I Became the Mother of His Child

Xu Xiuxiu slept soundly and deeply, only to wake up at night. The beauty of the evening outside was accompanied by the occasional sparse chirping of crickets from the yard. Little Song Chengguang had already been fed early by Song Yuanhuan and rushed off to dreamland. When Xu Xiuxiu walked into the living room, all she saw was Song Yuanhuan. He sat quietly on a chair, reading the evening paper he had in his hand. The tall figure appeared exceptionally cold and handsome in the dim light.

There was no denying that Song Yuanhuan was the kind of man whose silhouette alone could take one's breath away with its inherent charm.

"Awoke?" Song Yuanhuan, engrossed in the newspaper, lifted his head as he heard the slight friction of slippers against the floor. His soul-stirring eyes locked onto Xu Xiuxiu for a long time as if scanning her from head to toe. "Are you hungry? I've kept dinner warm for you; should I bring it out for you to eat?" Song Yuanhuan's question was coupled with action as his tall figure promptly folded the newspaper and stepped into the kitchen.

Xu Xiuxiu, still groggy, sat down at the dining table. Her slender fingers rubbed her empty belly—a hunger awakened was truly an uncomfortable feeling!

Song Yuanhuan was quick. In no time, he had the warm meal laid out on the table, all vegetarian dishes that Xu Xiuxiu liked. Just as Xu Xiuxiu reached to take up her chopsticks to fill her ravenous stomach, Song Yuanhuan stopped her with a raised hand, and Xu Xiuxiu gave him a resentful look with her pouting face.

Song Yuanhuan simply smiled, and after tousling Xu Xiuxiu's somewhat disheveled hair, he turned back to the kitchen and brought out a basin for her to wash her face. He placed the basin aside, dipped his rough, dark hand into the water, and after wringing out the damp cloth, bent slightly to wipe Xu Xiuxiu's sleepy cheeks. "Would you like to brush your teeth?" Song Yuanhuan asked after cleaning her face, gently touching her soft, collagen-filled cheeks.

"Mhm!" Xu Xiuxiu, now more alert, nodded passively towards Song Yuanhuan.

In no time, Song Yuanhuan had fetched a toothbrush and cup for Xu Xiuxiu and watched her brush her teeth and rinse her mouth.

"Good girl! Eat your meal!" After Xu Xiuxiu finished washing up, Song Yuanhuan approvingly took the toothbrush and cup from her and encouraged her with a smile.

Xu Xiuxiu obediently nodded, and then picked up her chopsticks to quietly eat her dinner. Woken by hunger, she devoured two large bowls of food before feeling slightly full and stopping. However, having her fill only made her sleepy again. Despite trying to fight off the drowsiness by walking around the room for a few minutes, she soon lay back down in bed.

Song Yuanhuan didn't stop her from continuing to sleep. His tall figure lay at a corner of the bed in the bedroom, with a dim light hanging from the canopy above. He softly murmured a bedtime story, his deep, magnetic voice like a father gently soothing his precious little daughter. Under this comforting illusion, Xu Xiuxiu gradually fell asleep, and once again, her sleep was incredibly deep.

...

The next day, everyone living in this little alley had a juicy new topic to gossip about. It was said that Slaughter Liu and his wife, the hefty woman from the Liu Family, were bizarrely beaten up by someone who showed up at their door the previous evening. Both of them had faces that were swollen blue and purple, perfectly resembling pig heads. Even their hair had been shaved off overnight to baldness. Slaughter Liu being bald was one thing; as a man, it was somewhat acceptable. But for the plump wife from the Liu Family, her becoming bald was rather comical, enough to make one burst into laughter upon seeing her.

Xu Xiuxiu had no idea about all of this. The next day upon waking up, she and Song Yuanhuan returned to the military base. Her emotions yesterday had been too agitated, and she decided not to continue to trouble herself over buying the house, simply handing the matter over to Song Yuanhuan to deal with. She believed that Song Yuanhuan should be able to easily handle it. After all, he would have to take care of the renovations of the rough house later on, and Xu Xiuxiu tossed the responsibility without any sense of psychological burden.

As expected, Song Yuanhuan was efficient and decisive in his actions. Within just two days, he informed her that the rough house she had looked at had been purchased. The price was not high, and Song Yuanhuan even bought another set of rooms on the floor above, planning to connect the two floors to make the overall area considerably large. He even had Brother Cai, Cai Bo, already start on the refurbishment. If all went well, they would be able to move into the new house by the end of the year.

Xu Xiuxiu was quite pleased with this and thought that by the end of the year, her belly should be noticeable, and the expected due date would be around Chinese New Year. The idea amused Xiuxiu—it would be fun to have a baby on the first day of the New Year!

Life on the military base was inherently dull, and Xu Xiuxiu's personality had further settled down. After erupting into a shrewish argument with the plump wife from the Liu Family, Xu Xiuxiu's entire demeanour had instantly shifted. She worked hard to control her emotions, suppressing her cheerfulness and liveliness to present a facade of quietness and indifference.

"Baby, I'll protect you well," she whispered with a gentle smile, caressing the small bump in her belly in the quiet of the night.

After that quarrel with the hefty woman from the Liu Family, Xu Xiuxiu felt off. Following Song Chengguang's little disappearance, Xiuxiu, exhausted to the brink of emotional collapse, felt a vague pain in her abdomen while lying in bed asleep. If not for Xiuxiu hastily consuming the pink fruit from her space, and if not for the regular strengthening of her body with Space Spring Water, the child in Xiuxiu's belly might have already started a rebellion in protest. After all, before Xu Xiuxiu came here, the original owner of the body was like a battered medicine jar, beyond repair.

When a person truly settles down into tranquility, time flies by incredibly fast. After returning to the base, Xu Xiuxiu no longer went out to the unofficial military wife gathering places as before. She asked Song Yuanhuan for some flower seeds and quietly planted many flowers on her balcony. Now, those flowers had grown and blossomed, and the classic novel "Dream of the Red Chamber" she held in her hands had been read and savoured thoroughly three times. At last, her flat belly began to inflate slowly, like a balloon being blown up.

However, when time quietly shifted to the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15th, Xu Xiuxiu was already five months pregnant. Her round belly had grown so large it was alarming—so big that when Xu Xiuxiu stood straight and looked down, all she could see was the roundness of her belly. She no longer experienced the severe morning sickness of the early days; her state of health had adjusted quite well. The only issue was that she had become much more prone to sleepiness, spending most of her day asleep.

Song Chengguang, young and innocent, was very curious about his mother's large belly, so after much puzzling, Xu Xiuxiu finally explained to the little guy the truth that there was a baby inside her stomach.