“My child! On the day you were born, from Dashilan in the capital all the way to Clearwater Bay in Hong Kong, people were calling your name! — Father Liu”
Outside the delivery room.
Gong Xue had already been taken in; the family waited anxiously.
Chen Qi couldn’t stand the atmosphere and slipped alone to a window to get some air.
He watched people flowing in and out below the hospital, suddenly wanted a cigarette but couldn’t have one.
His mood was strange—he’d lived two lifetimes now, married young in the prime of his life, and now becoming a father at such an age.
Twenty-five and already a dad!
If this were someone posting in a future-era social circle it would trend for days; in the present it wasn’t so weird.
With educated youths returning to the cities, many unemployed youngsters, and the state encouraging late marriage, there were lots of single men in the city—thirty-year-old bachelors weren’t uncommon.
The countryside was different.
He worried about Gong Xue.
She’d always been too thin; only when she got pregnant had she gained a little weight.