Chapter 32: Going to the Hospital
Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Karai
Madam Yun flew into a rage. “Yun Yingzhi, what did you think you could do? Or did you ridiculously believe your connections are stronger than your father’s?”
Yun Yingzhi flinched, his face pale, too afraid to speak. After that, Madam Yun said something else, but Yun Yingzhi couldn’t remember what it was. His head hurt. It buzzed and hummed, as if something were shouting in his ears—so loud that his brain throbbed in pain. The only thing he remembered was that no matter what she said, he didn’t dare talk back.
It wasn’t until the call ended that Yun Yingzhi finally felt his chaotic mind begin to clear. He leaned back against a tree trunk, trying hard to steady himself. Footsteps approached. When he lifted his gaze, he saw Yu Feiwen and the other two. They hurried toward him, asking what had happened and why he looked so exhausted. Yun Yingzhi shook his head and said quietly, “I’m fine.”
He didn’t know whether it was tears or sweat dampening his lashes, but in that moment, he looked especially fragile. In truth, ever since the past, Yun Yingzhi had always appeared before others in this same delicate way. He had once been a day student, and later he entered the closed-off Fansa Academy.
Since entering university, he has gotten much better. But when he’d been a day student, he’d often given people the feeling that he was like fine porcelain—just like he looked now. That was why the classmates who had grown up with Yun Yingzhi always believed he was fragile.
Even now, though Yun Yingzhi and the Cute Little Battle Rabbit of the Yaoming Battle Arena’s second form looked exactly alike and even had nearly identical source weapons, there were still many students who stubbornly insisted it was all a coincidence. Their delicate Yun Yingzhi couldn’t possibly possess such immense power. As long as there was no irrefutable proof, they refused to believe that Cute Little Battle Rabbit could be Yun Yingzhi.
Yu Feiwen and his friends took hold of Yun Yingzhi, intending to bring him back to the dorms to rest. But Yun Yingzhi seemed completely out of it. His mother’s words kept flashing through his mind, making his head ache even more.
Along the way, students occasionally glanced at him, whispering that Yun Yingzhi looked so fragile. Some even said there was no way someone like him could be the Cute Little Battle Rabbit of the Yaoming Battle Arena.
On the way back, Yun Yingzhi and the others ran into Elvis. Yu Feiwen and his friends instantly lined up, ready for Yun Yingzhi to transform into a little rabbit and hide behind them. But… To everyone’s surprise, he didn’t.
Yun Yingzhi looked straight at Elvis. Their eyes met, and Yun Yingzhi’s lashes trembled. Bathed in the weak sunlight of early winter, he carried a fragile sort of beauty—like snowflakes that melted at a touch. He paused and said softly, “Good afternoon, Your Highness.”
Elvis appeared calm on the surface, but inwardly he was stunned. Yun Yingzhi hadn’t run away. He stepped forward and, without thinking, cupped Yun Yingzhi’s cheeks in his hands. Yun Yingzhi’s lashes fluttered. Normally, he would have pushed Elvis away, but this time, he didn’t move.
Elvis asked, “Zhizhi, are you feeling unwell?”
Yun Yingzhi said softly, “A little tired. I didn’t sleep well last night.”
Elvis said, “I’ll take you back.”
Yun Yingzhi answered quietly, “Okay.”
Although Elvis said he would take him back, his hands were still cupping Yun Yingzhi’s cheeks, refusing to let go. The distance between them was very close; on the surface, they looked almost intimate.
It was only then that Yu Feiwen and the other two realized how different Yun Yingzhi’s attitude toward Elvis was compared to before. They immediately stepped forward. Ji Xiaobo, with a stony expression, subtly tugged Yun Yingzhi back, and in the next moment, Yu Feiwen and Jing Haomiao stepped between them, pulling the two apart.
Elvis frowned and said, “Zhizhi, I’ll take you back to your dorm.”
Before Yun Yingzhi could reply, Yu Feiwen quickly said, “That might not be a good idea. Professor Cheng’s class is this afternoon. If he skips it, it might affect his graduation.”
Elvis cast a cold glance at Yu Feiwen and said, “He can.”
Right. Others couldn’t—but Elvis could. It was the privilege of the crown prince. Unless someone had a death wish, no one would dare defy the sole heir to the empire.
Yun Yingzhi said, “Thank you very much, Your Highness.”
Elvis personally escorted Yun Yingzhi back to his dorm. On the way, Yu Feiwen and the others kept sending him private messages, asking what was going on between him and His Highness Elvis. Hadn’t he always been terrified of the prince? Why was he suddenly willing to be close to him now? Yun Yingzhi didn’t know how to respond, so he brushed them off vaguely.
When they reached the dorm and afternoon classes were about to start, Elvis bluntly stated that he had taken leave only for Yun Yingzhi. Left with no choice, Yu Feiwen and the others had to leave. Yun Yingzhi lay on his bed, staring blankly at Elvis.
