The townspeople were a little disappointed that the baby wasn't intersex, but they still smiled and congratulated the mayor. After all, a new life had been born.
"If a baby isn't intersex at birth, then even if they're born with both sets of organs, they usually don't live very long, and it's difficult for them to have children." A Hai sounded regretful.
He meant that a person needed to have both sets of reproductive organs, internal and external, to be truly "intersex." Those who didn't fully meet that definition were still divided into men and women.
"Are there a lot of intersex people in your Sub-district?" Xu Huo asked.
"Of course," A Hai said. "The Saintesses of the Goddess Cult are all intersex. It's a special ability the Goddess bestowed upon us."
Then he gave Xu Huo a brief lesson on how their country had come to be.
The story began with a touch of mythology. In broad strokes, their country had suffered a near-extinction-level catastrophe. Its population had plummeted, and every member of one gender had been wiped out. The country's future seemed all too clear. Then, a Survivor encountered the Goddess. Carrying the hopes of the nation and hatred for its enemies, the Survivor made a wish: that he and his descendants might both continue their bloodline and gain the strength to protect their country.
So the Goddess granted the Survivor a man's physical strength and a woman's ability to bear children—and the first intersex person was born.
From then on, most of the descendants born in the country were intersex. Of course, not all of them fully met the requirements to be considered "intersex." Most were incomplete, lacking a full reproductive system, so the country still had men and women. Those who were truly "intersex" had a