Phone

On Friday, Li Ping did not go on the blind date. He had not returned to the old house at all. After work, he drove overnight toward Zhao Danshi's hometown.

He wanted to see what exactly was going on with Zhao Danshi. Without saying a word to anyone, he went there alone.

He drove until midnight, found a hotel, and rested for the night. He planned to get to Zhao Danshi's home early the next day.

Before leaving, Li Ping specifically asked Wei Borong for Zhao Danshi's home address and told him not to mention it to Zhao Danshi yet.

Wei Borong was quite worried about the situation between the two of them, but he also hoped they could take this opportunity to move forward. So he agreed.

Neither Li Ping nor Wei Borong knew that Zhao Danshi had gone to W City for a prenatal checkup and had not returned to the countryside. Only the old man was at his hometown.

The next day, Li Ping followed the address Wei Borong had given him, asking for directions all the way. After much effort, he found their little mountain village. But when he stopped someone to ask, no one had heard of a Zhao Danshi in the village.

Patiently, Li Ping described him. "Has anyone around twenty-three or twenty-four, about six feet tall, and very handsome returned to the village recently?"

The villager suddenly understood. "You mean Yun Yun from Manzigong's family? He's the best-looking one in our village, like a celebrity."

Li Ping truly had not known Zhao Danshi had such an adorable nickname. He nodded. "Maybe. Where is his home?"

The villager pointed ahead and enthusiastically said in Mandarin colored by his local accent, "Drive straight down that little road. At the very end, you'll see a large courtyard. That's his house. If you're not sure, just ask again when you get there."

"Okay, thank you."

"Oh, don't mention it. You're his friend?"

Li Ping had been about to leave, but that question stopped him. He simply parked and chatted with the man instead. "We were university classmates. I'm here on business, so I came by to see him. I heard he has a girlfriend and is about to get married?"

The villager looked surprised. "No, I don't think so? He came back alone. I haven't heard anything about a girlfriend. But we don't know much about young people's business."

Li Ping immediately relaxed considerably. He smiled. "Thank you. I thought he had a girlfriend, so I came to ask when I could drink at his wedding."

After saying goodbye to the villager, Li Ping drove down the little road.

Zhao Danshi's home was easy to find. There was only one small courtyard at the end of the road. Li Ping parked and went over to knock on the door. A dog began barking inside, followed by an elderly voice asking, "Who is it?"

"Hello, I'm Zhao Danshi's friend. Does he live here?"

The old man came out and opened the door. Seeing that Li Ping was neatly dressed, he warmly ushered him inside. "You're Yun Yun's friend? Come in and sit. He's gone away. What do you need him for?"

"It's nothing important. I was passing through on a business trip, so I stopped by to see him." Li Ping followed the old man across the courtyard and into the living room, looking around as he went.

The courtyard looked rather old, but it was kept very clean and had a leisurely, peaceful charm.

"Have some sunflower seeds." The old man pushed over a fruit plate, then found a disposable cup and poured him some hot tea. "What bad timing. Yun Yun hasn't been home lately. Sorry you came all this way for nothing."

"Thank you, Grandpa." Li Ping accepted the tea with both hands. "Didn't Yun Yun say he was coming home to grow vegetables? Why did he go somewhere else?"

Seeing that Li Ping knew about Zhao Danshi's situation, the old man did not become suspicious. He cheerfully said, "His girlfriend is about to have a baby, so he went to look after her."

Li Ping's hand holding the cup trembled. Most of the water sloshed out and spilled all over his thigh.

"Oh!" The old man hurriedly brought over tissues to wipe him down. "How is it? Did you get burned? I'll go find a pair of pants in Yun Yun's room for you to change into."

"No." Li Ping's heart clenched. He took a deep breath and barely steadied himself. "Grandpa, since he isn't home, I'll come visit you another day. Sorry for troubling you."

As Li Ping spoke, he rose to his feet. All he could think about was Zhao Danshi's concealment and deception.

The old man stood up as well and tried to keep him there. "It's already noon. Stay for lunch before you go."

Li Ping had no mood for pleasantries. He waved his hand. "Thank you, but I have something to do. I'll be leaving now."

His long legs carried him away quickly, and he practically fled.

The old man watched his retreating figure disappear. He found it slightly strange, but did not think much of it.

