Chapter 6 Men Giving Birth
Su Mu: "...Doctor, are you sure you're not mistaken? I..."
"I am a man."
The man is pregnant.
This combination sounds like the most outrageous Onion News headline of the year, so absurd that even the punctuation marks exude a strong sense of eeriness. Su Mu even wondered if he had accidentally wandered into the filming location of some prank show.
The doctor, clearly not new to this kind of questioning, adjusted his glasses and said with a calm confidence that science treats everyone equally: "The test results are clear. Of course, to be completely certain, I suggest you have an abdominal ultrasound as well."
Su Mu was led by the nurse in a daze and lay down on the cold ultrasound examination bed.
The coupling gel, sticky and cool, was applied to my belly. The probe pressed up and slid across the screen.
He tilted his head to the side, where he could see a blurry, flickering black-and-white image on the monitor next to him. The doctor operated the probe, stopping at a certain point, pointing to a small, indistinct, yet vaguely outlined shadow on the screen, his tone even carrying a hint of...congratulations.
"Look, the gestational sac is here, and it's developing quite well. Congratulations! Actually, there are rare cases of male-to-female childbirth in medicine, although the proportion is extremely low, it's not unheard of. So, from a medical perspective, you don't need to worry too much in your case. Just have regular prenatal checkups, pay attention to nutrition and rest..."
Congratulations?
Su Mu stared at the blurry shadow: "Is it possible... Doctor, is it possible that this is just a tumor?"
The doctor shook his head: "Impossible. Based on the ultrasound images and your blood test results, you are pregnant, sir."
You are pregnant.
Su Mu felt a sudden darkness before his eyes and a ringing in his ears. He couldn't hear anything the doctor said afterward or whether the nurse was calling him.
"Hey! Sir! Sir! What's wrong?!"
After an unknown amount of time, Su Mu laboriously opened his eyes a crack, and all he could see was the hospital ceiling.
As his vision gradually cleared, he saw a young nurse in a pink uniform standing by the bed, looking at him with concern. She visibly relaxed when she saw that he had woken up.
"You're finally awake!" The nurse's voice was filled with relief. "While you were unconscious, your phone rang. It showed your mother's number. I saw it had rung many times and was worried it might be an emergency, so... I answered it for you. When I heard it wasn't you who answered, your mother was very anxious and asked what was wrong. I could only tell her that we were in a hospital."
Su Mu's mind was still a little sluggish as he regained consciousness, and he just stared blankly at the nurse.
"Then the aunt asked you what was wrong. I saw you lying here alone, and the situation was... and so special, so I felt I had to tell your family. So... I briefly told them that you were in the hospital, that you had some special health issues, and that you needed your family to come. The aunt was very anxious and asked what the situation was. I... I didn't dare to go into details, I just said that I needed to tell them in person. They... they said they were already on their way."
His parents...find out? Are they on their way?
When they arrive, how do we explain it? Do we say he's a man who got pregnant? That he got pregnant because he had a drunken one-night stand with another man?
The nurse, seeing his suddenly vacant eyes, felt a pang of anxiety and quickly stepped forward, reaching out to support him: "Oh, sir? What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell? You're about to faint again."
Su Mu: "...I haven't fainted yet, let me calm down, but thank you anyway."
Seeing that he seemed to have calmed down a bit, the nurse breathed a sigh of relief and told him, "Then you should rest well. If you need anything, just ring the bell to call me."
Su Mu stared at the ceiling for a long time, his mind a jumble of thoughts. One moment it was the blurry shadow on the ultrasound screen, the next it was the doctor's words, and then it was his parents' faces... In the end, he mustered up the last bit of courage he had left, or rather, he was numb with despair, and took out his phone to call his mother.
The call was answered quickly, with the background noise being the rhythmic rumble and slight swaying sound unique to high-speed trains in operation.
Su's mother's voice came through: "Xiao Mu! Your dad and I have boarded the high-speed train and we've already gone quite a distance! Don't be afraid, no matter what happens, wait for your dad and mom! We'll be there soon."
Hearing his mother's familiar voice, Su Mu's nose suddenly stung, and his throat felt like it was blocked by something: "...Okay."
He remembered the condoms he hadn't bought because he thought they were too expensive.
I remembered the salesperson joking, "It's worth the price. The higher price might make some people who are reluctant to use it save money and then have a baby."
