Who? Who did you say is pregnant?!
Wei Chun had just lifted his cup of water, but before he could bring it to his lips, his hand shook, and he spilled the entire contents as a libation to the earth god. Startled out of his wits by the ultrasound printout spread across the table, he jumped straight up from his chair. His long legs tangled left and right, kicking the innocent chair and producing a loud bang that echoed through the empty consultation room.
Doctor, are you holding a medical record or a portrait of the Virgin Mary? I don’t even have a single marking on me; am I having a miraculous conception and reproducing asexually?
When it rains, it pours.
The very next day after the Wei family confirmed that their child had been switched at birth twenty years ago and hastily drove him out of the house, Wei Chun finally found out at the hospital what had been causing his stomachaches all month long.
He was pregnant?!
The doctor couldn’t even be bothered to spare him another glance. Having practiced medicine at the hospital for decades, he had seen plenty of clueless parents-to-be who had no idea they were pregnant.
Pushing his glasses up with one hand, he turned the freshly printed ultrasound picture, still warm from the printer’s ink, around and pointed out the tiny embryo, which had yet to grow hands or feet, to Wei Chun.
Look, that’s your kid.
Are you kidding me? You take a picture of a bean sprout and tell me I’m pregnant? Wei Chun’s slender eyes widened into circles, even the tiny, delicate mole near the corner of his eye trembling to express its owner’s disbelief.
In his twenty years of life, while he hadn’t lived like an enlightened monk suppressing all worldly desires, he certainly took the spiritual discipline of sleeping alone to heart. Aside from himself and cans of Coca-Cola, nothing with carbonation had ever been brought into his bed.
Out of the blue, he comes to the hospital to check out a stomachache, and the doctor assigns him a child? What is this? Is the queue for reincarnation too long so they’re forcing random allocations, or was the bowl of water he drank yesterday actually a specialty product of Woman’s Kingdom?
Although fewer young people had been having children in recent years, the obstetrics and gynecology department still had a decent queue on a holiday.
Seeing that Wei Chun was still standing in place in a daze, the doctor checked his appointment schedule for the day and didn’t bother wasting any more breath explaining things to this rookie dad-to-be. He picked up the examination form and various reports, put them into a paper bag, and hung it over Wei Chun’s shoulder.
If you’re worried, go upstairs to the radiology department and get another color ultrasound. Come back with the report afterwards, and we’ll confirm it again.
Leaving behind those words, the senior physician pushed him out the door and used the electronic display board outside the consultation room to call the next number.
Damn it.
In the obstetrics corridor, on the left was an Alpha tenderly comforting his pregnant lover, and on the right was a young Beta holding a water cup and feeding water to his partner.
Amidst the bustling noise, Wei Chun stood frozen for a long time before finally regaining his senses. He took a few strides to leave this corridor that was souring his mood, circled the outpatient waiting area, and sat down on an empty chair. He then took out the examination forms and printed reports the doctor had just handed him and carefully read through every single one.
An ordinary person might not understand the overly detailed data and indicators, but the words 4 weeks pregnant clearly written at the bottom of every report left Wei Chun with no room to keep playing dumb.
Damn it, he actually, probably, maybe, really was pregnant.
Turns out the heavens could indeed collapse over and over again.
Wei Chun blankly looked down at his flat, slender lower abdomen, obtained through day-in, day-out control of his diet and fitness sculpting, unable to imagine that a four-week-old embryo had already been stuffed in there, or that a child would eventually crawl out from this very spot.
In his mind’s eye, his still-flat and slender waist gradually expanded and swelled until it was the size of a watermelon. Then, an ugly bean sprout with an indistinct face would suddenly leap out from the melon, grab his thigh, and scream, Daddy, daddy!
Frightened by his own imagination, Wei Chun shuddered, dropping the reports in his hand onto the floor. He quickly shook his head to clear away the imaginary scenes in his brain.
