By the end of October, Zhao Danshi had been pregnant for over a month. The child in his belly was growing faster than an ordinary baby. Though he was thin, his stomach had begun to protrude slightly. If people did not look closely, they would probably assume he had put on a little belly fat.
Fortunately, the weather had turned colder, so it was not very noticeable beneath sweaters and coats.
After finishing his call with Ran Yuanyao, Zhao Danshi told his grandfather that he was going to visit that nonexistent girl.
"You should." The old man was quite pleased and prepared another box of local specialties for him. "Take some things over for that girl to build up her health."
Zhao Danshi did not want to carry such heavy luggage around and said helplessly, "We just mailed them a batch not long ago. How could she possibly eat that much?"
"She can. Pregnancy is when she most needs nourishment. This little bit is not much." The old man stubbornly stuffed the things into his hands. "Besides, if she cannot finish them, it is fine. Just leave them there and eat them after the baby is born. These things will not spoil anytime soon."
Helpless, Zhao Danshi could only mail them to Ran Yuanyao using the address he had given him.
He was feeling somewhat better now. His morning sickness had mostly faded, so for convenience, he specifically bought a sleeper berth on the train, planning to sleep all the way to W City.
Perhaps because he had been eating more lately, his face had filled out a little. Still, his complexion was pale and his lips were a light pink, making him look rather unhealthy.
Zhao Danshi had specifically told Ran Yuanyao not to pick him up, but on the day he arrived, Ran Yuanyao still took leave and waited at the station exit. Only when Zhao Danshi's train was about to arrive did Ran Yuanyao message him on WeChat, telling him to meet up at the exit so he would not walk past it.
The two had not seen each other for more than five years. The moment they met, both their gazes carried a sense of wistfulness.
Ran Yuanyao stepped forward and lightly patted his arm. "Come on. I'll take you to eat first. What do you want?"
"Something sour and spicy?" Zhao Danshi felt deeply embarrassed. "Lately, I've really liked sour and spicy dishes."
"Then let's have Yunnan cuisine." Ran Yuanyao led him to one side. "The car's over there."
Zhao Danshi carried his backpack and walked beside him, turning his head to secretly study him. More than five years had passed, yet Ran Yuanyao was still fair, thin, refined, and handsome.
Ran Yuanyao turned his head, and Zhao Danshi was caught off guard as their eyes met.
Ran Yuanyao smiled at Zhao Danshi, his voice gentle. "How have you been these past few years?"
"Could be better, could be worse. I haven't run into any particular difficulties."
Ran Yuanyao's gaze swept over his unusually thick clothes and slightly protruding belly. He asked with concern, "Are you sick?"
"No." Zhao Danshi pursed his lips and said quietly, "I'm pregnant."
Ran Yuanyao's smile froze. "What?"
Zhao Danshi shook his head, retreating like a coward and shaking it frantically. "No, it's nothing."
Ran Yuanyao stopped walking, his gaze turning sharp. "Come with me. We'll talk in the car."
Once they were back in the car, Ran Yuanyao did not start it. Looking at Zhao Danshi in the passenger seat, he pressed, "What exactly is going on? Are you intersex?"
Some intersex men had two sets of reproductive organs. If they developed properly, they could also have children, though they might have been raised as boys from childhood and have male listed on their ID cards.
Zhao Danshi shook his head, his embarrassment practically exploding. "No, I'm just an ordinary man. This has to start with something else. Can I tell you when we get back tonight?"
Seeing the tips of his ears redden, Ran Yuanyao paused, restarted the car, and took him to the highest-rated Yunnan restaurant on a certain ranking list.
At the restaurant, Zhao Danshi's appetite made Ran Yuanyao glance at him several times. When they were young, he had eaten only one or two bowls of rice per meal and had often been told by his family that he ate like a cat. He had always been thin, but now his appetite was quite good.
Meeting Ran Yuanyao's gaze, another blush rose on Zhao Danshi's fair face. He forced himself to remain calm. "I get hungry easily these days. I'll probably need to eat something again later."
After dinner, Ran Yuanyao drove Zhao Danshi home, deliberately making a detour to the supermarket to buy a pile of snacks.
Zhao Danshi gripped his seat belt and asked, "Don't you have work today?"
Ran Yuanyao glanced at him. "I took personal leave."
When they got home, Ran Yuanyao took his luggage and carried it into the guest room.
The two sat on the living room sofa. After pouring him a glass of water, Ran Yuanyao asked, "What exactly happened? You can tell me now, right?"
Zhao Danshi hesitated. He very much wanted to tell him the whole story, but before doing so, he asked Watcher about it.
Watcher said in his mind, "Your friend cares deeply about you. The possibility of him leaking the secret is extremely low."
Zhao Danshi rubbed his nose and spilled everything, from Watcher to his hookup with Li Ping, like pouring beans from a bamboo tube. At the end, he summed up, "Actually, it was just an unfortunate coincidence. If I'd known beforehand, I definitely would not have had this child."
Ran Yuanyao was utterly speechless. His sharp gaze seemed ready to flay him alive. "Are you brainless? Did you know what kind of person your senior was? Did you know whether he was healthy? And you still dared to hook up with him?! You hooked up without using protection?!!!"
Zhao Danshi instinctively retorted, "I used it at first!"
The moment the words left his mouth, his face reddened all the way down his neck. Staring at the floor, he did not dare say another word.
