WRA CH47

Chapter 47: A Slight Curve Swelling on the Lower Abdomen

Li Guihua felt on the verge of fainting. Xiao Zhen had only gone out to work for two months, yet he had already been duped by the man in front of her, gotten pregnant, and vanished into parts unknown.

She had been so foolish. She only knew that working on factory assembly lines made young folks susceptible to being tricked by men; who could have guessed that working in customer service had risks too? Didn’t they say all the colleagues were women?

She had warned him thousands of times: if he found a boyfriend, he had to bring him to her for inspection first. Yet Xiang Zhen hadn’t let slip a single word.

Xiang Zhen wasn’t the kind of rebellious child who agreed outwardly while doing the opposite; something must have happened.

Li Guihua seized a large shovel resting by the courtyard wall: “What did you do to our Xiao Zhen?!”

Zhou Sicheng’s lips were baked even paler by the blazing sun: “I’m sorry. I lied to him.”

Li Guihua: “Did you sleep together or not?!”

Zhou Sicheng hadn’t expected his mother-in-law to be so direct. It seemed there was no need to pretend to be just friends. He said, “We are lawful lovers.”

“Lawful?” Li Guihua spat with a ptooey. Beating around the bush like that meant they had slept together, which meant Xiang Zhen was eighty percent likely pregnant.

Zhou Sicheng: “Not breaking the law means lawful.”

Li Guihua raised her voice: “Do you have any idea my son never went to school?! Are you even human? Do you think you’re impressive, tricking an illiterate?!”

Zhou Sicheng asked in return, “Why didn’t you let him go to school?”

Li Guihua’s aggressive momentum dipped for a second: “Uh, the family didn’t have the means.”

Zhou Sicheng glanced back at the three-story villa behind him. Judging by the tile patterns, it had been built at least ten years ago. Ten years ago, Xiang Zhen would have been just ten years old. Having money to build a house, but no money to send a child to school? Compulsory education was free anyway.

Li Guihua wasn’t going to believe Zhou Sicheng’s one-sided story. Remembering that Manning and Xiang Zhen lived together, she dialed Manning: “Manning, why didn’t Zhenzhen tell me he was dating?”

If he had told her, she would have at least warned him about what to do in case he got pregnant.

Dou Manning: “Because in the beginning, Zhou Sicheng lied to Zhenzhen saying he was in debt. Zhenzhen was too embarrassed to tell you he found a broke husband, wanting to wait until they earned money to return in glory. He was afraid of his hubby losing face.”

Li Guihua: “…Fine. When you date someone, you must tell me.”

The phone leaked sound slightly, and Zhou Sicheng heard every word clearly.

So his wife had harbored such delicate, considerate worries for him back then.

At this very moment, he had truly lost both face and dignity in front of his mother-in-law.

“Manning, he said he lied to Xiao Zhen. Does that mean he scammed his money to pay off debts?” Li Guihua narrowed her eyes. A scumbag like that deserved to have all the Yao mobilized to beat him to a pulp.

Zhou Sicheng: “No.”

Dou Manning: “Zhou Sicheng went on the blind date under the guise of a worker, but he’s actually a detestable capitalist.”

Li Guihua: “Huh?”

Dou Manning: “Marx once said that capitalists, through appropriating surplus labor value… and the Guide to Adulthood also said that the proletariat and the bourgeoisie are natural enemies.”

“I think so too, yes, exactly.” Li Guihua, whose only hobby was playing mahjong, felt like she was listening to ancient scriptures.

Dou Manning earnestly reported his recent ideological accomplishments, sounding like a big baby who had just come home from school.

Li Guihua’s head spun. When did you two Yao become so cultured? Education in the city is truly something else. She could only play along: “You two learned so much, the teacher taught so well.”

“So, do you know why Xiao Zhen threw up?”

Dou Manning: “Because his hubby is a mega-capitalist. He feels like vomiting whenever he sees a capitalist.”

