Chapter 1

Since the start of winter, Shencheng had been drenched in nearly a full month of relentless drizzle. The entire city felt so saturated with moisture that you could wring water from the air, and sales of clothes dryers in shopping malls had hit an all-time high.

Wen Yi emerged from a public restroom on the south side of People’s Park. The stifling, moldy stench combined with the endless fine rain made her irritation surge noisily within her.

Through the dense curtain of rain, a young couple hurried past. The girl grumbled about how they had finally come on a trip only to encounter this awful weather. The boy murmured explanations in a low voice, which only made her angrier. She went on about how the clothes washed at the hotel would not dry and how the trendy restaurant they had just visited was both expensive and disappointing, chattering endlessly without pause.

Wen Yi grew even more annoyed. She pulled a few sheets of toilet paper from the dispenser nearby, wrapped the pregnancy test stick in her hand, and stuffed it into her platinum handbag. Then she took out her car keys and unlocked the small Audi parked temporarily by the roadside.

She got into the car and turned on the air conditioning. A faint scent of ebony and agarwood filled the cabin, shielding her from the damp air, the foul odors, and the pointless argument between the man and woman. Finally, Wen Yi could breathe easier.

She adjusted her seat to recline and closed her eyes. Parking spots near the public restroom allowed free parking for twenty minutes, meaning she had thirteen minutes left.

At twenty-eight years old, her life felt utterly disastrous at this moment.

She had never imagined getting married or having children. She had vowed to avoid the messy trivialities of family life entangled like chicken feathers on the ground. She planned to live freely for the first two-thirds of her life and then, for the last third, move into a nursing home if possible or simply close her eyes and let go when the time came. It would all be much the same.

Now, stuck at the threshold of that one-third mark, fate refused to let her live freely anymore.

Wen Yi carefully recalled that night a month ago. They had gone three rounds and had clearly taken precautions. How could an accident have happened?

She wondered if the economically struggling hotel industry had hit rock bottom and stocked expired condoms. Or perhaps the quality of the condoms was simply subpar to begin with.

To think such a low-probability event could happen to her. It was truly cursed.

Wen Yi tugged at her hair in frustration. It was all Qin Nanshan’s fault. Who knew what possessed that math-obsessed bookworm to attend a medical forum in the first place? And once there, he even got used as a pawn by others.

The whole thing was straightforward in explanation. She was at a critical stage of promotion from sales supervisor to regional manager when the country launched a severe crackdown on corruption in the medical field. Her competitors could not find any dirt on her, so they tried to stir up trouble.

They originally intended to frame her for sexual bribery, but they got it wrong in the end. Wen Yi ended up sleeping with Qin Nanshan.

In the final blame game, it could only be chalked up to her bad luck. One shot, and she was pregnant.

She reached for her bag. Seeing the wad of paper made her feel a wave of disgust, as if it were filthy. She quickly pulled it out and tossed it to the back seat before fishing out her phone to call Zhao Ling.

Zhao Ling was someone Wen Yi had met when she was a junior pharmaceutical representative running errands at the First Affiliated Hospital. Back then, Zhao Ling was an intern doctor full of righteous indignation who deeply despised the nature of Wen Yi’s work. Wen Yi, in turn, found her pretentious and paid her no mind.

But later, when Wen Yi no longer handled business at the First Affiliated Hospital, the two unexpectedly grew closer. In their free time, they could meet for coffee and gossip about all sorts of amusing stories involving doctors, nurses, and patients.

Zhao Ling was off work that day and answered quickly. Wen Yi got straight to the point. “Help me book an appointment in gynecology.”

“Wen Yi! I’m not in gynecology! I’m in neurosurgery! How many times have I told you that!” Zhao Ling had a loud voice and yelled before suddenly realizing something. “What’s going on? Missed period?”

“……Get lost.” Wen Yi said calmly. “I’m pregnant.”

A long silence followed. Zhao Ling processed this sudden news on her behalf and then activated her gossipy side. “I’m off today. Want to grab a coffee?”

“No coffee. Hospital.” Wen Yi glanced at her watch, adjusted her seat, fastened her seatbelt, started the car, signaled, and drove away from People’s Park.

Once on the road, Wen Yi asked, “If I remember correctly, you graduated from A University in 2013?”

“Yes. Why?”

“Do you know someone from your school named Qin Nanshan?”

Zhao Ling’s mind worked quickly. “The baby’s father?”

Wen Yi did not answer.

“Qin Nanshan? Who doesn’t know him? Back then he was the top scorer in the Shencheng college entrance exam, the most handsome genius in A University’s Mathematics Department, a mythical figure. When he entered as a freshman, we even formed a group to sneak into one of their department classes. After attending once, we never went back. Those lectures were simply beyond human comprehension.”

