Chapter 16: You Broke Up, But You’re Still Willing to Have Her Child?
Yan Wantang put away the stethoscope, chambered a round, and pressed the dark muzzle of the gun against the sniper’s abdomen. She flashed her signature eight-toothed grin. “Don’t think you can pass as a woman just because you have a big belly. Who knows what kind of weird monster you’ve been crossbreeding with to produce that half-breed in there, and now you’re trying to pass yourself off as a pregnant woman.”
At the word “half-breed,” the sniper’s hand, hanging at his side, clenched into a fist, the veins popping.
Yan Wantang sized up his attire. “First, tell me, who knocked you up?”
Xue Yu stood to the side, stunned. Could it really have been me?
With an unnervingly swift movement, the sniper shot out a hand and seized Yan Wantang by the throat. His fingers were long and powerful, as nimble as an octopus’s tentacles. His fingertips pierced the skin of her cheek, and he tore off half the skin on her face. The exposed half of Yan Wantang’s face was clearly contaminated, the blood vessels looking like the dried roots of a plant.
“They’re abominations,” the sniper said to Xue Yu and Zhou Siyan.
Zhou Siyan practically lifted Xue Yu with one hand, rushed to the car door, and shoved her inside. “Stay here. Don’t come out.” He grabbed a gun and fired at one of the rescue team members. The person’s head exploded, black fluid pouring from their brain.
Yan Wantang broke free from the sniper’s attack and quickly fled. Zhou Siyan and the sniper took on the remaining team members. After being infected by contamination factors, these people had turned into abominations and been exiled from the White Tower. An abomination’s organs would continuously mutate. In order to blend back into the White Tower, they had started an organ trafficking business, harvesting healthy organs from others to transplant into themselves.
Xue Yu watched the battle from inside the car. As Zhou Siyan and the sniper fought side by side, it was easy to see that Zhou Siyan was holding back, leaving the tougher opponents for the sniper. He kept one hand protectively on his stomach, likely worried that exerting too much force would harm the baby.
The black panther, which had been in the back seat, slammed open the car door and leaped to Zhou Siyan’s side. Blueberry, meanwhile, was perched on Xue Yu’s shoulder, blowing bubbles, urging her to go out and show off her skills.
Xue Yu thought so too. Zhou Siyan and the sniper were both pregnant. No matter how useless she was, she couldn’t just stand by and watch two men carrying her children fight alone.
Xue Yu grabbed a submachine gun and a dagger and got out of the car. She ran to the sniper’s side as he fought an abomination, fired two shots, and then slammed her fist into the abomination’s back. Her punch went straight through its body, shattering the spine and piercing through the rib cage. The abomination’s sturdy body fell like a banner.
Xue Yu herself was shocked. Her strength and speed had increased so quickly.
Blueberry strutted proudly on her shoulder, blew a stream of bubbles, and took the opportunity to lean in and kiss the octopus next to the sniper.
Seeing they were outmatched, the dozen or so abominations abandoned their vehicles and fled.
Having just gotten a taste of her spiritual power, Xue Yu wanted to give chase, but Zhou Siyan stopped her. “Don’t pursue a desperate enemy. They’re trying to lure us into a contaminated zone. Don’t go.”
“Are you okay?” Xue Yu steadied Zhou Siyan.
He took her hand and placed it on his stomach. “I don’t know if the baby is okay.”
“I’ve awakened my spirit body now. I’m not useless anymore,” Xue Yu said. “You’re still pregnant. From now on, let me handle the danger.”
Zhou Siyan nodded. “Okay.”
Xue Yu chased after the sniper, who was about to turn and leave. She had a guess and quickened her pace. “Murray, is that you?” She had a gut feeling that this sniper was her third ex-boyfriend. Regrettably, she didn’t even know his real name. Murray was just his sniper call sign; he had never told her his actual name.
The young man stopped. He stood with his back to her, two long sniper rifles slung over his slender, lean frame, and didn’t reply.