“Right, right…” Li Guihua’s mind turned a circle. Zhou Sicheng was a mega-capitalist. Wait, mega-capitalist = wealthy person. Why would anyone want to throw up upon seeing a rich person?

“Wait, no, that’s not right.” Li Guihua was almost led astray. She remembered Zhenzhen didn’t hate the rich.

Xiang Zhen used to always say he wanted to find a Sun God. Afraid he would only care about looks, Li Guihua had casually bluffed him: “Then find a rich one. Rich people have fiery, vigorous vitality.” Back then, Xiang Zhen hadn’t resisted that at all!

Dou Manning asked, “What’s not right?”

No one could refute Marx. Li Guihua shifted the topic: “Does Xiao Zhen throw up all the time? Is the reaction that intense?”

Dou Manning: “Only in front of his husband.”

Li Guihua summarized: “So Xiao Zhen was disgusted into running away?”

Zhou Sicheng’s breath hitched. When he heard Li Guihua say “that’s not right,” he had thought there might be a turning point.

He had hoped for too much. He had exhausted all his methods, gentle and extreme alike, yet none had worked.

Dou Manning said solemnly, “Yes. Zhenzhen’s husband went on a hunger strike to force him to suppress the nausea, and Zhenzhen ran away because he was afraid he would die.”

Li Guihua shuddered: “Who went on a hunger strike? Who’s going to die?”

Dou Manning: “His husband.”

Li Guihua let out a breath of relief, hung up the phone, and looked at the pale-lipped, agonized man before her.

“…”

Oh, so this is the guy throwing a hunger strike.

Li Guihua was completely out of her depth at mediating this. Well, she had never been good at untangling the love-hate entanglements between Yao and humans, and the village mediation office had never invited her for training anyway.

Li Guihua knew Xiang Zhen was a sunflower, but she didn’t know the botanical habits of sunflowers.

She couldn’t pin down the real reason for Xiang Zhen’s vomiting either—was he pregnant, or disgusted by capitalists?

Her impression of Zhou Sicheng softened slightly. Xiao Zhen was clearly still deeply in love, and Zhou Sicheng was equally hopelessly devoted.

Before Xiao Zhen returned, Zhou Sicheng had better not drop dead here on her watch.

Li Guihua looked at this son-in-law visiting her home for the very first time. Around the Dragon Boat Festival, she had received a whole truckload of anonymous holiday gifts, which she had assumed were sent by Bai Qi’s family.

Thinking back now, it must have been from this new son-in-law.

As his mother-in-law in name, Li Guihua spoke up: “Come sit inside. I’ll make you a bowl of sweet egg soup with wolfberry leaves.”

Zhou Sicheng: “Pardon the intrusion. If Xiang Zhen isn’t here, I plan to search elsewhere.”

Li Guihua felt that if he kept searching like this, he was going to run himself into an early grave. She advised with heartfelt urgency, “Did he tell you he would come back?”

Zhou Sicheng: “He did.”

Li Guihua: “Then wait with peace of mind. That child has been able to run like the wind since he was small; even I couldn’t catch him.”

Zhou Sicheng: “I can’t rest easy.”

Li Guihua sighed: “Young man, if you trust your Auntie Guihua, go get a good night’s sleep. Our Xiao Zhen cares about looks above all else; getting your health back in shape is more important than anything.”

Such an exhausted sun looked as if it were about to crash into the sea at any moment—how could a sunflower still be drawn to it?

“Did Xiang Zhen undergo physical training as a child? He leaped down from the second floor during a thunderstorm.”

Zhou Sicheng asked abruptly, fixing his eyes on Li Guihua’s reaction.

Li Guihua rubbed her palms together: “Y-Yes, exactly. He and Manning underwent training from a young age under a master of peerless martial arts, which is why neither of them went to school. Xiao Zhen probably went to the mountains to seek guidance from his master.”

Li Guihua still preferred flopping onto the ground and throwing a tantrum over dealing with a high-IQ corporate CEO.

