When Li Mo woke up, he found himself lying in a hospital bed.
He was covered by a dry, warm cotton quilt. Unlike the cold, sterile scent of the top-tier hospitals in the First District, this quilt carried a scent unique to a sunny day, quickly pulling him back to consciousness from his damp and chilling nightmare.
The very next second, noticing he had awakened, a doctor nearby recorded his vital signs while casually informing him, “You’re pregnant.”
Li Mo’s action of opening his eyes paused abruptly.
If he were to close his eyes tightly right this second, could this entire matter simply be treated as never happening?
Seeing his reaction, the doctor added, “You’re one month along.”
Li Mo: ……
Slowly and powerlessly, he turned his head in the opposite direction of the doctor. This tiny movement was packed with boundless despair.
Damn it, Huo Jingxi really doesn’t use condoms.
Yet he couldn’t turn his head very far because a thick layer of gauze was wrapped around his neck, and the wound on the back of his neck prevented him from making any sharp movements.
Slowly turning his head back to face the doctor, he asked in a weak voice, “Is he still alive?”
“Who?” The doctor stopped writing, put down his clipboard, and glanced at Li Mo’s stomach. “Your child?”
Li Mo blinked, indicating that he was indeed asking about the life or death of the little one in his belly.
“Doing quite well,” the doctor replied.
Quite a tough little life.
Recalling everything he had endured over the past month, Li Mo silently reflected on this in his heart.
“Get rid of it.”
Li Mo closed his eyes again, deciding the fate of the child without the slightest ripple of emotion in his heart.
Hearing this, the doctor remained silent for a long moment before asking in return, “Why?”
Instead of answering the question directly, Li Mo asked, “Do you know who I am?”
The doctor smiled. “Of course I do.”
“Your news made the headlines of the empire’s newspapers again today.”
Hearing this, Li Mo let out a self-deprecating chuckle. “‘Again’?”
“Though what made the news today wasn’t those great and heroic deeds you did for the commoners,” the doctor continued. “It recorded your obituary, stating that you were murdered by your husband.”
What kind of absurd farce was this now?
Li Mo felt a wave of confusion in his heart, but the next moment, he brushed the thought aside.
None of these things had anything to do with him anymore.
Looking at him, the doctor asked another question. “But isn’t your husband deeply in love with you?”
Li Mo slowly opened his eyes and looked up at the doctor. “What do you think?”
Only now did he get a clear look at the person he had been chatting with.
The man wore glasses, with three pens red, black, and blue tucked into his chest pocket. Although he smiled in a seemingly friendly manner, Li Mo always felt a sense of hypocrisy lingering beneath that smile.
“I don’t think so.” The doctor bent down to smooth out the wrinkles on the quilt, then looked at Li Mo as if seeking validation for his conclusion.
“Maybe not, but I have no idea either.” Regarding his affairs with Huo Jingxi, Li Mo had no desire to dwell on them at length, so he changed the subject. “Thank you for saving me.”
“Just doing my duty,” the doctor replied, pointing to the clothes on his body.
“Then could you please help me get rid of this child, Doctor?” Li Mo said.
“You still haven’t answered my ‘why’ yet,” the doctor smoothly countered.
Li Mo offered a faint smile, though even such a subtle movement sent a sharp wave of pain through his chest.
Frowning through a few seconds of discomfort, he said, “Before I answer that question, can you first tell me where this is?”
“District Sixty-Five,” the doctor answered. “Three days ago, some of our people found you by the riverside while doing laundry, so I brought you back.”
“Your people?” Li Mo’s expression shifted slightly.
Seeing how guarded he looked, the doctor couldn’t help smiling again. “Rest assured, if we were people under Chairman Huo, do you think he would let you stay in a dump of a hospital like this?”
Li Mo curved the corners of his lips and turned his head back. “Because I don’t want to bear Huo Jingxi’s child.”
“But the child is yours as well.”
“And I want to live a good life, free from any further ties to Huo Jingxi.”
“Is that so?” The doctor fell silent for a brief moment before saying, “However, given your current physical condition, terminating the pregnancy would kill you as well.”
