Chapter 265: You Need To Relax
Christopher glanced at the bedroom behind him and said to James in a low voice, "James, you don’t have to be so sarcastic. I won’t break my promise to my wife, but as a friend, I’ll remind you that a reward might be waiting for you at the apartment by the lake when you’re free."
After saying that, he hung up the phone.
As James’ friend, this was all he could do.
"Honey, are you done yet?" Janice asked.
Upon hearing Janice’s voice, he was startled. Then, he put away his phone hastily as he walked over.
"Why did you come out?" he asked in return.
Janice replied as she turned to him. "I’ve already completed the prenatal education for the baby. I just wanted to remind you that we’ll have an appointment for our first parenting lesson tomorrow morning. We must not be late."
"Got it. I’ve already set the alarm clock. If you don’t believe me, you can have a look." He got his phone out and showed it to her.
Janice glanced at it and she felt relieved.
In the early morning the next day, Janice got up and started to prepare for their appointment.
Christopher couldn’t wrap his head around her meticulous behavior. <Isn’t it just a parenting class? Why is she going through all this trouble?> He thought to himself.
On Janice’s count, they set out. When they arrived at the childcare institution, it was still early.
"Chris, do you think a mother-to-be like me, who knows nothing about this, is shameful?" Janice felt a little nervous.
When he noticed her uneasiness, Christopher comforted her. "I think we’ll probably be the most knowledgeable parents around here, so you don’t have to be too afraid."
"Okay." Upon hearing these words, it was as if a burden had been lifted off her heart.
Not long after, the pregnant mothers started to fill the place continuously. She saw that the mothers-to-be had huge bellies and it was obvious that their babies were already several months old. Some of them were even on the verge of having their water broken.
On the other hand, she had only been pregnant for about four months. Her belly only had a slight bulge, which was different from the rest.
She could not help but wonder. <Is it possible that they’re really clueless like me?’>
At that moment, the instructor came in. It was a young female teacher who was roughly in her thirties, but regardless of her age, she had a great body figure.
"Good morning, mothers-to-be." The teacher greeted them happily.
As soon as the teacher spoke, Janice straightened her posture immediately, just like an obedient student. Christopher, who was standing next to her, could not stop frowning.
"Relax." He whispered in her ear confidently.
However, Janice cast a glance at him and lowered her voice, "Don’t talk. Listen to the teacher."
Christopher was left speechless at her retort. He remembered right away that when he was in primary school, the class monitor who was in charge of discipline seemed to have the same tone as she did when speaking to the rest of the students.
A smile grew on his face helplessly.
The teacher at the front was just done with her speech, and the mothers-to-be were being directed back to their seats by their husbands.
Christopher helped Janice to her seat as well.
There were two stools placed beside each round table, and Christopher took the other for himself.
Not before long, several staff members in overalls strutted in, carrying food with them.
Gradually, all sorts of desserts and cakes were placed on the table.
"These are the maternity refreshments specially prepared for the mothers- to-be. You can eat them without feeling restless. As for the dads-to-be, you can come up and choose some of your wife’s favorite foods from here," the teacher said.
As soon as she finished, the husbands took action.
Christopher stared at the beverages and desserts while asking Janice, "What do you want? I’ll get it for you."
However, Janice felt a little depressed from the sight of the delicacies. She had her breakfast right before arriving, and it hadn’t been long since then, so she couldn’t eat anymore.
...
Besides, this was an antenatal class.
Why were meal times part of the schedule?
Janice looked around gloomily and watched the mothers -to-be who had begun eating; she was the only one who had nothing placed in front of her.
She felt a little awkward. After all, everyone went to get something, except her.
So, she said to Chris, "Please help me get a plate of dessert. Any flavor is fine."
Chris nodded at her request. He got up and soon returned with an exquisite pastry.
He placed it in front of her and handed her a set of cutleries.
She hesitated for a long time, reluctant to have a bite.
"Honey, I don’t think I can do it. Why don’t you have it instead?"
Chris frowned at her stubbornness. "This is for you. If I eat it, I’ll be criticized by the instructor."
"But, I don’t have the appetite to do that." Janice moaned.
She was distressed by the situation.
Seeing that she really couldn’t eat, Chris said, "Just two bites? Come on, I’ll feed you."
As he spoke, he scooped up a spoonful and stretched out his arm towards her with the spoon in his hand, enticing her.
She opened her mouth, and when the dessert landed on her tongue, she was surprised to find that it tasted quite good.
"Honey, it’s delicious. Do you want to try it?" she said, pleasantly astonished at the sudden flavor.
He shook his head in denial. "You already know that I don’t like desserts. You can have it."
Then, he took another spoonful and fed it to her.
While he did so, all the women around casted envious glares at her while Christopher patiently fed her spoonful by spoonful.
Just like that, they spent the morning listening to music and eating.
On the way back, she was still in a daze. Somehow, she felt that something was amiss, but she couldn’t put her finger on what was tugging at the back of her mind.
"Honey, did you sign up for the wrong class? I don’t think antenatal classes are supposed to be like this," she asked after pondering about it for a while.