Could Manning bring home a big fool next time instead?

Zhou Sicheng: “Where is this master?”

Li Guihua: “His whereabouts are elusive.”

Dou Manning trained as well?

Zhou Sicheng fell silent for a moment, intending to have Shen Ku probe Dou Manning.

“Thank you. May I see Xiang Zhen’s room?”

Li Guihua: “The one on the second floor with the little sunflower sticker on the door.”

Zhou Sicheng went up to the second floor and stopped before a door. Right in the middle was a cartoon golden sunflower cut out from a picture, its edges ragged and uneven like a kindergarten craft made by a three-year-old.

He couldn’t help but wonder: had his wife ever even attended kindergarten?

Li Guihua seemed rather feisty on the outside, yet on the phone with Dou Manning, she sounded genuinely loving and cared deeply about the children.

This household seemed full of secrets.

Zhou Sicheng looked around. There were several doors on the second floor, two of which were labeled with stickers reading “Coffee” and “Snake.”

Zhou Sicheng turned the handle and stepped into a small bedroom filled with sunflower elements.

A tiny single bed, a square white mosquito net, and numerous sunflower ornaments hanging on the walls—none of which were bought, but handmade cutouts from various product packagings.

Zhou Sicheng spotted a golden packaging bag from a popular brand of sunflower seeds featuring a large sunflower head. Xiang Zhen had actually collected over a dozen of them and pasted them onto a fan frame, making a waterproof hand fan.

The corner of Zhou Sicheng’s mouth twitched into a faint smile. Remembering the milk tea buckets in the rental apartment—the first time he caught Xiang Zhen picking up discarded milk tea cups, he had lost his temper at him.

If time could turn back, Zhou Sicheng wouldn’t lose his temper anymore.

He just wanted to hold this adorable wife who had known how to scavenge packaging bags since childhood.

Although Xiang Zhen had left home two months ago, the small room remained spotless, kept clean by Li Guihua’s frequent dusting.

Standing in this warm, cozy bedroom, Zhou Sicheng discarded his hypothesis that Li Guihua had trafficked children.

He noticed a stack of practice paper on the desk. Picking it up, he found children’s calligraphy tracing sheets, every single page filled to the brim.

Xiang Zhen had progressed very quickly; at the beginning, he clearly hadn’t even known how to hold a pen.

There were dates written on them… Zhou Sicheng froze. Why had he only started practicing calligraphy last year?

Had his wife been so thoroughly illiterate before the age of nineteen that he couldn’t even hold a pen?

Had he truly spent his childhood practicing martial arts with Dou Manning?

Zhou Sicheng inspected the rest of the items on the bookshelf. There were elementary and middle school textbooks; flipping through them, each book only had a few pages of notes, as if he had only attended a handful of classes per semester.

There were also some homework assignments, such as essays.

A 400-word prompt essay: I Am—

Xiang Zhen had written I Am a Sunflower in the Greater Khingan Mountains. He hadn’t known how to write the measure word for plant (zhu), first writing “a piece” and “an animal,” only getting it right on the third try.

Such an imaginative wife.

Reading Xiang Zhen’s words, it felt as though Xiang Zhen were reciting them right beside his ear. Zhou Sicheng felt a long-lost drowsiness wash over him. Lying down where Xiang Zhen used to sleep, he closed his exhausted eyes.

When he awoke, a bowl of sweet soup with two poached eggs sat on the table.

Simultaneously, Zhou Sicheng’s appetite returned.

Li Guihua was no longer home. Zhou Sicheng asked neighbors and called her phone, but couldn’t reach her; she seemed to be deliberately avoiding him.

Zhou Sicheng left a thick red envelope on the table.

He took a car to the airport, preparing to head to the Greater Khingan Mountains.

The Greater Khingan Mountains appearing in Xiang Zhen’s essay was certainly no coincidence; it was Xiang Zhen’s spiritual home.

