Chapter 174: Safe and Sound

When the tremors completely stopped, Qiao Mei secretly used the vines to push out a gap so that the two of them could breathe while they were among the ruins.

“Are you alright?” Qiao Mei asked.

“I… I’m fine. What about you?” Xia Zhe hesitated and said.

Qiao Mei looked at his hesitant expression and felt that Xia Zhe was hiding something from her. She reached out to touch his body, but Xia Zhe frowned and held down her roving hands to stop her.

“Don’t move!” Xia Zhe growled.

Qiao Mei just used one hand to secure Xia Zhe’s hand behind his back and used her other hand to carefully run over his body to see if he was injured.

Xia Zhe struggled but could not break free. He had a strong feeling of déjà vu. Who was this person who was so strong and even treated him in this manner?

“Who are you?” Xia Zhe stared at Qiao Mei’s face to see if she was lying when she answered.

Qiao Mei finally heaved a sigh of relief after checking on him. She looked at Xia Zhe smilingly and said, “Big brother, who do you think I am?”

This was the sweet voice that he would never be able to forget for the rest of his life. The scene from that night seemed to appear before his eyes again. That voice had rung in his ears for an entire night and he immediately recognized it.

“Mei Mei?” Xia Zhe looked at the person in front of him in shock, unable to believe that this was the Qiao Mei he had met back then.

“Oh my goodness, did you not read the letter I wrote to you? Didn’t I write in the letter that my looks have changed?” Qiao Mei said as she leaned her head gently on Xia Zhe’s shoulder and gently hammered Xia Zhe’s chest with her small hand.

Xia Zhe hugged Qiao Mei gently. He could now hold her with one arm. He wondered how she lost so much weight in just the few months since he left.

In Qiao Mei’s letter, she did say that she had lost weight, but he thought that she had at most lost 20 pounds. He did not expect Qiao Mei to have become the person in front of him.

“I remember. But why did you lose so much weight, what exactly did you do at home?” Xia Zhe’s heart ached as he looked at Qiao Mei.

Qiao Mei looked at Xia Zhe with a smile and said, “Let’s see, I do farm work at home and I do a lot of housework everyday including cooking for my grandfather. Now that I’m pregnant, my appetite isn’t as good as before, so I guess that’s how I lost weight.”

Xia Zhe immediately became nervous when he heard the word ‘pregnant’, and he reached out to touch Qiao Mei’s belly.

“Do you feel anything wrong with your body? Do you feel unwell anywhere? Move slightly and see if you’re injured anywhere.” Xia Zhe tried his best to do a check on Qiao Mei’s body in the small space.

Qiao Mei shook her head and was about to say that she was fine when she realized that Xia Zhe had already started to examine her and was carefully checking every inch of her joints and bones for injury.

When he was checking her ribcage, he examined her rib bones one by one, afraid that the bones had been injured by the impact. However, by doing that, he also touched parts of her body that he need not check. The spots where his fingers touched felt as hot as if they had been burned, and from time to time, he would happen to touch Qiao Mei’s ticklish spots.

“Hey, don’t touch me anymore. You’re tickling me!” Qiao Mei said as she pouted.

Xia Zhe’s face instantly turned red, but he still insisted on giving her a thorough check before he retracted his hand in relief.

Qiao Mei’s pregnancy was starting to show. Her slightly protruding belly was not obvious with the type of clothes she wore, but she could still feel the curvature when she reached out to touch it.

“Come, feel it.” Qiao Mei pulled Xia Zhe’s hand and placed it on her belly.

Xia Zhe gently stroked Qiao Mei’s belly. Given the slight curvature, if he did not know any better, he would have thought that Qiao Mei was just not completely thin and still had some belly fat. However, seeing Qiao Mei lose so much weight, he felt both heartache and excitement.

Her heart ached for Qiao Mei who did not have an easy time for the past few months, being pregnant without him by her side. He wondered if grandfather Qiao Qiang’s health had improved and if Qiao Mei had eaten anything nutritious and if the baby gave Qiao Mei a hard time.

At the same time, he was also very excited that he was going to be a father. He tried his best to live up to his own expectation of a good father and he wanted to be a great father for this unborn child.

“You’ve suffered, Mei Mei.” Xia Zhe looked at Qiao Mei caringly.

Qiao Mei smiled and touched Xia Zhe’s face. “It’s not hard on me. I feel very happy now. I have you and I have our kid, I’m very blessed.”