Sunset Boulevard

On this day, the first light snow in March fell in the capital of the newly independent state.Starting in the early morning, it went underground intermittently for several hours.

Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows of the ultrasound room, there is a landscape of several square meters of green plants. The plump evergreen shrubs are covered with a thin layer of white down. Double glazed.

The room is warm, unlike the high temperature and humidity in Thailand, the constant temperature of 28 degrees in the ultrasound room is very dry, and it is safe and sterile.

Zhang Jue's body temperature had already warmed up the gel. He didn't have any source of low temperature around his body, but his whole body was inexplicably cold.

He looked at Dr. He, who turned his eyes away, reached for a tissue, and handed it to him.

Zhang Jue took it and wiped it slowly. For some reason, the skin on the abdomen suddenly became sensitive, as if resisting the touch of foreign objects.

An indescribable discomfort emerged from the center of his ribs, quietly spread around, entered the throat, and reached the palate, as if there were several soft hooks hanging up the back of his neck, constantly pulling upwards, forcing him to Woke up and forced him to say something.

Say whatever you want, express a little opinion.

But Zhang Jue just wiped his abdomen clean mechanically, put on his clothes, and sat in a daze.

Dr. He waited for him to sort it out, then raised his hand, operated on the screen a few times, and the printer of the ultrasound machine gave a beep and started to work.

"I still have to tell my family this time," Dr. He whispered, "Your situation is a bit complicated."

Looking at the printer not far away, Zhang Jue saw the ultrasound sheet slowly spit out from the mouth of the paper, but was still unable to speak.

"Is it all right?"

The mother seemed to have heard the sound, opened the white curtain a little, and walked in. She looked at Zhang Jue who was sitting blankly, and asked in puzzlement: "Why is it so long?" Then she turned to Dr. He: "Dr. He, There's nothing wrong with Zhang Jue."

Zhang Jue turned to look at Dr. He. Dr. He picked up the ultrasound sheet and looked at him.

After Zhang Jue nodded lightly, Dr. He handed over the ultrasound sheet to Zhang Jue's mother.

The mother frowned and muttered "what's going on", and took the ultrasound order awkwardly, only looked down for a few times, and her complexion changed.

Zhang Jue looked at his mother quietly, seeing her loosen her grip on the ultrasound sheet, almost letting the paper slip down, watching her raise her head, staring at Dr. He in a daze.

"Is he pregnant?" The mother asked Dr. He, her foot moved, and the heel of her high-heeled shoe hit the ground lightly, making a very soft sound.

"Yes." Dr. He said.

"But he has just had the operation," said the mother. "Didn't you say that the reproductive cavity is not well developed due to the influence of alpha pheromone?"

Dr. He should have carefully chosen his words out of consideration for his mother's feelings: "Theoretically, it is indeed possible to conceive now."

"However," he glanced at Zhang Jue, and said again, "If you want to keep the child, the capacity of the genital cavity may not be enough.

"Even if it is forcibly preserved in the early stage, it may still be premature in the later stage."

The room was very quiet, and after a long time, my mother said, "I need to call your father over."

She looked at Zhang Jue, as if she wanted to say a lot, but in the end she just lowered her head and called Zhang Jue's father.

Mother spoke very vaguely, only emphasizing that it was an important matter, and asked him to come here immediately.After hanging up the phone, Dr. He took them to the VIP waiting room and waited with them.

Perhaps to ease the tense atmosphere, Dr. He turned on the TV in the waiting room, but it only played for a few tens of seconds before Zhang Jue's mother picked up the remote control and turned it off.

After sitting in silence for a few more minutes, Dr. He's cell phone rang suddenly. He looked down, picked it up, and went outside to pick it up. Before going out, Zhang Jue heard him say "Mr. Zhang, hello" to the other end. .

Father came sooner than Zhang Jue imagined.Ten minutes later, he pushed open the door of the waiting room.My father was wearing a long black coat, as if he had just come out of a meeting, and walked up to Dr. He without saying a word, looking at Zhang Jue's ultrasound checklist.

Dr. He briefly told him about the ultrasound and Zhang Jue's genital cavity, and then went out.

As soon as the door was closed, my father looked at Zhang Jue.

"When did it happen?" he asked.

Zhang Jue and his father looked at each other, and after a while, they replied, "That time in North America."

