Pregnant Salted Fish Chapter 23

TL: Hua

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After everyone had eaten breakfast, Qi Chen knocked on Xu Yanqing’s door and saw Xu Yanqing lying on the bed with a deathly expression, staring at the bed canopy.

“What’s wrong, Young Master?” His expression of utter despair looked quite alarming.

Xu Yanqing finally blinked. Because he had been staring with his eyes wide open, two physiological tears welled up due to eye fatigue.

“Ah Chen, I think I might be becoming very strange.” Xu Yanqing had sobered up now, and all the hazy thoughts from before he fell asleep rushed into his mind.

According to his understanding of the ABO world, an omega’s body would become exceptionally weak during pregnancy. Moreover, both the pregnant person and the fetus in the womb would need the comfort of an alpha’s pheromones. During this period, omegas would become exceptionally clingy and highly dependent on their partners.

This made Xu Yanqing recall that when he felt uncomfortable, he only felt better when he smelled the scent on Taoist Xuanchen’s cloak.

“Never mind strange or not strange; it’s already the strangest thing that Young Master can become pregnant and give birth,” Qi Chen directly helped Xu Yanqing up from the bed. “If you don’t get up now, it’ll be lunchtime soon. A pregnant person cannot skip breakfast.”

However, as soon as Qi Chen touched Xu Yanqing’s body, he felt something was off. “Young Master has a high fever; why is your body so hot?” His face instantly turned grim. If a pregnant person has a high fever and doesn’t take medicine, it can cause great harm to their body, but if they do take medicine, it can cause irreversible damage to the fetus in the womb.

Xu Yanqing, like a deflated fish, sadly patted Qi Chen’s outstretched arm. “I’m fine; this isn’t a high fever.” He had experienced this before, after his night of passion with Taoist Xuanchen, so Xu Yanqing now reasonably suspected that this was the legendary heat period.

His body had truly become an omega. Xu Yanqing wanted to cry, so tears inexplicably began to fall.

After Xu Yanqing finally calmed down, he touched his empty abdomen, and as if nothing had happened, he pulled Qi Chen to the courtyard to eat.

However, he did wake up late today. After eating a small breakfast and reading a storybook in the reclining chair for a while, it was already lunchtime.

Auntie Li made two large basins full of braised pork ribs and stir-fried mixed vegetables, also accompanied by mixed grain porridge. The spring corn that had been planted early in the fields was ready to eat. Uncle Yuan had picked a lot and sent them over.

Xu Yanqing was inherently a leisurely salted fish. A moment ago, he had cried two drops of tears over his tragic circumstances, but now he was happily drinking a bowl of corn and mixed grain porridge.

With a comfortable sigh, Xu Yanqing rubbed his full stomach. He was truly growing to love the rural life in Xu Family Village more and more.

As for his heat period and Taoist Xuanchen, who was far away in the capital, he pushed them all to the back of his mind. He would only think about those problems when his body became unbearably uncomfortable!

So, during Xu Yanqing’s heat period, he felt comfortable one moment and uncomfortable the next, while Qi Chen, the doctor, became exceptionally tormented.

It wasn’t until Xu Yanqing threw up again, feeling utterly miserable, that he finally experienced the pain of omegas “running away with the baby” in ABO novels. As for Xu Yanqing’s own pain, it wasn’t just the heat period but also the little bean sprout in his belly that had started to move.

The first time he felt fetal movement, Xu Yanqing was still sleeping in bed. The tingling and swelling pain in the back of his neck had already lasted for five days.

Xu Yanqing slowly got used to the discomfort. His only worry was that he had started having wet dreams about Taoist Xuanchen again at night.

The previous night, he hadn’t slept well due to the dreams, so after Mu Yu and Qi Chen got him up for breakfast, he burrowed back into bed.

Before Xu Yanqing could fall asleep, he was startled awake by a strange sensation in his belly.

Then, as soon as he opened his eyes, he felt a slight wriggling sensation in his stomach, like small fish blowing bubbles inside him.

All in all, this feeling was indeed a bit strange, but Xu Yanqing didn’t have the happiness that new mothers felt. He only felt an inexplicable irritation because the little bean was truly inside his belly.

So why did omegas who “ran away with the baby” in novels feel happy after experiencing fetal movement? Xu Yanqing was very confused about this.

Qi Chen had now completely treated Xu Yanqing as his guinea pig for exploring the world of male pregnancy, following Xu Yanqing every day to record his every change.

Xu Yanqing sighed. He only hoped that this irritating heat period would pass quickly. The scent of the Taoist’s cloak, which he kept hidden in his quilt every day, was almost imperceptible now.

Rain poured down outside at night. Mu Yu, holding a waterproof oilcloth and an umbrella, ran out to the courtyard to cover the chicken coop. These chicks were brought by Uncle Yuan and were difficult to raise; out of twenty or thirty chicks, only a dozen or so were left. Mu Yu was just hoping the chicks would grow up quickly to nourish his young master!

Xu Yanqing stood by the window, watching the pouring rain outside. After this rain, the weather would probably get even hotter. After reading a storybook for a while, he lay down in bed and drifted off to sleep.

Mu Yu stood guard outside for a while. Seeing no movement from the young master’s room, he was about to return to his own room when he heard a knocking sound.

Qi Chen hadn’t fallen asleep yet. Hearing the sound, he pushed open his door and saw Mu Yu outside Xu Yanqing’s door. He casually asked, “Who’s knocking on the door so late at night and in the rain?”

