Chapter 3: It Found Its Mom
Xue Yu dug a blanket out from the bottom of her trunk and laid it on the floor for herself, giving the bed to Zhou Siyan. His condition was delicate; she couldn’t very well make him sleep on the floor.
At night, the metal walls emitted a soft, moon-like glow, so the room wasn’t completely dark. By turning her head, Xue Yu could see Zhou Siyan’s sleeping form. He was lying flat on his back with only a thin quilt covering him, and she could still make out the curve of his abdomen.
His spirit body, the black panther, was curled up beside him. Its stomach was also slightly enlarged, as if it were pregnant too.
Xue Yu laced her hands behind her head. This was a huge mess.
The trip to the South Continent for Zhou Siyan’s abortion, including travel and medical fees, was definitely not going to be cheap.
She only earned three thousand New Dollars a month from the mines. After paying for rent and food, there was barely anything left of that meager sum. She was broke, with less than two hundred New Dollars in savings.
If Zhou Siyan asked her to pay for half the procedure, where was she supposed to get the money?
When they were dating, she had been a penniless freeloader, tagging along with Zhou Siyan for food and drinks. He hadn’t seemed to mind her being poor and had even opened a joint account so she could spend his money directly.
But after they broke up, Zhou Siyan had become an extreme sexual conservative, and they hadn’t spoken since.
Xue Yu had encountered a few extreme sexual conservatives before: they were extremely cold, extremely ruthless, and extremely averse to any form of intimacy.
Those like Zhou Siyan, who had a romantic history and then converted, were even worse. They would go out of their way to pretend they didn’t know their former lovers.
She didn’t know what to expect from him now.
She decided to give him a heads-up, just so he knew where she stood. She would go with him for the abortion, but if he expected her to pay, she was sorry, but she really didn’t have the money.
“Zhou Siyan,” Xue Yu whispered.
“Mm,” he grunted, his tone neither warm nor cold.
Xue Yu turned onto her side, propping her head up to look at him in the dim metallic light. “What’s your job at the Manster Building? I heard you’re a high-ranking officer now.”
Zhou Siyan: “Director of the Security Division.”
Xue Yu sucked in a breath. “Wow, you’re a director at just twenty-three? That’s an incredibly fast promotion. Did you get the castration surgery?”
In the White Tower’s promotion system, sexual conservatives were favored. Castration allowed one to work without distractions, and many rapidly promoted high-ranking officers had undergone the relevant organ removal surgery.
Zhou Siyan’s voice was flat and emotionless. “No.”
Xue Yu: “I thought you were so career-focused you would have had it done long ago.”
Zhou Siyan: “…It’s not that serious.”
Xue Yu brought the conversation back on track. “So, as a director, you must earn a lot, right?”
Zhou Siyan: “It’s decent.”
Xue Yu sighed. “I only make three thousand a month in the mines. Rent is two thousand, and then there’s food and other expenses. I don’t have enough to get by.”
Zhou Siyan closed his eyes to rest. “How much do you need to borrow?”
Xue Yu quickly clarified, “I’m not trying to borrow money. I just mean, for this trip to the South Continent for the abortion…”
Zhou Siyan cut her off. “You don’t need to pay.”
Xue Yu: “That’s a relief.”
The next morning, the red sun rose past the window.
When Xue Yu woke up, Zhou Siyan was already up. He was washing his face in the bathroom. He turned and glanced at her. “I used your towel. Go buy yourself a new one. It’s not convenient for me to go out.”
“It’s no big deal. I don’t mind.”
They had lived together shamelessly before. After she started working in the mines, Xue Yu had become even less fussy. She didn’t care about things like that.
But Zhou Siyan said, “I have mysophobia now. Buy a new one. I don’t want to share with you.”
Xue Yu: “…” What’s wrong with him? If you’re a germaphobe, why did you use my old towel in the first place?
She didn’t say anything, but her gaze shifted to his stomach. Maybe it was her imagination, but it seemed a little smaller, the curve less pronounced than last night.
Zhou Siyan noticed her stare. “It gets smaller when it’s quiet. I guess it found its mom, so it’s not acting up anymore.”
Xue Yu chuckled and said casually, “Its mom? It’s just a half-breed.”
Visible displeasure flashed in Zhou Siyan’s dark eyes. He turned and walked out of the bathroom.
Well, I’m not wrong, Xue Yu thought. She was from Earth, and Zhou Siyan was from a different race. Their offspring would literally be a half-breed.
Xue Yu found a small bottle of energy supplement and gave it to Zhou Siyan for breakfast.
Then, she contacted Zhuang Xinzhang to ask for a month’s leave.
Zhuang Xinzhang wasn’t particularly capable, but thanks to her clumsy snail spirit body, she was still ranked one level above Xue Yu and had managed to become a foreman in the mines.
Zhuang Xinzhang asked what she was doing.
Xue Yu couldn’t tell her the truth, so she just said she thought she was about to awaken her spirit body and needed to spend some time at the training grounds to see if she could trigger it.
Zhuang Xinzhang: “That’s great! Good luck! I’ll approve your leave, but you won’t get paid this month.”
Xue Yu: “That’s fine. My spirit body is more important.”
With work sorted out, Xue Yu found a backpack and packed a few things.
Zhou Siyan’s plan was to go back to the Manster Building to pack his own luggage, prepare supplies like rations, ammunition, and gasoline, and then leave for the South Continent in his car that night.
Xue Yu, of course, agreed. The thing in Zhou Siyan’s stomach was a ticking time bomb for both of them. The sooner they dealt with it, the better.
Zhou Siyan was still in his military uniform. In the White Tower, that uniform was like an all-access pass, making it easy to get around.
