Powerful Investment Chapter 45: The Shaky Disguise

Chapter 45: The Shaky Disguise

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

 

The Lu family’s housekeeper moved quickly and soon brought over the photo album.

Mama Lu seemed to really like taking pictures of the kids—the album was large and thick, obviously very heavy. She opened it and called Ji Jin over.

Ji Jin was “forced” to sit next to Mama Lu, and Ji Xingxing, curious, squeezed in as well.

“These are photos from Xiao Yao’s full moon celebration,” Mama Lu introduced softly. The full moon photo showed Lu Yao looking fair-skinned, tender, and very cute—like a very well-behaved child.

Next came pictures of Lu Yao at five or six months old, just learning to crawl, crawling on the floor, showing his chubby little bottom. Then there was a one-year-old Lu Yao, just learning to stand, holding on to the wall cautiously.

There were also photos of Lu Yao at a bit over two years old, wearing little bunny pajamas, lying on the bed and pulling at the small ears on his pajamas.

It was this two-year-old photo that gave Ji Jin a strong sense of crisis—because the two-year-old Lu Yao looked almost exactly like Ji Xingxing did now!

“Daddy! Daddy!” Ji Xingxing didn’t know what Ji Jin was thinking. He was just curiously watching nearby, and when he saw the two-year-old Lu Yao’s photo, he suddenly became lively and pointed at the picture, happily shouting, “Daddy! Look! It’s the baby! It’s Xiao Xingxing!”

At that moment, both Ji Jin and Mama Lu’s expressions became a bit awkward.

“Ahem, ahem…” Ji Jin cleared his throat. He felt he had to say something, but it seemed whatever he said would be useless and ineffective.

In the end, he could only pick up Ji Xingxing and quietly explain, “This isn’t Xiao Xingxing, it’s your Uncle Lu.”

“It is Xiao Xingxing! Daddy, look, this is Xingxing!” Ji Xingxing didn’t understand Ji Jin’s feelings and wanted him to look again.

At that moment, Ji Jin truly felt socially dead.

He looked up, wanting to explain to Mama Lu, but Mama Lu had a look that said “I understand, I understand,” so he couldn’t bring himself to lie that Ji Xingxing wasn’t Lu Yao’s child.

Besides, he hadn’t really told many lies before—mostly just concealed the truth.

“This isn’t Xiao Xingxing,” Mama Lu said gently, rubbing Ji Xingxing’s little head with a patient and warm voice. “Next time Grandma will take Xiao Xingxing to take photos too, okay?”

“Okay, thank you, Grandma,” Ji Xingxing happily jumped and replied in his cute little voice.

Ji Jin could tell that Mama Lu was helping to ease the situation for him.

“You young people’s affairs, we won’t interfere, you can solve them yourselves,” Mama Lu patted Ji Jin’s shoulder. “In this world, Omegas are often weak and seem like they have to rely on Alphas to live. But from you, I see that Omegas aren’t so fragile, and they don’t have to retire behind the scenes after getting pregnant for an Alpha. That’s very good.”

Ji Jin looked up at Mama Lu, his eyes showing some surprise.

“But as Xiao Yao’s mother, I still hope you two can be officially together, support each other and grow together. After all, I can feel your persistence in the same cause and career,” Mama Lu said softly, then gave a subtle smile. “Since Xiao Yao started playing esports, he never asked the family for help. No matter what grievances, he took them himself. But a few days ago he came home and told us the team was withdrawing investment.”

“I actually know quite a bit about esports. Xiao Yao, as a popular player, could easily transfer teams. But he didn’t want to transfer. He came to borrow money from us, saying he wanted to buy the team and invite you to join his current team.”

Ji Jin was slightly stunned when he heard this. He recalled that day when Lu Yao asked if he was willing to return to the IKW team. Back then he didn’t understand Lu Yao’s intention, but now he did.

“He… never told me about this,” Ji Jin’s heart stirred.

“Maybe he was afraid you’d worry. He hasn’t bowed his head for so long, which shows how much he values you,” Mama Lu recalled the day and couldn’t help but laugh. “He also said his dear brother was pregnant and couldn’t always be without official status. Taking care of the baby brother also needs money. He even agreed to my condition that he must see your true face before giving him the money.”

“Seeing you today, I think Xiao Yao has good taste. The little baby is raised very well,” Mama Lu looked at Ji Xingxing with a loving gaze. “You should bring the little babies here to see us more often.”

“Okay,” Ji Jin nodded in agreement. After all, Ji Xingxing was part of the Lu family’s bloodline, so wanting to see the little baby wasn’t unreasonable.

Just after they finished talking, they heard footsteps coming down from upstairs. Mama Lu quickly closed the album and calmly looked toward the three who had just come down.

When Lu Yao saw Ji Jin, his eyes lit up and he quickly went to his side, lowering his head to ask how he was feeling and if he was uncomfortable. Ji Jin shook his head, feeling all the eyes in the Lu family were on him.

“It’s so late, why not hurry up and eat?” Lu Zhi spoke first, helping to ease Ji Jin’s embarrassment. “Brother Ji, do you want to try my aunt’s lotus root soup? I think it’s super tasty.”

Then everyone remembered it was mealtime and called the whole family to eat.

The atmosphere at the Lu family dinner was quite good. They didn’t push seats eagerly, but rather talked about recent amusing things. Mr. Lu looked strict, but he was affectionate in his voice with Ji Xingxing, probably because of the generational gap.