“Why?” This time it was Li Mo’s turn to ask. He considered himself somewhat knowledgeable in basic first aid, yet he had never heard of such a claim.
“I won’t go into the specific medical details with you,” the doctor said. “You should be able to feel it yourself, though your physical condition right now is beyond terrible.”
“Besides, the fact that the child managed to survive after going through everything you’ve been through is quite a bond of fate between you two.”
What kind of damn fate is that?
Li Mo closed his eyes once more, mentally complaining about the doctor’s comforting words.
Could a toxic entanglement even be called fate?
Helplessness and resignation filled his heart, yet he quietly accepted the reality that he had no choice but to keep the child.
“Then I’ll give birth to it,” Li Mo said.
“You accepted that rather quickly,” the doctor chuckled.
“Or should I go die right along with it?” Li Mo let out a sigh.
“When you’re alive and well, you shouldn’t keep such words on your lips.” Bending down, the doctor lightly flicked Li Mo’s forehead with a bent finger.
Opening his eyes, Li Mo saw the man looking at him with a warm smile before straightening up and extending a hand. “Oh, by the way, my name is Li Ye. Nice to meet you.”
Li Mo looked at the outstretched hand. He currently lacked even the slightest ounce of strength throughout his body, yet failing to shake back seemed impolite.
Cursing inwardly, he struggled to lift his hand from beneath the covers to return the handshake.
“Alright,” Li Ye withdrew his hand and tucked it back into his pocket. “I know it takes effort, so don’t bother moving. I’m the doctor here; if you need anything, just call for me.”
“Thank you,” Li Mo murmured softly.
With a smile, Li Ye turned and walked out.
Li Mo remained confined to his hospital bed for a full five days.
During those five days, the doctor named Li Ye came to accompany him every single day.
He checked on his health and kept him company through conversations.
Li Mo had no phone, and no newspapers were delivered here, but Li Ye always kept him updated on matters concerning Huo Jingxi.
Li Ye told him that almost everyone now believed Li Mo had indeed been murdered by Huo Jingxi. Consequently, the public support and prestige Huo Jingxi had painstakingly built among the commoners had collapsed into utter ruins. Numerous aristocrats were racking their brains over how to distance themselves from Huo Jingxi in this political struggle without offending the powerful family.
As for Huo Jingxi himself, he had been so busy over the past few days that he hadn’t even returned home.
And Huo Jingyan, Huo Jingxi’s younger sister, had suffered some sort of breakdown and was rumored to have lost her mind.
“Do you believe these public narratives are being manipulated by forces behind the scenes?” Li Mo asked Li Ye after listening to the update.
“I thought you’d ask why he hasn’t bothered to defend himself, seeing as he never killed his own wife,” Li Ye said, steering the conversation back to Huo Jingxi.
Frowning, Li Mo asked, “Why are you so fixated on him?”
“My mistake, then. I always used to read reports in the newspapers about how deeply devoted the two of you were, which foolishly led me to believe you were truly in love,” Li Ye explained.
“I never liked him,” Li Mo lowered his gaze. “Believe whatever you want to believe, though.”
“Fine, fine,” Li Ye immediately conceded. “I won’t ask anymore, and I won’t bring him up again.”
“Then let me ask you an important question,” Li Mo said, looking up at him.
Li Ye raised an eyebrow.
“What question?”
With a completely serious expression, Li Mo asked, “The IV drip is finished. Can I get out of bed now?”
Li Ye looked up at the infusion bottle hanging overhead; it was indeed empty.
“Alright then.” Li Ye walked over, unplugged the IV tubing, and replaced the catheter. “I might as well take this opportunity to show you around our place.”
“If I don’t walk around soon, my muscles are going to atrophy.” Supported by Li Ye, Li Mo slowly made his way toward the doorway.
“It’s not as severe as you make it sound,” Li Ye countered, walking slowly beside him. “At most, your limbs will just feel a bit weak at first.”
Ignoring him, Li Mo reached the doorway and came to a halt.
