DABGBTF 24

Lao Tian drove the car all the way to the nearest hospital. Before entering the hospital, the exact same sentence continuously hovered in Xie Zheng’s mind.

He, Xie Zheng, pregnant?

He? Xie Zheng? Pregnant?

These few words arranged side by side together, Xie Zheng thought about it, and even he himself felt like laughing.

There were quite a few people lining up in front of the obstetrics clinic, A and O, A and B, B and B—the majority came together as two people. There were also those bringing children or alone sticking out a big pregnant belly coming to do checkups. The moment Xie Zheng and Lu Lu appeared, everyone was startled. Even the children who were grimacing and crying stopped crying, biting their fingers and secretly looking, as if they couldn’t understand why two Alphas would appear here.

Xie Zheng unbuttoned two buttons. He sat down on the chair, long legs crossed together, not looking like he was here for a checkup, but more like he was here to seek revenge on someone.

Lu Lu was standing right next to Xie Zheng.

On the way here just now, he had already checked on his phone. Just like what Dr. Zhang Xueyi said, nearly thirty percent of Alphas in this world have reproductive cavities that have not completely degenerated—there are also a sparse few cases of Alphas getting pregnant. Quite a few news articles even specially reported on this, using the word “miracle” and many exclamation marks in the headlines.

Lu Lu could almost be certain that Xie Zheng was indeed pregnant. 

A part of him, not knowing when, had truly stayed inside Xie Zheng’s body, quietly taking root, growing, turning into a beating life.

This feeling was truly very wonderful, so magical. Lu Lu looked at Xie Zheng’s lower abdomen, feeling his own heart was about to melt, but what he felt more of was helplessness. 

He thought he also knew the ending for this tiny life.

Xie Zheng was an Alpha who, because he liked Alphas, was sent by his parents to receive treatment—Xie Zheng wouldn’t want it.

A very astringent feeling solidified in Lu Lu’s throat. He felt a sourness in his heart, blending together with a sweet feeling, making one feel very uncomfortable.

I will take responsibility, I will take responsibility, let me take responsibility.

Lu Lu’s lips moved wordlessly a couple of times.

The people lined up in front had all finished their checkups, coming out of the consultation room either with faces full of sorrow or with joy. Xie Zheng stood up and walked inside, and Lu Lu followed behind him.

The petite omega doctor was startled by the two tall and large alphas. “You guys…”

Xie Zheng gave the report sent by Zhang Xueyi to the doctor. “Check for pregnancy.”

Looking at the tall, imposing alpha in front of her, the doctor was dumbfounded for a moment, but her professional quality made her quickly recover her calm. 

She lowered her head and looked at the report form. “…An eleven-week fetus can already be directly seen… Lie down and lift your clothes up to expose your belly.”

Xie Zheng did as told and lay down on the bed the doctor pointed to. The moment he lay down, the corners of his mouth twitched. 

This bed was too narrow and too small—clearly made according to the average height of an omega. He lay on it, with a section of his calves still suspended in the air.

Xie Zheng unbuttoned the hem of his dress shirt, exposing his flat belly with abdominal muscles.

F*ck, under laozi eight-pack abs is a child? 

Xie Zheng still felt it was very absurd.

The doctor pushed a machine over. After smearing some ice-cold gel on Xie Zheng’s lower abdomen, she aimed the machine’s probe at Xie Zheng’s lower abdomen. 

The machine’s screen immediately had an image.

The doctor moved it to a few places. In just five seconds’ time, she said to Xie Zheng, “You are pregnant—look.”

Xie Zheng and Lu Lu together followed the doctor’s finger to look over. 

The black and white image on the screen was slightly pulsating; right in the middle there was indeed a blurry lump of something.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

After another five seconds of silence, Xie Zheng asked, “Is there any possibility this is shit?”

Lu Lu asked, “Can I take a picture of it?”

“…Stop messing around.”

The doctor said, “You can take a picture. Feces don’t have hands and feet, look, here are its hands, here are the little feet.”

Lu Lu took a few pictures, his expression very soft. Xie Zheng stared fixedly at that lump of something on the screen, actually not seeing exactly where the hands were and where the feet were at all. He sat up, and after pulling a piece of paper to wipe off the gel on his belly, he irritably swept his scattered bangs to the back of his head.

F*ck, f*ck… f*ck!

M*therf*cker, he shouldn’t have coveted after this stupid deer’s face in the beginning, nor should he have figured it was convenient and not even used a condom a few times. 

Now it’s great, he’s pregnant.

The doctor looked at Xie Zheng’s expression, probably also knowing what Xie Zheng was thinking right now. Ever since Xie Zheng said that sentence “Is this shit,” she weirdly no longer feared this man.

