Chapter 738 — A Betrothal Arranged Before Birth

Every few days, Lin Ce would examine the condition of the two of them. With a miracle doctor like Lin Ce around, there was no real worry that anything would go wrong with either of them.

"How is it? Nothing wrong, is there?" Feng Yan and Liu Yu were both anxious.

"Nothing," Lin Ce said with a shake of his head. "But I can already tell the sex now. Would you like to hear it?"

That Lin Ce could determine the sex of the unborn child merely by feeling the pulse was a skill in itself.

"What? You can already tell?" Feng Yan was somewhat nervous. After all, someone had once read their fortunes and said their child would be a daughter, and if it was a daughter, she would inevitably inherit Xiao Susu's constitution and could not escape that curse of not living past twenty!

But if it was a boy, there would be no such problem. So at this moment, both Feng Yan and Xiao Susu were unspeakably tense as they looked at Lin Ce.

"Yes, I can tell now. Would you like to hear it?" Lin Ce asked.

"Then... Mr. Lin, please go ahead..." Xiao Susu hesitated a moment, then spoke first. "It's a girl, isn't it?"

"Heh, it seems you have a sense of it yourself. That's right, yours is a girl!" Lin Ce nodded and said, "As for your claim that the child will also inherit your constitution, I can't be certain of that, but your current constitution—for the time being, I still have no way to solve it..."

"It doesn't matter. I've already come to terms with it. But my daughter's illness—I still hope Mr. Lin will take extra care with it!" Xiao Susu said, somewhat helplessly.

"Rest assured about that. Given the relationship between us, your affairs are my affairs. I will do my utmost!" Lin Ce said with a nod.

Indeed, Lin Ce would do his utmost to help Xiao Susu resolve this burden on her heart, that is, to help cure her daughter. But Lin Ce could not guarantee it—after all, Xiao Susu's constitution was even stranger than the Gu poison, and for the time being he had no solution at all.

"Then... what about Yiyi?" Once Lin Ce and Xiao Susu had finished speaking, Liu Yu hastily asked, tense with worry.

"Yiyi is a boy," Lin Ce said. "That's confirmed as well."

"A boy? Not bad. It just so happens Susu's is a girl and Yiyi's is a boy. I say, we ought to arrange a betrothal between them—they'd make a perfect pair!" Liu Yu said with a laugh.

"That..." Liu Yu's words made Xiao Susu's expression shift slightly. She hesitated a moment, then said gravely, "Liu Yu, don't bring that up again. My daughter's constitution... there may be problems with it too. Wouldn't that be as good as harming your son? Do you want him to suffer the way Tianlong does?"

"That..." Liu Yu had only spoken offhandedly just now; he had not truly been counting on any betrothal. After all, the children were not even born yet, and everything was still up in the air. It was only a joke, and he had not expected Xiao Susu to react so strongly!

This made Liu Yu very apologetic. His had been an unintentional joke, yet it had touched the most fragile place in Xiao Susu's heart. Liu Yu hastily tried to make amends. "It's fine—this way, it'll spur my esteemed father-in-law to research a cure, haha. That's rather convenient, actually..."

It had to be said, Liu Yu's words moved Xiao Susu deeply. If her daughter truly did end up paired with Liu Yu's son, then in the future Lin Ce would certainly rack his brains to cure her daughter's illness. But if it was cured, all well and good—a cause for universal rejoicing! But what if it could not be cured?

If she still could not escape the fate of dying at twenty, would that not be as good as harming Liu Yu's child? That was not what Xiao Susu wanted to see. Never mind that Liu Yu was her teammate and her good friend—even if he were not, Xiao Susu did not want her own tragedy replayed in her daughter!

"We'll talk about this later!" Feng Yan said with a sigh. "Once this mission is over, I plan to temporarily resign from my post in the Special Operations Group of the Mysterious Investigation Bureau. I want to take Susu on a honeymoon, to travel the world... to spend this last stretch of time with her..."

"Then afterward, you two..." Yang Xu could not help but feel a pang of sorrow at Feng Yan's words.

"Afterward... I may go back to work at the Mysterious Investigation Bureau, I suppose. By then I might transfer to a different department—who knows. We'll see when the time comes..." Feng Yan's words carried a note of helplessness. If even Lin Ce had no solution, then surely there was no turning the tide!

Moreover, that mysterious Daoist fortune-teller had also said that the chance to defy heaven and change fate did not lie with Susu, but with their daughter. Their daughter might one day break that curse of destiny!

But whether it was true or not, Feng Yan did not know either. After all, the fortune-teller's words had no real basis.

"That's fine too!" Yang Yan said. "After I go back, I may go into seclusion as well..."

"But it doesn't matter... this stretch of time has been the happiest days for Susu and me!" Feng Yan said. "Being with everyone every day, it's been wonderful... As for our daughter, I want her to be an ordinary person, living a happy, carefree life... I don't want her to know her fate too early..."

"All right, then we won't press it. Let everything follow its course. If we're fated, we'll meet again!" Liu Yu said with a nod.

The research continued. It was not easy to find a substitute for the nutrient fluid of the Great Strength Gu, but keeping the Great Strength Gu alive without its former potent activity was not too difficult a task! Both Lin Ce and Liu Yan had prior experience simplifying the Vajra Gu, so simplifying the Great Strength Gu now came easily to them.

In less than a week, the simplified version of the Great Strength Gu was ready. This Great Strength Gu had only about a tenth of the effect of the original, but there was no longer any worry about it lacking nutrient fluid, because this simplified Great Strength Gu could be nourished by ordinary food. In other words, so long as everyone ate normally, the Great Strength Gu would not die—only, after each use of the Great Strength Gu, one had to eat a hearty meal!

But that was nothing. Food was available everywhere, and there were no particular restrictions. So in this way, the simplified Great Strength Gu had virtually no side effects! Even an ordinary person who did a great deal of strenuous labor had to eat more food to replenish their energy—so what difference was there between that and the simplified Great Strength Gu?

The only blemish was that the simplified Great Strength Gu's efficacy was really a bit too weak—its maximum effect was only a tenth of the original!