Overall, the meal was very comfortable, and Ji Jin felt no awkwardness or pretense at all.

After the meal, Mr. Lu invited Ji Jin and Ji Xingxing to stay overnight, but Ji Jin, not used to it and with Ji Xingxing in tow, had Lu Yao refuse on his behalf. When they left, Mama Lu and Lu Zhi seemed reluctant and saw them out to the gate.

After Ji Jin and Lu Yao left, Lu Zhi asked their parents in confusion, “Dad, Mom, don’t you think… this Brother Ji looks a bit like Ji Huan from the Ji family? The Ji family you’re quite close to, and I think once wanted to marry their younger brother to my brother…”

Mr. and Mrs. Lu suddenly fell into deep thought.

On the way back, Ji Xingxing was so tired from playing that he even fell asleep in the car. Mama Lu and Mr. Lu gave him lots of small toys, and he played wildly, only now realizing how tired he was.

“How did Brother feel today?” Lu Yao asked cautiously while driving.

“It was pretty good.” Ji Jin recalled the behavior of the Lu family—it really was a gentle and tolerant family.

“That’s good then.” Lu Yao nodded and smiled to himself with satisfaction.

Ji Jin had originally planned to go back to the dorm, but Lu Yao took the initiative to return to the small apartment near MOE. He protested that he wanted to return to the dorm, but since it was Lu Yao’s car today, under Lu Yao’s coaxing charm, he was forced to agree.

Just smelling the scent on Lu Yao all the way, Ji Jin could guess what this person was thinking. The smell of plum wine filled the car, and even after just a short elevator ride, the elevator was still permeated with the plum wine scent.

Though Ji Jin wasn’t a marked Omega, because of the pregnancy, the Alpha courtship pheromones didn’t affect him much. So he calmly carried Ji Xingxing to the children’s room to sleep.

But just as he put Ji Xingxing down, someone behind him had already wrapped their arms around him.

“Brother…” Lu Yao’s voice had a faint, teasing tone. He hugged his beloved brother from behind, his lips gently brushing the glands at the back of Ji Jin’s neck. “Brother… are you willing to be with me now?”

Ji Jin was tickled by Lu Yao’s teasing and laughed as he tried to push Lu Yao away, but Lu Yao clung to him even tighter. The person behind him pressed a burning hand to Ji Jin’s chest.

“Ow…” Ji Jin couldn’t help but make a sound from the pain.

“What’s wrong, Brother?” Hearing Ji Jin’s voice, Lu Yao instinctively stopped.

Actually, Ji Jin found it hard to talk about this. It had happened once before when he was pregnant with Ji Xingxing. It was considered an incomplete evolution—male Omegas didn’t have breasts or milk, but due to pregnancy, hormonal changes might affect their mammary glands, causing some swelling and pain. It would get better after the baby was born with some adjustment.

“Hmm? Why isn’t Brother saying anything?” Lu Yao’s mind was sharp. After learning about Ji Jin’s pregnancy, he had looked up a lot of information online and could roughly tell what was going on from Ji Jin’s reaction.

Ji Jin glanced back at Lu Yao, signaling him to stop. Unexpectedly, that look made Lu Yao tense all over and half-carry, half-drag him into the master bedroom.

“Why didn’t Brother say if something hurt?” Lu Yao feigned ignorance, his tone carrying a bit of innocent teasing. “Tell me… I’ll massage it for you, Brother.”

His voice was low and husky, as if seducing someone into crime.

“You…” Ji Jin wanted to object, but Lu Yao had already taken control. The pain in his chest was covered by the massage and felt much better, and his body softened.

So Ji Jin was half-pushed, half-willingly taken to bed by Lu Yao.

Because of the wild night before, the next morning Ji Jin limped back to the dorm with Ji Xingxing and refused Lu Yao’s escort service. Even though Omega males were stronger than Omega females, pregnancy didn’t allow such rough treatment.

Although the regular season and playoffs were a week apart, this week was not a vacation. Ji Jin had come out mainly for prenatal checkups, and after the checkup was done, he immediately returned to the team to work.

The regular season was busy, with many matches and a lot of traveling that affected state and time. So many regular-season games didn’t have reviews. They used this time to review and look for tactical flaws.

As the vice-captain and MOE’s current soul, Ji Jin carried the main load of the team. Plus, the discomfort from pregnancy was gradually showing, so it was naturally harder for him. The team accommodated Ji Jin accordingly and tried to review together as much as possible to reduce his workload.

Lu Yao, as captain and also the soul of the team, naturally didn’t slack either. But since IKW was on a hot streak, it seemed easier for them.

Only Lu Yao kept worrying about Ji Jin and occasionally got distracted when tired. Sometimes a photo would flutter out of his pocket during a daytime tactical commentary without him noticing.

Ke Yu sat beside him as an auditor. Being a habitual worrier, he instinctively picked up the photo and flipped it over—

It was Lu Yao’s two-year-old anniversary photo.

Ke Yu smiled faintly, not realizing what was wrong yet. But when his eyes landed on the child in the photo, his smile froze at the corner of his mouth.

This… this was exactly the same as Ji Xingxing!

 

Author’s note:

Congratulations to Ke Yu for being the first victim of Lu Yao’s mischief.

Next to be ‘mischiefed’ is the MOE team.

 

 

 

 

 

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