When he read the news of her pregnancy from her heart at Golden Corner, he had truly been shocked, but when he pulled out those tablets and the hospital report from her bag, his heart, which already knew the truth, still went limp for quite some time before it started to beat again.
Su Zhinian stood before Song Qingchun and looked into her eyes. His lips stretched thinly, but he didn't speak. His hands that gripped the report increased in strength.
Song Qingchun was petrified. The bottle in her palm was squeezed into a sticky mess when her palm closed into a fist.
After a silence that lasted an eternity, Su Zhinian raised the report to her face and asked, "Is this yours?"
Song Qingchun nodded wordlessly.After the question left Su Zhinian's lips, he realized how dumb that question was. The report had her name on it, so who else could it have been? Regardless, he still asked two more dumb questions, "Are those pregnant test sticks also yours? Have you been taking those folate and calcium tablets?"
Song Qingchun continued to nod in silence. Su Zhinian turned his head to look out at the night sky through the window. The silence between them continued to stretch. After some time, Su Zhinian swallowed forcefully like he had come to a decision. He turned back around to tell Song Qingchun softly but firmly, "Tingting…"
Su Zhinian choked involuntarily on his voice.
"…we cannot keep this child."
Song Qingchun had known that from the very beginning, but she had held out hope that a miraculous solution might appear. That afternoon, when she was sitting alone by the street, she had even imagined that Su Zhinian might have been that miracle.
Alas, the first words out of his mouth when he knew about her pregnancy were denying that miracle. He effectively wiped out all the hope in her heart.
Song Qingchun unconsciously reached for her stomach as she stared at Su Zhinian. She asked cautiously, "…Is there no other way?"Is there no other way? The question had crowded his mind when he found out about her pregnancy. He had called Doctor Xia at first notice, and when he was told by the old doctor to abort the child, the first question out of his lips had been that very question.
He knew how big the hope was behind that one simple question. He didn't want to ruin it for her, but he could only reply with a full apology. "Tingting, you know the situation we're in… The gods' tolerance was already at the limit when we defied morality and got together, so if this child is born, they will be destined for a life of tragedy. Also, you know the probability of this child being defective is very high. When they grow up, they might even hate us for giving birth to them…"
"But if I undertake the abortion, they might hate me for the murder!" Song Qingchun listened to Su Zhinian's argument, and her emotions got riled up. Eventually, she lost control of herself and started to scream, "Yes, I said murder. This is a life, Su Zhinian, and it is your child. How can you be so heartless…"
Before Song Qingchun could finish, Su Zhinian reached out to clamp his palm over her lips.