While lying in the hospital room over the past few days, staring at the yellowed walls and ceiling, he had mentally prepared himself, yet he hadn’t expected the place to be even more dilapidated than he imagined. The doors were all made of wood, their green paint peeling off in mottled patches, and the windows were patched together with wooden boards and sheets of iron, mixing old and new colors in a thoroughly unappealing manner.
If there was anything positive to be said about this place, it was that it could barely pass for acceptable only when compared to District Sixty-Nine.
Even so, the atmosphere here was brimming with life. It seemed quite a few people lived here, and the faint sound of children laughing and playing echoed from somewhere nearby.
“This place of yours…” Li Mo glanced around before turning back to Li Ye with a hesitant look. “What kind of place is this, exactly?”
Gesturing for him to step outside, Li Ye said, “I’ll take you for a look, and you’ll understand.”
Walking along, Li Mo looked left and right, realizing this must be an abandoned old factory that had been converted. It contained numerous rooms, mostly used as living quarters, alongside a kitchen and a storage room…
Along the way, they passed several people who greeted them very warmly.
Once they stepped out the main entrance and into the courtyard outside, the crowd grew significantly larger.
Most of them were Betas and Omegas, gathered in the courtyard where some were sorting vegetables, others were hanging laundry, and a few were airing out quilts, with several children darting back and forth beneath the sheets, playing happily.
“The people you see here are basically trafficked Betas and Omegas, along with those children.”
Li Mo was stunned. “You rescued them?”
“Of course I don’t have the ability to do that alone. A few like-minded friends and I organized this place to give them a safe haven, just doing what we can.”
“Then…” Li Mo hesitated before asking, “Since they’ve been rescued, why don’t they go back home?”
“Because most of them were willingly sold off by their own parents or legal guardians,” Li Ye explained. “Some were trafficked into mountain villages, while others were sold to aristocrats for surrogacy. When we rescued them, they were tied to hospital beds while the doctors in charge abandoned them and fled.”
Li Mo lowered his gaze. Hearing these words stirred a complex mix of emotions within him. He clearly remembered that imperial laws strictly prohibited human trafficking and surrogacy. Yet the very next second, Meng Jinze’s words echoed in his mind:
“The empire’s laws don’t apply to us aristocrats.”
Tragedies in this world seemed to pile one on top of another. Just when you thought your own life was miserable enough, you would realize there were plenty of people suffering far worse.
Sighing inwardly, Li Mo turned around and began walking back inside.
“When you rescued me, did you keep my clothes and belongings?” Li Mo asked.
“They’re all in the drawer in your room,” Li Ye answered. “Aunt Zhou helped mend your clothes, though the fabric isn’t as high-end as your original ones. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Thank you for the trouble. I’ll go thank her later,” Li Mo said.
He remembered that when he fled the Huo residence, he was still wearing a ring Huo Jingxi had given him. Walking back to his room, he pulled open the bedside drawer. His clothes were neatly folded inside, and right on top of them sat that ring.
Back when he was with Huo Jingxi, the man had always wanted him to wear the gifts he gave him at all times, so Li Mo had chosen a relatively understated ring to wear constantly on his hand.
However, everything Huo Jingxi gave him was immensely valuable; even with Li Mo’s lack of careful preservation, it still gleamed with a dazzling brilliance of precious jewels.
Aside from the child in his belly, this was the very last item connected to Huo Jingxi that he possessed.
Gazing at the ring for a long time with unreadable thoughts in his eyes, Li Mo finally turned and handed it to Li Ye. “If you have time, go pawn this thing. It should fetch quite a bit of money.”
Recognizing the ring resting in his palm as one of the few surviving rare pieces by last century’s foreign designer Seager Alexander worth at least seven figures in star coins at an auction, Li Ye realized just how deeply Huo Jingxi must have cherished Li Mo, seeing as Li Mo had casually worn such a priceless item around.
“Then… you’re truly never going to look for him again?” Li Ye asked.
Never going to look for someone who loved you this much?
Li Mo smiled. Giving one final glance at the ring as though bidding farewell to his past, he shook his head and said, “Never again.”