"It looks like your second brother married quite a formidable woman." Bai Le patted him on the shoulder and sighed softly.
"A woman?" Wu Hua raised his voice in surprise, then glanced around as if realizing something. Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, he lowered his voice again. "Who told you it was a woman? My brother married a man."
Bai Le's heart trembled with fright at his words. He could hardly believe his ears, and his face changed drastically. "What did you say?"
Wu Hua looked at him in bewilderment. "A man. It's rare, sure, but you don't have to be that surprised, do you?"
He thought Bai Le's reaction was strange and couldn't make sense of it.
The others at the table noticed the commotion, and Wu Hua's mother scolded him.
"What nonsense are you making? Have you no manners?"
Wu Hua had no choice but to shut up. His mother had always been strict about manners, but somehow she had raised her three sons to be like this.
Bai Le was still caught up in what he had just heard and hadn't come to his senses at all. His mind was a mess, and the worldview he had held since childhood had been shaken to its core.
Sitting at the head of the table, Xi Yan caught sight of Bai Le's expression and frowned slightly.
He hadn't heard Bai Le and Wu Hua's conversation, nor did he know what Bai Le had heard that had shaken him so badly.
"The newlyweds are here."
Bai Le didn't know which guest had spoken, but the words brought him back to his senses a little. As if grasping at a lifeline, he craned his neck to look, full of hope.
When he saw two men in suits and dress shoes appear together, the last hope in his eyes shattered.
He forced himself to take a closer look. The shorter boy was quite delicate-looking, even young, with a face that had yet to shed its childishness. Even though he was wearing a suit deliberately chosen a size too large, his slightly rounded belly was still visible.
Bai Le shot to his feet with a bang, accidentally spilling the wine on the table and drawing gasps from everyone.
Xi Yan's gaze fell on his face as well.
Bai Le's lips trembled slightly as he forced a smile at them.
"Sorry, I got too excited because I saw someone I know."
No one thought much of it and they all looked away.
Bai Le was so agitated not just because he had seen the man with the big belly, but because he had remembered something his younger sister had said to him.
"Bro, how come you've got a little belly?"
Those words played over and over in his mind. Bai Le lowered his head to look at his slightly rounded belly and reached out to touch it with a trembling hand.
It can't be what I'm thinking, can it?
Author's note: Lele is having a meltdown, 2333. Thanks to the little angels who sent me premium tickets or irrigated me with nutrient solution between 2020-02-17 00:56:36 and 2020-02-17 23:14:32~
Thanks to the little angel who irrigated me with nutrient solution: Cha Juan Weiliang, 1 bottle;
Thank you all so much for your support. I'll keep working hard!
Chapter 18
"What are you looking at?"
Wu Hua's voice pulled him out of his thoughts. Bai Le turned stiffly to look at him, his face ashen, and said in a trembling voice, "A man..."
"Yeah," Wu Hua said matter-of-factly.
After a pause, he realized what was going on and slapped his forehead in sudden understanding.
"Have you never seen a pregnant man? I haven't seen many either, but they really do exist."
In this world, whether it was a man and a woman, two men, or two women, they could all get married. Most people still chose to marry someone of the opposite sex, however, because homosexuals made up a much smaller proportion of the population than heterosexuals.
Among men, there was an extremely small chance of getting pregnant if they slept with someone of the same sex. The odds were so vanishingly low, though, that some people might go their entire lives without seeing it happen.
Bai Le's mind was in chaos, and Wu Hua kept talking to him. He forced himself to give a few perfunctory responses.
The two grooms had reached the center by then, and the flower child handed a ring to one of them. The ceremony was reaching its climax.
Everyone watched the newlyweds with smiles on their faces. Only Bai Le's face was deathly pale. He didn't know what kind of world he had come to, and when he thought back on his unusual behavior over the past few weeks, along with that night, the more he thought about it, the more frightened he became.
Only a remaining shred of rationality kept him steady. What if he was just overthinking it? But whenever he thought that, Xi Yan's face refused to leave his mind, and Bai Le grew even paler.
He couldn't help stealing a glance at Xi Yan at the head of the table, only for their eyes to meet unexpectedly.
Bai Le panicked and looked away, somewhat at a loss, his expression tense.
Seeing him like that, Xi Yan couldn't help frowning.
Throughout the meal, Bai Le had no mind to eat. He kept cycling between suspicion and denial, his face turning pale and then ashen.
He had had a poor appetite to begin with, and he didn't touch any of the dishes on the table.
Wu Hua noticed and asked with concern, "Lele, what's wrong?"
Bai Le shook his head, his face pale, and absentmindedly poked at the rice in his bowl with his chopsticks.
When the newlyweds came around to Bai Le's table to offer toasts, both grooms first respectfully toasted Xi Yan, who was seated in his wheelchair.
"Haha, thank you for honoring me with your presence at my wedding, Fourth Master." Wu Hua's second brother wore a flattering smile.
None of them had expected Xi Yan to actually appear here, and they had been shocked when they heard the news.
The delicate-looking boy, meanwhile, was a little shy and didn't know how much wine to pour into Xi Yan's glass. Unable to decide, he looked around, hoping to find some clue in the others' expressions.
Seeing this, Wu Hua smoothed things over. "Fourth Master isn't in good health, so there's no need to pour him any wine."
Xi Yan shook his head. "There's no need," he said coolly.
With that, he reached out and picked up the wineglass on the table. The boy caught on and hurriedly filled it for him, but when it was halfway full, Wu Hua's second brother deliberately coughed, and he stopped immediately.
"Fourth Master, please."
Behind him, Secretary Xing looked worried. He was concerned about Xi Yan's health, but he also knew he had no standing to stop him. Whatever Xi Yan did, he always had his own ideas.