“Murray, is that really you?” Xue Yu ran over. “What are you really going to the South Continent for?” She circled around to face him, explaining with a mix of shame and joy, “Murray, is there a baby in your stomach? I want to tell you, it’s all my fault. The baby is mine.”
Xue Yu quickly took the seahorse from her shoulder. “It’s because my spirit body is a seahorse that you got pregnant. If you’re going to the South Continent for an abortion, please come with me. Let me take care of you.”
Xue Yu could see his sunken eyes under the brim of his helmet. He had walked all the way here from the White Tower alone; he must have suffered a lot.
“Murray, I’ve awakened my spirit body now. I’m not the same useless Xue Yu I was before. I’ll be responsible. I’ll protect you and the baby,” Xue Yu promised again.
Murray finally stopped disguising his voice. “I’m going to the South Continent for my own private matters. It has nothing to do with you.” His voice was very young. As far as Xue Yu knew, Murray was two months younger than her; he had told her that himself.
“Are you really not pregnant?” Xue Yu asked again.
“No.”
Xue Yu was skeptical, but Murray didn’t seem to want to talk to her, so she didn’t press him.
“Xue Yu, I don’t feel well,” Zhou Siyan called from behind her.
Xue Yu went back to check on him. He rolled up his sleeve, revealing a bleeding arm. “Get me the medical kit.”
Xue Yu brought the kit over, eager for action. “I’ll go get revenge for you. Those abominations can’t have gotten far.”
Zhou Siyan looked down, treating his wound. “No need. It’s not necessary.”
“You were never this magnanimous before.” Xue Yu muttered as she handed him the gauze. She remembered the old Zhou Siyan, who seemed indifferent on the surface but was actually extremely vengeful. Once, during a field exercise, they had been attacked by a mutated red monkey. Zhou Siyan had spent over a month searching for the monkey’s nest and wiped it out completely. His motto was: When will the cycle of revenge ever end? When you pull out the roots, there are no more worries.
After dressing his wound, Zhou Siyan’s gaze was calm. “Now that I have a child, I can’t be as vengeful as before. I have to think of the child first.”
Just then, two abominations covered in festering sores returned, sneaking up from behind to snatch the medical kit they had placed on the ground. The two were dripping with rotten blood and reeked.
Zhou Siyan didn’t want to engage with them, and besides, there wasn’t much medicine left in the kit. “Forget it,” he said to Xue Yu. “Let them have it.”
Xue Yu didn’t want to let go and held onto the other end of the kit. In the struggle, one of the abominations kicked Zhou Siyan in the stomach.
Zhou Siyan’s pupils contracted. He looked down at his abdomen. A low whimper came from inside, like the wronged cry of an infant.
While Xue Yu was drawing her gun, the two abominations snatched the medical kit and ran in the other direction.
Hearing the baby’s cries from his stomach, a bloody haze filled Zhou Siyan’s eyes. He gritted his teeth. “Blackbrow, go!”
He pursued them with the speed of an afterimage, even faster than the black panther. Master and spirit body shot across the sand like two gales of wind. Catching up to the two abominations, Zhou Siyan’s well-proportioned fingers spread and clamped onto the back of one of the male abomination’s necks. His nails suddenly turned black, as sharp as a panther’s claws. His fingertips pierced the abomination’s skin and gripped its spine. With a powerful tug, he ripped the abomination’s entire spinal column out of its body, a horrifying sight of white bone and dripping blackish-red blood.
Xue Yu was dumbfounded. For the past few days, Zhou Siyan had been walking with a hand on his stomach, sometimes even needing her help to get into the car. She had thought pregnancy had made him weak and helpless.
Zhou Siyan threw the spinal column aside and grabbed the other abomination, twisting its head off. It wasn’t enough. The baby in his stomach was still crying. The veins on his forehead throbbed. He continued his pursuit, swift as the wind, his figure quickly disappearing from Xue Yu’s sight.
