Chapter 4: Second Ex-Boyfriend, Feng Qizhou
They finally managed to board the train. Amidst the jostling crowd, Zhou Siyan found an empty seat and had Xue Yu sit down. He stood in front of her, his trench coat concealing his protruding abdomen.
“Why don’t you sit for a bit?” Xue Yu offered, starting to get up.
Zhou Siyan shook his head. “Just lean your head over here.”
Xue Yu: “Lean where?”
Zhou Siyan: “Here, by the baby.”
Seeing she still didn’t understand, Zhou Siyan placed a hand on the back of her head and pressed it against his stomach. As her face rested against the fabric over his belly, the tight, pained knot between his brows visibly relaxed.
After leaning there for a moment, Xue Yu suddenly whispered, “It feels like some kind of energy is passing from your stomach into me.”
Zhou Siyan was calm. “It’s spiritual power.”
Xue Yu: “Huh?”
Zhou Siyan scanned their surroundings vigilantly. He noticed a train attendant’s gaze lingering on his abdomen, as if they suspected something. He shifted forward, pressing closer to Xue Yu, and wrapped an arm around her head, using her body as a shield.
Two minutes later, the attendant moved on.
Only then did he continue his explanation to Xue Yu. “I can see it in my spiritual landscape. It’s absorbing my spiritual power and transferring it to you.”
Every person who awakened a spirit body had a “spiritual landscape” in their mind, a space that recorded their spiritual power levels. Their spirit body also resided within this landscape, only emerging when summoned by its master.
No wonder I started showing signs of awakening a spirit body the moment Zhou Siyan came looking for me last night, Xue Yu thought. She could feel her own strength increasing even now. So, the fetus was stealing Zhou Siyan’s spiritual power and giving it to her.
“Why is it giving your spiritual power to me?” she asked.
Zhou Siyan: “I don’t know. Maybe it prefers its mom.”
Though she was benefiting from it, Xue Yu still had to put on a show of righteousness. “This little half-breed is so naughty. How could it do that?”
Zhou Siyan looked down at her. “Could you stop calling it a half-breed all the time? It’s your child.”
Xue Yu nodded obediently. “Okay, I’ll be more careful in the future.”
They arrived at the Manster Building.
The building covered an area larger than two football fields and was eight hundred stories high. It too was constructed entirely of metal, with a fortified exterior and smooth walls. The management for the White Tower Safe Zone’s medical, military, and industrial systems all operated from here.
Xue Yu had never been inside the Manster Building. After transmigrating, she had spent all her time at the military academy, and upon graduation, she was sent straight to the mines.
Security at the Manster Building had been extremely tight for the past few days. They were going all out to trace the source of the fetal monitor strip, trying to find out who was pregnant. All Controllers, the Public Security Brigade, and even the highest-level combat units had been deployed.
Xue Yu’s nerves were on edge. Judging by the scale of the operation, she felt that if she and Zhou Siyan were caught, they’d be strung up and nailed to a pillar of shame.
Thankfully, Zhou Siyan was relatively calm. He led Xue Yu through an internal officer’s channel. His apartment was inside the building, in the residential area on the 102nd floor. It was a rented two-bedroom unit. Property in the White Tower base couldn’t be bought or sold, only rented.
As soon as they entered the apartment, Zhou Siyan pulled out two large suitcases and began to pack. “We’ll leave as soon as it gets dark. The sooner we get out of here, the better.”
“Okay.” Xue Yu put down her backpack and helped him pack.
Aside from a change of clothes and toiletries, the main things to bring were firearms, ammunition, and rations. The South Continent was far away, and the route passed through several contaminated zones teeming with mutated beasts. The journey would be fraught with danger.
Xue Yu was helping Zhou Siyan stuff magazines into a suitcase when suddenly, a series of loud knocks and the sound of a dog barking came from the door.
Zhou Siyan’s hands froze. He called out, “Who is it?”
The man’s voice from outside sounded vaguely familiar. “Director Zhou, we’re from the Inspection Department. We’re here to conduct a search. Please open the door.”
“One moment.”
Zhou Siyan shoved the suitcases under the bed. He pulled aside his clothes, found a roll of bandages, and began to wrap it around his abdomen. He hissed at Xue Yu in a low voice, “Help me.”
Xue Yu grabbed the end of the bandage and helped him pull it tight, winding it around his waist again and again, trying to flatten his protruding stomach as much as possible.
They managed to bind his belly flat, but Xue Yu was terrified she was going to suffocate him.
After tying the bandage in a dead knot, Zhou Siyan found a fresh white shirt and uniform jacket to put on. He knotted his tie neatly, put on his military cap, and took a few deep breaths to compose himself before going to open the door.
Several inspection soldiers in light blue uniforms stood at the door. The man leading them wore a white lab coat, his hair neatly combed. He was strikingly handsome with a noble, refined air. A black fountain pen and a violet insignia were pinned to his chest, broadcasting his honor as an extreme sexual conservative.
Xue Yu looked over. That bastard was actually Feng Qizhou, her second ex-boyfriend.
Judging by the epaulets on Feng Qizhou’s lab coat, he was a high-level leader in the Medical Department.
