Blocked

Zhao Danshi waited for Watcher's explanation with a livid expression.

Watcher remained perfectly calm. "Your gender is indeed male, but you really are pregnant. You can get pregnant because I gave you a gift."

What kind of bullshit gift was that?!

Zhao Danshi nearly turned to stone. "You mean I'm pregnant, pregnant with a little baby in my belly? Who's the child's other parent?"

Watcher suspected he was overwhelmed with joy. "Of course it's yours. Whose else could it be?"

"Who's the child's other dad?" Zhao Danshi's heart pounded frantically. "It couldn't be Senior Brother Li Ping, could it?"

"I don't know," Watcher reminded him. "That day was censored."

Fuck! Zhao Danshi's inner rant nearly burst out of his throat. He had only had a one-night stand, yet as a man, he had somehow ended up with a child?!

"This isn't scientific." He muttered, pale-faced.

"This is very scientific!" Watcher rebutted seriously. "Scientists spent nearly thirty years conducting extensive experiments and clinical trials before finally developing a gestational sac that allows men to bear children together."

To hell with science! Zhao Danshi simply could not imagine himself one day showing up before Li Ping with a huge belly and saying, Senior Brother, sorry, I'm carrying our child. Let's discuss how to solve this problem.

This was beyond absurd. Absurd enough to kill someone, okay?

Watcher finally sensed that something was wrong and hesitated. "Aren't you happy?"

Zhao Danshi clutched his hair and just wanted some peace and quiet.

What was there to be happy about? Should he celebrate finally having a child as a man? Or celebrate being able to latch onto his senior brother through the child?

After learning the news, Zhao Danshi spent the entire afternoon recovering at home, yet still could not come to terms with it.

Watcher was deeply puzzled. "When I first met you, didn't you say your greatest wish was to have children for your idol?"

Following its words, Zhao Danshi thought back for ages before remembering that a female colleague had once shared a picture on her social media feed, talking about some kind of super lucky koi that could grant any wish.

He had scoffed at it and casually joked that he wanted to have children for his idol.

Another bolt from the blue struck Zhao Danshi. "The thing in my belly isn't really a monkey, is it?!"

"Of course not. As an intelligent entity, I can understand what you humans mean when you say you want to have monkeys."

"Well, thank you very much for that." Zhao Danshi sounded weak as he sincerely suggested, "You could deepen your understanding of humans a little more. For example, what many people shout and what they truly think are not necessarily the same thing."

"Oh." The system paused for a long while before asking, "Do you still want this child?"

Zhao Danshi fell silent. He touched his stomach without saying anything.

Watcher explained, "I happened to have a gestational sac with me at the time. I hadn't found a host in a long time, and it would have expired if I kept it any longer. After learning that you wished to have a child, I gave the gestational sac to you."

"The gestational sac is very powerful. It selects the best genes from both parents to pass down." Seeing that he truly was not very happy, Watcher said earnestly, "This kind of gestational sac is very expensive in my Marketplace. One costs a hundred million points. In terms of Bio-Energy, you would need a hundred million Bio-Energy to exchange for one."

Zhao Danshi replied listlessly, "Well, thank you very much."

"You're welcome." Watcher asked again, "Do you still want this child?"

Zhao Danshi was silent for a long time before saying, "Let me think about it."

He actually liked children quite a lot. But as a gay man, unless he used surrogacy, he would never have a child of his own in this lifetime, much less one with the person he loved.

He asked, "How will the child come out when the time comes? Will I have pregnancy symptoms?"

"The gestational sac completely simulates a baby's natural growth environment. It is currently connected to your small intestine. Once the baby reaches full term, the gestational sac will release certain factors to make you feel pain. Then you only need to go to a hospital and have it removed."

Sensing Zhao Danshi's nervousness, Watcher awkwardly comforted him. "This procedure isn't difficult. I hear it's much simpler than appendix surgery. You should even be able to give birth at a small clinic."

Zhao Danshi understood. "So I'll carry the child like a pregnant woman until it reaches full term, then give birth, right?"

"That is true in theory. But if you truly don't want to, you can remove it early by cesarean section and let the baby continue growing in an appropriate medical environment." Watcher persuaded him, "Actually, the timing of your pregnancy is very good. When men are pregnant, their bellies do not become especially large. If you manage your figure well, even when you're full term, it won't be too obvious under thick clothing."

Zhao Danshi touched his stomach and said softly, "No matter how unobvious it is, people will still find it strange. How could my belly suddenly get so big?"

"Oh, and one more thing. Children conceived using a gestational sac have a relatively short development period. They can be born after about five months."

Zhao Danshi nodded blankly. It had already been over a month since his one-night stand with Li Ping. In other words, in another three months, he could give birth to the child.

It was already October. His pregnancy would last until February next year, when the weather would still be cold. If he disguised it well, perhaps no one would know from beginning to end that he had given birth to a child.

That night, Zhao Danshi still went to sleep tangled in indecision.

