Chapter 353 - Sudden pain

Chapter 353: Chapter 353 - Sudden pain

Back at the base, everyone who could work had been pulled into clearing the garden behind the mansion aka their new home.

It had only been neglected for a few months, but the place looked as though nobody had touched it in years. Vines had crawled over the old wooden fencing and twisted themselves around nearby trees, while weeds reached almost to their knees in some places. One corner had become so overgrown that the stone path beneath it had completely disappeared.

The work was exhausting, but nobody complained much. The food stored inside Yunfeng’s mansion was enough to keep them comfortable for now, but it wouldn’t last forever. More survivors would eventually arrive, and depending entirely on whatever packaged food they could find in abandoned cities wasn’t a long-term plan.

"If we clear all of this, we can start growing fresh vegetables again," Jinju said as she crouched beside one of the planting beds, using a small shovel to loosen the hardened soil. "The ground isn’t bad. It just needs some work."

Muchen sat several meters away beneath the shade of a tree, wearing an old farmer’s hat Jinju had shoved onto his head earlier. His cheeks were flushed from the heat, and he was fanning himself with a piece of cardboard while watching everyone else work.

He had tried helping.

That had lasted approximately fifteen minutes before Jinju caught him pulling vines while heavily pregnant and ordered him to sit down.

Muchen had protested that pregnancy hadn’t made his arms useless.

Jinju had pointed toward the chair.

Muchen had sat.

Now he watched her turn the soil while Hana and several of the survivors dragged weeds into a pile nearby. Even Shinju had removed his jacket and rolled his sleeves up, although the sight of the former commander wrestling with a stubborn vine had entertained Muchen for longer than it probably should have.

"What about seeds?" Muchen asked, fanning himself harder. "Growing vegetables is going to be difficult if we don’t have anything to plant."

Jinju wiped the sweat from her forehead with her sleeve and looked up. "Yunfeng stored some."

Muchen’s hand slowed.

"There should be several boxes upstairs. I saw them when we first checked the mansion. Vegetable seeds, grain, herbs, some fruit seeds too. Thankfully, whoever looted the house didn’t find that room."

She smiled softly before lowering her head and continuing to loosen the soil.

"That boy prepared for everything."

Muchen went still.

His eyes remained on Jinju.

She didn’t notice. She was already calling to Hana to stop throwing weeds everywhere and pile them properly, but Muchen barely heard her.

That boy prepared for everything.

Last night returned to him with uncomfortable clarity.

Yunfeng sitting in front of him, nervous in a way Muchen had almost never seen him. Telling him that he wasn’t actually from this time. That he had died in another life and woken inside this Yunfeng’s body.

The man Jinju believed was her son wasn’t really the child she had raised.

At least, not entirely.

Muchen looked at her carefully.

Would Yunfeng ever tell her?

More importantly, what would happen when he did?

Muchen had been able to accept it because the person he loved had always been the Yunfeng he knew. He had never met whoever originally owned that body. He didn’t have childhood memories of him or years of watching him grow.

Jinju did.

She had carried that child. Raised him. Probably remembered his first word, his first steps, every stupid thing he’d done growing up.

How would she feel if Yunfeng sat in front of her one day and told her that her real son was gone?

Muchen’s chest tightened.

He knew Yunfeng was afraid of exactly that.

And looking at Jinju now, smiling as she talked about something her son had prepared, Muchen finally understood why Yunfeng hadn’t told her yet.

He lowered his gaze toward his belly.

Idiot.

Why had Yunfeng told him first and then left him alone with this secret?

His stomach suddenly lurched.

Muchen froze.

For a second, he thought the baby had kicked unusually hard. That wasn’t exactly uncommon anymore. The little thing had apparently inherited Yunfeng’s complete inability to remain still.

Then another uncomfortable tightening passed through his lower abdomen.

Muchen frowned and placed a hand over the curve of his belly.

That felt different.

He shifted in the chair.

"Muchen?"

Jinju’s voice brought him back.

He looked up.

She was watching him now. "What’s wrong?"

"Nothing."

The answer came automatically.

Jinju’s eyes dropped toward the hand resting over his stomach.

Muchen forced himself to relax. "The baby moved."

Her concern immediately softened into a smile. "Probably complaining because you’re sitting around while everyone else is working."

Muchen scoffed. "I was ordered to sit here."

"And you should stay there."

Jinju went back to the soil.

Muchen rubbed his belly slowly.

The discomfort had already faded.

Maybe it really was nothing.

He had been tired lately, and his body had been behaving strangely for weeks. Even his power had become unreliable as the pregnancy progressed. Sometimes objects around him would lift when he became emotional, and twice Yunfeng had woken during the night to find Muchen floating a few centimeters above the mattress.

Qiu Yue had said pregnancy combined with an ability could produce unusual symptoms.

Muchen leaned back and continued fanning himself.

Then his stomach tightened again.

This time, harder.

His breath caught.

The cardboard fan slipped slightly in his fingers.

A dull pressure spread across his lower back before wrapping around his abdomen. It wasn’t unbearable, but it was strong enough that he couldn’t dismiss it as the baby moving.

Muchen waited.

Slowly, the pressure eased.

His heart began beating faster.

He looked toward Jinju again but didn’t call her.

Don’t panic.

Maybe this was normal.

He wasn’t due yet. There was still time.

Muchen pressed both palms against his belly and took a slow breath.

Everything seemed fine.

The baby moved beneath his hand.

"See?" he whispered. "You’re fine."