Since no one else in the house was very familiar with Xiao Hu’s examination process, I simply adjusted the schedule—moving my monthly prenatal checkup to the same day as his physical exam.
That way, the two of us could keep going together.
We still walked there, though we had to stop and rest several times along the way.
It was good to get some regular exercise anyway.
From our daily conversations, Xiao Hu seemed to understand that inside my slightly rounded belly lived a tiny new life.
Every day, he would lie beside me, propping up his little face together with Tingyun, talking to my stomach.
Sometimes the two of them would curiously ask whether the baby inside was a little brother or a little sister—or maybe even a little Ultraman.
So when the two kids got into heated debates about whether it would be Ultraman Leo or Ultraman Taro inside my belly, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud again and again.
Xiao Hu still called me “big sister,” and called the baby in my belly “little brother” or “little sister.”
Although it left the family hierarchy in complete chaos, all I could do was shake my head helplessly.
Back when Rongrong was still around, she often mixed up how to address everyone too—she called Yangyang “big brother,” but called me “aunt”…
The hospital wasn’t exactly close.
In the past, he used to need me to carry him for nearly half the way, but now that he’d grown more sensible, he walked on his own.
When we stopped to rest, he would sit obediently by my side and never run off.
Uncle Gazi had warned him that if Xiao Hu ran around, his sister would worry and chase after him—and if she chased him, the baby in her belly would cry.
He took that very seriously.
Sometimes, even if a little flower by the roadside caught his attention and he wanted to pick it, he would hesitate for a long time.
If he really couldn’t resist, he would solemnly tell me what he was going to do and remind me not to chase him—only then would he trot off happily.
His grown-up way of speaking and acting always made me both amused and deeply touched.
That day, we went together for our checkups.
After Bruno estimated my due date and reminded me of a few precautions, we left to take Xiao Hu for his physical.
Seeing that I had brought him this time, Huang Jun joked from a distance, “Well, well, finally seeing the kid’s real mom again.”
Then he noticed my belly, raised an eyebrow, and added, “Wow… it hasn’t been that long, and you’re already showing? Say, Chen Yang, that’s not just extra fat, is it?”
I rolled my eyes at him and replied with a smile, “If it were just fat, that’d be great. Bruno just lectured me again today about not meeting the weight standard—he’s even worried the baby might end up underweight because of me.”
At that, Dad frowned, looked me over, and asked sternly, “What do you mean not meeting the weight standard? Just eat more, isn’t that simple?”
I sighed helplessly. “I can’t. I keep throwing up.”
“Mm…” Hearing that, he didn’t say much more—after all, morning sickness isn’t something anyone can avoid.
After thinking for a moment, he added, “Even if you can’t eat, you still have to try. I’ll get you some digestive medicine later. Just ask that foreign doctor upstairs if it’s okay to take.”
I waved my hand. “I already asked—can’t take it. He suggested eating grapes or kiwis… but the point is, we don’t have those right now.”
Xiao Hu was sent in for his routine examination.
I sat on an empty hospital bed nearby, and before long, I started to feel drowsy.
I had planned to lie down and take a short nap, but soon several more people needing examinations were brought in.
With no choice, I had to give up the bed.
Watching Song Jiang and the others bustling around outside, I pouted slightly.
After checking the time and seeing it was still early, I yawned and decided to head downstairs to the first floor, planning to open up a chair behind Xiao Jie’s counter and get some sleep there.
But when I reached the second floor, I saw several female doctors in white coats gathered around Xiao Jie’s counter.
We all knew each other, so when they saw me coming from a distance, they greeted me, but didn’t seem inclined to disperse.
“What’s going on? What are you all talking about?” I glanced at the folding chair behind Xiao Jie and sighed inwardly—looks like I’d have to stay awake until I got back.
Xiao Jie glanced at me and said mysteriously, “We’re talking about that haunting incident.”
“Haunting?” That caught my interest.
“Yeah—don’t tell me you haven’t heard?” Xiao Ru looked at me too.
“No, I haven’t. Things were so chaotic a while ago—who would dare go out chatting with others for no reason?”
A female doctor with a high ponytail leaned closer and said, “Well, you’d better be careful. It’s been pretty intense lately. A lot of people have seen it at night—some were so scared they even wet themselves.”
As soon as she finished speaking, another round of lively discussion broke out.
After thinking for a moment, I asked, “Then why not report it to the headquarters and have them deal with it?”
“Oh, don’t even bring that up,” a middle-aged woman holding a folder said with a frown.