She wanted to crawl under the bed and hide.
Damn it! How did every man she dated end up so successful, while she was the only one stuck digging in the mines? Had these bastards been sucking away her luck?
Zhou Siyan walked over with a steady gait. “Deputy Director Feng, is there a problem?”
A smile played on Feng Qizhou’s lips. He glanced first at Xue Yu, then at Zhou Siyan, and took the pen from his chest, twirling it between his fingers. “Someone in the White Tower is pregnant. I’m sure Director Zhou has heard?”
“I’ve heard something about it,” Zhou Siyan nodded.
Feng Qizhou’s gaze shifted back to Xue Yu. He stepped aside slightly to let the hound behind him enter the room and said softly, “The hound kept running in your direction. Perhaps it smelled pregnancy hormones, so we came to check.”
The hound sniffed around Zhou Siyan’s feet.
Xue Yu quickly interjected, “Oh my, don’t tell me I’m the one who’s pregnant.”
It wasn’t hard to draw the attention to herself. After all, conventional wisdom dictated that fertility was a female trait.
Feng Qizhou walked over to Xue Yu and glanced at the miner’s insignia on her jacket. “Xue Yu, long time no see. You’re still as… unsuccessful as ever, I see?”
Xue Yu shrugged. “Yep, I’m a good-for-nothing. The whole school knew that.”
At the military academy, Xue Yu’s grades were notoriously bad. It was said she was the worst student since the founding of the academy, so bad it was shocking.
“You’re very suspicious. Come with me for an examination,” Feng Qizhou said, putting his pen away.
Xue Yu wasn’t afraid. “Fine by me. I’m not pregnant.”
Zhou Siyan stood behind them, his expression unreadable. He couldn’t make any rash moves. The fetus was inside him; he had to be extremely cautious. Xue Yu wasn’t pregnant, and her spirit body hadn’t officially awakened yet. She was the most suitable person to deal with Feng Qizhou.
Feng Qizhou led Xue Yu away, taking her all the way up to the hospital on the 230th floor, where he was the deputy director.
He dismissed the inspection soldiers and led Xue Yu into an examination room alone. He put on a pair of medical gloves and gestured with his chin toward the examination bed, a smug, infuriating smile perpetually on his face.
“Please take off your jacket and lie down, oh great Ms. Xue.”
“I’m not great at all,” Xue Yu muttered.
Feng Qizhou: “Oh, but you are. You’re the greatest person I’ve ever met.”
Xue Yu didn’t know what he was being so sarcastic about. She took off her jacket, lay down, and lifted the hem of her inner shirt herself, exposing her flat stomach. “Go ahead and check. I’m not pregnant.”
Feng Qizhou’s gloved hand palpated her lower abdomen. He then picked up a probe and placed it on her stomach. The monitor beside them clearly displayed the situation inside.
“Just as I thought.” He leaned in and chuckled softly. “Guess what I found?”
Xue Yu: “That you’re my son?”
“You’re still such a kidder.” Feng Qizhou’s smile widened. “It seems you haven’t been sterilized.”
Xue Yu’s expression changed. Before she could say anything, Feng Qizhou put away the probe and pulled her shirt back down for her. “Just kidding. Alright, we’re done here. You can go.”
“That’s it?” Xue Yu got off the bed.
“What else? Want me to give you some money?” Feng Qizhou tilted his head at her.
Xue Yu put her jacket back on and grumbled, “You know I’m poor, and you won’t even give me a little breakup money…”
As Xue Yu walked out of the examination room, Feng Qizhou leaned against the doorway and suddenly said, “By the way, do you know why I decided to become an extreme sexual conservative after we broke up?”
Xue Yu played along. “Why?”
Feng Qizhou: “Because I wanted to.”
Xue Yu: “If you’re not giving me any breakup money, I’m leaving.”
Feng Qizhou took out his wallet and pinched a stack of gold banknotes between two fingers. “No need to pay it back.”
Xue Yu took it without ceremony and stuffed it into her pocket. She needed to save up for Zhou Siyan’s abortion.
Once Xue Yu was gone, Feng Qizhou got up and walked toward his office.
He pressed his fingerprint, quickly entered the private lounge connected to his office, and closed the heavy, soundproof door behind him.
The lounge was less than thirty square meters, equipped with a bed, a bathroom, a wardrobe, and other simple living necessities.
On the single bed in the middle of the room, a seemingly premature infant was wailing its lungs out, its tiny arms and legs flailing wildly.
Feng Qizhou strode over, picked up the baby, and rocked it gently. Cradling the child in his strong arms, he freed one hand to fiddle with the formula container on the metal table beside the bed.
With one hand, he poured formula into a bottle, flipped the switch on the thermostat-controlled water dispenser, and quickly mixed the formula.
He fed the baby, and the crying stopped. Feng Q-izhou finally let out a sigh of relief.
The baby was fussy, its small hands grabbing at everything, and it brushed against the wound on his abdomen.
He had secretly performed a C-section on himself just last week to deliver the baby. The wound hadn’t fully healed yet, and it still hurt terribly.