PTGWD Chapter 23.2

Lu Jianchuan’s breathing grew heavier as his hand brushed against his lover’s cheek, and his abdomen began to heat up with excitement. Fang Xingzhou kissed his wrist again, his tone much calmer, as if gradually accepting the fact, “Do you remember what I said to you on the morning of the third day after our engagement party, in the car?”

Lu Jianchuan: “… Huh?”

He tried to remember every word Fang Xingzhou had said, but ever since he got pregnant, somehow, many memories had become blurred.

“Was it about driving slowly?” he hesitated, “I remember, I always remember.”

Fang Xingzhou: “…”

Lu Jianchuan’s heart skipped a beat. He turned to look, only to see Fang Xingzhou smiling and changing the subject, “Can you share the contact information of your primary doctor with me? I need to confirm your current physical condition and the precautions for the future.”

Lu Jianchuan said, “I’m afraid not. That’s confidential.”

As he said this, he felt a bit uneasy.

But Fang Xingzhou didn’t mention anything further, only responded with an “Mm,” patiently saying, “Can you come with me for a check-up tomorrow?”

Lu Jianchuan breathed a sigh of relief and happily said, “Of course, I’ll listen to you.”

Fang Xingzhou: “Are you feeling unwell anywhere now?”

“No, not at all,” Lu Jianchuan repeated, “My transplant was very successful, no side effects at all. I’m even fit enough to run a full marathon.”

Fang Xingzhou exhaled a breath.

He neurotically squeezed Lu Jianchuan’s fingertip, still unable to feel any joy, his emotions stifled, and said:

“Deer, I know you really want this child, but I can’t bear the risks it brings to you. You had surgery two months ago, and there’s still eight months to go, and…”

“Xingzhou,” Lu Jianchuan interrupted him with an extremely firm and undeniable tone, “Trust me.”

These three words struck Fang Xingzhou’s eardrums, and his emotions seemed to be subdued by something. Fang Xingzhou was dazed for two seconds, his pupils dilating, instinctively wanting to submit, and obediently said, “Okay.”

Lu Jianchuan curled his lips, “Good. Baby, it’s nothing, you were just frightened today.”

“Mm…” Fang Xingzhou said woodenly.

After that, they didn’t discuss anything related to the surgery again. They returned home quietly, took a warm bath together, and then went to bed to sleep.

Fang Xingzhou was still under Lu Jianchuan’s influence, his consciousness blurred, held in his lover’s arms, and quickly fell asleep.

Lu Jianchuan was equally exhausted, yawning as he kissed his lover’s forehead, then quickly fell into a deep sleep.

In the middle of the night, he vaguely felt something damp and cool touching his abdomen.

Lu Jianchuan could usually stay awake all night, taking the opportunity to admire his beloved’s cute sleeping posture, watching without blinking until dawn. But since becoming pregnant, he had grown weaker at night, sleeping deeper, as if something had taken a portion of his strength.

So, even though he sensed the anomaly, he couldn’t wake up, and after a distraction, he fell back into a deep sleep.

When he regained a bit of consciousness again, he didn’t know how much time had passed.

There was still something familiar pressing against his abdomen, maintaining the same position. He finally couldn’t ignore it anymore, forcing himself to open his heavy eyelids, his first reaction was to reach out to hug the person next to him, only to grasp empty air.

This empty grasp jolted him awake, and he immediately looked at the pillow beside him.

Fang Xingzhou was not there.

Today, Fang Xingzhou had accepted his psychological suggestion and should have slept soundly, waking up the next day having forgotten some emotions!

He broke out in a cold sweat, about to reach out to find him, when suddenly, something moved deep within the covers.

Lu Jianchuan froze.

He didn’t lift the quilt, but instead quietly extended the tip of a tentacle from his pajamas, which transformed into an eyeless eyeball at the top, rapidly rotating in the darkness, capturing the scene inside and feeding it back to his main body.

Fang Xingzhou was curled up under the covers in an extremely insecure posture, hugging his knees, his cheek pressed against Lu Jianchuan’s abdomen, as if listening to the heartbeat inside, or silently contemplating something.