Elvis asked, “Why didn’t you run today?”
Yun Yingzhi’s eyelids twitched. He thought, because his mother told him not to run, because his mother told him to get close to him, because his mother told him to please him.
After a brief pause, Yun Yingzhi changed the subject. “Your Highness, thank you for getting me the leave.”
Elvis sat down on the edge of the bed, his gaze fixed on Yun Yingzhi. Yun Yingzhi avoided his eyes. If it hadn’t been for Madam Yun’s instructions, he thought, he would never have been alone with Elvis. He probably would’ve jumped out the window to escape. But now that they were alone, he still didn’t know how to face Elvis. After thinking it over, Yun Yingzhi decided he might as well sleep.
If he just slept, it would be a reasonable excuse to avoid the crushing presence of Elvis. But… He thought His Highness Elvis was strange. Weren’t people saying that men who were… inadequate in that area tended to be timid and insecure? Why was His Highness so obviously “not capable,” yet still carried such an overwhelming aura?
Yun Yingzhi’s gaze toward Elvis grew a little odd. Elvis’s eyelid twitched. He felt that Yun Yingzhi’s look was strangely subtle—somehow making him uneasy. Then Yun Yingzhi closed his eyes. Soon, his breathing evened out, and it seemed he had fallen asleep. Elvis reached out and gently brushed his fingers through Yun Yingzhi’s hair.
When Yun Yingzhi woke up, Elvis was already gone. When Yun Yingzhi opened his personal terminal, he saw a private message from Elvis. The prince had left early because of something, but he invited Yun Yingzhi to have dinner with him the night after tomorrow.
Yun Yingzhi hesitated for a moment before finally agreeing to Elvis’s invitation. To keep himself from overthinking, he opened his terminal again and began designing source weapons. Right now, his time was precious, and he really couldn’t afford distractions.
On one hand, he needed to refine the source weapon he was building for Yun Yinghui. On the other hand, he had to design several that would suit the preliminary round of the Starshine Competition.
In the blur of his busy days, November 26th arrived before he knew it. That evening, Yun Yingzhi went to the academy’s internal restaurant with Elvis as promised.
The restaurant was a high-end establishment designed for the wealthy young masters and ladies of the academy. Its prices were outrageous—Yun Yingzhi would never have come here alone, though he had tagged along with classmates a few times in the past to enjoy a free meal. The second and third floors of the restaurant were made up of private rooms with floor-to-ceiling glass windows, allowing anyone outside to see clearly who was dining within.
Fansa Academy had a saying: Whenever two people dined together on the second or third floor, visible to everyone outside, it meant they were lovers—or at least had feelings for each other.
Yun Yingzhi and Elvis sat facing one another. From outside, people could clearly see their elegant profiles through the glass. Anyone looking in would instantly understand—Elvis bringing Yun Yingzhi here was a public declaration of his possessiveness. At the same time, Yun Yingzhi’s willingness to come along suggested that he might have already accepted Elvis’s pursuit.
Yun Yingzhi had been beautiful since childhood, admired by countless people throughout Fansa Academy. Even so, when people saw this scene with their own eyes, some still refused to believe it. They insisted that Yun Yingzhi wasn’t the type to fall in love easily. From past to present, many had confessed to him, but he had never accepted anyone.
By all logic, Yun Yingzhi probably didn’t even understand what “love” was. He must have been brought here by His Highness Elvis without realizing what it implied.
In no time, rumors about the ambiguous relationship between Yun Yingzhi and Elvis spread like wildfire throughout Fansa Academy. Along with it came another piece of gossip—Yun Yingzhi’s childhood friend Huai Boshe had flown into a rage, destroyed an entire set of training equipment, and was heavily fined for it.
Once that rumor spread, students began to whisper that Huai Boshe must be in love with Yun Yingzhi.
After dinner, Elvis walked Yun Yingzhi back to his dormitory. Several times, Yun Yingzhi wanted to tell Elvis about Madam Yun’s instructions, but every time he tried, the words stuck in his throat. He felt that if he said it out loud, he’d lose all self-respect.
When they returned to the dorm and Elvis finally left, his three roommates immediately surrounded him, bombarding him with questions about his relationship with the prince. Yun Yingzhi didn’t want to answer. Making an excuse to wash up, he grabbed his pajamas and went into the bathroom. He took off his clothes, letting the warm water run over his body. The heat relaxed him.
As the water flowed down, his eyes drifted lower—to his stomach. He froze. Was it just his imagination, or… had his stomach gotten a little bigger? No—it was definitely sticking out.
Yun Yingzhi stared. Wait a second. He’d been controlling his appetite lately, eating as little as possible. How could he be gaining weight? He thought uneasily of what people online always said about him—
“The second son of General Yun’s household may be beautiful, but he’s useless in every other way.”
