Chapter 3: Pregnant with a Little Gigolo's Child
Zhou Lin began to swiftly pack up his meager belongings. His movements were quick, as if he wanted to use his busyness to cover up his inner embarrassment and anxiety.
While packing, he whispered to Su Hexi, more like to himself: "I'm sorry to have wronged you... just make do with this for a month. When I get paid next month, I will definitely... definitely take you to rent a better house. I promise."
His voice was low, with a barely perceptible tremor. Sleeping on the street, under a bridge, it didn't matter to him, but he couldn't let her suffer with him. Even if she was in every way wrong, since he had married her, as long as she was by his side, he had to shoulder this responsibility.
Su Hexi watched his busy back, watched him carefully pack up his meager belongings, listened to his words "I'm sorry for putting you through this" and the vague promise about the "good house", her throat seemed to be blocked by hot sand, and she couldn't utter a word.
The sins committed by the original owner were like heavy shackles, placed on this taciturn man, and also on her who had just been reborn.
What should she do now?
There was almost nothing to move. Zhou Lin's meager belongings were packed into a worn sack. He carried the sack and reached out with his free hand to support Su Hexi, who was staggering and bleeding from her forehead, but she subconsciously dodged him.
It wasn't disgust, but the huge guilt and the remaining arrogance of the original owner were tearing at her heart, making it impossible for her to accept this silent kindness at the moment.
Zhou Lin's hand paused in the air, then he silently retracted it and whispered, "Follow me closely."
The short distance from the city center to the gray tube-shaped building of the steel plant felt like walking to an execution ground.
Neighbors on both sides of the tube-shaped building were now crowded with onlookers, mostly women carrying bowls of rice or knitting. Their gazes were like a sticky spider web, entwined layer upon layer, and their whispers were unabashed, even deliberately raised, as if afraid the other party wouldn't hear.
"Look, that's her! The troublemaker in Foreman Zhou's family!"
"Tsk tsk, you've already broken your head, and you still have the nerve to come out and show off?"
"I heard he used Zhou Lin's brick-moving salary to date a gigolo and got caught by his wife!"
"Zhou Lin was such a good young man. He used to be so respectable at the steel mill. He's really been ruined by this vixen!"
"A capitalist lady is rotten to the core. She's lazy and only knows how to seduce men!"
"Bah! Shameless! Zhou Lin is so unlucky!"
Those gazes, those pointings, those extremely harsh comments were like countless fine needles, piercing Su Hexi's newly established and still fragile self-esteem.
The original owner's memory fragments were filled with similar scenes, but at the time, she only felt anger and disdain, thinking that these "peasant legs" were unworthy of commenting on her. But now, with a modern soul, she felt overwhelming shame and embarrassment. Su Hexi was completely furious!
"Watch your mouths! Did I eat your rice or spend your money? Is it your turn to spew shit here?!"
The fat woman hadn't expected her to talk back. She was stunned for a moment, then jumped up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. "Ouch! You did something shameful and you don't want people to talk about it? I'm talking about you! You capitalist daughter! You're such a troublemaker! You've dragged your husband down and made him lose his job, forcing him to haul cement! If you hadn't been with a gigolo, would you have been beaten like this by his wife? And you still have the nerve to yell?!"
"Whether I'm with a gigolo or not is none of your business! Zhou Lin didn't say anything, who do you think you are? You're just meddling in other people's business! Just take care of your own man and don't let him peek into the ladies' room!"
Su Hexi's head was buzzing, and the verbal abuse skills he had acquired on the modern Internet burst out without even thinking about it. Although crude, they were extremely effective.
"You! What nonsense are you talking about!" The fat woman's face turned red with anger, and a burst of suppressed laughter sounded around her.
"Stop talking!" Zhou Lin finally spoke, his voice deep and undeniable. He stepped forward, completely blocking Su Hexi behind him. His gaze swept over the onlookers, finally landing on the fat woman's face. "Sister-in-law Liu, don't worry about my family's affairs. Xiaoxi is my wife. It's only natural for a man to spend his money on his wife. What happens to her? I'll take care of her."
When he said this, not only the neighbors but also Su Hexi was stunned.
These words came from the mouth of a man who had lost his stable job because of her, and could only carry cement and could not even pay the rent. There was no trace of resentment, only a sense of responsibility that was almost resigned to his fate.
The surroundings instantly quieted down considerably. The expressions of the onlookers became complicated, with a mixture of disdain, surprise, and a hint of something inexplicable... perhaps sympathy for Zhou Lin?
Zhou Lin said no more, took Su Hexi's arm, and whispered, "Let's go."
This time, Su Hexi did not break free.
Zhou Zhisheng's dormitory was in the innermost room on the second floor of the tube-shaped building. As soon as the door opened, an indescribable mixed smell hit him in the face.
The unique smell of sweat in a bachelor's dormitory, the sour smell of socks that have been fermenting for a long time, the sour smell of overnight food residue, and the musty smell emanating from the damp corners, these smells are intertwined together to form a very impactful "poison gas bomb".
Su Hexi was already feeling irritated and angry from being scolded. The wound on her forehead hurt, and her stomach was feeling uncomfortable. The smell made her physically nauseous no longer bearable. She suddenly covered her mouth, turned around and rushed out of the house, retching violently into the broken plastic trash can: "Ugh... cough cough..."
She vomited so much that tears came out and she felt like her internal organs were about to shift.
Her vomiting instantly changed the meaning of her words in the eyes of several neighbors who had just followed her upstairs and were still peeking in the corridor.
"Yo? What's wrong? Are you vomiting so much?"
"Oh my... could it be... that she's pregnant?"
"Whose child is this? Isn't Zhou Lin toiling away on the construction site every day these days? How could he have the time?"
"Who else could it be? It must be that pretty boy's! What a sin! Zhou Lin is cuckolded..."
"She must be pregnant with the pretty boy's child. Otherwise, how could such a skinny and petite girl suddenly become so fat?"
Su Hexi was so angry that she was shaking all over. She suddenly raised her head, her face pale, and pointed at the door and cursed: "Bullshit! I hate the stench of this room! It stinks so much that it makes me sick! Your brain is full of filth, and everything you see is dirty! Get out of here!"
Zhou Lin looked at Su Hexi, who was bent over and retching in a miserable state, and then looked at the dirty, messy and smelly house with a complicated look in his eyes.
He silently picked up the broken broom and a rag whose original color could not be seen in the corner and began to clean up clumsily.
Zhou Lin barely managed to tidy up the house so that it was habitable, and then he helped Su Hexi, who was exhausted from vomiting and leaning against the wall, into the house to rest.
Zhou Lin looked at her silently, his eyes dark and unclear.
After a long while, Zhou Lin's low, hoarse voice suddenly rang out, with an extremely difficult tone: "Xiaoxi, if... if there really is..." His voice was as dry as sandpaper, "Knock it off."
Su Hexi suddenly opened his eyes and held his breath in disbelief.
Zhou Lin's voice was filled with pain and a calmness bordering on despair. "I can do whatever you want. You can do whatever you want. But this matter... I really can't do it. This child... I can't have it."
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