Chapter 5

Pregnancy really is quite the ordeal. And it's not even three months yet.

If he had a constitution like Jiang Xinhe's, he'd be throwing up until the very end...

No, Jiang Xinhe didn't even make it to the end before she was gone...

Chen Jue closed his eyes. He couldn't think about that anymore.

Chen Jue scooped a ladle of water from the water vat and washed his face. Aside from slightly reddened eyes, he had once again become that cold, utterly unempathetic Chen Jue.

Memories are painful, and so is longing—though the latter is what keeps a person alive.

It just made living somewhat painful, dropping the quality of life not by just one notch, but by a billion.

Who could blame him? People in later generations had so much advanced technology that even those who couldn't tell wheat from rice or were all thumbs could still have clothes brought to them and food lifted to their mouths.

Chen Jue swallowed hard. His throat was raw from retching earlier.

He needed to find another way. He couldn't let Jiang Xinhe's child go hungry.

Chen Jue leaned against the doorframe, thinking about life ahead. The household's assets were visibly meager—if those two chickens couldn't be eaten, the grain would run out in just a few days.

It was now mid-April on the lunar calendar, the time of year when the old harvest was gone and the new one hadn't come in. Even if it were harvest season, he had no silver to buy grain with anyway.

From the original owner's limited memories, this family was very poor. They weren't native residents and had no farmland, so they'd only managed to carve out a small three-fen vegetable plot at the foot of the mountain.

The Huo family had been hunters by trade, earning some money in the past from digging medicinal herbs and hunting game. Unfortunately, the original owner's father-in-law had fallen seriously ill a few years back, and all the savings had gone to medical expenses—plus they'd borrowed quite a bit on top of that.

That was also why this Huo Lin, at nineteen, had married the original owner without spending a single coin—because he'd saved his life.

Chen Jue still wasn't entirely clear on why a man could marry another man. Perhaps he didn't quite count as a man, given that he could carry a child.

Chen Jue's mind wandered only for a moment before he pulled his thoughts back to reason.

He needed to survive first.

To sum it up: the household didn't have a single spare coin of silver.

But for a pregnant person, nutrition was crucial.

Not just an adequate supply of staple foods, but also meat, fish, eggs, and all kinds of nuts to supplement trace elements.

All of that required silver.

The villagers living against the mountain were all poor. Aside from firewood being plentiful, they probably lacked everything else. Living off the mountain meant the nearer slopes had likely been picked clean already, and the valuable herbs would require going deeper into the mountains—but the deep mountains were far too dangerous.

Chen Jue stared blankly at the layered ranges of deep mountains for a while. The sun had now fully risen, making the scenery as beautiful as a 5A-rated scenic spot.

Unfortunately, this was ancient times, and the deep forests were perilous.

It wasn't just about getting lost—there were also plenty of wild beasts.

A single wolf could probably end his life, let alone tigers or wild boars.

But if he worried too much, he'd starve to death.

If heaven had sent him to this world to live only three days, then so be it—three days it was.

Every extra day was a bonus. He'd already died once, hadn't he?

Chen Jue thought all this with a cold, indifferent expression.

To anyone looking at him, he seemed like someone who didn't want to live anymore.

That's exactly what Uncle Liu thought.

He was tending his vegetable garden. It had rained a few days ago, and the weeds in the field were growing faster than the crops. When he'd started pulling weeds, Chen Jue had been standing at his doorstep. Now the weeds were pulled, the bugs were caught, the soil was loosened—and Chen Jue was still standing there, not even changing his posture.

Though the distance was too far to see his expression, standing there that long like some kind of waiting stone...

He wasn't thinking of doing something drastic, was he?

Pregnant people were prone to overthinking.

Uncle Liu shook his head, plucked a handful of greens from the field, picked a long squash, and carried his basket up the slope.

Their two families weren't far apart. Back when Uncle Liu's family had divided the household, they'd deemed him an unlucky widower who brought death to his husbands, and sent him with his three young children to these few old rooms at the westernmost edge of the village.

The Huo family, being outsiders, had been assigned to live at the foot of the mountain—actually even closer to the mountain than Uncle Liu's place, making them neighbors.

Over the years, the Huo family's help to him had been as heavy as a mountain, far surpassing those ungrateful relatives of his own blood.

Uncle Liu carried his basket of vegetables up to the fence. Chen Jue was still staring into the distance. He called out, "Jue Geer."

Only then did Chen Jue turn to look at him. The expression in that instant startled Uncle Liu somewhat.

He felt that Chen Jue had changed somehow.

Just a moment ago he'd thought the young man was thinking of doing something drastic, but now the look in his eyes was... sharp?

Uncle Liu couldn't find the right word. Looking at the sickle in his hand that he used for cutting leeks, he felt that Chen Jue's gaze in that moment resembled that sickle.

And the expression on his face wasn't the sorrow he'd expected—it was something like... coldness? Like the ice on a winter lake, or the snow on the mountains. Completely devoid of warmth.

How strange.

Uncle Liu couldn't figure out where this odd feeling came from.

He could only shake his head and think to himself that this Jue Geer had always been a quiet sort, and now after that fall into the river, he'd woken up even more peculiar than before.

Maybe after some time, once he recovered, he'd be fine.

Ah, who would've thought he'd faint in the river? Carrying a child was supposed to be a happy thing—for a male omega to conceive within a year of marrying was proof of excellent health, quite rare. Maybe he'd be like Uncle Liu and have several children. After all, it wasn't easy for male omegas to get pregnant.