Chris was driving, but once he heard her, he turned to look at her.
"How is it meant to be?" he asked.
Janice paused for a moment, then she started explaining. "I heard that in classes related to parenting, they share general knowledge about taking care of infants. In any case, we didn’t seem to be doing anything close to that today."
The corners of his lips tugged upwards as he stared at her.
"You must be talking about the curriculum of newborn nannies."
"Newborn nannies?" she asked.
Janice didn’t understand.
Chris replied, "Taking care of a newborn is their job, is it not?"
She sort of agreed with his statement after thinking it through, but she still had her own opinions.
"I think that parents should be responsible too, instead of just handing their babies over to the nannies. Besides, the nannies aren’t parents to the infants." Janice suggested.
Noticing that she was still in a dilemma, he added, "Maybe it’s because it’s just the first class."
She pondered over it. Maybe that was true; classes always had a plan to follow through.
She dropped the topic once she came to this conclusion.
Strangely, the subsequent classes had nothing to do with the theoretical knowledge of infant care or parenting.
Slowly, she began to grow suspicious.
The other day, while she was walking along the street, someone was handing out flyers and suggested that she attended a trial class for infant care education. As expected, she went along without hesitation.
Immediately, she found the problem. This class was totally different with the one she was attending.
She felt cheated at once.
Then, it was another week of classes. On that day, she did not ask Chris to accompany her, but instead, she went early, and alone, to the center.
She looked around and questioned the person in charge of the place, but the other party hemmed and hawed. Finally, she whipped out her identification card as a reporter. This left the other party with no other options; they had to tell the truth.
It turned out that someone had instructed them to hold such classes on purpose.
...
As for the reason for being told to do so, they were clueless.
After asking around, Janice came to a rough understanding.
She berated the audacity of the perpetrator behind this whole scam. <How could they do this, especially to something so crucial for new parents?> She thought to herself in anger.
Still, she didn’t get it. Even if someone wanted to conduct such a curriculum, what about the prospective mothers who were in the same class with her?
Were they willing victims of a fraud?
While she was analyzing, someone patted her on the back.
"You came pretty early."
mother-to-be, who had a huge belly and looked like she was about seven or eight months pregnant, came over to Janice.
Janice recognized her. She was the one who sat at the table next to hers during class.
They had previously talked and shared about their experiences of being pregnant to one another.
She nodded. "Yes, it’s quite early."
"You’re taking this a little too seriously. You don’t have to arrive so early, it’s just a paid job. Besides, we’re all pregnant women, we need more sleep."
Janice was completely flabbergasted. "Wait, what did you say? A paid job?" she asked, entirely gob smacked.
The heavily pregnant woman was stunned. "You didn’t know? Weren’t you invited here for 50 dollars a day?"
"50 dollars a day? Are you saying that someone paid you 50 dollars to attend this class?" Janice was horrified.
The lady nodded and said, "Yes. It wasn’t just me, but most of the women in our class came here with the same condition. Pregnant women alone would receive 50 dollars, and if they’ brought their husbands along, they get 90 dollars altogether. There’s only one class a week, and all we needed to do was eat and drink, and on top of that, we make 90 dollars per session. There’s even a queue for those who wish to attend."
When Janice heard of this plan, she was taken aback.
Could it be, with her as the exception, all the other mothers in the class were hired with money?
She was confident that no one would be stupid enough to pay for such classes.
Everyone in the course was a paid ’actor’, except her, who was actually serious about learning something.
Her heart sank in utter disappointment.
It was obvious who was behind this. Definitely, it was none other than Christopher Bateman.
But, what was his objective?
She was furious when she recalled how she had been eating and drinking like a fool for the past few days as she stormed out of the center.
She marched into Christopher’s office.
Right then, Chris was wondering if he should give Janice a call to ask if she needed a ride. Unexpectedly, before he managed to fetch his phone, she rushed in, clearly enraged.
When he saw her, he put down the phone.
"Aren’t you supposed to be on the way to class? Why are you here?"
"What do you think?" She sneered at him.
He looked at her and walked over with a frown plastered on his face. "What happened?"
"You have the guts to ask me that? Can you explain to me why all the mothers in the class are hired with money?"
Once he heard her saying that, he understood right away.
"Oh, so you found out," he said apathetically.
"Yes, and I’m very angry at you for doing that." She growled.
As she spoke, she sat down on the sofa with a straight face.
He felt a little guilty. He had asked Rob to inspect before signing up for the course, and they found that the content of each class was quite complicated and required intensive learning. So, he came up with this idea, but what he didn’t expect was that she would find out.
He knew her temper well. She was relentless when she was livid.
With furrowed brows, he walked over. "I’m just worried that you’ll be tired."
Not to anyone’s surprise, she exploded when she heard those words escaping from his mouth.
"What is there for me to be tired of? I’ve already told you, look at those pregnant mothers, they’re even doing yoga to maintain their figures! No mothers will feel exhausted learning about how to take care of babies. Besides, even if I am, I’m still willing to do it. What right do you have to make any decisions for me?"
The more she thought about it, the more ballistic she became.
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