His eyelid twitched. Turning off the shower, Yun Yingzhi looked at his reflection in the mirror. From the angle of the glass, his slightly protruding belly looked even more obvious. He frowned, lips pressing into a thin line, then slipped into his pajamas and stepped out of the bathroom.
Droplets of water ran down his hair, glistening as they traced his skin. He was already breathtakingly handsome, but with the shimmer of water clinging to him, there was a subtle sensuality to his beauty—so stunning it was almost dangerous.
Yu Feiwen instinctively averted his eyes, afraid he might lose control if he kept staring. The other two roommates also quickly looked away.
Then they all heard Yun Yingzhi’s troubled voice. “Did I get fat?”
Without even looking at him, Ji Xiaobo blurted, “No, you’re not fat! Not at all!”
Jing Haomiao added, “Yingzhi, sure, you might’ve eaten a little more lately, but you know your own body—you never gain weight.”
“But my stomach’s obviously bigger,” Yun Yingzhi said.
The three of them turned their eyes toward him again. Following his words, they looked at his abdomen—and sure enough, it did seem noticeably rounder.
After a pause, Yu Feiwen asked, “Could it be that you just ate too much tonight?”
Yun Yingzhi ruffled his damp hair, placed a hand on his stomach, and then— He froze in shock. Wait, what? He could’ve sworn… his stomach just moved. He suddenly remembered what he had said earlier to Yu Feiwen and the other two. He had told them that he’d been especially hungry lately, that his appetite had been unusually strong, and that it always felt like something inside his stomach was secretly eating the food he ate.
Could there be some kind of parasite in his stomach? Then, out of nowhere, he recalled what Ji Xiaobo had told him. Ji Xiaobo had said that when his mother was pregnant, she could eat a ton. Yun Yingzhi shook his head, thinking that idea was absolutely ridiculous. He was a boy — how could he possibly be pregnant…?
Yun Yingzhi’s brain slowly typed out a question mark. Then he remembered something else one of his roommates had said. Generally speaking, males didn’t have the ability to reproduce. However, there were some exceptions — certain men with special second forms could actually bear children.
Yun Yingzhi felt dazed and confused. He walked over to his seat, sat down, opened his personal terminal, and searched for information. What he found completely shattered his worldview. Can men give birth?
Yes.
Depending on the type of second form, the time the child spent in the father’s or mother’s body varied. For example, certain species of small white rabbits typically carried their young for… Thirty days. Some species, like zerg, had even shorter gestation periods. Of course, not everyone followed the gestation cycle of their second form. The vast majority of people carried for ten months, and only a small number experienced otherwise.
Those lucky few described it as easy — a few days of eating and sleeping, and suddenly, they had a baby. Some even said that after a few days, they simply laid an egg, as if they had just picked up a child for free. Naturally, others weren’t so lucky. Some with second forms like elephants could have their pregnancies extended indefinitely — three to five years wasn’t out of the question.
Yun Yingzhi instinctively touched his stomach and once again felt something move inside. No way. No way. No way… There was no way. He decided he needed to go to a hospital. His three roommates tried to comfort him, telling him that he didn’t look fat at all.
Yun Yingzhi forced a smile, but his hand kept drifting toward his abdomen. Whether it was just in his head or not, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something inside him really was stealing his food and keeping him constantly hungry.
Like right now — he was hungry again. Holding himself back from snacking, Yun Yingzhi tried to distract himself by doing something else. He couldn’t keep thinking about this nonsense.
On the hidden projection screen, purely by coincidence, he saw information about Elvis. Elvis had an SSSS-level talent, and his esper ability was of the spatial type. That meant… He’d have a hard time continuing his own bloodline.
Thinking about it, Yun Yingzhi searched for Prince Elvis’s name and checked his public records. He found countless battle videos featuring Elvis, who wielded spatial esper powers with astounding precision. Many called him the strongest spatial esper user. More importantly, Elvis was a non-restricted spatial esper — meaning his control over space was endlessly versatile.
Before he knew it, Yun Yingzhi was completely engrossed in watching Elvis’s battles, scenes of spatial engravings flashing through his mind one after another. Ideas flooded his brain. He immediately opened his source weapon design interface and recorded every fragment of inspiration as scattered engravings.
When the bell rang, Yun Yingzhi realized he’d stayed up all night again. Distracted, he joined his three roommates for morning training. During breakfast, he thought about sneaking off to the hospital to see if he was sick. He suspected he might have a tumor — the kind that caused extreme hunger.
Of course, after a night of thinking, he still didn’t believe he could be pregnant. Compared to that, the idea of a parasite or a living tumor that could breathe seemed much more realistic. He decided to sneak out of the academy and see a doctor on his own.
