A City, First People’s Hospital.
“Congratulations, you’re pregnant. You are twelve weeks along, and the fetus is completely normal.”
Jing Jiaxi looked at the small black dot in the ultrasound image, completely at a loss. But he was a man! Why would a man get pregnant!
With stiff hands and feet, he walked out of the hospital gates, the prenatal examination report in his hand nearly crushed to pieces by his grip.
Sweat drenched Jing Jiaxi’s forehead. He looked up at the piercing sun; despite the scorching summer heat, he broke into a cold sweat.
Three months ago.
“Ugh, it’s hot…”
Jing Jiaxi felt scorching hot all over, his limbs weak and numb. He grabbed onto something out of pure instinct.
The man’s clothes were thrown into disarray by him. The man tried to stop him, but Jing Jiaxi held on tight like a drowning man clutching a piece of driftwood, refusing to let go.
The corners of Fu Qianyu’s eyes flushed red. He forcefully wrenched Jing Jiaxi’s wrists back and asked in a deep voice, “Do you know what you are doing?”
The only answer he received was the handsome boy bringing his soft lips forward.
Snap!
The string of Fu Qianyu’s rationality snapped completely.
“Ah!” Jing Jiaxi’s small cry of pain was instantly swallowed up inside the vast hotel room.
He wanted to run, but the man’s dominant, powerful hand gripped his ankle.
In a daze, Jing Jiaxi sank into the soft comforter.
His eyes were filled with misty tears, the bright white ceiling light swayed above, a sob caught in his throat, and his lips were bitten open by himself. His grasping fingertips left streak after streak of red scratch marks.
By the time Jing Jiaxi woke up, he was the only one left in the room, lying naked on the bed. There was only a business card resting on the bedside table.
After leaving the hospital, Jing Jiaxi sat blankly on a park bench. It wasn’t until the sky turned dark that he finally moved his stiff limbs.
Step by step, he walked more than ten kilometers from the hospital back to his home in the suburbs.
“Coming back so late, where did you go wild! You only know how to laze around, why haven’t you gone to wash the clothes yet!”
Jing Jiaxi was used to his mother’s sharp, shrill scolding. In the past, he would have obediently hand-washed the entire family’s clothes, but today he just stood there blankly, completely motionless.
For the past few days, he had been vomiting non-stop, even throwing up blood.
Jing Jiaxi thought he had a terminal illness. Not daring to alarm his parents, he secretly took the money he had saved from working part-time studies to go to the hospital for a checkup.
But he never expected it to be a pregnancy!
He pursed his lips, not knowing how to break the news to his parents, while his mother continued to berate him aggressively.
“Why are you still standing there like an idiot! Now that you’ve gotten into college, you think your wings are fully grown, huh! Old man, get over here! I can’t control this son of yours anymore!”
Smoking a cigarette and shuffling his slippers, Father Jing walked over. He glared fiercely at Jing Jiaxi: “Why aren’t you listening to your mother and hurrying up! Don’t force me to whip you!”
Jing Jiaxi closed his eyes and said tremblingly, “Dad, Mom, can you lend me some money?”
He needed money for an abortion. He didn’t need much, just one thousand yuan would do. The doctor said that medical abortions weren’t suitable at three months, and a one-thousand-yuan surgical abortion was the cheapest option.
“Wanting money without doing any work! I see you really want me to whip you!”
Father Jing took off his slipper and held it high.
“Dad! I’m begging you! I’m sick and I need surgery. Once the surgery is done, I will definitely work to pay you back.”
Jing Jiaxi knelt down before Father Jing. He was risking everything just to get the money. If it were any other illness, he could have endured it and gone for treatment after earning the money himself through part-time work.
But a baby couldn’t wait. Delaying it by even one day meant a fraction more cruelty, both to himself and to the child.
“We don’t have money! What kind of illness needs that much money! You look perfectly fine to me! You must be trying to buy something and lying to me!”
“Oh my god! This is terrible! Old man, my wallet is missing two hundred yuan! It must have been taken by this little brat!”
Jing Jiaxi shook his head: “No, Mom, I didn’t take your money. The money I used to go to the hospital was earned by myself.”
“Bullshit! Where would you get money! Didn’t it all come from us! Hand the money over right now! You brat, learning how to steal money now, are you?!”
As Father Jing spoke, he pulled off his leather belt, intending to whip him.
“Dad! I really didn’t take it!” Jing Jiaxi found himself completely unable to clear his name.