Father was stunned: "--the night I talked with you?" There was rare surprise and anger mixed in his tone, as if he couldn't accept the fact that Zhang Jue turned around and fooled around with Chen Boqiao just after he finished chatting with Zhang Jue .

Zhang Jue nodded lightly.Father looked down at Zhang Jue, stood there for a while, and then said, "Zhang Jue, let me ask you a question."

"When you slept with someone, didn't you know about contraception?" The father seemed to have regained his composure, and there was almost no anger in his words, but every sentence he asked made Zhang Jue feel ashamed.

"How old are you Zhang Jue," he said, "It's only been a few days since the operation, and you don't even know your own body?"

The mother sat on the side, tightly grasping the armrest of the chair, looked at Zhang Jue, and asked softly, "Xiao Jue, who is it?"

The VIP lounge is not very big, more than 50 square meters, covered with dark carpets, and modern paintings are hung on the walls painted in light blue.

Zhang Jue avoided the eyes of his father and mother, and kept looking at those paintings from the corner of his eye. He wanted to divert some attention, squeeze away the sourness that filled his eyes and nasal cavity, and wanted to look as calm and decent as his father .

But he was the most inappropriate person in the family.

He made everything go wrong, and the whole family shared the consequences of being wrong.

"Zhang Jue." His father called him again.

Zhang Jue closed his eyes and looked at his father. His vision was a little blurry, but after blinking a few more times and closing his eyes for a while, his eyes became clear again.

"This child," said the father, "are you going to have it?"

Seeing that Zhang Jue was silent, he said again: "I want it, don't you?"

Zhang Jue's throat was dry and hoarse, and his hands and feet were soft. He couldn't think of an answer, and wanted to say that he didn't know, but he heard himself say: "Yes."

The father was quiet for a few seconds, and said, "Then what's your last name? Zhang, or Chen."

The mother froze suddenly. She looked at Zhang Jue's father, and asked slowly and with great difficulty, "Is Chen...Chen Boqiao?"

"Ask him himself," his father raised his chin to Zhang Jue, and said, "Zhang Jue, is it?"

Zhang Jue felt that he was pushed to the bottom of the sea by a pair of huge hands. He was almost crushed by the huge water pressure. The sea water squeezed his lungs and squeezed his hands, telling him to stop thinking and breathing.

They remained silent for a long time until their father spoke again: "If you really want to stay, you can call Chen Boqiao."

"Whether he wants it or not," said the father, "you tell him yourself—you don't even have his contact information."

"Yes." Zhang Jue said.

"Then fight." The father sat down, sitting next to his mother, and looked at Zhang Jue from three to five meters away.

Zhang Jue took out his phone and dialed the number. He didn't save Chen Boqiao's number, so he dialed directly every time. This time, for some reason, he made mistakes several times. It took half a minute to press the correct number.

After dialing out the call, Zhang Jue grabbed the phone and put it to his ear. After a while, he got through, but Chen Boqiao didn't answer it until the prompt sounded. Replay phone screen.

"No answer?" Father asked Zhang Jue, he raised his hand to look at his watch, and said, "At ten o'clock in the evening of the Sub-League, Senior Colonel Chen didn't go to bed so early, did he?"

Zhang Jue dialed again without saying a word.This time, after waiting for a short time, the call was connected, but Zhang Jue had never heard the gentle male voice that answered the phone.

"Hi, Mr. Chen is on his way to an emergency meeting—"

However, he was interrupted after speaking halfway. Someone seemed to be asking a question, and he replied, "The caller is——Zhang Jue."

The man suddenly fell silent, there was some noise in the receiver, as if someone was changing the answer, and after a few seconds, Chen Boqiao's voice came over: "I have something to do just now, the secretary has the phone."

"Is there an emergency meeting so late?" Zhang Jue asked him.

"Oh," Chen Boqiao smiled lightly, "It's not very urgent. Have you finished your review?"

Zhang Jue let out a "hmm", and his heart suddenly became empty. He grabbed the phone tightly, moved his lips, and said in a low voice, "Chen Boqiao."

Before Chen Boqiao could say anything, he said, "I'm pregnant."

After he said it, it seemed that the whole world fell silent.

The parents sitting not far away, and Chen Boqiao on the other end of the phone, became very quiet.