Mu Yu shook his head. The few strong men left behind by Xu Xianzhi did not live in the yard but next door. Now, they heard a sound and also walked out with umbrellas.

“Who are you, and why are you knocking on my door?” One of the men’s faces wasn’t very pleasant after being woken up in the middle of the night.

Mu Yu and Qi Chen in the courtyard heard someone reply, “We are Taoist priests from Lingyun Temple. Today we’re treating patients for free in the next village and passed by here during a heavy rain, so we would like to stay overnight in your esteemed abode.”

The courtyard where the strong men lived was already full, and only Xu Yanqing’s courtyard had two empty rooms. So, the strong man directly refused, “No, my house is small; we don’t keep outside guests.”

Qi Chen peeked out through the crack in the door and saw three Taoist priests dressed in robes. The rain was pouring down, and they looked quite pitiful, soaked to the bone.

The young Taoist who had spoken was speechless at the strong man’s words. He clearly saw that out of the entire village, this courtyard was the largest and most spacious. And although the strong man kept saying “my house,” in his opinion, he was most likely a guard hired by the master of the house.

“Could this devotee[mfn] The term he used here is “居士” (jūshì) in Chinese generally refers to a lay Buddhist practitioner. It’s also the term used by Buddhist monks to refer to common people.[/mfn]please be accommodating? It’s really raining heavily now. We won’t stay for free; we can pay with silver.” Although the young Taoist was a little annoyed, he still politely discussed it with the group of strong men.

The Marquis Wu’an household certainly didn’t lack that bit of silver. The strong men were all people left behind by Xu Xianzhi, so they naturally intended to refuse immediately.

“Young Doctor Qi, I don’t think they’re bad people. Should we let them stay for a night?” Mu Yu in the courtyard whispered, mainly because he was afraid that if they kept arguing outside, they would wake up his young master, who had been sleeping restlessly these past few nights.

Qi Chen hesitated but still nodded. “Alright, at this hour, I doubt anyone in the village would dare to let them stay.” He had plenty of medicine on hand; at worst, he could knock them all out.

So Qi Chen had Mu Yu open the courtyard gate. The strong man saw Qi Chen approaching and said, “Young Doctor Qi, these people want to stay in our courtyard for a night. I was just about to send them away!”

The young Taoist saw someone come out of the courtyard and wanted to go forward to say some good words, but then he saw Qi Chen scrutinize them for a moment, then gesture towards the courtyard with a raised hand: “Come in first. Our young master is sleeping, so please be quiet at night.”

The young Taoist immediately broke into a smile and repeatedly agreed, “Good, good, we understand. Thank you for taking us in, dovotee.”

Then he quickly ran to the Taoist behind him and whispered something.

That Taoist took two steps forward. His Taoist robe was completely soaked through, with water still dripping from the hems, but his posture showed no trace of embarrassment. Instead, it gave him a more ethereal, otherworldly aura, like an immortal descending to the mortal world.

“Thank you for taking us in, devotee,” the Taoist said with a faint nod.

Qi Chen inexplicably felt an unnamable nobility about this Taoist. Perhaps he had come from an aristocratic family before becoming a monk.

Turning around, Qi Chen led the three Taoists into a room and said, “There’s firewood in the kitchen. You can go and boil some hot water to bathe and cleanse yourselves, but you must keep quiet.”

Qi Chen repeated this instruction several times. The young Taoist nodded, “Yes, yes, yes, we’ll be absolutely quiet and won’t disturb your young master’s rest.”

However, another Taoist behind him seemed a bit troubled. He placed a piece of silver into Mu Yu’s hand. “We’re not very good at lighting fires. Could we trouble this young man to help us?”

Xu Yanqing never treated Mu Yu poorly, so Mu Yu naturally didn’t care for the silver the Taoist offered. He deftly returned the silver, pulled the Taoist to the kitchen, helped him start a fire, and then left. He had to wake up early tomorrow to serve his young master; he had no time to look after these strangers!

Qi Chen also returned to his room to rest, but he still made some minor adjustments in the room. Although letting these people stay overnight was an act of kindness, it was always best to be cautious against ill intentions.

After bidding farewell to Qi Chen, the young Taoist tightly closed the door and said to the Taoist sitting at the table, “Your Majesty, are you alright?”

These three Taoists were none other than Yin Yanjun, Yin Yuancheng, and Wen Jing, who had traveled south. They had held a free clinic in Jiangcheng today and were supposed to return with the medical hall staff, but His Majesty seemed to have other arrangements, so they stayed a few extra hours.

It was just unfortunate that they encountered heavy rain today, making them quite disheveled.

Yin Yanjun waved his hand, indicating that he was fine. Soon, Wen Jing brought in the boiled hot water.

“Your Majesty, quickly use the hot water to wipe yourself down and soak your feet.” Wen Jing had been busy in the kitchen for a long time, his face smudged with ash.

Not letting Wen Jing serve him, Yin Yanjun wiped himself down, changed into the sleeping clothes Mu Yu had brought over, and went to bed.

Wen Jing squatted under the eaves, washed all the clothes soaked by the heavy rain, and hung them inside the room before finally lying down to rest.

The next morning, the rain had stopped. Mu Yu got up to open the door for Auntie Li, then went to check on his beloved chicks. Soon after, he heard Auntie Li complaining in the kitchen.

“Oh dear, why is this kitchen such a mess, Mu Yu? What were you doing in the kitchen last night?”

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