The meeting place for both sets of parents was chosen as the biggest hotel in Haishi.
Stepping onto the highest floor in Haishi, standing before the huge floor-to-ceiling windows with three hundred and sixty degrees and no blind spots, you could look down over the whole of Haishi. But Jiang Zhi had no mind to admire such a magnificent, splendid picture.
Because her toes were enough to dig out a building taller than this one.
“In-laws, I guess you already understand Heyu’s situation more or less. The matter is simply what it is. What day do you think would be suitable to set?”
Luo Xuexian’s voice came now far, now near. Zheng Wan, as if wearing an isolation hood, stared off in one direction while a single sentence circled endlessly in her head.
—Mom, Duan Heyu is pregnant, we’re getting married.
Wasn’t Little Duan a boy? How… how could he get pregnant??
The worldview Zheng Wan had built over many years was washed to pieces. If she hadn’t known her own daughter, if her daughter hadn’t sent her those diagnoses from the hospital, she would not have believed a man could get pregnant even if she were beaten to death.
This was completely a scene that would only appear in science fiction.
In that instant, Zheng Wan felt the world had turned bizarre and grotesque, so unreal.
Through the whole discussion, it was basically Jiang Qingshan and Luo Xuexian who pushed things forward, while Duan Jingguo and Zheng Wan were both still drifting outside the situation.
Near the end, Duan Jingguo suddenly came to himself and abruptly asked, “In-laws, what are your thoughts on the matter of the bride price?”
Perhaps because this question was somewhat awkward, both Jiang Qingshan and Luo Xuexian had deliberately skimmed past it during the talk.
Hearing the question, Jiang Qingshan turned his head to look at his wife. The big matters at home had always been hers to decide.
He gently squeezed his wife’s fingers, and Zheng Wan barely came back to herself. After thinking for a while, she said gently, “Let’s forget the bride price. As long as the young couple can live well, that’s enough. As parents we’ll always support them.”
Zheng Wan spoke from goodwill.
They would give everything they had to support that little household. There was no need for the man’s side to add an extra bride price, and as far as the Jiang family was concerned, the man’s side taking on the childbearing was itself more valuable than any bride price.
But Duan Jingguo and his wife took the meaning wrong.
Duan Jingguo’s face turned somewhat ugly. He glared at the son who was dragging things down, resenting that iron wouldn’t turn to steel, then said firmly, “The bride price can’t be left ungiven, it has always been the accepted custom. If you don’t mind, we’ll give it according to the average price here in Haishi.”
Although it was their son who would bear the child, the bride price had to be given, otherwise what would relatives and friends think when they found out? No need to guess, they would definitely treat his son as a man married into the wife’s family.
Absolutely not!
“One more thing.”
Duan Jingguo added in a solemn tone, “The child must take the surname Duan.”
Everyone was stunned for a moment and raised their eyes in unison.
Jiang Zhi’s eyes went deep and dark, a flicker of a smile flashing past.
Zheng Wan’s brow-tips lifted lightly at that, and she curved her lips in a smile. “No problem. Whoever gives birth gets to decide.”
Having got the Jiang family’s promise, Duan Jingguo and his wife finally swallowed their hearts back into their bellies.
They were glad the Jiang family was easy to talk to and hadn’t taken advantage of the man’s side being in a weak position to push them while they were down. At the same time they counted themselves lucky: the news that men could get pregnant hadn’t been announced yet, so their family could still take this chance to carry on the old tradition and continue the Duan family’s line of incense.
In the future there probably wouldn’t be such a good thing as easily taking the father’s surname anymore.
Out of the hotel, Duan Heyu went home with his parents first. After watching through the car window until the Jiang family’s car drove out of sight, he finally couldn’t hold his temper in and it exploded.
“Dad, you shouldn’t have said that last sentence just now. Once we’re married we’re one family, is whose surname it takes that important?”
The moment he finished, Duan Jingguo narrowed his eyes and turned his head grimly. “What did you say?”
On matters of big principle, Duan Heyu had his own persistence. Even though he feared his old man’s sandbag-sized fists, he was going to go hard to the end.
His dad had had a son late in life, so he couldn’t really beat him to death.