Cheng Min, who had accompanied him to the checkup, came squeezing through from the other side of the corridor carrying a water bottle. He wove past countless couples and spouses before finally finding Wei Chun, who looked completely dazed, sitting in the corner chair.
Bro, drink some water, drink some water. Cheng Min was very tall, having already reached the average height for an adult, but his physical development hadn’t kept pace, making him look as thin as a giant spider monkey. Topped with a clearly green, underage baby face, from afar he brought to mind those seedlings that had been forcefully pulled up to grow faster.
Right now, loaded down with large and small bags, he sat down next to Wei Chun like a demented single mother.
Wei Chun looked to the left and then to the right, a sense of sorrow welling up inside him.
Contraception truly was the greatest invention of 21st-century humanity. He really shouldn’t have disrespected scientists’ hard work by avoiding any precautions simply because he thought there was no risk of pregnancy without being marked, choosing instead to take the lazy route and go straight home to sleep.
If he had known beforehand that Huo Yuanzhou possessed such godly reproductive capabilities, even if he had been flipped back and forth like a pancake all night and couldn’t even crawl up the next day, he would have rented a wheelchair just to get pushed to the pharmacy to buy the morning-after pill before going home to sleep.
Anything would have been better than sitting here on a hospital bench right now, cursing the unknown, wandering father of the child together with an ugly bean sprout that hadn’t even grown its four limbs yet.
Wei Chun gritted his teeth and thought, Damn Huo Yuanzhou. I’ve never seen anyone able to get pregnant even when the marking wasn’t finished. The Goddess of Mercy wasn’t this miraculous, and infertility doctors would probably have to pull strings just to sit in on his lectures.
Cheng Min, Wei Chun said in a despairing tone, staring at the thin sheets of paper in his hands with a grief-stricken look as if his gaze could shoot laser beams, I’m pregnant. One month along.
Huh? Cheng Min was stunned at first, staring at his boss’s belly with an incredulous look, his brain spinning like a rusted screw, unable to figure out how to react. After half a moment, he snapped back to reality and answered with a sudden flash of inspiration, I get it, Boss. Don’t worry, feel free to say the child is mine; I’ll support the two of you.
Pfft. Wei Chun must have been cursed by water today; just moments ago in the consultation room, an ultrasound had scared him into spilling his water all over the earth god, and now Cheng Min had shocked him into spitting out a mouthful of water.
He knew it; he shouldn’t have had any expectations for a little illiterate like Cheng Min’s brain.
Cheng Min, Wei Chun said earnestly, People still need to go to school, you know? Although Big Bro has never had high hopes for your cultural level, you shouldn’t be worse than an illiterate. Elementary schools have physiology classes these days; even primary school students should know that a 13-year-old Omega cannot get another 21-year-old Omega pregnant. Neither of us has that feature.
Oh, oh, Cheng Min nodded blankly. Then what should we do?
What else can we do? We’ll raise it, of course, Wei Chun said irritably. Consider his timing lucky.
Earlier on, he was still the eldest young master of the Wei family. Although his relationship with his father wasn’t very good, he had a doting mother, a pampered older sister, and close fox-friends and dog-chums below.
If this bean sprout in his belly had popped up back then, it wouldn’t have ranked anywhere, and upon discovering it in the morning, he would have had to schedule an abortion surgery by the afternoon.
But things were different now. Just a day ago, Wei Chun had suffered a monumental upheaval in his life.
His father wasn’t his father, and his mother wasn’t his mother. After being the eldest young master for twenty years, he found out he was the civet cat swapped for the prince, the fake young master in the true-and-fake young master tropes.
Before he could even process it, his former father had already swept him out the door.
Now his biological parents were God knows where, and his adoptive parents were ignoring him, clearly having no intention of keeping him either.
The one in his belly had become the only person in the world with whom he shared a clear blood connection.
For someone like Wei Chun who had always valued family bonds, keeping the child became an inevitable choice.
Wei Chun had just made up his mind to keep the child, only to land himself back in the hospital because of a stomachache during an outing to grab a bite to eat. The senior physician he’d seen that morning looked at the reports and handed him another piece of bad news.
