Pregnant with My Late Husband’s Child - Chapter 14

The Green Leaf Peninsula was deathly silent in the dead of night. Li Yixing remained in Feng Zhao’s room, unable to sleep. Although there were guest rooms in the villa, to maintain the persona of a man deeply in love with his late husband, Li Yixing eventually decided to stay in Feng Zhao’s room.

He did not want to rest in the bed Feng Zhao had slept in, so he simply sat at the desk, quietly observing the small room. Indeed, Feng Zhao’s bedroom was a small room.

The entire room was about fifteen square meters, located at the end of the third-floor corridor. Generally, such a space would be designated as a functional room or a storage closet, but here, it was Feng Zhao’s bedroom. Inside the bedroom, there was a single bed, two nightstands, and a wardrobe. Beside the window sat a desk, upon which stood a photograph of Feng Zhao. Next to the desk leaned a bookshelf. It was stacked with books that had been read until the spines were worn, most of which were on military theory and mecha construction, interspersed with one or two ancient poetry collections.

Beyond that, there was nothing else.

He truly had not expected Feng Zhao to die so early. Originally, he had assumed that in this marriage, he would be the first to leave.

When this union was first presented to Li Yixing, he never considered refusing. Stan Davis had brought him back to the Green Leaf Peninsula from an orphanage. This was naturally not entirely because his mother was Stan Davis’s first love. If he had no utility, Stan would never have raised him to adulthood.

His value to the Davis family was to act, when necessary, as a pawn without self-consciousness, helping them consolidate more influence.

If, in the process, he could enter the Alliance government and hold a key position, that would be an unexpected bonus.

It could be considered an equivalent exchange. Li Yixing thought that the Davis family provided him with opportunities to learn and grow, a place to stand, and a roof to shelter him from the rain. In return, he would repay this kindness when necessary, and their connection would end there.

As for the fact that his marriage partner was Feng Zhao, Li Yixing did not care one way or the other. Marrying anyone was just marrying. He was not afraid of Feng Zhao; if Feng Zhao dared to marry him, he dared to accept. Who was afraid of whom? He did not mind being respectful in public and brawling in private.

What Li Yixing had not expected was that Feng Zhao would not oppose the marriage either!

Li Yixing looked at the photograph on the desk where Feng Zhao wore an arrogant smile. He strongly suspected that Feng Zhao wanted to compete with him in secret and did not want to voice opposition, as that would make it seem like he was afraid to marry him, or perhaps he simply wanted to use the marriage to disgust him.

Their animosity had deep roots, ultimately resulting from a tragedy involving a bouquet of flowers.

It was the end of spring in the New Era year 313, late April on Nuwa Star. Li Yixing had returned to the Yas District with his parents’ ashes, personally burying them in the same grave. Mother’s Day was approaching. Li Yixing planned to buy a bouquet of flowers for his late mother, Li Yunqi.

Li Yunqi was a woman who valued ritual in life. Li Yixing remembered that when she was alive, there were always flowers in bloom at home, and she always carried a faint, pleasant fragrance. At night, when she lulled him to sleep, he would bury his face in her embrace, inhaling that floral scent, feeling especially secure.

As the most affluent district on Nuwa Star, the price of flowers in the Yas District was astronomical. Li Yixing had not yet been adopted by the Davis family and lived in an orphanage. He did not have enough money to buy flowers, so he had to help out at a flower shop. The owner promised that for every day of work, Li Yixing could choose one flower.

By Mother’s Day, Li Yixing had managed to exchange his hard work and savings for twenty-six flowers. He chose carnations, paired with sunflowers, bellflowers, lilies, jasmine, some eucalyptus, and snow willow. He spent the whole morning arranging a bouquet he was satisfied with, wrapped it in green and white paper, and tied it with a ribbon.

Just after he finished, a staff member from the orphanage called, saying a couple had arrived interested in adoption and that he needed to return immediately to be considered. He had no choice but to leave the bouquet at the flower shop.

When he went to pick it up that afternoon, the shop owner told him it had already been bought.

He said: “I told them this bouquet already had an owner and that I could arrange a new one, but that child insisted on buying yours. His father is the Chief of the First Star System; I could not afford to offend him.”

That afternoon, when Feng Zhao was heading to the Green Leaf Peninsula holding those flowers, Li Yixing ambushed him halfway, tackling him to the ground!

Initially, he only wanted to snatch the flowers back, but Feng Zhao was no pushover, and they started brawling immediately!

Two children, fighting over a bouquet, scratched each other until they were bruised and battered. Because Li Yixing lived in the orphanage, his stamina could not keep up with Feng Zhao, who had been raised on fine food and exercise. He was soon pinned down, and the flowers were viciously snatched back by Feng Zhao.

“I bought these flowers!” Feng Zhao said. “What right do you have to say they are yours and try to steal them? Did your family not teach you properly?”

