Chapter 18 : Production Prep—Are You Planning on a Second Child? p3
After leaving the underground hospital, the young couple huddled together to study the supply list. “So, should we go buy the baby supplies now?”
Xue Yu was very concerned about Zhou Siyan’s health. “It’s a long way from here to the supermarket. If you’re tired, you should go back to the hotel and rest. I can go buy them myself.”
Zhou Siyan took the list. “I’m not tired. Let’s go.”
They didn’t have resident IDs for the South Continent, so they couldn’t take public transportation. They had to take a taxi, and the price made Xue Yu’s heart bleed. Birth quotas were strict in the South Continent, so there were very few places that sold baby supplies. They drove around for three hours before finally finding a postpartum section in the corner of a supermarket. The supermarket was busy, crowded in every other section, but the mother-and-baby section was deserted. The items were arranged haphazardly, as if forgotten.
Xue Yu picked up two cans of formula and asked Zhou Siyan, “Are two cans enough? They’re so expensive.”
He was looking at baby clothes. He turned, checked the expiration date to make sure the formula wasn’t expired, and said, “Let’s just get one can for now. After the baby is born, we’ll feed it to her. If she likes this brand, we can come back and buy more.”
“Okay.” Xue Yu put one of the cans back on the shelf.
Zhou Siyan picked out several sets of baby clothes—matching socks, hats, and outfits. He chose a set in every color, and they looked like a vibrant rainbow on the counter. “What do you think of these clothes?”
“Maybe we should swap the red one for blue. I think the baby will like blue.”
“Takes after you, huh? You like blue too.”
“I’m just talking nonsense. You have good taste. You pick.”
He pushed her toward the clothing section. “Your taste is childish. You decide. The baby will probably like childish things.”
Xue Yu almost punched him.
After buying the clothes, they started picking out bottles, diapers, and small blankets…
Also in the mother-and-baby section was a slender young man. He was wearing a black hoodie, a baseball cap, and a black mask, revealing only a pair of calm, expressionless eyes. He stood in front of the baby bottle display, picked up a bottle with a light blue sticker, and held two sets of baby clothes in his other hand.
Murray was choosing a bottle when he suddenly heard a familiar, bright female voice. He immediately recognized it as Xue Yu’s. He turned his head and, sure enough, saw her and Zhou Siyan about five meters away, choosing small blankets.
Murray quickly ducked into the shadows behind a shelf and peered through a gap. Was Zhou Siyan really going to have the baby? And after it was born, how would they raise it? Would they leave the White Tower together, or would they live in hiding with the child?
Countless questions filled his mind. Even as he had impulsively come in to buy some baby supplies, he still hadn’t decided whether to have the baby. He really wanted to. But how would he raise it? That was the hard part for him. Unlike Zhou Siyan, who could earn a high salary by giving orders from an office, he was a sniper. He had to go out on missions for long periods, sometimes spending weeks in the wilderness. He really didn’t know how he could raise a child.
Murray stood behind the shelf until Xue Yu and Zhou Siyan had left with their bags of things. Only then did he step out. He received a call from a black doctor. “Hey, kid, have you made up your mind yet? Are you getting the abortion or not? I need an answer soon. I have to make arrangements.”
“I’m still thinking about it.”
“Well, you’d better hurry up. The bigger the baby gets, the harder it is to abort, and the more expensive it will be.”
“I know.”
He also took two sets of baby clothes and a bottle to the checkout. After leaving the supermarket, he saw Xue Yu and Zhou Siyan waiting for a car at an intersection. Xue Yu was holding a bottle of water, thoughtfully unscrewing the cap before handing it to Zhou Siyan. Murray watched them from a distance until they had left. Only then did he turn and walk down another street. Dressed in all black, he was a particularly lonely figure on the bustling, colorful street.
…
Back at the hotel, Xue Yu and Zhou Siyan divided the work of cleaning the baby supplies. Xue Yu was in charge of boiling water to sterilize the bottles and pacifiers. Zhou Siyan went into the bathroom to hand-wash the baby’s clothes and socks. After washing them, he put them in the dryer, then neatly folded them and placed them in a bag.
They ate dinner. Lying in bed, they were both filled with a nervous anticipation. The surgery was tomorrow. They would meet their child. How would they hold it? How would they feed it? Their minds were filled with these questions.
“Zhou Siyan, are you scared?” Xue Yu asked.
He had both hands on his stomach. “A little nervous, but not scared. A surgery like this is nothing to me.” As the director of the Security Division, he had been through all sorts of dangerous situations and had suffered injuries both big and small.
Xue Yu turned on her side to look at him. “I asked Dr. Lin. Family members are allowed in the operating room. I’ll go in with you.”
“No,” Zhou Siyan refused firmly. “You wait outside.” He knew Xue Yu had a very low tolerance for stress. At the academy, all students had to take regular psychological stress tests, and she was always the worst. At that time, their curriculum had included dissecting real corpses. Xue Yu had thrown up violently in class, to the amusement of everyone. After half a class, she had used the excuse of going to the bathroom to skip the rest of the lesson and go back to her dorm to sleep. When he returned, he found her trembling in her sleep, crying for her mother. After that, she skipped every dissection class. The teachers called her a hopeless case, with her already terrible grades and constant skipping. The other students would cover their mouths and laugh, calling her “Cowardly Xue.”
Sometimes Zhou Siyan didn’t understand why she was so afraid of corpses. Children who grew up in the White Tower should be the least afraid of them. He occasionally suspected that she was a different species that had crawled out of some crack in the earth.
Xue Yu propped her head up with one hand and said seriously, “No. I have to be with you in the delivery room. The hospital is full of black doctors. If I’m not in there watching, what if they do something to you?”