Watcher said Zhao Danshi would need to carry the child for five months. After various examinations and calculations, Ran Yuanyao discovered that, judging by the child's growth rate, a little over five months would indeed be enough. There was still plenty of time before the due date—roughly another two and a half months.

These days, Zhao Danshi had been considering ways to use Watcher to remove the child.

Watcher and Zhao Danshi did the math. To use Watcher, they first had to unlock the Marketplace, which required one thousand points. This operation counted as a major surgery, and if Watcher handled it, ten thousand points should be enough.

Zhao Danshi calculated with a notebook in hand. The vegetables he grew yielded less than 0.5 Bio-Energy per kilogram. Other vegetables only yielded about one point of Bio-Energy for every three kilograms. To ask Watcher for help, he would need at least eleven thousand Bio-Energy.

Converted into money, if vegetables cost two yuan per jin, then six jin would cost twelve yuan. To gather eleven thousand Bio-Energy, he would need to buy around one hundred and thirty thousand yuan worth of vegetables.

If Zhao Danshi pooled all his savings and borrowed some more, he could barely scrape together enough money. But buying so many vegetables might draw the attention of someone observant, and that would be disastrous.

Zhao Danshi was annoyed. If he had known, he never would have made that wish.

The child was already conceived, and it was his senior brother's child. No matter what, he could not bear to give it up.

He sighed. He still needed to quickly find a way to give birth to the child.

Ran Yuanyao lived with him every day and soon noticed that something was wrong with Zhao Danshi's mood.

After reading so much information, he found that Zhao Danshi might be showing signs of prenatal depression.

Ran Yuanyao no longer dared work overtime. He returned home on time every day and tried his best to talk with Zhao Danshi about what was on his mind.

That day, Zhao Danshi was eating when he started spacing out again.

Ran Yuanyao called him several times, but Zhao Danshi did not hear him. Ran Yuanyao grew anxious and patiently asked, "What is wrong with you? Why are you so distracted all day?"

Zhao Danshi lowered his lashes and stared at his chopsticks as he hesitantly asked, "Yuanyao, is it especially risky for you to perform my surgery?"

"Risky my ass! I've read the materials. Your surgery is extremely simple. For professional doctors like us, if we can't even handle this operation, our fundamentals are so bad that we should change careers as soon as possible."

Zhao Danshi knew he was only making it sound simple. The actual situation had to be far more complicated than he claimed.

Seeing that Zhao Danshi did not look well, Ran Yuanyao softened his voice and comforted him. "Don't overthink it. I know what I'm doing. If I really can't handle it, I'll definitely ask my teacher for help. I won't gamble with your life."

Zhao Danshi felt guilty. "I'm too selfish. Whenever I run into something I can't deal with, my first thought is you. And now I've dumped all the pressure that should have been mine onto you."

Ran Yuanyao rubbed his head. "It's okay. Don't think so much. I'm happy that you thought of me instead of carrying everything alone."

Zhao Danshi sighed. He knew he would never be able to repay what he owed Ran Yuanyao in this lifetime.

Once they had talked it out, Zhao Danshi's mood improved somewhat. The due date was still far away, so he planned to return to the countryside first and come back after cleaning up the mess there.

Zhao Danshi gently but firmly refused Ran Yuanyao's request that he stay in W City to rest during the pregnancy. He took the train back to his hometown, and they agreed that he would return in a little over a month.

Ran Yuanyao looked at Zhao Danshi's already somewhat cumbersome belly, worry inevitably showing in his eyes.

Zhao Danshi reassured him. "Don't worry. I'm in good health, and I have Watcher with me. It's advanced technology beyond Earth, after all. There shouldn't be any problems."

Ran Yuanyao gave a quiet "Mm." "Call me if anything happens."

"Okay." Zhao Danshi picked up his luggage and got out of the car. His eyes curved as he smiled at Ran Yuanyao. "I can walk the rest of the way in myself. You should go back first."

Ran Yuanyao did not answer. He took Zhao Danshi's luggage, bought a platform ticket, and saw him onto the train.

It was not peak travel season, so there were not many people on the train. Zhao Danshi's condition made him particularly conspicuous among the crowd. No matter who looked at him, Zhao Danshi calmly returned their gaze with a smile.