At first, Lu Jianchuan thought he was asleep. He carefully moved, trying to pull him back into his arms. But then Fang Xingzhou also moved, still pressed against his abdomen, unwilling to leave.

He wasn’t asleep.

He was lying in the dark, eyes wide open, staring at the exposed abdominal muscles beneath the pajamas he had snuggled up to.

Realizing this, Lu Jianchuan panicked for a couple of seconds, then softened his voice, afraid to scare the person under the covers, and gently asked, “Baby, what are you doing? Why aren’t you sleeping?”

Fang Xingzhou didn’t answer.

After a few minutes of silence, Lu Jianchuan swallowed, unable to resist touching Fang Xingzhou’s forehead: “… Are you feeling unwell?”

Finally, Fang Xingzhou responded to his words.

He slowly stretched his body, his joints creaking from being in the same position for too long. Lu Jianchuan tenderly held him in his arms, lifting a corner of the quilt to let him breathe fresh air, gently massaging his stiff shoulders.

Sleepless Fang Xingzhou smiled at him, surprisingly calm, and said, “Nothing, just looking at you.”

Lu Jianchuan: “…”

When his wife spoke, he was a hundred percent sure—Fang Xingzhou was still under his influence.

But why wasn’t he sleeping? What was he doing guarding his belly? Starting to study how to incubate an egg early?

Lu Jianchuan kissed his lips, whispering, “Go to sleep, we have work tomorrow. It’s sleeping soundly in my belly, don’t worry.”

Fang Xingzhou slowly nodded, then asked, “Why isn’t there a scar?”

Lu Jianchuan covered his eyes with his hand.

He sighed inwardly, starting to regret choosing the alien research institute’s plan. If he had known Xingzhou cared so much about the surgery’s risks, he would have directly manipulated his thoughts… even if it would go against his long-held principles.

“No scars,” Lu Jianchuan whispered in his ear, “Minimally invasive, already healed.”

Fang Xingzhou, with his eyes covered, didn’t give up, his hand caressing, once again pressing against Lu Jianchuan’s abdomen, feeling inch by inch, then stopping at the lower abdomen: “Is it here?”

“Yes,” Lu Jianchuan said, “Here, and the tattoo you helped me with.”

Fang Xingzhou seemed to finally get the answer he wanted, relaxing, snuggling back into Lu Jianchuan’s arms, almost silently falling asleep. Left alone, Lu Jianchuan stayed awake, unable to sleep, watching his wife’s frowning face even in his dreams, his chest tightening.

He kissed him repeatedly, from his brow to his chin, back and forth, like a big dog comforting its partner, guarding him until dawn, finally dozing off for a while.

When he woke up again, the other side of the bed was already cold.

Lu Jianchuan immediately turned over, not even bothering to put on shoes, striding barefoot into the living room, loudly confirming his lover’s presence: “Xingzhou?”

A few seconds later, Fang Xingzhou opened the sliding door of the kitchen, calmly asking, “What’s wrong?”

Lu Jianchuan breathed a huge sigh of relief, curling his lips into a smile, “Nothing. Good morning, what are you making?”

Fang Xingzhou also gave him a faint smile.

As Lu Jianchuan expected, he seemed to have forgotten some intense emotions, becoming very peaceful, even with a faint, indescribable maternal aura.

He said, “Making beef noodles. I remembered that your appetite has been unusually large lately, could it be due to the pregnancy?”

Lu Jianchuan went back to the bedroom to put on his slippers, lazily rubbing his hair as he approached the kitchen, “Yes, it’s very hungry, always wanting more, especially meat.”

Stepping into the kitchen, he couldn’t wait to hug his apron-wearing lover from behind and share a beautiful good morning kiss.

But as he approached Fang Xingzhou, he stopped, his nose twitching sharply, faintly smelling…

… blood.

And a familiar, deeply tempting… blood.

Lu Jianchuan’s expression vanished in an instant, his pupils eerily and dangerously vertical, his perfect face taking on an inhuman mechanical look, staring at Fang Xingzhou’s back, anxiously searching for the source of the blood—

“You’re injured.” He stated.