“I said you shouldn’t have argued with the Jiang family over whose surname the child takes. It’s pointless.” Duan Heyu stiffened his neck and looked back at him. “Listen to what my mother-in-law said. My mother-in-law doesn’t care about this at all. Look how big that vision is.”
Whose son, before even getting the certificate, called his mother-in-law that affectionately with every other word, his elbow bending outward with all its might?
They say you raise a son to guard against old age. Was what he raised a son? Raising a slab of barbecued pork would be better than this thing!
Duan Jingguo’s big palm slapped down onto the seat with a dull sound. Suppressing his rage, he demanded coldly, “Meaning your old man’s vision is small, that your old man judged a gentleman’s belly with a petty man’s heart?”
Duan Heyu nervously sat up straight, his little heart trembling along with it, both cowardly and unwilling to lose face.
He argued feebly, “If you want to think that, there’s nothing I can do.”
Duan Jingguo: !!
Just as the big palm was about to land on Duan Heyu, Luo Xuexian reacted extremely fast and reached out to block it. After turning her head to scold her son, she didn’t forget to berate her husband as well.
“What use is hitting him? If you hit him and break him, do we still want the child in his belly? You’re a man about to be a grandfather, can you rein in your temper?”
Duan Jingguo: “…” So angry.
At this stage neither father nor son would concede, so Duan Heyu simply packed up, bundled his game console, and huffed and puffed his way back to the hospital.
【Eight months of dating and my boyfriend looks eight months pregnant, is there anything more absurd than mine (laughing-crying)】
On Little Blue Book, a post about a boyfriend piling on flesh after starting a relationship leapt into the hot posts within half an hour.
In the main post, the young lady OP showed three photos of her boyfriend from before and after they started dating.
In the first photo, the boyfriend wore a bachelor’s gown, fair and delicate, leaning against a tree and striking a goofy pose full of energy. His build was fairly slim, with very much the flavor of a little male god.
The second was a photo from four months into the relationship, OP and her boyfriend together, and from the background it should have been at Disney.
The boyfriend at this stage wasn’t much different from the first photo, but on careful comparison it wasn’t hard to see that the tip of the boy’s nose had rounded a bit and his clear jawline had blurred quite a lot. By eye he had gained at least ten catties.
And the third photo was even more something, and it was a Live photo.
The little male god had turned straight into a country-fat-round. He lay bare-chested on the bed, his belly bulging and stuffed like a ball, his features so unlike the previous two photos that they seemed to belong to a different person, changed enough that netizens shouted to call the police.
Just Want to Sleep Every Day: 【Oh heaven hahahaha! Are you sure they didn’t swap people halfway?】
AnAn: 【This before-and-after gap… I really want to know how many catties he gained. I’ll blind-guess fifty catties first and correct it if I’m wrong hhhhh】
Miss Tongtong: 【Dating really does make you gain weight. Before dating I was 90 catties, after dating I gained 30 catties straight! I was anxious to death every day, but my boyfriend kept comforting me saying it was fine, that being chubby was cute too. Then the day before yesterday I found out he was cheating, big-laugh.jpg】
Red and Roaring: 【Damn, my heart aches for the sis above, pat pat on the head~】
The first few floors were all comments shocked at the before-and-after change in OP’s boyfriend, and right after them the Little Blue Book sisters each griped about their own experiences of gaining weight.
Until one particular comment appeared.
What to Eat Today: 【Young lady, it looks like something is squirming inside your boyfriend’s belly, and your boyfriend’s weight gain isn’t normal. I suggest going to the hospital for a checkup quickly, the later it gets, the worse for treatment.】
Please Stop Talking: 【Come on, can’t we just surf happily? You had to come and manufacture anxiety. So all fat people should go to the hospital for a checkup then, dying of laughter!】
Some netizens agreed. The most annoying thing was when everyone was chatting happily and someone suddenly popped up to pour cold water and ruin the mood.
But not all netizens would start spraying without another word. Some, going by what that commenter said, looked at the third live photo again, and after enlarging the photo, quite a few of them really did see something that seemed to be swimming inside the high-rising belly.
Only for an instant, but they really and truly saw it clearly.
