The father pulled the woman into his arms.

“We’ll be getting off soon. You can sleep when we get home,” the father said while adjusting his daughter’s clothes.

Noticing that Chi Yan was watching them, the father smiled warmly at him, and Chi Yan returned a faint smile.

Chi Yan got off at the same stop as the father and daughter.

He followed them out of the station. The father and daughter hailed two taxis by the roadside and left. Chi Yan stood quietly, watching them leave. Shortly after, another taxi pulled up, and Chi Yan flagged it down.

Opening the door, Chi Yan got in and told the driver to take him to a hotel.

The hotel was located diagonally across from the hospital.

Chi Yan had found the hospital first and then booked the nearby hotel.

With no luggage on him, Chi Yan entered the hotel after the taxi dropped him off.

By this time, the sky had already darkened. After entering his room, Chi Yan didn’t come out again.

Sitting in the room, he turned on the TV, but it seemed like fate was against him—no matter what channel he switched to, there were always children.

Feng Min parked his car outside Chi Yan’s house. Two days earlier, when they were teamed up for a game, Chi Yan had said he had something to take care of and wouldn’t be online for the next couple of days.

Feng Min opened Chi Yan’s live streaming page, only to find it offline, with a leave note posted on Chi Yan’s personal column.

The note said Chi Yan had personal matters to handle, and it might take three or four days, but he’d be back as soon as it was resolved.

Chi Yan didn’t give specific details, leaving Feng Min feeling worried.

He flipped through his phone book—he had Chi Yan’s phone number. His finger hovered over the call button for a long time, but in the end, Feng Min didn’t dial.

Chi Yan didn’t like him, and if he called, Chi Yan would only coldly reject him.

Feng Min smiled bitterly.

He sat in the car, waiting for a familiar figure to emerge from the neighborhood, but even as the sky turned dark, he didn’t see Chi Yan.

Realizing how silly he was being, Feng Min shook his head with a self-mocking laugh. Chi Yan had likely already left.

Starting his engine, Feng Min drove away from the neighborhood.

Two minutes later, a white car pulled up.

The back door opened, and Chi Yan got out of the car.

Chi Yan looked exhausted and pale, his eyes bloodshot.

---

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Buying Baby Formula

When Chi Yan got home, he didn’t turn on the lights. The faint glow from outside the window filtered in. He walked to the couch and sat down, gripping his hands tightly.

The child inside him was still there. He hadn’t gone through with the abortion.

He had been so prepared. He even used a fake ID and went to a remote town where transportation and communication were much slower than in a big city.

When the doctor found out he was a man and pregnant, they were surprised, but after that, they didn’t say anything to make Chi Yan uncomfortable.

While waiting for the procedure, something happened.

It was that incident that changed Chi Yan’s mind.

A young couple came in, the pregnant one with a big belly, probably six or seven months along. The baby was already fully formed, and if they had taken an ultrasound, Chi Yan knew they would have seen the baby’s shape.

But the couple’s faces, especially the pregnant one, were filled with grief and despair.

They couldn’t keep their baby. A friend had given them a cat before leaving, and the pregnant partner had kept the cat at home without regularly deworming it. As a result, the cat transmitted toxoplasmosis to the mother, which affected the fetus. The doctor recommended they terminate the pregnancy.

Chi Yan was some distance away, but the entire hallway, filled with the smell of disinfectant, echoed with the tragic cries of the pregnant person. The husband tried to lift his partner from the floor, but the partner collapsed completely.

The husband’s face was also soaked with tears. Passersby who saw them grieving wore heavy expressions.

Chi Yan could tell how much that baby meant to the couple. It was their beloved child, but due to carelessness, an accident had happened.

His hand rested on his stomach. His own child wasn’t fully formed yet—just a tiny mass of flesh.

Neither he nor the little life had anticipated its arrival.

The baby was likely looking forward to being born, to making a sound, to being with parents who loved it, to growing up and experiencing everything in the world.

Chi Yan’s fingers curled slightly. The grieving couple was still crying, and the partner had been helped onto a chair. The husband stepped away, took out a cigarette as if to smoke, but tears fell onto his hand.

He broke the cigarette and tossed it into the trash before returning to his partner.

He knelt in front of his partner, holding them tightly, whispering something. Chi Yan couldn’t hear, but he could guess that the husband was comforting his partner, saying that although this child was gone, they could have another.

He might have said that fate hadn’t brought them and the baby together, and that the baby had simply returned, but it would be happy wherever it was.

The partner wept silently.

A nurse called Chi Yan—it was time for his procedure.

Chi Yan stood up slowly and followed the nurse down the hallway.

Posters of beautiful, adorable babies were plastered on the walls.

Would his baby be a boy or a girl?

He liked both. If it were a girl, that would be even better—he’d spoil her like a little princess and give her all his love.

His child—the one he had never wanted—suddenly made Chi Yan hesitate.

He was gay, destined never to have children. He wouldn’t marry a woman just to have a baby, nor would he use surrogacy—both would be cruel to others.