When it came to this child, Wei Chun’s personal decision wasn’t going to cut it anymore.
The senior physician’s pen was scratching away furiously, filling up a medical record sheet with symbols resembling ghost talismans in no time. Trust the doctor and go open a file tomorrow. High-risk pregnancy, come in for regular prenatal checkups. The senior physician tore off the medical record and examination forms together and handed them to Wei Chun. You ran away too fast this morning; I was just about to call and notify you about the results you left behind, but I didn’t expect you to come back on your own.
What do you mean? Wei Chun looked left and right, utterly unable to decipher what exactly was drawn on the talisman in his hand.
Your examination results from this morning aren’t looking too good. The senior physician finished writing, threw the pen back onto the desk, and leaned back in his chair. You and the child’s father didn’t undergo a final marking, did you?
Wei Chun hadn’t expected the question to drift in this direction. Of course he and Huo Yuanzhou hadn’t undergone a final marking.
That night had merely been an accident. He had tried to get the other person drunk only to end up getting drunk himself, and having been carried into a room by someone, he happened to run into Huo Yuanzhou, who was already drugged inside. Two people left with only basic physical instincts weren’t going to remember any final marking. Besides, he wasn’t in heat at the time, so even if Huo Yuanzhou had some consciousness left, it was doubtful he could have marked him.
Suddenly being asked about this now, he didn’t know how to explain for a moment. He subconsciously bit the corner of his lower lip and said nothing.
Judging by his expression, the senior physician had already guessed the answer. Feeling a mild headache coming on, he asked further, Then are you and the child’s father in a romantic relationship? Can you get married as soon as possible and complete the marking?
Uh, Wei Chun answered very sincerely, Actually, the child’s dad is already dead, and I don’t plan on having a ghost marriage anytime soon.
The senior physician became the one choked up. He fell silent for a good while before continuing to ask, Dead in the physiological sense, or dead as in he exited your life?
Is there a difference?
Yes, the senior physician said. It determines whether I’m writing you an admission slip or a surgical consent form.
What surgery?
Depends on the timing. Do it this month, and it’s a medical abortion; do it next month, and it’s a surgical abortion; do it a few months later, and it’s an induction.
Wei Chun was startled, his slender eyes widening. Eating a bowl of noodles at noon deformed this bean sprout? Why are we suddenly talking about pulling it out?
The noodles aren’t important. What matters is that you and the child’s father haven’t been marked. The senior physician also felt it was tricky and sighed. You didn’t take your examination results this morning, but your pheromone levels are very ominous. If I’m not mistaken, your genetic rank shouldn’t be very high, right?
Right. Wei Chun’s genetic rank was insufficient. The most frequent thing his former father used to say was scolding him for having a pretty face while his gland was uncompetitive, making him useless for marrying off to boost the family business. Can it not be saved?
The child’s pheromone deficiency is very severe. Generally speaking, the pheromones required by a child during pregnancy are provided by the Alpha father. However, as you just said, under these circumstances, if the other father’s pheromone supply is stable enough, it can work. But looking at the metrics, your situation isn’t looking good either. If you insist on carrying the pregnancy to term, there’s a very high probability it will drag you down to your grave as well.
The senior physician pointed at the metrics on the report card to show Wei Chun. This metric is way too much lower than the standard; it’s practically cut in half. The stomachaches you kept complaining about this morning are most likely caused by this impact. Therefore, from the perspective of your own health, in a situation where there is no final marking and the child’s father is already deceased, my personal advice is still for you to terminate the pregnancy as early as possible.
Wei Chun subconsciously raised a hand to touch his lower abdomen. Four weeks pregnant, an embryo of barely over a month. Forget facial features, it didn’t even have limbs yet; it was a bona fide bean sprout.
Terminate it? Or keep it?
Wei Chun fell silent for a long moment. He didn’t have all that deep an attachment to this bean sprout in his belly, but from the moment he discovered he was pregnant until now, he had never once thought about getting rid of it.
