Chapter 2: The Seahorse Spirit Body
As Xue Yu was still processing, a new message from Zhou Siyan popped up: Want to meet?
Xue Yu: Okay.
Zhou Siyan: Come downstairs. Blackbrow will lead you.
Blackbrow was Zhou Siyan’s spirit body, a strong and ferocious black panther.
The narrow alley was dark, its metal walls mottled with rust.
The man leaned against the cold metal, keenly feeling the mass inside his abdomen squirm and kick against his stomach, as if it wanted to tear its way out.
Waves of pain made it impossible for him to stand. His back, pressed tightly against the wall, slowly slid down until he was forced to sit on the ground, clutching his swollen belly.
The black panther curled at his feet was in a similar predicament. Its abdomen also had an unnatural curve.
—It was probably pregnant, too.
He glanced at the time, figuring Xue Yu should be downstairs by now.
Zhou Siyan’s broad palm gently stroked the panther’s head. “Blackbrow, go bring her here.”
The panther stood up. Its paws were thick and wide, its limbs powerful, and the muscles coiling on the back of its neck were clearly defined. Its fur was so dark it blended seamlessly with the night. With an agile and formidable bound, it vanished into the darkness.
…
Xue Yu went downstairs, her heart pounding with unease.
A crazy thought exploded in her mind. Could the “pregnant woman” the White Tower was so diligently searching for be… Zhou Siyan?
But Zhou Siyan was a man!
Her thoughts were a jumbled mess. As she exited the dormitory building, a pair of golden-brown pupils glowed faintly in the darkness from behind a dumpster. Xue Yu recognized them—they were the eyes of a black panther, Zhou Siyan’s spirit body.
The panther trotted toward her, wagged its tail, and gestured for her to follow.
Xue Yu switched on her mini-flashlight and ran behind the panther, arriving at an abandoned alley a kilometer away. This was where they processed ore residue, a place few people ever passed through.
When the panther stopped, Xue Yu aimed her flashlight forward. The beam wasn’t very bright, casting a dim halo on a dark figure huddled in the corner.
The sudden light irritated Zhou Siyan’s eyes. He threw an arm over his face and instinctively turned his head away.
Xue Yu moved the flashlight. The beam shifted from his pale, sweaty face down to his abnormally swollen abdomen. Zhou Siyan’s breathing was heavy, and his belly and chest rose and fell with each ragged breath.
“Zhou Siyan, what’s wrong with you?”
Xue Yu stood before him, having never seen him in such a wretched state.
Back at the military academy, Zhou Siyan had been a top cadet, groomed by his superiors to become an officer. He was arrogant and spirited, with a roguish streak. When he squinted his eyes and smiled, he looked like a cunning fox.
But now, seeing him curled up in pain, cradling his stomach, reminded Xue Yu of an animal in labor—weak, helpless, and lost.
Zhou Siyan took off the wide-brimmed felt hat. His voice was faint. “I have a baby in my stomach.”
“Huh?” Xue Yu crouched down. “Who put it there?”
Zhou Siyan’s eyes were bloodshot as he stared at her. “You.”
Xue Yu: “Me?”
Zhou Siyan frowned. “I’m pregnant. Understand now?”
Xue Yu couldn’t wrap her head around it. She scratched her head. “Women in the White Tower don’t have the mutated ability to get men pregnant, do they? Did you go outside and have relations with some weird species and get parasitized?”
Zhou Siyan shot her a glance. “After we broke up, I became an extreme sexual conservative.”
Xue Yu: “How extreme?”
Zhou Siyan almost laughed in exasperation. “I’ve only ever been with you. Whose could this thing in my stomach be, if not yours?”
Xue Yu was lost. “How could I possibly have that kind of power? And it doesn’t make sense! Even if someone got pregnant, it should be me. Why would it be you?”
“In any case, this thing is your masterpiece,” Zhou Siyan said with absolute certainty.
He grabbed Xue Yu’s hand and pressed it against his abdomen. “It’s been looking for you. When I’m near you, it quiets down.”
