Chapter 5: Why So Fired Up in the Morning?
Feng Qizhou held the baby bottle with one hand and clutched his abdomen with the other.
He had performed the C-section on himself, hiding in an operating room in the middle of the night. He’d administered the anesthetic, picked up a scalpel, and cut himself open.
When the baby was first delivered, it was tiny, clearly not full-term.
The reason he’d delivered it early was mainly because the fetus had been thrashing around inside him, causing unbearable pain. What was worse, he didn’t just have one baby inside him; he had two. He wasn’t even sure if they were twins. A membrane of flesh separated the two fetuses; they weren’t right next to each other.
He had originally wanted to deliver both babies.
But he couldn’t.
The other fetus was positioned too low. To get it out, he would have had to make another incision from the side. His body couldn’t withstand that much trauma at once. He could only deliver one for now and leave the other inside.
The baby in his arms had a strong bite; she was about to chew the nipple to shreds. Feng Qizhou pulled the bottle away and looked at the nipple, which was now riddled with holes like a sieve. He gently pinched the baby’s leg.
“Do you have any idea how much trouble your dad went through to get you this bottle? You ungrateful little thing. Just like your good-for-nothing mother.”
He was certain this little demon was Xue Yu’s. He had only ever been with Xue Yu.
Though he didn’t know what kind of power Xue Yu possessed to get him pregnant, he was sure the child was hers. The baby’s features were a carbon copy of Xue Yu’s.
Besides, when he had examined Xue Yu earlier, he’d looked closely and discovered that she hadn’t been sterilized. Her fallopian tubes were completely intact.
As for why he had gotten pregnant with Xue Yu’s child, he had no clue.
…
Xue Yu took the elevator to Zhou Siyan’s apartment on the 102nd floor. She raised her hand and knocked softly. “Zhou Siyan, it’s me. I’m back.”
Zhou Siyan opened the door. He had already removed the bandages from his abdomen. He was wearing just a shirt, with his large trench coat thrown over it.
Xue Yu entered the apartment and pulled the wad of cash Feng Qizhou had given her from her pocket, presenting it like a treasure. “Look what this is.”
Zhou Siyan’s expression was blank. “Money.”
Xue Yu: “Feng Qizhou gave it to me. We can save it and find you a better hospital when we get to the South Continent.”
Zhou Siyan gave her a look that screamed, You have such low standards, but said nothing.
They continued packing, filling two large, heavy suitcases. Firearms, ammunition, and first-aid supplies took up the most space.
Xue Yu glanced at her watch. It would be another hour before it got dark. The watch was a gift from Zhou Siyan when they were dating. She hadn’t kept it out of lingering affection; she was just genuinely too poor to buy a new one.
The two of them stared at each other, and Xue Yu began to pace around the room, feeling awkward.
When she and Zhou Siyan were dating, they had mostly just fooled around in bed. There weren’t many recreational activities at the military academy, and they couldn’t leave campus freely. Less than a month after they started dating, Zhou Siyan had moved into her single-room dorm, and they had essentially lived together for almost a year.
One day, while they were in the middle of things, Zhou Siyan had suddenly pulled away, run to the bathroom, and thrown up. A few days later, he broke up with her, saying he felt he was meant to be an extreme sexual conservative and didn’t plan on pursuing any intimate relationships in the future. He then moved out of her dorm and cut off all contact.
At the time, Xue Yu had guessed it was because her grades were so terrible that the bastard was embarrassed by her.
“Did you date anyone else after you went to the mines?” Zhou Siyan asked abruptly.
Xue Yu touched her earlobe as she walked over. “No. Mining is too exhausting.”
Zhou Siyan: “So how did you… manage?”
Xue Yu: “I didn’t. I didn’t have the energy for it.”
Zhou Siyan raised an eyebrow, looking puzzled. “When we were together, I got the feeling you were pretty… insatiable.”
A row of black lines formed over Xue Yu’s head. Back then, she had been in a state of self-abandonment. She was dead last in every exam, and her teachers called her a good-for-nothing every day. As someone from a different world, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t keep up. So, she had decided to just live day by day, thinking she might as well die on top of Zhou Siyan one day. Maybe if she died, she could go back to Earth. She really missed home, and she really missed her mom.
“Well, that was because you had such a great body,” Xue Yu said with a dry laugh.
Zhou Siyan didn’t reply. He took a box of injectables from under the coffee table, skillfully drew a clear liquid into a syringe, and made a fist. The needle pierced a prominent vein in his arm.
Xue Yu was afraid of needles. Watching Zhou Siyan’s fluid movements made her teeth ache. “What’s that medicine?” she asked.
Zhou Siyan calmly withdrew the needle. “Libido suppressant.”
Xue Yu was clueless. “What’s that?”
He removed the used needle, capped it with a plastic cover, and threw it in the trash. “Something to suppress sexual desire,” he replied flatly. “It’s an internal product for extreme sexual conservatives, used to control their urges.”
“Oh, that extreme, huh.”
Xue Yu knew that after people here awakened their spirit bodies, their desires would increase, and they would experience intense periods of heat. She had never experienced it, though, as she didn’t have a spirit body yet.
“You’re pregnant, but you still have a sex drive?” Xue Yu blurted out.