Early the next morning, Grandpa got up to cook porridge for him. When he saw Zhao Danshi come out dressed, his face still somewhat pale, concern immediately showed on his face. "How are you feeling? Do you have a cold? Should we go to the village clinic and have you checked?"

Zhao Danshi shook his head blankly. "No need. I already took medicine. I feel a little better than yesterday."

"Then why do you still look like that? Come on, drink a bowl of porridge first."

As Zhao Danshi drank the porridge with some side dishes, he no longer felt nauseated. His stomach seemed like a bottomless pit. He ate five bowls of porridge in one meal and still was not full.

Grandpa could not stand it any longer and snatched the bowl from his hands. "Even if you're starving, you can't eat like this. Keep it up and you'll ruin your stomach sooner or later. Take a breather first, then have more in two hours."

Zhao Danshi responded, then suddenly said, "Grandpa, maybe we should plant fewer vegetables after all."

Grandpa looked up. "Hm? The vegetables have all been planted. Why did you suddenly change your mind again?"

"Yesterday, I learned something. I may need to go out of town after a while, and I won't have time to take care of these vegetables."

Grandpa waved a hand generously. "It's fine. Everyone will be back for the New Year. If it's inconvenient for you, I'll hire someone to look after the vegetables. I can just keep an eye on things then. What's going on with you that you need to handle yourself? How long will you be gone?"

Zhao Danshi's expression was complicated. "Grandpa, I might have a child."

Grandpa's face was full of confusion. "What do you mean? How did you suddenly get a child?"

"I mean exactly that. I may have a biological child. My... partner may not want the child, so I might have to raise them."

The moment Grandpa heard this, he hurriedly put down his chopsticks and pressed, "What's going on with your partner? Don't you like men? How did you get a girl pregnant?"

"We got drunk. We somehow ended up making a child." Zhao Danshi covered his face, unwilling to say more. "Anyway, that's how it is. I might have a child, and I'll have to raise them when the time comes."

Grandpa waved his hand. "Having a child is a good thing! A new member of the family brings good fortune! If the girl doesn't want to raise the child, bring them home. Our Zhao family won't let any child suffer."

Though he said that, for the next day or two, the atmosphere at home was strange. Neither grandfather nor grandson knew what to say.

About another week passed before Grandpa could not help urging him, "It isn't easy for a girl to be pregnant. Why aren't you going to take care of her? Even if you didn't mean for this to happen, it was still your doing. You have to take responsibility."

Like an ostrich, Zhao Danshi did not want to face the matter. "Give me another week. I'll deal with it in another week."

Grandpa greatly disapproved of this behavior. "Hey, how can this wait?! It's inconvenient for a pregnant girl in every way. She also has to go for prenatal checkups and such. You, a grown man, contribute nothing, and then you just want to bring back a chubby baby?"

As a single man, Zhao Danshi truly was unfamiliar with the process of pregnancy. He had never considered that pregnancy also required prenatal checkups.

Hearing Grandpa say that, he touched his stomach, his expression stiffening somewhat. He did not even know how he would get the child out when the time came. How was he supposed to go for prenatal checkups?

After learning that he would have a future great-grandchild, Grandpa bought quite a few free-range eggs and jars of honey from the village, all nourishing foods. He told Zhao Danshi, "Hurry up and go see that girl. Take these supplements with you. She needs to nourish herself properly during pregnancy."

Seeing that Grandpa was practically starting to think he was a scumbag, Zhao Danshi had no choice but to pretend to make a phone call. When he came back, he told Grandpa that the girl did not want to see him.

Grandpa stomped his feet and told Zhao Danshi that if he was not going, he should hurry and mail those supplements to her so she would not be shortchanged.

Zhao Danshi could only mail the things separately to several friends. He had been living alone away from home all these years and had received plenty of care from those friends.

Zhao Danshi still needed to slowly figure out how to give birth to this child. Rushing recklessly to a small clinic was definitely not an option. Setting aside whether those small clinics were technically reliable, if the clinic proved untrustworthy and news of him giving birth got out, endless trouble would await him.

After thinking for a long time, he finally decided to call a childhood friend he had not contacted in quite some time.

He dawdled every day, considering how to tell his friend, when Li Ping actually called him!

If he had received this call before becoming pregnant, Zhao Danshi did not know how happy he would have been. Now, seeing that name on the screen was about the same as looking at a ticking time bomb.

He stared at the ringing phone with his heart in his throat, unable to decide whether to answer. Hearing the ringtone going on and on, Grandpa next door raised his voice and called, "Yun Yun, your phone is ringing!"

"Oh!" Zhao Danshi's hand trembled, but in the end, he still did not have the courage to answer the call.

Looking at the call that had already ended, he gritted his teeth and simply went all the way, blocking the number completely. Blocking the phone number was not enough—he also went on WeChat and deleted Li Ping.

At the moment, he did not dare let Li Ping know in the slightest that he was pregnant.

Author's Note:

Li Ping: Ah, Zhao Danshi is pregnant. Bring him home and eat him.