Two years ago, because her cousin’s husband was serving in the military in another location, Zhou Mi had accompanied her cousin to every prenatal checkup.

She still remembered the first time she went with her cousin for a blood test. Zhou Mi was curious about how her cousin discovered she was pregnant. Her cousin smiled and answered: “Your aunt asked me. We were having dinner just fine yesterday when she suddenly asked if I was pregnant. I didn’t feel anything myself, but when I tested that night, there were two red lines. Hard to believe, right?”

She spoke as if it were mystical, making Zhou Mi widen her eyes in surprise: “Is it really that magical?”

Her cousin smiled gently: “Yes, my friend’s pregnancy was also discovered by her mother first. Maybe it’s the mother-daughter connection plus their experience?”

Zhou Mi had never imagined that this kind of inexplicable mysticism would come crashing down on her head.

After a brief mental blank, she struggled to control her breathing and spoke in a joking tone: “What are you talking about? Pregnant? Mom, what are you saying?”

But her mother didn’t joke back, her tone remaining ice-cold: “I’m at your dormitory building right now. The dorm supervisor said you haven’t been staying here at all lately. So, where have you been?”

Zhou Mi instantly stiffened, her face turning from deathly pale to blood red: “Why did you go to my school?”

“Answer my question first,” her mother gave her no chance to evade: “Where exactly are you?”

“At the company, of course,” Zhou Mi looked around, searching for something that could be common to both a hospital and an office: “I’m in the bathroom.”

As she spoke, the hand holding the phone was already trembling with fear.

Her mother said, “Then video call with mom for a moment?”

Zhou Mi’s heart pounded so hard that her voice slightly trembled: “I’m pooping!”

But her mother coldly snorted with absolute certainty: “Still lying to me.”

“Why don’t you believe me?” Zhou Mi’s legs felt weak as she carefully moved toward the bathroom. “Fine, let’s video call then.”

“You’re pregnant, aren’t you?” Her mother’s tone was like that of a merciless judge, firmly biting down on the accusation, passing sentence with a single phrase.

Zhou Mi was utterly panic-stricken, warm tears welling up in her eyes: “What have I done? Why are you so insistent that I’m pregnant? This is ridiculous!”

“The sanitary pads I bought you this month—you haven’t opened a single package, haven’t used a single one.” Her mother’s breathing grew heavier, finally almost shouting: “Tell me how I could think you’re pregnant!”

Zhou Mi felt ice-cold all over, standing perfectly still.

“The day before yesterday, I got my period, and when I opened the cabinet, I thought something was strange. These past two days, I kept thinking about it, so I decided to visit your school, but where are you? Where have you been all these days? Still not telling the truth?” Her mother’s roar was like an iron rod slamming against her eardrums: “I’m asking you, are you pregnant or not?!”

After emotions rapidly froze and then shattered, tears trickled down Zhou Mi’s pale face. Her lips trembled as she frantically defended herself: “I’m not pregnant…”

“I am no longer pregnant…” she repeated over and over, like useless appeals after a court ruling.

—

When Zhang Lian received Zhou Mi’s call, he and his team had just returned from a client company and were in the conference room reviewing the afternoon’s proposal.

The rhythmic vibration of his phone was particularly noticeable in the noisy environment where everyone was talking. They all stopped and simultaneously looked at Zhang Lian.

He glanced down at the name, gestured for them to continue, and walked out.

“Hello?”

He stopped by the window.

Through the phone came Zhou Mi’s slightly heavy breathing. The girl’s helpless voice was like a crushed paper flower, withered and drifting: “My mom found out. She’s coming to the hospital now.”

Whether it happened a day earlier or later, this day would inevitably come. Zhang Lian had somewhat anticipated it and couldn’t help but let out a light sigh as he looked down at the tree crowns on the ground floor, gradually deepening in the twilight: “What happened?”

“She buys sanitary pads for the house every month, and I forgot,” she struggled to form sentences through continuous sobs: “I didn’t notice this at all… I didn’t get my period this month, so I didn’t use any, and then, *hic*, she secretly went to my dorm and asked the supervisor, and found out I hadn’t been back to school at all…”

“I’m going to get beaten—” her voice gradually distorted, heading toward a wet, uncontrolled state.

Zhang Lian had no comment to offer, so he remained silent.

She sniffed hard and pleaded, “Can you cooperate with me?”

“Tell me.”

“I don’t dare tell my mom about the nature of our relationship, otherwise it won’t just be a beating—someone would die,” she took a breath, as if pulling herself together: “I told her you’re my boyfriend.”

Zhang Lian let out a low chuckle.

“Will you come over later?” Either pretending not to hear or truly not hearing, she continued to ask without any psychological burden.

He recalled the “thank you note” he hadn’t had time to reply to, which looked completely insincere and even somewhat arrogant: “I thought I wouldn’t need to come over tonight.”

The other end of the phone immediately went dead silent.