Before Feng Zhao could finish, Li Yixing leapt from the ground and struck him a heavy blow. The bouquet tumbled to the ground, rolling several times until the blossoms scattered, utterly mangled and beyond saving.

Thus, their feud was set in stone. Because neither possessed a temperament that would allow them to swallow their pride, every subsequent meeting inevitably led to mutual misery.

Sneaking out of a corner to ambush the other became routine. Tampering with the other’s homework to ensure they would be scolded became common. Feng Zhao even conspired to lock Li Yixing in a dark classroom for an entire night, for which Li Yixing retaliated by doing the same to Feng Zhao.

The two did not just lock each other up; they would stand outside and loudly mock one another. Later, their public meetings became exercises in passive aggression, each attempting to use words to provoke the other to death. Their conflict rolled like a snowball, growing larger and larger, until eventually, they could not even stand the sight of each other, erupting into a nameless rage the moment they met.

They spent their entire youth in the shadow of one another, not as childhood sweethearts, but as sworn enemies who could not stand to be under the same sky.

Of course, by now, those grievances had become history. Feng Zhao was so dead that not even dust remained.

Li Yixing turned the photo frame face down on the desk, his gaze shifting through the window toward the misty, rain-drenched world. Feng Zhao’s death was riddled with doubts; it could not be ruled out that it was related to internal factions within the Alliance.

However, with Feng Zhao dead, Li Yixing rubbed his temples. He did not know what would become of the future of this marriage, and he had to worry about himself first.

Li Yixing’s concerns were not merely alarmist.

The day after Feng Zhao’s obituary was sent to Nuwa Star, Luo Taylor went to the Sacred Heart Hospital to visit Fang Shengwan, who had collapsed upon losing his child.

The high-end private ward in Sacred Heart Hospital was fully equipped with a reception area, kitchen, bathroom, and a large terrace, resembling a small apartment. A nursing robot was busy in the kitchen preparing a nutritious meal for Fang Shengwan, who was half-propped against the headboard, his right hand attached to an IV drip.

Luo Taylor looked at his pale, frail appearance with sympathy: “Shengwan, please accept my condolences.”

Fang Shengwan coughed twice: “Xiao Zhao was so young, how could he just…”

“Yes, I did not expect it either. It is too sudden, as sudden as this war,” Luo Taylor said. “Yixing had just started being with Xiao Zhao, and then…”

Fang Shengwan raised his eyes upon hearing this: “Has Yixing been staying at the Green Leaf Peninsula these past few days?”

“Yes, he is back at the Green Leaf Peninsula. Zhiyu has been picking him up,” Luo Taylor said.

Unintentional on the speaker’s part, but the listener took note. Fang Shengwan frowned anxiously, and Luo Taylor continued: “I came this time to speak to you about Yixing and Xiao Zhao. I know you are heartbroken over Xiao Zhao’s sacrifice, so I was thinking, why not let Yixing use Xiao Zhao’s genes to have a child? This would be a continuation of Xiao Zhao’s life and could further consolidate the relationship between our two families.”

This suggestion caused Fang Shengwan’s heart to skip a beat.

In the New Era, the means of cultivating life were far more advanced than in the Old Earth era. One only needed two people’s genes to have children through assisted reproductive methods, such as gestational surrogate technology or in-vitro embryo cultivation.

Although Feng Zhao was dead, blown to pieces, his genes remained. This was a military tradition. Officers and soldiers stationed at the Great Wall Fortress rarely had opportunities to go home for work reasons, so generally, after marriage, the military allowed them to bank their genes. That way, if their partner wanted a child, they could apply to use the genes. Furthermore, if one partner was stationed on the front lines at the Great Wall Fortress, using in-vitro embryo cultivation would allow for special approval for one person to travel to the cultivation center.

Having Li Yixing carry a child that belonged to him and Feng Zhao would indeed compensate for the impact of Feng Zhao’s death and significantly solidify the relationship between the two families. Moreover, Fang Shengwan had his own selfish motives.

First, if Li Yixing had a child with Feng Zhao, no matter how Feng Zhiyu struggled, Feng Tingsong would never allow him to be with Li Yixing. Second, Feng Zhao’s death was too sudden, and only after he died did Fang Shengwan realize he had not given Feng Zhao enough love. He hoped to have something to compensate Feng Zhao with. Additionally, Feng Zhiyu had grown up and was never willing to spend much time with him. If he could have another sweet, obedient baby by his side, he would not feel so lonely and miserable.

Feng Zhao’s child was undoubtedly an excellent candidate.

“My thought is to have Yixing use a gestational surrogate,” Luo Taylor proposed very seriously. “The child has already lost one father; using a surrogate can better foster the bond between father and child, and it is safer than using an incubator.”

“Shengwan, what do you think?”

“I think,” Fang Shengwan’s sorrowful expression finally revealed a touch of hopeful tenderness, “that this idea is very appropriate.”

“I also hope that Yixing can use Xiao Zhao’s genes to give birth to a child.”

Support