The Manster Building where Zhou Siyan worked was far from the mining district. The thing in his stomach acted up every day, feeling like it was about to turn his internal organs upside down. Zhou Siyan could sense it was searching for something.
And so, he thought of Xue Yu.
He had secretly come to the mining district to follow her, and sure enough, as soon as he got close, the thing in his belly calmed down, like a crying child who had found its mother.
He had used equipment from the base hospital to take an X-ray. It was a fetus, a fetus with hands and feet.
Everyone in the White Tower had been sterilized. For twenty years, there had been no officially recorded newborns or pregnant women. There was no prenatal testing equipment, and information on pregnancy was scarce.
He had to dig through the archives to find enough information to confirm that he was pregnant. All his physiological reactions over the past year—nausea, fatigue, drowsiness—matched the descriptions in the long-forgotten records perfectly.
Xue Yu felt his stomach and asked anxiously, “The ‘pregnant woman’ the inspectors are searching for everywhere… is that you?”
Zhou Siyan nodded wearily. “I made that fetal monitor strip myself. I was checking the fetus’s heartbeat when my subordinate suddenly burst in. I had to hide the strip in the trash can, but I didn’t expect the janitor to take it away.”
Xue Yu’s heart hammered in her chest.
The White Tower was incredibly strict about this. If the higher-ups found out Zhou Siyan was pregnant, not only would he lose his job, but he’d be exiled. They didn’t care how you got pregnant; if you were, you were out.
And if they followed the trail, they would definitely find out it was her “seed.” Then she’d be kicked out of the White Tower too.
The pollution outside was severe. Leaving the safety of the White Tower was practically a death sentence.
“So what do we do now?” Xue Yu asked.
Zhou Siyan’s lips were chapped and dry. He whispered, “I have to go to the South Continent Safe Zone in secret to have a procedure and get rid of the baby. There are a lot of black clinics there. I’ll get it taken care of and come back.”
His glassy eyes fixed on Xue Yu. “You’re coming with me. In my condition, I can’t take a flight; I’ll be discovered. We can only drive there in secret. I need you to drive.”
Xue Yu had no reason to refuse.
If what Zhou Siyan said was true, they had to get rid of the baby as soon as possible. Otherwise, they would both be finished.
Zhou Siyan added, “I need to find a place to hide first. They’re searching the Manster Building to find out who’s pregnant. I can’t go back.”
Xue Yu: “Why don’t you crash at my dorm for the night? No one’s come to check the mining district yet. We need to find time to get to the South Continent and get the abortion.”
Perhaps it was the pregnancy hormones, but hearing Xue Yu so easily say “get the abortion” made Zhou Siyan’s chest ache with an inexplicable discomfort. He pushed himself up with a hand on the wall and gave a cold “Mm.”
Xue Yu led the way with her flashlight, its beam carving a small white path in the darkness. “This way. It’s a shortcut.”
Zhou Siyan pulled his trench coat tighter and followed behind her. He was tall with long legs, but the heavy weight in his abdomen slowed him down. He walked sluggishly, the exhausted black panther padding along beside him.
Xue Yu turned her head and waved. “Hurry up! It’s cold out here. It’ll be warmer in the dorm.”
“I’m pregnant, Xue Yu,” Zhou Siyan said, his brow furrowed and his face like iron. “With your child.”
It dawned on Xue Yu, and she felt a little embarrassed. “Oh, right. It must be inconvenient for you. It’s okay, walk slowly. Do you need me to help you?”
“No.”
At this hour, all the miners were resting. The elevator and hallways were silent and empty. Xue Yu managed to bring Zhou Siyan back to her dorm without any trouble.
Xue Yu was a miner. Her life was a cycle of waking up and digging, without even a weekend off. She had no time to clean her room.
It wasn’t filthy, but it certainly wasn’t tidy.
Her orange work uniform, safety helmet, steel-toed boots, and goggles were all tossed on a chair.
The room was tiny, without even a sofa. Zhou Siyan, who was nearly 1.9 meters tall, made the already cramped space feel even more constricted.
Xue Yu hastily gathered the clothes on her bed, stuffed them all into a metal locker, and tugged at the wrinkled sheet. “Here, you can sit on the bed.”
