If We Cannot Grow Old Together

Proofreader: Zhou Zhijie

Mu Ziyou wakes up and sees Qin Yang at the first glance. She hurriedly shouts to Qin Yang who is about to leave, “Qin Yang, is my baby still… OK?”

“Oh, awake? Take it easy, your baby is OK, but – ” Qin Yang doesn’t know whether or not he should tell Mu Ziyou the bad news when he meets her eyes full of hope. But he can’t hide the truth, and asks tentatively, “I heard that Li Qiaosheng is having an abortion surgery arranged for you. Why is he so merciless even to his own child?”

Getting to know that her baby is OK, Mu Ziyou has just calmed down. But on hearing the word “abortion”, she is shocked and becomes restless again. Wearing an anxious expression, she grabs Qin Yang’s white coat and says, “Oh, no, Qin Yang. Save me, please! Qiaosheng is the baby’s father. He will regret for it. He will!”

“What on earth has happened? Youyou, don’t panic. I will for sure help you!”

“Qiaosheng suspected that his father rather than he is the father of the baby! But his father and I… How could that be possible? I don’t know what Xia Wanyan said to him, which made him so firmly believe that the baby is not his. What should I do now? The baby is innocent!”

Even though Mu Ziyou’s statement is incoherent, Qin Yang comes to understand the whole story when she finishes talking.

After a long time of thinking, staring at her in a serious way he says to this poor and weak little woman, “Get divorced with him, Youyou.”

“Divorce?” Mu Ziyou has thought about it before. But due to a variety of factors, she’s never put it into action.

“Yes. Youyou, you are not happy with him at all. He has probably forgotten what you were like when you were a child. He had to marry you just to his father’s will and order! It’s time for you to wake up, Youyou. You don’t need to worry that you cannot get the divorce. One of my friends is a lawyer who can help you with that. As for the baby, if you want to keep him, I will help you to bring him up. If you don’t want him, just have an abortion and start a new life. Isn’t it OK?”

After Qin Yang leaves, Mu Ziyou is left to stare out of the window in a daze.

Should she divorce Qiaosheng? She was once full of joy and content when she married him. Maybe only his father knew how profound her love toward Qiaosheng was.

However if she doesn’t divorce him, she will not only have to bear the humiliation from him, but also have to face her husband flirting with her used-to-be best friend every day, which hurts her most.

Mu Ziyou picks up the phone and calls Qin Yang after a painful struggle in mind. “Qin Yang, I have made my decision. Could you please do me a favor? …”

Before having the abortion, Mu Ziyou comes to her mother’s ward. It’s been quite a long time since her last visit. Her mother, Mu Qing, even looks much better in her hospital bed at seeing her.

“Youyou, what are you busy with recently? You haven’t come to see me for so many days. Why do you look thinner? Did Qiaosheng…?”

“No. I’m all right, mom. Actually… I’m pregnant, and I have been vomiting severely these days. Don’t worry. Qiaosheng treats me well. He worries about my safety, so he doesn’t let me go around casually.” Mu Ziyou has always told her mother good news rather than bad news.

But Mu Qing does know something about Ziyou’s marriage life. Sometimes if her daughter doesn’t want to talk about it, she will also avoid mentioning it. But today her daughter looks so weak and thin that she looks almost like herself who has long been tortured by illness and pain.

She then takes hold of her daughter’s hands with concern and focuses her gazes on her unobservable belly, and says, “It’s really great that you’re pregnant. You should take more care of yourself now because it’s not you yourself who need nutrition. Ask Qiaosheng to add more nutrition to your food, you know?”

“OK, I will take a good care of myself, mom. Do you like a boy or a girl? Give him or her a nice name when he or she is born, will you?”

Mu Ziyou chokes several times while talking. Thanks to her mother’s attention on the baby, she doesn’t notice it. But after going out of the ward she cannot hold herself in any more. Leaning against the wall, tears pour down her face silently.

“I can tell that Mom likes the baby, too, so I will protect him no matter what happens!” Mu Ziyou thinks in her mind.