Chapter 59: As a New Dad
When the auntie left, Chi Wang said to Xie Siheng, “I didn’t expect the auntie to be such a chatterbox.”
Xie Siheng replied, “Mm.”
It was precisely because of her personality that he had instructed her not to disturb Chi Wang.
But now, seeing how well they got along—even better than he did with Chi Wang—made him reflect.
He asked Chi Wang, “What did she say to you?”
Chi Wang recounted with relish what the auntie had told him. “She even looked at the side of my pinky finger and said the baby in my belly is a boy. She also said this child will look like me and will be especially good to me in the future. She said I’ll have a smooth and prosperous life without worries, with both wealth and leisure. Although it’s very superstitious, it feels so good to hear—like drinking an ice-cold Coke in summer, so refreshing.”
“She also said that my personality is good because I don’t waste energy on internal struggles, so I have plenty of vitality. She mentioned that a person’s energy and spirit are limited in life, and being in a bad mood easily consumes this energy. She said I’ll definitely live a long life, and I think that makes sense. She even said that you don’t like to talk, keeping everything bottled up inside, which consumes energy, so you definitely won’t live as long as me.”
Xie Siheng: “…”
Well, she certainly knows how to talk.
Chi Wang said, “No wonder I’ve heard that Chinese people have their own psychologists. I won’t say superstitions are bad anymore.”
Xie Siheng said, “You have to look at it dialectically. Don’t believe the bad parts; you can believe the good parts.”
Chi Wang laughed, “Exactly! That’s how I am, and I guess everyone else is too. We believe the good and ignore the bad. After all, believing the good doesn’t hurt.”
He was in a good mood and was about to turn on his computer when he suddenly froze, instinctively reaching out to touch his belly.
Seeing his serious expression, Xie Siheng immediately stood up and walked over to him, his tone unable to hide his concern. “What’s wrong?”
Chi Wang stammered a bit, “It moved! Wow, it moved.”
His hand reached under his sweater, wanting to feel more carefully, but after that one movement, his belly became quiet again.
Chi Wang said with some disappointment, “It stopped moving.”
Xie Siheng’s gaze fell on his face, clearly seeing his look of disappointment. His voice involuntarily lowered a few degrees. “The baby is still small now. As it grows, it will move more.”
“No,” Chi Wang murmured, “It’s so amazing. I’m a guy, and I’m pregnant. It’s really in my belly, punching and kicking. Don’t you think it’s incredible?”
“It’s too amazing. When lying in bed, I can hear the pulse of my own blood vessels. When I touch my belly, I can vaguely feel something beating inside. I can’t tell if it’s my own heartbeat or the baby’s. But just now, it really moved—it must have lightly kicked me.”
Chi Wang could feel it growing slowly inside his belly. He also felt that it had been very well-behaved all along, as if it knew it shouldn’t be in his belly, being exceptionally quiet and obedient from start to finish.
The doctor told him to eat more nutritious food, and he hadn’t been eating any less. With Xie Siheng’s resources, he could enjoy fine meals, but the baby seemed afraid of being disliked and restrained itself, perhaps not daring to absorb too much nutrition. So although his pregnancy duration was the same as others, the baby’s size hadn’t caught up.
Attributing such restraint, understanding, and obedience to an unborn fetus was obviously absurd. As a fetus, it didn’t have thoughts or emotions; how could it possibly feel pity for the mother? Chi Wang understood this, but sometimes feelings are unreasonable—he just felt that way.
Indeed, overthinking is not good!
Up to now, Xie Siheng had never seen Chi Wang’s belly, nor had he touched it. At this moment, his gaze fell on Chi Wang’s belly, his eyes darkening a few shades. He lowered his voice, his originally clear tone gaining a hint of hoarseness. “Can I touch it?”
Chi Wang instinctively protected his belly, not wanting Xie Siheng to see, but only for a moment. He restrained himself and, with some reluctance and magnanimity, said to Xie Siheng, “…Alright, but you can only touch it once.”
Chi Wang was wearing a thick, coarse-knit sweater that he had knitted himself, with SpongeBob SquarePants knitted on the chest—that was his childhood idol.
To give Xie Siheng a better experience, he lifted the wide hem of the knitted sweater, revealing the thin, fleece-lined long-sleeve shirt underneath.
Xie Siheng patiently waited beside him. Only when Chi Wang spoke did he slowly reach out and gently touch Chi Wang’s slightly protruding abdomen.
At this point, Chi Wang’s pregnant belly was still not very big. Even those who didn’t know him would just think he’d gained weight and wouldn’t suspect pregnancy.
Xie Siheng had just felt the warm and elastic touch under his palm when Chi Wang immediately lowered his sweater hem, shooing him away. “Alright, that’s enough. You can only touch it once, remember? No more touching.”
As soon as he finished speaking, he felt another movement in his belly. Chi Wang couldn’t help but widen his eyes.
Xie Siheng’s pupils also trembled, his Adam’s apple bobbing. In a hoarse voice, he said, “The baby kicked me.”
Chi Wang: “…”
For a moment, he forgot to shoo Xie Siheng away. “It wasn’t moving just now; why did it move when you touched it?”
Xie Siheng said, “Maybe it knows I’m its father.”
As he said this, the corners of his lips curled slightly, and his dark eyes revealed a hint of a smile, adding a touch of warmth like the first thaw of winter snow.
His hand didn’t stay still, moving left and right, touching Chi Wang’s entire pregnant belly.
Chi Wang, realizing this belatedly, shooed him, “Enough! Stop touching. Go, go.”
