Tang Ke glanced at Shen Fangyu, who was still sitting in place, then turned back to see that Jiang Xu had already walked far ahead. He quickly caught up and called back to Shen from a distance, “Hurry up, third floor.”
Shen Fangyu made an “OK” gesture where he sat, then stood up, rubbing his shoulder. After standing there in thought for a moment, he returned to the car, changed into a different outfit, sprayed on some cologne, and only then walked toward the examination building with satisfaction.
Inside the examination room, Jiang Xu lifted his shirt. The lines of his abs had grown increasingly faint, though the curve of a baby bump was still indistinct. At three months, the fetus was smaller than a pear, and with Jiang Xu’s light eating habits, his abdomen still looked flat at first glance, his waist still narrow. Only with his shirt off and under careful observation could one detect the slightest subtle swell.
When Shen Fangyu entered, this was exactly the scene he saw. It was the first time he had seen Jiang Xu’s stomach in a fully sober state. There was clearly nothing much to see, but inexplicably, his head seemed to hum faintly.
This time, Jiang Xu didn’t look down at himself; his gaze was fixed on the ultrasound display, watching as the image shifted with Tang Ke’s movements.
The smooth probe glided slowly over his skin, pressing lightly. Jiang Xu shifted his eyes away from the screen and stared silently up at the ceiling.
The fetus was developing well. Although a little small, all the organs and body parts were clearly formed. At three months, the external genitalia had already begun differentiating, and Jiang Xu could even make out from the fuzzy black-and-white image that this was most likely a daughter.
Tang Ke could see it too, but they both tacitly kept silent.
A fetus, and a daughter, just one word’s difference, but a world apart in meaning.
One reason abortions are done early is that the longer one waits, the more harm it does to the body. The other is the inevitable deepening of the emotional bond between the pregnant person and the child.
Yet clearly, someone was thick-skinned enough to blurt out like an uncultured novice, “Hey, it’s a girl!”
Jiang Xu, Tang Ke: “…”
It was Shen Fangyu’s first time seeing his child through an ultrasound. Half cautious and half in disbelief, he asked, “I’m really her dad?”
Jiang Xu: “Honestly, I wish you weren’t.”
“…” Even being denied outright didn’t dampen the unacknowledged father’s enthusiasm. Shen stared at the screen like a first-year medical student seeing imaging for the first time, scrutinizing it as if he could study it into blooming flowers.
Jiang Xu cut him off. “That’s enough.” He signaled for Tang Ke to remove the probe, and the image vanished from the ultrasound screen. Jiang Xu quickly wiped away the gel and lowered his shirt.
“The baby’s three months now, it’s time for an early Down syndrome screening,” Tang Ke said. “Do you want to do it?”
The screening was to rule out one of the most common chromosomal abnormalities in fetuses.
Prenatal checkups were partly to assess the baby’s condition, and partly to ensure Jiang Xu’s own health, making sure there would be no complications before an abortion. But a Down syndrome screen… if the child was destined to be aborted, there was no real need to do it.
“I’ll think about it and tell you later.”
Tang Ke nodded. Jiang Xu glanced at the clock. “Then I’ll head off.”
“Why not do the screening?” Shen Fangyu couldn’t help asking once they were back in the car.
“It’s not like I’m going to give birth.” Jiang Xu looked out the window at the row of osmanthus trees along the road, their faint sweetness drifting in the air.
Shen froze. Jiang Xu hadn’t contacted him in all this time, there was no news about the magazine, and now the baby was already three months along. Shen had originally thought that after receiving Dr. Kenn’s reply, Jiang Xu would have abandoned the idea of an abortion. “You’re not planning to go find that American to do the surgery, are you?”
Jiang Xu said nothing.
“Jiang Xu,” Shen Fangyu said, his head full of frustration, “Two hundred thousand US dollars… Do you know how many years of your salary that is? If you don’t want the money, you could donate it to someone in need, but there’s no need to sail across the ocean just to do charity work for those capitalist Americans who worship the dollar, okay?”