So... the price increase was for people like him?
He could hardly connect any rare medical cases or unusual internal structures with himself anymore.
I've been working night shifts for so long lately, with irregular sleep schedules and meals. Sometimes I'm so tired that I don't even want to eat. I've also carried heavy loads... Despite all this, the little one in my belly is still alive and well without any problems.
Su Mu felt a strange sense of admiration for this little guy; he really had inherited his indestructible, cockroach-like physique.
It has a very strong vitality.
Just then, the phone screen lit up again.
Another unfamiliar number.
This time, I'm sending a list of essential medicines for high-altitude areas and instructions on how to take them.
The irritation and absurdity that Su Mu had just suppressed suddenly surged up again, mixed with a trace of indescribable, dark resentment.
He stared at the screen, a thought flashing uncontrollably through his mind: The Jiang family is so rich… now even illegitimate children can inherit their wealth, right? If the Jiang family found out… about the baby in his belly…
Never mind, he's not so bad as to not be able to afford to raise a child.
Without thinking, he tapped the block button again, his finger moving with a sense of venting.
The world was quiet for less than five minutes.
The phone screen lit up again.
It was yet another brand new, unfamiliar number.
The message that came in: Are you just waking up now?
He had just woken up and was already terrified by the unexpected arrival of the child in his belly.
Su Mu: Don't send me any more messages, I don't really want to think about you right now.
The message has been sent.
There was a long silence on the other end, with no reply.
This was the first time Su Mu had said something so harsh and direct to Jiang Ran, drawing a clear line between them.
We've known each other since college, for so many years now.
They had a brotherly understanding, arguments and cold wars, estrangement and awkwardness, and even that absurd and chaotic night that completely broke down all boundaries.
But no matter what, Su Mu had never told the other person so directly, as he had now, "I don't really want to think about you right now."
He is an adult with independent behavior who can take responsibility for himself. Although the scope of this responsibility has now been forcibly expanded to an inconceivable area that he never even dreamed of.
But subconsciously, he didn't want to, and was unwilling to, take the initiative to contact Jiang Ran because of this outrageous and... embarrassing thing.
Although Su Mu was in a bad mood, his appetite was surprisingly good.
At noon, he slowly made his way to the hospital cafeteria, wearing a blue and white striped hospital gown.
He ordered a large bowl of braised pork rice. The rich, dark sauce of braised pork was poured over steaming white rice, and it was served with a braised egg and a few sprigs of vibrant green vegetables. He sat by the window, head down, and ate it all up, bite by bite.
The man sitting next to me looked to be in his forties, with a somewhat ashen complexion but still bright eyes. He was also wearing a hospital gown, and there was only a small bowl of congee in front of him.
He glanced at Su Mu several times before finally unable to resist asking, "Young man, you're so thin, yet you eat so much. You're so young, and your complexion... is still alright. What happened? Are you injured somewhere?"
“There’s something growing inside my belly…” He originally wanted to say “thing,” but then felt it would be disrespectful to life, so he changed his words to “…a little thing.”
He brushed it off vaguely, then asked in return, "Brother, what about you?"
Upon hearing this, the man gave a smile that was both somewhat resigned and accepting: "What else can I do? It's cancer. They found out, and they said it's in the early stages, so it's treatable. But whether it can be cured, who knows?"
He picked up a spoon and stirred the bland porridge in the bowl: "Whatever, I'll live one day at a time. I'll eat when I'm hungry and drink when I'm thirsty. There's no use worrying."
Su Mu was stunned for a moment. The panic and self-pity he had felt because of his own little troubles suddenly faded a lot. He said sincerely, "Brother, your attitude is really good. Really, with a good attitude, there will definitely be no problem. You can definitely be cured!"
The older brother smiled and said, "I take your kind words," without saying anything more, and lowered his head to slowly drink his porridge.
Su Mu also turned his gaze away and looked out the cafeteria window.
The afternoon sun shone through the glass, casting bright spots of light on the ground. In the courtyard outside the window, there were elderly people in hospital gowns being helped by their families to take a slow walk, and young parents carrying newborns, their faces beaming with joy as they hurried by.
Hospitals are truly amazing places.
He thought.
Like a giant container, it simultaneously holds the most vibrant new life and the most inevitable passing away.
All the most extreme opposing emotions and states are compressed, collided, and coexist here.