“He was hugely popular at our school. During freshman orientations, when he won some award or published a paper, or during school anniversaries and welcome events where he gave speeches on stage, every year waves of people liked him without end.”

“But he was extremely hard to pursue. I had a friend who wanted to challenge the impossible and studied math diligently thinking it would get her a ticket in. She ended up being deterred by something called Möbius inversion. To this day, I still don’t understand what that is.”

“What exactly happened? Is he really the baby’s father? Wow, Wen Yi, you landed a big one.”

More like she landed with a big belly. Wen Yi continued asking, “What is he doing now?”

“No way. You slept with him and got a child but don’t even know what he does?”

“……”

After teasing, Zhao Ling said, “He’s now an associate professor at A University. Quite impressive. At under thirty, in our field he’d have to grind for several more years. And I heard he gets full professor treatment. His future path is either dean or academician.”

“Last month I saw in the group chat that he also attended your forum. Didn’t you see him? The tallest one there.”

“I remember he went to the affiliated high school of A University. Weren’t you in high school at the affiliated school too? You know him?”

Wen Yi arrived at the hospital, parked the car, changed shoes, and her answer blended into the clicking sound of high heels.

“Not very familiar.”

It was just after two in the afternoon when the shift started. Zhao Ling had booked her an appointment with the department head. The doctor looked quite elderly, and Wen Yi was her first patient.

After paying fees and completing various tests, the doctor stared at the fresh report. “Five weeks pregnant. The gestational sac is still small.”

Wen Yi asked, “Can I have the abortion surgery this afternoon?”

The doctor removed her presbyopic glasses upon hearing this, lifted one eyelid to look at her. “Your uterine wall is thin. If you abort this one, it will be very difficult to conceive next time.”

Wen Yi did not hesitate. “That’s fine. Abort it.”

The experienced old doctor was accustomed to such cases and offered no extra persuasion. “Possible. Come next week to handle the procedures. But there’s something you need to know clearly. You have Rh-negative blood. A few days ago, a car accident patient used up the city’s entire blood bank stock. No one can guarantee the surgical risks.”

Wen Yi froze.

She could do without the child, but she did not want to die yet.

The doctor placed the stack of forms on the corner of the desk and called for the next patient outside.

As a young couple entered, Wen Yi took the report, thanked her, and left.

The hospital corridor bustled with people coming and going. Some men supported pregnant women, some women rushed up and down alone sweating profusely in anxiety, and there was a lone young girl huddled in a corner of the hallway, looking about twenty, sobbing intermittently.

The rain fell harder. Wen Yi looked outside. The sky hung heavy and low, threads of water sliding down, weaving into a curtain of rain, dense and impenetrable.

She sighed inwardly. What awful weather! Could it please stop!

……

The next day was the weekend. Wen Yi declined all work and invitations, lying in bed for two days without sleeping, lost entirely in memories of the past.

Wen Yi’s impression of Qin Nanshan could be summed up in three phrases: mathematical genius, reasonably good-looking, dull and uninteresting.

She despised dull men the most in her life. Communicating with them was exhausting. They would hold back for ages without producing a complete sentence. It wasted time and energy. She could not imagine how boring it would be to date or live with someone like that.

That day at the forum was an accident. Both had drunk a bit, and when she entered the room, he had just come out of the shower, wrapped only in a towel around his waist. The smooth lines of his abs made her momentarily forget his personality and focus solely on admiring the view.

Perhaps her gaze was too intense. The man opposite her face turned unpredictable in an instant, his refined brows furrowing deeply.

There were rivals watching outside the door. On a whim, Wen Yi let out sounds from her throat that could drive a man wild.

Things went awry yet aligned perfectly. It was unclear who made the first move, but afterward it spiraled out of control. The five-star hotel bedsheets wrinkled and smoothed, smoothed and wrinkled again.

The act itself required no conversation. They exchanged not a single word throughout, only reading satisfactory reactions in each other’s eyes, once, twice, three times.

Afterward, she revised her view of this high school classmate she had not seen in eight or nine years. He was not entirely without merits.

That day, both seemed to understand tacitly. They parted without farewell or exchanging contact information, leading to the current predicament.

She had not decided what to do, but if she kept the child, she would need to find the father first.

Wen Yi scrolled through the high school classmate group chat she had joined at some unknown time. She saw no mentions related to “Qin Nanshan.” The only person she could ask was her high school friend Qiao En, but she was on a business trip abroad and likely sound asleep at this hour.