Then, his voice broke into strange, disconnected syllables, speaking in an inhuman tongue.

“Severe… severe injury… who… I will kill… tear apart… eat… never allow…” He grasped Fang Xingzhou’s arm forcefully, his pupils becoming more transparent, like lifeless glass, “Wound… bleeding… it’s… it’s…”

Fang Xingzhou was still holding the knife he used to cut the vegetables when he turned around.

Lu Jianchuan’s pupils constricted to the extreme. Stiffly and slowly, he lowered his head to look at Fang Xingzhou’s abdomen.

The lower abdomen…

The source of the blood…

A terrifying thought surged to his mind, even subduing his boiling killing intent, just as he had easily subdued Fang Xingzhou’s emotions the previous day.

He was incredulous… afraid to think deeply.

Slowly, he knelt on one knee before Fang Xingzhou, staring at the skin covered by the apron.

Fang Xingzhou put down the knife, took out a tissue, wiped off the meat juice from cutting the beef earlier, and gently stroked Lu Jianchuan’s hair, softly saying, “Deer, you forgot what I said that day in the car.”

It wasn’t until Fang Xingzhou spoke now that Lu Jianchuan realized he was fully awake at this moment, not affected by last night’s suggestion at all, his willpower having reached the limits of what a human body could achieve.

Lu Jianchuan started to tremble, desperately trying to recall, attempting to grasp any accurate memory, and finally, something vaguely surfaced…

Fang Xingzhou began to speak:

“That day, in the car, I told you—”

“If you get hurt, I will create the same injury on myself. If you accidentally sacrifice yourself, I will end my life in the same way.”

“This is not a threat; it’s a statement of fact.”

“I love you, and you should be very clear that between us, there are only two options:symbiosis or mutual destruction.”

His speech was calm, his emotions steady, and he didn’t miss a single word.

Lu Jianchuan trembled more violently, his face turned pale, and the fear in his eyes grew stronger. He carefully touched the edge of the apron as if the most ferocious monster in the world was hiding underneath.

Fang Xingzhou held his hand and voluntarily lifted the apron and shirt, revealing a perfectly stitched wound on his lower abdomen.

A wound personally stitched by a top surgeon, almost running through the entire abdomen, resembling a neat yet ugly centipede.

A massive wave of dizziness swept over him, and Lu Jianchuan could barely maintain his posture. He closed his eyes, hiding the bloodshot eyes beneath his eyelids, with veins bulging on the back of his hand.

Fang Xingzhou bent down and kissed his forehead.

The movement pressed against the wound, causing more fresh blood to seep out. The embryo inside his belly was extremely excited, mercilessly craving to taste the supreme nourishment from another maternal body.

Lu Jianchuan could no longer maintain his human form, not due to the active embryo, but because of Fang Xingzhou’s words.

The lover’s voice seemed to come from across a century of seawater, hazy and full of tender affection.

“…Since you want a child at any cost, we will nurture this child with the same pain… from your belly, and from my belly… so that we will be inseparable forever.”

Lu Jianchuan suddenly opened his eyes.

…This was Fang Xingzhou’s punishment for him, exclusively his punishment.

The pupils disappeared, and his eyes were entirely blood-red, the eyeballs rolling wildly, even tearing the skin at the corners of his eyes, forming cracks like spider webs, as if the realistic human skin stuck to the flesh had cracked.

Fang Xingzhou was stunned.

His first reaction wasn’t fear but an uncontrollable desire to reach out and touch the cracked skin, to confirm if they were real wounds—

But in the next second, Lu Jianchuan’s human form completely collapsed, countless tentacles burst out, filling the entire kitchen, instantly wrapping him into a cocoon.

For the first time… Lu Jianchuan displayed his complete true form to his lover without covering his sight.

The wriggling tentacles rubbed against each other, producing a creepy squelching sound from the mucus, a complexly structured mysterious brain floating in a colorless cerebrospinal fluid, wrapped in a thin, transparent skin, distorting the kitchen’s time and space, making it an absolute secret chamber impossible to spy on.