Her gaze circled around Xie Zheng and Lu Lu, initiatively saying, “You have to know that an Alpha’s reproductive cavity is not the same as an Omega’s—it does not exist for the purpose of reproduction. Its position is higher, and also narrower. A three or four-month infant is already considered a large gestational age for an A’s reproductive cavity.”

“To sum up—” The doctor said, “Ab*rtion poses extremely great harm to you. If the prenatal checkups have no problems, and there are no other problems either, you can consider keeping it.”

Xie Zheng: “…”

“Of course—” The doctor said, “It still depends on what you think.”

—

After coming out of the hospital, Xie Zheng directly had Lao Tian send him back home. 

He fell back onto the leather sofa, one hand resting on the back of the sofa. 

The other hand went into his pants pocket to feel for a cigarette.

Lu Lu leaned in and pressed down on Xie Zheng’s hand, and gently shook his head.

“Baby.” Xie Zheng was amused to laughter. “It won’t hurt to have just this one. I need to smoke a cigarette to organize my thoughts.”

Lu Lu hesitated for a moment. Although he still had a disapproving expression, he still let go of his hand.

Xie Zheng bit the cigarette butt, and picked up a paper notebook on the table. 

He drew a vertical line down the middle of the notebook, and wrote on the left side:

1. It will be known by people that I like As

2. It will hurt

3. I don’t like children, very troublesome

4. Harms the body

He stared at his own flamboyant handwriting¹Literally translates to “dragons flying and phoenixes dancing.” It’s a very common four-character idiom (chengyu) used to describe calligraphy or handwriting that is bold, lively, cursive, and sometimes a little messy due to its dynamic strokes., and wrote on the right side:

1. I can explain that this child was born for me by someone else, no one will doubt it

2. I am not afraid of pain

3. I don’t like Os, don’t want to get married, but I am not opposed to having a child

4. The doctor said aborting it also harms the body

Thinking for a moment, Xie Zheng added another line at the bottom:

5. The stupid deer’s genetics are very perfect

Xie Zheng’s gaze hovered over these two rows of words on the left and right. The right side almost perfectly refuted every disadvantage on the left side. A cigarette was smoked to its tail end. The scale in Xie Zheng’s heart had already tilted, and a smile appeared on his face.

Xie Zheng’s handwriting strokes were very sharp. Therefore, when the word count increased, it became a bit messy. Lu Lu stood at the side watching Xie Zheng write, identifying Xie Zheng’s handwriting with a bit of effort.

The second after he finished reading, Xie Zheng crumpled that piece of paper into a ball. He threw it into the trash can like shooting a basket and asked him, “Good Xiao Lu, you don’t mind being a father, do you?”

Lu Lu, carrying a bit of a smile, looked at Xie Zheng with some amazement. 

Even an Omega, when informed of having an unexpected child, would struggle intensely for a good few days. 

However, how many hours had just passed? Four? Five? Xie Zheng had already made his decision.

Xie Zheng seemed like he would never be lost, like a steel building on a cold winter day, tough and sturdy.

Lu Lu looked at Xie Zheng—just the thought of a part of himself gestating inside Xie Zheng’s body made his heart melt. He asked a somewhat stupid question that didn’t fit his persona, “Uncle Xie, will you regret your choice?”

Xie Zheng smiled. “Baby, don’t underestimate your husband too much.”

As a man so much older than Lu Lu, who had already been rolling and crawling in society for so many years, Xie Zheng considered things much more thoroughly than Lu Lu. 

He thought, once there was a child, there would be hidden risks. 

What if Lu Lu married someone else in the future? 

What if Lu Lu had a child with someone else? 

What if many years later, Lu Lu couldn’t have his own descendants?

He pulled Lu Lu to sit down next to him. “But baby, let’s put the ugly words upfront²A common Chinese phrase meaning to lay one’s cards on the table, speak bluntly, or establish the harsh/unpleasant rules right from the beginning so there are no misunderstandings later.. Although you are the nominal father of this child, it has to stay with me. You take a loss on this matter—I can give you a generous compensation fee every month, hmm? Think about it carefully?”

Xie Zheng intentionally wanted to explain these hidden risks one by one clearly to Lu Lu, but Lu Lu shook his head, interrupting Xie Zheng, “This is very good, really, Uncle Xie.”

Quite generous, actually.

At this time, Xie Zheng remembered the previous two-year agreement between Lu Lu and himself. 

Two years later, Lu Lu would welcome graduation and walk toward his own life. Perhaps he was just a springboard in Lu Lu’s life.

As Lu Lu’s boss, Xie Zheng suddenly became quickly irritated for a moment, and he reached out to forcefully flick Lu Lu’s forehead. 

Lu Lu let out an “ah,” covering his forehead and smiling brightly.