On November 27th, Yun Yingzhi slept the entire day. He discovered he wasn’t just eating a lot — he was sleeping a lot too.
November 28th, Elvis invited him to meet up, but Yun Yingzhi turned him down. He once again felt the strange movement in his stomach and thought that maybe his condition was worsening. He had to see a doctor soon.
Noon, November 29th, having previously snuck out of the academy, Yun Yingzhi already knew that aside from slipping through the weakened energy barrier after 8 p.m., there was another way — finding a classmate with a spatial ability to help.
He put on casual clothes, a hat, and a mask. He spent a large sum of money — so much that it made his heart ache. Then, a thought hit him. He could actually design a source weapon equipped with spatial ability functions specifically for escaping Fansa Academy — something he could sell or rent. Any esper soldier could use it anytime. Super convenient.
A perfect business opportunity. Wait, no. Now wasn’t the time for that kind of thinking. He needed to go to the hospital. Even with advanced technology, plenty of diseases were still incurable. Science evolved, but illnesses evolved too — always one step ahead, always a headache.
After escaping from Fansa Academy, Yun Yingzhi took an airbus toward the hospital. The Imperial Star First Hospital required appointments in advance. After a moment’s hesitation, he transferred lines three times and went to a small suburban hospital instead. Even in the suburbs, it was still packed with people.
After explaining his situation to the receptionist, Yun Yingzhi registered for a consultation. Nervous and uneasy, he waited for what felt like forever until, half an hour later, his number was finally called.
The doctor in a white lab coat looked at Yun Yingzhi and smiled kindly. “You’re very young. There’s no need to scare yourself.”
Yun Yingzhi nodded obediently. The doctor asked him a few routine questions and conducted a basic examination before moving on to imaging tests. Before long, the scans were complete.
Yun Yingzhi stared at the images displayed on his personal terminal, unable to make sense of them. Anxiety twisted in his stomach—especially when, at that exact moment, he felt another small movement inside. A terrible thought crossed his mind: if it really was a tumor, then he might already be close to death.
No, stop it. Don’t scare yourself. He resisted the urge to search his symptoms online. Diagnoses from the StarNet’s medical boards always turned into something terminal—reading them would only make him panic more. He tried to reassure himself. Don’t worry. Everything’s going to be fine.
Then, suddenly, he heard a nurse nearby say softly, “He’s still so young—only nineteen—and already like this. Poor thing.” She sighed heavily.
Yun Yingzhi’s eyelid twitched. He lifted his head and looked toward the nurse. The female nurse met his eyes, gave a small nod, and looked at him with deep sympathy.
Yun Yingzhi: “…” So… he really was dying from something incurable? His nose stung. Opening his personal terminal, he stared at the four people pinned at the top of his contacts list, tears welling in his eyes. He hadn’t even done his duty as a younger brother yet—what would happen to his big brother if he died?
He needed to leave his inheritance to him. But then he realized—he didn’t have any inheritance. A bitter helplessness filled him. He hadn’t even finished building the perfect source weapon for Yun Yinghui, and now he was just going to die like this?
Tears blurred his vision. At the very least, before he died, he wanted to complete a whole series of source weapons for Yun Yinghui. Even if his brother couldn’t use them himself, his comrades could. At that moment, the person he most wanted to contact was Yun Yinghui. Yet somehow, he opened the chat window with Yun Yingyao instead.
Yun Yingzhi: Yingyao.
Yun Yingyao: You snuck out of the academy. I told big brother.
Yun Yingzhi thought: What? How did she even know he’d left the academy? They were grown—was skipping class really such a big deal? Why go tattling to their brother?
Yun Yingzhi: You’re not a kid anymore. Why are you still tattling? What are you, a kindergartener?
Yun Yingyao: Big brother told me not to fall in love early.
Yun Yingzhi: “…”
Okay, so he’d tattled on too. He paused, then decided to steer away from that topic. That wasn’t important right now. What mattered was writing his final words in advance.
Yun Yingzhi: Yingyao, Huai Boshe is super annoying. Promise me you won’t get too close to him. Also, big brother really does care about you a lot.
Yun Yingyao: …Are you still half-asleep or something?
Yun Yingzhi: Yingyao, I know we used to fight a lot when we were kids, but I’ve always liked you. You’re my only sister.
Yun Yingyao: …
Before Yun Yingzhi could finish his so-called will, she asked: Where are you right now?
Just then, an electronic voice announced, “Number A366, please proceed to Examination Room 3.”
Yun Yingzhi trembled slightly, looking small and helpless. His eyes were unfocused as he stared at her last message. Then his communicator rang—Yun Yingyao was calling. Taking a deep breath, Yun Yingzhi declined the call. With the resolve of someone walking to his death, he bit his lip and stepped into Examination Room 3.
