reaching out to see the child Lu Weiyi was holding, but Lu Weiyi turned his body to avoid him.
“What’s going on? Xu Yi said Taotao wasn’t feeling well?” Xu Sa didn’t mind. He picked up Zhuang Aiyi, who was closely following the adults, and seeing the little boy’s red eyes and brave little face, he nuzzled his cheek affectionately and comforted, “Don’t be scared. Godfather’s here. I won’t let anything happen to Taotao.”
“Mm.” Zhuang Aiyi buried his face in Xu Sa’s shoulder. The child, who had been holding it in all along, couldn’t help but sob quietly.
Xu Sa gently patted his back to help him breathe more steadily.
“The kid’s feeling a bit off. It’s not a big deal. We’re already working on a solution. You all go ahead with your own things,” Zhuang Mingxu didn’t go into detail.
Bai Mei stepped forward, “I’ve had children before. If needed, I can help take care of him.”
“Thanks, but he’s feeling bad and doesn’t want to leave his father,” Zhuang Mingxu offered this as a preemptive explanation for why Taotao clung to Lu Weiyi.
Seeing that the two obviously didn’t want others to get too close, the rest of the team didn’t push it and, after a few polite words, went their separate ways.
Halfway through their breakfast, Wen Jing arrived with his entourage.
Wen Jing was a young man, seemingly about the same age as Zhuang Mingxu. He had a red birthmark around his right eye and wore a bracelet of tourmaline prayer beads on his wrist, each bead crystal clear and clearly of high quality.
When Lu Weiyi saw him, he finally recalled this name more clearly—he was Zhuang Mingxu’s classmate and a well-connected business partner. He’d even sent Lu Weiyi a jade Buddha on his eighteenth birthday, which Lu had treasured for a long time.
That high-quality jade Buddha had later helped repair a significant portion of his space during the apocalypse. “Hello, long time no see.”
“Haha, this is the first time Young Master Lu has actually greeted me,” Wen Jing looked intimidating but spoke warmly, with a cheerful yet gentle tone that clashed with his appearance. “Mingxu finally made it through.”
“Yes, he’s doing very well now,” Zhuang Mingxu’s expression was full of warmth as he invited Wen Jing to the sitting room.
Lu Weiyi walked alongside them. Zhuang Aiyi immediately jumped down from Xu Sa’s arms and followed behind, clearly wanting to keep an eye on his younger brother.
“This is my son, Zhuang Aiyi. I’ve mentioned him to you before,” Zhuang Mingxu introduced, holding Aiyi’s hand.
“My younger son suddenly fell ill and won’t let anyone else hold him,” he gestured toward the child in Lu Weiyi’s arms.
“Hello, Uncle. My brother isn’t feeling well, so I’m greeting you on his behalf,” Zhuang Aiyi stood up straight and greeted him confidently.
“Hello! Here, this is a gift for you both,” Wen Jing pulled out two lustrous jade cicadas from his pocket and handed them to Zhuang Aiyi. “I hope you both grow up safe and strong.”
Zhuang Aiyi waited for Zhuang Mingxu’s nod before accepting them. “Thank you, Uncle. I wish you peace and prosperity as well.”
“What the Ling siblings did this time really went too far. If it weren’t for the fact that my sister is pregnant, we wouldn’t care whether they lived or died,” Wen Jing said frankly. After all, Ling Jiaoyang married into the Wen family and still got entangled with other men—utterly disgraceful. The family had already decided to cut ties until Wen Jing’s little sister claimed she was pregnant.
Since no cure for infertility had yet been found, and the Wen family placed high hopes on the child, they decided to send Wen Jing to smooth things over.
“You’ve come all this way, so of course we’ll give you a break,” Zhuang Mingxu saw that Lu Weiyi’s mind was fully on Taotao and took the lead in responding. “But honestly, how could your family let Wen Qing marry Ling Jiaoyang?”
The Wen family only had this one daughter, barely in her twenties now, and with three older brothers who treated her like a jewel.
Wen Jing didn’t seem like the type to be soft-tempered, but clearly doted on his sister. Back when they were in high school, he used to beat up kids just for confessing to Wen Qing in elementary school.
No one could’ve imagined they’d allow her to marry someone like Ling Jiaoyang.
Wen Jing let out a heavy sigh, his words filled with frustration. “She was dead set on it. Said she’d rather die than not marry him.”
A pampered heiress falling for a high-level emotional manipulator—this kind of story was nothing new among the wealthy. Zhuang Mingxu didn’t have much interest in digging further.
“If it were just that one layer, leaving one person alive would be enough. But Ling Jiaoyang once saved my master’s life. This time, he came to me asking for a favor based on that old debt… I could only come to ask for some leniency.”
As they talked, everyone settled on the sofa. Zhuang Aiyi immediately moved next to Lu Weiyi, stuffed the two jade cicadas he had just received into Taotao’s little hands, and whispered, “Hurry up and get better. I’ll give you everything.”
No one knew what Wen Jing thought of at that moment, but his expression shifted as he watched Zhuang Aiyi. The corners of his lips curved slightly, then froze. He suddenly yanked Zhuang Aiyi aside and even tried to snatch the child from Lu Weiyi’s arms.
Lu Weiyi reacted instantly, grabbing his wrist tightly. A surge of mental power burst from his body, shielding Zhuang Mingxu. At the same time, Zhuang Mingxu had already pulled Zhuang Aiyi into his arms the moment Lu Weiyi moved.