Zhou Siyan walked over and sat down, one hand supporting his belly.
After a great deal of clattering and rummaging, Xue Yu finally found an unused paper cup under her bed. She filled it with water from the bathroom and handed it to him. “Here, have some water.”
Zhou Siyan hesitated. Xue Yu added, “The water in the bathroom is potable. You can drink it directly. And the water in our mining district is basically mountain spring water. It’s very clean.”
Zhou Siyan took the cup but didn’t drink, just held it in his hand as he surveyed the room. “How did you end up in such a bad state?”
Xue Yu was a bit embarrassed. “I was last in our class at the academy, I don’t have a spirit body, and I have no connections. What did you expect me to make of myself?”
Zhou Siyan: “Why didn’t you look for me?”
Xue Yu: “Aren’t you an extreme sexual conservative? I heard you conservatives are pretty hard to get along with, so I didn’t contact you.”
Zhou Siyan raised an eyebrow slightly. “What faction are you now?”
Xue Yu paused, then smiled. “Uh… I guess you could say I’m in the ‘forced conservative’ faction now.”
People who hadn’t awakened a spirit body after graduation were at the absolute bottom of the desirability ladder. They had no options.
“Mm, I understand.” Zhou Siyan raised the cup and took a sip.
Xue Yu changed the subject, looking down at his stomach. “What’s really going on with this?”
She was honestly a little worried Zhou Siyan was trying to scam her. Male pregnancy was something she’d never even heard of. Besides, they had been broken up for two years. It didn’t make sense for him to get pregnant now.
Zhou Siyan stood up and took off his long trench coat. Underneath, he wore a slate-blue officer’s uniform.
The military uniforms here were tailored to be crisp and severe, the lines of the fabric sharp and straight, giving them a unique, disciplined beauty.
Because of his stomach, he couldn’t button his uniform jacket, but the spotless white shirt underneath was neatly tucked in. The top button of his collar was fastened, and his dark gray tie was knotted tightly.
He undid the buttons one by one, taking off both the jacket and shirt to reveal his bare torso.
His muscle definition was still impressive—broad shoulders and back, a sculpted chest. His abdomen protruded unnaturally, though it didn’t look enormous. He looked like a normal pregnant woman at about five or six months.
“When did you get pregnant?” Xue Yu asked again.
Zhou Siyan’s tense voice held a hint of irritation. “I don’t know. It might have happened when we were together, but it didn’t develop. Then last month, it suddenly started getting bigger for no reason.”
Xue Yu: “Have you checked? What if it’s a tumor?”
Zhou Siyan picked up his clothes and put them back on. “I took an X-ray myself. It’s a baby. A baby with hands and feet.”
Xue Yu: “How are you so sure it’s mine?”
“I told you, I’ve only ever been with you.” He took a deep breath, grabbed her hand, and pressed it to his belly. “And it’s looking for you. It only calms down when it’s near you. When I was at Manster, it was constantly acting up.”
With her palm against his skin, Xue Yu could actually feel the thing inside responding to her, bumping against her hand through his flesh.
“So you were secretly following me just to verify that it was looking for me?” Xue Yu asked.
Zhou Siyan: “Yes. I’ve been following you for five days. The closer I am to you, the quieter I can feel it become.”
Xue Yu pulled her hand back. “No matter what, we have to go to the South Continent and get rid of it first.”
She was frantic. The sooner this baby was gone, the better.
Putting aside the White Tower’s golden rule forbidding newborns, Xue Yu suspected that since she had transmigrated with her body, she had probably fallen into this world through some kind of black hole. Maybe if she found it, she could go back to Earth.
She really didn’t want to stay here anymore. Without a spirit body, she was the lowest of the low, a complete waste with no future. If she found a way back to Earth, she would pack her bags and leave in a heartbeat.
She was only twenty-three. She absolutely could not have a child dragging her down.
Besides, how could a nobody like her afford to raise a child? She couldn’t very well take a baby with her to the mines.
Zhou Siyan went into the tiny bathroom for a quick shower. He had no change of clothes, so he had to put his uniform back on. When he came out, his shirt was buttoned to the very top, perfectly in line with his extreme sexual conservative persona.