“It’s not that serious. You can’t handle all that blood and gore. Don’t go in.”
This time, Xue Yu was stubborn. “This is non-negotiable. I will be with you in the operating room.”
Xue Yu spent the whole night mentally preparing herself, but she was still terrified. But she had to go. She was afraid those black doctors would secretly steal his kidney and sell it while they were operating on him.
…
The next day, as soon as the sky began to lighten, Xue Yu got up. She took a few deep breaths and decided to go out and find a place to do some more mental preparation. She didn’t want to embarrass herself by fainting halfway through the surgery that afternoon.
She first went downstairs to buy breakfast for Zhou Siyan and brought it up. “Zhou Siyan, I’m going out to buy something. I’ll definitely be back before noon. Then we’ll go to the hospital to have the baby.”
“What are you going to buy?” Zhou Siyan was anxious. “I’ll go with you.”
For the first time, Xue Yu’s attitude was firm. “I’m just going for a walk. I will be back. You be good and rest here.”
Zhou Siyan was slightly stunned. Ever since he had known her, Xue Yu had always been a bit of a pushover, a silly goose who didn’t quite understand what people were saying and would just agree with everything. This sudden firmness was new, and he didn’t dare to argue with her, so he just let her go. He stood at the door with his belly, throwing her usual catchphrase back at her: “You’re leaving? Are you coming back?”
Xue Yu hurried toward the elevator. “I will definitely be back! Trust me!”
She went downstairs, got a taxi, and went to a place called Narrow Mouth Alley. Yesterday, when she and Zhou Siyan were out buying baby supplies, she had noticed that this alley was an open-air medical clinic where many black doctors performed surgeries in the open. Patients who couldn’t afford the underground hospital would choose to come here. The black doctors here were bold. They would hold people down on a wooden table and, with just a scalpel and a shot of anesthetic, would dare to perform on-the-spot amputations. Life and death were in the hands of fate, and wealth was in the hands of heaven.
Xue Yu had prepared about ten plastic bags. She entered the alley. At the first stall, a black doctor was performing a circumcision on a man with a cigarette dangling from his lips, without even using anesthetic. Xue Yu went over to look. It was disgusting, but she didn’t throw up.
At the second stall, a black doctor was holding a muscular man down on the ground to perform an appendectomy. She didn’t even have an assistant. The dose of anesthetic was too small, and halfway through, the man started struggling and screaming. Seeing Xue Yu wandering around, the doctor called out to her like an old friend, “Little girl, come over here and help Auntie hold him down. My god, this kid is harder to hold than a fish out of water.”
Xue Yu rolled up her sleeves and went over to hold the man down, helping the doctor finish the bloody appendectomy.
She continued walking and was shocked to see someone performing a live craniotomy. The sight of the white brain matter made her throw up. She forced herself to walk through the alley, filling two bags with vomit. By the time she reached the end, she suddenly felt she had been enlightened. She was used to it. Nothing fazed her anymore. She even went back to help the doctor with an open-heart surgery, calmly chatting with her. “You just do surgeries like this, without sterilizing? Won’t they get infected?”
“Narrow Mouth Alley is a naturally sterile place,” the auntie replied as she operated. “No surgery done here ever gets infected.”
“This world is truly amazing.”
When Xue Yu left Narrow Mouth Alley, she felt completely relaxed, as if she could do anything. Her psychological tolerance had reached its peak! She felt like she was floating as she walked. She even felt she could perform the C-section on Zhou Siyan herself. Why waste money at a hospital? Just cut open the belly, take the baby out of the brood pouch, stuff the intestines back in, and stitch it up. It was so simple, not scary at all.
…
Zhou Siyan was pacing anxiously in the hotel room. His mind was a mess. He would sit for a moment, then get up and walk around the living room again. Xue Yu was so timid. Had she gotten scared and run away? Could she not handle a man giving birth? Could she not handle the pressure of becoming a mother? Had she run away? Where had she gone? Did she really not want this child?
As his mind was racing, he heard the sound of a key card at the door. Xue Yu was back. She looked relaxed and cheerful, even humming a little tune. “Goodbye, Mama~~ I’m setting sail tonight, don’t you worry about me, I have the oars of happiness and wisdom~”
“I’m back!” She bounced over to him.
Zhou Siyan felt the stone in his heart drop. He immediately hugged her. “Xue Yu.”
She patted his back. “Don’t be scared. I’ll be with you in the operating room this afternoon. I’m here. What’s there to be afraid of?”
“You don’t have to go in with me. I don’t want you to see me cut open like that. It’s ugly and scary.”
Xue Yu poked his forehead. “You’re overthinking it. I’m worried those black doctors will secretly steal your kidney. That’s why I’m going in to watch. Otherwise, I couldn’t be bothered.”
He let her go, a hint of a relieved smile on his face. “Xue Yu, you’ve grown up.”
She sat down on the sofa, folded her hands behind her head, and put on a look of someone whose life had been hard. “Suddenly becoming a mom, I’ve been forced to grow up. The adult world is full of things beyond our control.”
Her act made him laugh. He sat down next to her. “By the way, we still haven’t named the baby.”
She turned to him. “Do you have any ideas?”
“How about Xue Xiaohai for a nickname? The baby’s spirit body is ocean-related, so let’s use the character for ‘sea’.”
Xue Yu thought it was a bit plain, but she couldn’t think of anything better at the moment. “Okay then. I’ll think of a proper name.”
“Mm,” Zhou Siyan nodded. “After all, this is our first child. We need to be careful. You should think it over.”
Xue Yu broke out in a sweat. The subtext of his words was… he wanted a second child?