Two blood-red, pupil-less eyes emerged from the cerebrospinal fluid, staring deadly at the human wrapped in tentacles, the intense gaze almost tangible, capable of driving anyone who saw it instantly mad or even causing their body to explode.

For a moment, Fang Xingzhou’s pupils reflected the transparent brain and tentacles’ image.

In the next instant, a strong brainwave shattered his entire consciousness. He didn’t even have time to form any thoughts or emotions; his expression had completely frozen, his pupils ruptured, his skin oozed blood, and the fragile human body rapidly collapsed…

Subsequently, the gentle tentacles wrapped around him, secreting a large amount of mucus from the orifices, soaking the lover like jelly. The mucus seemed to have vitality, using cells as sutures, quickly traversing Fang Xingzhou’s wounds, analyzing, copying, repairing… even able to temporarily reverse time.

The shattered pupils regenerated, the oozed blood returned to the vessels, the scar that ran through the entire pelvis quickly disappeared…

With each repair, Lu Jianchuan transformed a part into human form, until all the scars on Fang Xingzhou’s body vanished, his skin becoming as smooth as peeled, and part of his thoughts were seamlessly modified.

The tentacles, mucus, and brain all disappeared, the kitchen returned to normal, Lu Jianchuan still in his loungewear, with a deeply affectionate smile at the corners of his mouth, squinting slightly, admiring the faintly glowing skin of his lover.

Gurgle, gurgle.

On the stove, the beef that had been stewing for over an hour emitted a delicious sound.

Lu Jianchuan’s voice was lazy and elegant, as on countless ordinary mornings in the past.

“Good morning, darling, why are you standing here daydreaming?”

Fang Xingzhou opened his eyes in a daze.

It felt like his brain was soaked in the deep sea thousands of feet below, a small blank space appeared in his memory, and his emotions were dull and cautious, as if he had just woken up from a deep, unsettling dream.

He was somewhat scared, subconsciously murmuring his lover’s name: “Lu Jianchuan…”

Lu Jianchuan approached him, extended his arm, and gently embraced him, lowering his head to kiss the corner of his mouth: “What’s wrong?”

The familiar body temperature and scent surrounded him, and his restless heart quickly settled. Fang Xingzhou shook his head, trying to shake off the inexplicable unease, hugged the person in front of him, and said, “Good morning. Maybe I didn’t rest well… I somehow got confused.”

Lu Jianchuan’s smile deepened: “Take a day off today?”

“No, my annual leave is already used up,” Fang Xingzhou said, suddenly remembering something, smiling at his lover’s abdomen, “How is it? Behaving?”

Lu Jianchuan took his hand and placed his palm on the place nurturing new life.

“Very well-behaved,” Lu Jianchuan said, “But it felt wronged this morning for not seeing Daddy.”

The place where the palm touched was warm, flat, filled with their infinite hope and joy. Fang Xingzhou carefully touched it, the smile at the corner of his eyes growing, turned sideways, and kissed Lu Jianchuan again.

After the kiss, he lifted the enamel pot stewing the beef, releasing a wave of warm aroma: “Beef noodles?”

“Sure.” Lu Jianchuan responded cheerfully, hugging him from behind, reciprocating by sliding his hand under his wife’s sweater, gently stroking his lower abdomen.

The area was so smooth as if there had never been a scar.

Lu Jianchuan couldn’t help but hum a little tune in good spirits, resting his head on Fang Xingzhou’s shoulder, enjoying the moment.

…From now on, in Fang Xingzhou’s heart, he would become one in a billion hermaphrodites, successfully and healthily nurturing their child through external fertilization.

His lover seemed to accept this explanation very smoothly. It turned out that compared to the complex scientific knowledge from the alien research institute, his lover seemed more tolerant of things detached from reality.

Lu Jianchuan deeply inhaled the fragrance of his hair, a hint of anticipation floating in his pupils.

When it comes time for delivery—

His wife would surely accept that their child would be an egg, right?!