“Then you tell me what I should do.” Jiang Xu’s temper flared as well. Dr. Kenn’s team insisted they would only discuss the surgical details after the article was published. But large journals always had long review periods, and to this day it still hadn’t gone to print. Even when Tang Ke had asked friends to check, there was no definite answer.
If there had been no precedent case in the US, Jiang Xu might have resigned himself to fate, gritting his teeth and letting someone cross the river by feeling the stones, treating a dead horse as if it were alive, taking things step by step. But now that a case existed, both Jiang Xu and Shen Fangyu, as competent doctors, wanted to perform the operation only when they had the highest possible certainty and the fullest pre-op preparation.
That was also why Jiang Xu had been dragging things out.
But now, as the child grew bigger, the cost of delay was becoming too high.
Without access to reference data, the safest option for Jiang Xu was still to go abroad and have Dr. Kenn perform the surgery.
But going abroad wasn’t going smoothly either.
What Tang Ke had estimated to take three months now looked like it might not succeed even in that time. The condition was sensitive, involving the issue of giving birth in another country. With the US’s increasingly strict restrictions, Jiang Xu had made three embassy appointments, and each time he was refused a visa. The next available appointment was another month away.
Right now, even if Jiang Xu managed to gather the money, he couldn’t go.
Frustrated, he rolled down the car window, hoping the scent of osmanthus flowers would calm his mood, but all he got was the choking smell of exhaust fumes.
So he pulled his gaze back with a trace of gloom, staring motionlessly at the lucky cat ornament in Shen Fangyu’s car. The oblivious cat, clearly unable to sense his troubles, just kept smiling and waving its paw.
The car fell silent for a moment. It was clear Shen Fangyu had no real answer for him. The child was in Jiang Xu’s belly, of course Shen could speak without feeling the strain. If they were true lovers, it would be different, but Shen wasn’t family; he was a long-time rival. No matter how difficult Jiang Xu’s situation was, Shen had no obligation to care.
Yet just as Jiang Xu was about to change the subject, Shen spoke.
“Have you ever… considered keeping it?”
As if completely blindsided, Jiang Xu turned to him in disbelief. But Shen, the man who had just uttered something so shocking, looked perfectly calm.
He steered through the endless stream of traffic and quietly pulled into a temporary parking space by the roadside.
The sky hadn’t fully darkened yet, but the streetlights were already on.
Beside the parking spot stood an osmanthus tree. Now that they were away from the exhaust fumes, the fragrance of its blossoms slowly drifted in.
The orange glow of the streetlight reflected in Shen Fangyu’s eyes, making those peach-blossom eyes seem all the more tender.
“Six months from now, the article will definitely be published. By then we’ll have the data and the surgical video, we’ll have confidence, and we won’t need to beg anyone. I’ll do the surgery for you.”
Resting one hand on the steering wheel, Shen propped his other arm up by his head and looked at Jiang Xu. “If you don’t want to raise the child, I’ll do it. Just give me half of the two hundred thousand as child support. If you don’t want to give it, that’s fine too.”
His long, well-defined fingers tapped idly on the steering wheel as he dropped his gaze. “If you’re afraid it’ll affect your life, I promise the child will never appear in front of you for the rest of your life. If you’re afraid I’ll treat the child poorly after getting married, then I won’t get married.”
Jiang Xu stared at him for a moment in silence. “I need a reason for you to put yourself out for me like this.”
“Not wanting you to hand over two hundred thousand to a capitalist, that’s reason enough, isn’t it?” Shen Fangyu said. “This child isn’t just yours. I know we’ve never gotten along, but that’s not ‘self-sacrifice.’ You don’t need to face everything alone, Jiang Xu.” He sounded a little helpless. “You never want to discuss anything with me, but…”
Finally, he voiced what had been in his heart all along. “I’m also the child’s father.”
Author’s note:
“I’m also the child’s father” means: I hope to share the responsibility for this with you, and to work with you to find a way to face the current difficulties. Please stop pushing me away. It’s not because the child shares half my blood that I want to interfere with whether you keep it (clarifying this because some readers misunderstood).