Ran Yuanyao motioned for him to stand. "Go to the room. I'll examine you and see what is going on."
Once they entered the room, Ran Yuanyao turned on the air conditioner, raised the temperature, and gestured for him to take off his coat.
It was Zhao Danshi's first time showing his stomach to someone else. He clutched at his clothes, feeling extremely uncomfortable.
Ran Yuanyao reached out to touch him and immediately felt the tiny life inside gently moving beneath his palm, as though it sensed his hand and was quietly playing with him. His heart could not help sinking.
Before touching Zhao Danshi's stomach, he had entertained many possibilities. Perhaps Zhao Danshi was under too much pressure and had developed mental problems, or perhaps another illness had caused fluid to accumulate in his abdomen. He had never expected that Zhao Danshi was truly pregnant, and as a man at that.
Ran Yuanyao sighed, pulled his clothes back down, tucked the blanket around him, and asked, "Have you had any checkups since you got pregnant?"
Zhao Danshi shook his head and said softly, "No. There really weren't any conditions for it, but Watcher said there was no problem."
Ran Yuanyao was furious at his foolishness. "He said there was no problem, so you think there's no problem?! If something is wrong when the baby is born, who are you going to turn to? You conceived while drunk, and you usually don't take proper precautions. What if something happens?!"
Zhao Danshi was scolded into silence. Watcher quietly defended itself in his mind, "There will not be a problem. The gestational sac itself has screening and examination functions. If there had been a problem, this pregnancy would not have succeeded at all."
Ran Yuanyao said helplessly, "Tomorrow, I'll draw a few tubes of blood and send them to our hospital for testing. I'll also ask around and see if I can quietly arrange an ultrasound for you. We can slowly figure out the rest afterward. Right now, the most important thing is to determine how to get this child out."
Zhao Danshi asked quietly, "Is it very troublesome?"
Ran Yuanyao glared at him. "Troublesome or not, we have to do it! If we don't remove it, such a large foreign object in your abdomen could cause an abdominal infection. When that happens, your life could be in danger."
Zhao Danshi felt utterly uneasy.
Ran Yuanyao said, "First, I'll examine the gestational sac and see what exactly is going on. I'll do my best to keep this confidential. If it really doesn't work, I'll have to ask my mentor for help. Compared to anything else, your life is far more important."
At that, Ran Yuanyao sighed. "You really trust me. You even told me such a huge secret."
Zhao Danshi replied, "If I can't even trust you, then there's no one else worth trusting while I'm alive. Life would be meaningless."
Ran Yuanyao froze, and his eyes softened.
Ran Yuanyao tucked the blanket around him. "You've been tired all day. Go to sleep early. I'll bring the snacks into your room. If you get hungry, get up and eat some tonight. I'll be in the room next door, so call me right away if anything happens."
Zhao Danshi really was tired. Within minutes of resting his head on the pillow, he sank into a deep sleep.
It was Ran Yuanyao's first time encountering something like this, and he was scared out of his wits. He could not sleep at all, so after returning to his room, he opened his computer and read papers for two hours.
He had rotated through obstetrics and gynecology before, so he should have had relevant experience. However, performing surgery at home was far too difficult. One mistake, and both Zhao Danshi and the child in his belly could lose their lives.
And time was so tight that there was no room for him to think things through slowly.
Ran Yuanyao sighed and plunged back into the sea of knowledge.
The next day, Zhao Danshi had several tubes of blood drawn in a row, and samples of his urine and stool were also collected for Ran Yuanyao to secretly take in for testing.
Pregnant as he was, he had no desire to go out at all. He stayed at Ran Yuanyao's home, eating, sleeping, then eating again. Every day, he spent more than two hours reading, studying both design-related books and agricultural books.
Ran Yuanyao could not stand it any longer. In the evening, he made him go for a walk. "In your condition, you need more exercise to improve your physical fitness."
Zhao Danshi sighed. "I was fine a while ago. I only had morning sickness. But lately, I'm always sleepy. Ever since I got pregnant, I haven't been normal at all."
Ran Yuanyao glanced at him, growing angry at the mention of it. "Men getting pregnant isn't normal to begin with."
Seeing that he was about to be scolded again, Zhao Danshi quickly shrank his neck.
Ran Yuanyao sighed. "Stay here with me for the time being. Don't go back yet. Call the old man and let him know."
Zhao Danshi disagreed. "There's no need. You have work to do, and it's inconvenient for you if I stay here. Besides, there are still more than two months until the due date. There's plenty of time."
Ran Yuanyao snorted. "I've never seen a man carrying a child. If you go back to the countryside and something happens, what then? Would you not even be able to find a doctor to save your life? Stay here obediently. You don't need to think about anything else."
Zhao Danshi rubbed his nose, feeling troubled. His family had just planted a batch of vegetables, and he had rushed over here without having time to explain many things to his grandfather. If he stayed here, how could he rest easy leaving so much work to his eighty-two-year-old grandfather?
"How about I go back after the checkup, take care of things there, and then come back? There's still quite a lot to do at home, and my grandfather is already eighty-two. It's not good to put so much burden on him."
Ran Yuanyao still frowned, but this time he did not immediately refuse. He only said, "Let's wait until after the tests."
Author's Note:
Ran Yuanyao: Having such a foolish childhood friend is exhausting. ╮(╯＿╰)╭
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