Smack!
Furious, Father Jing brought the leather belt down heavily. It struck Jing Jiaxi’s fair face and neck squarely, instantly causing a piercing red welt to swell up high.
Mother Jing splashed a ladle of cold water over his head: “Beat him! Beat him hard! If you don’t beat him for three days, he gets unruly!”
Father Jing kicked at his abdomen. Jing Jiaxi quickly dodged while shielding his stomach. Father Jing, brandishing the belt, aggressively lunged forward to strike him again.
Jing Jiaxi rolled toward the front door just as it suddenly swung open.
“Dad, Mom, what are you doing?” The younger brother, Jing Jizu, walked in. Father Jing and Mother Jing immediately swarmed over him, fussing over his well-being.
“Jizu, is technical school tiring? Do you have enough spending money? Do you want Mom and Dad to transfer some more money to you? We can’t let our son suffer.”
Jing Jizu impatiently threw down a backpack full of dirty clothes: “What is three thousand a month supposed to cover? Didn’t my brother get a 150,000 yuan scholarship for getting into Imperial Capital University? Give it to me quickly!”
“Oh, my precious boy, that’s saved for you to marry a wife in the future…”
Taking advantage of their distraction, Jing Jiaxi slipped out through the front door. His body was covered in injuries from the belt, but he didn’t feel the pain at all; he only felt incredibly cold.
Jing Jiaxi didn’t have a single penny on him. He couldn’t even afford the bus fare.
He tightly gripped the business card in his pocket. Written on it was: CEO of Fu Corporation: Fu Qianyu.
The Fu family was the most powerful clan in the Imperial Capital, and the Fu Corporation building was the most famous landmark in the city.
Jing Jiaxi walked from the dead of night until broad daylight, all the way from the suburbs to the city center.
The midday sun was blinding. The Fu Corporation skyscraper towered into the clouds; he couldn’t even see the top when he looked up.
Watching the white-collar workers passing by dressed in formal suits, Jing Jiaxi clutched the hem of his own white shirt, then looked down at his washed-out jeans.
Standing at the entrance of the skyscraper, he looked completely out of place.
The elite office workers walking past the entrance couldn’t help but glance at him out of the corners of their eyes.
He was a tall, slender, and handsome boy. Under the sunlight, his soft black hair gleamed with a faint luster, like the finest nighttime silk. The red welt on his porcelain-white skin evoked a sense of pity from onlookers.
His eyes were clear and deep, like a pure spring untouched by the mortal world, revealing a subtle hint of sorrow and gentleness. His nose was straight, and his lips were a pale pink. If the corners of his mouth were to lift slightly, it felt as though he could instantly dispel all the surrounding gloom. He was like someone stepped out of a painting, possessing a purity and beauty that did not belong to this world.
Jing Jiaxi took a deep breath and tidied himself up against the reflection of the glass doors.
He walked into the building with firm steps, looking like a soldier heading to battle, yet also like a believer begging for mercy.
Jing Jiaxi walked up to the front desk and pulled out the crumpled business card he had been tightly clutching.
“Hello, I would like to see Fu Qianyu.”
The receptionist dithered for a moment, struck by his appearance, before asking in a polite, professional manner: “Hello, do you have an appointment?”
Jing Jiaxi shook his head.
The receptionist maintained her smile: “Then may I ask what business you have with our CEO Fu?”
Jing Jiaxi couldn’t bring himself to say he was here to ask for abortion money. No one would believe that a man could get pregnant.
“I’m sorry, but without an appointment, you cannot see CEO Fu. However, I can register your information first, and you can wait in the lounge area of the first-floor lobby. This way, please.”
Jing Jiaxi had anticipated this. A top figure in the Imperial Capital wasn’t someone an ordinary person like him could see just because he wanted to.
He planned to wait in the lobby until Fu Qianyu got off work. No matter what, he had to try.
“Miss, could you please pass a word to CEO Fu? I really have an urgent matter with him.”
“Alright, sir. Please wait a moment.”
The receptionist forwarded Jing Jiaxi’s information to CEO Fu’s secretary.
Two hours later, after Fu Qianyu finished his meeting, the secretary reported Jing Jiaxi’s name to him.
Fu Qianyu thought about it for a moment but had no recollection of ever meeting this person: “I don’t know him. Tell him to leave.”
“The front desk mentioned that he has been waiting in the first-floor lobby the entire time and doesn’t look like he will leave anytime soon. Should we have security escort him out?”