Zhou Siyan took a deep breath to calm himself and held up the syringe. “Want some?”
Xue Yu quickly waved her hands and took a step back. “No, no, my desires aren’t that strong. Besides, with your current physique, I’m not really feeling anything. No need for suppression.”
A resentful look crossed Zhou Siyan’s eyes as he put the syringe away with a clatter. That’s just how he was—venom-tongued. The guy could probably poison himself just by talking.
Realizing she had misspoken, Xue Yu slapped her own mouth. “That’s not what I meant. I meant that I respect you and won’t have any improper thoughts about you. Don’t worry. After the abortion, you can go back to being a director, and I’ll go back to the mines.”
“Mm,” Zhou Siyan grunted in response.
The sky turned completely dark. The clouds were thick and heavy, blocking out any moonlight. It was perfect for a stealthy departure.
Out of a sense of duty to care for the “pregnant man,” Xue Yu volunteered to carry the larger suitcase, nearly toppling over in the process. With one hand on his stomach, Zhou Siyan pushed the smaller suitcase toward her with the other. Xue Yu had no choice but to obediently wheel the smaller suitcase and follow behind him.
They took the special elevator for high-ranking officers, left the Manster Building, and went to the parking lot behind the building.
A high-chassis off-road vehicle was parked there, loaded with outdoor gear like a tent and high-powered firearms. It looked like a military vehicle configured for field operations.
They loaded the suitcases, and Zhou Siyan got into the passenger seat, letting Xue Yu drive. She had been trained at the military academy and was a skilled driver.
There were still many inspection soldiers working overtime up ahead, still trying to find out who was pregnant.
Following the route Zhou Siyan gave her, Xue Yu drove around the soldiers from the rear right. Under the cover of the dark, windy night, they successfully left the Manster Building area and headed toward the edge of the safe zone.
They were both tense and didn’t speak the entire way. Xue Yu’s palms were sweating. It wasn’t until two hours later, when they had left the residential area of the White Tower, that her frayed nerves began to relax.
At one in the morning, they completely left the safe zone and entered the buffer zone between the contaminated and safe areas.
In her three years here, Xue Yu had never left the White Tower Safe Zone. This was her first time seeing the world outside. There were no mountains; the terrain was generally flat, with a grassy surface. However, sudden fissures, like cracks from an earthquake, would appear without warning, making it extremely dangerous.
“Let’s stop here. We can get some sleep and leave in the morning,” Zhou Siyan said.
Xue Yu was exhausted too. She parked the car.
They had different ideas about sleeping arrangements. Xue Yu took out the tent and set it up. Zhou Siyan, on the other hand, folded down the back seats of the SUV, apparently planning to sleep in the car.
They went their separate ways to sleep. Before long, painful groans came from the car. Zhou Siyan’s face was pale with pain.
Clutching his stomach, he got out of the car, unzipped the tent, and went inside.
Xue Yu woke with a start and rubbed her eyes. Seeing his pained expression, she asked, “What’s wrong? Is it acting up again?”
“Hold me,” Zhou Siyan said, sitting on the air mattress.
“Oh.” Xue Yu sat up, knelt on the mattress, and wrapped her arms around his neck.
Zhou Siyan’s voice was hoarse. “I meant, hold the baby.”
“How?” Xue Yu didn’t get it.
Zhou Siyan lay down on his side on the mattress and gestured for her to lie down as well. He had her scoot down and wrap her arms around his abdomen as she slept. Xue Yu did as she was told. When she lay down, hugged his waist, and rested her face against his stomach, she could feel him relax.
At the same time, her face grew warm. A scalding energy was transferring from his abdomen into her body, just like on the train earlier that day.
“This baby is giving me your spiritual power again! How can it do that? It’s so naughty!”
Zhou Siyan would rather have his spiritual power stolen than endure the baby wreaking havoc inside him. He closed his eyes. “Stop scolding it. It’s being filial. You should be happy.”
“Alright.” Xue Yu hugged his waist tighter. She had been a nobody for too long. When the spiritual power flowed into her body, she found it impossible to refuse.
When the sun rose, Xue Yu woke up feeling a noticeable surge of power, as if she had been fully charged.
Zhou Siyan was already up, crouching in front of the car and washing up with bottled water. The baby hadn’t acted up all night. His complexion was much better. It was the first peaceful night’s sleep he’d had since his pregnancy had started to show.
Seeing Xue Yu emerge from the tent, Zhou Siyan handed her the half-empty bottle of water. “Wash up. We’ll eat something and then get going.”
As Xue Yu was washing up on the ground, she saw Zhou Siyan take a bag of rations from the car, along with the first-aid kit. He took out the same type of syringe as yesterday and a small vial of libido suppressant.
Xue Yu wiped her face and smiled. “Injecting yourself with that first thing in the morning? Why so fired up?”
Zhou Siyan was unabashed. “I am.” He didn’t even look up as he asked, “Want some?”
Xue Yu waved her hands. “No, no. I’m not having any of those thoughts. I’m quite chaste.”
Watching him inject himself, she asked, “Do you inject yourself with this every day?”
“Not usually. I’ve just been very sensitive recently. I don’t know why,” Zhou Siyan said after finishing the injection. He sterilized the area and put the syringe back in the medical kit.