Zhou Sicheng was certain: Xiang Zhen was definitely in the Greater Khingan Mountains.

Across the vast land, mountains and rivers intertwined.

Traveling along mountain ridges and waterways, Xiang Zhen shrank smaller and smaller to speed his journey, transforming into a palm-sized little sunflower—gliding like a butterfly, moving at the speed of a bullet train.

His flower head felt somewhat heavier; perhaps it was because he hadn’t been a top-heavy sunflower in too long.

Xiang Zhen stopped, curling his roots into a seat, propping his flower head with two leaves.

Suddenly, glancing north, dense black clouds were gathering—a thunderstorm cloud mass blocked the path ahead. Xiang Zhen cautiously retreated a bit…

And then turned and ran.

Not going to the Greater Khingan Mountains anymore!

He missed his hubby so much.

Besides, for some unknown reason, his feet felt sore and weak; he couldn’t walk all the way to the Greater Khingan Mountains anyway.

He wanted his hubby to fly him there in a private jet.

After turning back into a sunflower, Xiang Zhen realized that not only could he not look at his hubby directly, but he had also grown somewhat fearful of the scorching sun. He had been darting beneath the shade of trees the entire way to avoid being roasted by the blistering heat.

Was it because he had used some of his sunlight power, making him frail?

Transforming back into human form, Xiang Zhen sat on a clean stone by a clear stream, deep in thought, his delicate brows knitting slightly.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up!

He had found the reason!

He understood now: he was actually a sunflower that couldn’t withstand high temperatures and intense glare. Summer was too hot, so he feared the sun, which had consequently implicated his Sun God hubby.

Once summer ended and the temperatures cooled down, he could hold his hubby again!

Through the gaps between the tree leaves, Xiang Zhen cast a reproaching glare at the blazing sun.

It was all his fault for connecting Zhou Sicheng too closely with the sun.

Xiang Zhen silently chanted in his heart: Zhou Sicheng is not the sun. He is just my human hubby.

It actually seemed to work! No wonder humans invented Buddhist chanting.

Xiang Zhen decided to find a place to escape the summer heat, and return to find his hubby once some time had passed.

The stream was shallow, with white spray foaming on the water. Xiang Zhen dipped his bare feet into the water, letting out a comfortable sigh.

His clothes could be hidden or summoned along with his transformations, but each transformation caused a bit of wear and tear.

Tidying his torn cuffs, Xiang Zhen bent down to scrub the elbows of his jacket—when he had jumped from the second floor and landed on the ground, he had soiled his clothes.

What a waste of good fabric; Yueyue said his clothes were very expensive.

Xiang Zhen washed himself until he was nearly soaked through, then lay on a boulder to dry.

Leaving in such a hurry, he had forgotten to put on shoes.

Without shoes, he couldn’t travel in human form; the pebbles hurt the soles of his feet too much.

Plant form, on the other hand, was far less delicate; it could take root no matter how harsh the environment.

Xiang Zhen drank some water and looked at his reflection in the stream.

The reflection in the water was a sunflower.

Hmm?

A sunflower’s disc is greenish-yellow to bright yellow, packed with hundreds of tiny tubular florets full of pollen.

Given his rate of growth, his blooming period could last for decades, maintaining its most gorgeous flower head state indefinitely.

Why had one patch turned brown? Xiang Zhen prodded it. Had a bug bitten him here?

Or was it because… Xiang Zhen’s face heated up. Could it be because this spot was frequently nudged by his hubby?

…

Xiang Zhen wandered aimlessly.

He needed to find a mountain closest to his husband to cultivate.

How about West Lake? Would Bai Qi the snake be at West Lake?

When Manning set beans years ago, he had sought out a place with high altitude so the harvested coffee beans would be of superior quality.

…

Zhou Sicheng stayed in the Greater Khingan Mountains for nearly half a month.

The former hazelnut grove, destroyed by fire, had been turned into artificially cultivated Korean pines.

Zhou Sicheng took on a “job” as a local forest ranger.