In the evening, Wen Yi drove back to Changle Lane, the place she had lived for over a decade.

The alley was narrow, too tight for the car. She parked at the entrance. As she got out, her peripheral vision caught the pregnancy test stick still unhandled in the back seat, sparking another wave of irritation.

It was dinnertime, and the alley filled with the aromas of cooking.

Wen Yi quickened her pace, in no mood to greet any of the aunties or grannies.

The door at Number 25 Changle Lane was locked. Wen Yi took out her keys and tried turning several times, but the door did not open.

Wen Yi smiled inwardly. Of course, after not returning for a month, the lock had been changed.

Ms. Wen Hongyu was proud and arrogant. A few years ago, upon learning that she had “gone into the sea” to work as a pharmaceutical representative, she was convinced her intentions were impure and her money came dishonestly. They argued over it, quarreling several times.

In the end, Wen Yi grew tired of correcting her misconceptions and moved out. Ms. Wen swore never to use her money again and found a job at a childcare facility looking after children.

The last visit was over a month ago for the change of seasons. She had bought two sets of clothes for Ms. Wen, who refused them and drove her out of the house.

The following period was busy with many matters. Wen Yi hardly had time to cater to her mother’s petty moods. In any case, messages went unanswered.

Yesterday, her aunt had called saying she wanted to introduce a wealthy and respectable old man to Ms. Wen and asked her to help persuade. Wen Yi had no strong opinions and did not want to interfere in her fifty-year-old mother’s emotional life in her later years, so she brushed it off vaguely.

She dialed the number. The ringtone was cut off halfway. Immediately after, the sound of footsteps approached. In a few strides, Ms. Wen glanced at her coldly and indifferently, skillfully took out her keys to open the door, leaving only a merciless view of her back.

Wen Yi followed inside and turned to head toward her small bedroom.

The room held many miscellaneous items, but it was clean and tidy. Following her memory, Wen Yi located the classmate yearbook on the very bottom shelf of the bookcase.

Back then, such things were still popular. Wen Yi followed the trend and distributed a page to every classmate in the class. In the end, she collected a full book. She remembered that Qin Nanshan had also written in hers.

The reason she remembered it so clearly was because that guy had treated it like scrap paper and actually used it to solve math problems! He had densely covered an entire page with calculations!

She had been speechless at the time and resentfully tucked it into the very last page.

Now, she easily flipped to it. Her fingertip tapped the phone number written there. She entered it and dialed.

After waiting two seconds, it surprisingly connected.

Wen Yi smacked her lips and sat back on the edge of the bed.

It connected, but no one answered. She tried dialing twice more, still with no response.

Wen Yi took a photo of the address section and headed out.

……

Qin Nanshan lived near A University. It was said that both his parents were professors at A University, making his family one of cultured intellectuals. The title of “genius” was well-deserved and grounded.

The once enviable faculty apartments now appeared dilapidated and rundown compared to the upscale residential complexes towering around them. Wen Yi entered as if into an uninhabited area, encountering no obstacles all the way to Room 302 in Building 3.

Wen Yi clutched the crumpled ultrasound report in her coat pocket, feeling like a female warrior about to step onto the battlefield, valiantly and with high spirits, puffing out her chest in anticipation of a fight.

Among the many possibilities she had imagined, the man who opened the door spared her a great deal of effort in tracking him down.

Qin Nanshan looked puzzled. “Wen Yi?”

He was tall, probably over one meter eighty. Without high heels, Wen Yi was only about one meter sixty-three. The twenty-centimeter difference forced her to tilt her head up.

It was not just the height gap. He was strong too. That night, he had lifted her as effortlessly as pinching a fish, without breaking a sweat. It had genuinely startled her. She had assumed that someone like him, devoted only to research, would have a frail body.

Wen Yi looked up, handed over the report, and waited for his reaction.

The man glanced at the dark blob on the report a few times, flipped it over to check the back, then flipped it back again. After a long pause, his gaze shifted away and fixed steadily on her. His mouth opened as if searching for words. A few seconds later, he asked in a low voice, “What does this mean?”

Having worked as a pharmaceutical representative for several years, Wen Yi felt she had not achieved any earth-shattering accomplishments, but her skill in reading people had been honed to perfection.

Qin Nanshan’s inner thoughts were written all over his face. A man could never be certain if the child in a woman’s belly was truly his.

Moreover, her sudden visit with an air of demanding responsibility was bound to irritate anyone.

Wen Yi reached out to take back the ultrasound report and smiled gently. “It’s nothing. I’m pregnant. As the child’s father, I thought I’d notify you before getting rid of it.”