“Zhou Siyan! Blackbrow! Where are you going?!” Xue Yu called out blankly from behind. “Are you coming back?!”
The group of patients that had been walking to the South Continent turned around. After thanking Xue Yu, they stumbled back toward the Yaga Safe Zone, likely deeming the journey too dangerous for now.
But Murray didn’t go with them. He continued south, toward the South Continent.
“Murray, we broke up, so we can’t even be friends?” Xue Yu felt a little ridiculous as she shouted this.
Murray stopped.
“Since we can still be friends, then take a ride with us! Come with us to the South Continent. Let me take care of you.”
Murray came back and stood beside her.
Three minutes later, Zhou Siyan also returned, his hands covered in thick, sticky black blood. The fur around Blackbrow’s mouth was also matted with blood. He walked up to Xue Yu. “A pity. I couldn’t find Yan Wantang.”
“You killed everyone except her?”
“Mm.” Zhou Siyan took a handkerchief from his pocket to wipe his hands and got into the passenger seat, gently stroking his abdomen. The baby had stopped crying but was moving around restlessly inside, clearly unsettled.
Xue Yu went around to the passenger side and stuck her head in the window. “Is the baby okay?”
“It was crying earlier, but it’s much better now.”
“Can we let Murray ride with us?” Xue Yu bargained. “Zhou Siyan, do me a favor. I’ll be responsible for you and the baby from now on. I won’t drift anymore. I’ll definitely work hard to raise the child.”
Zhou Siyan glanced at him. “He’s your ex-boyfriend?”
Xue Yu nodded in shame. “Mm. I think he’s pregnant with my child too. He was too embarrassed to say, so I didn’t dare ask too much.”
Zhou Siyan’s pupils were pitch black. “And you have the nerve to scold Blueberry. She takes after you.”
Xue Yu’s ears turned red. “So, can he? Just let him come with us.”
Zhou Siyan nodded.
Xue Yu happily ran over to Murray. “Murray, it’s okay! You can get in the car.”
“Xue Yu,” Zhou Siyan called from the car, “go check Yan Wantang’s vehicles and see if there’s anything useful.”
“On it!” Xue Yu swiftly ran to the abandoned vehicles, smashed open a door, and started looting.
Murray got into the back seat of the SUV. He kept his face covered, exuding a cold, unapproachable aura.
Zhou Siyan looked at him in the rearview mirror. “You’re pregnant with Xue Yu’s child?”
Murray didn’t reply.
“I can sense the pregnancy hormones on you,” Zhou Siyan continued, slowly wiping the blood from his fingers. “So, what’s the plan for the South Continent? Are you going to give birth, or get an abortion?”
Murray remained silent.
Zhou Siyan seemed to be deep in thought. After a moment, he said, “I know this is a bit forward. But I still have to ask. You broke up, but you’re still willing to have Xue Yu’s child?”
A strange flicker passed through the pupils under Murray’s helmet.
“Have the baby,” Zhou Siyan said. “Do it for Xue Yu. I’ve looked into it. The seahorse’s power source is in reproduction. The birth of a child will give Xue Yu positive feedback and increase her spiritual power.” He paused, slowly folding the blood-stained handkerchief. “Xue Yu was always looked down on at the academy, and as a miner, she’s at the very bottom. Her spirit body is a seahorse. If no one is willing to have children for her, she’ll never be able to turn her life around.”
He turned his head and looked at Murray in the back seat. “You have the baby, and I will be responsible for it. In addition, I can give you a letter of recommendation to get into the S-rank assault team.”
Murray finally spoke. “You’re trying to make a deal with me? To buy this child?”
“Yes. You can add your own conditions as well. As long as you have the child, I will treat it as my own.”
Murray’s hawk-like gaze fixed on him. “I don’t think you’re fit to be a father.” After saying that, he pushed open the car door and left.
Xue Yu was busy moving things around. She turned and saw Murray leaving again and hurriedly called out, “Murray, where are you going now?! I found some eggs! I’ll cook them for you in a minute!”