They discussed their plan and decided to pack and get a vehicle tomorrow, then leave for the South Continent to get the abortion the day after.
The South Continent was far from the White Tower Safe Zone. The drive would take at least ten days, so the sooner they left, the better. Besides, the White Tower was conducting a strict investigation to find the pregnant person. It was too dangerous for Zhou Siyan to stay.
Xue Yu found her pajamas and was about to take a shower and rest. They had a busy day tomorrow, so it was best to get to sleep early.
Just as she was about to open the bathroom door, she remembered something. She turned her head and said, “By the way, you don’t have a birth canal. How are you going to get an abortion?”
“Birth canal?”
Zhou Siyan didn’t understand the connection between abortions and birth canals. The White Tower’s education included nothing about pregnancy or childbirth. He only knew the word “abortion” from his research in the archives.
Xue Yu said, “For an abortion, they have to stick something up the birth canal to do it.”
Zhou Siyan: “How do you know that?”
“I was a college student.” Xue Yu had been a sophomore when she transmigrated, so she knew a little about it. She waved her hand dismissively. “Forget it. We’ll just do a C-section. They’ll just have to cut you open.”
Zhou Siyan: “C-section?”
Xue Yu: “I’ve read a lot of random books. I’m just talking nonsense.”
Inside the bathroom, Xue Yu took off her clothes and let the hot water wash over her. Suddenly, her back began to burn.
She looked in the mirror and saw dark, bluish-black lines appearing on her smooth skin, like a tattoo. The lines were connecting, forming a pattern.
“A spirit body?” Xue Yu was utterly shocked.
A tattoo-like pattern appearing on one’s back was a sign of a spirit body awakening. It had been the same when Zhou Siyan awakened his. They had been fooling around in bed when a black panther pattern had abruptly appeared on his back. Two months later, his black panther spirit body had emerged.
Xue Yu grabbed a towel, wrapped it around herself, and ran out. She turned her back to Zhou Siyan and urged him, “Quick, look! Am I about to awaken a spirit body?”
Zhou Siyan pulled her towel down a little. “Looks like it.”
“What is it? Help me see!” Xue Yu was overjoyed, almost to the point of tears. Her time as a nobody was finally over.
Zhou Siyan looked for a long while, carefully identifying the pattern formed by the lines. “It looks like… a seahorse?”
“A seahorse?”
Zhou Siyan took out his Cloudsound Box, unfolded the screen, and took a picture to show her.
Xue Yu looked down at the image. It really did look like a seahorse. But what was a seahorse spirit body good for? She had never heard of anyone awakening one.
Zhou Siyan took back the Cloudsound Box, accessed the White Tower’s cloud database, and searched for records related to the seahorse spirit body.
No one in the White Tower had ever awakened a seahorse spirit body before, so there was very little information. He scanned quickly, found a useful tidbit, and showed the screen to Xue Yu. “You’re screwed, Xue Yu,” he said coldly.
Xue Yu looked at the information displayed on the screen.
[Seahorse Spirit Body: Possesses extraordinary reproductive abilities. During procreation, the female releases eggs into the partner’s body, where the male incubates and gives birth to the offspring.]
It finally clicked for both of them. This was why Zhou Siyan, despite being sterilized, could still get pregnant by Xue Yu. It was the power of the seahorse spirit body.
Now Xue Yu was even more panicked. She really was screwed.
The White Tower forbade procreation. Once they discovered she had awakened a seahorse spirit body, the higher-ups would surely exile her to prevent her from sowing her seeds everywhere.
After his abortion, Zhou Siyan might be able to lie low and return to his life as an officer. But how could she hide a seahorse spirit body?
She wouldn’t even be able to work in the mines anymore!
“Is there any hope for me?” Xue Yu was on the verge of tears.
Zhou Siyan fiddled with his leather gloves. “You’re definitely hopeless if you stay in the White Tower. Let’s see what we can find in the South Continent. They have all sorts of strange doctors there. Maybe we can find a way to destroy a spirit body.”