Chapter 157 (3)
The more Tong Yao thought about it, the more uncomfortable she became. Suddenly an idea came to mind: go to the hospital and abort it?
Once the idea came to mind, Tong Yao subconsciously clutched her tummy and her face turned pale. She was disturbed by the thought and subconsciously wanted to reject the idea– –She didn’t even have time to wonder where her “subconsciousness” came from.
Then she began to worry about how to tell her family. She could already imagine that two hours after she told them, her parents would drive a tank over and ram through the base’s front door……
While her mind wandered, she didn’t notice that the sound of water from the bathroom stopped. Lu Sicheng came out of the bathroom with a bath towel wrapped around him. Water beads dripped down from his broad and solid shoulders…… Tong Yao looked up when she heard the door open. If it was any other time, she would probably note how attractive he looked. But now, without knowing why, a lump suddenly came into her throat and her eyes turned red. Her tears dripped down like the water beads on Lu Sicheng’s shoulders– —
Just after exiting the bathroom, Lu Sicheng saw Tong Yao holding the small blanket and crying on the bed. He was a little baffled.
Without getting near, he asked: “What’s going on?”
Then he realized that he was asking for trouble by phrasing it that way, so he hurriedly added: “Don’t cry, what’s there to cry about.”
Even though he was still confused, he knew he couldn’t just stand there. He walked over to the bed, used the towel to randomly wipe off the water on his body, and without bothering to put on his pants, he climbed onto the bed in his underwear. Then he tightly held Tong Yao, who had hardly cried in the past few months, but was crying like a dam had burst. He patted her back and waited till she had calmed down somewhat before carefully asking: “What did you say just now?”
Tong Yao looked up and stared at him with her reddish eyes. After a while, she spoke with a heavy nasally sound: “Pregnant, your fault.”
It was simple and direct, forceful and resonating.
Lu Sicheng: “……”
His head was much clearer now after the shower– –He had fully woken up when he sat up in the bed earlier and now he was even more sure that he wasn’t in a dream earlier.
Lu Sicheng was quiet for a dozen seconds while all sorts of the thoughts went through his head. When he looked down again at the person in his arms, his dark brown pupils were calm and he had made up his mind– —
Even he was surprised at how fast he had come to the decision. Everything still felt very surreal as if he was still in a dream with Tong Yao in his arms.
He was about to open his mouth but happened to glance at Tong Yao’s reddish eyes and the uneasiness in them. He suddenly changed his mind, lifted up his big hand to tidy her messy hair, and gently asked: “What’s your plan then?”
Tong Yao was terribly upset at the time and didn’t notice tenderness and accommodation in his voice. The scenes for her imagined TV drama came to mind again– –Hearing his question, she automatically thought he was going to shirk on the responsibility. She felt like opening the window to howl and cry to the outside and pity herself for meeting a person like him!
“What does my plan mean? It’s your son and you ask me!” Tong Yao pushed Lu Sicheng away and stood up on the bed to stare at him from above: “It’ll be the closed training after two days, then, a month later, we’ll have to go to America for the world tournament. And you want me to go to the hospital to abort him? Don’t you know it’ll hurt? Haven’t you heard that you need to do the one month confinement even if it’s a miscarriage?[1] If not, you’ll have a lot of health issues later on. Tell me, how can I be playing games on stage? Do I ask the organizer to switch drinking water to bird’s nest soup with rock sugar? But all of these things aren’t the point, the point is that it really hurts! Besides, have you heard those ghost stories about aborted babies? I don’t want to have a little ghost hanging on my shoulder whenever I take a picture in the future. The little ghost will be pitiful and I’ll be pitiful! What do you mean let me decide? Does that mean after I’ve made the decision then you won’t have any responsibility later– –”
Before Tong Yao finished, Lu Sicheng pulled her down with one hand and used the other big hand to cover her mouth– –When she fell onto the soft blanket in his arms, the tip of her nose bumped into his solid shoulder and her breathing was a little erratic from being so agitated……
She made a couple of wu, wu sounds and Lu Sicheng took his hand away from her mouth.
Tong Yao was dejected: “I’m scared of the pain.”
Lu Sicheng looked at Tong Yao’s head which was looking downwards. Though he couldn’t see her face, he could tell how upset she was. He was speechless at her reaction and pursed his lips and sulkily said: “No one is asking you to go to the hospital to abort it. What are you afraid of?”
Tong Yao abruptly raised her head with wide eyes.
Her eyes met those dark brown pupils.
Tong Yao abruptly lowered her head again.
Lu Sicheng: “I haven’t even uttered a word, what are you angry about?”
Tong Yao’s lips twitched and said drily: “Pregnant women are all quite irritable.”
Lu Sicheng: “……”
Lu Sicheng wanted to say that he had only heard that pregnant women were all filled with the glow of motherhood and never had he heard any nonsense about how they would be irritable…… His lips moved a bit, but eventually he decided to keep his mouth shut.
[1]: 作月子 (zuò yuè zi) or literally “sit month” is the term for the one month postpartum confinement period. The concept is still common in modern Chinese communities.
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