Zhang Jue felt that Chen Boqiao was probably also stunned, because he didn't make a sound for half a minute.Zhang Jue had never seen Chen Boqiao in a daze for such a long time, he could only listen to it on the phone, and then lost his mind in a trance, feeling like it was a pity.

But it may also be an illusion, because the background sound from Chen Boqiao became more and more noisy, so noisy that it made Zhang Jue feel sad.

Zhang never knew what else they could say, so after a while, he said to Chen Boqiao, "Why don't you go get busy first."

"We'll talk about it at night," Zhang Jue said quickly, "when you're free—"

"——Zhang Jue," Chen Boqiao interrupted him simply, "I'm not busy, let's talk now."

Zhang Jue grabbed the phone and let out a "hmm".Chen Boqiao paused again before asking Zhang Jue, "Was it that night in North America?"

"Well," Zhang Jue lowered his head, resting his elbows on his knees, looking at the dark patterns on the dark floor, and said to Chen Boqiao, "it should be."

"Then what should we do?" He asked Chen Boqiao, and also asked himself.

Unfortunately, there happened to be someone on Chen Boqiao's side who started to speak very eagerly, and the other party's voice was very loud. Zhang Jue felt that Chen Boqiao might not have heard his question, but if he asked him to ask it again, he really couldn't ask. exported.

Chen Boqiao said "Wait", whether he said it to Zhang Jue or to the other party, but the chaotic voice on the other end of the phone gradually disappeared.

"Zhang Jue." Chen Boqiao seemed to have reached a very quiet place, and called him in a low voice.

"I'm here." Zhang Jue said.

"Are the other tests okay?" Chen Boqiao asked, "Did your parents know?"

"Understood." Zhang Jue said.

Then he heard Chen Boqiao's long breathing.

It was a wonderful voice, Zhang Jue couldn't hear Chen Boqiao's attitude, couldn't hear Chen Boqiao's thoughts, so he would replace Chen Boqiao on his own initiative, imagining how Chen Boqiao was thinking about things.

Chen Boqiao didn't think about it for a long time.He said "I'm sorry" first.

Zhang Jue froze for a moment, the dull pain in his chest came out from the gap like hot steam.I don't know how to understand Chen Boqiao's apology, and I don't know how to respond.

But in the end Zhang Jue said: "It doesn't matter."

Anyway, Zhang Jue wanted to sleep on the bed, Zhang Jue thought, if Chen Boqiao really didn't want it, then he didn't want it.

Anyway, Zhang Jue himself is not ready, Zhang Jue is not prepared, not sure, has no experience, has nothing, no way to be responsible for a new life, of course it is best not to stay.

Chen Boqiao is right.

"Zhang Jue, my apology doesn't mean what you think," Chen Boqiao's voice came from the receiver, he paused briefly, but he was still very gentle and rational, "Don't think about it."

Zhang Jue didn't speak, Chen Boqiao paused, and said to Zhang Jue, "I know you're terrified, but I'm actually very happy."

"I don't know," he said, "why there are so many surprises for you when other things are so simple. I say sorry because I feel rushed, because I am so passive every time."

Zhang Jue felt that Chen Boqiao seemed to have some helplessness, but Chen Boqiao was so gentle and determined, which made Zhang Jue's fear and apprehension ethereal.

They listened to each other's breathing for a brief period of silence.It seems that both sides are thinking, and it seems that both are just quiet.

"Zhang Jue," Chen Boqiao said, "shall we get married?"

"It doesn't matter if you want kids or not," he added.

After a long time, Zhang Jue said, "Yes."

"Your father," Chen Boqiao asked him again, "is he by your side?"

Zhang Jue said yes, and Chen Boqiao asked Zhang Jue to hand over the phone to his father.

When Zhang Jue's father heard that Chen Boqiao was going to talk to him on the phone, his face was still grim, but he still picked it up.

When Chen Boqiao talked with Zhang Jue's father, Chen Boqiao talked a lot, while Zhang Jue's father talked less.

Zhang Jue sat on the sofa and listened carefully.

After talking for a while, Zhang Jue's father's face became cloudy, his brows were tightly frowned, and he asked some sensitive questions, but Chen Boqiao seemed to give him a fair answer, because he No more questions.

At the end of the call, Zhang Jue's father thought for a long time and agreed to Chen Boqiao's request.