He was good-looking, and people around him showed varying degrees of regret when they saw him like this.

His exposed wrists were thin, his legs long, and his face refined and handsome. He did not look as though he had put on weight. Rather, he looked as if he had some illness, perhaps ascites caused by liver disease.

Receiving those sympathetic looks, Zhao Danshi became wary.

He decided that after returning home, he would disguise himself properly. At the very least, he could not let Grandpa notice how much bigger his belly had become, lest the old man worry.

After returning to his hometown, the old man indeed questioned his belly.

"I just gained weight." Zhao Danshi looked gloomy. "Grandpa, don't mention it. Those supplements you asked me to bring barely got eaten by that girl. She said she couldn't eat them, and to avoid wasting them, most of them ended up in my stomach."

The old man did not suspect anything, though he looked disgusted. "Hah, I told you to take care of her, but you ended up being the one taken care of. Why are you back? Don't you need to stay there and keep looking after the girl?"

"Her pregnancy isn't very far along yet, so I don't need to specifically look after her. We agreed that I'd go back in another month and take care of her personally. By then, I'll probably have to stay until the child is born."

The old man nodded. "That's how it should be."

The old man had already heated the water. Zhao Danshi went inside, found some clothes, took a bath, washed his hair, and carefully dried it before going out to eat.

The old man had already cooked dinner. Zhao Danshi carried the dishes out, and the two chatted as they ate at the table.

"Grandpa, how are the vegetables in our fields growing?"

"Very well." The old man brightened at the topic. "Our vegetables were planted the same way as everyone else's. We watered them when they needed water, fertilized them when they needed fertilizer, and weeded them when they needed weeding. Yet somehow, they grew better than everyone else's and tasted better too. The greens we stir-fried today were picked from our fields. Try them and you'll know."

Zhao Danshi reached for the greens on the plate with his chopsticks. The moment he tasted them, amazement appeared in his eyes.

The greens they had grown were fresh and tender. One bite filled his mouth with the sweet, crisp flavor of vegetables, without the slightest bit of stringiness.

"How is it? Our vegetables are delicious, right?" The old man looked proud. "I've been selling them at the market for over half a month now. No matter how much I bring, I sell out. People even specifically look for our vegetables. A few days ago, someone from out of town drove in and bought eighty jin from me, saying they needed them for a banquet."

Zhao Danshi nodded vigorously. "Grandpa, you're really skilled at growing vegetables."

"This might not actually be because of my skills." The old man chuckled. "Everyone else in the village says your hands have been blessed. The same vegetables taste especially good when you grow them. They asked whether you bought your seeds somewhere else."

"What did you tell them?"

"Ah, how would I know? I didn't really go help much when you were growing vegetables. So I told them the truth—I said I didn't know." The old man chuckled a few times. "Today, several people in the village saw that you were back and specifically said they wanted to come over and visit. I told them you'd spent the whole day on the train and were tired, so they should come tomorrow. Only then did they drop it."

Zhao Danshi had not expected this result either, and he was quite pleased.

He now believed eighty percent of what Watcher had said. He decided that in a couple of days, he would buy a batch of vegetables and supply Watcher with Bio-Energy first. A relationship only lasted when there was give and take. No matter what, he had to make full use of such a great treasure as Watcher, though he had no intention of taking advantage of it.

As the old man ate, he suddenly remembered something. "Oh, right, Yun Yun. A young man came looking for you a couple of days ago. He said he was your friend."

Zhao Danshi's heart skipped a beat. Forgetting his meal, he hurriedly asked, "Grandpa, what did he look like? Did he say who he was?"

The old man slapped his forehead. "Oh dear, I forgot to ask. I was just happy that day, and we didn't talk much. Later, he said he had something to do. He didn't even eat lunch and left after sitting for only a few minutes."

Zhao Danshi grew frantic. He quickly took out his phone and pulled up a photo of Li Ping. "Grandpa, did he look like this?"

The old man held the phone at a distance, squinting at it for a long while before nodding with certainty. "Yes, that's him."

Zhao Danshi could no longer care about eating. He pushed his bowl onto the table. "Grandpa, I'm going to make a phone call."

For the first time since becoming pregnant, Zhao Danshi ran that fast. He rushed into his room, slammed the door shut, and called Li Ping with trembling hands.