Since it was decided to keep this child, there were many things that needed attention. 

Lu Lu used Xie Zheng’s laptop to search for pregnancy precautions. Xie Zheng, sitting in an aggressive, wide-legged posture, leaned in together with him to look. It said no smoking and no drinking, raw or cold foods couldn’t be eaten either; even getting into bed was considered taboo—the force couldn’t be too great, let alone using dangerous positions.

Laying on the stomach and kneeling were both positions Xie Zheng liked very much. That time, he leisurely laid by the window watching the rain. Xie Zheng had certainly reminisced about it quite a bit these past few days. The Alpha hooked his lips, thinking, This is very difficult.

As Xie Zheng kept looking, he only felt bored, complaining, “This doesn’t let you do that, and doesn’t let you do this either.”

As he spoke, he reached out to touch the back of Lu Lu’s neck, looping the young Alpha’s soft hair around his fingers circle by circle to tangle it. Lu Lu’s gaze moved away from the computer screen to look at him. The two locked eyes for a while. Xie Zheng suddenly raised his hand to unbutton his dress shirt and took off his top.

He stood up, letting Lu Lu look at his flat and tight lower abdomen. “Is there a difference from before?”

Don’t pregnant women’s bellies all bulge up? Can a four-month belly still be this flat? 

Xie Zheng looked at his own abdominal muscles. Although he had already calmly accepted the fact of his pregnancy, he was still very incredulous.

Lu Lu: “It might be related to body constitution.”

He similarly felt it was magical. Beneath the honey-colored skin, there was actually a life—a life jointly conceived by him and Xie Zheng. 

Lu Lu leaned in, his lips gently kissing Xie Zheng’s lower abdomen.

Perhaps because the owner of the lips was the fetus’s nominal father, Xie Zheng felt his body suddenly become burning hot, as if someone had scattered a handful of tinder inside his body. 

Lu Lu naturally felt the change in Xie Zheng’s body. Looking up at Xie Zheng with a glance, he went to undo his belt.

“No, it’s completely not satisfying enough.” Xie Zheng was burning all over, panting lowly. He pulled Lu Lu up, coaxing him with a smile. “Didn’t it say it’s fine as long as we don’t use dangerous positions?”

Lu Lu: “…No.”

Xie Zheng bit his ear. “Husband, we already have a child—we’re not lacking this one time.”

It was Lu Lu’s first time hearing Xie Zheng’s voice sound so clingy and sweet. He was almost utterly routed³A military idiom meaning an army has been so thoroughly defeated that it no longer forms a cohesive unit. Here, it is used metaphorically to describe Lu Lu’s self-control completely collapsing under Xie Zheng’s sweet, uncharacteristic coaxing.; his heart felt like it was being wrung by someone’s hand, a little painful, and also very comfortable. It was an addictive suffocating feeling.

He really wanted to forcefully possess Xie Zheng—to see him shed physiological tears because of him, to see Xie Zheng become very comfortable, very comfortable because of him. Yet in the end, he still retained his rationality. 

He raised his hand to press on Xie Zheng’s lower abdomen, wanting to feel the existence of the other life inside.

Xie Zheng didn’t know what Lu Lu was thinking, only feeling that the place Lu Lu was pressing was very strange, at a position a bit below the chest area. Xie Zheng reacted for two seconds before remembering he knew this place. Just yesterday, the authoritative Dr. Zhang had held up his phone to personally teach him.

The reproductive cavity, an Alpha’s reproductive cavity.

Lu Lu was pressing there.

The pomelo-scented pheromones wrapped him up. Xie Zheng’s skin felt pain, a bizarre sensation surged up. Xie Zheng let out a trembling voice. “…Take your hand away! No, really no…”

Lu Lu, at this time, thought of the news he had searched for—an A and an A getting pregnant and having a child, the reporter using many exclamation marks in the headline, and also using the word “miracle.”

Miracles truly exist, it really happened. Xie Zheng really was going to keep the child of the two of them.

—

Xie Zheng’s Diary

[Twelve years ago]

Sleep, Mi Tuan

• 1
  Literally translates to “dragons flying and phoenixes dancing.” It’s a very common four-character idiom (chengyu) used to describe calligraphy or handwriting that is bold, lively, cursive, and sometimes a little messy due to its dynamic strokes.
• 2
  A common Chinese phrase meaning to lay one’s cards on the table, speak bluntly, or establish the harsh/unpleasant rules right from the beginning so there are no misunderstandings later.
• 3
  A military idiom meaning an army has been so thoroughly defeated that it no longer forms a cohesive unit. Here, it is used metaphorically to describe Lu Lu’s self-control completely collapsing under Xie Zheng’s sweet, uncharacteristic coaxing.