Some find new life here, while others face their end.
When Su's mother arrived at the ward, Su Mu was holding a small bottle of yogurt that the nurse had given him.
He was good-looking and had a very likable personality.
Since resigning, Su Mu has been free from the oppressive atmosphere of the office and endless overtime. In fact, her complexion is better than when she was sitting in the cubicle. Her cheeks have regained some color and flesh.
The ward door was pushed open, and Su's mother appeared in the doorway, followed by Su's silent father. Both of them were dressed like ordinary rural people, their clothes still wrinkled from their long journey, their faces showing unconcealed fatigue, and even more so, a deep, almost overflowing worry and anxiety.
When Su's mother's gaze fell on her son on the hospital bed, her heart, which had been hanging in suspense all the way, seemed to settle down a little. But then, a wave of fear and anger surged up again.
She walked a few steps to the bedside, said nothing, raised her hand, and patted Su Mu's shoulder and arm several times, neither too hard nor too soft.
"You! You really... scared us to death! When we got the call saying you were in the hospital and there was some kind of special situation, your dad and I were scared out of our wits. Our hearts were pounding the whole way here!"
Su Mu shrank back as his mother patted him, almost dropping the yogurt bottle.
Looking at his mother's reddened eyes and his father's furrowed brows, he was instantly overwhelmed by a deeper sense of guilt. He muttered softly, with a hint of pleading, "...I'm sorry, Mom, Dad, have you...eaten yet? It's such a long way from home."
Su's father sighed, sat down on the chair by the bed, and looked at his son with a complicated expression.
Instead of asking about your condition, he brought up another matter, his tone serious: "The nurse on the phone didn't explain clearly, she just said you're pregnant. Didn't you promise to tell me and your mother if you started dating someone? Where is that person now?"
Su Mu's heart tightened, and he lowered his eyes: "...We broke up."
Upon hearing this, Su's mother became even angrier. Recalling her earlier admonitions on the phone, she couldn't help but scold, "I told you not to be so casual! How long have you been dating? And you... and you've already had sex? Now look what's happened! Do you know how much damage this has done to your health, how..."
Looking at her son's face, she swallowed back the words of reproach, leaving only heartache and helplessness, which she uttered as, "...I'm sorry, Mom was just worried about you."
Su Mu lowered his head even further, like an ostrich: "...I'm the one who's more sorry, for making you all worry."
He didn't know what else to say besides apologizing.
Father Su rubbed his temples, his tone tinged with a sense of resignation: "Sigh, it's too late to say anything now, the deed is done."
Cooking raw rice into cooked rice?
As Su Mu listened to his parents' back-and-forth conversation, he felt more and more uneasy.
How come... they don't seem to show the expected shock, or even the disbelief that he, a man, is pregnant?
Instead, it was as if they were blaming him for messing around and accidentally causing a death. This reaction was just like that of ordinary parents who found out their daughter was pregnant unexpectedly.
Su's mother noticed the confusion on her son's face. She was silent for a moment, then walked to the bedside, took Su Mu's hand that wasn't holding the yogurt, and gently held it. Her hand was a little rough, bearing the marks of years of hard work, but it was very warm.
She looked into Su Mu's eyes, her voice soft and relieved: "Xiao Mu, originally... I wanted to tell you about this when you were a little older, but your dad wouldn't let me. He said he was afraid that if you knew... you would feel burdened and different from others. He also said that you're so dense that you don't know when you'll be able to date. It's not too late to tell you when the time comes."
"Actually... Xiao Mu, in our Su family, generation after generation, it has always been... men who give birth."
Su Mu: "…………"
He held the bottle of yogurt, completely frozen, his mouth slightly open, his eyes wide open.
In our Su family, it's always the men who give birth.
Su Mu looked at his father in disbelief: "...So I was also born to my father?"
Su's father coughed awkwardly and turned his head away with a haughty air.
So his father is actually his mother, and his mother is actually his father.
A note from the author:
[doge] Don't delve into the details, anyway, it's the man who gives birth.
I've changed the subject of the previous chapter, so I can update daily consistently from now on. I should be able to get on the first list tomorrow! Yay!
Little Wood: ...Shocked.
Young Master Jiang, heartbroken, clutched his phone: "My wife has never said such hurtful things to me before. [crying][crying][crying]"
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