“You’d better come over.” After a few seconds, Zhou Mi spoke with a nasal tone but tried to articulate clearly: “I’m afraid she’ll storm your office after she finds out who you are.”

Zhang Lian stopped opposing her: “Alright.”

“Be psychologically prepared, my mom is terrifying, like a nuclear bomb.” Leaving this warning, Zhou Mi hung up the phone with a heart like dead ashes.

—

After putting down her phone, Zhou Mi let out a long breath, quickly put on her coat, fastened every button, and then went to the bathroom to wash her face, forcing herself to calm down.

She hurriedly found the lip balm in her bag, rubbed some onto her fingertips, and rapidly patted a fake “blush” onto her cheeks.

Only after confirming that the girl in the mirror looked extremely healthy and revitalized did Zhou Mi anxiously curl back into bed.

She lay there motionless like a corpse. As noon approached, the invisible guillotine that had been hanging in the air for so long was about to fall.

Her mother’s call came as expected, saying she had arrived at Chenghe Medical Center and asking if Zhou Mi was in the hospital room.

Zhou Mi’s heart lifted, and she responded with a barely audible “yes.”

Her mother immediately hung up.

Zhou Mi sat up, maintaining her final dignity to welcome the slaughter.

A few minutes later, the hospital room door was pushed open from outside, and a middle-aged woman wearing a navy blue windbreaker stormed in aggressively.

The moment the mother and daughter’s eyes met, Zhou Mi quickly turned away, unable to withstand her mother’s razor-sharp gaze.

Her mother’s furious eyes were like a remote whipping that originated from and targeted the spirit, so forceful it could slap her aside from a distance, making her face burn hot.

Zhou Mi instinctively bent her legs, trying to hide herself.

“You didn’t even tell me about something this important?” Tang Peili strode to the bedside, scolding her without pause, like a machine gun firing: “Not only did you secretly get pregnant, but you also secretly got an abortion? Your wings have hardened—what won’t you do now!”

Her voice was loud and rough, with gunpowder that could fill the entire corridor.

Zhou Mi’s face flushed red, completely unable to face her: “Can you please lower your voice?”

“So you do know it’s shameful!” She increased her volume by twenty decibels.

“What could I do?” Zhou Mi’s chin pressed tightly against her knees, as if she had nowhere to put herself: “It was an accidental pregnancy, just like you and dad.”

“What are you saying?” Her daughter’s response made Tang Peili choke for a second, then anger surged: “At least your father and I told both sets of parents, and we gave birth to you and raised you to this age. If we had been as irresponsible as you, where would you be now? You wouldn’t be here saying nonsense and angering me!”

Zhou Mi frowned: “How am I being irresponsible?”

Tang Peili scoffed: “Carelessly getting pregnant, carelessly getting an abortion—if that’s not irresponsible, what is?”

Zhou Mi glared back with wet, red eyes, extremely stubborn: “Isn’t this being responsible for myself?”

“If you were truly responsible for yourself, would you have accidentally gotten pregnant?” Tang Peili found it impossible to communicate with this infuriating, stubborn daughter and began pacing around the hospital room, looking for another living target: “Where is your boyfriend?”

Zhou Mi swallowed her parched throat: “Doesn’t he have to work?”

“So you’re dating someone who’s working, no wonder.” Tang Peili turned back, looking around in disbelief: “I was wondering how you could afford such a nice hospital room.”

“Your taste is getting more and more impressive,” Tang Peili couldn’t help but be sarcastic: “Before, you dated that little Lu from out of town. I didn’t approve from the beginning, but you insisted on dating him. Everyone saw how that ended. I thought you’d learn from it, but what happened? Now you’re dating someone who makes you get an abortion!”

Having vented her anger all at once, Tang Peili came back and sat on the edge of the bed: “Tell Mom the truth, was it his idea for you to get the abortion?”

Zhou Mi’s chest heaved, extremely resentful and bitter: “It was my own decision.”

“And he just agreed?” Tang Peili quickly seized a new point.

“What else could he do? Have the baby? And then what?” As if stepping on a high-voltage wire, Zhou Mi’s face suddenly turned crimson, her voice hoarse and desperate: “Be a housewife for life like you?!”

Tang Peili was instantly silenced, staring with wide, shocked eyes.

Hurting her mother this way was not Zhou Mi’s intention. Extremely remorseful, she lowered her head, covered her face, and softly begged: “Mom, I’ve been suffering a lot lately. I know I was wrong. Please, can you stop shouting?”

“If you don’t want to suffer, then clear your head! Getting pregnant so casually, getting an abortion so casually, who gets hurt?” Tang Peili refused to back down, continuing to nag: “Who else can you hurt besides yourself? All these days, we didn’t know anything…”

As she spoke, the middle-aged woman also choked up: “Your father and I can’t feel your pain and suffering for you. Tell me who else could be hurt…”

She wiped the corner of her eye with her finger, not continuing further. Instead, she raised both arms like a female bird opening forgiving wings, drawing her wounded child toward herself.