Hadn’t Xiang Zhen envied Dou Manning’s husband for being a glorious worker?

Now he was one too.

Living with his feet firmly on the ground, keeping company with the forest, Zhou Sicheng’s demeanor grew much more grounded and steady.

Yet Xiang Zhen never showed up.

Perhaps he had come, seen that this place was different from what he imagined, and quietly slipped away again.

Half a month later, Zhou Sicheng was certain Xiang Zhen wasn’t coming.

Worker Zhou set down his axe and headed home.

He had truly lost his mind, convincing himself to wait here day after day just because of Xiang Zhen’s elementary school essay.

He should return to his office and plaster missing person notices for Xiang Zhen across the entire world.

…

August 24th of the solar calendar, exactly one month since Xiang Zhen went missing.

The twelfth day of the seventh lunar month, marking the end of the dog days of summer.

A bolt of lightning struck a certain mountain peak. With a thunderous crack, the crown of a colossal boulder shattered, and a razor-sharp shard rained downward.

With a yelp, Xiang Zhen dodged the falling rock.

For the past month, he had hidden behind this boulder. Whenever he wanted to bask in the sun, he poked his head out; whenever it felt too hot, he rested in the shade.

On nights when he missed his hubby, he would transform into human form and sit on top of the boulder, gazing out at the Milky Way, searching for the Weaver Girl and Cowherd stars.

He didn’t know which was which; he had never studied astronomy.

Xiang Zhen picked at the fraying hole on the knee of his trousers, worn down from multiple transformations.

He had heard that stars that could emit light were mostly fixed stars, and the sun was a star too, just the closest one to Earth.

Looking up with wide eyes, Xiang Zhen felt that every star resembled his husband.

—His hubby had now become a cold, distant star far away from him.

He couldn’t feel his hubby’s warmth, nor the ebb and flow his hubby stirred within his body.

Xiang Zhen fell asleep counting the stars that looked like his hubby.

…

The rock shattered into pieces on the ground. Xiang Zhen’s heart pounded with lingering dread. The lightning had struck so suddenly that when it hit the boulder, it had even singed a lock of his hair.

He felt the lightning had targeted him deliberately. It was clearly a cloudless day; when it rained and thundered, he hid in the rock crevices, he wasn’t stupid.

Dazed and clutching his head, Xiang Zhen heard another crack overhead and jumped aside just in time. He dodged the main blow, but flying stone shards sliced several cuts across his pale instep.

A thin trickle of blood traced across his foot, yet Xiang Zhen felt no pain.

Thunder reverberated, awakening all things, granting spiritual enlightenment to Yao.

In a flash, Xiang Zhen suddenly understood that brown spot on the sunflower disc—it wasn’t an injury. Among the hundreds of tiny florets, one had successfully pollinated and was nurturing a plump, round sunflower seed.

Heaven had bestowed another tiny life upon the sunflower.

Xiang Zhen could barely believe it. His entire flower disc was otherwise pristine, unchanged, in endless peak bloom, except for this single floret nestled deep within, quietly conceiving a child.

He had thought that because he was a boy, he couldn’t have babies.

The golden-haired, dark-eyed youth stood barefoot at the edge of the stone cliff beneath the azure sky, staring down at his lower abdomen.

There was a slight curve swelling there.

A gust of wind blew past, and another button from his battered suit popped off, rolling clink-clink-clink down the mountain.

Xiang Zhen blinked, resting a hand gently over his lower abdomen, thinking back to two months ago when he had thrown up the first time he saw his hubby.

Was this… human morning sickness?

He hadn’t been sickened by his hubby’s money after all? Was it because Zhou Sicheng always did it with such ruthless intensity that, once pregnant, his body developed a self-defense mechanism to guard against Zhou Sicheng?

All because his hubby was too capable.

Xiang Zhen recalled scene after scene of Zhou Sicheng’s devastating handsomeness.

The dog days of summer are over. Hubby, I’m coming home.