But after fainting in the river, he'd hit his head, and Huo Lin had just so happened to be conscripted for corvée labor at that time, and still hadn't returned. Sigh.

No telling when he'd come back, or how dangerous the work they were doing was. After all, Dalin's leg had been broken...

Uncle Liu thought of his eldest son, who'd been fine when he left but was carried back on a stretcher, and the pain made it hard to breathe. Why did he have to be so unlucky as to have his leg crushed?

Were they digging into the mountain?

If it was the kind of grueling, exhausting work, then it was dangerous.

He wondered how Dalin was doing now.

Seeing Uncle Liu approaching with a hand pressed to his chest, Chen Jue hurried forward to support him, and casually checked his pulse at the wrist. His heart meridian was fine.

After a moment, Chen Jue let go and asked, "Uncle Liu, why are you here right now?"

Uncle Liu usually came around noon to cook for him. The people here ate two meals a day, and it wasn't mealtime yet.

He wondered about that.

Chen Jue noticed his hunched back and gestured toward the yard. "Uncle, come sit inside."

Uncle Liu said he was forty-five, but he looked much older than his peers. His hair was already gray and thinning, held loosely by a wooden hairpin, and his back was bad. Seeing him hold his waist, Chen Jue wanted to find him a stool.

"No need, I'm fine right here."

Uncle Liu waved a hand and, supporting his waist, settled on a blue-gray stone by Chen Jue's door. His back problems started when he went straight back to the fields after having his youngest, and it had never been the same since. Now, whenever he worked bent over for too long, he could barely straighten back up.

Once seated, he smiled at Chen Jue.

"Jue Geer, are you hungry?"

Chen Jue paused, then shook his head. He was hungry, but he felt more nauseous than hungry, so no point in wasting food.

Uncle Liu watched him closely. "I saw you standing out here for a while. You can get out of bed now, but you still need to take care of yourself."

Ah, so that was it. He had been standing out front for a while.

Even though Uncle Liu was a man, he was really attentive. He could cook, and he had a gentle way of talking. The first time he fussed over Chen Jue about taking it easy during the pregnancy, Chen Jue hadn't known what to make of it, but after a few times, he got used to it.

So he nodded and said okay.

Uncle Liu trimmed the chives in his hand as he spoke. "Jue Geer, don't mind me being a nag, but let me say a couple more things.

I know you need someone the most right now, and Dalin's been away on corvée for three months without returning, which really tugs at the heart. But you gotta take care of yourself too, so you can be here when he gets back."

He looked at Chen Jue's belly with a warm, approving smile. "Besides, you've got a little one in there now. That's a real blessing, a good sign. When Dalin comes back, you'll be a family of three. Isn't that great?"

Chen Jue didn't say anything. He had nothing to say about Huo Lin, who was missing.

He didn't like the surname, but he had nothing against the man himself. They were both just NPCs in this world.

Whether he came back or not didn't really matter to him.

The original body's owner was already dead; he wasn't the wife Huo Lin had married.

If he didn't come back, Chen Jue wouldn't have to explain anything.

If he did come back, he'd figure out how to set things straight.

And he wasn't going to leave the child with Huo Lin either.

Even though Huo Lin was the biological father of the child he was carrying, this child meant something different to him. He was having it for Jiang Xinhe. That was just his own sentiment, sure.

But it was the real reason he'd decided to have the baby.

So he couldn't give the child to Huo Lin.

So how was he supposed to tell him?

Chen Jue frowned slightly. He'd been thinking about other things these past few days and had completely forgotten about the original owner's husband, Huo Lin.

Looks like he'd have to leave here early after all.

What was the world outside like?

Seeing Chen Jue's furrowed brow, Uncle Liu thought he'd hit a sore spot again. Huo Lin and the others had been gone for two and a half months, longer than any corvée before, and worst of all, Da Shan had broken his leg. When they asked him where Huo Lin was, he just shook his head, knowing nothing. And the less they knew, the more worried they got.

Plus, pregnant people tend to overthink.

So he quickly said, "Jue Geer, listen to your uncle's advice, don't overthink yourself into a corner. Huo Lin's definitely coming back!

Don't be scared by what happened to Da Shan, he just got his leg broken by a falling rock!"

Uncle Liu smacked his own leg in frustration. If he could trade his leg for his son's, he'd do it in a heartbeat.

Chen Jue asked, "He broke his leg? How's he doing now?"

Why hadn't Uncle Liu mentioned this before? His own kid had a broken leg, and he was still coming over to take care of him?

Uncle Liu looked at him, surprised. "Half a month ago."

Chen Jue paused. He hadn't known about that.

It was his doctor's instinct kicking in.

Chen Jue said, "Oh. I've been a bit dizzy these days, I forgot. How's he doing now?"

Uncle Liu let out a long sigh. "Still the same, lying in bed, not eating or drinking... If I'd known he'd break his leg, I never would've let him go. I'd have sold everything I owned to scrape together the five taels of silver to buy him out of the labor draft... After his father passed, he was the only man in the house, the pillar of the family, but now he's just broken..."

His father? Uncle Liu's husband?

So Uncle Liu was also... a Geer.

Chen Jue's gaze shifted. He'd thought something was off, and now it made sense—Uncle Liu was a Geer too.

Chen Jue turned the word over in his mind. It was a new term in this world.

Author's note:

Taking tomorrow off, updating five times a week. Thanks for all the comments! I'm working hard on the second volume.