“Mom…” Zhou Mi couldn’t help but murmur, also embracing her mother tightly, releasing heart-wrenching sobs like an emotional outlet.

Tang Peili continuously patted her back and helped her breathe, her own eyes turning red repeatedly, but she kept holding back her tears.

She stabilized her voice with determination and comforted her daughter: “It’s alright, it’s alright, Mimi, my poor baby, you’ll come home with mom soon, okay?”

Zhou Mi, muffled against her shoulder, softly agreed: “Mm.”

…

—

Perhaps because her physical and mental exhaustion had been too great lately, plus the return of a sense of security, Zhou Mi’s breathing gradually weakened, and she slowly fell asleep in her mother’s arms.

Once her breathing became steady, Tang Peili carefully laid her daughter flat and tucked the blanket around her.

Zhou Mi smacked her lips lightly, turned halfway to her side, and fell into deep sleep again.

Tang Peili gazed at her daughter’s peaceful sleeping face for a while, sighed softly, and got up to walk elsewhere. However, her posture had been awkward for too long, and a sharp numbness surged up her left leg, nearly causing her to stumble on level ground.

She steadied her knees, letting out a very soft hiss, before limping toward the sofa.

Once sensation returned to her leg, Tang Peili stood up again and walked toward the small partition in the hospital room.

The partition door was closed but not locked. Tang Peili hesitated for a moment, then turned back and sat in her original place.

She opened WeChat, looked at the pinned contact labeled “Husband” for a while, clicked in and out repeatedly, and finally chose to close it.

At this moment, someone knocked lightly on the hospital room door twice.

Tang Peili first glanced at her daughter on the bed, making sure she hadn’t been awakened, then gripped her phone and rushed to the door.

She yanked the door open in one swift motion, her eyebrows furrowed in anger.

But what she hadn’t expected was that there wasn’t just one person outside the door. Besides a handsome, tall man, there was also a woman whose height only reached his shoulder.

The woman appeared to be past middle age based on her appearance, but couldn’t be called an old lady either—somewhere in between.

She wore a form-fitting blue and orange wool sweater, had fine white skin, was full of vitality, and her eyes and eyebrows curved kindly like crescent moons.

Tang Peili guessed she was the mother of the man before her.

The two stood side by side, both with thick eyebrows and expressive eyes, with an unrestrained aura, resembling portrait oil paintings of high officials or wealthy families that would hang on mansion walls during the Republican era. The immediate impression they gave could be summed up in two words: dignified and refined.

Tang Peili promptly suppressed her instinctively disgusted expression, smoothed her slightly disheveled bangs, and calmed her breathing.

But she still maintained a stern face, unwilling to show them any warmth.

“Where’s Zhou Mi?” The woman peered inside anxiously.

Tang Peili stepped aside a little, saying softly: “She’s asleep.”

The woman nodded, about to say a few more words, when the young man had already spoken, his articulation neither humble nor overbearing: “Auntie, could we talk outside for a moment?”

Tang Peili gave him a few more glances. Judging by appearance alone, she estimated he was at most 28 or 29, but the aura surrounding him tended toward steadiness, making his exact age difficult to determine.

Anyway, she would find out soon enough. Tang Peili stopped guessing and nodded, following the two out.

In the reception area on the same floor, there happened to be three all-white single leather sofas.

Zhang Lian first escorted the two ladies to their seats, sent someone to bring over three cups of tea, and then sat down in the remaining empty seat.

The woman smiled at Tang Peili, then turned to ask her son: “Shall we introduce ourselves first?”

Zhang Lian looked over and politely said, “Hello, Auntie, I am Zhou Mi’s boyfriend. This is my mother.”

Sun Fengzhi smiled graciously: “You can just call me Fengzhi.”

“No need for pleasantries,” Tang Peili was fuming, her words full of sarcasm: “I originally thought it was just two young people making a mistake, who knew that you as a parent would also be involved in such absurdity? Pregnancy and abortion aside, what’s with keeping the entire thing from us, the girl’s family? You don’t look like the kind of messed-up family that would do something like this.”

Zhang Lian’s attitude remained refined and polite: “Auntie, this was indeed a decision that Zhou Mi and I made together. My mother also just found out, which is why she hurried over with me to meet you.”

“I’m very sorry,” Sun Fengzhi apologized with a smile: “I’m also ashamed that my student would experience something like this.”

“What?” Tang Peili was stunned: “What student?”

Sun Fengzhi seemed to have just realized something: “I am Zhou Mi’s advisor. Hasn’t she mentioned me to you?”

“Ah?” Tang Peili blinked, raising her voice: “Of course she has! Mentioned you.”

She began to wonder inwardly: “Just didn’t mention this relationship.”

Sun Fengzhi curved her lips understandingly and looked to the side: “My son must have mentioned to you, after all, she’s been interning at his company for two months now.”

“…?” Tang Peili suddenly couldn’t respond.