Having lived twenty years, his life had turned upside down. Father was no father, mother was no mother. Aside from this bean sprout in his belly, he wasn’t even sure if he could find a second living creature in this world sharing a blood connection with him.
Doctor, does the child need the father to provide pheromones throughout the entire pregnancy? Wei Chun asked in a hoarse voice. He really didn’t want to get too tangled up with the child’s biological father.
Huo Yuanzhou’s reputation was truly atrocious, insidious, ruthless, and devoid of grace. After coming into power at a young age, not only were the brothers who competed with him for power exiled to Africa, but even his biological father and stepmother had been packed up together and thrown into a sanitarium, never to be heard from again.
If he treated his own family like that, there was even less need to talk about mercy toward business competitors. It was as though he had never learned the phrase spare others when you can since birth, always driving things to absolute extermination. Back when they were competing for development rights, someone who had bribed an internal spy in the Huo family to turn traitor simply vanished with the money, and the next time they were heard of, they had apparently jumped from a twenty-sixth-floor apartment and smashed into a puddle of mush.
Though Huo Yuanzhou washed his hands clean on the surface, everyone in the inner circle knew in their hearts whether he had anything to do with it.
Wei Chun simply didn’t dare to gamble on whether Huo Yuanzhou would want a bean sprout dropping out of the sky.
Oh, that’s not necessary, the senior physician waved a hand, popularizing Omega pregnancy knowledge to Wei Chun. Generally speaking, around three months into the pregnancy, the child stabilizes. At that point, the demand for the Alpha father’s pheromones will gradually decrease, and by four months, they basically won’t be needed anymore. The Omega father’s pheromones alone will be enough to soothe the child. Of course, having the Alpha father’s pheromones around to soothe the spouse and child together makes the pregnancy relatively easier; that’s true.
What an unexpected stroke of fortune falling from the sky.
Wei Chun’s dimming eyes instantly lit up, and the smile at the corners of his lips could no longer be contained, though he still asked cautiously, Doctor, at four months, must a final marking be completed, or is a temporary marking okay?
That doesn’t matter. As long as it can provide enough pheromones, a temporary marking is enough. However, it’s best to have a follow-up checkup every half month to observe the health of the child and the pregnant person at any time. The senior physician didn’t speak in absolute terms.
If he hadn’t been inside the consultation room, Wei Chun would have practically laughed out loud. Truly, when the cart reaches the mountain ridge, there will be a way through, and there is a dark willow and bright flowers amidst another village.
The heavens were not letting him die after all.
A mere four months, and no final marking needed! He had originally thought he would have to tie his entire life into this, but it turned out to be just a few months. Once he figured out a way to tug and pull along with Huo Yuanzhou, wouldn’t he just be able to run away once the child stabilized? As long as he was careful, there wouldn’t even be any risk of the child being exposed.
The senior physician didn’t know why he had suddenly broken into a beaming smile as if he had won the lottery, but driven by medical benevolence, he still urged Wei Chun to make a decision quickly. The earlier you have the abortion surgery, the better. Letting the child grow larger before aborting is bad for your health too.
Wei Chun had just been spouting nonsense earlier; Huo Yuanzhou wasn’t actually dead. Since he could keep this sole piece of blood-related trinket, Wei Chun didn’t mind wrestling with Huo Yuanzhou for four months, treating it simply as fertilizing the bean sprout.
Doctor, I won’t be doing the abortion. I just suddenly received word that the child’s dad crawled out of his grave as a zombie, so I’m going back first to slap a talisman on him.
Cheng Min was still guarding the doorway with bags big and small. Seeing Wei Chun walk out grinning from ear to ear, looking nothing like the gloomy expression he wore when going in, Cheng Min assumed there was good news, like the pregnancy turning out to be a misdiagnosis, and immediately went up to ask about the situation.
At the doorway, Wei Chun rubbed his belly, turned his head, and gave Cheng Min a wink. Cheng Min, let’s go find a dad for the child.