He pulled down the thick sweater hem, suddenly feeling a bit uneasy.
Xie Siheng is the father; then what is he?
At first, Chi Wang had thought of giving the baby to Xie Siheng after birth, but now… now he couldn’t bear to. This was his baby too.
Moreover, he hadn’t figured out his relationship with Xie Siheng.
In terms of emotion and reason, it’s impossible to just be simple senior and junior classmates.
If you say they’re friends, that’s too fake. Who has a baby with a friend?
Chi Wang wouldn’t do that.
But if you say they’re lovers… Chi Wang felt that the feelings weren’t there yet.
However, Chi Wang didn’t dislike Xie Siheng’s touch, nor did he dislike the ambiguous atmosphere Xie Siheng created for him.
They could… continue to get closer.
Chi Wang prepared himself. Once he understood his own feelings, he was willing to raise the baby with Xie Siheng.
But there was something he needed to clarify with Xie Siheng. He said to Xie Siheng, “You’re the father; then what am I? I don’t want to be the mother.”
Xie Siheng: “…”
He pondered for a moment and said, “There’s no mother; the baby can have two fathers.”
Chi Wang asked, “Two fathers? How do we distinguish?”
Xie Siheng said, “Big Dad and Little Dad?”
Chi Wang chewed over these two titles and thought it acceptable. “Alright.”
Although he could have a baby, he was very clear about his identity—he was a boy, just a “boy who can get pregnant and have babies.” He had never confused this identity, nor would he misalign himself by wondering if he was half a girl because he could have a baby. Chi Wang never wasted energy on internal struggles or dilemmas.
After settling on the titles, Chi Wang became happy again.
From time to time, he would touch his belly, wanting to coax the baby to move.
But the baby was indeed very quiet, only moving those two times and then not moving again.
“Lazy baby. The auntie said you take after me, but look, how are you like me?” Chi Wang muttered, then recalled the concept of prenatal education from books, and quickly corrected himself, “Although lazy, you’re very cute. Right?”
Xie Siheng said, “Mm.”
Chi Wang enthusiastically said, “At this age, he should start prenatal education, right? What do you think?”
Xie Siheng thought for a moment and said, “Listen to music?”
Chi Wang looked at him disapprovingly, “Just listening to prenatal music isn’t enough. I think we can arrange some elementary school courses for him. I found a set of elementary school course audios; you can take a look later. If you think it’s okay, we’ll set it up for him.”
“…” The smile on Xie Siheng’s face disappeared. He frowned slightly and said, “…Not good. He’s only five months old; there’s no need for such prenatal education.”
Chi Wang humbly asked, “Why?”
Xie Siheng said, “Listening to pure music is enough for prenatal education, or telling fairy tales. No need for elementary school courses.”
He asked Chi Wang in a low voice, “What kind of person do you hope the baby will become in the future?”
Chi Wang thought seriously and blurted out, “I hope he will be excellent but also happy.”
Thinking of this, Chi Wang understood and smiled. “I see. Let’s talk about it after he’s born. For now, let’s let him listen to music for prenatal education.”
As a new dad, Chi Wang learned the first lesson—not to impose his own ideas on the baby, especially since the baby was still a fetus.
He sighed inwardly. Without parents to love and teach him, he had learned many things through his own experiences. He had no prior learning experience and didn’t know how to be a qualified parent.
He still had much to learn. Since he was willing to have this baby, he also wanted to be a qualified dad.
He hoped his baby wouldn’t be like him and would grow up loved by his parents.
He had suffered enough; the baby didn’t need to.
Chi Wang’s thoughts took a complete turn. “I’ve decided. In the future, it doesn’t matter if he’s not good at studying. As long as he’s a good person and lives happily for a lifetime, that’s enough.”
Xie Siheng: “…”
That’s not good either. Many spoiled second-generation rich kids end up like that.
Xie Siheng said, “He can’t do poorly in studies. At least he should attend a 985 university. [1]”
Chi Wang immediately became philosophical. “Don’t pressure the child. A regular first-tier university is fine. If that’s not possible, a second-tier is acceptable. If he’s really that bad, you have the means to send him to a mediocre overseas university, right?”
Xie Siheng: “…”
He seemed to see the parents of many spoiled rich kids.
The more Chi Wang thought about it, the more laid-back he became. “Actually, our high IQs aren’t necessarily a good thing. There are many cases where the children of Harvard PhDs turn out to be fools. Maybe ours will be the same. Let’s prepare ourselves for the possibility that our kid might score 28 points on a math test, so we won’t get angry then.”
“Whether the child studies or not isn’t that important. I’m working so hard to make money and learn things, isn’t it so that the next generation can live a happy life as a second-generation rich?”
“Let’s forget about prenatal education. That could be like pulling up seedlings to help them grow. Maybe he finds us annoying. He’s a fetus, staying in the amniotic fluid, unable to shout, ‘Stop bothering me; I want to sleep.’ Even if he’s disturbed, he can’t say anything. Let’s not do prenatal education; let him be by himself.”
“Actually, I used to have a dream—I wanted to live off my parents, but since I couldn’t, I had to work hard on my own. Now, our next generation has the opportunity to realize this dream. Why should I force him to work hard?”
…
Xie Siheng: “…”
If I had known, I wouldn’t have said anything.
Footnotes:
[1] 985 University: In China, Project 985 is a program aimed at developing world-class universities. A “985 university” refers to one of these top-tier institutions, analogous to Ivy League schools in the U.S.
Chi wang is a good mama?