【Holy crap! Stop spraying, this sis is right, there really is something squirming. Oh my mother, it couldn’t be worms, could it? Ugh!!】
【After watching it I got goosebumps right away!】
【Sis! Hurry and take your boyfriend to the hospital for a checkup, his belly is so big, don’t let it be some blood-sucking parasite disease.】
OP hadn’t paid attention to this comment at first, until more and more people @’d her beneath it and explained all kinds of diseases that could cause a big belly, which finally got her attention and frightened her no little.
OP replied to the comments hoping for the best.
【No way. Apart from the first few months when he didn’t have much appetite, maybe because of the hot weather, my boyfriend’s appetite is pretty good now. He eats three normal meals a day and has a rosy complexion, he doesn’t look sick.】
Someone picked it up right away, big illnesses are all dragged out of small ones, and told her to think harder about what had been abnormal about him day to day.
OP thought that made sense too and began carefully recalling every little detail of her time with her boyfriend.
【I remember now! But I feel it shouldn’t be a big problem. These past few months he’s been constipated a lot, and he urinates frequently. He gets up at least four or five times a night and each time only a little comes out…】
After OP said this, many netizens’ first reaction was prostatitis. But prostatitis doesn’t seem to make something grow inside your belly, does it???
Nobody was sure.
【Sis, it’s still early, hurry and take your boyfriend to the hospital for a checkup. Diagnosing online, nine out of ten diseases are cancer (hands out)】
OP thought this was reasonable too, so she took the advice and decided to take her boyfriend to the hospital that afternoon.
An afternoon passed and OP didn’t come back.
A night passed and OP didn’t come back.
The netizens following the thread all had the same bad guess: OP’s boyfriend might really have some rare cancer.
Many people sent OP private messages, some curious for news, some offering warm comfort.
At seven the next morning, OP suddenly appeared and pinned a comment that nobody could make head or tail of.
—【I never thought a thing like this would happen to me.】
The netizens were all in a fog. What was that supposed to mean?
【Although I don’t know what happened, if you need financial help, young lady, you can private message me.】
【The checkup result must be very bad, sigh】
【Who would have thought that just scrolling Little Blue Book you’d run into something this heartbreaking. Truly the world is unpredictable.】
The netizens following the thread concluded OP’s boyfriend had an incurable illness, and after leaving comforting messages they soon scattered.
Just then OP, who had kept her mouth shut all along, quietly posted a new update. The content of the update was unusually thought-provoking: several screenshots from the Flower Petal Forum.
—Urgent, my boyfriend is pregnant, what should I do, waiting online!!!
Netizens: question-mark face.jpg
The post that had gone quiet not long ago shot to the front page because of this move by OP. The melon-eating crowds [1]The melon-eating crowds (chi gua qunzhong, 吃瓜群众) Slang, bystanders avidly following a scandal jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3234068_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3234068_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); from both sides collided, and when they put their heads together their opinions were unified as never before.
Which marketing-dog company was this? Was it ever going to end? Fooling the public was fun, was it?
Just because other people don’t get angry, do you take them for idiots?
Get out here and take the spraying!!!
Jiang Zhi listened to her best friend share the whole course of the affair, listened to her almost innocent laughter, and licked her dry lips.
She probed, “Just… is there a possibility that neither OP was lying?”
Her best friend: “Hahahaha, how could that be? Has dating made you stupid? Believing men can get pregnant is worse than believing the earth will explode.”
Jiang Zhi covered her forehead. She knew it: people who told the truth weren’t believed.
The next moment her best friend changed tack and said nervously, “A-Zhi, go out less these days. I have a feeling a new virus might be appearing again. If you have nothing to do, stay curled up at home and don’t go to crowded places.”
“What did you find?”
“I saved that photo of OP’s boyfriend and looked at it over and over for several days. I keep feeling it isn’t as simple as the comment section says. That squirming is really eerie.”
Her best friend drew in a sharp breath and went on, “I haven’t slept well for several days in a row, I even dream about viruses. And in the last half year something abnormal has happened to my body too.”
At those words, Jiang Zhi immediately asked, “What is it?”
There was silence on her best friend’s end. Jiang Zhi’s heart lifted without her meaning it to, and she even held her breath.
“It’s nothing much. My period has stopped for half a year.”
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