His stomach had shrunk considerably this morning, to the point where he could actually button his uniform jacket. There was still a slight curve, but with his knee-length trench coat on, it was well-concealed. Without looking closely, he didn’t appear much different from a normal man.
Xue Yu saw Zhou Siyan pick up a small spray bottle and start spritzing it on his abdomen. The scent was a rich, woody fragrance. After waiting for a while with her backpack on, she saw he was still spraying and couldn’t help but ask, “You’re an extreme sexual conservative, but you still wear cologne?”
Zhou Siyan gave her a cool, sideways glance. “This is a hormone scent masker. I have pregnancy hormones on me. The hounds at Manster can detect them.”
Xue Yu: “Oh. My bad.”
It took three hours to get from the mining district dorms to the Manster Building by levitation train. The train was similar to the subways on Earth, but faster and quieter. Once inside, you couldn’t hear any noise.
The train was free, but the White Tower was severely overpopulated. It was always crowded, and the line from the entrance to the platform was incredibly long.
At 1.7 meters tall, Xue Yu wasn’t considered short for a woman on Earth, but on Planet KM, it was another story. There wasn’t much height difference between men and women in the White Tower; the average was around 1.8 meters. Zhou Siyan was 1.92 meters, a height considered top-tier in terms of attractiveness.
When they were dating, Zhou Siyan had even suspected her height was the result of an illness. He had taken her to the hospital for a check-up, and the doctor’s diagnosis was: “genetic defect.”
Xue Yu had been so angry she could only roll her eyes and console herself with the fact that she was a transmigrator from Earth and not the same species as them.
Xue Yu ran ahead to check the length of the line, while Zhou Siyan, wrapped up tightly, waited in the crowd. The moment she left, the thing in his stomach started acting up again, thrashing around inside and pushing against his stomach, making him want to retch.
Zhou Siyan hunched over, clutching his abdomen tightly, his face pale and covered in a cold sweat.
He endured it until Xue Yu returned. He grabbed her hand and pressed it against his stomach through his clothes, which brought some relief.
“Put… put your hand inside.” Zhou Siyan’s voice was a soft, hoarse whisper in her ear.
Xue Yu was confused. “Inside where?”
Using his trench coat for cover, Zhou Siyan secretly undid the black buttons of his uniform jacket and shirt, then took her wrist and guided her hand so that her palm was in direct contact with his abdomen.
That finally did the trick. The thing inside settled down completely.
They were standing very close. When Xue Yu looked up, she saw Zhou Siyan’s sharply defined jaw and his sexy Adam’s apple. Looking down, she saw his broad, straight shoulders and the appealing contour of his chest muscles beneath the slate-blue uniform.
“Don’t stare at me, Xue Yu,” a cold, metallic voice suddenly came from above her.
“You extreme sexual conservatives are so interesting.” Xue Yu averted her gaze, her palm gently rubbing his stomach. “Does rubbing it like this make it feel better? Does it still hurt?”
Zhou Siyan: “It doesn’t hurt anymore.”
Xue Yu smiled. “This thing is so strange. It knows how to look for its mom even when it’s still in the womb.”
Displeasure clouded Zhou Siyan’s eyes. “It’s not a ‘thing’.”
“Huh?” That sounded even weirder.
Suddenly, Xue Yu felt a wave of heat from her palm, as if it were some kind of energy. The energy flowed from Zhou Siyan’s abdomen into her palm, spread throughout her body, and finally gathered at the spirit body pattern on her back.
While she was still in shock, a Controller rushed over, grabbed her by the shoulder, and pulled her away. With swift, clean movements, they pinned her arms behind her back and slapped on a pair of handcuffs.
“What are you doing?!”
Xue Yu was pressed against the wall by two Controllers in black regulatory uniforms, unable to move.
“Name, age, occupation! Report!” The female Controller took out an ultra-thin smart tablet from her belt pouch and took Xue Yu’s picture.
Struggling, Xue Yu said, “Xue Yu, twenty-three, a miner from the Fu’an Mining District. What do you want?”
The female Controller quickly looked up her information on the tablet. “Publicly harassing an extreme sexual conservative? You’ve got some nerve! Who’s the ethics officer in your district? What kind of character education did they give you?”
It finally clicked for Xue Yu.
The clothes of extreme sexual conservatives were marked with a violet insignia, signifying their extreme aversion to sexual relations. With this symbol, if anyone from the liberal faction got too close, the Controllers would deem it harassment.
While sexual relations in the White Tower were very open, the laws against harassment and sexual assault were extremely detailed and strict. Forcing oneself on another would result in severe punishment.
“He’s my ex-boyfriend! We know each other!” Xue Yu argued loudly.
The male Controller: “Harassing a former partner who has joined the conservative faction is an even greater offense.”
Zhou Siyan hurried over to intervene. “My apologies. This is my ex-girlfriend. We’ve gotten back together. And I’m not an extreme conservative. This coat belongs to a friend. The insignia was my oversight. I’ll remove it now.”
He tore the violet insignia from the shoulder of his trench coat and threw it in the trash.
“Wasting law enforcement resources. Take them both back to the restricted zone for three days of community service,” the male Controller said impatiently.
Zhou Siyan adjusted his trench coat to reveal the military uniform underneath and then took out his ID. “Hello, I’m from the Manster Building.”
The male Controller’s expression changed instantly. He immediately pulled the female Controller beside him to attention and saluted. “Apologies, Commander. We didn’t recognize you.”
Zhou Siyan put his ID away. “Do we still need to do community service?”
The male Controller: “Of course not. Please, be on your way.”
Xue Yu stood up straight and adjusted her crooked backpack. She had encountered situations like this countless times and was used to it. Without an awakened spirit body, she was at the bottom of the social ladder everywhere she went.