Blacklisted

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

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

What the hell kind of gift?!

Zhao Danshi nearly turned to stone. "You mean I'm pregnant? Pregnant with an actual baby inside my belly? Who's the child's father?"

Watcher suspected he had been stunned silly by the surprise. "Of course it's yours. Who else's could it be?"

"Who's the baby's other father?" Zhao Danshi's heart pounded wildly. "It can't be Senior Li Ping, can it?"

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

Fuck! Zhao Danshi's inner rant practically spilled out of his throat. He had only had a one-night stand, yet as a man, he had somehow gotten pregnant?!

"This isn't scientific." He murmured, his face pale.

"This is very scientific!" Watcher retorted earnestly. "Scientists spent nearly thirty years conducting extensive experiments and clinical trials before finally developing the Gestation Sac for male pregnancy."

To hell with science! Zhao Danshi could hardly imagine himself someday, belly swollen, going to find Li Ping and saying, Senior, sorry, I'm carrying our child. Let's figure out how to deal with this problem.

This was utterly insane. Insane enough to kill someone, all right?

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

Zhao Danshi clutched his hair and only 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 through the child?

After learning the news, Zhao Danshi spent the entire afternoon at home trying to process it, but still could not.

Watcher was baffled. "When I first met you, didn't you say your greatest wish was to have babies with your idol?"

Following its words, Zhao Danshi searched his memories. After thinking for a long time, he finally remembered that a female colleague had once shared an image on Moments, saying it was some kind of super lucky koi that could grant any wish.

He had scoffed at it and casually joked that he wanted to have babies with his idol too.

Another bolt from the blue struck Zhao Danshi. "There isn't actually a monkey in my belly, is there?!"

"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 so much." Zhao Danshi was utterly drained. He sincerely suggested, "You should deepen your understanding of humans a little more. For example, what many people shout about isn't necessarily what they truly think."

"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 a word.

Watcher explained, "I happened to have a Gestation 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. Once I learned that you wished to have a child, I gave the Gestation Sac to you."

"The Gestation Sac is extremely powerful. It selects the best genes from both sides to pass on." Seeing that he truly was not very happy, Watcher added seriously, "This type of Gestation Sac is very expensive in my store. One costs a hundred million points. Converted into bio-energy, it takes a hundred million units of bio-energy to exchange for one Gestation Sac."

Zhao Danshi weakly replied, "Well, thank you so 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 life, 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 Gestation Sac completely simulates the environment in which a baby grows. It is currently connected to your small intestine. When the baby reaches full term, the Gestation Sac will release certain factors to make you feel pain. Then you only need to go to the hospital and have it removed."

Sensing Zhao Danshi's nervousness, Watcher awkwardly comforted him. "This surgery isn't difficult. I heard it's much simpler than an appendectomy. 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 before giving birth, right?"

"Theoretically, yes. But if you truly don't want to, you can remove it early through surgery 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 get pregnant, their bellies do not become particularly large. Especially if you control your figure well, even at 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 did my stomach suddenly get so big?"

"Oh, and one more thing. Children conceived using a Gestation Sac have a relatively short gestation period. They can be born in around five months."

Zhao Danshi nodded blankly. More than a month had already passed since his one-night stand with Li Ping. That meant he could give birth in another three months.

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 went to sleep still tangled in indecision.

Early the next morning, the old man got up and cooked porridge for him. When he saw Zhao Danshi emerge fully dressed, still looking somewhat pale, concern appeared on his face. "How are you feeling? Did you catch a cold? Do you want to go to the clinic?"

Zhao Danshi blankly shook his head. "No need. I've already taken medicine. I'm feeling a little better than yesterday."

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

As Zhao Danshi drank the porridge with some pickled vegetables, he did not feel nauseous. His stomach was like a bottomless pit. He ate five bowls in one sitting and was still not full.

The old man could not stand it any longer and snatched the bowl from his hand. "Even if you're starving, you can't eat like this. Keep it up and you'll ruin your stomach sooner or later. Rest for now. Have more in two hours."

Zhao Danshi gave a sound of agreement, then suddenly said, "Grandpa, maybe we should plant fewer vegetables."

The old man looked up. "Hm? The vegetables have already been planted. Why did you suddenly change your mind?"

"I learned something yesterday. I might have to go somewhere else for a while soon, and I won't have time to take care of these vegetables."

The old man 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 tend the vegetables. I can just keep an eye on things. What's going on with you that you need to handle personally? How long will you be gone?"

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

The old man was thoroughly confused. "What do you mean? How did you suddenly get a child?"

"I mean exactly that. I might have a biological child. My... partner might not want the child, so I'll probably have to raise him."

The old man immediately set 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 made a child while we were confused." Zhao Danshi covered his face, unwilling to say more. "Anyway, that's what happened. I might have a child, and I'll have to raise him."

The old man gave a broad wave of his hand. "Having a child is a good thing! A new addition to the family brings joy! If the girl doesn't want to raise the child, bring him back. The Zhao family certainly won't mistreat a child."

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

After about another week, the old man could not help urging him. "It's not easy for a girl to be pregnant. Why haven't you gone to look after her? Even if you didn't mean for this to happen, it was still your mess. You have to take responsibility."

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

The old man deeply disapproved of this behavior. "How can this wait?! A pregnant woman finds everything inconvenient, and she has prenatal checkups to attend and all that. You're a grown man contributing nothing, and when the time comes, you just want to bring home a fat, healthy baby?"

As a single man, Zhao Danshi truly did not know much about the process of pregnancy. He had never considered that pregnancy required prenatal checkups.

Hearing the old man's words, he touched his stomach, his expression stiffening. He still did not know how the child would be removed. How was he supposed to go for prenatal checkups?

After learning he would have a future great-grandchild, the old man bought plenty of free-range eggs and honey from the village, all nourishing foods. He told Zhao Danshi, "Hurry and go see that girl. Bring these supplements with you. A pregnant woman needs proper nourishment."

Seeing that the old man was practically about to decide he was a scumbag, Zhao Danshi helplessly pretended to make a phone call. When he returned, he told the old man that the girl did not want to see him.

The old man stamped his feet and told Zhao Danshi that if he was not going, then he should hurry and mail those supplements to her so she would not be shortchanged.

Zhao Danshi had no choice but to send the things separately to several friends. He had lived alone away from home for years, and those friends had taken good care of him.

Zhao Danshi still needed to think carefully about how to give birth to the child. Rushing recklessly into a small clinic was definitely not an option. Leaving aside whether those small clinics were technically reliable, if the clinic could not be trusted 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 a while.

He procrastinated, thinking every day about how to explain it to his friend. Then, just as he was struggling with this, Li Ping actually called him!

If he had received this call before getting pregnant, Zhao Danshi did not know how happy he would have been. Now, the icon on his screen looked no different from a ticking bomb.

He stared at the phone in terror, unable to decide whether to answer. Next door, the old man heard the ringing continue and shouted, "Yun Yun, your phone is ringing!"

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

Looking at the disconnected call, he gritted his teeth and simply went all the way, blocking the number completely. Blocking the number was not enough; he even deleted Li Ping from WeChat.

Right now, 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. I should bring him home and eat him.