“Who in our villa district dares report something like this now? Even if we do, it’ll just be the men in each household going out privately to take a look. After that last strict crackdown, our area already caused a huge uproar. It hasn’t even been that long, and now we’ve got talk of ghosts and spirits again. If the higher-ups at headquarters hear about this, they’ll definitely round us up for another mass quarantine and send us off to the government central shelter.”
“Central shelter? What kind of place is that?” I asked.
As soon as I finished, Xiao Jie and Xiao Ru also looked curiously at the woman.
“Wait, so besides headquarters, there’s actually another place that can hold that many people?”
The woman holding the folder glanced around.
Just then, a few uniformed personnel stepped out of the elevator.
She immediately straightened up and fell silent.
Only after they had walked out and gone some distance did she let out a breath of relief, wave her hand at us, and whisper, “A shelter—how could there be only this one? Across the whole country, there are probably countless shelters of all sizes. It’s just that some are running quite well, while others… are barely holding on. After all, the number of those Walkers is a huge problem.”
I understood what she was hinting at.
Put plainly, she meant that the headquarters was barely maintaining normal operations.
And it made sense—outside, hordes of walkers were besieging the city; inside, chaos kept breaking out.
Troubles both within and without.
Clearly, no one else wanted to keep listening to such discouraging talk.
Xiao Ru was the first to wave her hand and cut her off. “Oh, come on, why bring up stuff like that? You’re just making us worry more. Let’s talk about the haunting instead—that’s more interesting.”
Women… always eager to gossip about the latest happenings around them.
So I pushed aside those troubling matters I couldn’t do anything about anyway and joined in as they animatedly discussed the haunting rumors, each adding their own vivid embellishments.
Apparently, their Chinese teachers hadn’t been math teachers—because their use of descriptive language was impressively rich.
Paired with their ever-changing expressions and the occasional bursts of startled screams from others nearby, by the end of the conversation, I was covered in cold sweat.
But in truth, none of them had actually seen any so-called “ghost.”
The stories they heard had likely been passed through countless mouths, retold and altered many times over, making their credibility rather low.
The only thing that had been refined through all those retellings was the level of horror—it was especially high, and genuinely frightening.
Before I knew it, time had slipped by.
By the time I went to find Xiao Hu, he had already finished his checkup and even woken up from a nap.
Only after Dad frowned and repeatedly reminded me to take good care of myself did he finally let us go.
As we passed through the lobby, the women had already dispersed.
Xiao Jie gave Xiao Hu a big lollipop, and the little guy was so delighted that he performed an Ultraman transformation on the spot, making Xiao Jie and Xiao Ru burst out laughing.
Seeing their bright, carefree smiles, I began to regret it.
Why had I chatted with them about ghosts when I had nothing better to do?
Things like that only exist if you believe in them—or don’t.
But once you hear so much about them, they start to linger in your mind.
Subconsciously, it’s almost like acknowledging their existence.
On the entire third floor, only Han Xue and I lived there.
Suo Tian was often away, leaving me alone most of the time.
If I ended up with insomnia at night… that would be unbearable.
Dejected, I followed the cheerful Xiao Hu out of the building.
The contrast between our moods was so stark that even the uniformed guard at the entrance couldn’t help but glance at us a few extra times.
By the time we sighed our way back home, I saw from afar a black car parked at the intersection near our house.
Suo Tian was leaning casually against it, watching in the direction of our front door.
The moment I saw him, my low spirits vanished, replaced by excitement.
Grabbing Xiao Hu, I hurried toward him.
Before I could even call out, he had already noticed us and turned his head our way.
He stepped forward a couple of paces to meet us and called out from a distance, “Walk properly.”
Before his words had even faded, I had already run up to him, wrapped my arms around his neck, and asked in surprise, “Why are you back so suddenly? Didn’t the bearded guy say it would take over a month?”
Suo Tian turned and wrapped an arm around my waist.
After placing a kiss on my forehead, he said, “It’s taken care of. I’ll stay with you for the next few months, until the baby is born.”
“Really? Really?” I felt like my eyes must have been sparkling.
“Mm.” When he nodded, I let out a cry of delight and instinctively tried to jump up.
Sensing it, Suo Tian tightened his grip and forced me to stand still—but by then, I was far too overjoyed to care.
Tilting my head up, watching him exchange glances with Xiao Hu beside him, the better my mood became, the more I found everything about him pleasing.
I hooked my arm around him and planted a series of loud kisses on his face.
……
In front of our house, several women from neighboring homes had gathered on our lawn.
Together with Uncle Gazi, Wenwen, her third aunt, second aunt, Lili, Han Xue, Xu Shu, and Taozi, they had formed a circle, eagerly discussing something.
Their expressions were all incredibly strange.
No wonder Suo Tian had parked the car out here instead of going inside…
— The end of the Chapter–
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