Half an hour later, at a private obstetrics and gynecology hospital in City A.
Tang Ke yawned as he prepared the ultrasound equipment, his eyes barely open. “Why the hell aren’t you sleeping in the middle of the night?”
Tang Ke had been a university classmate of both Jiang Xu and Shen Fangyu. When they split into specialties, he switched to radiology, and later left the public hospital for a private one, supposedly for an easier life. He’d always been close with Jiang Xu, so although he’d been dragged out of bed in the middle of the night, all he could do was grumble a little.
“I might have a terminal illness,” Jiang Xu said flatly.
“Huh?” Tang Ke blinked groggily.
Jiang Xu handed him his phone, the screen frozen on a test result.
“Holy shit, that HCG level is so high, your girlfriend’s?” Tang Ke asked in surprise. “You didn’t say you were dating anyone! Damn, you move fast, there’s already a baby?”
Jiang Xu was silent for a moment. Then he said to Tang Ke, “Mine.”
“Of course the baby’s yours. I mean—”
“The test result,” Jiang Xu interrupted coldly. “It’s mine.”
Tang Ke froze, wide awake now, grabbing Jiang Xu’s arm in disbelief. “What did you just say?” His voice shot up an octave. “No way, this value is so high, this… this…” He kept stammering “this” for so long that nothing coherent came out. In the end, he could only gape as Jiang Xu, expression like stone, lay down on the examination bed.
Tang Ke reached for the ultrasound gel and muttered under his breath, “Don’t tell me this is actually cancer…”
Jiang Xu snatched the gel from him, unbuckled his belt, lifted his shirt, and quickly applied it to his lower abdomen. Then he looked at Tang Ke.
Tang Ke, still clutching the ultrasound probe, stared at him in such shock he seemed to have forgotten how to function. Irritated, Jiang Xu took the disinfected probe from him and pressed it to his own lower abdomen.
He wasn’t a radiology specialist, but he was perfectly familiar with basic abdominal ultrasounds. Tang Ke knew this, so he didn’t interfere. His mind was still spinning with that abnormal lab result, dread gnawing at him, he was half convinced Jiang Xu was terminally ill, and he didn’t even dare look at the ultrasound screen.
After a long internal battle, he finally covered his eyes with one hand and peeked through a tiny gap between his fingers, cautiously glancing at the screen.
But as he looked, his hand dropped.
“…Holy shit.”
“Shut up.”
Jiang Xu’s jaw tightened. He forced himself to tear his gaze from the interlaced black-and-white image on the screen. After a long while, he stiffly lowered his head to look at his still-flat abdomen.
His waist and stomach were pale, almost too pale from lack of sun.
Because he exercised regularly, he’d always had abs, but now, whether it was his imagination or not, he thought he could see the faintest hint of them softening.
The ultrasound gel still clung to his skin, sticky and cold, the sensation searing through his nerves and his mind.
His hands, those hands that had always been steady from years of surgery were trembling ever so slightly, a subtle betrayal of the storm inside him.
It felt as if something had come crashing down inside his chest. No, everything had come crashing down. Every towering pillar of his worldview, every piece of knowledge he had accumulated over a lifetime, all collapsed into rubble at once.
It wasn’t a tumor. It wasn’t cancer.
Gestational sac. Fetal heartbeat. Fetal pole. All present, clear as day. A textbook-perfect early pregnancy ultrasound.
Jiang Xu had been only mildly nearsighted before. But right now, he wondered if he’d gone completely blind.
“Jiang Xu…” Tang Ke’s jaw was about to hit the floor. Holding a tissue in his hand, he stammered, “Y-you… you owe me an explanation.”
Jiang Xu pulled out a few tissues, wiped off the remaining ultrasound gel, then lowered his shirt. As he buckled his belt and sat up, he said, “I’d actually prefer you give me an explanation.”
Tang Ke’s research specialty was reproductive medicine and developmental biology.
Jiang Xu held out his hand. “Paper and pen.”
Tang Ke quickly fished a pen and a sticky note from his pocket and handed them over. Jiang Xu’s handwriting was messy but fast as he scribbled down a list of tests. “I’ve got surgeries these next two days. I’ll come in Sunday morning for the tests, arrange all of these for me. Best if we can get them done in one morning. I’ll pay extra if needed.”
“Hey, wait, hold on…” Tang Ke looked from the ultrasound machine back to Jiang Xu. “You’re in this state, and you’re still thinking about work?”
Jiang Xu shot him a glance.
“Right, I get it, if Shen Fangyu doesn’t rest, neither will you. How many years has it been since graduation, and you two are still competing like this?” As their former classmate and Jiang Xu’s ex-roommate, Tang Ke was all too familiar with their rivalry.
“Ever thought about just shaking hands and making peace?” Tang Ke said. “I still remember the girl who used to rank third in our class, really pretty. You two were so obsessed with outdoing each other that she finally just gave up, stayed comfortably in third place, and never even tried for first again.”
He had absolutely no idea how to process the ultrasound result, so all he could do was ramble, desperately changing the subject to avoid the crushing silence. “I mean, back then she even joked that if you and Shen Fangyu dated, you’d spend all that energy on each other instead of competing, and she might actually have had a shot at first place.”
“H-ha… ha.” He forced out two awkward laughs at his own joke, but Jiang Xu’s expression didn’t change at all. Tang Ke began to seriously worry that Jiang Xu might actually be in shock.
“Brother Xu, stay strong,” Tang Ke grabbed his arm, then gritted his teeth and decided to hit him where it hurt most. “If you lose it now, Shen Fangyu wins. Think about it, if you crack, Jihua Hospital’s OB-GYN department will be his for the taking. You really gonna let him strut around your turf every single day?”
At the mention of Shen Fangyu’s name, Jiang Xu’s eyelid finally twitched, the slightest reaction showing on his otherwise calm face.
“Thank God,” Tang Ke muttered in relief, just as Jiang Xu suddenly spat out two words:
“Idiot.”
Tang Ke: “???”
“Not you,” Jiang Xu said, handing back the sticky note and pen. “Thanks for tonight. After the tests on Sunday, dinner’s on me.”
He shrugged on his coat and, looking dazed, added, “Until the full test results are in, don’t ask me anything.”
Author’s note:
- HCG: Human chorionic gonadotropin.
- Ultrasound gel: Used during ultrasound exams to eliminate air between the probe and the skin, improve lubrication, and ensure clear imaging.