Since school, Zhao Yunxiao understood why he was thinner than all the males in his class, and why the male students in his class always liked to be around him. Realizing that he was going to “marry” in the future, Zhao Yunxiao focused on developing his housekeeping skills. Cooking, housekeeping and so on… He also fantasized, more than once, about what his man would be like, and whether he would love him as much as his father did his mother. The life expectancy of women was at most 60 years, and in the year Zhao Yunxiao graduated from college, his mother died of illness. Although her life expectancy was short, Zhao Yunxiao knew that his mother lived a happy life because her husband loved her and her own son also loved her very much.

After his mother died, Zhao Yunxiao wanted his father to live with him, but his father refused. Later, as Lin Mingyuan’s career gradually grew bigger, his father didn’t want to disturb their lives even more. It’s just that… Zhao Yunxiao organized the dishes that he was supposed to prepare for Lin Mingyuan tonight into the refrigerator one by one. He didn’t dare to let his father know that Lin Mingyuan was so busy now, and he also didn’t dare to let his father know that Lin Mingyuan was often away on business and didn’t come home. A neuter was a treasure for every pair of parents, and if his father knew about it, he would definitely ask him to divorce Lin Mingyuan. Men who wanted to marry neuters needed to be checked before marriage to make sure that he does not have a bad record such as a criminal record before they are allowed to marry a neuter. After marriage if the neuter files for divorce because of an unhappy married life or it was found that the neuter was abused, the person who married the neuter would not be able to marry again in his life.

Zhao Yunxiao loves Lin Mingyuan very much. In the days of starting a business together, Lin Mingyuan would cook him a bowl of rose sugar water every day no matter how busy and tired he was. Lin Mingyuan’s tenderness and care for him made him more and more inseparable from him day by day. Lin Mingyuan was his first love, the partner he finally found after being careful for so long. He didn’t like to play love games and wanted to spend the rest of his life with him.

After packing up the dishes, Zhao Yunxiao came to the spacious living room and turned on the TV. Changing channels aimlessly, his mood became better after he received a call from Lin Mingyuan. After all, this month, Lin Mingyuan ate at home for less than a week and it was already the end of this month. The phone in the living room rang, Zhao Yunxiao snapped out of his slump and picked up the phone.

“Hello?”

“Yunxiao, it’s me, father.”

“Ah, father.”

Zhao Yunxiao’s face was filled with joy when he heard his father’s voice.

 “What are you doing?”

“Watching TV.”

“Come to the house for dinner with Mingyuan tonight, father hasn’t seen you for half a month.”

“…. alright. But I have to ask Mingyuan if he is free tonight. He happens to have a client coming to the company today. “

Zhao Fuqiang said discontentedly: “I know he is busy with his work, but no matter how busy he is, he has to come back with you. Also, Yunxiao, you are already 26, when are you going to have children? You are not working now so you can bring up a child by yourself, and your father can also help you. Mingyuan’s company is doing well so I believe he can afford to buy a nanny robot, if he can’t, your father can buy it for you.”

Zhao Yunxiao smiled bitterly in a place where his father could not see: “Father, we have a plan. We will start trying for a baby after we turn 30, I am not ready to have a baby yet.”

“You can’t have a baby by planning. You have it when you have it. Father can’t wait to become grandfather so don’t delay any longer.”

“Just let me be free for two more years.”

“You…, father didn’t even know you liked freedom so much. No matter what, you can’t not have children.”

“I want them.”

“Then ask Mingyuan if he has time tonight.”

“Okay.”

After finishing the conversation with his father, Zhao Yunxiao directly dialed Lin Mingyuan’s cell phone number but his cell phone was turned off. Zhao Yunxiao was puzzled so he dialed Lin Mingyuan’s office number, but the phone rang for a long time and no one answered it. Zhao Yunxiao looked up Lin Mingyuan’s secretary’s phone number from the phone book and dialed again, this time he got through.

“Hello, Xiao Li, this is Zhao Yunxiao, is Mingyuan in the company? I called him but his phone is off.”

“Hello, Mr. Zhao. Er, the boss is not in the company right now. It should be inconvenient for him to answer the phone. Please call his cell phone in two hours.”

“…” Zhao Yunxiao clenched the microphone: “Where did he go?”

“Well, I’m not sure. The boss went out this afternoon.”

Zhao Yunxiao bit his mouth and said: “I see.” Then he hung up.

Looking at the phone, Zhao Yunxiao frowned. He could hear the hesitation and panic in Secretary Li’s words very clearly. Why did Mingyuan turn off his phone? Why did Secretary Li want him to call again in two hours? Then he thought of what his father had just mentioned to him about the baby, Zhao Yunxiao’s heart was sour as he smiled  bitterly. He and Mingyuan lived as a couple at most twice a month and Mingyuan always used birth control. So how could he have a child? Zhao Yunxiao didn’t let his thought go in a bad direction, that Mingyuan might not want to have children. Maybe it was just like he said and wanted to live for two more years with just two of them.

To prevent negative emotions from invading his mood,  Zhao Yunxiao got up and took the bag before going to find his friend Qian Jun. The two of them have been good friends since childhood because they are both neuters of the same age. From ten years old, from junior to senior high both of them attended the same school. They were the only two neuters in the district and were naturally coddled by many of their classmates and teachers. The word coddled was by no means an overstatement. It’s just that the nature of neuters kept them from being spoiled rotten into willful and domineering characters. Also because they were neuters they were accompanied by special teachers when they entered or left the school so that they could avoid being harassed by pure male “wolves”.

Qian Jun was also married, and his husband Shi Fang was a government official, seven years older than them. He was engaged to him when he was still in his father’s womb, and they were childhood sweethearts. In the second month of the marriage, Qian Jun got pregnant, and Shi Fang tied Qian Jun with a child, not letting him go to college. According to Shi Fang, he decided as soon as possible to have children so that the bachelors will not covet his family’s Qian Jun.

Every time he thought of Qian Jun, Zhao Yunxiao was both envious and happy for him. Shi Fang and Qian Jun were already the fathers of six children. Qian Jun gave birth three times, each of which was a twin. Shi Fang’s father boasts about his great achievements every time he is surrounded by the six little ones – he gave his own son a baby marriage early on. Nowadays, families in society only have so many children if they have a neuter. For most families, multiple children was a luxury, having one was already a treasure.

It’s no wonder that his father always thought that he didn’t want children. Qian Jun’s family and Zhao’s family have always been neighbors. Seeing Qian Jun’s father with six grandchildren, his father should be very envious. Qian Jun lived in Shi Fang’s house together with their fathers. Shi Fang also had one older brother and two younger brothers, the youngest one was a neuter. The fourth of Shi Fang children was also a neuter, he was of course the most favored child in the family and was taken care of by Qing Jun since he was born. Unlike the other five children that were left to robot nannies or fathers on both sides took care of them.

Edited by: Xiamen

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